Mechanical Alchemist

Chapter 80: Harvier's Resentful Morgue

Although I don't know if the "sir" is really interested in accepting the commission to forge the spider plant, at least it is confirmed that there is such a master in the outer city.

Su'en also felt a bit emotional. There are indeed hidden dragons and crouching tigers in the black market.

As for the identity of the mysterious sir, he speculated that he was probably from the inner city.

After all, combat professionals can still comprehend advancement through fighting, but for professions that require a large amount of specialized knowledge, they can only be cultivated in places with complete inheritance like the inner city. For example, the Black Tower Alchemy Academy, or large organizations like the "Alchemy Guild"...

Su'en guessed that he was probably another powerful figure with a shady background.

But for him, it's better. Being shady means that the relationship with the inner city is more distant, and it is safer to deal with.

...

When Su'en came out of the black market, it was still early. He rode his motorcycle back to Green Street and plunged into the arena.

Recently, there have been battles between professionals, and he happened to be able to catch up with the final matches.

After reaping a wave of experience from the corpses, he also helped Kay and the others resolve several brawls. The night passed like this.

In the early morning, Su'en rode his motorcycle to Gingko Street.

He went to buy bread for breakfast and suddenly thought of something, so he posted a note on the mailbox in front of Bellman Bakery at No. 14 Gingko Street.

Su'en wanted to contact the mysterious pharmacist again to buy some special potions. He found the Abomination Repellent that saved Rena last time very useful.

It would be good to have some more in case they are needed in the future.

After leaving the note, Su'en didn't go far and watched the person approaching the mailbox from a distance.

Sure enough, not long after, a half-sized kid appeared. He found the note on the mailbox and tore it off after looking around.

Su'en bit into his bread and suddenly became interested, so he followed.

Although the half-sized kid was cautious and looked back several times, and even sneaked into empty alleys several times, showing a certain awareness of being followed, Su'en's Advanced Tracking Technique and the steel wire in his mechanical glove made it easy for him to follow.

Finally, the half-sized kid came back and appeared on Camellia Street, four blocks away from Gingko Street.

This is a civilian district in the outer city, with dilapidated gray buildings on the street, as well as "iron box houses" made of containers and steel frames.

Su'en leaned against a three-story small building with dark red tiles, calmly watching the half-sized kid who took the note enter a small alley and meet with several companions there.

In the sewage-filled alley, a pale corpse that had been dead for an unknown amount of time lay in a pile of garbage. More than a dozen large gray rats with big heads were gnawing on the corpse, making a "squeak squeak" sound. They were not afraid of humans and stared at the few humans at the entrance of the alley while eating.

"Hey, Luke, aren't you supposed to be 'working' on Gingko Street today? Why did you come back?"

"Don't block me, I have Danny's mission. I got the letter!"

"Oh~ Is someone buying potions? I hope that customer buys more so we can have money to buy bread."

"Beta, stop saying things like that. It will make Danny very difficult..."

"..."

Listening to the conversation between the few people, Su'en probably knew the name of the pharmacist.

The half-sized kid sneaked into a dilapidated building and didn't come out again.

Su'en didn't follow him in either. He just had a sudden curiosity and wanted to see what was going on. And in case he needed any special potions in the future, he could recognize the place.

After finding the place, he returned the same way.

...

Soon, Su'en returned to No. 88 Gingko Street and hired someone to move several large boxes into the small Western-style building.

No one noticed that there was a large black scythe in one of the luggage bags that looked like a cello case.

A "haunted house" had a new tenant, probably feeling unlucky, and no neighbors came to say hello.

Su'en was also happy about this.

After the movers left, he carefully checked the entire house for the third time and found no abnormalities. Then he set up some warning mechanisms on the windowsills, roof, and various room doors, and closed all the curtains.

After doing all this, he plunged into the basement.

He installed several shooting targets on the basement wall and moved down the training sandbags and equipment.

After a little arrangement, the training room became a bit more interesting.

He had prepaid the rent for half a year, and this small building would be his residence for a long time in the future.

Su'en knew that although he had the talent of the Reaper of Death, which made his skills and knowledge progress rapidly in all aspects, his weakness was also obvious, which was that the talent had almost no amplification effect on his physical body.

If he wanted his body to adapt to the skyrocketing skills in his mind, he had to train hard himself.

But there are many high-tech enhancements in this world, and physical strengthening is also possible.In a few large boxes, there was a "steam-powered ultra-low temperature therapy device" that helps muscles recover quickly, and a "neuromuscular bioelectric stimulation device" that accelerates muscle growth...

These were good things that Su'en had previously found in the black market mechanical shop.

These iron lumps were taken out of the scrapped military arsenal in the inner city and sold on the black market, probably intended to be dismantled for parts.

After all, hardly anyone in the outer city knew what these devices were for.

But after Su'en stripped the memories of the assistant at the Black Tower Academy in the underground dungeon, he learned that these devices were "military-grade instruments" used by the training department of the large organization in the inner city for new recruits.

Although the models of the devices were a bit outdated, they were indeed good treasures for enhancing the body.

Using these two devices properly could greatly improve the efficiency of physical training.

Su'en tinkered with the devices a bit and found that they were in normal working condition, so he didn't pay much attention to them.

.......

After setting up the basement, Su'en walked to the corner and took out the black scythe.

If such a powerful weapon was only used as a life-or-death gamble with enemies, Su'en felt it would be a waste.

He wanted to try if there were other ways to avoid the curse backlash on the scythe.

As a puppeteer, his first reaction was to use puppets.

Then, he actually controlled a puppet to hold the scythe and drew a subtle spatial crack on the wall.

He didn't dare to make it too big, just a crack the size of a fingernail.

To avoid being instantly killed by the backlash.

An hour later, Su'en, who had taken off his clothes and stood naked in front of the mirror, suddenly felt a chill in his buttocks, and a jet of blood shot out.

It was an embarrassing place, but fortunately, there was no danger.

"As expected..."

Su'en sighed slightly and sprinkled medicine powder on the wound on his buttocks.

It was an expected failure.

If it was so easy to get stuck in a bug, Su'en believed that the previous owner of this scythe must have used it to kill many people.

"Ordinary puppets won't work. It seems that the curse of the scythe should trace back to the user. The most likely targets are 'living beings', 'energy sources', or some other signs of life..."

Su'en roughly figured out some principles of the scythe's curse backlash, but he hadn't completely lost interest in trying.

He analyzed again, "There is a high-level puppet called the 'substitute puppet' that can transfer the injuries of the main body. That might work. Or directly controlling someone else's limbs with steel wires to make them swing the scythe should also be able to avoid the curse backlash..."

As a puppeteer, he instantly thought of these two methods.

But for now, he couldn't create the 'substitute puppet' with his current skills. And controlling others to use the scythe was still a long way off. He had just started learning puppet control techniques and had a long way to go before he could control them freely.

Thinking of this, Su'en moved his ten fingers, and the two puppet dolls in the room happily danced and practiced puppet control instinctively.

He suddenly thought of something and muttered to himself, "If I could strip the bodies of a few puppeteers, my control skills would probably improve quickly... Unfortunately, puppeteers are already a rare profession. It's unlikely to find a few in the whole Old Lingdun."

.......

The technique of multitasking allowed Su'en to control the puppets with his hands while his mind could think about other things.

Since he couldn't free up his hands to do other things anyway, his thoughts suddenly drifted away.

Looking at this house, Su'en didn't feel sleepy. Suddenly, he instinctively thought about the fact that people had died in this house.

Based on his experience of watching eight hundred horror movies, a "haunted house" with consecutive deaths definitely had a problem.

With this thought, Su'en's mind became active: "Let me think, assuming this house has a problem... besides dark spiritual power causing distortions, what other reasons could there be?"

In an instant, scenes from countless horror movies flashed through his mind, and Su'en's gaze gradually became deep.

Then, he quickly analyzed several possibilities for the deaths.

NO.1: The landlord pretended to rent out the house but actually lured tenants to come and then plotted to rob and kill them;

NO.2: There were hidden "dangerous sources" in the house, such as radiation, that caused deaths invisibly;

NO.3: There was something in the house that would only appear under certain conditions, such as "ghost seeds" or supernatural powers;

NO.4: Other reasons, such as random thefts and killings for money...

The first possibility was almost instantly ruled out.

Before renting the house, he had already revealed his identity as a member of the Cross Society, so it was unlikely for the landlord to do such a thing.

And he had the All-Knowing Eye, which could see body data panels and couldn't be deceived by negative magnetic fields, so the second possibility was also basically ruled out.

As for the fourth possibility, it was possible, but not very likely.

Then, using the process of elimination, Su'en was left with the last option.

Thinking of this, he suddenly felt a bit annoyed: "If there really is a problem with the reason for the deaths in this house, is it because there are 'ghost seeds' inside? It can't be that coincidental, right..."

.......Su'en never harbored any illusions about matters of life and death.

After thinking about this issue, he immediately went to find the landlord, Ge Langtai, and used threats and enticements to inquire about the situation of the previous tenants.

To his surprise, he discovered that in the past year, three tenants had died in this house.

The first two deaths were quite normal, probably caused by deformities. One died from a tumor on the head, and the other went mad and died from deformities all over the body.

But the third blind man was very strange.

From Ge Langtai's words, Su'en noticed several anomalies about the blind man: 1. He had a mysterious background and was not from the Nan City area, possibly from the inner city; 2. He seemed to be investigating something; 3. The doors and windows were closed, and the blind man suddenly disappeared without a trace, with no body found; 4. The blind man was very skilled and could locate things by sound.

After obtaining this information, Su'en immediately felt that this house was probably not just an "evil house."

Did the third blind man simply leave without saying anything, or perhaps he didn't die?

Or maybe he did die, but his body disappeared?

Whether it was just wild speculation or cautious instinct, Su'en always sought out clues and reasoned through the doubts when encountering such bizarre events.

It was like playing a puzzle game, refusing to give up until it was solved.

"If the blind man came to this house to investigate... to find someone? There are no living people, but there might be ghosts."

"Or maybe, there is a treasure in this house?"

Returning to the basement, Su'en looked at the surrounding cement walls, and a thought became clearer in his mind: "If he was looking for something, the All-Knowing Eye would have detected abnormalities. Could it be that this house can only be seen (triggered) under certain special conditions, like a cursed object, or... a sealed object?"

"Suppose the blind man died and his body disappeared. Either he was eaten by a monster, taken away by the murderer, or his body is still hidden in some compartment of the house. Wow, this is a transcendent world..."

"Perhaps... this house itself is a monster that devours people?"

As this thought emerged, as if imposing a psychological suggestion on himself, Su'en became more convinced that there was something "strange" in this house.

His gaze involuntarily focused, scanning the entire basement.

And just at that moment, suddenly!

On the basement wall that had shown no abnormalities despite being observed several times by the All-Knowing Eye, a row of information appeared.

[Harvier's Resentful Morgue]

Explanation: It only exists when you become aware of its existence; it appears before your eyes when you think of it;

.......

"I actually guessed it right..."

Su'en's eye twitched.

Seeing the changing scenery around him, he realized for the first time that indulging in wild thoughts seemed to be a sin.

This wasn't a game. Solving puzzles might be fun, but it could also trigger some unimaginable things. Old Lingdun was originally an ancient relic, and even now, there were occasional "strange incidents" that suddenly occurred in the city.

But I was just thinking... and it triggered this?

It wasn't the "ghost" he had speculated, but the situation was even more absurd.