Chapter 40: Psychic Drawing (Part 2/2)
Since everyone had all sat down, He Yueyin no longer engaged in a lone conversation with Luo Nan and began the meeting.
With her battle achievement of solely causing the Human-Faced Arachnid’s clone in the elevator to retreat, with the previous analysis of the issues, and of course with a faint military background, He Yueyin had already established her position within the Society. She took charge of the meeting and there was no one who challenged her, at least on the surface.
Luo Nan, however, was still situated as being a target of observation. Lines and lines of sight fell onto his face, all of which were filled with pondering and curiosity. There were no traces of concealment.
Luo Nan was also observing them.
If the operation were to continue, his own safety would be influenced to a great degree by these people. Obviously, he shouldn’t be carefree and neglectful. He didn’t commit much of the initial introductions to memory, but he was diligent during the meeting.
Speaking of which, Luo Nan really admired his “Secretary”. He only found out during the introductions that He Yueyin had just retired from the military. It hasn’t been a day since she entered the Wilderness Explorers Society. She was like him, a “newbie”.
Though they had the same experience, He Yueyin took all the names and nicknames of the members of the meeting and committed them clearly to memory. The exchanges in the meeting went completely unhindered and she demonstrated a thorough understanding of the patrol intervals and regions for the areas of the pub that each person had watch over. This wasn’t just an issue that was determined by faculty of mind, but also of due diligence.
Speaking of the meeting, the initial formalities were relatively casual. He Yueyin didn’t follow up with one subject after another, instead, she acted according to the same style as in the conversation with Luo Nan, chatting to gather information from all parties. Luo Nan had yet to exit from Channel 001, and so he was able to clearly see the template being adjusted with newer content at lightning speeds. The design map of Limestone Water Village Pub contained more and more detailed markers representing routes and trajectories.
He could see that He Yueyin was trying to reverse engineer the movements of the Human-Faced Arachnid, to see how it had afflicted the Black Wolf. However, Luo Nan was unable to see the result as of yet.
This kind of deduction through direct observation was quite the familiar feeling for Luo Nan. He opened his notebook subconsciously. The flexible e-ink screen still had the drawing software open, displaying what he considered to be a total mess of lines. The abstraction of the Wraith Sign and the precision of the composition were eye catching.
The drawing interface was left off right when he sensed the existence of the Human-Faced Arachnid, the moment before he warned Xue Lei.
Luo Nan was somewhat spellbound looking at the chaotic lines on the interface. He was able to verify that he absolutely didn’t genuinely see the Human-Faced Arachnid the instant when he had drawn the Wraith Sign. What stimulated him was a sort of intense yet fuzzy sensation…… It was similar to the sort of incomparably mysterious “Intuition”.
Luo Nan wasn’t unfamiliar with this sort of feeling. When he made additions to his drawings…...The self-portrait with the prison building, the sketch that captured Li Xuecheng, they all used a certain intuition and insight that transformed into detailed lines before turning into successes.
If he were to use the concept of a psychic described by Zhang Yingying as a standard, he would be barely able to rely on this as an ability.
“Bang!”
Someone had pounded on the table during the meeting, disturbing Luo Nan. That person was discontent towards He Yueyin. Luo Nan raised his head and only then discovered that some ability users were caught up in an inexplicable argument. It seemed that as the details of the conversation gradually penetrated deeper into the topic, a few issues were sparked.
Under a mild state, everyone was all happy faces and there looked to be no difference between them. But now, practically everyone in the meeting room had become moody, reflecting in their faces differently. Some were fretful, some were angry, some were distracted, some were at a loss, some were detached. Each was different.
Luo Nan felt that this was all very interesting. He took out his digital pen and the pen dropped to the surface of the flexible e-ink screen to sketch. What had been chaotic lines underwent a few embellishments, transforming into a turbid and rapidly flowing river. The structure of the Wraith Sign vanished under the closely knit lines.
Then he sketched the outlines of a few fishlings within these lines. Perhaps they were undulating along with the river’s spray, perhaps they were leaping out of the water’s surface, perhaps they were swimming at the river’s floor in secret…… The attitudes and temperaments of the fishlings were all different, representing a certain few individuals in the conference room.
But there was a bit that was the same: Every fishling was within the ebb and flow of the river, being influenced by the spray of the river…… And so, Luo Nan symbolized the complicated emotions and intentions in this way.
Next, Luo Nan drew a small boat on the river with chains and an anchor hanging down the side of it. This symbolized himself. Perhaps he originally was also one of the members stuck in the ebb and flow of the river, but because he had the heavily chained crow to anchor him in place, he was somewhat able to transcend from it.
As for He Yueyin, her mood was similar to his. As a Burner, she possessed the power of a Format. She was like a reef within the water that was being scrubbed in every way, but she wasn’t affected at all.
As for the Human-Faced Arachnid, it was a hunter concealed deep in the river. It drew in negative emotions and waited for an opportunity to act. It could pervade itself into any of the others and exert its influence, but against Luo Nand and He Yueyin, it could only meet force with force.
This was where Luo Nan’s superiority lay.
The tip of his pen continued to go along as Luo Nan suddenly had a train of thought become clear:
The Human-Faced Arachnid didn’t select the Black Wolf as its victim by coincidence! How could it have the luck to randomly select an Awakened? Thinking about it, Xue Lei was a resource of excellent quality; his life force was abundant, a top-grade “tonic”.
Perhaps the Human-Faced Arachnid had picked through every single person present here. It had made contact with each one, only no one was able to discover it yet.
Yes. An apparition had once hovered over everyone’s heads. It then selected the one it liked the most, the most unfortunate Black Wolf.
And now the Wraith Sign, which had disappeared within the turbid river, used piercing and crossing lines to link up with each fish.
“Mr. Luo.”
“Hic. What?” Luo Nan was startled out of his spellbound state, discovering that someone had called out to him.
A tall and skinny youth had spoken out. His nickname should be “Bamboo Pole”. His face was always smiling and laughing, looking to be happy and go lucky. But his words were extremely sharp:
“There’s no need to speak more of the accuracy and acuity of Mr. Luo’s psychic ability. There’s already factual evidence. So what’s the range you can cover? From Vice President He’s explanation, we need to center on psychics to create our tactics. Are we going to do close combat or long range bombardment? We need to get this clear right?”
Luo Nan forced a smile and looked towards Zhang Yingying. You were the one who made me wear this hat, you explain.
Zhang Yingying returned with a glare, but she still opened her mouth: “Luo Nan has just entered the society. He doesn’t understand anything. We need to let Old You evaluate him and give him pointers. He at least needs the basic concepts……”
But the Bamboo Pole did not spare them: “I’ve heard that Mr. Luo’s psychic ability is divination through drawing? I’ve been looking at you drawing and sketching all this time. Do you sense something psychically?”
“Oh, not necessarily.” Luo Nan obviously wouldn’t say that he was drawing portraits of them, that he even felt you all had been consumed to some degree…...
When Luo Nan heard his own voice, he discovered that it seemed like he had been targeted. This ability user had enough of arguing with the other members and started to vent outwards. It would be hard to deal with He Yueyin, so the ability user chose him as a pushover to bully.
When all was said and done, his reasoning wasn’t convincing.
“I saw everything~.”
The woman, who had raised her hand and laughed, had the nickname “Cat Eyes”. She was probably just over thirty years old and she had a scorching hot body with heavy makeup on. She looked just like a dancer at a club.
Luo Nan had a deep impression of her because of her ability. She could perceive things at super-far distances and was extremely similar to a psychic. But her ability was not at all effective against Darksider life forms. She played a scout-like role in the team.
Luo Nan was educated right now. There was a large table separating the two in the conference room, with a distance of at least 7~8 meters between them. She could still see what he drew?
People were already getting rowdy right now.
“Kitty, what did he draw?”
“It’s okay if Mr. Luo is shy. We can go head over.”
“Yeaa. This is my first time seeing this kind of type. Kitty, give us an interpretation, kay.”
With a glance of an eye, one could tell that Cat Eyes was the type who liked to watch the world burn. She was unconcerned with Luo Nan’s expression as she spoke out describing with giggles: “This drawing has a very chaotic look to it. It’s like a river and on the river is a boat and a reef. Beneath the surface are swimming fish……”
“Go on?”
“Then…...”
Luo Nan was somewhat helpless against this sort of nosy character. He wanted to put away his digital pen, but the tip slightly sank a bit. It was like there was an incorporeal wire twined around the pen.
Suddenly there was a response on the mental plane. The chains crackled as they trembled and the Wraith Sign in front was flickering with radiance. Luo Nan moved his pen unconsciously. A marvelous sensation then emerged. It seemed like he had caught onto something…...
Cat Eyes had been bursting laughter, but she suddenly went mute at this very moment. Blood seeped out of the corner of her eyes and she fell backward.