Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Quest

As soon as Lian Shiyu stepped out of the room, he closed the door behind him. The tall man in the mask was waiting for him outside.

With a strange, sing-song voice, the masked man said, “How gentle you are, Shiyu boy.”

The young man in the suit didn’t respond to the comment, only reported his findings. “After erasing their memories, I asked similar questions repeatedly. The responses and the machine readings were all consistent. Unless someone with stronger power than I has intervened, we can consider them ignorant of the matter.”

He spoke with the calmness of casual conversation, but his words were enough to send chills down one’s spine.

The dialogue that had just taken place in the room wasn’t the first of its kind. Takizawa’s fear, anger, grief, and remorse had all been played out several times already.

The procedure was simple. After questioning, erase the memory. Then, re-enter the room as if meeting for the first time, alter the questioning approach, observe the reactions, and collect a new set of data to compare and confirm the previous answers. This was repeated to ensure authenticity, to prevent the subject from recognizing the pattern and fabricating lies, and to avoid their collapse under excessive pressure.

Takizawa Yoshihisa knew nothing of this. Each of his responses was genuine.

And yet, even if the subject was unaware, for the observer, the emotional impact of watching the same scene replayed again and again would inevitably fade. Witnessing such mechanical repetition, one had to wonder: was the person before them truly ignorant, or simply a puppet jerked by unseen strings?

No matter how one pondered, the answer was never pleasant.

“Oh, give it a rest. Even if Genesis wanted to stir up trouble, they wouldn’t bother with the small fry. That simplifies matters!” Fortunately, the masked man never concerned himself with such trivialities. How others viewed or thought about these things was, to him, a waste of energy. Even thinking about what to have for a midnight snack was more meaningful than dwelling on such nonsense.

Shiyu thought for a moment, then asked, “About Gongsun’s abilities—”

Before he could finish, the masked man cut him off with a sneer. “Not my problem. If you want to know, ask him yourself. Let’s go—get ready to wrap this up tonight.”

The tall man strode off with large steps. Lian Shiyu followed, wearing a wry smile.

“Tonight is the decisive battle?”

“Tonight. I want this over with so I can get some sleep.”

“You sound exhausted.”

“Of course I am! I had to cram two things into one day, got dragged up to the Emperor first thing this morning for a pointless meeting, and the travel alone ate up most of my day. Didn’t even get a nap! What a life.”

Muttering curses, the masked man marched on, and Shiyu followed, treating his complaints as little more than background noise.

Outside, the masked woman was waiting for them. She stretched out her arms, balancing on one foot, and hopped along the edge of a flower bed. “Are you working part-time too?”

“This gentleman doesn’t seem inclined to pay me, so I’d call it extracurricular practice at best.”

“I should get paid, though. By the way, how is my hourly wage calculated?”

The masked man snapped, “You talk back to the boss, kick him in the back, and can’t even take down a single idiot in solo combat, and you still want a paycheck? Out, out!”

“So unfair.”

Looking at her mask, Shiyu suddenly recalled the nickname a friend had given her, and couldn’t help but laugh.

8:35 p.m., outside the sewage treatment plant.

A weary psychic and a hunter who looked ready to yawn stepped out through the gates. Neither spoke, both staring straight ahead, the silence between them reminiscent of children competing in a staring contest—seeing who would blink first. This bizarre quiet lasted half a minute, until the hunter broke it.

“Hah—” Alice rubbed her eyes, unable to suppress a yawn.

“Looks like Miss Alice’s stamina is the weaker,” the bespectacled young man announced triumphantly.

“Oh, shut up. I’ve been fighting since dawn. Have you even looked in the mirror lately?”

“I’ve fought three and a half high-intensity battles in a short time, and I’m still standing. I’d call that impressive.”

A testament to his extensive combat experience. He prided himself on his control over his power; most psychics, who only knew how to expend their abilities recklessly, would have needed a break by now.

“You look like you could keep fighting all day.”

“Even an iron man would tire eventually. Once we defeat the last ‘leader,’ this episode will be over, right?”

Alice brought up the map of Skydome City on her phone.

“If all goes well, yes. I sincerely hope that, after defeating him, the common-sense ending awaits us: ‘It was all a collective delusion of the dragon fanatics, and there was never any secret at all.’”

“I agree. In fiction, an ‘it was all a dream’ ending might enrage the readers, but in real life, that would be a cause for celebration.”

Yet, judging by the Empire duo’s attitude, the hunter’s wish was unlikely to be granted.

“Let’s hope so… At this hour, is it faster to take a car or a pigeon?”

“Depends where you’re headed. For short to mid-range, take a car; if you need to cross more than one district, you’ll want a pigeon, parrot, or whatever other bird you can find. Have you figured out where to go?”

“Hmm…” The blue-haired woman closed her eyes in thought. “I’ve been wondering what Takizawa was up to before all of this. The behavior of the dragon fanatics in these recent fights has been puzzling me. Think about it—weren’t we the ones pursuing them?”

The hunted and the hunter—one party seeking the other. The hunter’s task was to chase, the prey’s was to escape; their roles only made sense in tandem.

From the prey’s perspective, the logical course of action would be…

“If they only wanted to escape, the dragon cultists should have relocated as soon as they realized they were being hunted. But in reality, every enemy we’ve encountered has chosen to stand and fight. They prepared the battlefield to suit themselves, hoping to ensnare us all at once.” The gray-haired young man sorted through his thoughts. “And what did you do this morning, Miss Alice?”

“In the early hours, I was chasing Higashijo Jōji. Just before I met you, I was after Tyros and the Mohawk. Right—that’s it! They shifted from prioritizing escape to prioritizing combat. Their behavior changed!”

But did the current intelligence support that conclusion? Tyros and the one called Kapro were already mad; applying normal logic to their actions was pointless. As for Takizawa Yoshihisa, judging by the hunter’s attitude, this seemingly ordinary long-haired man was perhaps even more deranged than the others.

In truth, all the malevolent psychics had already lost their minds, acting on hallucinations only they could see or hear—but to Gongsun, to admit that was to concede defeat. Madmen are not fools; one must see them as people acting according to a different logic, moving on the far side of common sense. From the dragon cultists’ point of view, those two aggressive encounters could not have been meaningless.

The psychic recalled Takizawa’s words:

—Without the leader’s guidance, this is the best we could come up with.

—Even if I know I’ll fail, I have to fight. I won’t let you get near the leader.

“The dragon cultists have a leader, the fifth person we haven’t found yet.” Gongsun pushed up his glasses. “The two who fought us lost the leader’s guidance; they chose to engage us on their own. But why?”

Alice answered quickly, “The arrogant Tyros wanted to wipe us out, and Takizawa was trying to delay us, to keep us away from the leader.”

“So the leader holds the key to their plan. Second question: when did the leader separate from them?”

“The informant said all five entered the city today. At least as of this morning, when I was chasing Higashijo Jōji, they were still in contact—back when they were still trying to escape!”

The psychic raised a finger. “Exactly, Miss Alice. Once they lost their leader, they chose to attack. That’s not the typical mindset of fugitives. Reverse the perspective: before you and I met, what were the dragon cultists doing, darting around the city like fugitives?”

“They split up not just to escape, but to search for something—some place. That must be where the leader is!”

“Around the time we met, something changed. The leader must have found the target location. It’s easier for one person to stay hidden than three, so he separated, and Tyros and Takizawa instigated fights at different times to distract us and buy time.”

Gongsun felt his thoughts growing clearer. “The final mystery: where is the leader now? I don’t sense they’re fixated on destroying the city—they want the dragon’s arrival. If the ritual, or the summoning, could be performed anywhere, there’d be no need to risk sneaking into Skydome City. There must be some condition that can only be met here. That’s why Takizawa sent the Bad Beast to search the sewers.”

“The Dismantling Demon can quickly search the surface… the Bad Beast moves freely underground, so together they can quickly learn the city’s layout…”

Alice stared at her phone screen, lost in thought.

He noticed that the screen displayed a map of Skydome City.

“From the Talon District to the Thorn District… above ground… sewers… nearly half a day’s effort…”

The hunter suddenly turned to him. “I remember you said Skydome City doesn’t have a subway?”