He attacked the wrong mountain (2)
After threatening him, Shu Ningmiao slowly stood up, crossed her arms, looked down at him for a while, and then stepped on his calf.
Her strength—how could she be so strong! The sudden sharp pain made Rennagi hiss involuntarily.
It seems like the bone in my left leg is broken.
He instinctively tried to cover his head to relieve the pain, but he couldn't lift his arms. The burning swelling in his legs gradually turned into numbness. Rennagi hadn't recovered for a moment, and the expression on her face was distorted with pain. Because she was too agitated, tears even streamed down her face. She mumbled and trembled, "Do you really enjoy torturing others and seeing them covered in blood?"
Shu Ningmiao said indifferently, "You do look quite good when you cry like this."
In terms of the 'Neural Connection' ability alone, she is indeed inferior to the original holder of the ability, but that doesn't matter, since she is not limited to using only the 'Neural Connection' ability.
The one using superpowers is human, and humans are inherently fragile. She has many ways to make him die here silently, as simple and easy as killing the contaminant.
No matter how Rennagi argues, now that she stands before him, who is stronger and who is weaker, what more is there to say?
Shu Ningmiao wasn't in a hurry. She first looked down and clicked through all the information in Lianna's terminal.
The contact list was clean, with only a few roommates and classmates, no woman called "Sister Liang," and no suspicious Prometheus members.
He was quite cautious.
This is probably why he hasn't been suspected by anyone else until now.
"Did Pine give you some benefit?" Renna took a deep breath, her eyes and nose red, her fair face covered in dust, black and white patches, and looked up at her: "Why are you so resistant to us?"
"The biggest benefit is that you don't cause me any trouble." Shu Ningmiao leaned down, grabbed his hair and forced him to look up. Her eyes, which were usually like rubies in the sunlight, showed a dry, bloodshot look in the dim light. "What's wrong with your brain? Didn't you guys provoke me first?"
She had lived in Pines for so many years and had never taken the initiative to learn about this organization, because it had nothing to do with her future or her life.
If Prometheus hadn't provoked her, who would have cared whether they wanted to save the world, destroy it, or burn down the Phineas government?
These people presumptuously made her a prophet, claiming she was all-knowing, and when she refused, they immediately turned around and tried to silence her.
She certainly had reason to suspect that her death in the "game" was related to them.
Shu Ningmiao pressed his head down and slammed it to the ground. His head made a dull thud, and dust rose up onto Lian Nagi's face. He began to cough incessantly.
Having faced the mystery of death for so long, she was not entirely unmoved.
Her death occurred on campus, and the murderer is very likely someone from Genko Academy who happens to be a direct confrontation with Rennagi. Would killing him eliminate this potential threat?
Shu Ningmiao felt it wasn't that simple.
Another issue is that even if she didn't know the game's plot, it's unlikely that she would die at Rennagi's hands.
To be precise, the five chapters told from Erice's perspective didn't help her at all; at most, they only foresaw some key time points.
Rennagi isn't good at fighting, so why would she inexplicably lure her to the top of the Zhunti Pagoda and stab her in the chest? If there are other people involved, she can't let her guard down and must find out the truth.
Shu Ningmiao tilted her head, a few strands of her long hair falling onto his face: "I'll ask again, what's your base and how do you contact me?"
Slamming his face against the dusty floor was unpleasant; a protruding pebble scratched his nose. Rennagi's face was covered in dust, and his eyelashes were stuck with a mixture of tears and dirt.
Her proud superpowers and self-esteem were trampled underfoot at this moment. Rennagi opened her mouth, her throat rough and sore: "I'm telling you... let me speak properly."
Shu Ningmiao had no penchant for tormenting people, so she readily let go. Lian Nagi lay on the ground, her spine trembling slightly for a moment: "New Land, Achini is in New Land. The others don't have fixed residences and only gather together when they are contacted... The way to contact them is through my special ability."
Where is New Land?
“I don’t know. He always appears and disappears suddenly, and no one else leaves their address to prevent us from tracing his whereabouts.”
No wonder the police department still can't find Prometheus's network of contacts. Through Rennagi's ability, she can bypass official surveillance and leave no trace on the internet. The special nature of "neural connection" makes Prometheus's makeshift team suddenly mysterious.
Narenagi must have been extremely important to Prometheus.
Rennagi felt inexplicably uneasy as she was stared at by Rennagi's clear almond-shaped eyes.
A chill spread through him, and he dragged his broken leg, wanting to get as far away from her as possible.
Shu Ningmiao knelt in front of him and pressed down on his shoulders: "I'll give you a chance."
"What opportunity?" Rennagi's face was as white as paper.
"A chance to live." Shu Ningmiao rummaged in her pocket and found a small, sheathed knife about the size of a portable scissor. She unsheathed it and pressed the tip of the knife against his temple.
Rennagi's face turned even paler. She never expected that Rennagi would carry such a sharp weapon with her. She really was fearless.
After Prometheus attacked the school last time, there were security checks everywhere in Cornunos, yet she brazenly hid a knife on her person.
She bought the knife specifically just in case, because its shape was inconspicuous, small like scissors, and she was a well-known top student, so teachers and security guards mostly turned a blind eye.
Shu Ningmiao picked up his terminal with her other hand and held it in front of his head: "Now, send them a message saying that they have obtained my ability test report from the National Research Center. My ability is not [Omniscience], but [Plunder].
This is the ability she could find that is similar to the state of "Jealousy". "Plunder" is a relatively rare special ability that can steal other people's abilities under certain conditions, but due to insufficient public information, outsiders do not know what the specific conditions are.
Since some of her superpowers have already been leaked, she might as well make the best of a bad situation and at least get rid of the omniscient label that Prometheus has put on her.
If they stop harassing her after believing it, then it means that treating her as an "omniscient being" was really just a misunderstanding caused by their vivid imagination.
If they don't believe it, it means there must be other motives behind it.
"I'll be watching you." Shu Ningmiao tapped the edge of the terminal with her finger, indicating that she would also use her powers to enter the terminal and monitor his actions: "If you say a single wrong word, I'll shove a knife into your head, okay?"
The tip of the knife was pressed against his skin, yet she still politely asked him if he was alright. Rennagi tilted his head slightly, feeling the coldness from the knife seeping into his bones.
He didn't want to die yet.
As long as I can survive...
Rennagi nodded slowly and patiently: "I will talk."
Under Shu Ningmiao's watchful gaze, he sent messages to everyone without missing a single word, and only slowly closed his eyes after Shu Ningmiao removed the terminal from his forehead.
Shu Ningmiao stood up, picked up her terminal and checked the time. There was still half an hour before the school closed.
She looked again at Rennagi, who was covered in cold sweat, her eyes reflecting dappled light and shadow.
Although she said she would give him a chance to live, she never really intended to let him go; she was just trying to coax him into being more obedient.
Rennagi's ability is too flexible. Once she leaves this place, it will be difficult to find conditions to stop her from using her ability again. It would be like letting a tiger return to the mountains, and all her efforts would be meaningless.
The hilt of the knife twirled around her fingertips, and the tip of the knife drooped down.
A dialog box that she hadn't seen in a long time suddenly popped up on the terminal screen in her hand.
[Survival tip: Please check your personal information regularly!]
What?
Should we show her her personal information at this point?
Shu Ningmiao paused with her other hand, but quickly opened her profile. There were no updates in the other text sections, but a new status had been unlocked in the ability section at some point, which she hadn't noticed yet.
Clicking into the details of her superpower, the line that lit up was a state she could never have imagined—[Lust].
[Lust]: By touching any part of one's body, one can "transfer" any state of oneself to a designated object. During the "transfer", the person will be in a state of [submission].
(【Submission】: The user is unable to generate hostility towards the user, and cannot act with hostility as their will.)
In other words, when in a state of "submission," the user cannot do anything threatening to her.
It depends on the person. If the target of the ability harms her with good intentions, the ability is unlikely to have any effect. This is a common drawback of superpowers.
She glanced at it; there was another line of notes below.
(Note: In this state, the user will feel a sense of submission to the user. The psychological impact varies depending on the duration. Please use with caution.)
When exactly did she awaken to this state?!
More than the effect of the status, Shu Ningmiao was now curious about the reason for the status. She went back to check the notification time and found that the game had sent a notification that "Your awakening status has changed" about ten minutes ago.
Did she say something like, "Rennagi looks pretty good when she cries" back then?
Shu Ningmiao didn't find it outrageous. Instead, she pondered it. When she said those words, she wasn't being sarcastic; she genuinely felt that way.
Under absolute power, weakness has a kind of cuteness that makes one feel extremely safe. When Shu Ningmiao saw his pathetic appearance as he struggled desperately, she did find him much more pleasing to the eye than before.
Because she is stronger than him, it's such a simple principle; humans are naturally pleased with their own strength.
But if it were Weston, or Wei Shengqianheng, or even anyone she wanted to get rid of, she would feel the same pleasure. Does that count as lust?
In any case, she now has a better option.
A sustainable option.
This choice might allow her to learn about Prometheus's origins and secrets.
Shu Ningmiao slowly sheathed her knife, as if she hadn't planned to do anything at all, and suddenly asked him a question.
Why did you join Prometheus?
The alarm bells from her sixth sense suddenly went off, and Rennagi felt safe. She calmly said, "Because I am from Pingyi."
Shu Ningmiao had already found this out, but Lian Naqi was not like Yu Lu, who came from a traditional Pingyi immigrant family, received a traditional education, and had some sense of belonging.
Rennagi's father was an employee of a Pandora mining company in Pinne, and her mother was a preparatory school teacher; their circumstances were quite good.
Shu Ningmiao investigated his family and found that his family was extremely ordinary. Only his father was of mixed Pingyi descent, but there was no trace of Pingyi in his life.
Why would Rennagi, who was born and raised in such a family, have such an obsession with Pingyi? He isn't even considered a native of Pingyi.
"I am from Pingyi." As if angered by the doubt on her face, Rennagi slowly opened her mouth: "I have absolutely no relation to your Pine!"
“The gene pool shows that you only have 16% Pingyi blood,” Shu Ningmiao said calmly.
Rennagi struggled to lift herself up, remaining silent for a long time before finally speaking, stiffly uttering, "That's not mine."
Shu Ningmiao hesitated for a moment, then instantly realized: "You came here illegally."
"..." He showed a slightly unnatural expression.
She grasped the fleeting clue in her mind and quickly pieced it together—Rennagi was indeed a pure-blooded local child from Pingyi who had come to Pine through some means.
Since airplanes were prohibited from leaving the country, they would probably smuggle themselves out by boat, then cross other countries, and finally enter the enclave on the edge of Pines – the New Territories.
However, there is indeed a real test in the gene bank, which shows that there is indeed a boy in this family who is the same age as him, and Rennagi has simply taken that identity.
After clarifying the situation, she quickly raised a new question: "What about the person you replaced?"
“He…is long dead,” Rennagi said.
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