Chapter 934: Guardian |
Faced with the sudden darkness, Jenna's first instinct was to conceal herself or hide in the shadows. But ultimately, she controlled herself and refrained from immediately displaying her Beyonder powers when an anomaly occurred after nightfall.
Utilizing her acting skills, she pretended to be an ordinary person. Despite being able to see clearly, she groped her way out of the bathroom and towards the window.
Upon reaching the living room, thanks to the light pollution seeping in from outside, the outlines of the coffee table, sofa, and other furniture became visible. Jenna immediately quickened her pace, reaching the window in seconds. Looking outside, she found that not only were the distant buildings of varying heights still brightly lit, but the other buildings in the same complex had not been completely engulfed by darkness either.
Jenna glanced downwards, feeling that the other floors seemed to have their lights on as well.
"Is it just my place with the problem? Hmm, a power outage?" Jenna took out her phone from her jeans pocket, intending to call Franca to ask how to handle this situation.
She then remembered that she was supposed to act independently for these two days and couldn't contact her teammates. So instead of making a call, she decided to search online.
Somewhat clumsily, she used voice-to-text to input the phrase "what to do if there's a power outage at home" and pressed the search option.
Then, remembering Franca's advice, she skipped the first few search results and went straight to the ones further down.
"First, check the fuse box during a power outage…
Jenna read for a while, her brow gradually furrowing.
This is so difficult!
These were all areas she didn't understand.
As she scrolled, she came across an answer: "Contact property management!"
"…" Jenna was stunned. "You can do that?"
She had registered with property management when she moved in that afternoon and added their number to her contacts list.
She tried calling, reported her room number and the issue. The on-duty property management staff immediately said that an engineering department employee would come to address the problem right away.
Soon after, the doorbell rang. The property management staff from the engineering department arrived on this floor, carrying a toolbox.
Upon seeing Jenna, the staff member's eyes lit up, and his attitude became quite enthusiastic.
Jenna, extremely vigilant, let him into the room.
She remained on guard for any anomalies.
After a quick inspection, the property staff said, "It was just a tripped circuit breaker."
With that, he flipped the switch, and light was instantly restored to the room.
That simple? Jenna didn't let her lack of knowledge show.
After seeing off the property staff and closing the door again, she couldn't help but remark, "Life in this dream city is so convenient… Just that the property management fees aren't cheap…"
Jenna quickly washed up and lay down on the bed, falling asleep like an ordinary person would, but that string in her spirit remained taut, never relaxing.
In her hazy state, her spiritual intuition brought a warning.
She suddenly became alert and found herself floating above the residential complex in her Spirit Body form.
Many spirits were wandering around, seemingly residents of Dechuang Garden. Layer upon layer of storms were frozen in the high air, completely enveloping this area, forming a semi-transparent barrier around the perimeter.
Near the barrier stood a figure—it was Luo Shan, wearing her light green casual dress with dyed brown hair. In front of Luo Shan, strange figures emerged one after another from the depths of darkness, constantly lunging at the frozen storms and semi-transparent barrier, trying to enter the "residential district".
Some of these figures were half-human, half-snake, with the upper body of an alluring woman and the lower body a thick python tail covered in slick scales. Some looked like miniature humans embedded between an owl's wings, growing sharp talons. Others were young, naked women with long hair, freely displaying their voluptuous figures…
Facing the invasion of these strange creatures, Luo Shan took out a rather thick oil painting brush and quickly began sketching patterns on the semi-transparent barrier.
She was drawing suns surrounded by flying birds.
As soon as this simple painting took shape, the suns within lit up with a golden, brilliant radiance, causing all the monsters to simultaneously close their eyes.
Then, each of the birds burst into golden flames, flying out of the semi-transparent barrier towards different monsters.
Seeing this scene, Jenna was shocked and deeply puzzled.
The current situation was quite different from what she had imagined.
Luo Shan seemed to be fighting against those strange creatures, preventing them from entering the spirit world corresponding to Dechuang Garden. She looked like a guardian.
But the abilities she displayed clearly belonged to a Painter, which was a boon from that evil god of the Fantasy Association!
Luo Shan should be cooperating with those strange creatures to invade the spirit world of the residential district, so why is she protecting the barrier instead?
Moreover, back at Xinhong District, neither I, Lumian, Franca, nor Anthony discovered anything like strange creatures invading… Is this a change brought about by Lumian's formal contact with Mr. Fool's dream manifestation, or does Dechuang Garden itself have some special properties? Amidst her confusion, seeing that Luo Shan was guarding steadily enough, Jenna suppressed the idea of offering help and pretended to wander aimlessly within the barrier like the astral projections of other residents.
This continued until daybreak.
…
At Xinhong District, in a rented apartment.
Franca, who had woken up early out of concern for Jenna, saw Lumian, who had been on night watch, bring a small cage from atop the shoe cabinet to the dining table. Inside was a gray and white rat.
Ludwig's presence had eradicated rats, cockroaches, and other such creatures from the apartment. To test the effects of the potion beverage, Lumian and the others had specifically wandered around the complex before dark yesterday and finally caught one.
Franca sat down and watched as Lumian put on gloves and grabbed the rat, which was cowering in fear under Ludwig's predatory gaze, and began to pour the Sleepless beverage into it.
The rat only took one sip before the rest of the drink flooded into its body, completely disregarding whether it could contain that much.
In the blink of an eye, the rat suddenly swelled up, its short gray-white fur standing on end like a hedgehog's quills and turning black.
In its armpits and across its chest and belly, flesh writhed as if new limbs were about to sprout.
Has it lost control? This thought flashed simultaneously through Lumian and Franca's minds.
Ludwig opened his mouth in delight and swallowed the mutated rat in one gulp.
Chew, chew, chew. He squinted his eyes in satisfaction.
"Is it okay to eat it like that?" Franca looked at Ludwig with some concern.
This food has Beyonder characteristics!
Ludwig replied with a muffled voice, "No problem, digesting characteristics, for now, just storing them…"
Lumian nodded, picking up the now empty Sleepless drink bottle and said, "This really is a potion."
Franca sighed emotively. "It's only at times like these that I truly feel this is a dream."
Everyday life is too real!
Looking up at the morning sky, Franca carefully asked Lumian, "You'll go for the interview in the morning, and we'll go claim the lottery prize together in the afternoon?"
"You go claim it in the morning," Lumian said with a smile, cutting off Franca before she could voice her question. "But I'll keep the lottery ticket."
Franca was enlightened.
"You mean, the bad luck of difficulty in claiming the prize, or rather the dream's resistance to this, is focused on the ticket itself, not on us?
"That makes sense. If the Celestial Worthy's resistance could precisely target us, we'd have been kicked out of the dream already.
"I see, Anthony and I will go to the lottery center without the ticket, as if we're just visiting. When we get to the step where we need to provide the ticket, you'll send it over through the mirror world, completing the claim before any resistance event occurs?"
"Exactly, and this is also to verify whether your speculation about the dream's tendencies really exists, and if it does, what are the rules of its operation." Lumian nodded lightly.
…
After breakfast, Lumian changed into a white shirt and black trousers, took the resume and other documents he had printed out yesterday, along with the lottery ticket, and took public transport to the Tech Building where the Intis Group was located. Franca drove Anthony and Ludwig to the lottery center.
In front of the Tech Building, Lumian looked up at the somewhat old-fashioned sixteen-story building, mixed in with the white-collar workers heading to work, and walked in openly.
His journey had been smooth, with no accidents like bus breakdowns or traffic jams due to carrying the lottery ticket—his destination was in the opposite direction from the lottery center.
Lumian didn't rush to go up for the interview. He came to the display board showing information for different floors and surveyed the company composition of this building.
The property rights of this building belonged to the Intis Group. The first to fifth floors were allocated to some subsidiaries of the Intis Group. The sixth to ninth floors were rented out to other companies. Half of the tenth floor belonged to the Intis Group's headquarters, while the other half was leased to Aurora Company. The eleventh and twelfth floors were also rented out. The thirteenth to fifteenth floors were other departments of the Intis Group's headquarters. The sixteenth floor was exclusively for Mr. Huang, the dream manifestation of Emperor Roselle.
It's indeed as Franca said, this building has obvious issues… The Intis Group could have recalled some departments and subsidiaries to occupy all sixteen floors, so why rent out some of them? Moreover, the headquarters' administrative and technical departments actually share a floor with the Aurora Company… In Franca's words, it's not right; a 120% chance of things being not right… Lumian pondered seriously.
When she got the information about this Tech Building, Franca had sensed the abnormality after just one look.
This didn't quite match the situation in her memory.
Lumian mulled it over for a dozen seconds, then silently said to himself, Is this a symbol?
Does this building symbolize the Intis Republic, with some floors being rented out symbolizing the infiltration of cults and different forces into the Intis Republic? Is this Mr. Fool's impression of the Intis Republic?
Lumian didn't linger too long. He withdrew his gaze and walked into the elevator area.
He occasionally glanced at the mirrored metal surface, waiting for Franca or Anthony to ring his phone a few times.
As the numbers indicating the elevator's floor slowly changed, someone else joined Lumian.
It was a very handsome and trendy middle-aged man with chestnut-dyed hair.
Mr. Huang? Lumian caught sight of the figure from the corner of his eye and recognized who it was.
It was the dream manifestation of Emperor Roselle, the boss of the Intis Group, Mr. Huang Tao, who often chose not to use his private elevator and instead joined the crowds in the employee elevator!
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