Chapter 871: Shadows and Shadow
What does it mean for a person to stand up inside the halo?
When Lin Sanjiu was momentarily stunned, possibly due to being distracted, her mental grip on the consciousness flow that connected to the rooftop almost broke. She suddenly plummeted downward, and her heart nearly leaped out of her mouth. After quickly stabilizing her descent, she hurriedly asked, "What's happening? What's going on?"
"That... that humanoid projection," Bohemia shouted from a distance, her voice filled with surprise and confusion. "He's looking, looking at me... Ah, he's coming over!"
"Step back, quickly move farther away!" Lin Sanjiu's heart tightened, and she shouted, "He shouldn't be able to leave the range of the halo. Quickly retreat into the darkness!"
As soon as she finished speaking, Bohemia leaped backward without making a sound, instantly disappearing into the dimness at the boundary of light and shadow. It was as if she had dissolved into water, and even Lin Sanjiu's eyes couldn't discern where she was hiding.
Turning her head again, Lin Sanjiu noticed a person-shaped figure slowly emerging from the orange glow coming through the corner door. The flashlight was clearly aimed at the entrance of the medical station. From Lin Sanjiu's perspective, she could only see the shadowy figure on the ground slowly lifting one leg and walking step by step outward.
As the figure walked around the corner, Lin Sanjiu finally had a clear view of it. The shadowy figure appeared to be dressed like a tribal chief from ancient times. From the vague outline, it seemed to be a male. Seeing that the shadowy chief was still moving forward, Lin Sanjiu's heart was filled with tension, and she hastily raised her voice, "Hey!"
The man-shaped figure made of light halted its steps and slowly turned around.
"What are you?" Lin Sanjiu tried her best to divert the attention of the shadowy chief. "Isn't that flashlight a special item?"
The "chief" stood silently in place, with a face covered in darkness. Through the shapes that resembled "eyes," orange flashlight beams could be seen.
Information obtained from the [Flatworld] card usually wouldn't be wrong. Even if someone deliberately disguised something as a special item, it would be clearly stated on the card.
Just as Lin Sanjiu bit her lip, full of doubts, she suddenly heard a low whistle cutting through the air. The source of the sound moved faster than the speed of sound. Before she could see clearly, a small object had already torn through the air where the "chief" was standing. As the light and shadow distorted and flickered, the small object emitting a silver light turned around and rushed back, shattering the form of the "chief" and ultimately plunging into Bohemia's hand, disappearing.
"What are you doing?" Lin Sanjiu shouted, "Didn't I tell you to hide?"
"If you encounter something strange, of course you have to fight it," Bohemia replied confidently, appearing from the shadows once again. "Look, it doesn't seem resistant to a fight. It just disperses... huh?"
There was no need to ask what had happened. Lin Sanjiu saw it too—the shadow of the "chief" that had been scattered gradually converged and reformed into a humanoid shape.
Before she could shout, Bohemia turned around and ran. The "chief" looked up and glanced at Bohemia's retreating figure, standing at the edge of the halo for a while. It seemed unable to leave and finally silently turned back towards the entrance of the medical station.
Lin Sanjiu finally let out a long sigh of relief.
After the chief disappeared around the corner, the flashlight beam suddenly dimmed, leaving only a faint starlight illuminating the dim night sky. Lin Sanjiu waited in the darkness for a few seconds before she heard a low voice coming from somewhere. "The figure is gone!"
"No kidding, the light went out," Lin Sanjiu said sarcastically. "I need you to help me go down, but you can't come over."
"Why?" Bohemia asked.
"When I jumped down, I saw the flower bed here... move. It was like... a double image," Lin Sanjiu explained, and then paused for a moment.
"I can't figure out what the double image means... but why did you jump down?" Bohemia thought for a moment and asked belatedly, "Why did you jump off the building?"
"I picked up that guiding flashlight, and it led me all the way to the rooftop. According to the information inside the halo, other than jumping down, there was no other way to go," Lin Sanjiu explained.
Bohemia pondered for a moment.
"So, you're saying that something is wrong with this flower bed, and that flashlight deliberately lured you down to trap you? That's why you're hanging like this now?"
"Yes, that's exactly it."
Lin Sanjiu thought Bohemia was considering something important, but to her surprise, as soon as she finished speaking, the woman's voice in the darkness immediately responded, "In that case, I better keep my distance from both of you."
"Wait!"
Lin Sanjiu couldn't help but feel amused and exasperated. "You still have to help me go down!"
"How can I help?"
"Where are you right now?"
The more critical the situation, the clearer and calmer some people's minds become, and Lin Sanjiu was one of those people. When the "chief" appeared not long ago, an idea began to form in her mind.
"...What for?" Bohemia still refused to step forward.
"When I call you, start a fire to let me know where you are—it must be where you are!" Lin Sanjiu explained.
"Why should I help you?" Bohemia grumbled, "Hurry up! I don't want to stay in this damn place."
As Lin Sanjiu agreed with her, her right hand released a surge of consciousness, controlling it to tightly wrap around the consciousness that had suspended her earlier. "Can you handle it?" she asked Mrs. Manas, "You have to, even if you can't!"
"Bring it on!" Mrs. Manas gritted her teeth.
"Good!"
With that word, Lin Sanjiu forcefully kicked the wall. As her body instantly soared into the air, she also released more consciousness from her hand—having more raw materials caused the "rope" that suspended her to lengthen. Like a pendulum, she was swung into mid-air and once again lunged towards the wall.
On the second attempt, as she kicked off the wall, she exerted more force and released another portion of new consciousness. The "rope" became longer, the thrust increased, and she was flung even farther. Repeating this process several times, when Lin Sanjiu was about to reach the highest point on the arc, Mrs. Manas's strained voice told her the time had come.
"Now!" she shouted, and she soared high into the air.
Immediately, sparks flickered and crackled in the darkness. The sparks were a distance away from the medical station building, even farther from the flower bed. As Lin Sanjiu broke the connection to her consciousness in mid-air, she was no longer linked to the rooftop. If she fell straight down from here, she would only land in the flower bed.
"Mrs. Manas, use all your consciousness!"
This thought flashed through Lin Sanjiu's mind, and immediately she found her direction and struck backward with both hands. The most powerful hurricane from the [Tornado Whip], combined with the force of a crashing tidal wave-like consciousness, surged backward with tremendous strength, colliding heavily with an entire wall of the building. Mrs. Manas truly didn't hold back—she felt as if tons of explosives had simultaneously detonated behind her, instantly propelling her far away with the force of the shockwave.
"Catch me!" she shouted with all her might, unsure if her voice could be heard amidst the roaring collapse of the building behind her.
"I don't want to!" Bohemia clearly heard it. Suddenly, two luminous fishes appeared in the night sky as if they were about to flee. "You'll crush me—"
Before Bohemia could finish her sentence, Lin Sanjiu, wrapped in fierce winds, crashed down head-on. Bohemia screamed and couldn't escape in time. Not only was she knocked down, but her ankle was also grabbed by Lin Sanjiu. The two fishes were quite clever and swiftly swam upward, evading the fate of tumbling to the ground with their owner.
"Are you insane?" Bohemia's angry and nasal voice sounded as she relentlessly protested, "Let go and let me get up!"
Amidst the chaos, Lin Sanjiu, still holding onto Bohemia's ankle, hastily glanced back. She noticed that the side of the building where the impact occurred was partially collapsed, resembling a drenched, crumpled cardboard box in the dark silhouette.
Grabbing Bohemia meant that she had returned to the normal, real environment. Just as she let out a sigh of relief and released Bohemia's ankle, she heard Bohemia suddenly gasp.
"What's wrong?" Lin Sanjiu barely finished asking when a burst of orange light suddenly illuminated behind them. She was all too familiar with that light—it was the flashlight shining directly from a distance, forcing her to squint her eyes.
Wait a moment. It suddenly dawned on her—why was it so blinding?
The flashlight was clearly aimed at the interior of the medical station's entrance, so it shouldn't have directly shone into her eyes... Although she understood this in a flash, a person's reaction couldn't possibly be faster than light. Before the two could react, a figure abruptly emerged from the bright circle in front of them and swiftly approached.
Lin Sanjiu was about to activate her Defensive Forcefield, but she immediately realized that her consciousness had dried up due to the earlier exertion. Bohemia's counterattack was not slow either. Several specks of starlight immediately pounced forward, weaving a net in the night sky. The two of them jumped almost simultaneously, leaping backward.
The net missed, passing through the body of the "chief," and landed on the ground with a thud. The "chief" also didn't manage to catch hold of them, but it wasn't because he was a step behind in his movements. He had already rushed past them, barely brushing past their bodies at a speed almost as fast as light. However, his target wasn't them at all.
The two stood frozen in place, half-turning their heads to look at the "chief" behind them, their expressions turning grim.
"I... I can't escape," Bohemia trembled as she spoke.
"Because he's holding onto the legs of our shadows," Lin Sanjiu breathed heavily, "If we break the light source, the shadows will disappear—"
"Um," Bohemia suddenly interrupted her, "Take a look behind you... at the windows of the hospital."