After speaking, she turned her head slightly and gestured to the coffee table not far away. On the coffee table was a kraft paper document bag, which looked like it had been opened. I walked over and picked it up, only to see that it was stacked with stacked papers. I took it out and looked at it, and found that it was all kinds of news that had happened in the black zone of Beaver City in the recent period. It is said that it is news, but it is not known to ordinary people, I think she bought it from an underground newspaper merchant through some of her own channels. Beaver City is not a city she is familiar with, and she will actively add useful information about the city in every way possible.

There is also information about me in the paper materials, and there is even a photo of "me". From the point of view of the shooting, it should have been captured by a surveillance camera. The image is as follows: On the dark and windy riverside, the "Facelings" wearing short-beaked beak masks, long black trench coats and hunting costumes, like ghosts in supernatural photos, hurried past the place, as if looking for their prey.

Because the resolution of the picture is quite low, and the light is not sufficient at all, the photo is blurry to look like a soaked ink painting, but more like a supernatural photo.

And this "faceling" is, of course, not the real me, but a faceless murderer.

"So?" I turned to her and asked.

"The time in the photo is half past eight in the evening two days ago." She said, "And you were in my house at the time. ”

I was noncommittally silent. She continued, "And before that, the 'Facelings', dressed in the same attire, assassinated the Firefiend's father. ”

"That's all yours for?" I asked.

"Maybe you have a reason to kill this old man named Xu Quanan. But whatever the reason, you won't kill him at his birthday feast in front of the fire demon. That's what I've said about you so far - while you won't shy away from high-profile style when necessary, you'll never be foolish enough to give up that advantage if you have the conditions to do so in the shadows. Even if it is to create panic among some enemies lurking in the shadows, it will not be worth the loss, and it will only attract the hatred of the fire demon in vain. She said, "Besides, there should have been a truce between you and him, didn't you?" As far as I know, you once teamed up with him to destroy the beaver pharma boss's scheme, and he hasn't come to your trouble since. If you assassinate his father, you'll only lose one of your most powerful friends and add one more White-class psionic enemy. There's no cheaper deal. ”

"Unless it's not me who assassinated Xu Quanan." I took her words, "And this picture convinces you even more." ”

"Exactly."

I thought about it for a moment, then decided to admit, "You're right. ”

"Is there anything I can do to help you?" She smiled. She could sort of see that if I didn't need her, I wouldn't have admitted it so easily. And she also wants to take this opportunity to improve her relationship with my partner, so she will deliberately show her knowledge.

"I have a matter that I need your knowledge." I say.

She nodded, "Listen up." ”

I told her about the Shapeless Murderer.

"It turns out that this is not a clever disguise of your 'enemy' in order to throw dirty water on you, but an elf born out of strange tales......" she looked surprised, then pondered, "and born out of a strange tale that was on the verge of disappearing......"

"You are far more knowledgeable than I am. So I want to ask you, why was this elf not born at the peak of the strange story, but at such a low time? I asked.

"First of all, I want to correct one of your mistakes." She pointed out, "Elves are not necessarily intertwined with the thoughts of many people, even if there is only one person's thoughts, elves have a very low probability of being born from them." ”

She thought for a moment, and then said, "But, it is true that the elves that were not born at the peak were born at the trough. If it is all blamed on the probability factor, it is too coarse. Do you have any speculation about this? ”

"Is it related to my comeback?" I asked, "Because the news of my comeback has spread, and indirectly changed the strange story of the disfigured murderer?" ”

"This strange talk is because of the rumors you have in the black zone, and the product formed in the surface society, and now the topic has completely cooled, even if you want to change, there is no soil for change. The inhabitants of the Black Zone are only afraid of real Facelings, not fake Shapeless Killers. She shook her head.

"But the Faceless Killer has all my abilities. And there is no such element in its original weirdness. ”

"It's because of your presence. The Shapeless Killer is an elf with whom you are highly connected. To use the story creation metaphor, if 'Faceling' is your original story, then 'Faceless Killer' is a fanfiction based on the re-creation of the former. "So, even if it's an ability that's not described in the weird story, if you have it, then it will inherit it." Even the mode of action will be copied on the premise of compatibility. For example, if you used to hunt psionic criminals, then it will become mainly hunting psionic criminals. ”

"But Xu Quanan is not a psyker. Even if he had secret psionic powers, at least I wasn't. And it takes all of us as prey. ”

"Yes. Not only that, but in the strange story, the Shapeless Killer will drag the victim into the world of shadows and torture them endlessly, but it kills Xu Quanan quite happily......" She also thought about it, then hesitated for a moment, and said, "I have a guess, you can just listen to it, but don't take it seriously." Because I'm not sure either. ”

"Please."

"According to my knowledge, if the Figureless Killer was not born based on extreme coincidence, but on artificial factors, then there is only one possibility." "There was a group of people with unknown motives, about dozens...... No, it's likely that there are more than 200 people, forming gangs without the help of the Internet, and then somewhere in the real world, holding regular underground gatherings on the theme of exchanging strange stories, and believing in strange stories like fanatical believers...... Then there is the soil to make strange stories come true. ”

I listened to this hypothesis, and because I was so stunned, I had no sense of reality, so I could only ask, "Are you serious?" ”

"What I'm saying is not necessarily going to come true, it's just that there is soil for it to come true." She said, "The strange story has probably changed in detail along the way." In this way, the previous contradiction can also be explained. ”

"No, I'm talking about this so-called mad rally, is it really possible?"

"No way, since there are very few people who talk about this strange talk now, then we can only assume that the remaining people have quite a high level."

"If this weird talk really has that kind of magic, it won't make the topic so easy to cool down." I raise an objection.

"That's the truth." She said noncommittally.

Instead of being solved, the mysteries are growing.

I sighed inwardly, and then asked, "It will probably hit me again in the future." Until it is resolved, I will not be coming back recently to avoid getting you involved. ”

"If that's the case, I've got a way to tell you." She said with a smile.

"A way to avoid it?" I asked.

"No, it's the opposite." "It's the way to summon it," she said. ”

She continued, "You, as its archetype, are intimately connected to it on a soul level, and it is murderous to you. So, all you need to do is set up a fairly simple little ritual and it will be locked into your place in no time. ”

"And then it will jump out of the shadows and kill me?"

"Yes."

What is the use of this self-inflicted ritual? I would have liked to say that, but it's really useful. Because it means that I can choose a favorable battlefield to fight it myself, or let it foolishly step into the trap I have set up beforehand. And it doesn't seem to have much intelligence yet, so it's even more able to take advantage of it.

She taught me the rituals. It was indeed a fairly simple ritual, requiring me to draw a specific symbol on any plane with my own blood, and then meditate on the image of a faceless murderer in my heart. It can be done in a few seconds, even if summoned now.

It has been heard that some psykers are able to summon spirits to serve them, and the Turin Doctor once performed this technique. And these people are called séances. Now I can barely be considered a séance, and my only skill as a séance is to summon an elf who only knows how to kill me. And I must also say thank you to the people who taught me this technique, for the world is so absurd.

The man was even asking me, "Is there anything else I can do to help you?" ”

"Yes." I pulled out the dagger that had been the key to victory in the battle against the Shapeless Killer, "I have something to ask you about this......

After a few moments, I got the answer from her mouth.

"Thank you." I put away my dagger.

"When you're gone, it's going to be very lonely here." She sighed.

"I'll be back."

"Hopefully that day won't be too far away." She said, thought for a moment, and said, "Remember the last time you read me a storybook?" ”

"Yes." I say. She doesn't have the hands to hold a book, she doesn't have the eyes to read a book, and it's quite easy to get tired of using inspiration to forcibly capture light information. So not long ago, I read her a storybook on the shelf.

"Can you read it to me again?" She asked.

"Now?"

"No, it's night." She said, "I'll call you." If it's not convenient for you, forget it, but if it's convenient, please read the story to me again. ”

She asked a little apprehensively, "Just think of it as the consultation fee, okay?" ”

"Yes." I nodded, "The story will be read to you, and the consultation fee will be paid." "I'm not shameless enough to replace a consultation fee with something as trivial as reading a story.

"Thank you, Faceling." She smiled, "May good luck be with you." ”

I accepted her blessing and turned away from the place.

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