Chapter 1141: I Guarantee You"ll Find It Familiar

In a split second, Lin Sanjiu found her direction.

From a narrow alley tucked between two buildings, hidden amidst various shop lights and signs, a barely audible inhalation reached her ears. She propelled herself forward with a powerful kick off the ground, moving so swiftly that it seemed as if she had never paused. In an instant, she reached the entrance of the alley. A figure, startled by her sudden appearance, darted out from the dimly lit s.p.a.ce and rushed toward the opposite end of the alley.

The person"s speed couldn"t compare to Lin Sanjiu"s; with a slight increase in her pace, she could close the gap in mere seconds—and that"s precisely what she did. As Lin Sanjiu accelerated, the sound of rus.h.i.+ng wind grew more p.r.o.nounced. However, in the next moment, she collided heavily with a door that had been pushed open just at that precise instant. The impact sent a sharp tingling pain through her nose.

Her forward momentum was too potent, and the door panel shattered immediately upon impact.

Amidst the splintering fragments, Mrs. Manas urgently called out, "Duoluozhong! There"s a duoluozhong behind the door!"

Lin Sanjiu"s head throbbed from the collision, but she managed to halt her movement in time and swiftly retreated a few steps. Behind the shattered door panel, a female duoluozhong stood bewildered, still in the process of pus.h.i.+ng the door open, as if she hadn"t understood what had just happened.

Lin Sanjiu raised her head, her gaze darting around, and realized that the person she had been pursuing had already vanished. The narrow and dimly lit alley, flanked by several parked cars, provided ample cover for someone to escape.

"How coincidental," Mrs. Manas grumbled with frustration in her voice. "This blasted duoluozhong chose this exact moment to emerge."

Was it truly a coincidence?

Lin Sanjiu hesitated for a moment, standing still. The female duoluozhong, realizing she hadn"t been attacked, resumed her usual duoluozhong behavior. She stepped out from the shattered door, "bought something" from the shop across the alley, then returned to the entrance of the small eatery. With a raised hand, she mimicked opening a non-existent door before disappearing back into the dim interior once more.

"This duoluozhong must frequently move between the two stores," Lin Sanjiu said, making a hand gesture, "and that person must have calculated the time of the duoluozhong"s appearance."

But how did he know that she would rush over precisely at that moment?

With this doubt in mind, she waited for the Artist to catch up. He carried various scattered objects that clanged with each step. When he approached, he unfolded a canvas with a somewhat boastful expression and pointed at it, showing Lin Sanjiu. Under his fingertips, the torn paper that had become part of the painting was permanently affixed with oil paint.

Lin Sanjiu slapped her forehead and sighed. She had forgotten that the person, scared away by her, had lost the counterforce against the canvas"s attraction. Naturally, the Lava Player"s Handbook was drawn into the canvas.

"Can it be extracted?" she asked, unwilling to give up. The Artist merely shrugged in confusion.

"Alright, you can return."

Lin Sanjiu converted him back into a card and strolled down the narrow alley. The ground floors of both buildings were occupied by small eateries and shops, and several duoluozhongs moved about within. Activating her hypersensory state, she could clearly hear the mechanical beings" footsteps and the sound of air colliding within their chests, all within dozens of meters.

She looked around and entered a coffee shop. The barista stood in front of the coffee machine, mechanically repeating the frothing motion despite having nothing in his hands. Some customers stood blankly in front of a cake display covered in dust, while others stared at the dark laptop screens on their tables, their hands motionless on the keyboards.

Lin Sanjiu approached, pulled out a chair, and sat across from a man who was gazing motionlessly at a laptop screen. She extended one long leg and positioned it on the circular sofa, effectively cornering the duoluozhong in the couch"s corner. With a snap, she closed the laptop and smiled at the man who appeared from behind the screen. "You chose a terrible spot."

With his hands securely trapped within the laptop, the man"s eyebrows twitched slightly, but his expression remained emotionless and stoic.

"Unless you quickly spray lava in my face," Lin Sanjiu tapped the laptop with his hands still confined, "your disguise won"t hold any longer."

The man"s face, initially as expressionless as a duoluozhong, finally showed a trace of emotion. His dark eyes s.h.i.+fted, and his entire face suddenly seemed to come alive. He sighed and didn"t dare to pull his hands back, asking, "How did you figure it out?"

"You acted too convincingly," Lin Sanjiu said cheerfully, gradually increasing the pressure on the laptop. "You"re the only "duoluozhong" who didn"t make a single sound. Plus, you held your breath for so long that your face began turning red."

The man, not much older than thirty, possessed somewhat delicate features with slender eyebrows and eyes. Coupled with his shoulder-length hair, parted in the center, he had a rather effeminate appearance. As he endured the pain, the veins on his forehead twitched, and he managed a strained smile while asking, "What do you want?"

"Do you see the large red patch on my forehead?" Lin Sanjiu leaned in, using one finger to point at herself. "Do you see it?"

"Y-yes, I see it..."

"I got hit by the door that duoluozhong opened," she said with a grin. Suddenly, she fiercely punched the laptop. In the instant her hand descended from her forehead, her metal gauntlet covered every inch of her skin. With her strength, the laptop shattered instantly, sending shards flying in all directions. The metal gauntlet struck the back of the man"s hand with force, and Lin Sanjiu demanded, "Tell me, what did you do? How did you do it?"

The man let out a low cry and quickly withdrew his hands when she raised her fist. Without uttering a word, he lifted the entire coffee table toward her. Lin Sanjiu and the coffee table almost jumped simultaneously. She kicked off the sofa, leaping backward. She saw him heading for the staff corridor behind the coffee shop and immediately released a pulse of Higher Consciousness. The Higher Consciousness extended like a whip, latched onto the man"s ankle, and yanked him back into the air before hurling him to the ground.

"So, this is Higher Consciousness?" The man showed a good grasp of the situation and reacted promptly. He gasped, then smiled. "I have a way to deal with you!"

"What a coincidence," Lin Sanjiu said. "I also have a way to deal with you—have you heard of Route 300?"

Evidently, he had never heard of it.

After several unsuccessful attempts, he appeared bewildered. He understood that the woman in front of him had caused this situation, but he didn"t know how to escape it. As she watched his face contort with frustration, Lin Sanjiu casually retrieved a card t.i.tled [Tailored Learning] and converted it. The s.h.i.+ny retractable teacher pointer struck the man"s shoulder a few times, causing a small piece of text to appear in the air.

"Oh my," she said after crouching down to read for a while. She patted his shoulder as if they were old friends. "I wouldn"t have guessed that you used to work in the entertainment industry."

"I... I didn"t."

"Then how do you have this ability?" Lin Sanjiu said with interest. "Your evolving ability, which seems closely related to TV shows and movies, allows you to bring certain scenes from TV dramas into real life. So, are you not going to tell me more about it?"

The man hung his head and, after a while, replied in a dry voice, "Right, [Common Comedy Tropes]. That"s the name of my ability. Why are you asking me when you already have such a Special Item?"

"So, when I was chasing after you, you coincidentally opened a door that happened to hit me?"

"I didn"t know what scene would appear... You can see that your forehead is almost returning to its normal color... There are no coincidences, only drama," he said.

"Enough of the nonsense," Lin Sanjiu said, tapping his forehead with her teacher pointer. "Was that Lava Player"s Handbook yours? Sorry, it had an accident, and I can"t retrieve it now."

Strangely, the man didn"t appear to be too bothered by it; he acted as if he didn"t care. Lin Sanjiu raised her eyebrows, about to ask another question, when he said, "You don"t think it was genuine, do you? I bound it myself and printed several copies."

"You printed that thing yourself?" Lin Sanjiu said, surprised.

"Of course," the man said, seeming to understand that she wasn"t so much interested in torturing him than getting answers. He struggled to get up, but one of his ankles was still ensnared by Higher Consciousness, leaving him suspended in the air. "Every Lava player is eager to find that handbook. Do you think you are so lucky to come across the real thing so easily?"

"What"s inside?"

"The first two pages have content," the man said, being straightforward. "I wrote down some information I knew. You have to give people something to make them follow it."

Lin Sanjiu scrutinized him carefully for several seconds before extending her hand. "You have several copies, right? Let me have a look at one."

"I can give it to you for free," the man said with ease and took out an identical handbook, which disappointed Lin Sanjiu"s secret precautions. "Consider it my compensation for losing the battle. We"ll call it even, then?"

Not a bad idea.

As she held it in her hands, Lin Sanjiu noticed something she couldn"t see clearly from a distance earlier. In addition to the t.i.tle "Lava Player"s Handbook," there was another line of small print at the bottom of the cover, almost like a joke: "Produced by Ya Jiang."

"Your name is Ya Jiang?" she asked, opening the handbook. "Why did you try to make me follow after it?"

Ya Jiang sighed, tucking his hair back behind his ears again. "You"re asking questions you already know the answers to."

"If I knew, would I be asking you?" Lin Sanjiu sneered. Her gaze fell on the bottom of the first page—there was a piece of information she didn"t have time to read earlier. It listed several unfamiliar rules from the Lava game. Intrigued, she carefully read it for a few seconds before looking up, saying, "I have many more questions to ask you—"

She stopped short, stunned.

Ya Jiang must have activated his [Common Comedy Tropes] ability again at some point.

Where there was once a living person, there now stood a makes.h.i.+ft figure created with clothes, pillows, and a broomstick. The face, drawn carelessly, had two circles representing eyes and a smiling curved line as the mouth. One of the pant legs hung loosely, caught in the air by Higher Consciousness.

Under Lin Sanjiu"s direct gaze, this poorly crafted figure leaned to one side and collapsed onto the ground with a crash.

"I don"t find this guy funny at all," she murmured.