Chapter 208: That's Not My Sister!!
Translator: Pluto Editor: Vermillion
"Wait. Let me make sense of things…" Mrs. Manas' slightly frantic voice buzzed. Following which, a few lines appeared on the blackboard of Lin Sanjiu's [School of Higher Consciousness] with a scratching sound. That was the first time the blackboard had been used in this manner since it was created.
The few lines showed a simplified drawing of a building. The crude drawing was basically of two horizontal lines with multiple vertical lines in between. Each cell was labeled with a number indicating the floors. However, when Lin Sanjiu and Mrs. Manas were trying to place the numbers representing each floor, they found themselves in quite a conundrum.
"There are a total of 30 floors according to the buttons in the elevator. Logically, that would be 1 to 30. But…" The white words on the board stopped appearing for a moment, "When did the numbers get jumbled up?"
Lin Sanjiu gave a wry smile inwardly.
When she saw a second pair of 'siblings on the 15th floor', she immediately stopped herself from flying forward. Before the siblings saw her, she left in the opposite direction. Which pair of siblings was the real deal? Where was the real 15th floor? She was completed baffled.
At the start, Lin Sanjiu remembered an experiment she had heard about before the apocalypse. Using a unique slope for the stairway, the person climbing up the stairs would have an illusion they were climbing up an unending staircase. If someone designed the stairway in that manner from 15th floor onward, it was possible that when Lin Sanjiu walked downward, she was actually flying upward. Thus, returning to the same 15th floor. However, she quickly dismissed that illogical explanation.
She turned back and flew back to the original 15th floor—where Rena was hit by Reno's almanac page. Though the siblings on this floor were also playing cards, they were in the apartment unit and not in the corridor. This scene showed that there was clearly a problem but Lin Sanjiu didn't want to accept this. Afraid that this was one of Reno's prank, she purposely broke the glass of the fire hydrant cabinet in the corridor of that floor to mark that location before flying out.
She flew out of the window so that she was outside the building. She flew two floors down and rushed in again. Lin Sanjiu found herself speechless.
After using three ways to distinguish her previous location, she saw the same '15' on the wall. There was also a similar pair of siblings playing cards. However, the glass of the fire hydrant cabinet was not broken here. That indicated that there were really two 15th floors and two pairs of siblings.
Lin Sanjiu also tried to fly up from the ground floor, counting 15 floors. This was supposed to be a surefire way of reaching the real 15th floor. Unfortunately, she discovered after trying twice that the 15th floor was a little different each time she entered the building.
Furthermore, these two 15th floors were accompanied by a segment of corresponding 16, 17th floors or 13, 14th floors. Lin Sanjiu couldn't even identify the real 15th floor, much less distinguish between the set of siblings who looked exactly the same.
"In any case, the Reno here isn't the real thing, right? He doesn't have a mark." Mrs. Manas was so absorbed in this situation that she had forgotten. Lin Sanjiu was worried but Mrs. Manas seemed to be just a popcorn audience, "You're lucky that you are in your higher consciousness form. No matter what sort of ghost haunting this is, they can't hurt you."
Apparently, Mrs. Manas had already set up her mind that her role as a nurturer only applied to Lin Sanjiu alone.
"You're right," Lin Sanjiu didn't want to respond to the second-half of what the teacher said, "I saw with my own eyes that the Reno with the mark used his almanac ability. He shouldn't be an imposter." Even though Lin Sanjiu could not confirm Rena's identity, she was glad that at least she knew who the real Reno was. Considering that this thing in front of her had seen her dead body and was nearly in the position to misuse it, Lin Sanjiu couldn't help feeling some lingering fear. However, she couldn't exactly attack immediately even though she already recognized that it was an imposter.
If the Rena beside him was real, she would still think the imposter was her brother. Thus, she wouldn't allow Lin Sanjiu to attack her brother for no reason. If that Rena was an imposter, it would protect its companion. That is to say, Lin Sanjiu had to attack the Reno (with no mark on his wrist) while Rena was not around. Otherwise, she had to confirm the identity of this Rena before she made any plans.
"Regardless, I have to act normal…" Lin Sanjiu floated into the corridor, acting nonchalant.
Rena, who was frowning as she held a card, immediately lit up when she saw Lin Sanjiu. "This Lin Sanjiu is back!" she chuckled. When the 'Reno' turned to look at Lin Sanjiu, the girl secretly swapped the card in her hand.
"If she does that, she should be the real deal?" Lin Sanjiu thought to herself with some uncertainty.
"Why did you disappear all of a sudden?" After this 'Reno' looked at her with the same cheerful, composed attitude, he even yawned a few times, lazily. He grumbled, "Isn't it just fine that the 'curse' is over? Why did you force me to play cards with you…"
Lin Sanjiu hesitated, thinking, "Did the events play out differently on this floor?"
Before Lin Sanjiu, who was now beside the siblings, could think further, Rena asked, "Where did you go just now?"
Giving it some thought, Lin Sanjiu replied with a simple: "Took a walk".
No matter what those imposters were, they probably couldn't affect or harm her. Lin Sanjiu decided to use this advantage.
"You're bored too?" Rena threw a sidelong glance at 'Reno', "I don't know what that coward is afraid of. He probably felt a cold breeze and started being paranoid… Look, we've stayed here for almost a night, yet nothing happened. I am so bored."
"Well, something did happen but you're unaware," Mrs. Manas mumbled from Lin Sanjiu's mind. Oddly, Reno did not retaliate after hearing what Rena said. Instead, he gave Lin Sanjiu an odd look. Before this whole shenanigans, the siblings would have argued there and then… The more Reno was able to hold back his temper, the more suspicious he seemed.
Seeing that he did not respond, Rena seemed a little embarrassed by her actions. She mumbled something before the teenage boy asked, "Did you drop an ear stud?"
Rena suddenly froze. Lin Sanjiu was also stunned. Rena wore too many little accessories. If she took them all off, she could probably decorate a Christmas tree with them. It was quite extraordinary that Reno would actually notice that detail.
"If he could point that out, is he the real Reno?"
"The shiny one made of rhinestones that looks a little like a pink starfish… Didn't you like that pair of earrings very much?" Reno crooked his head and looked at the girl's left ear. Actually, there were already many other crystal earrings on Rena's left ear, and it was hard to differentiate between them. If the girl did lose an earring, Lin Sanjiu wouldn't even notice.
"Oh, yes!" Rena touched her ear and jumped up, "I must have dropped it that time when removing or wearing my accessories back again!"
"It might be under the bed," Reno said casually while he looked at his cards with a seemingly disinterested expression. "You don't mind losing it?"
"Pui! How dare you say that when it's all your fault," Rena stood up and complained. She turned around and opened the door of the renovated apartment unit before entering to look for her earrings. When she walked past Lin Sanjiu, Lin Sanjiu noticed that the white socks that the girl was wearing were clean, through the image created by her higher consciousness. There wasn't a streak of dirt.
She intuitively sensed that something was wrong. If she thought carefully, the events that happened in between must be different. The Rena with the dirtied sock was upstairs. Whereas, this Rena had never searched for anyone climbing through the stairways.
" It doesn't help if I know this…" Lin Sanjiu thought. Just as Rena stepped into the other apartment, Reno rushed forward.
"Is he going to attack now?" Lin Sanjiu was alarmed and quickly backed away. It was only at that moment that she realized that he wasn't going to attack her. Instead, he was showing her a strip of paper on his hand.
"That's not my sister!!" were the words that the teenager scribbled on the piece of paper. The exclamation marks were bolded and emphasized. It was quite shocking.