Chapter 992: The Unknowing Questioner |
Luo Shan sat in a café near the police station, monitoring Franca and Jenna's whereabouts using a white pigeon she had temporarily modified.
She had drawn her own mark on the pigeon, as well as a hidden miniature camera. By wearing sunglasses with a receiving device drawn on them, she could obtain the corresponding signal. At the same time, she could use the connection between a Painter and a painting to drive the corresponding mark, thereby directing the pigeon.
Of course, this had to be maintained within a certain distance.
After seeing Franca and Jenna come out of Star Dream Provisions Store, Luo Shan quickly had the white pigeon follow them.
As she followed, she found that the two targets were approaching the police station area, which was where she was.
Luo Shan's heart skipped a beat.
Fortunately, her anxiety didn't last too long. Franca and Jenna only came to this street and didn't actually walk to the café door.
Phew… Just as Luo Shan breathed a sigh of relief, she saw Franca and Jenna, who were already five or six steps away from the café, disappear into thin air simultaneously.
Wh— Luo Shan's pupils suddenly dilated.
One was Luo Fu, the other was Jian Na.
Luo Shan's movements froze instantly, as if she had turned into a statue.
"Were you monitoring us?" Jenna asked in a friendly manner.
Franca put the two mirrors in her hand on the coffee table, creating a Mirror Maze.
"I-I wanted to see what you were really doing, if you were deceiving me, if you were bad people." Luo Shan's voice gradually rose.
It's still the aftereffects of the talk about the dreamscape… I wonder if the Mirror Maze can deceive a Reporter's ability to explore the truth? Probably not… How to guard against this kind of prying in the future? Communicate important things via phone and delete chat records afterwards using the Information Shredder? No, except for me, Lumian, Jenna, Anthony and Ludwig don't speak Chinese, phone communication is done through voice conversion, which can also be heard… The Bottle of Fiction probably can't isolate it either, unless it's the Realm of Mysteries… Can we only communicate in places far away from a Reporter in the future? Franca thought of many things in an instant.
Suddenly, she had a flash of inspiration and looked at Luo Shan.
"You can follow us openly if you want, you can watch from the side if you want to see, it's just that some things will be more dangerous, we may not even be able to protect ourselves well. Um, if we're going to face this kind of thing, we'll tell you in advance, and you can weigh whether you want to follow or not."
Luo Shan didn't expect Franca and others to be so honest, and was momentarily speechless.
Franca took the opportunity to say, "We're going to a place next to confirm whether certain people have become more fake. Do you want to go?"
Confirm if they've become more fake? Luo Shan suddenly felt a bit scared, but she didn't want to deceive herself forever and not uncover the answer.
After a moment's hesitation, she said, "I'll go."
Franca laughed. "It's good that you have the ability to explore the truth, you can intuitively help us confirm, without us having to devise dangerous plans."
She didn't know yet if Lumian's Eye of Calamity could discover the problems with Huang Jiajia, Ai Nana and others, so she planned to use a Reporter's ability.
This way, they might even discover the aspects in which the fake people were fake, and thus obtain key evidence that could be reported to the police.
Moreover, Jenna had previously told Franca that since Luo Shan already knew the current world was a dream and was in a state of unwillingness to believe, full of doubt but unable to completely deceive herself, they shouldn't delay, lest she did something stupid because of it, or her mental state became problematic and was exploited by that evil god of the Fantasy Association.
Jenna felt that, having already chosen to be honest and truthful, they should continue this style. On the one hand, stabilize Luo Shan's mental and emotional state through psychological treatment, and on the other hand, let Luo Shan face the truth step by step under their control, confirm the facts, and not let her imagine, try, or do things blindly, which could likely bring greater disaster.
In other words, when problems had already appeared and couldn't be avoided, it was better to place them under one's own control and release them with precautions, rather than letting the problems develop on their own.
So, for something that could have been done with the Mystery Prying Glasses, they chose to ask Luo Shan for "help".
…
Outside Star Tutoring Classes.
Franca and Jenna brought Luo Shan to a white car that was unlocked and unoccupied.
Anthony, who had received a WeChat message from Franca, was already on standby nearby, ready to treat Luo Shan if she had a mental breakdown.
"This is?" Luo Shan didn't expect there would be such a car waiting by the roadside for them to use.
"Our companion drove it over; to convenience our observations," Franca explained simply.
Luo Shan asked in understanding, "Lumina who played cards with us?"
That's how Franca and the others had introduced her.
"Sort of," Jenna had no intention of letting the Spectator onto the stage.
After a while, they saw Huang Jiajia walk out of Star Tutoring Classes.
"It's her," Franca quickly informed Luo Shan.
Luo Shan raised her right hand through the car window, pinching the sides of her eye sockets.
She then saw the target person overlapping with windows, street trees, and cars.
She also saw a large number of invisible threads floating out from the target's body, extending towards the sky.
These threads were tied to the target's joints and organs.
With the pulling of these invisible threads, the target made corresponding movements, walking towards the nearest bus stop.
It's just like a puppet on strings… Luo Shan's hair stood on end.
When she had explored the truth before, she hadn't seen similar situations with people around, or rather, similar situations weren't obvious enough to be noticed by her.
Taking advantage of the time she had, Luo Shan observed the passing pedestrians.
She saw that these pedestrians also had a large number of invisible thin threads floating towards the sky, but these threads were all very loose, without the tension of pulling the human body to make movements.
"…" Luo Shan's body suddenly tensed, then slumped, leaning sideways against the backrest of the car's rear seat.
She ended her exploration and said as if sleep-talking, "It's indeed more fake…"
"What are the specific details?" Jenna tried to alleviate the emotional impact on Luo Shan by discussing business.
Franca sent a message to Anthony: "Closely monitor the target's state."
Luo Shan described in a floating voice the scene she had seen and the comparison between the target and normal people.
During this process, Anthony, who was in disguise, pretended to be a middle-aged man smoking by the roadside, drawing closer to Luo Shan, and quietly using Placate.
After Luo Shan finished speaking, she fell completely silent, not saying a word.
Jenna and Franca looked at her sympathetically, temporarily not starting a new topic.
They were waiting for Anthony's notification. Only when Anthony said it was okay would they speak, and only when Anthony said what aspects to talk about would they construct corresponding language.
"I want, I want to go to the North City Cemetery," Luo Shan finally spoke.
"Okay," Franca immediately agreed.
At the same time, she received a message from Anthony, who had turned his back and used voice input: "The target's emotional state has stabilized to some extent, but there are still remnants of negativity, pessimism, and despair.
"Don't talk about anything, any casual words in the current situation might stimulate the target. Only answer when she asks."
Franca forwarded these messages to Jenna, then started the car and drove onto the main road.
The car was silent again, with only the faint sound of the engine.
After the vehicle reached the North City overpass, Luo Shan, who seemed to have become a clay puppet, muttered to herself, "In realit—in that world outside, is there another me?"
"Yes," Jenna answered.
She strictly followed the Psychiatrist's instructions, only answering Luo Shan's questions without any expansion.
Luo Shan fell silent again.
Finally, the car arrived at North City Cemetery and stopped in the parking lot.
Luo Shan pressed the door handle, paused for a few seconds, and said, "I'll go in by myself, you don't need to follow."
"Okay," Jenna and Franca responded in unison.
Luo Shan opened the car door and put one foot out.
At this moment, she half-turned her body and asked with dark eyes, "Are you here to awaken Zhou Mingrui?"
"Yes." Jenna didn't hide it.
On this topic, she felt it necessary to say a few more words, so she added, "If Zhou Mingrui isn't awakened, everything will be destroyed when the apocalypse comes, including this dream.
"And the apocalypse is only a few years away."
Luo Shan looked at the seat cover in front of her with empty eyes, as if wanting to confirm details, "Why did Zhou Mingrui need to sleep?"
"To fight against an evil force," Franca explained concisely.
This was consistent with the core of the story she had made up before.
Luo Shan maintained her previous posture and asked subconsciously, "Has that evil force been defeated, so Zhou Mingrui can be awakened?"
Wh— Hearing this question, both Franca and Jenna were shocked.
They looked at each other, unable to answer Luo Shan's question for a moment.
Yes, if the Celestial Worthy's consciousness has been defeated, Mr. Fool could wake up on his own. If He hadn't been defeated, how would forcibly awakening him be essentially different from the situation before he went to sleep?
Or does the act of "awakening" itself symbolize the defeat of the Celestial Worthy's consciousness?
Mr. Fool wakes up while the Celestial Worthy is still asleep, will there be a change in the balance of power, with the scales of victory tilting towards Mr. Fool?
If this guess is correct, that's fine, but if it's wrong, does it mean our direction isn't right?
The Major Arcana have always focused on "awakening", but should we actually weaken the Celestial Worthy first?
"We're currently still in the stage of confirming the situation, we're not sure if that evil force has been defeated yet," Franca answered truthfully.
Luo Shan bit her lip and didn't ask any more questions.
She got out of the car completely and walked into the cemetery's attached flower shop, buying two bunches of white chrysanthemums.
She walked slowly forward, her figure gradually disappearing among the tombstones.
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