Embers Ad Infinitum
chapter-262

Chapter 262: Real Charlatan

In Wild Pigeon Bar, just as Jiang Baimian was thinking about how she could reasonably use her available resources to break through the illusion predicament and inform the robot guards, Clam Dragon Church, and the other factions about the ‘enemy attack,’ Shang Jianyao—who had failed to communicate with the surveillance cameras—took out a loudspeaker from his tactical backpack.

Amidst the music, he held the loudspeaker and shouted at one of the few human consciousnesses outside. “It’s already dark! The wind is still so strong! Don’t you know it’s time to return home!”

This sounded like a tirade directed at people who played outside without any heed for the time or the weather. In fact, it was a way to realize Inference Clowning. But with the help of a loudspeaker, the effects would be greatly reduced. Shang Jianyao had to provide guidance to a certain extent, and it could only be used on individuals.

As his voice echoed, the target’s consciousness paused for two seconds before jogging to a certain spot on the street.

Jiang Baimian sensed this and roughly understood Shang Jianyao’s idea.

After the Superior Heartless used the illusion to influence the people in the bar, it meant that he had an interaction with Shang Jianyao and couldn’t hide his consciousness. In other words, one of the human consciousnesses Shang Jianyao sensed was very likely an enemy.

The enemy might not be able to understand human language, and they knew that the premise of the strong wind came from an illusion and that it was fake. Therefore, they wouldn’t be affected by Inference Clowning.

This seemed like a good thing, but they would be exposed when they reacted differently from other human consciousnesses. They would be like fireflies in the night—bright and outstanding.

The tallest tree always experienced the strongest winds!

However, Shang Jianyao’s response wasn’t perfect in his haste. Jiang Baimian quickly thought of a few flaws.

The first was that the Superior Heartless’s ability range far exceeded Shang Jianyao’s. The place he was currently hiding was outside Shang Jianyao’s perception range. None of the human consciousnesses were real targets.

The second was that the Superior Heartless could make the people outside experience auditory hallucinations and maintain the same reaction as him.

Third, among the human consciousnesses outside, some of them might be fake—a created illusion.

How troublesome. I can only eliminate them step by step… Jiang Baimian cooperated with Shang Jianyao and sensed the changes in the electric signals to determine if the affected person was a fake or a real person.

After urging a human to return home, Shang Jianyao switched targets and repeated the same trick. At this moment, he was like a mayor in a settlement who had used a loudspeaker to make an announcement.

…

Abbess Zhou Yue walked toward the most powerful part of the illusion as if she were performing a shaman dance. This was the confidence an Awakened with similar abilities in the same domain had regarding the corresponding signal.

I’m so tired… Zhou Yue couldn’t help but complain after walking for a distance. As she walked, she had to gyrate her waist, sway her body, and move her hands. It was simply too exhausting!

It was difficult for a clergyman like her, who had never undergone professional training.

This exhausted her to the point of having blasphemous thoughts. Should I disguise myself and sneak into the Furnace Church to learn how to dance?

…

In Serene Dream, the lady boss—Aynor—stared at the computer screen as she repeated the warning in fear. However, the ‘person’ lingering behind her and blowing at her neck from time to time still existed.

After nearly a minute, Aynor felt something cold on her shoulder.

She couldn’t control herself any longer and let out a scream. “Ah!” At the same time, her dark-brown eyes turned extremely dark.

…

In a building along Riverfront Avenue.

A man suddenly took off his clothes uncontrollably, rushed to the balcony, and peed against the wind.

After peeing, he woke up, confused and happy. He was confused as to why he had acted as if he had been possessed. He was happy that he had proven himself by defeating the wind with his pee.

In a room in the other building next to his.

A woman was holding a book she had found in a city ruin and said to her child, “If you can’t read, you won’t even be able to take on many missions as a Ruin Hunter!”

“I can hire someone to read the mission statement,” her child replied stubbornly.

The woman suddenly felt a rush through her head. Without thinking, she raised her arm and slammed it against the table. Amidst the loud bang, she roared, “You have to pay! Are you going to learn this?”

After shouting, she regretted it and felt that she shouldn’t have done that.

Her child—who was originally rather strong—cried at this moment. “I’ll learn, I’ll learn…”

…

In Wild Pigeon Bar, Long Yuehong suddenly felt hot-headed for some reason as he listened to Shang Jianyao’s ‘broadcast.’ He suddenly stood up and fired at the area where many humans were unconscious.

This was something he had previously wanted to do out of impulse. After all, they were Heartless in his eyes.

Fortunately, he shot based on the assumption that the Heartless had their bodies hunched in preparation to pounce on him. Every shot was fired into the air, not the ground. Due to this, nobody died.

Bai Chen shrunk herself even more under the other window. She seemed to think that she wouldn’t react in a random manner that might cause an irreversible outcome or be affected by the hallucinations too much if she didn’t move, look, or listen.

Jiang Baimian jumped and rolled before arriving at the door.

Just as she opened the door and wanted to take out a grenade from her tactical backpack and throw it outside to create a commotion to attract reinforcements, she was suddenly stunned.

What am I doing? Why am I so impulsive? Wasn’t I planning on waiting for Shang Jianyao to ‘clear’ the consciousnesses outside and ‘urge’ the real humans to retreat before ‘informing’ the robot guards and Nanke Convent with a grenade? As her thoughts raced, Jiang Baimian cast her gaze at Shang Jianyao.

Shang Jianyao had already thrown away the loudspeaker and tried to rush past her to the door.

The small speaker not far away from him was still singing. “Dare I ask where the road is…”

The next second, a hoarse, high-pitched bestial roar sounded dozens of meters away from everyone outside Wild Pigeon Bar. “Roar!”

The roar was so loud that not only did it penetrate the illusion, but it also allowed Jiang Baimian to hear it clearly.

With this roar, the wind suddenly stopped. The Heartless in Long Yuehong’s bloodshot eyes turned back into humans, and the dim lights in the bar returned to normal.

Shang Jianyao didn’t stop. He ran out and approached the spot where the roar came from as quickly as possible. He wanted to shorten the distance and enter within range of his abilities.

Upon seeing this, Jiang Baimian didn’t hesitate to hold her pistol and follow closely. She wanted to fire continuously, not giving the target a chance to reinstate the illusion.

In just a few seconds, Shang Jianyao rolled, propped himself up with his hands, and looked at the dark corner of another street.

His eyes were deep.

Corny Person!

The next second, a figure jumped down from nowhere and entered the area illuminated by the street lamps. He appeared in front of Shang Jianyao and Jiang Baimian in an open and aboveboard manner.

He had long, grayish-white, and messy hair. He looked like an old man past his prime. His clothes were tattered in all kinds of ways as if they had been peeled off from many corpses and constantly piled over him.

His face was warped, and his eyes were turbid. They were filled with countless blood vessels, and there were red traces at the corners of his mouth. It was obvious that he was a Heartless.

Jiang Baimian didn’t hesitate to raise her pistol, but her conditioned reflex of ‘discovering the target—aiming at the target’ had failed.

She was no longer aiming at the target but at the sky!

Bang!

Jiang Baimian’s bullet flew into the night.

Almost at the same time, she saw the Superior Heartless raise his right hand.

He held a United 202.

In the face of such a situation, Jiang Baimian’s instinctive reaction was to pounce, roll, and dodge. However, with a thought, she couldn’t help but stop in her tracks. She even assumed a forward posture.

This was like raising an arm instead of her calf after her knee was hit in the right spot.

On the other side, Shang Jianyao’s subconscious reaction to such a change should’ve been employing Hands Immobility, preventing the target from pulling the trigger. But at this moment, he actually chose Inference Clowning.

“Look…”

Before he could finish his sentence, the Superior Heartless had already aimed at Jiang Baimian.

At this moment, Abbess Zhou Yue—who was shamanic dancing—followed the roar and rushed to the vicinity.

The moment she saw the Superior Heartless standing under the street lamps, she threw away the flashlight in her hand without thinking.

Right on the heels of that, she released her thumb from the bottle’s mouth and threw the plastic bottle containing the talisman water at the target.

Talisman water splattered as the bottle rolled, producing a drizzle along the way.

Before she became a target and was affected, Zhou Yue used her free hand—which had been relieved after she abandoned the flashlight—to take off the Eight Trigrams Mirror hanging from the hemp rope around her waist and shone it at the enemy.

Amidst these seemingly useless actions, the Superior Heartless actually didn’t pull the trigger.

He hurriedly raised his hands to shield his face. He then roared, turned around, and fled in a sorry state.

With a smack, the plastic bottle—which only had a little talisman water left—smashed to the ground. The Superior Heartless’s figure alternated between a tall state and a short state as he disappeared into the darkness that the street lamps couldn’t illuminate.

Jiang Baimian caught her breath and fired at his back several times, but it was already too late. All that was left in her eyes was the messy, grayish-white hair.

“Thankfully it worked…” After Nanke Convent’s Abbess Zhou Yue watched the Superior Heartless escape, she heaved a long sigh of relief.

Before she could finish speaking, an electronic voice sounded from a surveillance camera on the street lamp pole beside her.

“Circuit malfunction eliminated, rebooting.”

This… As Jiang Baimian was surprised that Zhou Yue’s charlatan-like performance was effective, she frowned.

More and more facts showed that the Superior Heartless could affect electromagnetic signals and interfere with circuitry.

This might be the reason why communications with the robot guards were lost… Fortunately, he doesn’t seem to know that there are bioelectric signals in the human body and didn’t deal with it. Sigh, knowledge can indeed be equivalent to strength… As Jiang Baimian’s thoughts raced, she turned her head to look at Shang Jianyao.

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