Chapter 97: Shh, Don't Make a Sound

The flimsy door lock couldn't stop the cultists of the E Corpse Teaching at all.

Dark-skinned Area 2 used his mutated Black Hand to lightly poke, and the lock core was pierced through.

Wet liquid stuck to the door handle, soon dried by the cold air into a strange layer like dehydrated... human skin?

If Feng Mu were here, he might recognize that wet liquid—it was corpse oil shed when an E Corpse was burned.

"Are you sure the target lives in this room?"

The Receiver pushed open the bedroom door, observed inside for a while, and frowned slightly.

Dust on the desk showed there should have been a computer here before; clothes in the wardrobe were crammed aside, indicating the cabinet once held other things, but they were gone too.

The Receiver squatted down suspiciously and felt out a rusty iron nail from the corner of the wardrobe.

He compared the rusty nail with this wardrobe, and the sizes didn't match at all.

Dark-skinned Area 2 saw the rusty iron nail in the Receiver's hand and suddenly thought of something; although he felt this was just the target's quirk and not important at all, he hadn't written it down on paper when recalling.

But now seeing the Receiver's suspicious expression, Dark-skinned Area 2 felt maybe he should mention the target's quirk too?

One minute later.

The Receiver figured out where the rusty iron nail came from, and his doubts didn't decrease but increased: "Loving to touch iron—what a strange hobby!"

Indeed, this might just be a strange hobby; nowadays people are under great psychological pressure, and all sorts of weird hobbies can be understood.

Moreover, as a cultist, the Receiver's vision transcended ordinary worldliness—not to mention liking to touch iron, he had seen plenty who liked to touch corpses.

In the Receiver's understanding, a quirk was an uncontrollable illness.

For example, Dark-skinned Area 2 couldn't help playing with ants; the Left Cleric in the Teaching had to hold a corpse when sleeping at night—these were uncontrollable, and if forcibly controlled or stopped, they might pause for a while, but afterward would surely cause a more violent rebound.

For example, from playing with ants, rebounding into eating ants; from sleeping while holding a corpse, rebounding into sleeping while holding a rotting corpse.

Of course, none of these were problems, just...

"Although the Black Core looks more like a cracked stone or a fruit pit, and many in the Teaching think so, actually..."

"Once I went to the Laboratory to deliver goods and accidentally glimpsed the Black Core's Detection Composition Table; the component most contained in the Black Core is Iron Element, so the Black Core should actually belong to iron-class metal!!!"

The Receiver's pupils contracted, and he muttered aloud,

"Since you like touching iron, you should also like touching the Black Core, right?"

The Receiver suddenly stood up, as if a bolt of lightning flashed through his Nao Hai; he paced back and forth in place for a few seconds, his complexion changing several times.

Suddenly, he turned his head and stared fixedly at Dark-skinned Area 2, asking: "When Feng Mu sold you the Black Core, what emotion did he show?"

Seeing Dark-skinned Area 2 didn't understand, the Receiver specially added: "I mean, after you paid him and took the Black Core from his hand, did he show emotions like reluctance, or anger, or anxiety?"

While speaking, the Receiver suddenly snatched the Ant Stick from Dark-skinned Area 2's hand; the latter's pupils instantly contracted to needle points, his expression froze suddenly, and intense emotional fluctuations showed in his eyes.

"Just like your emotion right now," the Receiver explained.

Dark-skinned Area 2 with difficulty moved his gaze away from the Receiver's hand and said in a hoarse voice: "No."

The Receiver pressed him aggressively: "Not a trace showed?"

Dark-skinned Area 2's brain wasn't good, but his memory was excellent; he replied: "No, he took money, smiled, happy."

The Receiver pondered for a moment, returned the Ant Stick to Dark-skinned Area 2, who hurriedly clenched it.

The Receiver toyed with the rusty iron nail in his hand, drawing back and forth on the desk surface with the nail, sketching a lame Matchstick Man.

His ugly face squeezed out a terrifying smile: "Wrong, all wrong, hehehe—, went around in a circle, turns out the answer was right at the beginning!"

"Just a mere Cremation Worker, hehehe—, fooled everyone into spinning in circles, no no no, I shouldn't underestimate the Cremation Worker."

"After all, many people's identities are disguises; just like Zhang Hao on the surface is only a Black Market merchant, I on the surface am just a Truck Driver, hehehe—"

As for a Cremation Worker, a lower-class Blank Citizen, where would they get the martial strength to kill and rob goods? That no longer mattered.

In this city, or rather this world called Lower City, beneath the seemingly dazzling lights, darkness and strangeness bred everywhere.

Mutation, Curse of the Evil Sacrifice, Infection, Parasitism, Evil Path, Degeneration—these things were like devils hiding in everyone's Shadow, ready to grab your ankle and drag you down at any time.

When you climb out again, who can tell what you really are?

After all, turning on lights can only illuminate Darkness, but cannot dispel Darkness; a world without Sun is the Eternal Night Abyss of exile.

Dark-skinned Area 2 couldn't understand what the Receiver was muttering to himself, but he could tell the other's abnormally excited, wanting-to-kill expression.

So he asked somewhat stutteringly: "What, what's wrong?"

The Receiver laughed with a somewhat hoarse voice: "Feng Mu is the Lame Weirdo; they are the same person!"

Dark-skinned Area 2 was struck as if by lightning, standing dazed in place, shaking his head hard: "No, impossible, two people, Zhang Hao..."

The Receiver interrupted Dark-skinned Area 2's words, impatiently interrupting the latter's foolish doubts: "You were deceived, Zhang Hao was deceived, you were all played by Feng Mu."

"The Lame Weirdo was heard from Feng Mu's mouth, the Text Message was seen on Feng Mu's phone, even the information you confirmed from the Corpse Incineration Plant Security Guard was just seeing Feng Mu being kidnapped and taken away by hooligans."

"But from beginning to end, you never saw the Lame Weirdo, right?"

Dark-skinned Area 2 was stunned like a wooden chicken, his brain almost smoking from turning so fast.

The Receiver couldn't be bothered to explain further, saying with unusual certainty: "All deception, all Zhang Ai; from beginning to end it was Feng Mu, only him, he is the Lame Weirdo, our Black Core is in his hands."

Dark-skinned Area 2 gave up thinking, decided to trust the Receiver's judgment, and gritted his teeth: "Swindler, deserves death, chop into pieces and gouge eyes, kill, I'm coming!"

The Receiver was very satisfied; he patted Dark-skinned Area 2's shoulder: "He moved and hid; we have to find him first."

"Where did he go?" Dark-skinned Area 2 said while speaking; only now did he realize Feng Mu no longer lived in this house, and he raised his foot, preparing to leave.

The Receiver stopped Dark-skinned Area 2's Impulse, turned off the Light, and gestured for Dark-skinned Area 2 to sit on the bed with him.

In the dark room, eerie sounds echoed inside the room.

"No hurry, wait a bit more; he moved away, but his family still lives here."

"If we can't find him, we'll use his family's lives to pay down the interest on stealing the Black Core, heh—"

"We'll quietly wait for his family to come back, shh, don't make a sound!"

End of Chapter