"It's you?"
Seeing the flame text that suddenly appeared in front of the mirror, Ed's brief fragile expression disappeared instantly, and he returned to his calm face during the day and whispered.
[Shh, no need to say anything, I know what you want to say. I'm just here to tell you that the red-haired young man's abilities are perfect for us, and he's an excellent target if you want to get a character card. 】
His ability...the ability to control that mechanical spider? You don't want me to attack him, do you?
Even if he did attack Arthur, the opponent was obviously better than him in skill and had a gun in his hand, not to mention that mysterious special ability, so he had no chance of winning.
Even if he manages to kill the opponent in a sneak attack, he will definitely be targeted by the entire Divine Bureau. This is undoubtedly suicide.
[Of course I don’t mean this, single out an extraordinary person? You think too highly of yourself. What you need to do is steal his dreams and use his power for your own use. 】
Stealing dreams? Ed raised his eyebrows in confusion. This sounds like a fairy tale, do I have to steal his baby teeth hidden under the pillow and leave him some change?
[A very small number of extraordinary people have the ability to connect to other people's subconscious minds to collect information or leave psychological hints. Occultism calls this type of extraordinary people "dream peepers". 】
Is there any way you can make me a dream peeper?
[No, becoming a dream peeper requires extremely high mental talent and extensive and complex subconscious training. Low-level dream peepers often have to rely on external factors to sneak into other people's dreams, such as hypnotizing the target or using special incense to create a dream. path. But I have other ways to achieve the same effect. 】
any solution?
[Use the secret keeper program. As long as you have access to the one-eyed spider, I can implant a special virus called "Parasite Seed" into the core. Arthur will be infected when his consciousness controls the one-eyed spider - don't worry, this won't happen. Any damage done to him will only return his "dream coordinates" to you. 】
Probably got it. Is it dangerous for me to enter Arthur's dream?
[Yes, his subconscious will try to protect the dream from outsiders, like a firewall between two houses. In dreams, the subconscious mind of the dominant person has extremely high authority and power. Once you are targeted by it, it will be very dangerous. 】
Are there any other options?
[Theoretically, you can still survive for fifty hours, unless you can find an equally suitable candidate during this period. 】
Isn’t it 72 hours? Only half a day passed. The black-haired boy in the mirror showed a look of astonishment.
[The timer has started since you fell into coma. 】
"Well, it looks like I have no other choice."
Ed exhaled and straightened the brown tie on his chest. In a short period of time, he had no chance to bypass Arthur and contact more people, so he had to do this.
[Get Arthur's trust as much as possible, so that his subconscious will not be too aggressive towards you, and it will be easier to obtain his personal data. 】
The flame text in the mirror burned out and disappeared without a trace, as if it had never appeared.
…
Hearing the sound of the door opening, Arthur raised his head from the office chair and looked sideways, only to see the black-haired boy named Ed walking slowly downstairs against the armrest. This suit of clothes looks ordinary, and the reflection is as dim as dust, but it suits him particularly well.
"I hope you're reasonably well dressed."
Arthur squeezed out a smile and nodded in greeting, then turned his gaze back to the documents and photos on the table. He wanted to get the paperwork done as quickly as possible before the other two agents came back, so that he could have more time to work on the case.
"Of course. By the way, sir, when I was just changing my clothes, I suddenly recalled a small detail about the case."
"You say."
"It was dark in the control room at the time, and the person who shot me seemed to be able to see clearly in the dark. I swung at him with my cane, but he was easily dodged."
"Extraordinary?"
Arthur narrowed his eyes. This was an important clue and confirmed some of the existing evidence.
"What do you mean by 'Extraordinary'?" Ed seemed a little confused.
Arthur thought he might as well speak more thoroughly. The existence of extraordinary people is not a secret, not to mention that the people in front of you are likely to be together for a long time:
"A small number of people with superpower potential will produce special gem crystals in the pineal gland of the brain through conditions such as drugs or rituals - called 'birthstones' in ancient times and 'personality crystals' in modern times. It's up to you. You can call it anything. The type and quality of the crystal will change the physical functions of the host body, as well as the affinity and effect of the 'Secret Text'."
"Secret text...?"
"As for what the secret text is, the occult community is still unable to give a unique explanation. What is certain is that it is a pictographic mark containing mysterious energy. You can simply understand it as 'magic'."
"...Take me personally as an example. My birthstone is a crystal called 'tourmaline', which has good adaptability to the 'Puppet' secret text. Its characteristics are 'belonging and manipulation', that is, the power to control other creations. This is why I can control this 'One-Eyed Spider' with my mind."
He took out a metal disc from his waist. The diamond-shaped base stretched and popped out, then extended and turned over. Eight claws stretched out from the base and transformed into the shape of a spider in the palm of his hand.
"May I take a look at it?"
"certainly."
What Arthur handed to Ed was the mechanical creation he was most proficient in controlling - the LD841 land-based reconnaissance drone 'One-Eyed Spider'.
As one of the classic early scientific research products of the Royal Society, the one-eyed spider is famous for its simple and reliable operation and covert and fast detection capabilities. Its main purpose is to search for enemy unit information in complex environments, thereby reducing combatant casualties.
"It's incredible... How does its power system maintain operation? Mechanical clockwork? Or a small steam engine... No, a steam engine cannot be so small."
Since joining the Bureau, this is the first time Arthur has seen someone ask such a professional question:
"The one-eyed spider has a small mass. It can connect to the controller's personality crystal through the resonance crystal, thereby directly obtaining power."
"Can you control it remotely? Or does it have to be through contact to establish the connection?"
"As long as it is within the range of my perception, I can sense its location and control it at any time." As he said that, Arthur outlined the pattern of the "Puppet" secret text in his mind, and his consciousness penetrated into the one-eyed spider.
The world was coated with a layer of colorful zinc yellow. It was an indescribable and strange experience, as if I was observing with the eyes of a fish, blurry and weird.
Suddenly, a strange tingling sensation flashed through his mind, like being stung by some kind of weak soft-bodied insect, or like tiny sparks from a circuit, which made him feel an uneasy palpitation.
Is it an illusion?
Arthur didn't pay too much attention to it. Such discomfort was common for students of the "Puppet" secret text. Even after becoming a Beyonder for nearly a year, he still wasn't used to the feeling of walking on eight legs.
"Here, it's like this." Arthur controlled the one-eyed spider and crawled along Ed's arm back into his palm.
At the same time, in Ed's field of vision, a line of pale white flame text also flashed:
["Parasite Seed" has been uploaded to the target personality crystal. 】
Done! He suppressed his inner surprise, not expecting that the first step would go so smoothly.
Although Ed wanted to end the conversation now, he didn't want to appear too hasty and arouse the other party's suspicion.
I also need to gain Arthur's trust as much as possible to reduce Arthur's subconscious aggression towards me.
How can you make the other person trust you more? Of course, we actively cooperate with the case investigation.
"By the way, Arthur, I hope to review all the known information about the 'Subway Massacre' case, maybe it can help me recall more details."
"Of course, no problem. Please sit down."
Arthur reached out and brought over a mahogany chair with leather cushions, and the two sat opposite each other in front of the fan-shaped table.
"Based on the information available so far, the pneumatic subway stopped operating at the multiplexer at around 9pm."
The pocket watch in the dream pointed to a quarter past nine, and the time was right. Ed nodded and waited for Arthur to continue.
"Around 22:30, the Doyle Underground Railway Company discovered a problem and sent maintenance personnel and contacted the police at the same time. The Divine Bureau entered the building at about 23:15 and cleared out the remaining ghouls inside."
"...It is still unclear from what channel they entered the pneumatic subway. Some agents believe that they were dug in from a secret tunnel. There are many network tunnels composed of ancient elves' underground ruins in the city - people usually Call it a 'rat trail.' But no burrows were found at the site."
"Is it possible that the ghouls entered the tunnel from the ground entrance?" Ed asked.
Arthur did not answer immediately. His forehead was slightly lowered, his eyes were looking at the pen on the table, and after a moment he pondered:
"I'm afraid this is unlikely. There are only two ways to enter the underground tunnel: the subway station stairs and the maintenance passage. These stairs are connected to the main buildings on the ground and are easily noticed..."
"In most cases, ghouls will only go out in the countryside at night, stealing corpses and livestock, and rarely attack dense crowds - because this will lead to large-scale cleanup operations by the government, which is not worth the gain."
"You mean, someone planned this massacre?" Ed thought of the mysterious man who shot him. "Have you investigated the controller? Is he still alive?"
He had not seen a photo of a corpse in a controller's uniform on the cork board at the police station. The only person most likely to appear in the control room that night was the controller, so there must be serious suspicions.
"He's dead," Arthur shook his head, frowning, as if recalling something painful: "But he didn't die at the scene."
"What?"
"This is another major suspicion: we did not find his body on the subway that night, which really aroused our suspicion. When our detectives broke into his apartment, they found that all five members of the family had hanged themselves."
"The old man, his wife, his two children, and himself. Staggering, hanging one meter above the ground, his tongue was blue."
"...Based on the time of death, it is inferred that he returned home around the time of the 'subway massacre'."
