South Tivian, Bishop Square.
Under the cold winter night, the New Year's Eve party on the square had already begun. Joyful and exciting programs were performed on the stage in turn, causing the crowd below to laugh and cheer from time to time. Amidst continuous applause and shouts, people's enthusiasm rose higher and higher. In this atmosphere, people could even forget the bone-chilling cold wind of the winter night.
While the vast crowd on the square was immersed in laughter, Dorothy, however, was frowning deeply, with an unspeakable heaviness on her face. When she learned of the immense danger hidden among the crowd, her mind could no longer focus on the programs on the stage.
'These guys hid bombs among the audience, planning to detonate them at a significant moment... They're truly crazy. If they want to carry out a terrorist attack, why don't they find a more meaningful target instead of choosing a place like this...'
Dorothy thought with a hint of annoyance. Through Kapak, she also knew that the natives of the New World were severely oppressed by the colonists. It was understandable that they harbored hatred, but there was a clear target for their grievances. No matter how much hatred they had, they should at least vent their anger on the colonists who carried out the oppression, not these lower-class civilians.
This party was held in the South District, and the audience was mainly lower-class citizens of Tivian, a large portion of whom were workers, also oppressed people. Dorothy couldn't understand why that Sado would choose this place as the target of the attack?
'As Kapak said before, this Sado is indeed a lunatic completely blinded by hatred. Could this guy have chosen this place because he saw how densely packed and numerous the people were here, and he could kill more people by bombing it... It also feels like he was misled by that mastermind.'
Dorothy thought to herself at this moment. She could no longer afford to think about the reason Sado chose this place for the attack. Her top priority now was to find the bombs placed among the audience.
And now, the best way to find the bombs was to continue eavesdropping, hoping to find more clues in Sado and their conversations.
Calming her inner emotions, Dorothy concentrated and began to use the bird corpse puppet to continue eavesdropping on Sado and their conversation.
At this time, in the smoke-filled attic on the rooftop by the side of the square, Sado was continuing to appease the other natives around him who seemed restless due to the long waiting time.
"Please be patient, everyone. I know many of you are eager to see the celebrating white skins bleed and feel fear, but the closer we get to that moment, the calmer we must be. We cannot act rashly.
"We have already arranged it. Kum and they will make their sacrifice at the appointed time. What we need to do is rush out after their sacrifice, take advantage of the chaos to create more casualties, kill the most people, and leave those guys with a painful lesson!
"I know that all of you gathered here are people who have been severely oppressed by the white-skinned devils. It is for the sake of common revenge that you have gathered here from various tribes, all to make those guys pay the price.
"I feel the same way as you. I understand that listening to these guys celebrate makes you want to rush out and kill them, but we must endure. Since the plan has been set, it must be adhered to and executed, otherwise, the suffering of those guys cannot be maximized! So now, please endure a little longer for my sake."
In the not-so-large attic room, Sado stood among the other natives, appeasing them. Under Sado's appeasement, the originally restless crowd quieted down again. These brown-skinned natives sat back on the ground, enduring the laughter coming from the square while smoking in silence. Beside each of them was a rifle, obviously to be used for a massacre when they rushed out later.
Beside the skylight of the attic, an inconspicuous small bird was secretly observing its interior. Just now, Dorothy had obtained crucial information through the corpse puppet.
'Appointed time... sacrifice... bombs... These guys are doing the human bomb thing. Some of them have already infiltrated the audience, just waiting for the right moment to detonate the bombs on their bodies and self-destruct.
'Listening to Sado's words before, they plan to detonate the bombs at the peak of the celebration, to create terror at the most climactic moment of the party. If you think about it carefully... the most climactic moment of this party should be the moment when the new year arrives at midnight. They should be planning to act at that time...'
Dorothy thought so in her heart, then she took out her pocket watch and looked at it. The watch showed that the current time was 10:20, still an hour and forty minutes until midnight.
'I need to find a way to find the human bombs hidden in the crowd during this time...'
Putting away the pocket watch in her hand, Dorothy scanned the surrounding crowd. There were at least several thousand people gathered on this square. It was very difficult to find two or three people with hidden bombs among them.
Initially, Dorothy planned to use the bird corpse puppet to find the human bombs in the crowd. According to Sado's previous statement, those who served as sacrifices were also natives of the New World, and the people there generally have brown skin, so she only needed to find people with brown skin in the crowd.
But soon Dorothy found that this method was not feasible, because it was very dark now, and there was little lighting on the square where the audience was located. Under such dim light, it was difficult to distinguish skin color without getting close, let alone from an aerial view. Due to winter, almost all the audience members were wearing hats and wrapped up tightly, so it was impossible to distinguish the specific skin color of anyone below from the air, nor was it possible to confirm who had bombs strapped to them.
'This is a bit difficult to find... It seems I need to think of other ways to find them...'
Since she couldn't detect the human bombs in the crowd through the bird corpse puppet, Dorothy began to think of other ways to find people. The method she thought of was to use scent to find people. Due to different living environments, the scent of these New World natives is different from that of Tivian people. As long as these differences can be distinguished, plus the smell of gunpowder, then the human bombs can be found from the crowd.
This idea was very good, but just as Dorothy was about to implement it, she discovered a fatal problem: the Finding Breath Seals she had obtained from Adele were now completely used up. Without the extraordinary sense of smell brought by the Finding Breath Seals, she could not distinguish the scents in detail among these thousands of people.
'Tsk, the Finding Breath Seal is very useful, but unfortunately, there are too few. Adele only had three after dealing with the Wolf Blood Society for so long... Now they are all used up...'
Dorothy thought regretfully. After another plan was rejected, she couldn't think of any good way to find the people for a while. In desperation, she could only continue to use the bird corpse puppet to monitor the situation in the attic, attempting to obtain more clues from Sado's side.
During the bird corpse puppet's further careful observation, Dorothy quickly discovered some subtle clues in the attic. For example, she found that there seemed to be more than just natives from the New World in the attic. In a corner of the attic, there were also two or three masked men who were keeping their distance from the natives. These men seemed to be deliberately distancing themselves from the other natives in the attic, and the natives looked at them with a slight hint of vigilance.
In addition, a more important discovery was on a wall in the attic. Dorothy saw a spider crawling on the wall. Although this spider looked ordinary, it was very conspicuous in Dorothy's eyes because she had seen similar ones before when she was at King's Campus. When Dorothy was fighting an intelligence war with Ci Rong, the other party had used such spiders to track her corpse puppets. This was a special Extraordinary creature used by the Eight Point Nest, which had the function of surveillance.
'The mastermind behind these guys... is actually the Eight Point Nest?'
Seeing the scene before her, Dorothy thought in her heart with considerable surprise. Because it was Banu, the native who had defected to the Netherworld Coffin Society, who had previously instigated Sado to come here for revenge, Dorothy had once thought that the mastermind controlling all this was the Corpse Coffin, but she didn't expect it to be the Eight-Pointed Nest.
'It turns out the Eight Point Nest is behind these guys causing trouble here. It seems they must have reached some kind of cooperation with the Corpse Coffin, but... why would the Eight Point Nest make these natives carry out a terrorist attack in a place like this? What good does it do them?'
Gazing at the spider on the attic wall, Dorothy thought to herself. Regarding the reason why the Eight Point Nest manipulated Sado and others to launch a terrorist attack here, she already had some guesses in her mind at this time, but she did not spend energy thinking too much about it, because her primary goal now was to find the human bombs in the crowd, not other things.
Dorothy continued to let the corpse puppet eavesdrop on the attic, trying to collect other more useful clues to help her find people, but unfortunately, after Sado had appeased the other natives, there was no significant communication in the attic. Dorothy eavesdropped for a while without hearing any more crucial clues, which made her feel anxious.
'Damn it... It seems I can't gather any more useful information. Just relying on these clues won't be enough to find those flesh bombs...'
Frowning, Dorothy thought this in her heart. She took out her pocket watch again and checked the time. It was already 10:40. She had been monitoring for half an hour and found no other clues except the Eight-Pointed Nest's spiders. The immediate priority was not to catch the mastermind, but to pull those people with bombs out of the crowd.
'I can't wait any longer. I must take some other measures, otherwise, it will be too late...'
Looking at the time gradually slipping away on the pocket watch in front of her, Dorothy thought anxiously in her heart. Continuing to eavesdrop and waiting for Sado to expose the clues was essentially waiting for death. There was only a little over an hour left, so she had to take action immediately.
'But the problem is... the current information is not enough for me to find the flesh bombs in the crowd. What should I do? Try to notify the surrounding Hunters on alert and have them directly terminate the party and evacuate the crowd? But what if this directly stimulates those guys to go all out and detonate the bombs?'
Just like that, amidst the cheering crowd, Dorothy rubbed her chin, thinking in distress, pondering a way to solve the current predicament. And at this moment, there was a new development on the stage of the party.
At this moment, a juggling performance on the stage had finished. After the actors bowed and exited the stage to applause, the well-dressed host walked onto the stage again. He smiled at the audience below, and after their applause gradually died down, he spoke loudly.
"Many thanks to the young people of the Doss Acrobatics Troupe for presenting such a wonderful performance. As expected of a famous acrobatics troupe in Tivian, do you all think their performance was good to watch!"
The host shouted to the audience below, and the audience almost unanimously shouted that it was good to watch. Seeing this scene, the host continued with a smile.
"Yes... it was very good to watch. The funny performances of the clowns from the Strange Face Circus were very good to watch, the mime performance from the Gao Ge Theater was also very good to watch, and the skills of the young people from the Doss Acrobatics Troupe just now were also very good to watch. For tonight's party, Princess Isabel has invited all the excellent famous actors from Tivian to perform for us.
"Everyone, perhaps the excellent programs before have already made you thoroughly enjoy yourselves, but let me tell you, you still need to save the biggest surprise for later. Before, Princess Isabel said that she had prepared a surprise for tonight's party, and now I will be very honored to reveal the true face of this surprise for everyone. Now, let us welcome one of the most charming women in all of Prit, the genius dance star, the most dazzling ruby of Tivian—Miss Adele. Brillez!"
The host vigorously announced on the stage, extending his hand towards the stage curtain behind him. As the melodious music of the orchestra began, the huge curtain slowly opened, and from behind it, a scarlet figure leaped out.
The bright red dance dress adorned with sparkling jewels bloomed like a rose as the graceful figure twirled. The slender arms wrapped in deep black silk moved and turned with agility, and the light dance steps stepped on the stage like a crane. The dancer, wrapped in a touch of scarlet, danced gracefully on this stage that was the focus of everyone's attention.
Amidst the host's announcement, Adele led her accompanying dancers from behind the curtain to the front of the stage. When that beautiful red figure appeared before everyone's eyes, earth-shattering cheers and applause erupted from the audience, their sound exceeding that of any previous program.
The people present did not expect that the surprise Princess Isabel spoke of was Adele, the most famous female dancer in Tivian. They did not expect that such a big star would visit this party for ordinary lower-class people. When this famous dancer in Tivian appeared at the scene of this civilian party, the enthusiastic atmosphere reached an unprecedented peak, and the shouts of Adele's name on the scene were endless.
"Hey! Dorothy! Did you see? That's Adele! It's actually that big star Adele!? I've long wanted to go and see her performance specifically, I didn't expect her to come here, it's incredible!"
In the crowd, Grego looked at Adele on the stage and shouted, patting Dorothy's shoulder with great enthusiasm. Dorothy also looked at the familiar figure on the stage with a surprised expression.
'The surprise that Princess spoke of... is actually Adele? Adele actually came to this civilian party to perform!?'
With her mouth slightly agape, Dorothy thought in surprise in her heart. Then, not long after, Dorothy immediately thought that perhaps she could let Adele help solve the current problem.
'With Adele's ability... perhaps she can help me find those flesh bombs!'
Dorothy continued to think. Without further delay, she immediately began to prepare to use the information channel to contact Adele on the stage, ready to send her a prayer to inform her of the complicated situation at the party. The last time she searched for Adele's teacher Dalena with Adele, Dorothy successfully established an information channel by having Adele pray to Aka.
Like contacting others, Dorothy pretended to pray to Aka, then prepared to send the content of the prayer to Adele through the information channel. However, at this moment, the system issued a warning sound.
'Warning, detected that the transmission target has a transmission barrier set up, information cannot be effectively transmitted'
The system's voice echoed in Dorothy's mind like this. After being stunned for a while, Dorothy questioned the system in her heart.
'Has a transmission barrier set up? What's going on?'
'Detected that the transmission target has actively set up a barrier on the transmission channel to obstruct transmission, information cannot reach the target. Forced transmission can be performed to break through the barrier and transmit, however, this will also cause uncontrollable mental damage to the target.'
The system explained to Dorothy like this, and after listening, Dorothy quickly understood the general situation.
Simply put, there seemed to be a psychological barrier in Adele's mind against mental intrusion. Without her prior permission, anyone who interfered with her mind would be blocked by this psychological barrier, which included Dorothy's method of directly inserting information using the information channel. This seemed to be a mental defense measure that Adele herself, as a senior mental Extraordinary, had established for herself by some means. This measure prevented Dorothy from putting words into her mind.
Of course, according to the system's own statement, it could easily break through this defense and transmit words to Adele, but the problem was that this would damage Adele's mind. This result suddenly made Dorothy very difficult. She didn't want to damage Adele's mind, and she still needed her help to find people later.
'But... the problem now is that I need to find a way to contact Adele first so that she can help. If the information channel can't be used, I can only rely on the "wen hai hang zhi". But Adele doesn't look like she has the communication book with her at all. Even if she did, Adele is not like Neff and Vanya, she doesn't always have my puppet mark on her. Even if I write something over, it's hard to remind her in time...'
Dorothy thought in distress in her mind. At this moment, she urgently needed to contact Adele, but she couldn't find a suitable way for a while.
Frowning, Dorothy stood rooted to the spot. At this moment, she was so anxious that she almost stomped her feet. And just then, an idea appeared in her mind.
'Right, it seems I can do this... Although it might expose a little something, I can't care too much about it now.'
Dorothy thought this in her heart. Then, after secretly strengthening her resolve, she glanced at Grego beside her, and seeing that he was still concentrating on watching Adele, she reached one hand into the small bag she carried with her. After fumbling around inside, she touched the magic box contained within.
By touch alone, Dorothy secretly opened her magic box in the bag, and then took out an item from it. Holding that item, Dorothy took her hand out of the small bag, and then Dorothy looked at her hand, seeing a letter paper, a letter paper emitting a strange fragrance.
This letter paper was from the first letter Adele sent to the Detective. Because the fragrance on it was too strong and peculiar, Dorothy suspected at the time that there might be something wrong. After reading the letter, she put this fragrant letter into the magic box and then used Stone Wisdom Powder to remove the smell from herself.
And now, when Dorothy took out this letter again, the fragrance on it showed no signs of weakening. The moment this letter was taken out of the magic box, Adele, who was dancing on the stage, couldn't help but glance towards a corner of the nearby audience seats. After a slight stunned, a faint smile appeared on her lips.