Chapter 923

The phantom of the female corpse with a pale, blue-tinged face answered with a drifting voice:

"Forge a good identity, pass the interview for the Intis Group, and become an employee of this company and a colleague of Zhou Mingrui.

"Interact with Zhou Mingrui every day, starting with being polite and indifferent, then becoming familiar bit by bit, and in our daily interactions, slowly and covertly charm him until he falls in love with me.

"I will become his girlfriend, walk down the aisle with him in the future, and whether in good times or bad, whether in wealth or poverty, whether in health or sickness, whether he is male or female, I will always accompany him, never leaving, forever and ever."

Franca, dragging her sick body, listened with her mouth slightly agape, gradually becoming dazed:

Isn't this character script a bit wrong?

This isn't urban superpowers, nor is it suspense horror; it's turned into a pure romance novel...

Is this trying to make Mr. "Fool" immerse himself in a happy, sweet love life and a calm, warm urban environment, unwilling to wake up?

Celestial Worthy, are you this down-to-earth?

Is this giving Mr. "Fool" a large-scale Truman Show, isolating him from reality?

When she heard the sentence "whether he is male or female," Franca suddenly sobered up.

There's a conspiracy in this!

There's something sinister hidden in this, with another purpose!

Lu Mian and Franca thought of roughly the same thing, but his thinking wasn't as active; he was more concerned about another point:

There was no task in the resurrected female corpse's mission to induce Mr. "Fool" to drink the "Witch" potion; does this mean someone else is responsible for making Mr. "Fool" become a "Witch"?

At this time, Franca whispered:

"The method in the script actually seems feasible... To influence Mr. 'Fool,' er, someone as cautious and careful as Zhou Mingrui, one can only make a fuss about 'love growing over time,' and can only build connection and trust through plain, real, day-after-day interaction.

"And for such a mission, the most suitable executor is indeed a 'Witch,' followed by a 'Cupid.' No wonder they had to resurrect, or rather, awaken this female corpse; 'Charm' can be integrated into many small details of daily life without being noticed..."

"Indeed, according to Ms. Susie's reminder, we seem to only be able to gain Mr. 'Fool's' trust through similar methods, just without needing to use 'Charm.' But that way, the risk of exposure is too great," Jenna agreed, weighing her words.

Long-term, repeated contact with Mr. "Fool" makes it very easy for the Celestial Worthy to discover anomalies.

Lu Mian didn't respond to Franca and Jenna; he had to hurry with the "spirit mediumship."

He looked at the floating phantom of the female corpse and asked, weighing his words:

"Are you a marionette?"

Lu Mian hadn't experienced the fight with the resurrected female corpse's main body, the explosion of the two disease bombs, or Franca and the others' discussion about "Marionettist," so he hadn't searched the 30-40 meter radius around the monitoring room at the time to see if any Beyonders were hiding. It was only on the way back after driving that he communicated the details of the fight with his teammates that he felt there was a possibility of a marionette.

However, not actively searching the 30-40 meter radius around the monitoring room didn't mean he wasn't guarding against other enemies lurking nearby; this was the basic training of a "Hunter," but he really hadn't discovered anyone hiding nearby at the time.

This made him hold an uncertain attitude toward Franca and the others' guesses; their suspicions might not be true, just like how the resurrected female corpse didn't have a "Door" pathway gift.

The phantom of the female corpse, draped in eerie black hair, answered with a hollow voice:

"Yes."

Yes? Really a marionette? While Lu Mian was stunned, he asked urgently:

"Who is your controller, and where are they?"

This time, the phantom of the female corpse didn't answer, but slowly raised her head and looked toward the void, dark "sky" in the area behind the mirror.

Perhaps influenced by her residual spirit, or perhaps stimulated by the change in the occult environment brought about by this action, Lu Mian and the others actually experienced some hallucinations.

Vaguely, they seemed to see illusory, dense threads emerging from the female corpse, extending toward the heights, and similar illusory threads on their own bodies were also floating toward the depths of the dark sky.

They also seemed to see the people in the city, seeing that they had also grown numerous, dense illusory threads, connecting to somewhere in the night sky where the moon and stars were obscured by clouds.

Lu Mian's body and mind were shocked by such a scene, but his observation ability as a "Hunter" still allowed him to discover a detail.

The illusory threads emerging from their own bodies existed with a fairly significant difference from those of the female corpse:

They were drifting and swaying, as if they were just attracted by something high up and were actively leaning toward it, without actually penetrating deep into that darkness, while the ends of the female corpse's illusory threads were taut, as if they had merged into the darkness that had no end in sight.

As for those of other people in the city, Lu Mian only vaguely sensed them and couldn't see them clearly.

Combining the currently available information on the "Fool" pathway provided by the Major Arcana cards, Lu Mian, Franca, Jenna, and Anthony all made a judgment at the first moment:

The heights represent Mr. "Fool," and also represent that Celestial Worthy; the resurrected female corpse is the Celestial Worthy's marionette!

"No wonder I didn't find the 'Marionettist' controlling her nearby..." Jenna had just had this thought when she quickly noticed a problem. "No! If that were really the case, we who collided directly with the Celestial Worthy's marionette would definitely have been locked onto by the Celestial Worthy and kicked out of the dream. Even if we weren't kicked out, we would inevitably have started to be restricted..."

With a turn of thought, Jenna thought of a possibility:

"The Celestial Worthy is also sleeping, and most of the time is muddled, in a state of unconsciously controlling the marionette, needing to be stimulated, or for the marionette to actively report back, to grasp the corresponding situation.

"But can an unconsciously controlled marionette have that kind of performance from before? Except for being a bit extreme and obsessed with dealing with us, not leaving early, the resurrected female corpse was no different from a real person..."

Just then, the phantom of the female corpse began to fade, about to disappear.

The "spirit mediumship" was almost over.

Lu Mian seized the last bit of time and asked in a hurried tone:

"Who gave you humanity?"

As soon as Jenna heard this, she understood that Lu Mian had thought of the same thing as her.

He was also very concerned about the humanized performance of the resurrected female corpse, or rather, the marionette!

The phantom of the female corpse with a pale face became increasingly faint, with only a hollow voice echoing:

"It was Mr. 'Fool' and the 'Great Mother'..."

"Ah?" Franca, in her sickly state, had reduced self-control, and the surprised words blurted out.

This sounds as if Mr. "Fool" and the "Great Mother" gave birth to her...

Lu Mian ended the spirit mediumship, turned around, and said thoughtfully to his companions:

"I can roughly understand the meaning of that last sentence.

"She should have been a 'Despair Witch' who once came into contact with Mr. 'Fool' or one of his avatars. Mr. 'Fool's' subconscious would instinctively weave an identity, appearance, and personality for her based on the image in his memory, and coupled with the 'Great Mother's' awakening, or rather, the new life given, she naturally possessed humanity and became a unique marionette that could act independently according to mission arrangements.

"The divine messenger's corpse was sent to the Dawn Hospital morgue, also to create a similar marionette?

"Does the Dawn Hospital not only have the 'Mother Tree of Desire' but also the shadow of the 'Great Mother'?"

"I knew it!" Franca originally wanted to clap her hands, but after raising them, she didn't have the strength. "The Dawn Hospital might also have the power of the 'Rose School of Thought'."

Lu Mian cast his gaze toward the tattered but charming female corpse, observed for a few seconds, and said:

"There is no dissipation of 'Door' pathway gift power, and no dissipation of decay gifts..."

"I don't know how they did it... She really didn't show corresponding abilities in the fight. Were those two disease bombs made in advance using some kind of prop? It's a pity I didn't have time to ask about the marionette-like performance of one of the disease bombs..." Franca became increasingly afraid of the Dawn Hospital.

She didn't even dare to imagine what would have happened if Lu Mian had entered the negative first floor of the Dawn Hospital before!

Lu Mian searched the corpse and found no other items, so he stood up and said to Ludwig:

"If you promise to listen to Jenna obediently from now on, this corpse will be your reward right now!"

"Okay, I promise!" Ludwig had an expression that completely didn't care what would happen in the future.

Lu Mian's essential purpose was actually to destroy the corpse and eliminate the evidence. After all, this was the Celestial Worthy's marionette; it had to be completely destroyed before He intermittently woke up slightly, leaving no traces at all, so as not to attract attention and mutations.

Seeing Ludwig run toward the female corpse, Jenna supported Franca and, together with Anthony, quickly left the area behind the mirror and returned to the rented apartment.

Lu Mian stood next to Ludwig and asked in a flat tone:

"If this corpse is real, can you recover to the Sequence 4 level after eating it?"

"No, unless you give me the other one too." Ludwig looked at Lu Mian with longing.

He was referring to Voisin Sanson's corpse. He had received an arm just two days ago because he performed well in studying, exams, and doing homework, so he had completely recovered to the Sequence 5 "Depriver" level before entering the dream.

Lu Mian ignored Ludwig's request and instead asked:

"What is your Sequence 4 called?"

Ludwig began to gnaw on the arm and answered vaguely:

"'Sea King'."

…………

The next morning, Franca discovered that her serious illness hadn't recovered yet; her forehead was hot, her body was weak, and she nearly couldn't get out of bed.

Lu Mian used the simplest "Magic Mirror Divination" method to confirm that this was just the negative effect continuing, and she would still be ill for a good half a day, not that the healing potion hadn't exerted its proper effect, so he said to Jenna:

"We'll take turns. You take care of her and Ludwig in the morning, and I'll do it in the afternoon.

"Anthony and I will drive to contact the Major Arcana cards now."

"Okay." Jenna had also been contaminated to a certain extent last night and also needed more rest.

After going downstairs and getting into the car, Lu Mian learned from Franca, placed his phone on the stand he had specifically bought, and opened the map app.

Then, under Anthony's gaze, he entered the destination by voice:

"Star Dream Grocery Store."

ps: Thanks to the temporary worker under the Fool for tipping the Klein Moretti Silver Alliance~

(End of chapter)