Published at 8th of October 2024 3:02 am

Chapter 883: Annoying Spirit

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

Lin Sanjiu’s body trembled, abruptly stopping in her tracks, narrowly avoiding Bohemia from bumping into her back.

The front was faintly illuminated by the glow of the Glowfish, slowly dissipating the dead silence and turning it into a dim haze. In the depths of that darkness, there was a motionless shadow. Due to a fractured neck bone, its head drooped low onto its chest.

Bohemia swallowed heavily, her voice trembling, “…What was that sound just now?”

Lin Sanjiu didn’t answer her.

“It… It couldn’t be the sigh of that dead person, right?”

The church was silent and vast. The exhaled breath echoed lowly within the four walls, spreading a chilling sensation, making it difficult to determine where it originated from.

However, this time, she received no response. Bohemia glanced at Lin Sanjiu, only to see her furrowing her brows tightly as if she hadn’t heard a word. “Hey!”

“What is it?”

“Why are you spacing out at a critical moment? I feel… something is not right about this place.” Bohemia hesitated for a few seconds and lowered her voice, “What if it’s another pocket dimension?”

As she spoke, something suddenly came to her mind, and she asked the question she hadn’t had a chance to ask earlier, “How did you get us out of the pocket dimension just now? Can you do it again?”

“It’s impossible.” Lin Sanjiu decisively dashed her hopes. “I replicated a Candy Crush pocket dimension using a special item and opened it within the Landlord pocket dimension… That’s why our cards were instantly cleared. According to the rules of the Landlord pocket dimension, once the cards are cleared, we can leave. That was our chance to escape.”

Thanks to her sudden recollection of the “Lovely Duo, Cherishing Colorful Times” skill during the Grand Prize event, otherwise they would have likely experienced a fierce battle in the Landlord pocket dimension. Now, they couldn’t use the same trick again; otherwise, they might end up being eliminated along with the decapitated man.

“However…”

As Lin Sanjiu spoke, she slowly walked toward the person with the broken neck. Bohemia didn’t move at all; she stood rigidly in place, watching as Lin Sanjiu approached the person.

“It’s possible that we don’t need to run at all,” Lin Sanjiu whispered. “Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I don’t need to run.”

As she finished her sentence, she reached out and grabbed the person’s hair, lifting his limp head back up. Bohemia exclaimed, “Ah!”

Lin Sanjiu summoned her [Ability Polishing Agent], which had been swapped with Puppeteer’s power. She used its glow to examine the person’s neck. In the next instant, the dead man suddenly moved. His hand turned into claws and grabbed directly at Lin Sanjiu’s throat with lightning speed. Startled, Lin Sanjiu leaped away to avoid the attack. Before she had a chance to counterattack, a chilling voice echoed in the air.

“You got it wrong. Whether she runs or not doesn’t matter. If you don’t run, you’ll have a terrible fate.”

Unlike the previous sigh, this sentence clearly revealed the speaker’s identity to Lin Sanjiu. She leaped to her feet and even her breathing became unsteady, “Puppeteer!”

Suddenly, Bohemia made a gasping sound as if her throat had been constricted.

“You’re okay? You also came to the Heaven Underworld?” Lin Sanjiu asked loudly, while spinning the silver bottle in her hand. The light illuminated the dust floating in the air, lifting the dilapidated ruins of the church from the darkness. But as soon as the light turned, it sank back into the dark sea. “Where are you?”

After her voice echoed, the church remained quiet, almost making her believe that what she had just heard was just an illusion.

Bohemia slowly and quietly took a step back.

“Ah…” Lin Sanjiu almost said “A Yun” but managed to hold it in. “Ah, um, there’s no need to be shy and not come out.”

“What do I have to be embarrassed about?” Sure enough, a cold laughter echoed from the darkness. “Even you can shamelessly survive in this world.”

Upon learning that Puppeteer was still alive and well, Lin Sanjiu was already happy enough, even if the other party’s venomous remarks couldn’t make her angry. She was about to turn her head and ask Bohemia to take out a few Glowfish to illuminate the area when she realized that Bohemia had disappeared without a trace. Just as she was taken aback, Puppeteer’s gentle yet sinister laughter echoed in the darkness, as if chilling fingers were brushing against her ears: “Come back.”

Lin Sanjiu stood in place, and after a few seconds, she saw a figure slowly and reluctantly peeking out from the crack in the door.

“The things you picked up this time show a bit of discernment,” Puppeteer’s voice lacked any warmth, only growing gradually sinister and venomous. “When I woke up last time, I carefully considered that killing the people around you might give me more satisfaction than killing you directly…”

“I-I don’t know her,” Bohemia immediately stuttered, distancing herself from Lin Sanjiu. “We’re not familiar, and she still owes me a lot of debt—”

Lin Sanjiu couldn’t help but sigh deeply and rubbed her temples vigorously.

Why couldn’t she meet someone easygoing among the people she encountered?

During their brief exchange of words just now, she had already identified the source of Puppeteer’s voice. She took a few steps forward, bypassing the decapitated puppet, and looked up, shouting, “Are you a cat? Why are you crouching up high? No wonder I couldn’t see you.”

It felt as if Bohemia’s throat had been grasped once again.

Strangely enough, following the usual pattern, Lin Sanjiu’s nonsense would have likely provoked an attack. But this time, she waited with her entire body tensed for a few seconds, only hearing a low cough from the darkness, as if it was being forcefully suppressed in the chest.

She was immediately startled, “You’re injured!”

“Shut up.” This time, the response came with a slight wheezing.

“Is it an old injury from the Data Stream Control Library?”

Lin Sanjiu didn’t wait for Puppeteer’s response, but finally, she received the attack she had mentally prepared for. She immediately leaped backward, landing on a shattered marble pillar she had noticed earlier. The “disease demon” crashed heavily onto the floor, stirring up a cloud of dust.

Taking advantage of the swirling smoke in mid-air, Lin Sanjiu pushed off the remnants of the marble pillar, soaring high into the air. Puppeteer seemed to have a clear view of her movements even in the darkness. Several “disease demons” slashed through the air one after another, flying straight towards her. The tail lines they left behind cut off and sealed the space around her in mid-air.

In the moment before she was about to fall, Lin Sanjiu kicked another pillar beside her, using the momentum to extend her arms and firmly grab the chandelier hanging from the arch. The disease demons barely grazed her clothes as they passed by. When she firmly gripped the chandelier’s branch, she felt her palms damp with sweat.

From this height, she could finally vaguely see where Puppeteer was located.

… Numerous white threads hung firmly from the dome, weaving into a thick, hammock-like web in the dimness. In the depths of this suspended and ethereal white web, a black figure leaned motionless against several soft large pillows. Occasionally, a faint glimmer of light shimmered in the corners of their eyes.

“How did you climb up and down?” Lin Sanjiu hung from the chandelier and hesitated for a moment but ultimately didn’t dare to jump over. It wasn’t because she feared her weight would crush the web, but rather she was afraid of being attacked during the jump. “You’re clinging to the web like a spider. Can you heal your wounds like that?”

“After seeing you, it did indeed worsen,” Puppeteer sneered coldly. “It seems that in the past half a year, you haven’t made much progress in your abilities, but your audacity has grown.”

“Why are you staying suspended in mid-air?” Lin Sanjiu had long trained herself to be immune to all sorts of insults.

“Because roaches like you can’t make it across.”

Being called a roach for the first time, Lin Sanjiu would have almost burst into laughter if it weren’t for her fear of Puppeteer. Judging by Bohemia’s flushed face, it seemed that Puppeteer was attributing all the injuries from the Data Stream Control Library to herself, and he was still full of anger. Lin Sanjiu sighed while hanging from the chandelier. Before she could finish exhaling, she caught sight of a small object rushing towards her in her peripheral vision. In a hurry, she let go, “thudding” back down to the ground.

“Come down,” Lin Sanjiu dodged the disease demons and looked up, saying, “A puppet is just a puppet, not a doctor… I’m willing to help you.”

“Use you to help? Are you a doctor now? You’re less useful than someone brain-dead.”

If it weren’t for her fear of Puppeteer, seeing Bohemia’s face turning red and the courage gradually rising on her face, Lin Sanjiu might have burst into laughter.

“I bought a house, and there’s a medical room inside,” Lin Sanjiu ignored her, trying to sound more natural. “Isn’t Dr. Hu with you? If you come to my place, it can treat you properly.”

There was a moment of silence in the darkness.

Puppeteer seemed to forcefully suppress another cough before speaking with a faint wheeze, “So, you want to find that cat?”

Before Lin Sanjiu could decide how to respond, Puppeteer coldly laughed, “That’s impossible.”

“What do you mean?” Lin Sanjiu asked.

“That cat is lost,” Puppeteer said gloomily, “It’s no longer in my hands.”

Lin Sanjiu stood still, momentarily at a loss for what to ask first—how could Dr. Hu suddenly disappear? Is it alive or dead? What happened that even Puppeteer couldn’t determine its whereabouts?

“Now you know,” Puppeteer laughed coldly, “You can leave. Leave this person you picked up.”

Bohemia’s face turned pale as if she had just been sentenced to death. Just as her trembling lips and the courage to face death emerged on her face, she reached for a bracelet. Lin Sanjiu grabbed her arm and raised her voice, “What do you want her to stay for? To do odd jobs?”

After all, Puppeteer no longer had Soulsqn by his side.

She didn’t wait for the other party’s answer but wasn’t discouraged. Lin Sanjiu signaled Bohemia to summon a few more fish to illuminate the area, rolled up her sleeves, and said, “Since you won’t come down, then I won’t leave either. Bohemia, come with me to clean up a place. We’ll set up a tent and stay here tonight. I have a lot of questions to ask him.”

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