Chapter 385: Forced Entry

Amidst the sound of the monocle falling and sliding, the guard tilted his head, looking at Lu Mian with a gaze that was both stunned and puzzled.

His attitude was quite bizarre; he neither retaliated in anger nor shouted loudly for other companions to help, as if everything he had just encountered was merely a theatrical performance full of mysteries.

Lu Mian, wearing a smile, bypassed the guard and headed up the stairs without looking back.

After the guard's eyes flickered a few times, he gave up on reaching out to block him.

Although a look of confusion and contemplation remained on his face, his eyes changed rapidly, and the corners of his mouth curled up, as if he were expecting something, as if he felt a good show was about to be staged.

After Lu Mian reached the second floor, the two monocled guards there also didn't stop him, watching the intruder pass by them with smiles that revealed a bit of oddity and anticipation.

Are there no low-Sequence Beyonders? Lu Mian muttered silently, quite disappointed.

He had originally prepared and waited for a battle, intending to perform for the "Alone" bar across the street. Who would have thought that the remaining fake Amons inside the "Different" cabaret were all ordinary people, and none of them attempted to deal with him.

However, thinking about it, this was normal. Amon wasn't an existence like Mr. Fool or the "Great Mother" who could bestow gifts on a large scale, and the low-to-mid Sequence Beyonders should have all been "parasitized." In the previous battle between Angels that ordinary people couldn't perceive, they were likely already cleared out.

The remaining ones likely didn't even know that the cabaret had undergone mutations and that multiple colleagues had mysteriously disappeared, still thinking that Lu Mian would turn into one of their kind in a moment, or encounter a prank sufficient to scare him into madness.

Since there were no fake Amons to act as his opponents, Lu Mian had to direct and act in his own show.

He directly drew the revolver hidden in the holster under his armpit and pulled the trigger at will toward the rooms on both sides of the corridor.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Each bullet accurately hit a glass window, and the sound of shattering glass echoed one after another, spreading far away along with the gunshots.

The guards on the second floor were all a bit surprised and confused by Lu Mian's performance, suspecting that this guy had been repeatedly defrauded by some colleague, to the point of a mental breakdown, becoming a madman.

Otherwise, why would he have a problem with the air and the windows?

These guards all instinctively raised their right hands, pinching the monocles clamped in their eye sockets, their expressions growing more expectant, wanting to see what kind of ending this good show would have.

Go on, go face the iceberg beneath the seawater and the fear in the darkness!

After Lu Mian fired four shots, he arrived in front of the office that looked the largest.

He pushed open the ajar door and found a man sitting behind a wide wooden table.

The man had a broad forehead, narrow cheeks, deep black and slightly curly hair, and light blue eyes that lacked focus.

Similarly, he wore a monocle that looked like it was made of crystal on his right eye and was dressed in a loose and comfortable black robe.

"Timmons?" Lu Mian walked in, asking with a slight frown.

The man suddenly came back to his senses, answering with a sense of loss as if he had lost some important item:

"I am Timmons."

"You're not dead yet?" Lu Mian asked, both surprised and amused.

In his cognition, other people in the "Different" cabaret would be in a superposition state of "is Amon" and "is not Amon," but the boss here, Timmons, must have been the type deeply "parasitized." And such people, in the previous battle at the Angel level, would definitely have been thoroughly cleared out, losing their lives.

Now it seemed, that wasn't the case.

Timmons looked at Lu Mian, maintaining that frustration and emptiness as if he had lost his soul:

"Many people hope I die, but they seem to lack the ability to curse.

"Perhaps I have already died, and what is living now is just a body."

"That's not important. What's important is that you must return 110,000 Vergold to my client, principal plus interest." Lu Mian took out the contract given by the bankrupt merchant Fitz from his satchel with his left hand.

He waited eagerly, waiting for Timmons to refuse his request and choose to attack him.

Timmons shook off some of his frustration, raised his hand to support his forehead, smiled, and said:

"There is cash and jewelry in the safe. Take it yourself; the password is 010103."

"I thought you would resist a little." Lu Mian sighed in disappointment.

Timmons looked at the revolver in his hand and said:

"I'm just a swindler, not a miser. If the money is gone, I can swindle again. If a person dies, then there is nothing left.

"Moreover, I have already lost the most important thing today. Compared to it, 110,000 Vergold is nothing."

What do you mean if the money is gone, you can swindle again? Didn't you ever think about getting rich legally? Lu Mian curled his lips, turning sideways to walk toward the mechanical safe placed in this office.

Three, two, one... As he approached the safe, he counted down the time, waiting for Timmons to attack him from behind.

However, this boss of the "Different" cabaret did nothing, not even shouting for help or attempting to call the police.

Lu Mian squatted in front of the iron-gray mechanical safe, turning the dial again and again according to the password given by Timmons, hearing the clicking sound.

He glanced at the banknotes and gold bars that clearly exceeded 100,000 Vergold, opened his satchel, and swept them all in.

After finishing this, Lu Mian raised his revolver, smashed the office window with a bang, and climbed out.

Timmons's lips curled up again, carrying the playful smile that everyone here possessed.

Just at this moment, Lu Mian suddenly turned back and pulled the trigger at him.

Bang!

A golden bullet grazed Timmons's hair and hit the cabinet next to him, drilling into it.

Timmons, wearing the monocle, shrank his body suddenly, his smile gone, his eyes filled with shock and suspicion.

He even smelled a burnt odor coming from the top of his head.

Lu Mian laughed, waved his hand, and said:

"Surprise?"

After asking, he jumped off the windowsill and landed in the alley behind the "Different" cabaret.

Timmons's expression gradually converged, both puzzled and bewildered.

Inside the "Different" cabaret, those people wearing monocles on their right eyes and short suits, although each doing different things, were all eagerly expecting the intruder from just now to come downstairs wearing a monocle, formally joining this big family.

Amidst the occasional gunshots, they never waited for the scene they hoped to see.

Observatory District, Old Street.

Near the Purgatory Square, there was a bell tower belonging to the "Eternal Blazing Sun" church, and next to the bell tower was a new type of building that was ten stories high.

Franca, dressed as a common female mercenary, held a brass-colored telescopic monocular, standing at the edge of the rooftop, looking far away at that "Alone" bar.

Amidst the vaguely transmitted gunshots, the bartender Lia, in a white shirt, black bow tie, and dark skirt reaching past the knees, appeared at the entrance, gazing at the "Different" cabaret diagonally across the street.

Not long after, Franca discovered gray rats crawling out from beside Lia's feet, crossing the street, and disappearing by the wall of that ancient building.

Another two or three minutes passed, and a man and a woman left the "Alone" bar, forcibly breaking through the guards' obstruction and entering the "Different" cabaret.

Franca used the monocular to carefully examine the two for a while, finding that when they "communicated" with the guards, their expressions were vivid, their limbs flexible, and there were no abnormalities. However, when crossing the street and after passing the guards, their expressions were quite dull, and their movements revealed a bit of stiffness.

"Marionette?" Franca made a guess.

As for where the "Marionettist" who created and manipulated the puppets was, she couldn't tell at all, only roughly judging that the effective range of this ability was several tens of meters, or even more.

At the same time, she couldn't help but complain a few times:

"When there's an audience, they're 'real people,' and when there's no audience, they're too lazy to maintain facial expressions and character details? This is too unprofessional, right?

"Or is it specifically to scare the people peeping around, as well as the citizens who happen to pass by and glance occasionally?"

Franca waited patiently, and until Lu Mian returned to his original appearance, changed his clothes, finished the counter-surveillance, and came here to meet her, she hadn't discovered the figure of a single "Marionettist."

Coming and going, except for Lia, they were all puppets!

"This is too, too cautious and careful, right? I can't discover anything, only confirm that there really is a 'Marionettist' here, and it's very likely not just one." Franca complained to Lu Mian.

Lu Mian, just listening to her description, felt a headache similar to facing Amon.

Is the reason they became "neighbors" that they are both good at hiding their true bodies, bizarre and hard to find?

"Can't use 'Magic Mirror Divination' to obtain clues?" Lu Mian thought for a moment and said.

Franca shook her head:

"This is the 'Seer' pathway. Unless I can directly get one of the puppets, there's no way to find their true bodies."

Lu Mian fell silent, looking at the "Different" cabaret that had returned to calm, and said:

"Let's go back. At the next gathering, collect clues from 'I Have a Friend,' 'Sisso,' and 'Bard.' They shouldn't be as hard to find as 'Loki.' We can also pretend to be swindled and see if we can fish them out."

At that time, "Sleeve Sword" can't come forward; "Muggle" has to go himself, because Franca has already bought "Loki's" data copy and is one of the suspects investigating him.

"Fine." Franca thought that was the only way.

The two quickly left the high-rise apartment and hired a four-wheeled, four-seated rental carriage.

When the carriage arrived at the junction of the Observatory District and the Memorial District, Franca turned her head and looked at Lu Mian:

"Not doing another counter-surveillance?"

"Isn't it enough that you have anti-divination?" Lu Mian responded with a smile, "Besides, after leaving the 'Different' cabaret, I've already done counter-surveillance several times."

Franca stared at him for two seconds, sighed helplessly, and said:

"Fine."

Market District, Market Avenue.

Lu Mian, with the satchel containing a large amount of banknotes and gold slung across his back, waved goodbye to Franca and walked toward Chaos Street, while Franca returned to White Coat Street.

Chaos Street was as noisy and congested as ever. Lu Mian passed through the vendors and pedestrians, approaching the Golden Rooster Hotel.

Suddenly, he felt his body become uncoordinated, as if a lot of glue had been poured into his joints.