Translator: Pluto Editor: Vermillion
Compared with Lin Sanjiu, owie Hu had everything going his way ever since he arrived at Red Nautilus. When he was at Kisaragi Station, he didn’t et many living people around. He was only vaguely aware of his influence and wasn’t really quite sure how it worked. However, once he reached Free District, the cat doctor realized sothing:
Humans can easily be deceived!
Ever since he reached the Free District, everyone treated him with warm hospitality. So people offered him a comfortable place to sleep, so of them brought him around to try all sort of cuisines, there were even people who willingly shared their red crystals with him… Putting aside the other benefits he received, he had already tried every flavor of Red Nautilus specialty buns.
The owie Hu of today was vastly different from before.
After more than a month of such exquisite care, his silky fur shone with each step he took. A random posthuman had enthusiastically grood his soft fur. Right now, his fluffy tail was exceptionally beautiful. He had a bright red butterfly bow on his neck and a small knapsack on his back. There were 20 dium red crystals in it, so small dried fish and several small Special Items. They all ca from his kind-hearted donors.
The cat doctor who had everything going for him had only two regrets. First, he had been separated from the siblings and Lin Sanjiu. He had been transported to this place too abruptly. He only rembered Sea?? Square and nothing else. After he found that place and entered Seagral Square, he spent two mind-grueling days there before heading out. Naturally, he didn’t find out any information.
The second regret was that it had been a long ti since he had seen a dead body.
Even though many people had promised him that he could take their corpse after they died, none of them were willing to die imdiately.
To find his friends and to find more corpses, the cat doctor strolled to Mokugyo Encyclopedic Forum with his small paw steps after getting directions. He ca to the entrance of the building which faced the main street. The entrance of the building looked exceptionally grand. A large mokugyo was hanging in the middle of a huge arch doorway. Its polished surface glistened under the sun. It swayed in mid-air, hanging about a human’s height away from the ground. It separated the doorway into two paths, the entrance, and the exit. Unlike other days, the usually noisy entrance to the building was very quiet. When owie looked past the mokugyo, he saw the empty main hall.
owie Hu slowed down and walked into the main hall silently.
Even though that horrible incident was just over, a few brave posthumans already re-entered the building. The few people gathered deep in the main hall. Their quiet discussions buzzed within the arched ceiling and walls of the building, making faint echoes.
When the cat doctor approached them in a rather reserved manner, without exception, all of the posthumans there were “bowled over” by his elegance.
“What happened here?” owie stopped when he saw the pile of flesh and the pool of blood. He stopped quite so distance away from the ss as he was afraid that he might dirty his paws. “How were they minced?”
“Doctor, are you here to conduct an autopsy?’ a posthuman asked reverently, “I don’t think you should waste that effort, sir. This is the work of Santa Claus…”
owie Hu wasn’t interested in the three pairs of human legs without any upper body. He had even less interest in finding out who their murderer was. He nodded his head showing his pity. Then, he asked the posthumans politely, “Would any of you be willing to spend so ti with ? This is my first ti visiting, I don’t know much about this place…”
The posthuman who had been chosen by owie, among the group of enthusiastic volunteers, bead with honor. He brought the cat doctor to one of the individual consoles.
“Look, sir. You can place your input like this. It will show you the results…”
After the volunteer demonstrated how the console functioned, that man even threw a handful of red crystals into the console.
When he saw the number on the top right-hand corner reaching 30, owie Hu pressed the screen with his paw unceremoniously. After he understood how the console worked, he already knew what he wanted to search. When the results popped up, he imdiately uttered a soft, “Huh?”
There was only one ssage on the screen: “Due to our relevant local laws and regulations, part of your search result could not be displayed.”
The male posthuman ca over and looked at the screen, his expression also turned a little funny.
“Did you search the terms ‘Progression Alliance’ and ‘Puppeteer’?”
owie Hu stared back at him boldly, “Why? What’s wrong?”
He took a very clear logical approach to the matter. When they were at Kisaragi Station, the siblings ntioned that soone called Puppeteer held so sort of grudge against Lin Sanjiu. The siblings were also from so sort of alliance which was on bad terms with Puppeteer. Since he couldn’t find Reno and Rena, he thought he could find more clues about their whereabouts once he found any information about the conflict between the Alliance and Puppeteer. Once he found them, he knew Lin Sanjiu couldn’t be far.
Though his train of thought was quite sound, owie Hu did not expected that he would et a setback right at the start of his search. He swatted the screen with the pad of his paw a few tis, but the ssage remained.
“Erm, it is like this…” The male posthuman looked around. When he turned back to look at owie, he whispered very quietly, “If you want to find out more about ‘that matter’, you don’t have to use the system to search…”
The cat sat down and wrapped his fluffy tail elegantly around himself. “You seem to know about it… Please tell more,” he said politely.
“Ah-ha, of course! It’s like this. Half a year ago… rumors regarding this matter started spreading. At that ti, no one thought it was true… Oh, let tell you everything from the beginning.
“It all started about four to five months ago. I don’t really know the full details. At that ti, there was news that a new pocket dinsion had been spotted a few kiloters away from Free District. It was in the middle of the sea, west from Free District. At first, it wasn’t really a major event. No one would go to the middle of the sea for no rhy or reason. The pocket dinsion didn’t affect us even one bit…”
The cat doctor had never seen the sea before. He did not go to the seaside even after arriving in Free District. However, to keep up with his image, he nodded without changing his expression and pretended as if he knew what a sea was.
“I’m not doing well, so I couldn’t join any of these organizations. I’m just a solo freelancer… When I got this information, most of the people already knew about it. Within two days, all the airship at the port were locked down. No one was allowed to fly their airship. I rembered that no one from the Cyber District could fly over at that ti… I’ll just stick to the subject. At that ti, everyone suspected that it was related to the pocket dinsion.”
“Who placed the port on lockdown?”
“Sigh, Free District isn’t controlled by any main administration. They can only make such a major decision with the approval of those few influential people. From how things developed, that pocket dinsion must be very unusual… In the past, we would be thankful if those big shots didn’t start fighting each other. I’ve never seen them coming to a common agreent.”
The cat’s eyes glistened as he seed to be deep in thought, “What’s special about that pocket dinsion? Nobody knows?”
“Those big shots definitely know about it. People like who struggle just to find for a Consular Officer wouldn’t know. Who can I ask?” the male posthuman grimaced.
“How is this related to Puppeteer?”
“Let tell you slowly, sir… Ever since Puppeteer leveled up two years ago, he had beco more and more powerful. He is definitely involved in the matter regarding the lockdown. Two months later, they finally opened the port again. At that period of ti, the atmosphere in Free District beca very strange—there was a sort of intensity.”
“What do you an by that?” the cat tapped his tail showing his peaked interest, yet asked his question in a rather reserved manner.
“Well. Resources here started dwindling. The prices of food and water shot up. Supposedly, quite a few of the large organizations started to purchase all sorts of portable supplies in bulk, for so reason. The only person that did not start collecting supplies was Puppeteer. After all, his subordinates are all puppets! But, he started harassing Progressor Alliance ti and ti again.
“Their na might sound imposing, but that organization…” the man clicked his tongue. “Even if you add all the mbers they have within the Twelve Worlds, they had barely a hundred mbers… Supposedly, people of that type are very weak when they first evolve. Most of them die before they can even reach any of the twelve worlds. The others who manage to survive and reach any of the twelve worlds have better options. In any case, they are way stronger than a freelancer like … Anyway, I heard that Puppeteer and the people from the Progressor Alliance were in frequent contact. But, I am not sure what their conflict involved… Two months ago, all of them suddenly disappeared.”
“Disappeared?” the cat’s ears imdiately shot up. “What do you an, disappeared?”
“They’re gone… They disappeared. Puppeteer and the mbers of the Progressor Alliance left. I don’t know where they went.” The man whispered and spoke with an added sense of mystery, “Those are the facts. I didn’t tell you any of the unfounded rumors and conspiracy theories… So say that all the Growth-types have been turned into puppets. Puppeteer is creating so powerful weapons… Well, those rumors are unreliable.”
The cat doctor blinked twice.
If that was the case, perhaps, the siblings have disappeared along with the Progressor Alliance?
After owie thanked the male posthuman, he gestured for him to go away. The little cat folded his front paws and stared at the screen of the console thinking for so ti. From the information he had just gotten, Progressor Alliance and Puppeteer had disappeared, whether by their own volition or forced. Considering the lockdown incident, it was probable that they might have entered the pocket dinsion in the middle of the sea.
“Sea… What is that?”
He casually searched for the term “seafood” and narrowed his eyes for a while. He quickly decided that he would head for the pocket dinsion in the middle of the sea. He was going to save his troubled friends.
However, before he left, the cat doctor did not forget to search the database using ‘corpse’ as a keyword. As he saw the few pages that appeared, his eyes grew brighter and brighter. He finally stood up.
“Corpse Disposal Collection Point? Okay… I will go to Seagral Square to take a look. I think I will still be in ti even if I go to the port later.”
The information that Lin Sanjiu had intentionally added to the database reached its intended target. Unfortunately, she was unable to follow her original plan to wait for the cat doctor there.
However, she could not have predicted that this information she left for the cat doctor nearly cost him his life.
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