"It's you?"

Seeing the flaming words suddenly appearing in front of the mirror, Ed's brief fragile expression disappeared instantly, and he whispered in a low voice when he changed back to the calm face of the day.

[Shh, don't say anything, I know what you want to say. I'm just here to tell you that the red-haired young man's ability is very suitable for us, and if you want to get a character card, he is an excellent goal.]

His ability...the ability to control that mechanical spider? Could it be that you want me to attack him?

Even if I really attack Arthur, the opponent is obviously better than him, and I have a gun in my hand, not to mention that I have the mysterious special ability, so I have no chance of winning.

Even if you are lucky enough to kill the other party, you will definitely be targeted by the entire Divine Mechanism Bureau. This is undoubtedly suicide.

[Of course I don't mean that. I will fight an extraordinary person alone? You may be too despised by yourself. What you need to do is steal his dreams and turn his power into your own use.]

Stealing a dream? Ed raised his eyebrows in confusion. This sounds like a fairy tale. Am I going to steal his baby teeth hidden under the pillow and leave him some change?

[The very few extraordinary people have ways to connect others' subconscious minds, thereby collecting information or leaving psychological hints. Mysticism calls this type of extraordinary people "dream peepers".]

Do you have a way to make me a dream peeper?

[No, becoming a dream-seeker requires extremely high mental talent and a large number of complex subconscious training. Low-level dream-seekers often have to rely on external factors to sneak into other people's dreams, such as hypnotizing the target or establishing a dream path through special incense burning. However, I have other ways to achieve the same effect.]

What method?

[With the help of the Secret Guard Program, as long as you can contact the one-eyed spider, I can implant a special virus called "Parasite Seed" into the kernel. When Arthur's consciousness controls the one-eyed spider, it will be infected - don't worry, this will not cause any harm to him, it will only return to his "dream coordinates" to you.]

I probably understand. Will it be dangerous for me to enter Arthur's dream?

【Yes, his subconscious will try his best to protect the dream from outsiders, like a firewall between two houses. In the dream, the dominant subconscious has extremely high authority and power, and it will be quite dangerous once you are targeted by him.】

Are there any other options?

[In theory you can continue to survive for fifty hours unless you can find the same suitable candidate during this period.]

Isn't it 72 hours? It's only half a day later. The black-haired boy in the mirror showed a look of surprise.

【The timing has already begun since you were in a coma.】

"Okay, it seems I have no other choice."

Ed breathed out and tidied up the brown bow tie on his chest. In a short period of time, he had no chance to bypass Arthur and contact more people, so he had to do so.

[Get Arthur's trust as much as possible so that his subconscious will not show excessive aggressiveness to you, and it will be easier to obtain his personal data.]

The flames in the mirror burned out and disappeared without a trace, as if they had never appeared.

...

Hearing the door open, Arthur looked up from the office chair and saw the black-haired boy named Ed walking downstairs gently against the armrest. The clothes looked plain and dull, but they were particularly suitable for him.

"I hope you're dressed well."

Arthur squeezed out a smile and nodded in greetings, then moved his eyes back to the documents and photos on the table. He wanted to complete the paperwork as soon as possible before the other two agents returned, so that more time could be left to handle the case.

"Of course. By the way, sir, when I was changing my clothes, I suddenly recalled a small detail about the case."

"You said."

"It was pitch black in the control room at that time, and the person who shot me seemed to be able to see clearly in the darkness. I waved at him with my cane and was easily avoided."

"Extraordinary?"

Arthur narrowed his eyes. This was an important clue and also confirmed some existing evidence.

"What do you mean by 'Extraordinary'?" Ed seemed a little puzzled.

Arthur felt that he might as well explain it thoroughly. The existence of the extraordinary is not a secret, not to mention that the person in front of him is likely to have to get along for a long time:

"A small number of people with superpower potential will produce special gem crystals in the pineal glands of the brain through conditions such as drugs or rituals. It is called "birth stone" in ancient times, and "personal crystals" in modern times, and it can be called whatever you want. The type and quality of the crystals will change the body's body functions, as well as the affinity and effect of the "secret text".

"Secret text..."

"The mystic community cannot give a unique explanation about what the secret text is. What is certain is that it is a pictographic mark containing mysterious energy, which you can simply understand as 'magic'."

"... Taking me personally as an example, my birthstone is a crystal called "Tourmethon". It has good adaptability to the secret text of "puppet". Its characteristic is "original and manipulation", that is, controlling the power of other creatures. This is why I can control this "one-eyed spider" with consciousness."

He took out a metal disc from his waist, and the diamond base stretched and popped out, stretched and flipped, and saw eight hook claws stretched out from the base, and changed into a spider's form in the palm of his palm.

"May I take a look at it?"

"certainly."

What Arthur handed to Ed was the mechanical creature he was most skilled in controlling - the LD841 land-travel reconnaissance drone ‘one-eyed spider’.

As one of the classic early scientific research products of the Royal Society, the one-eyed spider is known for its simple and reliable operation and concealed and fast reconnaissance capabilities. Its main purpose is to search for enemy unit information in complex environments, thereby reducing casualties among combatants.

"It's incredible...how does its power system keep working? Mechanical clockwork? Or a small steam engine...no, it's impossible for the steam engine to be so small."

This is the first time Arthur has seen someone ask such a professional question:

"The mass of a one-eyed spider is not very high. It can connect the personality crystals of the controller through resonance crystals, thereby directly obtaining motivation."

"Can you control it remotely? Or do you have to contact to establish a connection?"

"As long as it is within my perception range, I can sense its position and control it at any time." As he said that, Arthur outlined the pattern of the secret text of the "puppet" in his mind, and his consciousness drilled into the inside of the one-eyed spider.

The world is coated with a colorful zinc yellow, which is an indescribable and strange experience, as if I were observing with the eyes of a fish, blurry and weird.

Suddenly, a strange tingling sensation flashed in his mind, as if he was bitten by some weak soft insect, and like a tiny spark from the circuit, making him feel a wisp of uneasy palpitations.

Is it an illusion?

Arthur didn't care too much, and such discomfort was common to learners of the "Puppet" secret text. Even though he had been an extraordinary person for nearly a year, he was still not very comfortable with the feeling of walking with eight legs.

"Here, it's like this." Arthur controlled the one-eyed spider and crawled back into his palm along Ed's arm.

At the same time, a line of pale white flamed text flashed in Ed's vision:

["Parasite Seeds" have been uploaded to the target personality crystal.]

It's done! He suppressed his inner surprise, but he didn't expect the first step to go so smoothly.

Although Ed wanted to end the conversation now, he did not want to appear too hasty to avoid arousing the other party's suspicion.

I also need to gain Arthur's trust as much as possible to reduce Arthur's subconscious aggression against him.

How can we make the other party trust us more? Of course, it is to actively cooperate with the case investigation.

"By the way, Arthur, I hope to review all the information known in the ‘Metro Massacre’ case, and maybe help me recall more details."

"Of course it's okay, please sit down."

Arthur reached out to bring a mahogany chair with leather cushions, and the two sat opposite each other at the fan-shaped table.

“According to the information currently obtained, the pneumatic subway ceases to operate at the multi-channel converter at about nine o'clock in the evening.”

The pocket watch in the dream pointed to nine o'clock, and time was right. Ed nodded and waited for Arthur to continue talking.

"Around 22:30, Doyle Underground Railway Company discovered the problem and sent maintenance personnel to contact the police. The Shenshui Bureau entered the venue at about 23:15 and cleared out the remaining ghouls inside."

"...It is not clear what channel they entered the pneumatic subway from. Some agents believe that they were excavated from a secret passage. There are many underground relics of ancient elves in the city - people usually call it "rat path". However, no cave was found on the scene."

"Is it possible that the ghouls entered the tunnel from the ground entrance?" Ed asked.

Arthur did not answer immediately. His forehead was slightly lowered, his eyes were looking at the pen on the table, and then he pondered for a moment:

"This is probably unlikely. There are only two paths to enter the underground tunnel: subway station stairs and maintenance passages. These stairs connect the main buildings on the ground and are easily noticed..."

"In most cases, ghouls will only appear in the suburbs at night, stealing corpses and animals, and rarely launching attacks on dense crowds - because this will lead to large-scale cleanup operations by the government, which will not be worth the cost."

"You mean, someone has planned this massacre?" Ed remembered the mysterious man who shot him, "Have you investigated the controller? Is he still alive?"

He had not seen any photos of the body wearing the controller's uniform on the cork board in the police station. The only one who was most likely to appear in the control room that night was the controller, and there must be a major suspicion.

"He's dead," Arthur shook his head, frowned, as if he was recalling something painful: "But he didn't die at the scene."

"What?"

"This is another big suspicion: we did not find his body on the subway that night, which really aroused our suspicion. When our agent broke into his apartment, he found that the family of five had all been hanged to death."

"The old man, his wife, two children, and himself. He swayed and hung over the sky one meter above the ground, his tongue was so blue."

“…and according to the time of death, he returned home before and after the ‘Metro Massacre’.”
Chapter completed!