Chapter 307: Too Many...
Translator: Pluto Editor: Vermillion
"That person has been killed!"
That was Lin Sanjiu's first reaction. She suppressed her shock and looked behind her, at Area R. Seeing that no one was coming out, she quickly asked, "Can you detect where the dead body is? Strange… Who is it? What is his or her motivation to kill?"
Naturally, Walter did not know the answer. He could only detect living life forms within a certain area as well as their size.
"Maybe, the murderer had already stuffed the body into the cargo area?" the teenager looked at the stacked cargo on both sides of the corridor but he didn't see any bloodstain he expected to find. After thinking for a while, Walter suggested, "I think it might be a personal grudge."
"Hopefully, that's the reason," Lin Sanjiu said as she activated her higher consciousness scan. Unfortunately, she didn't find anything. "After that person had his revenge, I think he'll stop."
"Yeah, it'll be fine even if it is for his personal agenda…" Walter agreed. When they walked back to Area R, neither of them showed any signs of having that discussion.
When Lin Sanjiu stood at her corner once more, she couldn't help observing everyone again, just like the first time she saw them. The disappearance of the nameless man did not seem to have any effect on the other passengers here. It did not seem to bother the fat man who was constantly scratching himself, AYU who often stood up to stretch her joints, and the brown-haired woman who was just staring at the ceiling. Everyone looked the same as before.
"Nine life forms…" When these three words appeared in her head, a shadow of someone coming close to her interrupted her thoughts.
"How old is he?" The person who spoke sounded like she was full of hot air. Lin Sanjiu let out a long sigh. Out of all the passengers, the person was someone that Lin Sanjiu didn't know how to deal with. The woman had a round face and curly, fine hair which made her look older than her actual age. Even though that woman had already survived two apocalyptic worlds, the rotund figure under her green dress was still very obvious. "I think you're a bit taller than him? And you're older too, right?"
As the woman spoke, she threw a few glances at Walter. Even though she didn't state the obvious, her telltale smile was more than enough to give Lin Sanjiu a headache. She lowered her head and looked at Green Dress coldly. She learned from her experience over the past two days that this was the best method to deal with this woman, "What do you want?"
When Lin Sanjiu was expressionless, her light amber eyes made her look like a white tiger eyeing its prey.
However, the said prey in this situation seemed a little slow.
Green Dress shook her hands and the fats on the back of her hands quivered. "Ah, I'm just asking. Isn't it boring just sitting around? We are both women, so, we can discuss some common topics."
There were only four women (including Lin Sanjiu) among the ten passengers. However, Lin Sanjiu had never seen Green Dress speaking to AYU. Of course, Lin Sanjiu wasn't going to voice her curiosity about the matter anytime soon. She knew that if she asked the woman this question, that woman would just prattle on for a long time without giving a proper answer.
"I don't like to talk," Lin Sanjiu answered curtly.
"Oh my, you don't have to be shy in front of me," the woman continued undeterred and seemed unaware of Lin Sanjiu's disdain. "You were speaking to that young man, Wal-something? Weren't you chatting and whispering to him for a long time? Hey, but I wasn't eavesdropping, I'm not that sort of person…"
Even though the woman's indirect probing of Lin Sanjiu's privacy was very irritating, Lin Sanjiu felt, perhaps intuitively, that Green Dress had nothing to do with the nameless man's murder. Perhaps, the woman had not experienced that many New Worlds, so she still had a gossipy nature and enjoyed gossiping. It was very annoying but it wasn't any sort of big crime to humanity.
"What we discuss is," just when Lin Sanjiu started talking, she noticed the tall, burly man walking over, so she immediately stopped. When the tall, burly man walked past her, he smiled at her as usual—he would always smile around women. After he walked out of Area R, Lin Sanjiu continued, "none of your concern."
From the interactions with Green Dress over the two days, Lin Sanjiu could tell that she wasn't ill-natured, so when Lin Sanjiu spoke again, she gave the woman some sincere advice.
"I don't know how you survived in the past, but in the future New Worlds that you go to, you better control yourself." Lin Sanjiu was being intentionally blunt. As expected, Green Dress's face turned red. "Among all the people that I've met, do you know how many people would just kill you because they find you irritating? It is definitely more than you can imagine. You should count yourself lucky that for me killing humans isn't like killing pigs… However, there are many people who don't recognize this difference."
The woman who actually stood very close to Lin Sanjiu shifted some distance away from her hesitantly. After a while, Lin Sanjiu didn't know what Green Dress mumbled before finally leaving.
Area R remained silent for the next couple of hours. According to the fat man, it was already nighttime. Everyone closed their eyes and tried to sleep for a bit, even though to them, there wasn't any difference between day and night in Area R.
Seeing that the others weren't moving for some time, as if they were all asleep, Walter walked over to Lin Sanjiu's side quietly. Actually, they had the same height but that did not appear the case because Lin Sanjiu was slimmer. Walter's expression looked a little unnatural when he grumbled to her, "She's really annoying."
When Green Dress spoke to Lin Sanjiu before, the volume of her voice wasn't that soft.
Under the dim light, Lin Sanjiu smiled. After a while, she said, "She isn't bad. Besides, her antics benefit us."
"How so?" When Walter turned his head, his dark blonde hair shimmered a little, and it reminded Lin Sanjiu of Silvan's golden hair which glimmered like sun rays.
"As a pair of lovers," she covered her mouth so that only a little of her voice slipped through her fingers, "would look more convincing than two acquaintants speaking… No matter what goal 'that friend' has in mind, I think he would be more mindful and not bother us."
Walter let out a laugh, "You're right. But, let me say this first, I don't agree to any sort of intimate actions between us."
Lin Sanjiu gave him a "you-think-too-much" expression.
As the two of them stood together and chatted softly in a quiet corner, it strengthened Green Dress' impression of them as a couple. When they realized that, they couldn't help laughing.
Before the smiles faded from their faces, they heard someone's quiet footsteps in the corridor.
Walter immediately scrunched his nose as if he had smelled something, "He finally returned! Remind me not to go to the toilet for the next few hours…"
The tall, burly man went out for such a long time that Lin Sanjiu almost thought that he had been murdered, if not for the fact that no one else went out after him.
Just when Lin Sanjiu wanted to say something, she suddenly noticed something was amiss when she cast a cursory glance at the corridor. However, she couldn't specifically point out what made her feel uneasy. When she looked up again, Walter had instantly turned pale because of shock. Lin Sanjiu immediately turned around.
The something that was amiss was the shadow she saw in the corridor.
The height of the owner of that shadow only reached Lin Sanjiu's shoulder. Compared to the tall, burly man that should return, this man was too small.
The nameless man suddenly appeared after missing for eight hours in this sealed airship hold, acting as if nothing had happened. Lin Sanjiu and Walter watched flabbergasted as the man walked into Area R and searched for an empty spot to sleep, minding his own business. After that, Lin Sanjiu opened her mouth hesitantly and whispered.
"Does he have some sort of ability? Or, Special Item which can create another space… So, your ability couldn't detect him?"
Before Lin Sanjiu could finish the last half of her sentence, Walter suddenly ran into the corridor. Lin Sanjiu didn't know what the problem was, she just followed tightly behind Walter.
The door of the toilet at the end of the corridor was open. The shadow of the door swayed slightly with the movements of the airship. The cargo hold at both sides of the corridor was still tightly shut.
"You don't have to go over," Walter reached out and held Lin Sanjiu's arm, "there's no one in the toilet."
When Lin Sanjiu heard when Walter said, she almost couldn't comprehend his words, "No one?"
"There are still nine lifeforms on this airship—"
"Then, what about that tall, burly man?" Lin Sanjiu tilted her head in confusion. She was just about to question Walter if he had made a mistake with his detection ability when he saw his expression suddenly relaxing. He gave a long sigh, "Ahh… It's alright now. I detect ten living life forms again."
"Maybe, it's just like you suggested. That man probably has a space to hide himself or something like that," Walter wiped his face. When his hand was by his side again, he had a relieved smile on his face, "Look, we made ourselves so paranoid this whole time!"
After heaving a sigh of relief, Lin Sanjiu didn't know whether to laugh or cry at their reaction. She agreed that they were being overly paranoid. "Alright, it's okay now. You should go back and rest now. Next time, I wouldn't care even if someone makes a hole and jump out of this airship…"
However, when they reached the entrance of Area R, she stopped. She didn't hear a set of footsteps following her. For a moment, she nearly thought that Walter had disappeared. Thankfully, when she turned around, Walter was still standing in the same spot.
His face was white as if he had been so stunned that he didn't know what to do. He was muttering. Lin Sanjiu only heard what he said when she walked closer.
"12, 13, 14, 15…"
They were more than ten thousand meters above the ground, in a sealed airship.