World Occult Usage Guide

Chapter 32 Cultural Thieves
"I can no longer control myself from leaving you."

"Then don't."

The television was playing a scene from "City of Dawn" where the male and female leads were gazing lovingly at each other. Lin An moved a chair and sat down next to April's bed. Mike put the plastic bag he was carrying on the table and rummaged through it.

Lin An could see it much more clearly now than the aiming interface that was swaying in the pool.

April's skin had taken on an unnatural pale blue hue, and snow-white had replaced her hair's original dark brown color. Her flesh and blood had vanished below her philtrum, leaving her emaciated and resembling a skeleton.

Her eye sockets were completely black, making it impossible to distinguish the boundary between the whites of her eyes and her irises.

Upon closer inspection, Lin An noticed that April's figure appeared somewhat unreal, as if a gust of wind could blow her away. He brought up the system panel, which showed that the pollution level had increased by 1.5% to 37.2%.

Overall, the situation is okay, but unfortunately the foundation has no way to reduce the numbers.

According to the story of Lana Rona, as April's pollution level increases, she becomes more and more transparent, eventually becoming the ghost of the real Weeping Woman.

Continuing like this is undoubtedly a slow death.

April has a power related to her voice. In order to suppress the level of pollution, the foundation strictly ordered her not to speak, so she signaled to Lin An to open social media.

April: Lin, I'm so happy you came to see me! They recently cut off my signal, so I can only text people connected to the facility's internal Wi-Fi! I wonder how things are at university. There are so many Winterfest parties, but I can't go. I'm so sad, sob sob.

Lin An chuckled to himself.

True to his optimistic nature, his only worry after being controlled was not being able to attend the party.

“I’m so glad to see you safe and sound,” he said. “By the way, what’s the explanation for this facility regarding what happened that day?”

"They say that starting a year ago, a superbug has been spreading throughout the United States. Once infected, the body will develop lesions and gain superpowers. Some people have weaker immune systems, so the mutation happens faster than they gain superpowers, while others experience the opposite."

Mike took out a bunch of bananas and a few apples from the plastic bag.

"What would you like to eat?"

"Give me an apple," Lin An said.

The St. Anilof Foundation has five levels of authority, from lowest to highest: white, yellow, orange, red, and black.

Mike was a newcomer to the field department with only a white clearance level. The Foundation gave him some fabricated information, explaining the "Comerth" radiation from a biochemical perspective.

This explanation is also the foundation's unified line of communication when it has no other choice.

April sent another message.

April: I hope this institution can cure my illness and let me be discharged from the hospital as soon as possible, preferably before Easter next year, when Doris is going to hold a big party!

April: They only gave me the chance to let my family know I was safe, but forbade me from contacting anyone else. Ugh, Doris's party was so lively, and I ruined it! And now I'm nowhere to be found; she must be so worried.

April: Lin, have you contacted Doris? Please apologize for me~
Lin An took the apple from Mike, and the events that happened at the pool that day flashed through his mind.

After a few casual words, he got straight to the point.

“Apple, our last conversation was a bit rushed. Which translation software did you use to translate that Aztec mythology so terribly?”

April: I already said I didn't use any translation software! A friend who's also in the art college helped me with the translation.

"Who?"

This is such a rip-off.

April: Kim Ji-eun. His schedule is similar to mine, and we often attend classes together. You're both from China, so I got them mixed up.

Chinese students studying abroad?
Lin An recalled that he had never added this person to his Green Bubble account.

April: He is as learned as you, Lin. His country was very remarkable in history, I think it was called 'Goguryeo' or something like that. The land north of the Yangtze River was their territory. They invented the lunar calendar, opened up the Silk Road, and thus laid the foundation for the culture of Central Asia.

April: He also taught me a lot about clothing and culture~
April: Wait a minute, I suddenly remembered, he's not from the Dragon Kingdom... But isn't the largest country in Central Continent the Dragon Kingdom?

Lin An said calmly, "Understood, little Xiba."

April: Little Xiba?
"People of the Hibiscus Flower Country".

April: Where is the Hibiscus Country?

"..."

It seems that despite Kim Ji-eun's tireless efforts in propagating this false history, April had no idea where he was from.

It's just that April wasn't interested in geography. During her three years at school, Kim Ji-eun brazenly plagiarized countless Chinese traditions and convinced many foreigners to believe them.

These cultural thieves...

"The Aztec mythology comes from the Lower East Asia. How did you come up with the idea of ​​asking him to translate it?" Lin An asked.

April: Of all the people I know, besides you, he's the best at explaining these stories and legends. Lin, you don't attend parties, so you wouldn't know he's quite famous in our circle!
"Really?"

April: He's like a Chinese version of a 'prophet.' Many girls specifically seek him out to interpret their prophecies and—well, divination? I met him through a 'palm reading' session. April: Jin knows two kinds of prophecy: one is palmistry, which involves observing a person's palm and finger lines to predict their fortune; the other is physiognomy, which involves observing a person's facial features to make predictions.

April: He's incredibly accurate! Even better than a professional tarot reader—ah, I remember now! He calls himself a 'fortune teller'!
"Alright, stop talking." Lin An's hand trembled, and he peeled the apple.

April: Huh, why?
"Hehe, have an apple." Lin An handed her an apple slice to prevent her from hearing any more of Xiao Xi's fancy tricks.

April: It's shaped like a little rabbit!
"The rabbit, as a prolific animal, symbolizes the revival of spring and the birth of new life. It is the pet of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, the guide of Horta, the Germanic goddess of the earth, and the messenger of Easter. April, you will surely be well before April."

April crushed it with a special instrument from the Foundation and threw it into her empty mouth, where it fell directly down her esophagus.

April: Lin, you must come to our parties more often in the future, they are really fun.

"I will try my best."

Noticing Lin An's low spirits, April looked at Mike with suspicion, who coughed and said, "You keep nagging about Kim Ji-eun's messy affairs, which annoyed Lin."

April's eyes widened.

"Don't you remember that time when you said to that West Asian exchange student, 'Isn't pizza a specialty of Havel?' and he cursed at you in Neapolitan for an hour? I haven't read Middle-earth history, but this guy Kim Ji-eun is probably using the Chinese flag to confuse cultural origins everywhere."

April suddenly realized what was happening and quickly explained.

April: I'm sorry, Lin, I really thought you were from the same country.

April: Because Kim Ji-eun goes to work in Chinatown every weekend.

April: That's a place where people from China gather, so I naturally assumed he was from China.

Chinatown?
According to April's information, Xiao Xi is almost certainly a mystic.

Whether he was the mastermind behind April's awakening remains unknown, but he must have been exposed to "Comers's" radiation.

And they obtained the "prophet" medium.

Without the blessing of mysterious energy, Kim Ji-eun's "fortune telling" could not have such an amazing accuracy rate, making her so popular throughout the school.

Speaking of Chinatown, Lin An couldn't help but recall a strange incident that his senior had been talking about for more than three months.

[Mysterious Disappearance Case in Downtown]

It's called the city center, but it's actually a section near Chinatown, where seven or eight people have reportedly gone missing.

Nearly three months have passed since the initial disappearance, and whether it's due to local authorities intentionally preventing the news from spreading, Lin An has rarely seen mainstream media reports, and the matter has gradually faded from public view.

It's as if it shouldn't exist.

If Lin An's guess is correct, the St. Anilov Foundation is the one that has blocked the case, because the perpetrator is a mysterious figure, possibly a follower of a witch, which is very troublesome.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to commit crimes repeatedly and remain at large.

As a mysterious figure who resides in Chinatown, does Kim Ji-eun know something inside?
After getting Little West's contact information from April, the three chatted for a while longer. The lines from "City of Dawn" kept popping up, making it impossible to hear anything else. Mike finally couldn't take it anymore.

"I turned off the TV."

To prevent April from freely changing channels, the foundation's televisions employ a special control method, requiring access to a black card to operate.

Mike got up to leave. April and Lin An exchanged a glance and suddenly fell silent. The latter took a deep breath and asked hesitantly.

"At that party, before your 'virus' broke out... can you tell me what you went through, April?"

April tilted her head; her eyes, dulled by pollution, resembled an eternal night, making it impossible to discern her emotions.

After a while, she started typing.

“A pair of hands pushed me off the edge of the pool.”

"Did you see his face clearly?"

April shook her head. "Let it go. Mike is right... I was too presumptuous to take on the responsibility of raising a child."

A gentle breeze ruffled her white hair, her thin jawline snapped shut, and her once round cheeks were replaced by sharp angles.

"Since the Aztecs believed that blood should be offered to the gods, then the blood that stained the pool that night was an offering from my soul, a farewell to my former fanaticism. New flowers, songs, and parties await me."

The two maintained a tacit silence until Mike returned after changing the permissions and continued with trivial topics.

As night fell, Lin An left the ward on the first floor.

Gazing at the starry sky, he took a deep breath of the winter air, calmed his thoughts, and tapped a shortcut on his phone.

The screen redirects to a page with a black background.

twelve_reganr: Outperforming Tarot and Astrology in Accuracy?! [Image] This is what a Chinese person told me…

April's story involves censorship... so please bear with it TT
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(End of this chapter)