The weapon refiner is not doing her job properly

Chapter 36: One Starry Street (2)

In the photo, a family of three faces the camera. The yellowed family portrait flickers in the flashlight's light. The man's smile is as gentle as water under his gold-rimmed glasses. The child, about three years old, is held in the young woman's arms, smiling brightly.

A cozy home, it really looks like that.

"What's so strange about this?" Xiaoliu's flashlight kept shining on the photo.

Su Ninglong's fingertips stroked the edge of the photo frame, and suddenly she noticed that the drooping eyelashes of the young woman and the child cast two moving shadows under the glass, and the reflection of the lens that only living people have flashed deep in the irises.

Looking closely, they still remain the same, probably due to light reflection.

Su Ninglong put it down and turned around. The photo had changed. The smiling child's expression became dull.

Seeing that she had been looking at it for half a minute, he thought Su Ninglong had made some new discovery, so he also leaned over to take a look, holding up the photo, zooming it in, then moving it farther away, and flipping it back and forth.

Finally, he gently put it down. Xiaoliu was quite self-aware of his own thinking ability and asked her shamelessly, "What did you find out?"

"I didn't notice..." Su Ninglong wanted to go to the desk, but she didn't have a flashlight. After a slight delay, she really found something wrong.

As she looked carefully, the family in the photo was still smiling.

When I glanced at it inadvertently, the character's expression changed.

Xiao Liu's hands trembled, and he stammered, "Then... is the person in the photo moving?"

"If you want to verify it, just look in the mirror."

Then Xiaoliu saw Su Ninglong calmly take out a mirror and point it at the photo.

He also had a mirror, but he had never thought of using it. Because in the secret spirit territory, mirrors were particularly useless. When cognition was already confused, they were just decorations, and everything looked normal.

It is used when cognition has not yet gone wrong. Often, pollution has not yet begun and everything still seems normal.

Since everything looks normal, why would you use it? In fact, it is still very useful in certain situations.

Su Ninglong was glad that he liked to put his belongings in his trouser pockets.

A small light blue mirror, bought from a coin shop on the street, very economical.

The mirror reflected the child's strange state.

He looked dull and lifeless, his head not resting on his mother's arms but leaning on his father's side.

There was no smile in the man and woman's eyes, they just forced a smile at the corners of their lips.

Xiao Liu took a deep breath. "The secret spirit has appeared. It's right next to us. What should we do? Has it distorted our perception, preventing us from discovering it?"

"How will saying this help, other than increasing your own fear?" Su Ninglong became interested in the house, but she valued her life and preferred to wait until her strength improved a bit before exploring again. "How about you take me back to the bar? I can tell my godmother that you didn't mean it. And we can let you kidnap me."

"No, we have to find it. I have done what others cannot do, and I will definitely be promoted to the second-level hunter."

"You kidnapped me, and you still think you can get promoted?" Su Ninglong didn't understand which funny channel his mind went to to come up with such a ridiculous idea.

"Hunters have special immunity. They can be exempted from prosecution for minor mistakes."

"Where did you hear that? There's no such law, nor such privilege. Criminals can't be hunters. That's the line drawn by the interstellar government."

"Those who haven't set foot in this industry are not qualified to comment. You don't understand the unspoken rules at all. I know there are hunters who have killed people and were acquitted. Strength is the truth. Keep searching. If I can't complete the task, the worst that can happen is that I will stab you to death first and then commit suicide."

Su Ninglong was about to ask which hunter it was when Xiaoliu's knife hit her back again. There was no rib protection at this position, and the knife could pierce her heart with just a little force.

"Keep searching."

"You are an adult, you can search too. Why do you expect me to do it? I am a child and I don't know anything."

The tip of the knife was pressed deeper, and the fragile fabric made a faint sound of tearing protest.

Su Ninglong moved silently with his short legs and was "kidnapped" to the desk.

There were drawers on both sides of the desk. When I pulled one out, it was pitch black inside, and I couldn't see anything. Su Ninglong asked Xiaoliu, "Is there an extra lighting tool?"

"Can't I just take care of it for you?"

Is he really a fool or just pretending to be one? Never mind, it doesn't matter. The fact that he can bring a child to the secret spirit area to do a hunter mission already proves that he is not very smart.

"You've been holding me hostage for over ten minutes, Lao Liu. It's probably only been about half an hour since the Star Police found us."

Of course, finding this place doesn’t mean rushing in immediately, we also need to mobilize hunters.

The Star Police will not suddenly rush into the territory where the secret spirits are present.

Xiaoliu was choked and speechless, so he handed her a small flashlight.

Su Ninglong took the finger-sized flashlight and turned it on. The beam of light was no bigger than a coin and could only illuminate a small corner of the drawer.

Feeling Su Ninglong's incredulous gaze, Xiao Liu shouted, "That's right, I snatched it from the kid. He tried to dazzle me with it, so I didn't take it away."

"No one asked you about the origin of the flashlight." Su Ninglong continued his unfinished search, shining the flashlight in every corner of the drawer.

She didn't start right away, but used a pen on the table to push the things inside, quickly flipping through one, remembering what was inside, and then moving on to the next one.

Turning to the middle layer, Su Ninglong saw a layer of white mold growing on both sides of the drawer.

Will carbonized wood still grow mold?

Su Ninglong couldn't help but feel puzzled.

The flashlight swept over, and the white spots faded little by little, and the sound of insects scratching against the wall was heard.

When she removed the light source, the white spots returned to their original positions.

They only disappear briefly under light sources.

Su Ninglong tested repeatedly, but Xiaoliu couldn't understand her operation. "What are you doing? Hurry up."

"Can you see these white spots?"

"What white spots? There are no white spots. Are you trying to fool me and buy time?"

Su Ninglong was speechless, but she also suspected that she was mentally polluted. She put her fingers to her ears and then put them down.

That kind of uneasy and hesitant mentality does not suit her at all. These are the only props she has, and she must use them sparingly. There is a limit to the number of earrings, just like the Qiankun Shrine.

She took a deep breath and looked at the reflection in the mirror. There were indeed no white spots in the mirror.

She could hear the sound as soon as she entered the room. Su Ninglong believed that she had a good willpower and was definitely in a better mental state than Xiaoliu.

Mental pollution shouldn't invade so quickly.

The best explanation is that these white spots are invisible to Xiaoliu.

Sometimes being too outstanding is not necessarily a good thing. You can’t even share eye-catching things with others.

"Will the other hunters come during the day or at night?" Su Ninglong asked.

"I haven't noticed it." Feeling Su Ninglong's contemptuous gaze again, Xiao Liu added: "Most of them happen in the daytime."

Su Ninglong opened the cap of the pen, reached into the edge of the drawer with the sharp part, lifted up a wooden board inside, and found a secret compartment underneath.

As the wooden board was lifted, the mold was scraped off and flew into the air, just like the scene when mushroom spores mature.

Su Ninglong held his breath and shone the flashlight under the mezzanine.

There was a notebook there, its black cover covered with dense white spots, and the words were completely covered.

Xiaoliu stood by and quickly pushed Su Ninglong away, reaching out to take it out.

A rough movement, and the notebook turned into dust in the blink of an eye.

Su Ninglong: "..." "Ahem." Xiaoliu coughed to hide his embarrassment, "How did you find out there's a mezzanine here?"

"You'll understand if you grow a brain."

"Bah! This is the land of the Mystic Spirits. Don't say anything unlucky." Xiao Liu said nervously, "It will come true. Since we haven't found anything here, let's go to the next room and take a look."

He scratched his neck as if it were starting to itch.

Su Ninglong straightened up and turned over a drawer. There were still white spots inside, and it was covered with mold, extending all the way to the ground.

She imagined the solid wood floor beneath the carpet was also made of the same stuff, and she felt nauseous for no reason.

Su Ninglong shook his head, unable to associate any more with it. The mysterious spirit just loved this kind of spiritual pollution.

The big clock downstairs suddenly rang "dong dong dong..."

An invisible energy wave spread out, "It turns out the big clock down there is still usable."

The space seemed to be submerged by an invisible dark tide. Su Ninglong felt weightless and wanted to grab something, but he could not catch anything. In an instant, he was submerged in the water.

As her eyelids opened and closed, she found herself in a different place, in a dark and enclosed place, with the smell of mothballs hitting her nose.

"Xiao Liu." Su Ninglong called softly, but no one answered.

Something cold and soft brushed against my neck. What was it?
Su Ninglong suddenly reached forward and touched something sticky.

It was soft, and the thing twitched in my palm, feeling somewhere between a rotting anemone and a baby's fetal membranes.

What the hell.

Su Ninglong wiped his body to remove the slime, took a step back, and his back touched the wall.

"Rustle, rustle," as if the sound of many insect elytra were crushed, and goose bumps suddenly appeared on the skin.

Even a strong person like Su Laozu couldn't help but feel a tightness in her throat. She knew it was mold, but she couldn't help but think of insects.

The mold was cold, and a chill ran down my spine all over my back.

It was as if the white spots were eroding her body, and Su Ninglong was deeply disgusted by these molds.

Many times, fear comes from scaring ourselves.

Su Ninglong took a decisive step forward, and her knuckles hit a horizontal bar. In front of her was a shutter door.

The only place in this house with louvered doors she had come into contact with was the wardrobe.

Alone in the closet?

I put my hand on it and was about to push it hard when I heard the sound of a whip breaking through the air outside the cabinet door.

"Ningning, come out!"

The angry bubbling sound, which was indistinguishable from whether it was male or female, seemed to have a deterrent effect of its own, seeping into the cracks in the wood.

Su Ninglong couldn't help shaking and wanted to curl up and shrink deeper into the closet.

When her arms were raised, Su Ninglong woke up with a start and her hair stood on end. This was not her way of doing things.

Realizing this, Su Ninglong understood that he was being mentally polluted.

The extent of contamination is unknown.

Yun Fei said that there is no pattern to the depth of pollution. Once you realize that you are being polluted, if you have no means to suppress it, you must leave the polluted area immediately or directly eliminate the secret spirit.

"Ningning, I know where you are hiding."

The sound of Su Ninglong's heart beating uncontrollably made her instinctively want to escape, the faster the better.

But there is a wall behind, and there is no way to retreat once people hide here.

"Run...Run quickly...She knows this place, run...Run now."

A voice in her heart kept urging her to run.

Su Ninglong gritted his teeth and became calmer. The sound of the whip breaking through the air was getting closer and closer.

A strange red light appeared outside the cabinet door.

The inner voice that told her to run away screamed hysterically, "Run, why not run, this is the best chance to escape, it won't hurt you."

Su Ninglong was like a stone pillar, motionless. Her violently beating heart made her breathing rapid and heavy. She raised her arms and covered her nose.

The scarlet light, so thick that juice could be squeezed out of it, projected into the cabinet door. The light passed over Su Ninglong's forehead, dyeing the edges of her black hair pink.

It also allowed Su Ninglong to see the monster's lower body clearly. It had a pair of deformed big feet wrapped in bandages. With every step it took, sticky liquid dripped from its body and sank into the dark carpet.

He dragged his hind legs forward and stepped on the liquid.

When I lifted my heel, spider-web-like slime threads were pulled out, and a fishy smell spread.

It's like athlete's foot that hasn't been washed off for a thousand years, or the smell of rotting fish and shrimp. Even holding your breath can't completely block it out, it's so smelly.

With a crack of the whip, a flat whip fell down, and the metal buckles inlaid with gems looked like the eyes of a poisonous snake.

Youyou stared at me.

He turned around and faced the cabinet door.

"Ningning, come out, I know you're in there. I'll count to three, one, two..."

Su Ninglong's body screamed and retreated, but she held it in tightly, not making a sound.

The two sides confronted each other for a while.

He finally moved, continued dragging his heels, and slowly walked away.

Su Ninglong still didn't dare to make any big movements. She waited for a long time and made sure that the red light was gone before she pushed open the cabinet door and climbed out.

What kind of monster is this? A mysterious spirit? And what is this place, a space mezzanine?

With such doubts, Su Ninglong first checked her equipment and found that her earrings and anchors were all there.

When I felt in my pocket, I found that my clothes had changed and turned into light summer clothes.

There was also a mirror and a flashlight. She also took out a lighter and an object that looked like a hairpin from her pocket.

I turned on the flashlight and looked around. It was exactly the same as the bedroom I had just been in.

The difference is that the walls of this room are covered in mold.

The flashlight turned its angle and shone into the wardrobe. The sticky anemone that had made her feel uncomfortable just now was actually a red skirt. It was smooth and soft in texture, but it had been corroded by mold and had become like a dried salted fish. It was hung on the three-dimensional clothes hanger, and it looked as strange as the clothes of a female ghost who had hanged herself.

Then she checked the items she was carrying. The lighter had a Star Alliance pattern printed on it. As for the hairpin, it was flat and very light. Su Ninglong simply tied up her long hair.

She looked at her face in the mirror and it was her own face.

After confirming everything, Su Ninglong held a small flashlight and shone it on the bedside table. The photo in the frame had changed. There were only the mother and the child in it, and the father was erased.

There is an extra line behind the photo frame: "I miss you. If I pray, you will come back."

Who misses whom?

Su Ninglong put it down temporarily and turned around to search the desk. She had searched it once before, and this time her technique was very skillful. She opened the first one, and the things on it remained unchanged, so she quickly opened the next one.

(End of this chapter)