Chapter 486: Concept Mishmash

Traveling up from the sixteenth floor, Lin Sanjiu did not come across any other inhabitant from the “slumber room.” Aside from the bat-like man and the dark-haired woman, it seemed to them that the rest of the hostages had already escaped after Magus’ ability had lost its effect.

They had no idea what had happened to Magus. The force field enacted by her was gone, and all of them were able to reach the fire exit door on the top floor without much difficulty.

“Qing Jiuliu and I will go in first.” The hen pushed the door open with her wings. She turned and talked to the grand prize in a hushed voice, “You stay behind us. Keep your voice down when you’re walking.”

The sofa and the red panda grunted in reply begrudgingly.

“I have to make a trip to my room first,” the red panda said, his tone layered with gusto, “I have to take the siren since it could be of help in a fight… You guys go ahead without me.”

The hen studied the red panda from his head to his toe, as if she was judging whether the latter was being serious or he was joking around. Her two beady eyes were full of disapproval.

“No, you can’t,” Lin Sanjiu said, and the hope in the red panda’s eyes ceased away. She swept the red panda into the door with her wing and said “…The power of the siren heavily relies on the appearance of the holder. Look at yourself now; I don’t think you can draw out the full potential of the siren with your current appearance. Besides, I know you just want to go back to grab some liquor.”

Qing Jiuliu couldn’t counter that, walking dejectedly into the fire path. The blue flora followed after, squeezing his massive body through the door. The thick carpet that lined on the floor served as a good sound absorber as the grand prize did not produce any unfavorable sound when he dragged his body along the floor.

“It was lucky that the ability produced by the choker was different from the siren’s; otherwise, we might not be able to bewitch the Jaeger,” Lin Sanjiu whispered, her voice lingered at the border of fear, “…After all, I don’t have much confidence in my appearance as a hen.”

The other two people looked at each other as a thought swayed unbridled into their mind at the same time. To be honest, the appearance wasn’t the main issue there, for this was because only the [Fantasy Creatures Exhibition Specimen #12] needed both beauty and voice to capture its victim’s mind and heart. Lin Sanjiu, on the other hand, could destroy the Jaeger’s soul with her disastrous voice alone… Of course, none of them were audacious enough to say this to her.

After three of them had come out from the fire exit and entered the floor, they remained silent as they were afraid that there might be any lurking danger around.

The ceiling of the top floor resembled the dome of a European basilica. With a single glance, it could absorb both the eyes and breath of a person into its smooth geometrical pattern. As if the exotic fragrance of a maiden lingered around the air, the ceiling still retained its former glory even though the apocalypse had eroded basically everything into nothingness in the past two years, giving people a peek through time at how magnificent this penthouse had once been.

In the center of the floor was a large indoor swimming pool. The water in the pool had long evaporated, exposing the layer of thick black grime that blanketed on the surface of the Mediterranean blue tiles. Lances of sun’s rays that fell through the skylight cast a halo of golden light around the swimming pool. Behind the door that hid in the shadow and away from the sunlight was the presidential suite, their destination.

“That Magus really knows how to enjoy her life,” muttered Qing Jiuliu. Taking a few careful steps ahead, they soon found themselves greeted by a pair of large rosewood doors with an embedded golden word that reads “ALADDIN.” Since Ji Shanqing was too slow, they had left him behind. He was now heaving himself forward in the corridor, puffing and blowing from the strain.

Lin Sanjiu extended one of her claws to push the door open before sticking her head inside.

Although she had stayed in a five-stars rating hotel before, she had never come across a Presidential suite. When she caught a glimpse of the suite through the door, only then she saw the daylight of how naive she was. Judging from the entranceway and a portion of the living room that met her eyes, she was sure that the entire suite was more than 200 square meters. In the absence of knowledge about the location of Magus, they wouldn’t be able to locate her if they did not go in and search the suite.

After a short contemplation, Lin Sanjiu exchanged glances with Qing Jiuliu, and both of them walked into the royal suite. Without support from Lin Sanjiu’s wing, the two extraordinarily heavy rosewood doors closed without making any sound.

Six minutes had passed, and the rosewood door was once again opened from inside.

“Let’s check the next room,” It was apparent that their search had drawn a blank. The colossal hen exited through the door, instructing the red panda standing next to her claw.

They raised their heads to see that the blue floral sofa was still lagging very far behind from them. The duo gestured at him and went for the next suite.

The next Presidential suite was built behind a carved wall above the first penthouse, accessible only via its stand-alone elevator. Due to this unique floor design, it took extra time for Lin Sanjiu before she finally found the way to the next penthouse.

After another 10 minutes, when they came out from the second penthouse, the hen’s face was filled with questions

“That’s weird,” Lin Sanjiu emitted a serial of coos through her windpipe. “A fussy person like Magus, how is there any possibility she wouldn’t choose to sleep in a presidential suite?”

“Who knows; perhaps she wasn’t satisfied with the security here, so she hid up,” the red panda replied indifferently.

“…Or were we too late?”

“If you’re worried, you can recheck the first room,” Qing Jiuliu suggested.

They had turned the entire second Presidential suite upside down but never found Magus. Truth to be told, it seemed that the room had been vacant for a long time, for Lin Sanjiu needed to break the door to go inside. In contrast, the “ALADDIN” suite which had its door broken by somebody else had a higher chance.

Losing her companion was something Lin Sanjiu had considerably grown accustomed with. Filled with the feeling of morose and not wanting to give up so soon, she barged into the first Presidential suite again. This time, the red panda appeared to be more active as he quickly followed after Lin Sanjiu. This was because he had found a wine shelf in the Presidential suite in their previous survey.

This time, the rosewood door remained closed for a while longer.

After roughly 20 minutes, the silence was shattered by a succession of pitter-patter that was getting louder and louder by every minute. The footsteps sounded not like the noise of human feet would make but resembled the echoes of the talons of an oversized canary striking the carpet. The rosewood door was pulled open, then the head of the hen stuck out from the gap. Its two beady black eyes were ablaze with fury, “What the hell were you doing? How can you still drink liquor when—”

The exhortation Lin Sanjiu wanted to shower at Qing Jiuliu froze at the tip of her tongue when she saw the thing in the corridor.

Qing Jiuliu burped before raising his two glassy beady eyes. Then, in the next moment, he opened his eyes wide.

A petite figure, with a hump on her back and a cane on her hand, was standing at the other side of the swimming pool. As if she had sensed somebody coming, she spun her body around.

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She was donned in a green robe and a pair of large and loose slack pants. She just looked like your ordinary old woman—except for her face.

“You guys are a little bit early,” she said, licking her two blubber lips. From her wrinkled layers of skin came a hoarse voice which reminded them of the hollow wood that was burned down by flame, “…Well, you guys left me no choice but to play with you guys first.”

“What does that mean?”

Lin Sanjiu narrowed her eyes, and her heart went pit-a-pat.

Right now, she had already used her only and the most reliable [Pygmalion Choker] to deal with the bat-like man but that wasn’t her biggest concern. What made her wary the most was the appearance of the old lady.

She’s ugly, no doubt, but…

She had never seen such a “blurry” human before.

After she stole two glances at the old lady, Lin Sanjiu tore her gaze away from her. However, she soon turned back to her. After all, she couldn’t bring herself to stare fixedly at the old lady. She had to shift her gaze away from times to times.

When she went closer, she realized that the old lady looked as if a group of low-resolution images superimposed together; not only the color was terrible, but the look was hazy as well. Upon closer inspection, even the side of the old lady was imposed by many layers, which in turn smeared the outline of her body and induced seasickness to whoever was looking at her.

The old lady parted her lips. When she didn’t make any expression, her two lips resembled two enormous sausages that were about to droop over to her chest. As she lifted her hand, a few delayed afterimages of her upper torso appeared in the air, looking like an image with poor signal.

Lin Sanjiu’s heart tightened. The moment she wanted to summon her [Defence Forcefield], her body shuddered, and she glared at the old lady’s fingertip.

“Wh-What is that?” Qing Jiuliu’s mumbles rang out beside her.

…A neatly arranged menu had appeared out of thin air on top of that old lady’s fingertip. The words in the menu had a faint, nearly transparent color tone. It was so soft that it might cause people to mistake it as the shadow created by the refraction of light. They might not be able to notice it, had they not walked closer.

“Haven’t I made myself clear enough? You guys are a little bit too early.”

The old lady continued to talk, with her parched and emotionless voice, “Well, I have no choice but to play with you guys for a little while before the right option comes out.”

“What the hell was she talking about?”

Lin Sanjiu darted a glance at the menu. Even though she couldn’t tell what it was or what could it do, there’s only one thought in her mind—she had to stop the old lady from doing whatever she wanted to do next. Without giving the old lady any warning, the large hen leaped into the air, coating in her Higher Consciousness and charging ahead.

Facing a colossal hen that was twice her size charging in full fury at her, the old lady appeared to be pretty calm. In fact, she didn’t take Lin Sanjiu’s attack to heart. When her finger danced around the menu, her face was overcast by Lin Sanjiu’s shadow.

“When you breathe in the air, you’ll be afflicted by depression.” The old lady raised her head, drawing a chaotic mess of afterimages in the air and finished her words right before the hen’s wing fell on her head.

Thump.  Lin Sanjiu suddenly fell to the floor from midair. Her human arms had returned right before the moment her wings touched the old lady’s head. When she dropped to the floor, she looked as if she was an ordinary human without any battle skill. She didn’t adjust her position nor did she protect her head. The heavy thud when she contacted the floor would make people wince in pain.

The red panda looked at Lin Sanjiu, who had returned to her human form. Perplexion flooded his face as he had lost his ability to speak for that moment.

Facing her back at him, Lin Sanjiu was getting herself up from the floor. Her movement was somehow unsteady, as if she was a toddler on her first attempt to walk. She kept her head low all the time until she had oriented herself in a sitting position. Then, she stopped moving.

“Hey… Knock, knock,” Qing Jiuliu implored, but she didn’t reply. Awashed by a bad feeling, Qing Jiuliu ran toward her but then he stopped halfway through, “Lin Sanjiu! Talk to me! You aren’t getting a depression, aren’t you?”

The difference between getting depression and having a mood swing was as far as the distance from the earth to the sky. No matter how much he wished he was wrong; he knew very well from the moment that the old lady announced the words on her menu, Lin Sanjiu must have had already contracted depression.

When she said they would change species, they changed. Although it seemed to him that the old lady could apply only one effect at the same target at one time, her words were really…

When he thought about this, the red panda squinted his eyes. He lowered his head and bolted toward the old lady. The moment he took his move, Lin Sanjiu rose up to her feet as well. As if she did not want to make any connection with anybody, she tiptoed to a dark corner and crouched down.

The red panda bared his sharp fang at the old lady. As his attack almost connected with the old lady, the latter suddenly straightened her body. She stretched her fuzzy arm forward, her loose skin swung profusely in the air and caught the red panda with great accuracy before pinning him down on the floor.

“You want to return to your human form too?” The old lady chuckled, looking with a mirthful expression on her face as the red panda struggled with all his might in her hand. Then, she raised her hand and hurled the red panda far into the distance, “…I’m sorry, but I cannot make your wish come true. My ability is too precious to use on a scumbag like you.”

Qing Jiuliu scrambled up from the ground in a long, breathless breath and looked at Lin Sanjiu, who had claimed a small territory of her own at the right corner of the room. If it were in the past, she would have already exploded and began to wreak havoc around. But now…

The reason he launched the attack not because he wanted to return to his human form; it was more than that.

Qing Jiuliu did not turn his head to the left, for the last thing he wished right now was that the old lady noticed the thing at her left side.

“Your menu,” huffing, he tried to shift the old lady’s attention to him. “One of it is “conditions” while the other one is “consequences.” There are a total of five options in a menu… I have seen it already. ‘When you breath in the air’ was the option you picked from the condition column while you select ‘you will be afflicted with depression’ from the consequences column.” He paused, then snorted, “What an interesting ability. What’s it called?”

“Why do you want to know that?” The old lady replied slowly. As she walked toward the left side, she continued to talk, “Anyway, it doesn’t hurt me from telling you. The name of this ability is [Concept Mishmash]. Ingrain that name deeply in your brain.”

After that, as if she had grown tired from standing, she sat on a blue floral sofa, heaving a contented sigh.