Chapter 35 Why is there a secret sect interfering?
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Lin Ruo was a little dumbfounded.
He was truly dumbfounded because just now, he had killed the person who had replaced Lia, who was inexplicably full of murderous intent towards him, and had arranged a ritual to communicate with her corpse.
The spirit communication process didn't have any accidents.
After successfully communicating with the remaining spirit of "Lia", Lin Ruo first sought the whereabouts of Lia herself.
The result didn't surprise him.
Lia had indeed been brutally murdered by this person who replaced her, and her body was abandoned in the East Borough.
He didn't even know if he could find it now.
Although Lin Ruo had expected this, he still felt a little sentimental.
Next, he naturally wanted to know the information of this imposter herself.
Then, using dream divination to obtain information, Lin Ruo saw a strange girl kneeling on the ground in a dim hall, devoutly praying.
In front of her was a huge and magnificent statue.
Lin Ruo couldn't help but look at the statue, only to see that it depicted a blind man covered in countless scars, with no ears.
Lin Ruo was stunned for a moment.
In an instant, he remembered something.
Wait, Colonel?!
An old deaf-blind man covered in countless scars?!
A believer as sharp as a weapon!!
Oh my god! The Flashing Blade Church? Cultist Simulator?!
Just as Lin Ruo associated it with a possibility that made him stunned, the dream suddenly shattered, and with it, the remaining spirit of "Lia".
Lin Ruo immediately felt a sharp pain in his head.
He opened his eyes and looked at the quiet corpse in front of him, which had already dissipated even the last trace of its spirit, and couldn't help but feel a toothache.
Because he was sure that the sudden failure of the spirit communication and the complete dissipation of the other party's spirit were definitely not normal.
Some force interfered with him.
At this moment, "Lia's" face, which had previously shown no flaws, suddenly blurred, and then her entire figure changed, from the brown-haired Lia to the girl Lin Ruo had just seen in the dream.
At the same time, something fell from her face.
Not only that, Lin Ruo also saw a faint light emanating from a scar-like patch of skin on the other party's neck, and then a bone-white, crescent-shaped object appeared in that place.
Lin Ruo stared at these two suspicious things for a second, and finally picked them up.
But before he could search the girl's body for other items, Lin Ruo's spiritual intuition suddenly gave him a warning.
Lin Ruo looked up and glanced outside, only to see members of the Punisher Squad running towards them at the end of the street.
After weighing the pros and cons of revealing his identity as a favored of the goddess to the Punishers and reasoning with them versus strategically retreating in a concealed state, Lin Ruo stood up and injected spirituality into the Concealment Badge, and entered a concealed state.
Although he wasn't afraid of revealing his identity, Lin Ruo didn't plan to deal with the old pigeons as a favored of the goddess for the time being, unless necessary.
Moreover, his spiritual intuition also told him that there probably weren't any other clues on the girl's body.
After taking one last look at the Punisher old pigeons who had, in a sense, once again "pigeoned" him, Lin Ruo, who had entered a concealed state, then left the cafe.
However, Lin Ruo didn't rush home, but walked towards the East Borough.
He was going to find Lia's abandoned body.
… …
Around dusk, Lin Ruo's detective agency—
"Detective Ross, she's gone! She's gone!"
Almost rushing into the detective agency, Cati immediately and impatiently said to Lin Ruo, "What should I do now?"
His expression was anxious and worried, yet faintly relieved.
This wasn't strange.
The anxiety and worry were because irimei Cati was worried that after "Lia" disappeared, he wouldn't be able to find the whereabouts of his real girlfriend.
The relief was because a threat had finally left.
"Calm down, Mr. irimei Cati!"
Lin Ruo glanced at him and understood that the Punishers must have blocked the relevant news about the matter this afternoon, which wasn't surprising.
It was standard operation for official Beyonders.
He was even more aware that, according to convention, the Punishers would definitely investigate matters related to "Lia" next, and the first to be investigated would undoubtedly be irimei Cati, this Lia's boyfriend.
And in this case, if Lin Ruo didn't do anything, he would obviously easily become the subject of investigation, and then be exposed in the Punishers' field of vision, and thus have to reveal his identity as a favored of the goddess, linking this identity with his identity in Tingen.
So Lin Ruo poured irimei Cati a cup of coffee and said in a sighing tone, "Mr. irimei Cati, I already know about this matter, and I am very sorry about it."
"I will still continue to investigate the whereabouts of the real Miss Lia, but now that the person impersonating Lia has disappeared, important clues can be said to have been directly cut off… You have to be mentally prepared."
Lin Ruo naturally wouldn't be foolish enough to tell irimei Cati that he already knew about Miss Lia's remains and had properly arranged for them, and that in two days he would anonymously notify Lia's parents to come and retrieve their daughter's remains.
But he didn't intend to directly give up irimei Cati's commission either.
After all, as a normal detective, it would be normal to investigate a little more in this situation.
He planned to appear in this matter as a normal detective, trying not to attract the attention of the Punishers at all—anyway, if low-sequence Beyonders in this world don't reveal abnormalities themselves, it's difficult for others to see it.
I knew I shouldn't have created an image before, now I have to clean up my own mess… Thinking of this, Lin Ruo couldn't help but complain in his heart.
"I understand!"
irimei Cati suddenly looked a little lost.
Seeing this, Lin Ruo comforted him a few words, and then found an excuse to go to the washroom.
When he came out, he had already simulated the abilities of the Spectator pathway, and used hypnosis to make irimei Cati forget that he had been calmed down with just a word this morning.
He chatted with the other party for a few more words, and then sent the other party out the door.
Closing the door of the agency, Lin Ruo, who had ended the simulation of the Spectator pathway abilities, lazily stretched, and then took out a metal box from his arms.
Opening the box, inside were the things Lin Ruo had obtained from "Lia" before.
"What exactly are these guys…"
Muttering with some doubt, Lin Ruo pinched one of them, and the feeling of being born in the grass couldn't help but float in his heart again.
After divining these two things, he already knew what they were—not Beyonder characteristics, not Beyonder items, but [Influences].
A third-level Moth Influence, and a second-level Blade Influence.
Things that should never be in the world of Mysteries, but belong to a game Lin Ruo once played—Cultist Simulator.
In the Cthulhu game Cultist Simulator, Influence is a very important element.
General Influences such as Tranquility, Dread, Rapture, etc., and Legendary Influences with special attributes, can be said to run through the entire game.
With the Literary Wild World and the Mysterious World ahead, Lin Ruo wasn't surprised that the various things from Cultist Simulator appeared in reality.
What he was more puzzled about was why people from the Cult would appear in the Lord of Mysteries World.
Could it be that this is actually a world where Mysteries and the Cult are fused?
No, impossible.
Whether from the original owner's memory or from the information he had collected during this period, the information of the Hours and the Eight Roads had never appeared in this world.
Although it is also possible that their understanding of the Beyonder field is insufficient…
And there is also one point, why did that Blade Believer suddenly attack him…
Lin Ruo narrowed his eyes and finally made a decision.
He was going to visit the Saint Samuel Cathedral of the Evernight Goddess in Backlund as a favored of the goddess, and inquire about information related to the Cult.
If they don't know either, then this matter will be a big deal.
A/N:
The Eight Roads here are the Eight Principles (I didn't count the Secret History), which is a private setting.
In addition, some things, including Influences, that will be written next also have private settings.
After all, it is impossible to directly use the original settings when a game is transformed into a real world.
The protagonist directly says the Eight Roads is actually because there are some problems with his memory itself, but he himself is not aware of it.
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