Chapter 21: The Greedy Sadako

July 22nd, 2023

Lin Xuan has been hit by a car and stalked by someone in her over twenty years of life. She has also played the role of an NPC, climbed a television set, and even came close to having her life force drained by someone. Her life experiences can be considered rich, but she had never imagined that she would personally witness a murder scene.

“Splurt!”

The man in a kimono pulled the samurai sword out of Yamaguchi Yuriko’s chest, and blood spurted out instantly, almost splashing onto Lin Xuan’s face, awakening her senses.

“Help me!” Lin Xuan rushed out of the room, disregarding the situation outside. Like a headless fly, she ran into the darkness of the night.

In a completely unfamiliar environment, in a situation where she had no idea what would happen, she shouldn’t have acted so recklessly, shouting for help. But Lin Xuan was just an inexperienced college student. The fall of a life, the stimulation of blood, made it difficult for her to stay calm.

The man in a kimono followed, and even the tip of his sword was dripping with blood. He seemed to say something, but it was in a language Lin Xuan couldn’t understand. She ran for her life, continuously running, instinctively heading towards the only distant light in the pitch-black world, like a moth.

Because where there is light, there might be people.

Lin Xuan wanted to find a place to hide again, but after running out, she realized that it was a huge plaza outside, empty on all sides with no place to take cover. She could only keep running forward.

There must be someone, even if it’s not a person, even if it’s a ghost. As long as it’s not just her and the killer alone.

There are people!

Finally, Lin Xuan saw figures in the distance. The distant light was a large bonfire, surrounded by dozens of figures dancing.

“Help, there’s a murderer!” Lin Xuan instinctively shouted.

The crowd dancing around the bonfire suddenly stopped, turning in unison to look in Lin Xuan’s direction. On their faces, like black mist, were two glowing green lights.

These are not people!

Lin Xuan cried. She had made so many wishes from childhood to adulthood, and not a single one had come true. And now, she had said it was fine even if it was a ghost, and she actually ended up summoning a ghost?

Lin Xuan was frozen in place. Ahead of her was a group of ghosts whose faces she couldn’t see, and behind her was the murderer holding a samurai sword. Who said there’s always a way out? Come out and tell me where the way out is!

At this moment, the man in a kimono had already come up behind Lin Xuan. Lin Xuan turned sideways, holding a ruler in her hand, sometimes pointing at the man in a kimono, and sometimes pointing at the group of ghosts, hesitating about whom to deal with first.

First deal with the man in the kimono, he’s alone and easier to control. Lin Xuan made up her mind. Just as she was about to use the ruler to question and control the man in the kimono, a gust of wind suddenly passed behind her, and dozens of figures crossed over her and went straight for the man in the kimono.

“@#%￥#@%#￥” The man in the kimono shouted in a series of words in the language of country R, and he raised his sword to meet them. With a swing of his sword, a powerful force instantly knocked down five or six ghostly figures.

What the hell! Sword qi, no, is it blade qi?

The ghostly figures struck by the man in the kimono’s blade qi immediately crumbled, turning into smoke and dissipating in the air. Within the smoke, there was a faint green light slowly descending.

Lin Xuan saw that touch of green, but she didn’t pay much attention to it. Her only thought right now was to escape. She had to take the opportunity while the man in the kimono was busy fighting these ghostly figures.

“Xuan-chan, go pick it up, that’s an energy stone.”

Lin Xuan paused her steps. “You need to have a life to pick up energy stones.” Lin Xuan loved money and was stingy, but she always understood one thing: you need to be alive to spend money.

“If you want to get out, I can assimilate the energy with enough energy stones.”

Lin Xuan looked at this barrage message and didn’t hesitate anymore. She turned around and ran towards the place where the battle had just taken place, picking up the green energy stones that had fallen on the ground while observing the movements of the man in the kimono. Fortunately, the man in the kimono seemed to pay no attention to these green energy stones, focusing solely on killing the ghostly figures and ignoring her. But even so, Lin Xuan didn’t dare to pick up too many because it was obvious that the man in the kimono was much stronger than these ghostly figures. With one swing of his sword, he could take down a whole group of ghostly figures, and it would only take him a dozen or so swings to deal with those dozens of ghostly figures.

After picking up about twenty energy stones, Lin Xuan dared not pick up any more. She turned around and ran towards a row of houses on the left, hoping to find an empty room to hide in.

Just as Lin Xuan hesitated to enter one of the rooms, the door of a room not far from her suddenly opened a crack.

“Are you from Hua country?” a deep voice with a heavy Northeastern accent.

Lin Xuan immediately became excited. Such an authentic accent, this person must be a fellow countryman.

“I am.” Lin Xuan quickly responded.

The door opened, revealing the face of a man in his thirties. The man looked left and right, then waved at her. “Come in quickly.”

Lin Xuan didn’t hesitate and quickly took shelter inside.

The room was pitch-black, and she couldn’t see anything, not even a candle flame. But fortunately, the room was not big, and based on her senses, Lin Xuan could feel the position of the fellow countryman.

“Which organization are you from?” the man asked.

Lin Xuan was stunned for a moment. “What organization?”

“The Ability Association. You don’t belong to any organization? Are you a rogue cultivator?” The man introduced himself, “Don’t be afraid, I’m from an official organization. I’m Huang Lun, from the second squad of the Imperial Capital Special Ability Team.”

“I’m also from an official organization.” The so-called official organization should be an ability organization formed by the country, and the Special Investigation Team’s 6th Group she belongs to is also an official organization. However, the other person is from the Imperial Capital, and it sounds like his position is slightly higher than hers.

“You’re also from an official organization?” Huang Lun’s voice contained a hint of surprise.

“Yes,” Lin Xuan nodded.

“What is your ability level?” Huang Lun asked.

“I don’t know.” Lin Xuan was not familiar with the specific classification standards of ability levels, and she wasn’t even sure if the system was formed by an ability. Apart from the system, as an individual, she was still an ordinary person, and a very unlucky one at that. “I just awakened recently and don’t know much about abilities. By the way, where are we?”

“You don’t even know where this is, then how did you get in?” Huang Lun was even more surprised.

“I don’t know either. I was just walking, and suddenly I ended up here.” Lin Xuan herself was curious about how she ended up here.

“So, you were swallowed into a sub-space.” Huang Lun understood.

“A sub-space?” Lin Xuan caught the key words sensitively. “Are you saying this is a sub-space? Huang Lun, can you explain to me what’s going on?”

“You really don’t know anything?” Huang Lun felt that Lin Xuan, as an ability user, was too naive.

“I just awakened recently,” Lin Xuan shook her head.

“How did you join an official organization then, using connections?” Huang Lun sensed the energy fluctuations from Lin Xuan, and they were extremely low. Just awakened recently and didn’t know anything, besides using connections, he couldn’t think of any reason why the official organization would be interested in Lin Xuan.

“A friend introduced me,” Lin Xuan said.

“Oh.” So she did use connections. Nowadays, wherever there are people, there are backdoors. Even the official ability organizations are no exception. “The sub-space is named based on the normal space we live in. We define the space where human beings live as the main space, and the environment we are currently in is the sub-space, in short, it is a space that exists outside the ordinary human perception. This space can only be entered by ability users.”

After a while, Lin Xuan roughly understood. “So how can we return to the main space?”

“There are two methods to return to the main space. One is to wait until the sub-space spits us out on its own, which takes about three days. The second is to find an exit and figure out how to get out through it,” Huang Lun explained.

Three days? Then she wouldn’t make it in time for her defense. No, she shouldn’t be thinking about the defense now. At worst, she could apply for a postponement. Right now, there’s a samurai from country R outside holding a knife. If she stayed here for three days, she would definitely be killed.

“How do we find the exit?” Lin Xuan asked.

“We need energy stones,” Huang Lun explained. “If the sub-space doesn’t open the door on its own, the main door is hidden. No one knows where the door is or how many doors there are. We can only use a large number of energy stones to locate the position of the main door. Opening the main door of the sub-space consumes energy, so the door reacts to energy stones.”

Energy stones. Lin Xuan immediately thought of the twenty-something green stones she had just picked up. Zhenzi said they were energy stones, so they should be the same thing that Huang Lun mentioned. Just as Lin Xuan hesitated whether or not to take out the energy stones and ask about them, the room suddenly lit up, and a pale green energy stone appeared before Lin Xuan’s eyes.

Huang Lun held up an energy stone, flickering like a firefly in the dark night. “This is an energy stone. The space we entered is not that big, so it would take about fifty or so stones to open the space door. I only have twenty-something here. Do you have any? If you do, let’s pool them together. Maybe we can get out of here.”

Huang Lun took out a black bag containing a small handful of energy stones, emitting a green shimmering light.

Lin Xuan’s eyes brightened. She had just picked up around twenty of them.

“I have some too.” Lin Xuan took out all the energy stones she had just found.

She didn’t have an extra bag, so she had put them directly in her pants pocket. Seeing her holding the energy stones, she accidentally dropped a few on the ground, causing Huang Lun to become anxious. “Pick them up quickly. This place is surrounded by enemies, so try not to create any bright lights that might give us away. Hurry, put them in my bag.”

“Oh, okay.” Lin Xuan, thinking about the samurai outside in the kimono, just wanted to leave this place quickly. Without any precautions, she directly put the energy stones in Huang Lun’s bag and then bent down to pick up the ones that had fallen on the ground. “Will these energy stones be enough for us to get out?”

“It’s enough.” Huang Lun nodded and then asked, “I forgot to ask, what is your ability?”

“Divination,” Lin Xuan replied.

“Divination? Then how come you didn’t foresee that you would be swallowed into this subspace?” Huang Lun asked.

“I can only do divination for others, not for myself. Besides, divination also requires certain conditions.” The person being divinated must be in an unlucky situation.

“I see.” Huang Lun nodded, tied up the bag containing the energy stones, and said to Lin Xuan, “It’s time to find the exit.”

“Let’s hurry. I hope the exit is not ahead. There’s a powerful samurai from the R country on the square in front.” Although Lin Xuan didn’t know Huang Lun’s exact ability level, she was certain that he wouldn’t be able to defeat the samurai outside. If he could, he wouldn’t be hiding here.

“It’s not ‘we,’ it’s just me.” As soon as he finished speaking, Huang Lun suddenly swung his palm, hitting Lin Xuan’s chest. Lin Xuan couldn’t dodge in time and was sent flying, crashing into the table in the middle of the room, then straight into the wall before coming to a stop.

Lin Xuan groaned, slumping in the corner, unable to stand up. Her mind was filled with a chaotic buzzing.

“For the sake of being fellow Chinese, I won’t kill you but teach you a lesson. In this subspace, don’t trust anyone if you want to survive and make it out alive,” Huang Lun said. With that, he turned and walked to the door, preparing to leave.

“Do you know which organization I belong to in the government?” Lin Xuan struggled to lift her head, staring firmly at the door.

“I don’t give a damn about which organization you belong to.”

【You impudent, ignorant fool. Punishment: Ten strikes with the ruler.】

Huang Lun raised his foot and stepped out of the door.

“Extend your hand to me!” Lin Xuan pointed at Huang Lun from a distance with the ruler. Her voice was not loud, even somewhat weak, but the imposing pressure from the ruler remained undiminished. Huang Lun, about to step out of the door, felt his body being controlled by an irresistible force. He turned around, faced Lin Xuan, and extended his hand.

“You… Your ability is not divination at all!” Huang Lun was shocked and pale. It turned out that it wasn’t just him deceiving Lin Xuan, but Lin Xuan was also deceiving him. This woman’s power was not divination at all, and she wasn’t the clueless novice who didn’t even know about the alternate space. He had completely misjudged her!

“Cough, cough…” Lin Xuan struggled to stand up, leaning against the wall. Damn it, if it weren’t for the ruler she held in her hand, she would have been tricked. Wasn’t it agreed that Chinese people wouldn’t deceive each other? Was it all just empty words?

Once Lin Xuan stood up and caught her breath, leaning against the wall for a while, and the pain in her chest eased, she limped over to Huang Lun. The first thing she did was reach out and take the bag with the energy stones from the man.

Huang Lun wanted to stop her, but his right hand was firmly immobilized in mid-air. He tried using his other hand, which was free to move, but as soon as he tried to attack Lin Xuan, that hand was immediately held down by a force, rendering it immobile as well.

“You insolent fool! You dare to defy and disobey?”

A voice filled with authority and unquestionable power scolded loudly, as if it were branded deep within Huang Lun’s soul, leaving no room for any disobedience.

What kind of ability was this? The power of rules? How was that possible? If this woman could wield the supreme power of rules, how could she be trapped in such a mere alternate space?

Huang Lun was completely puzzled. “Who are you exactly?”

“The one teaching you how to behave.” Lin Xuan ruthlessly whipped the ruler down.

Huang Lun screamed in pain, trembling all over.

“I’ll teach you a lesson for deceiving me!” Lin Xuan struck again with the ruler after Huang Lun’s howling, and then another strike followed. “As a Chinese person, not only do you not know how to help each other when facing people from R country, but you also dare to deceive me. Are you being loyal to our country?”

Huang Lun was in excruciating pain, convulsing all over, with his eyes rolling back. What on earth was this ruler? Even though it was hitting his hand, he felt like his head was going to explode.

Moreover, he had only deceived a naive newcomer, didn’t he? In the alternate space, in order to survive, deceiving and betraying each other was a common occurrence. How was he betraying his country? If he could defeat that R country person outside, he would have already fought his way out.

Lin Xuan struck three times and then stopped. She was afraid that if she kept striking, the man’s screams would attract other enemies, whether it be the man in the kimono or those strange ghostly figures.

“Now I’m going to ask you questions, and you better answer honestly,” Lin Xuan threatened, holding up the ruler.

“Go ahead and ask,” Huang Lun replied, pain preventing any thoughts of resistance. He was a D-level esper, and the fact that the other person could inflict such damage in just a few strikes meant they were at least a B-level esper.

“Is what you said earlier about the exit true?” Lin Xuan’s primary concern was how to leave this place.

“I didn’t lie to you about that; it’s true,” Huang Lun said.

“Then how can we sense the exit? Let me tell you, if you dare to deceive me, I’ll…”

“I won’t deceive you, I won’t,” Huang Lun urgently interrupted, afraid that Lin Xuan would strike him with the ruler again. “The exit can be opened with energy stones, but… whether or not you can find the exit depends on your personal perception ability. The stronger an esper’s perception of energy is, the easier it is to find the exit. Even if you have the energy stones, if your perception is weak, you won’t be able to open the door to the alternate space.”

Lin Xuan frowned. Perception ability. She had no perception of these energy stones; she had picked them up because Sadako had asked her to. Perhaps Sadako could sense the door.

Lin Xuan immediately asked in her mind, “Sister Sadako, can you sense the exit?”

She waited for a while, but the system prompt did not appear, leaving her somewhat disappointed.

Seeing Lin Xuan suddenly fall silent, Huang Lun guessed, “Are you unable to sense the exit? I can sense it. How about I do the sensing, and then we can leave together?”

Lin Xuan chuckled. “Do you think I would trust you?”

Huang Lun said, “Boss, I can’t beat you. I won’t dare to do anything reckless. If you’re worried about the energy stones, you can hold on to them. That way, you can rest assured.”

“I’m not reassured!” Lin Xuan didn’t bother speculating on the truth behind Huang Lun’s words. She only knew one thing—her luck was too bad. Choosing to travel with a liar who was full of lies would undoubtedly lead to a bad outcome. So, if she couldn’t fully trust him, it was best for her to go alone. Even if she couldn’t escape in the end, it was better than being killed by someone else and feeling resentful.

Ignoring Huang Lun, Lin Xuan pushed open the door and walked out. “Since we are both Chinese, I won’t kill you. The esper powers will disappear ten minutes after I leave. Behave yourself during these ten minutes. If you die, don’t blame me. Remember, I’m part of the Sixth Unit of the Jincheng Special Events Investigation Team. Don’t let me see you again.”

After revealing the answers to the questions, the ruler’s skill was released. Huang Lun felt a wave of relief and instinctively wanted to lower his hand, but he remembered Lin Xuan’s threat and kept it frozen, not daring to move.

Lin Xuan left the room in fear of Huang Lun seeing through her lies. She ran as fast as she could, circling around half of the village until she spotted an open house and quickly darted inside.

Making sure there was no one inside the house, Lin Xuan placed a bag of energy stones on the table and then took out Sadako’s wig from her inventory and put it on. “Sister Sadako, can you sense the doorway to the space?”

Sadako didn’t reply, but the wig on Lin Xuan’s head moved. The jet-black, smooth hair separated into strands and began to slither into the bag containing the energy stones, quickly absorbing all of them.

Lin Xuan was delighted. This was promising.

“Sister Sadako, where is the exit?” Lin Xuan asked.

As her long hair danced, Sadako suddenly pointed in a direction.

Indeed, she could sense it. Sadako didn’t speak, but it must be because her karma points were not enough to allow her to talk.

Thinking this way, Lin Xuan pushed open the door once again. After looking left and right, ensuring there were no ghostly figures or people, she ran in the direction indicated by the long hair.

Straight ahead, left turn, right turn, another right turn… She ran like this for a while, and Lin Xuan was starting to sweat when she finally stopped below a hill. There was a building on top of the hill, resembling a temple.

Lin Xuan walked up the hill. As she approached halfway, she suddenly sensed something was wrong. In the grass beside the mountain path, there were scattered green energy stones.

These were the energy stones dropped after the slaughter of the ghostly figures. If there were energy stones here, it meant someone had been here and killed the ghostly figures, perhaps the man in the kimono.

Lin Xuan hesitated whether to continue forward when Sadako’s long hair spread out like an octopus, quickly absorbing all the surrounding energy stones.

Lin Xuan watched this scene in astonishment but didn’t stop Sadako. After standing in place for a few seconds, she ultimately decided to proceed. Sadako indicated that the gateway was here, and if she wanted to leave this alternate space, she had to go up, regardless of who or what awaited her.

Lin Xuan continued forward, and the higher she climbed, the more green energy stones she found. Gradually, bloodstains and human corpses came into view.

Why would someone kill others? Shouldn’t everyone unite and try to leave together since they were all trapped here?

“Sato, give me the wood element energy crystal. When we get out, I’ll trade it with my fire element,” a man’s voice came from within the temple, speaking standard Mandarin, indicating he was a Huaguo (Chinese) person. “It’s just an energy crystal. We don’t need to fight over life and death.”

“You… are not my match, not qualified… to negotiate,” another voice sounded familiar to Lin Xuan, with a foreign accent, the R country man who had been wearing a kimono earlier.

The two people inside were fighting over something, the wood element energy crystal. Was it something similar to the energy stones?

Lin Xuan stayed outside and didn’t dare to enter. As a weakling in combat, going in would only mean certain death for her.

“I’ll trade with two fire element energy crystals,” the man stated again.

“Three,” Sato replied.

“Fine,” the man gritted his teeth, visibly reluctant but had no choice. “But I don’t have them on me. I’ll give them to you when we’re out.”

“Then contact me after we’re out,” Sato said, and with that, he swung his sword and killed the last ghostly figure in the temple. As the ghostly figure disintegrated into dust, the entire alternate space suddenly shook.

The temple collapsed, and a beam of strong light descended from the sky, landing on a large tree outside the temple. The trunk of the tree mysteriously fluctuated, revealing a vortex.

An exit!

At the same time, in the collapsing temple, Sato and a middle-aged man in sportswear noticed Lin Xuan. Both of them froze for a moment, and the man in sportswear instinctively drew his sword, attempting to strike at Lin Xuan. Startled, Lin Xuan turned around and ran towards the exit.

It was too dangerous here. It seemed like everyone wanted to kill her.

As Lin Xuan sprinted towards the exit, Sadako’s long hair disregarded everything and flew towards Sato, trying to snatch the green crystal from his hand.

Sato’s gaze turned cold, and he swung his samurai sword towards the long hair, cutting it off in an instant.

Daring to covet his wood element crystal with such strength? It was simply seeking death.

Taking advantage of Sadako’s long hair attacking again, Sato suddenly sheathed his sword and used his hand to grab hold of the hair.

“Ah!” Lin Xuan, who was running, was abruptly pulled to the ground. When she turned her head, she realized her hair was in the hands of the man in the kimono.

Just as Sato was about to use the force to pull Lin Xuan back, she fiercely pointed the ruler in her hand at Sato and said, “Do you know who I am?”

Ignoring Lin Xuan completely, Sato continued pulling her hair back.

The opponent didn’t even answer the question. Was the skill not working?

Just as Lin Xuan was about to despair, a system prompt appeared.

“You scoundrel, asking questions but refusing to answer, ten strikes with the ruler as punishment.”

The skill can be activated.

“Reach out your hand.” As Lin Xuan’s words fell, Sato’s right hand lifted uncontrollably. Lin Xuan took the opportunity to free her hair, got up, and ran towards the exit once again. Meanwhile, Sadako’s long hair seized the wood element crystal from Sato’s clothes.

“Sagaa!” Sato became furious, and a powerful energy burst out from his body, breaking free from the ruler’s restraint.

“Skill interrupted.”

Huh?!!!

Why did the skill still get interrupted? Without time to think, Lin Xuan desperately ran forward. Fortunately, she wasn’t far from the exit, and in just a few steps, she rushed into it.

Behind her, Sato grabbed hold of Sadako’s long hair and chased after her.