Chapter 1187: Obtained Without Any Effort
The Life Coach picked up each Special Item one by one, with a calm and unhurried pace. When destroying his own kind, he seemed to be suppressing a long-standing hunger; those two large hands dismantled, crushed, twisted, and ground every item that shouldn't have been so easily destroyed until they no longer existed in this world.
By the time he finished, Lin Sanjiu realized that the hair on her arms had stood on end. She cleared her throat and turned her head, only to find that the Artist had disappeared. Just as her heart skipped a beat, she caught a glimpse of him huddled behind her, clutching the easel like a shield.
"You can both return to the card inventory now," she said.
Facing humanoid items, card transformation always felt a bit strange. The Artist eagerly crashed into her hand and turned into a card; the Life Coach, on the other hand, stood steadily outside, not rushing to approach. Lin Sanjiu's hand remained suspended in the air, and she frowned slightly at him.
"Three times," the Life Coach gestured with his chin toward the X-ray machine behind her, "it was hit three times just now. Be more careful; such loud noises can't go unnoticed. No need to thank me too much. I am your life coach, and naturally, I will take care of you in a timely manner."
Although she didn't know the exact relationship between the guards and the hospital, the fact that she had run away might mean that the hospital staff already knew that Lin Sanjiu was still alive. After putting away the Life Coach, she stood in place, closed her eyes, pinched her nose, and exhaled.
The guard wearing her friend's clothes still stood silently behind her. Lin Sanjiu felt that if she had been a little later—perhaps just a few more seconds—he would have completed the transformation and turned into a hospital employee indistinguishable from the others. Now, she couldn't help but sigh in relief. She managed to drag him out just before he gained the ability to act.
Next, she needed to let him recover.
She had a vague idea in her mind, but the thought was so uncomfortable that she didn't want to think about it. She forced herself to focus on more urgent matters. She needed to find a place for both of them to take shelter.
The repeated loud thumps should have been audible, but perhaps the laboratory door muffled most of the noise. When Lin Sanjiu cautiously peeked her head out, the corridor remained quiet, with no signs of being disturbed by footsteps.
She stuffed the body of the former guard and the discarded uniform back under the metal table. Then, she grabbed Hei Zeji's wrist with her metal gauntlet and tried to take a step forward with him. Hei Zeji, who looked just like any other guard, fell straight forward when she pulled him; before he hit the ground, Lin Sanjiu quickly held his shoulders and pushed him back into a standing position.
He was like a puppet, completely devoid of any movement.
This was troublesome. He couldn't be carried or held; if she touched him, Lin Sanjiu might fall to the ground and be unable to move herself. She furrowed her brow for a moment, and when her gaze fell on the X-ray machine, her eyes suddenly lit up.
It wouldn't hurt to make another loud noise since she had already created three before. As a precaution, she swallowed a candy to prevent anyone from coming to investigate. Then, she kicked one of the X-ray machines over, revealing the cart underneath.
She pushed the X-ray machine aside and brought the cart next to Hei Zeji. There was no better way, so Lin Sanjiu pushed from behind, and Hei Zeji fell face-first onto the cart; when his face hit the cart, it made a loud thud that made her cringe.
Hei Zeji was not short, and more than half of his long legs dangled outside the cart. As she pulled the cart forward, his legs scraped against the floor, making a rustling sound. The blood stains on the floor that hadn't been completely wiped away left streaks of blood on his pants. Lin Sanjiu looked at them and suddenly stopped.
'Why didn't it work?'
She frowned, took out the candy jar again, and swallowed a candy. She had been busy dealing with Hei Zeji and had forgotten about this until now. It wasn't until then that she realized that she had not felt the special flow in her veins when [There Is Probably Someone Like This in Your Class] took effect.
Trying, she swallowed another candy. This time, almost the instant the candy entered her esophagus, she felt the effect of the Special Item. Putting the candy jar back into the card inventory, Lin Sanjiu couldn't help but silently rejoice that she discovered it early. If the hospital staff had confronted them and she found that the previous candy didn't work, both she and Hei Zeji would have been in trouble.
As long as she stayed away from the laboratory, it didn't matter where she hid. Lin Sanjiu found a narrow utility room, probably used by the janitors. In the dim light, she could vaguely see mops, buckets, rags, and cleaning agents neatly placed inside. With one hand, she dragged Hei Zeji into the room and threw the cart far away down several corridors before slipping in herself.
Though the utility room was small, it made her feel safe, and there was even a light on the ceiling. Leaning against one wall, she could see the other three walls, creating a sense of being securely protected. Lin Sanjiu slid down along the wall, staring at the guard on the floor, motionless for a long time.
She rarely felt so helpless.
To buy some time, she took out the documents she had stored in her card inventory once again. Even though she knew Hei Zeji wasn't a patient, so there wouldn't be any admission forms, Lin Sanjiu carefully looked through them one by one. Subconsciously, she hoped to find some clue in this pile of forms that would tell her how to save Hei Zeji. If she couldn't find any clues, the only solution she could think of was to kill Hei Zeji.
The documents trembled in her hands, but she couldn't focus on any of the words. Instead, her mind kept replaying the two guards she had killed with the pull-up bar in the corridor. They had died completely, without any signs of life remaining in their chests; Lin Sanjiu had made sure of that.
One of the bodies had gradually turned back into its posthuman appearance, while the other had stood up and removed its uniform. Guards never had any Special Items, so the reason the other corpse stood up could only be his inherent ability. Perhaps, like a backup battery, he had an extra life?
She didn't know what ability Hei Zeji possessed, but coming back to life after death probably wasn't one of them.
Lin Sanjiu exhaled softly and placed one of the files on the ground. As she was about to leave it, something seemed to bite at her, and she couldn't help but pick it back up and flip to the last page.
She hadn't expected that the thing she had been trying so hard to obtain was now effortlessly in her hands; the first page of the Lava Player's Handbook lay on her lap in the dim light.
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