Volume 2, Chapter 39 (Chapter 77): Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em; Can’t Join ‘Em, Report ‘Em!

In order to hold back her instincts to devour, Lu Yibei hurriedly zipped up the remaining cores in the bag, out of sight, out of mind.

She felt strangely constipated as she switched the channels on her TV.

‘I don’t care,’ her stomach grumbled. ‘No matter how hungry I am, I still have to digest these cores.’

To put it simply, she feared that she might die if she ate too much, and the fear of death greatly overpowered her instinct to devour.

“Mrs Witch, are you alright?” The wig chirped up.

“I…” Yibei replied, startled, forgetting about her ‘neighbours.’ She couldn’t help but feel that they were feigning concern for her. “I’m fine. Did I do anything weird?”

“No, no. Just asking.”

“Whatever. I’m going to go take a nap.”

She carried the statue in one arm and the trolley case in another hand as she went up the stairs, and the apparitions continued their commotion downstairs.

She glanced at the trolley case from the corner of her eye.

‘I should hide this somewhere.’

The commotion downstairs got louder, and Lu Yibei peeked her head down.

The cold expression was exactly like that of a teacher who peeked into a noisy classroom—a sinister, silent figure.

All of the apparitions seemed to crowd around her dirty bowl, and all of them opened their maws to lick at the bottom of the bowl.

‘They may not be my pets, but people might think I’m abusing them.’

Suppressing her hunger, she took out half a core from the bag and went to the kitchen. She cut the core into four equal pieces and shared it with her ‘neighbours.’

The apparitions cheered out and thanked Yibei, and she couldn’t help but feel pride in her heart.

‘Well, yes! I am very generous!’

As Yibei returned to her room, her coat ruffled in anger.

‘Shit.’

Yibei completely forgot about the coat she was wearing.

Lu Yibei found a relatively uninteresting corner of her room and placed the trolley case there. She stuffed a few sundries into the bag to make it seem unsuspecting and nodded.

Entering and leaving the room repeatedly while looking at the trolley case, it just seemed like a normal, unsuspecting trolley case containing groceries.

Although she felt that hiding it out in the open was not suitable, it was the only way now.

Glancing at the clock, it was 6:13 in the morning, about two hours before dawn.

‘I can only rest and wait until the sun rises.’

Staring blankly at the ceiling, chaotic thoughts seem to flood her mind.

‘Was Du Sixian the only one who escaped the trial of guts?’

She felt like she was missing parts of the story. She was looking at the full painting, but the painting was missing crucial details and strokes here and there.

She felt that Sixian was incredibly lucky to escape with her life.

‘Perhaps she has plot armour,’ she joked with herself.

As she chuckled to herself, her head burst into pain, and the memories of the four lost souls plagued her brain once again.

In order to suppress their memories, she started thinking of weird things.

‘Why does the world exist? What is the value of life? What happens after death? What the hell are those guys doing downstairs?’

‘What should I have for dinner?’

‘In a Trolley Problem, how do I make the train swerve so that everybody dies?’

‘If Mr Rabbit and Jiangli were drowning in a river, what would be the best way to throw Shui into the river with them?’

Soon, her thoughts calmed down.

Until it didn’t, she suddenly thought about the Eclipse Society.

She thought back to the time of her first successful hunt.

And that girl with the scarf, Gu Qianqian, who sort of helped her out too.

And that strange tattooed man who stole her dinner! Although she felt that he was just there to steal her food, she felt that he was somebody who was very important.

Maybe he was stopping me from devouring the core so I don’t get plagued by the side effects, she thought. ‘Or maybe he was just hungry.’

Her assumption had some basis.

According to Jiangli, members of the Eclipse Society had no issue obtaining cores.

There was no need for that man to snatch away the core.

It was unlikely that he was looking for a free meal.

Moreover, although Yibei was stunned by his tattoo, the man did not take the opportunity to attack her.

He is probably harmless.

Hence, Yibei is curious about the man’s motivations.

“What am I thinking about?” she yelled in the darkness. “They’re all bad people!”

However, looking at it another way, to Jiangli, the members of the Eclipse Society were terrorists.

Therefore, their behaviour cannot be considered a sign of goodwill.

Perhaps their purpose was to prevent Lu Yibei from becoming too strong.

She wondered what would happen if she continued to starve. She wondered what would happen if she didn’t call the taxi driver in the midst of his live stream.

She wondered if she would go insane and start killing on the streets.

Lu Yibei vaguely felt that there might be a huge conspiracy brewing in the Eclipse Society.

Since Daydream came into contact with them as well.

“Ah…” she sighed and whispered to herself, “I have to think of a way to deal with them.”

Although she felt that it was dangerous to get involved with the Eclipse Society, she had to be prepared for the worst.

‘I dare them too!’ She gestured with her arm. ‘I’ll rip them to shreds!’

Perhaps she could abuse the memories she got from Daydream.

She felt the need to protect innocent people from the Eclipse Society so that they would stop targeting them.

‘If I make up a convincing story and tell Jiangli, she’ll take action.’

This is a reasonable use of public resources to effectively combat crimes.

‘I’ll gather all the memories in my brain and come up with a story to convince her!’ she planned.

Besides, she thought of ways to become a full-time worker instead of a part-timer. Then, her clearance would be increased, and she might uncover deeper secrets sealed away by the Night Division.

Maybe it can help her alleviate the side effects of devouring cores.

Information like this is for the better since she’ll be devouring cores for the foreseeable future.

Debuffs like these are unacceptable!