Chapter 954: The Dark Face
On the way to the bulletin board, the outline of that "X" in Lin Sanjiu’s mind became clearer and clearer.
Commanding the personal twelveities, collaborating with Gong Daoyi, targeting the Munitions Factory, and for some reason, wanting to kill her... There was clearly a trace of a will behind all of this.
Lin Sanjiu needed to find out the mastermind behind this will.
For now, she would call him "X" like in detective novels—of course, using "him" was just for convenience, as X might not necessarily be male.
Although she couldn’t fully trust Twelve, X was most likely not Twelve. Part of Twelve’s antisocial personality indeed seemed charming and charismatic, capable of deceiving and misleading unsuspecting individuals. However, the other eleven personalities knew him inside out. If Twelve wanted to do what X did, he would need to have overwhelmingly superior power—which didn’t seem likely based on his constant constraints and manipulation.
He and the Chicky brothers seemed to be coerced by X as well, which explained his unusually cooperative and docile att.i.tude.
However, let’s set aside how X knew that Bohemia would bring the Chicky brothers onto the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. What was his purpose for Exodus?
As she pondered, Lin Sanjiu absentmindedly arrived at a dark metal door. Sensing her footsteps, it silently slides open.
"We’ve arrived at the bulletin board," said the man with the dark face, who looked like someone perpetually owed money. He only managed to squeeze out a few words each time.
"What should I call you?" Lin Sanjiu asked.
"Octo," the man with the dark face replied, promptly closing his mouth.
There are people like that in the world, as if saying one more word would result in a beating.
As Lin Sanjiu stepped inside, before she could clearly see where she was entering, a cheerful voice rang out in front of her.
"May we divide your attention!"
Along with it, a burst of light and shadow suddenly appeared. Lin Sanjiu, accustomed to battles, nearly jumped back in reflex. However, she quickly realized it was an advertis.e.m.e.nt.
The advertis.e.m.e.nt projected in the air, flickering and displaying changing images, showcasing the services provided by the "Settlers of Ocean Voyager" that were "just like those on the ground." Then, like a bubble in the water, it disappeared.
It disappeared, and Lin Sanjiu was immediately engulfed by a torrent of dazzling light: countless texts and images composed of pale blue rays surged towards her in layers. Each "slice" represented a message, rapidly scrolling past her eyes, beside her, and at her fingertips, too fast to be easily discernible.
Caught in the whirlpool of information, Lin Sanjiu was momentarily unsure of what to do. She glanced back at the man with the dark face, who had lowered his eyelids and pursed his lips.
"Is it your first time here?"
A voice called out from behind the layers of s.h.i.+mmering pale blue light, sounding like a lifeline to her. "Grab one with your hand and swipe it gently!"
Grab it with her hand?
Lin Sanjiu tentatively reached out her hand towards one of the "slices" of information—each message neatly arranged within a rectangle, as if written on an invisible transparent board, just wide enough to be grasped by her fingertips. As her fingers touched the message, it immediately became docile, like a tamed animal, staying motionless in her hand.
She gently squeezed it and swiped to the left.
Like this?
When she lifted her head again, the rolling waves of pale blue text had indeed slowed down. Words, images, numbers, and symbols leisurely swam past her like fish, and now everything could be seen clearly.
After the speed slowed down, the pale blue light also became spa.r.s.e and faint. Through each message, Lin Sanjiu greeted a person not far away. "Thank you!"
"You’re welcome! You’re more polite than the woman I encountered last time," the posthuman surrounded by the same blue light responded from a distance. He casually complained, "There are quite a few who have turned into savages since the apocalypse, but this is the Twelve Worlds!"
Just by listening, it was clear that he was a resident of the Twelve Worlds.
Lin Sanjiu smiled at him and looked around after he walked away. The pale blue messages floated and drifted like threads in this empty room. At first glance, it seemed as if she was in the midst of flas.h.i.+ng, network-like veins. Only when near a person, the luminous threads would suddenly intensify.
She looked up and casually grabbed a message that was pa.s.sing by from above, pulling it closer to examine. "A powerful old-fas.h.i.+oned gentleman seeking a future partner." Lin Sanjiu immediately let go of it, but it didn’t leave. It continued to float in front of her. She thought for a moment, reached out and gave it a push. Unexpectedly, the pale blue light faded and disappeared quickly.
"That message won’t appear again in the future," the man with the dark face suddenly spoke, for some reason, there was a hint of appreciation in his eyes as he looked at Lin Sanjiu. "What are you looking for?"
"I want to learn more about this s.h.i.+p... Lyanna mentioned that there are many types of information here."
"Here," Octo grabbed a message and tapped on the bottom right corner of the pale blue screen. Immediately, the words "Ocean Voyager s.h.i.+p Service" appeared. When she opened it, she could see information such as the map, pa.s.senger capacity, destination distance, landing precautions, and crew list. Lin Sanjiu thanked him and said with a smile, "Feel free to explore around, I’ll stay here and take a look, not going far."
Octo nodded and hesitated for a few seconds before slowly walking to a side not far from her and pulled up a few messages.
The Ocean Voyager s.h.i.+p was divided into three levels: upper, middle, and lower. The upper level was for residential activities, the middle level housed some machinery rooms, control rooms, entrances and exits, and a small s.p.a.cecraft docking port. The bottom level contained the engine and anti-gravity device areas. Lin Sanjiu carefully studied the map and found that the Night Wanderers had sealed off the two lower levels. Except for the temporary opening of the middle level during boarding and disembarking, pa.s.sengers were not allowed near those areas at other times.
While pondering whether Luther or X might be on the lower levels, she opened the "How to Publish Messages" section.
Speaking of which, she actually got this idea from Puppeteer. Like the "Peppy Lil Sesame," she needed to craft a carefully constructed lie... a lie that would lure out one of the twelve personalities from their hiding spot. She didn’t know what Luther looked like now, and she didn’t know X. The only one who could be the target, perhaps hiding here, was Twelve.
She looked up and glanced in the direction where the "powerful old-fas.h.i.+oned gentleman" had disappeared, slowly forming an idea.
After she published the message, she casually opened the crew list and browsed through the faces—one by one. Considering the size of the Ocean Voyager s.h.i.+p, the crew members were relatively few, and soon she found Octo’s face on the fourth page.
Just as she was about to turn to the fifth page, Lin Sanjiu paused.
She looked up at the man with the dark face not far away, who was engrossed in reading some message. She quickly flipped back to the fourth page and carefully examined the profile of the dark-faced man again.
Next to the same face, the name was written as "Stan Smith."