CHAPTER 323: CHAPTER 201: NEGOTIATION, AWAKENING OF UNIT 2

"Keen sense of smell."

As the words fell, a pitch-black restraint belt extended down from the sky. The Black Cocoon descended upside-down from the top of a billboard, holding a copy of "The Outsider," hovering in front of Lin Yilong.

Lin Yilong stared at his figure and asked unhurriedly, "What do you want to do?"

The Black Cocoon lowered his eyes, leafing through the pages as he spoke:

"I heard about your story from Mr. Ghost Bell, and I deeply sympathize with your plight. At the same time, I have a strong dislike for this man Blue Arc. He is pretentious, foolish, arrogant, and someone should have taught him a lesson to make him see reality long ago."

"Ghost Bell?" Lin Yilong paused, "You’re still in contact with Ghost Bell?"

"That’s right. Although you’ve now become a Mutant and stand in opposition to him, you used to have a good relationship. He speaks highly of you, saying you’re a good kid and shouldn’t ruin your future in pursuit of revenge."

"Nonsense..." Lin Yilong frowned, "Don’t try to fool me with his name. I don’t believe he’d collaborate with a clown like you."

"I heard your battle suit was designed by Mr. Ghost Bell himself," Black Cocoon said. "Don’t you find it peculiar that I know about these things? If he didn’t tell me personally, how else would I know?"

"I am enough on my own; I don’t need any collaborators," Lin Yilong said. "If you try to get in my way, I’ll kill you too."

After the last encounter at the square, Mu Long already understood that Black Cocoon usually used a stand-in to appear in front of others, so even catching him would be pointless.

Black Cocoon suddenly grinned: "That’s not something someone with leverage over them should say. You’re as stubborn as Ghost Bell, truly the good apprentice he brought up."

"I have nothing to do with him anymore."

"Then let’s change the topic. Aren’t you curious about who attacked your brother?"

Lin Yilong’s expression instantly darkened: "You’d best not provoke me. I’m in a really bad mood right now."

"First of all," Black Cocoon said, "Do you know that your brother is actually an Exorcist?"

"Of course I’m aware."

"But he doesn’t know you’re a Superpower User, right?"

Lin Yilong remained silent for a moment: "What does this have to do with you?"

Black Cocoon let out a long sigh: "Exactly. Judging from your village, it seems you both haven’t been honest about your identities. So you’re unaware of what’s happening with each other."

He held up a finger: "I can relate. These family tragedies happen all too often. Clearly, sitting together and being open would solve ninety percent of the problems, yet everyone keeps their own secrets, hiding them from each other."

"Have you finished with your nonsense?"

"While performing a mission for the Exorcist Association, Mr. Lin Zhengquan accidentally provoked someone from a mysterious organization, and those people are targeting his team, planning to wipe them out."

"The woman in the hospital should be a member of his team..." Lin Yilong mused, "I often saw her beside my brother."

"Absolutely right. Her name is ’Ke Qirui,’ and she’s the leader of the Exorcist team ’Ghost Train Corps,’" Black Cocoon said. "And your brother is a member of this team. Currently, they’ve all been targeted, fearing they might not escape this calamity."

"Doesn’t matter... I trust my brother," Lin Yilong shifted his gaze. "He can handle this himself."

"Are you sure?" Black Cocoon pondered, "Alright, that’s fine. Since you think so, let’s not discuss your brother’s situation and let him fend for himself then."

He paused: "But... aren’t you considering cooperating with me? I hold your background, your motive, all your secrets. I can choose to reveal these secrets but chose not to."

Lin Yilong silently stared at him. After a while, he spoke:

"I can cooperate with you, but you’d better not let me find your true form. Watch your tail..."

"Don’t worry..." Black Cocoon said, "No one can find my real body. It’s in the safest place in the world, so safe that even I can’t find it."

"You want to use me."

"Of course, and you can use me too, which is why it’s called ’cooperation.’" Black Cocoon closed the book, "Stop hesitating, Mr. Mu Long. I’m the city’s finest and most well-connected information broker, and every insightful individual would be honored to collaborate with me. You’re the first to be so troublesome. You must know even Ghost Bell agreed to my collaboration request without hesitation."

With that, he shook his head while spreading his hands: "We’re all civilized people; there’s no talk of guns or knives here, right?"

"Hope you won’t regret your choice."

Lin Yilong said in a deep voice, then turned and left without an expression.

Black Cocoon silently watched him leave, then opened the "Social Superstar" character development panel.

Sure enough, a new name was added on it.

[Current progress—Cultivation Task 3: Establish cooperative relationships with a total of 10 Superhuman Species (Current progress: 9/10, Superhumans with established cooperative relationships include: "Gu Qiye," "Su Zimai," "Ke Qirui," "Lin Zhengquan," "Xu Sanyan," "Gu Zhuo Case," "Tong Zizhu," "Urushibara Osamu," "Lin Yilong"].

"So, with just one more collaborator, I can complete the phase cultivation task," Black Cocoon thought, "Number Two and Number Three are simple. There’s no scheming like number one, who just wants to kill, kill, kill, and the other to eat, eat, eat. In comparison... Number One’s difficulty is really abysmal."

He wrapped his body with the restraint belt. His slender figure merged into the air, disappearing without a trace.

"Next, let’s wait for Number Two to wake up and then consider how to address the captain’s suspicions."

.....

.....

Local time is July 27th, 7:30 PM, inside a private hospital in London.

Xia Pingzhou woke up from the hospital bed, looked around, this seemed to be a basement, with no windows, only ventilation vents. Tiles on the ceiling were faintly cracked, with some yellow stains on the surface, appearing aged.

"This should be a basement." he thought, groaning slightly as he got up from the bed, feeling a splitting pain from the wound on his back.

Fortunately, Ji Minghuan had already adjusted "Pain Perception" to one percent, even if his entire back was split open, he would only experience the intensity of being punched.

Xia Pingzhou took a deep breath, turned his head to look at the closed door, then reached for the phone beside his pillow.

When he turned on the phone, a hacker’s message popped up on the screen immediately.

[Hacker: The captain watched the video from the underground bar, wants me to ask you what happened in the Movie World, remember to reply to me when you wake up.]

[Xia Pingzhou: I encountered a few monster children, while dealing with the Ghost Train Corps, I had to avoid their hunting. It seems these kids were targeting that Frenzied Exorcist, and they had the Mythical Level oddity "Great Sage Equal to Heaven" in their hands.]

[Hacker: That’s it?]

[Xia Pingzhou: What else do you want me to say, if it wasn’t for your mistake, I wouldn’t have gotten involved.]

[Hacker: Oh, don’t mention it, I’ve been scolded terribly by the young lady and Jack the Ripper over this, even the old lady in Venice scolded me, how many mothers do you have?]

[Hacker: Usually teasing your female connections, this time it backfired, I’m fucking annoyed to death, deal with them as soon as you wake up.]

[Xia Pingzhou: Let’s not talk now, I need to see where I am first, we’ll talk after I return to the hotel.]

[Hacker: I sent Jack the Ripper to pick you up.]

[Xia Pingzhou: Couldn’t you send the young lady to pick me up?]

[Hacker: The young lady is withdrawn, you probably won’t be able to find her for a while.]

Xia Pingzhou was stunned, then shrugged, silently put down the phone, clicked the gear icon in the bottom right of his vision, bringing up the system panel, and found the taskbar option.

[Main Mission 3 (Phase 2) Completed: Prevent the "Salvation Society" personnel from taking away the "Red Light".]

[This main mission has concluded and will not extend with new phase tasks.]

"Is this main mission over?" Xia Pingzhou thought, "The process was shorter than I expected."

Although unable to feel pain, he was acutely aware of the weakness and fatigue in his body, so he silently lay back on the bed, sliding the panel with his consciousness, and continued to look down.

[Mission Rewards Received: 2 Skill Points, 1 Split Point, 1 Attribute Point.]

[Current Skill Points held by Body No. 2: 3 (Accumulation of skill points is excessive, please use skill points promptly to develop the skill tree and explore body potential)]

"I already have three skill points, saved one last time, just enough to unlock the King’s Authority." Xia Pingzhou thought, he was quite interested in that move "King’s Flash" on the Chess Player skill tree, always feeling it would be a powerful killer move.

[Current Attribute Points held by Body No. 2: 1.]

[Total Split Points you hold: 8 (Creating the next body requires a total of 15 Split Points.)]

"The Split Points are almost enough, the next body needs to be one that can approach Lake Hunting, so I can find a way to guide Lake Hunting people to the Salvation Society base to make them my allies..."

Thinking of this, Xia Pingzhou silently closed a series of system panels, and at this moment his whole body suddenly tensed, then slowly turned his head away from the pillow.

Underneath a flickering light bulb, a schoolgirl in a black and white uniform had somehow already appeared in the basement. She sat quietly on the chair by the bed, her straight black hair falling behind her back.

The light cast her shadow on the old wall, stretching it long, very long.

At this moment, the schoolgirl was looking down, using a small knife to peel the apple in her hand, the bright red apple peel falling down like blood, slowly dropping to the ground.

Only when Xia Pingzhou saw her profile did he let out a sigh of relief.

He asked, "If I faint from being scared by you, do you have to apologize to me?"

"Since you’re awake," Jack the Ripper said expressionlessly, "shouldn’t you explain what happened that day?"

As she spoke, she placed the small knife on Xia Pingzhou’s neck, and the peeled apple was placed on the blade, sliding toward Xia Pingzhou’s mouth along the sharp blade.

Xia Pingzhou remained expressionless and didn’t catch the apple with his mouth, "I only accept the young lady’s feeding."

"Do you want to die?" the schoolgirl said blandly, "I don’t mind sending you on your way."

Xia Pingzhou bit into the apple, then slowly got up from the bed, and said, "Before answering all your questions, I request the young lady to be present."

A flash of the blade fell, the apple in his mouth split in two.