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Chapter 970 Linkage
Chapter 970 Linkage
Chapter 970 Linkage
In the dark hospital room lit only by a bit of moonlight, Lumian saw An Xiaotian, who had been in a vegetative state for over a year, move his fingers ever so slightly.
While surprised, Lumian wasn't afraid. Instead, he smiled.
An anomaly is good; anomalies reveal more information!
How could I interpret the secrets hidden in this matter if there were no changes?
Lumian leaned against the window, staring at An Xiaotian on the hospital bed, waiting for more anomalies.
An Xiaotian's fingers moved again.
The darkness in the room seemed to deepen.
Lumian's gaze suddenly turned to the doorway of the hospital room.
The door opened silently, and a nurse wearing a white cap entered.
Lumian didn't immediately teleport away, but hid in the shadow cast by the curtains.
He saw the nurse, with a blank expression, busily moving around the bed, sometimes adjusting equipment, sometimes changing IV bags, but her hands were always empty, and there was nothing currently hanging on the IV stand.
Through the open door, Lumian noticed that the dimly lit corridor was suddenly filled with more than a dozen people.
There were nurses pushing empty carts, women in patient gowns walking back and forth, men walking while moving their arms, as lively as if it were midday.
But it was late at night, and they weren't making any sound, their faces completely devoid of expression.
Lumian thought for a moment, then deliberately walked out of the shadows.
The nurse busying herself by An Xiaotian's side didn't even glance at him, as if he were just a patch of air.
Lumian walked out of the hospital room at a leisurely pace, placing himself among the coming and going nurses and patients.
When the man moving his arms was about to bump into him, he naturally sidestepped Lumian, never looking at him.
Lumian stood with his hands in his pockets, watching them as if they were in different worlds.
The nurse pushing the empty treatment cart turned and walked straight towards Lumian.
Just as they were about to collide, the nurse suddenly stopped, opened her mouth, and said one word, "Be…"
Her voice abruptly cut off, and she walked around Lumian with a blank expression.
Behind her was the female patient who had been walking. She also came up to Lumian and began to speak, "Care…"
Be, care? Be careful of what? Lumian's spirits lifted, feeling that this trip hadn't been in vain.
The female patient also only said one word before walking around Lumian. Behind her was another nurse.
Just as that nurse opened her mouth, Lumian suddenly heard a buzzing sound.
The already dimmed lights at the end of the corridor began to flicker, alternating rapidly between bright and dark.
Almost simultaneously, Lumian felt a sense of being rejected by his surroundings, an uncomfortable feeling of being about to be squeezed out.
He saw the nurse in front of him rapidly step backward, the female patient who had just walked around him retreated to his front, then continued backing up.
In this way, the scenes Lumian had previously witnessed and the events he had experienced began to rapidly rewind, as if he had accidentally clicked a corresponding button while watching surveillance footage.
A strong fear suddenly erupted in Lumian's heart, which even the endurance of an Ascetic couldn't suppress.
He felt that if he stayed here any longer, he would encounter something terribly frightening, and might even be directly locked onto by that Celestial Worthy, after which he would no longer have the chance to come to the dream city!
Without hesitation, he activated the black mark on his right shoulder and disappeared from the hospital ward corridor.
Lumian's teleportation destination wasn't the rented apartment in Xinhong District, but the entrance of Star Dream Provisions Store.
At this time, Star Dream Provisions Store was already closed, but not far away was the Dream City Police Department, with quite a few rooms in the corresponding building still lit up.
Lumian calmly examined his own feelings and found that the fear was rapidly receding, and the uncomfortable sense of being rejected by his surroundings was gone.
Is it an anomaly, or rather, a gaze directed at that area? There's no problem once I leave?
Those nurses and patients were being controlled by An Xiaotian in his vegetative state, trying to tell me something, which resulted in triggering an anomaly in the dream?
What he wanted to tell me must be crucial, to have triggered such a dramatic change, not giving him any chance to continue… If Franca were to find Zhou Mingrui at night and try to tell him everything in detail, it would probably be like just now, only getting started before being forcibly rewound or kicked out of the dream…
What exactly was An Xiaotian trying to warn me about… be careful of whom?
There were too many potential subjects to guess, and Lumian couldn't find a train of thought for the moment.
He felt it necessary to "contact" An Xiaotian again, but the prerequisite was to find a way to bypass the restrictions and let him say at least two more words.
If the information An Xiaotian wanted to convey was crucial, Lumian wouldn't be stingy with the number of times he could be kicked out of the dream. Even if future opportunities would be consumed one by one, he was willing to do it.
It's no big deal if I'm completely kicked out; I still have teammates.
As long as we can get the crucial information, sacrificing myself is very worthwhile.
I must have trust in my teammates!
…
Late at night, in Room 2303 in Dechuang Garden.
Franca was awakened by the vibration of her phone.
She picked it up and saw that it was a voice call request from "The Idiot".
Uh… Before Franca could answer, Lumian had already hung up and sent a message instead.
The reason he did this was that messages and voice call records could be deleted using the Information Shredder, while the content of voice calls couldn't and might be monitored.
Glancing at the awakened Jenna, Franca began to read Lumian's message carefully.
As she read, Franca's expression changed.
She lowered her voice and said, "Mr. Huang might be problematic…
"While Zaratulstra has been seemingly trying to contact Zhou Mingrui lately, he's actually using the mirrored Roselle to erode and influence Mr. Huang… That's so damn insidious!"
Jenna leaned over and finished reading Lumian's message.
She also couldn't help but frown. "If Mr. Huang sides with the Celestial Worthy, things will get complicated…"
"It's more than just complicated. With people, money, and influence at their disposal, what can we even do? Should we take Zhou Mingrui to rent a place near the police station, where Mr. Huang can't influence those jobs?" The more Franca thought about it, the more her head ached. "How can we confirm whether Mr. Huang is showing any abnormalities? If he suddenly announces that he's had gender reassignment surgery, does that mean he's been completely controlled by the mirrored Roselle?"
Jenna thought for a moment and then said, "If Mr. Huang is really controlled and can't be saved, we can sacrifice one person to kill Mr. Huang and let Bernie Huang become the CEO of the Intis Group."
"Good idea…" Franca's mouth twitched slightly, "If Mr. Huang is really controlled, it means he's the mirrored Roselle, a Beyonder with an Angel-level Sequence, and moreover, he has Zaratulstra's help and powerful security personnel protecting him. It would be difficult for the four of us to assassinate him together, let alone just one person going to do it…"
At this point, Franca tried to find humor in the grim situation.
"Besides, Bernie Huang has two younger brothers, it's not certain that she would inherit the CEO position…"
As she spoke, Franca suddenly froze.
She and Jenna exchanged glances, their eyes lighting up as they blurted out simultaneously, "Bernie Huang!"
The best candidate to confirm whether Mr. Huang has shown any abnormalities was Bernie Huang!
By solely relying on Franca and Jenna, unless they forcibly infiltrated and secretly observed, it would be a matter of luck whether they could even encounter Mr. Huang, let alone test him.
"How do we contact Bernie Huang and persuade her?" Franca's first reaction was to find Luo Shan and ask if she had Bernie Huang's phone number or WeChat.
As her eyes moved, Franca's smile blossomed, her face full of pride.
"I have an idea!"
"What idea?" Jenna asked expectantly.
Franca cleared her throat and replied, "The one we should be looking for isn't Bernie Huang, but Bernadette.
"We'll write to the Major Arcana card holders tomorrow, asking them to contact Queen Mystic. If Bernadette still has a chance to enter the dream, she will naturally come to handle it. We don't need to persuade her or instigate her.
"The dream world and the real world, online and offline, can be linked!"
Jenna nodded slowly and said, "If Queen Mystic can no longer come in, we'll then consider how to contact and Instigate Bernie Huang."
"We can formulate the plan now." Franca was no longer sleepy.
Jenna thought seriously for a few seconds and said, "This matter is very important. I think we shouldn't wait until tomorrow to write the letter. I'll actively leave the dream now and tell the Major Arcana card holder on duty in the villa about Mr. Huang's problem."
Franca fell into a brief contemplative silence before replying, Franca pondered for a moment and said, "Alright, it's not frequent entry and exit from the dream, just an occasional instance. There shouldn't be any problems, and it won't affect the number of times we can be kicked out of the dream."
Jenna immediately changed her posture to sit up.
In her current situation, she couldn't rely on the dream's rejection to actively leave, so she had to use Cogitation to enter that state of emptying her thoughts, then imagine herself jumping from a high place.
In the sensation of weightless free fall, Jenna suddenly woke up.
She opened her eyes, got out of bed, and confirmed whether she had returned to reality.
Then, she went out the door and down the stairs.
Tonight, the one guarding them in the living room was Madam Justice, wearing a white dress with gold decorations.
"Is there an emergency?" Madam Justice stood up and asked.
Without Jenna needing to emphasize further, she already knew the seriousness of the issue.
Jenna nodded and recounted Lumian's guesses, Franca's intelligence, and Zaratulstra's recent interactions with Huang Tao.
Madam Justice nodded slightly. "We will contact Queen Mystic immediately."
She raised her right hand and quickly sketched a small bird in midair.
The bird was transparent and dreamlike. It chirped a few times, circled around and descended towards Madam Justice, entering her body and disappearing without a trace.
"This is a dream messenger I made. It can travel to specific targets through the collective unconscious sea," Madam Justice briefly explained.
She paused, then continued, "Since you've returned to reality, I'll tell you about An Xiaotian directly.
"At that time, I had already been kicked out of the dream once and started planning to shoot 'The Great Pirate 3'. This was not only because I wanted to present Gehrman Sparrow's experiences to Mr. Fool's dream manifestation, trying to awaken his memories and make him wake up, but also because I was exploring how to realize a sentence Mr. Fool had told us: 'The awakening of The World spells The Fool's return.'"