"Sotis, when I think deeply about it, it feels terrifying. Beneath the city lies the haze, and within the city are the ordinary people. When these two et, it creates endless duoluozhong. Every day, I live surrounded by countless potential duoluozhong."
"This is a success story of how an ordinary person, with no status, no items, and no evolved ability, managed to pull down their employer and rise to power..."
"Have you heard? Is it true that an ordinary person turned into a duoluozhong in District 67 of the West Zone?"
"It's true. Three weeks ago, a batch of haze water was drawn up from the mountain in the West Zone of Chiric City. Before it was purified, it was deliberately spilled, and so of it was even consud directly. Those who drank it... Those two workers had long wanted to evolve. They probably thought being a posthuman was easy. But which of us didn't surpass them in potential, willpower, combat skills, and intellect? We aren't even the sa species. Thinking that a bit of haze water could bridge that gap... how naïve."
"Does anyone play chess? I accidentally got trapped in a pocket dinsion, and my opponent turned out to be a chess-savvy ordinary person who hates posthumans. I can't reason with him. Whoever helps will be richly rewarded..."
"I hope every hybrid child born of a posthuman and an ordinary person realizes which side of their parentage their current status and advantages co from."
Lin Sanjiu hadn't expected that, weeks later, Eight-Heads De could still rember so many pieces of information so clearly. Even more unexpected was that, with his injuries, he could still recite them one by one.
So ssages were casual conversations, so were stories, and others were questionable news. Yet beneath each ssage, if you gave it a second thought, there was always sothing unsettling.
Even a simple complint about the endurance of ordinary people carried an uncomfortable undertone: "If we offend the ordinary people, how can we expect to maintain our current lives?"
"Do you understand?" Eight-Heads De whispered weakly from Lin Sanjiu's back. "At least, I didn't understand back then. Ever since I started broadcasting, I'd never seen anything like this. One after another, pouring in from all directions, all from countless strangers. Most of them, I resisted touching, but I cut off a few ssages."
He could cut off information flow?
"You're badly hurt; you should stop talking," Lin Sanjiu couldn't help but remind him.
Whether Eight-Heads De heard her or not, he gave no response. "This is only what I noticed after things started feeling wrong. Before that... who knows how many similar rumors, stories, news pieces, and discussion threads..."
'It must be the Shadow Hall,' Lin Sanjiu thought, glancing at Cyrus. Ever since the subspace item trapped a mutant, it couldn't be used again for now. Cyrus didn't seem to care much about when he could retrieve it.
Why was the Shadow Hall spreading these rumors?
Unfortunately, even Cyrus couldn't answer that question.
"I secretly communicated with several mutated ordinary people. We agreed on what to do... They all promised they wouldn't mutate unless their lives were at stake." Eight-Heads De coughed a couple of tis. "That woman suddenly mutating ans sothing's gone wrong in the city... And that bearded guy has disappeared. Did you hear anything?"
Lin Sanjiu had been listening for a while.
Most of the passageways were empty. So faint, indistinct noises seed to co from the mountains outside the city. But Chiric City's unique structure—layers of brick passages covering the slopes—ford sound-absorbing barriers. The maze-like passages twisted and turned, enclosing the sound yet amplifying even the faintest noise. In this distorted symphony, it was hard to determine what was happening outside.
"Looks like I need to fetch another head," Eight-Heads De said.
"Another head?"
Lin Sanjiu recalled the fate of his previous head. The once bright silver sphere was now chipped, useless, discarded like trash. She thought of her own diary card being destroyed and shuddered.
"I have a spare head at the Chiric City entrance," he murmured, trying to climb off Lin Sanjiu's back. "I didn't activate it, so I can't call it over. I need to get it... It's at the spaceship docking point outside the city—"
"Then we'll take you," Cyrus said. "Your ability lets you hear all the city's information flow, right? We can listen for news at the entrance. If things go wrong, we can fly out from there. The entrance is close to the docking point. I have a flyer parked there," he added, explaining to Lin Sanjiu.
"I have one too. If we need to leave, the Noble Accord won't be able to stop us." Lin Sanjiu nodded and adjusted Eight-Heads De on her shoulder. "Do you know the way? Tell which direction to go."
Thankfully, Eight-Heads De knew Chiric City inside and out. Even in his injured state, he could guide them through the dark passages. As they got closer to the city entrance, the noises outside grew louder and clearer. The roar of engines mixed with a rustling sound, like wind sweeping through fields of wheat. Faint shouts and voices were mixed in, but they were too muffled to make out any words. It did feel like sothing was wrong.
"Could the Noble Accord have authorized the flyers to launch? If it were sothing serious, the noise wouldn't be this vague," Lin Sanjiu said, unsure if she was comforting herself or soone else.
Eight-Heads De, who usually kept the pulse of information in the city under control, seed more anxious than ever now. Other than his labored breathing, he remained silent. After they ran in silence for a while, Lin Sanjiu suddenly caught a familiar fluttering sound. She called out, "Wait!" and stopped in her tracks.
From the winding darkness ahead, a small white figure ca fluttering out and quickly landed on Lin Sanjiu's empty shoulder—a ssage-carrying paper crane.
"Big Sis Lin... Brother Cyrus," Dreadlocks' voice, urgent and slightly hesitant, ca through the paper crane. "I've finished handling things, but... there's sothing you might want to know. I'm at the Chiric City docking port now. All the flyers and ships are leaving one after another. So are so desperate they're not even waiting for clearance. I saw a few flyers nearly collide in the air. I don't know what's happening, but it feels like the whole city is gathering here—Hey! Xiao Fan, Xiao Fan, where are you going?"
It sounded like his ssage was interrupted by soone he knew.
The voice of Xiao Fan was faint and on the edge of the paper crane's reception. "It's you! Are you leaving?"
"? Why would I leave? Where are you going? Why is everyone scrambling to get out?" Dreadlocks' voice was much clearer.
"Don't you know?" Xiao Fan retorted. He seed about to explain but was cut off by sothing, then shouted urgently, "That ship has room. Hurry, co with , I'll explain on the way!"
"What's happening?" Dreadlocks' voice grew tense as he started running, the sounds of wind, footsteps, and roaring engines growing louder. He seed to be running into a crowd of flyers. "I need to warn my friends in the city—"
Xiao Fan's distant reply was unclear. The only thing they heard clearly was Dreadlocks' sudden gasp.
At that mont, sothing on Cyrus' body vibrated faintly. Lin Sanjiu glanced at him just as he pressed a hand to his ear. Though she couldn't see his communication device, he was clearly receiving a ssage, his expression focused.
Right, he'd ntioned earlier that when he arrived in Chiric City, there were already two Shadow Hall mbers active here. Hagrid was dead, but there was still another one. Was this ssage from the second mber?
Lin Sanjiu watched him without asking questions. When Cyrus finally lowered his hand and looked up, the last words from Dreadlocks' paper crane ca through.
"It's duoluozhongs!" he shouted. "A huge wave of duoluozhongs is coming up from the mountains. The Noble Accord just issued a warning; they've decided not to fight this ti. All posthumans who don't need to stay and resist are being allowed to evacuate. They've already left! As for the ordinary people, I don't know what's happening to them—"
The ssage ended abruptly, and the paper crane fell silent. Lin Sanjiu clenched it in her hand, wanting to reply, but knowing Dreadlocks had probably already boarded a ship, the crane wouldn't catch up.
"Duoluozhongs?" Eight-Heads De lifted his head, more bewildered than panicked. "What duoluozhongs? How can there be duoluozhongs..."
"Chiric City is an artificial mountain built atop a high mountain," Cyrus said calmly, eting Lin Sanjiu's eyes. "It's not unusual for duoluozhongs to sneak up from beneath the haze."
"No, it can't be... It's too coincidental... And such a large group..." Eight-Heads De seed unwilling to believe it.
Cyrus glanced at him, then suddenly raised his hand and delivered a light strike to the back of his head. Eight-Heads De imdiately slumped down again, unconscious.
It seed the next part wasn't for outsiders to hear.
"Soon," Cyrus said to Lin Sanjiu, "a team of the Shadow Hall operatives will arrive in Chiric City."
"What for?" Lin Sanjiu was startled. "Why now, of all tis? Did your subordinate tell you this?"
"No... or rather, when he ntioned it, he wasn't reporting progress. He assud I already knew about the operatives and let it slip." Cyrus frowned, looking at the ground as if deep in thought. "This is... quite interesting. Before he spoke, I had no idea the plan involved duoluozhongs or reinforcents."
"Even duoluozhongs...?"
"Of course. Otherwise, how could everything align so perfectly? This is classic Shadow Hall—using seemingly unrelated crises to trap a target and push them into a corner."
Cyrus mused, "What's the plan's objective? What's the exact content? What are the reinforcents here to do? Not only do I know nothing, but it seems even a low-level operative knows more than I do. That's suspicious."
"What are you suggesting?" Lin Sanjiu asked, a shiver running through her.
"The Shadow Hall's main target is Chiric City, that much is clear. But what am I here for?" Cyrus gave a faint smile. "If you think about it differently, maybe I wasn't sent here to oversee the plan. Maybe, like Irezumi, I was sent here to die, a convenient 'accident' during a mission. That would be a lot safer for whoever has taken over the Shadow Hall, wouldn't it?"
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