Doomsday Wonderland

With a "boom", Dangzi jumped up in surprise and knocked over the box under him. The sound echoed in the city road in the distance; he leaned his back tightly against the wall and stared at it like Lin Sanjiu. The bearded body rolled to the ground, and his head bounced on the ground twice. Finally, after exhaling his last breath, he gradually became motionless.

The blood slowly dripped from under his neck, flowing silently and silently into the night.

"Why kill him?" Lin Sanjiu asked in a low voice. "If you don't let him know that you and I know each other and just send him away..."

Si Lu wiped his fingers and looked back at her from the dim city road.

"The people I have seen become more numb the longer they survive in the apocalypse." He smiled slightly, "You are just the opposite. You seem to be more sensitive and intolerant than before... It seems that over the years, Destiny has been kind to you."

Lin Sanjiu was startled.

Indeed, if you think about it carefully, when she was just separated from human society and thrown into the apocalyptic world, she killed people much more frequently than she does now. At that time, she had to fight to the death with others on the narrow road of survival; now that she no longer has to live in constant danger of life, she seems to have an extra layer of sympathy for the pain and joy of life and death of others.

"That's not bad," Si Lu continued: "Compared to a person who is in pain and torture, he is a relatively more satisfied person, which makes me feel more at ease about my back."

Lin Sanjiu glanced at the dead body on the ground again.

"His death is useful to me." Si Lu raised his chin to signal, and naturally ordered to Dangzi: "Push his body down the mountain. You didn't see anything here today."

As for what exactly happened, Dreadlock was indeed still in the dark, but he at least understood one thing, that is, there seemed to be no risk of losing his life for the time being; he hesitantly glanced at Lin Sanjiu and saw that She also nodded, then bent down and picked up the bearded body.

"When you're done with it, come to me and get paid." Si Lu said, patting him on the shoulder, as if Dreadlock had joined his organization, "You have a paper crane, right?"

The dirty braid was still holding the body in his hands, but his eyes lit up and he nodded hurriedly.

After he carried the body and left, Si Lu straightened the overturned box, sat down and sighed. "You see, it's so easy to kill with one knife. It's also a bit uneasy to bribe and give instructions."

Si Lu has always been a cold, rational, decisive and neat person, but now he is even worse than before. Lin Sanjiu knew that he was taking care of her, and felt complicated for a moment. He shook his head and asked, "Tell me from the beginning." ,what is going on?"

When Si Lu frowned slightly and seemed to be considering where to start, she didn't waste any time and walked over to feel Badou De's pulse. The latter's injury was serious. With only some first-aid medicines in the card library and her three-legged cat skills, Lin Sanjiu was really unsure. When she took out the medicines and bandages, Si Lu took them easily.

Judging from the skill and smoothness of his movements, it seems that he has been injured a lot.

"The organization I belong to is called the 'Shadow Palace'. It operates very secretively in the Twelve Realms, so few people have heard of it." Si Lu said while cleaning his wounds: "There are several branches under the Shadow Palace, such as Personnel Trial Department, where Ci Tu and I started, as well as the Item Visa Department, Execution Department, etc... These are just organizations responsible for daily operations, and are not much different from ordinary organizations. What really makes it gain a 'shadow' The reason for the name "Temple" is that it is actually the shadow controller of other organizations."

"Shadow Controller?"

Si Lu showed a wry smile that was somewhat sarcastic. "You are also a person from before the end of the world. You should have heard of hostile takeovers in business wars, right?"

Lin Sanjiu searched in his memory for a long time before vaguely recalling this term that seemed to come from a previous life.

"What the Shadow Palace is doing is a bit like a hostile takeover." Si Lu said thoughtfully, "The most common thing among the twelve realms is the endless emergence of small organizations. Careers, smart people, and people who unite together for self-protection. Relatives and friends... As long as these people are still there, new small organizations will emerge. For small organizations with ability and potential, the Shadow Palace will use various means to control them and direct them from behind the scenes to continue Do things; if the target is willing to be 'acquired', that's fine, but if not, generally speaking, there is no choice."

"If you don't want to, what methods will the Shadow Palace use?" Lin Sanjiu asked.

"Do you want to ask about the one who saw blood or the one who didn't see blood?"

"Can you still see no blood?"

Si Lu nodded, cut off the gauze in his hand, and said, "Of course. There are more bloodless methods for dividing targets, bribing them, and banishing them. Sometimes they are even more cruel. There are also cases where all the target's abilities have been wiped away. In the end, the name It’s just that the manager of a small organization has been replaced; in fact, all those who have been replaced are agents of the Shadow Palace.”

Lin Sanjiu was surprised. "Why do you do this?"

"Why did big companies in the past acquire small companies?" Si Lu glanced at her and asked. "Of course, I am interested in its technology, customers, market, prospects... You see, just changing the person or people in the organization who talk about things is equivalent to taking the entire organization and its power into your pocket. This is another reason why the Shadow Palace is so cautious, secretive and low-key when recruiting members. Everyone who is absorbed will most likely serve as the head of another organization in the future. They must be capable and loyal. He must be controlled, and on the surface, this person must have nothing to do with the Shadow Palace.”

She remembered that when Ci Tu introduced her situation as a candidate, he said that "the candidates are competing for the position of the head of the organization" - at that time, both she and Qing Jiuru thought that "head of the organization" meant accepting candidates. of this organization. It seems now that either that set of introduction and propaganda was just to misunderstand, or that Titu himself was confused and didn't understand it back then.

After much deliberation, the latter is more likely.

"I understand," Lin Sanjiu nodded and said, "For example, if I control the dreadlocks and make him the leader of Guihe, then Fanjia City will be my territory."

"That's exactly it. And if Fanjia City becomes a negative asset, you can just get rid of the dreadlocks. No one will know that you have any connection with Fanjia City." Si Lu added: "Sometimes , the newly recruited members don’t even know the name of the Shadow Palace.”

Unexpectedly, there was such an organization secretly operating in the Twelve Realms... Lin Sanjiu couldn't help but think of No. 42, whom she met at Harry's farm.

He has a careful mind and a ruthless mind. Apart from his bad luck, he is actually a very potential candidate; but when Si Lu realized that he might leak the secrets of the Shadow Palace, he did not hesitate to kill him with one knife. The heads were removed.

"So... the slave training camp I destroyed in the Red Nautilus was one of the organizations secretly controlled by the Shadow Palace." Lin Sanjiu was reminded of countless memories and whispered: "I was I only vaguely knew that the leader of the War Slave Training Camp was a figure called the Dean. When I met Ci Tu, I was still very confused and didn't understand the relationship between the Dean and the organization he belonged to. Looking at it now, I'm afraid the Dean Chang Zheng is an agent."

"Actually, I don't know much about the follow-up of that matter." Si Lu cleaned up Badou De's wounds in three strokes, but he was not gentle or merciful in his actions, and pushed him to the ground. Diu said: "After escaping from the dimensional rift, I was involved in another series of tasks, and one time even almost killed me. But one thing is certain, the agent caused a lot of damage to the organization. With such a big loss, the outcome will definitely not be good.”

For the "Shadow Palace", this matter has been solved perfectly: the woman who destroyed the slave training camp is dead, and the delinquent dean has dealt with it; but for Lin Sanjiu, the words "war slave training camp" , but it is forever shrouded in a layer of fog.

Si Lu's eyes wandered along the city road, sighed, and said: "When I just learned that the 'Fanjia City Plan' required my personal supervision and implementation, I thought that I was just like the past, and I was attracted to the organization here. Or the site may be of extremely high value, which is why I need to take action. Who would have known that when I came to take a look, I would find that Fanjia City has no value at all, let alone where I need to be used."

From what the residents of Fanjia City heard, the local management organization "Guihe" was not very capable, but its appetite was quite large. As for Fanjia City itself - Lin Sanjiu looked around and nodded with the same feeling. .

On the other hand, Batou De, who was seriously injured and unconscious, did not forget to protest in his coma after hearing this. He let out an indistinct groan from his nose. The two looked at him, and Si Lu said: "Look. It looks like he should regain consciousness tonight."

"That's good, I still have a lot of questions waiting for him." Lin Sanjiu said, crossing her arms.

Speaking of problems, she left Si Lu with a lot. "What exactly did you do after you arrived?"

"We didn't arrive together. It's funny to say that I don't even know when this plan started..." Si Lu gestured to the blood stains on the floor and said, "When I was sent to Fanjia City At that time, he and another member of the organization had been staying here for a month or two. UUReading www.uukanshu.net They disguised themselves as ordinary people and sneaked into Fanjia City. When others were not paying attention, they quietly led Many ordinary people left.”

Lin Sanjiu said "Ah", "They are the missing ones!"

"Yes. My arrival triggered the next step of the plan..." When Si Lu said this, his voice suddenly stopped. Lin Sanjiu's eyes moved away from him and slowly cast their gaze into the depths of the distant city road - they all heard that in the distant depths, there was a step that could not be called fast and powerful, walking heavily. Come in this direction.

"He seems to be an ordinary person," Lin Sanjiu said in a low voice. Si Lu also nodded.

Neither of them made a sound, waiting for the footsteps to gradually come closer, bringing a dull and gray face from the darkness. The face looked out from behind the corner of the aisle for a few times. When the evolutionist saw her clearly, she still couldn't see the people in the distance clearly, so she asked in a low voice: "Are you evolutionaries?"

Lin Sanjiu jumped up.

The middle-aged woman whose limbs once exploded sighed faintly. "I didn't expect... Fanjia City would one day become like this. I'm sorry, don't blame me. If you want to blame me, blame it on you evolvers yourself."