Chapter 201: If You Don't Heed the Advice of Your Elders
Translator: Pluto Editor: Vermillion
This question instantly stirred the hornet's nest. Reno immediately leaped to the side of the elevator, pressing his back against the wall of the elevator. His youthful face was filled with shock, "Didn't you say that?"
Rena reacted in the same way as her brother. Lin Sanjiu didn't know if that perfect coordination was developed through nature or nurture. "Bullshit! If I had said that, would I ask that question?!"
This was probably the first time the siblings encountered such a thing. They looked a little flustered as they turned to the grayish brain beside them unwittingly. Of course, this wasn't because they suspected that she could suddenly speak, but Lin Sanjiu was the only who could see everything in her current form. Lin Sanjiu floated around the space in the elevator for some time but she spelled two words which made all of them anxious, "No one."
There was total silence for a second before Reno grumbled, "That voice belonged to a woman!"
"Yes! I think so too... But why can't we see it? Is it outside the elevator?"
If Lin Sanjiu had her hands, she wanted to hit both of them on the back of their heads. They acted all impressive when they were on the train just because they could see the duoluozhongs in the train. But, once they encounter this "invisible" intruder, the siblings totally forgot what they were supposed to do—but, this wasn't the time to think about that.
Lin Sanjiu gathered her higher consciousness at the front of her brain and rammed herself against the elevator buttons. The rows of buttons under 20 lit up at once and Lin Sanjiu sighed with relief. As she had regained a portion of her higher consciousness, she was stronger, so she didn't dare to use her full strenght. Thankfully, they weren't in a situation where the other buttons wouldn't work.
"Is the effect of the curse from the almanac over?"
The siblings only thought to react then. Regardless what said those words, if that thing wanted them to go to the 26th floor, it was best to avoid it. Reno scratched his head, realizing that he had lost his cool just now. He coughed and complimented Lin Sanjiu, reservedly, "Um, you did well just now. But honestly, I wasn't afraid."
"I really need to sigh. " Without her body, Lin Sanjiu could only think about this silently.
Even though the kids weren't that reliable because of their lack of experience, they had the basic instinct of every posthuman. When the elevator stopped with a 'ding' on the 15 floor without any weird occurrence, Reno had already called out a page of his almanac while Rena was mumbling something. Her gloves immediately glowed.
[Hehe. We are the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SARFT)]
The name of this organization sounds foreign. In any case, no one in Red Nautilus had ever heard of it before, so they don't know which dimension it is from. However, it seems to have a powerful influence as it can provoke the negative reactions from billions of consumers.
At this stage, it had two parts: 1. [No depiction of body parts below the neck]; 2. [Superstition is banned after the founding of our country].
When part 1 was activated, the target would be treated by the 'SARFT' as a book or any sort of literature. When the target wants to move any part of his/her body below his/her neck, the ability would cause some interference, such the target's movements would be impeded. During any combat, this can almost be considered a cheat. However, the problems or interference caused by the ability are entirely based on chance. It is advisable that the user first uses a page from her brother's almanac to boost her luck before using this.
Part 2 is specifically used for countering non-human targets, which covers gods and deities to common houseflies. However, the strength of the ability would be dependent on the target. The user can imbue part of her body with this ability so that she can attack non-human entities.
An important thing to note is that if the non-human entity has a very clear concept of himself/herself being born before 1949 1 , part 2 of the ability would be nullified.
The siblings had just prepared themselves when the door slowly opened.
When the door opened, the first thing they saw was the number 15 on the wall. The faded red paint of that number was peeling. A yellow light bulb lit the corridors which were filled with a strong scent of years of cooking oil and the sort of 'unclean' aura which uniquely belonged to old buildings.
However, they didn't see a single duoluozhong.
"Bro, let's get out, okay?" Rena suddenly blurted, thought she had already stepped out of the elevator. Before she stepped out, she even turned back to look into the elevator a little nervously. The empty elevator, without any passengers, looked like an empty metal box. There wasn't anything out of place. To their surprise, they managed to leave the elevator safely.
The siblings took the grayish brain with them as their footsteps rung out in the empty corridor. The houses along the corridors were all tightly shut. The siblings didn't have any specific goals as they came to this world plainly to train. Not anxious to get anywhere, they checked their surroundings carefully.
Despite having no eyes, using her higher consciousness, an image of the surroundings appeared in Lin Sanjiu mind. She could 'see' everything around her clearly, and perhaps this particular image was even clearer than her own vision. As the image was created using the area she could scan with her higher consciousness, it could show vague outlines of the angles where she may not even see if she had her eyes. At that point, Lin Sanjiu was near a corner of the wall, but she had the weird feeling that there was someone around the corner even though she logically shouldn't see it coming.
Before the siblings unknowingly made the turn at the end of the corridor, the grayish brain suddenly sunk lower to the ground, and rushed forward in a spinning manner. It hit the siblings causing them to stagger. With their enhanced agilities as posthumans, they quickly regained their balance but finally stopped.
"Why did you trip us?" Rena questioned rudely, remembering the punch to her nose.
"There's someone," Lin Sanjiu spelled two big words.
The siblings were startled and exchanged a glance before they peered at the end of the corridor together.
However, it was silent. There wasn't any movement around them. After a few seconds, Rena made a suggestion. She took a small mirror out from the pocket of her Tulle dress and pinched it with the tips of her fingers before she slowly stretched her hand towards the edge of the wall.
The mirror reflected only another dark corridor.
"What? You're just scaring us." Reno suddenly remarked and before Lin Sanjiu could spell another word, he walked over casually. Lin Sanjiu did not have a mouth so she couldn't even yell for him to stop.
Before he disappeared around the corner, nothing unusual happened...
Rena wanted to follow immediately but the grayish brain blocking her rammed into her shin. She hissed in pain and grabbed her shin.
"What are you doing? I'm getting angry—" Rena frowned furiously and turned to threaten Lin Sanjiu. Suddenly, the grayish brain floated to the air, spinning. It became a long arrow and pointed toward the corner.
Rena immediately turned behind and saw something black peeking out from the corner ahead of them.
It slowly protuded from the corner. That black stuff was just hair on a person's scalp. Rena knew this because she could now see Reno's face. Reno's face was at a 90° angle to his neck as he stuck his head out from the corner of the corridor. His body was still on the other side.
Rena's eyes widened. Before she could shriek, the face which seemed to be dangling in midair, suddenly revealed a smile. Lin Sanjiu had seen that smile many times—it was that perfect, large smile. Then, Reno whispered each word clearly, "Come here."