Even though the agent was not proficient in the Psychoanalysis Method, he could still tell that Linda was genuinely happy. Since they met, this was probably the happiest he had ever seen her.
Originally, the agent didn't have much hope that they would catch any fish with such rudimentary equipment. That spear was essentially just a sharpened long stick. And although Linda was strong, she didn't seem like someone who had caught fish before, so the chances of success were slim.
However, as it is commonly known, whether a person can catch fish has less to do with the person and more with the fish. In a resource-rich area, you could catch fish with just a casual throw; in a fish-poor area, even a world champion would fail.
Beneath the waterfall was indeed a good spot for fishing. The oxygen level there was high, attracting those migratory fish that needed to come there for oxygen. Linda paddled around in the boat for a while and quickly spotted her target. She swung the spear forcefully, lunging downward. Unfortunately, it was a miss.
The agent had already reached the top of the waterfall. It was a small waterfall, only about three to four meters high. He found a path to climb up and stood at the top, directing Linda. He pointed to the other side and said, "Over there, the splash is bigger there, there should be fish."
Linda paddled the boat over, and sure enough, she quickly found a school of fish. Without hesitation, she lifted the spear and thrust it down forcefully. With a splash, she lifted a big fish.
The spear only had one point, incapable of holding the fish. The fish wriggled and fell back into the water. Unwilling to give up, Linda jumped into the water. It wasn't long before the agent saw blood rising to the surface.
Linda's head emerged from the water. She clutched the caught fish with one arm and swam with the other, quickly reaching the shore.
When the agent went down, Linda was examining the fish. The agent walked over for a look and found it was a salmon. He squeezed its belly and said, "There should be plenty of roe here."
Linda grinned widely. She found a branch nearby to slice open the fish's belly, and sure enough, it was full of roe.
At that moment, to the agent's surprise, Linda grabbed the fish's tail like she had gone insane and started to slam it forcefully on the ground.
Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam!
The agent quickly stepped aside. The girl was strong, swinging the fish with a fierce momentum. It didn't take many slams before the fish body broke apart, but even with just the tail end left, she kept on smashing. Until the whole fish was smashed to pieces. The fish roe was a mess, unrecognizable, with smashed fish meat and blood everywhere.
Even then, she seemed unsatisfied, and started jumping on the fish, stomping it hard. She didn't spare any of the roe, crushing them all. Then she stood there, gasping for breath, her entire body trembling.
"Are you okay?" The agent knew it was pointless to ask, clearly, things were not okay.
He had realized that her intent to fish was not for enjoyment, but purely out of animosity toward the roe in the fish's belly. But what sort of grudge she had against the roe was still unclear.
What was clear, however, was that her resentment in this aspect was not small; it might even be astonishingly large. Her sole feeling of being alive was all channeled towards catching and killing fish.
At that thought, the agent suddenly had an idea that Linda might share a common language with Hunting. Since Hunting was morbid, and Linda also showed signs of morbidity. His perspective suddenly broadened.
Due to the severe restrictions of the subplot, the agent couldn't expedite the process as he usually would, but had to study the storyline. However, compared to something akin to the Mind Reading Technique of the Psychoanalysis Method, the major drawback of the Behavioral Analysis Method is that it requires a substantial amount of sample data.
As mentioned before, the current industry standard is the Behavioral Analysis Method, because when there is enough sample data, its accuracy is very high. And if someone is undergoing psychological treatment, there must be long-term treatment, with ample time to collect data to ensure accuracy.
But in this narrative-driven subplot, players must outrun the storyline, meaning they cannot follow the plot step by step, or else the outcome would be unfavorable. They must understand what's happening ahead of time.
Take this subplot, for instance. If they had known there was a corpse before the Joker's body rose, and that the corpse would reanimate, they wouldn't need to enter at all; they could just burn the warehouse down.
Of course, this might cause them to miss many clues, but since it's the early stage of the storyline and the Monster's strength is not high, it's more important to collect clues than to avoid danger. However, in later stages, compromises must be made. Those monsters capable of one-hit kills must be avoided, even if it means sacrificing clues; otherwise, the team will quickly lose members.
Therefore, obtaining relevant information before the storyline reaches a certain point is crucial. But the Behavioral Analysis Method requires experiences first, and only then allows for deductions. This creates a paradox: they must first go through the storyline, follow the actions of the plot characters, to gather behavioral data, but by then, it's already too late.
Currently, among all the players, Hunting is the only one skilled in the Psychoanalysis Method. However, Hunting's Psychoanalysis Method differs from others. More accurately, it is not psychoanalysis but psychological tracking, which only has offensiveness, lacking informativeness.
And considering his character, he isn't the type to engage in lengthy analyses. The agent didn't have much hope initially, but he suddenly remembered that morbidity and normalcy aren't too distinct; their differentiation isn't very clear. This means that each morbid trait possesses certain capabilities of other traits.
On the way back, the agent thought that perhaps he could persuade Hunting to manipulate Linda.
Linda's mental state wasn't very normal; she clearly had things she was hiding. Such people are very easy to manipulate, so even if it isn't manipulation, it should be possible.
Thinking all the way, upon returning to the old mansion, the agent immediately went upstairs and found Hunting. Hunting was still sitting by the bed, pale and appearing somewhat weak.
The agent found it strange. Hunting was indeed severely injured; he had been stabbed in the stomach, wasn't stitched up, just simply bandaged, and aside from some fever-reducing medicine, he hadn't taken any other medication. Yet, he was still lively and energetic, which already counted as a medical miracle.
But speaking of it, it was still peculiar, the agent always felt that this wasn't the real standard of the morbid level. Moreover, after coming here and giving him one or two reminders, Hunting hadn't spoken again, always appearing somewhat detached. What's going on?
The agent felt a bit worried, but he couldn't ask too much, since asking like this would indeed be like putting pressure on a teammate.
But he suddenly forgot, they shared a memory bank, meaning there was team communication, and the system couldn't detect it. As soon as he thought of this, Hunting turned to look at him.
His complexion seemed even paler than before. The agent was really worried, he sat next to Hunting and looked at him. The agent said in a somewhat hoarse voice:
"I saw it, it's looking for me."
Just that sentence made the agent's hair stand on end.
"Who?!"
Hunting shook his head and then said, "Bring her to me."
The agent was still a bit in a daze while going downstairs. Because he suddenly realized that Hunting's ability, "Spiritual Vision," was in a certain sense a ghost-seeing god technique.
In a horror game where there really were supernatural events, being able to directly see a person's soul and spirit, wasn't that directly seeing ghosts?
The agent rubbed his forehead. He knew this wasn't simple. Now, through Hunting's words, he confirmed there really was an evil spirit lurking nearby. But the problem was, who exactly was this evil spirit, and what were the conditions under which it attacked others.
The agent actually wasn't very concerned about the former, the focus was the latter. The undeniable truth was that this evil spirit couldn't indiscriminately kill, otherwise given such strict constraints, they wouldn't survive the first day. However, it also couldn't be completely non-aggressive, otherwise Hunting wouldn't be in this state.
The agent could tell Hunting was already trying his best to avoid being discovered by certain things. Because of this, he couldn't even focus his attention on the real world.
The agent had no idea what Hunting saw in the psychic battlefield, or how he managed to evade the terrifying evil spirit's hunt. But he knew, if Hunting needed to exhaust himself to survive, then this evil spirit was most likely invincible, at least unkillable in the spiritual world, forcing them to just avoid it.
In other words, once they triggered the evil spirit's kill rules, they wouldn't even have the ability to struggle and would be directly killed.
This instantly ramped up the pressure on the agent. But this game didn't allow a quick finish. To learn the evil spirit's hunting rules, they had to figure out who the evil spirit was; to figure out the evil spirit's identity, they had to keep playing the plot.
The agent sighed deeply. He went downstairs, only to hear Aunt Cain's scream.
"Linda!!! Why do you smell so fishy? Did you kill fish?! Don't you know it's salmon spawning season?! You damned demon! Satan's daughter!! I'll kill you!!"
Linda also screamed, quickly turning into wailing. The agent ran downstairs, a bit puzzled. Linda was actually quite strong, while Aunt Cain was relatively thin. If Aunt Cain wanted to hit her, it wouldn't matter if she didn't dodge, how come she didn't run?
But he quickly rushed downstairs to stop the domestic disturbance. Seeing someone coming down, Aunt Cain stopped hitting and just stood aside angrily.
"Don't be like this, ma'am. Violence is unacceptable. Besides, Linda is just a little girl. We were just playing by the waterfall, encountered a dead fish that probably fell from the waterfall and died. The fish's belly still had a lot of fish eggs. We felt sorry for it and buried it. I even prayed for it. Staying longer, naturally we smelled. Washing up will solve it. Don't be mad."
After hearing this explanation, Aunt Cain seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, saying, "Oh my, that's good. I thought you really... Sorry, that would have been so cruel. I really can't accept it. Linda's a good girl, she shouldn't pick up such bad habits."
Upon hearing this tone, the agent found it odd: Why did Aunt Cain seem to have known what Linda was going to do? Had Linda done it before? Or tried but was stopped by Aunt Cain?
"It's like this, my brother caught a cold when he came here, had a fever the night before last, didn't want to disturb you, so we didn't say, but now he's deteriorated a bit. Although his health is usually good, some rest should fix it. But I don't have much caregiving experience, I'd like Linda to help. Of course, if it's too much trouble, forget it..."
"Oh my, you should have said earlier," Aunt Cain said surprised, "Go quickly, Linda. Take good care of this gentleman's brother. I'll go get you some hot water."