Inside the room at 22 Elm West Lane, Igwinte Lower City, blood splattered everywhere.
Various twisted corpses were scattered throughout the room, the flowing blood soaked the carpet, bloodstains were splashed everywhere on the walls and cabinets, and the smell of blood and gunpowder mixed together permeated the space. By all appearances, this was the scene of a tragedy.
"Huff... huff... huff..."
Standing on the blood-soaked carpet, Dorothy held a crowbar covered in a white and red viscous substance, panting. Specks of blood were splattered on her clothes, and her crimson eyes silently stared at the incomplete bodies lying before her.
"Finally... it's done..."
After confirming the death of the broken bodies before her, Dorothy let out a huge sigh of relief. Although she had prepared beforehand, this was still her first hunt targeting an Extraordinary. Tension and apprehension had run throughout the entire process... However, the operation was quite successful.
To successfully enter the Holy Communion Society stronghold at No. 22, Dorothy had used various animal Corpse Puppets to monitor the place for two days beforehand, figuring out the secret knocking signals and codewords used by people coming and going.
Then, Dorothy selected two of the Holy Communion Society henchmen she had killed on her way home from school a few days ago and turned them into Corpse Puppets, using the Spirituality of ""enlightenment"" to enable them to speak, and using their disguise, indistinguishable from real people, to deceive the other members of the Holy Communion Society, bringing Dorothy, who was in a coffin, into the stronghold.
Then, when the opponents were completely unprepared, she launched a surprise attack, taking control of the situation in one fell swoop and gaining the advantage. All of this was thanks to Dorothy's Corpse Puppets, which were almost indistinguishable from living people.
'The operation went smoothly... but the consumption was a bit high...'
Dorothy thought with a sigh. Not only did she lose two Corpse Puppets in this operation, but her Spirituality consumption was also significant. In this operation, Dorothy used 1 point of ""enlightenment"" to give the Corpse Puppets language ability, and another 2 points of ""enlightenment"" to increase the control limit of the two Corpse Puppets. This also caused the originally very energy-efficient Corpse Puppet Ring to almost drain the stored ""Cup"" due to the high load. Dorothy would have to use her finger power bank to provide Spirituality to the ring when she returned. In addition, Dorothy also used 1 point of her own stored ""Cup"" to enhance her physical abilities.
This operation used 3 points of ""enlightenment"" and 2 points of ""Cup"". ""Enlightenment"" was fine, it would recover after two days of rest, but ""Cup"" really needed to be used sparingly...
Having thought this, Dorothy scanned her surroundings, and then used the last bit of residual Spirituality in the Corpse Puppet Ring to control two relatively intact Corpse Puppets to get up. Then, together with her own body, she began to search for valuable items around the area.
After a while, Dorothy found 50 pound in cash, two Raw Consumption Symbol, and then Dorothy found a book next to the altar in the secret room. In addition, there were some miscellaneous items that seemed somewhat valuable. Without much thought, Dorothy packed all these things and all the guns.
After packing, Dorothy deactivated the two corpses she was currently controlling as Corpse Puppets, and then turned her gaze to Burton, who was lying on the ground beside her, covered in blood and with a mangled head.
Extending her hand, Dorothy turned Burton into a Corpse Puppet, and then Burton's lifeless body slowly began to move. Dorothy controlled this heavily damaged body to hobble towards her seat in the study, and made him sit down. Although he was the corpse of an Extraordinary, he was severely damaged, and Dorothy had no intention of taking him with her. Dorothy had another use for turning him into a Corpse Puppet.
After controlling Burton to sit in the chair, Dorothy immediately fled with the looted spoils. Knowing that the previous gunshots must have attracted the attention of the surrounding civilians and that the police should have been called by now, Dorothy did not leave through the front door, but went upstairs all the way to the roof of No. 22.
Standing on the empty rooftop, Dorothy looked towards the rooftop of another slightly taller building next door, activated the Corpse Puppet Ring, and then on the rooftop of the building next door, a figure stood up. That was Edrick, whom Dorothy had arranged there in advance.
Dorothy climbed to the rooftop of the building next door with her spoils. With the help of the Corpse Puppet Edrick, she easily succeeded in reaching this side. Then Dorothy changed her blood-splattered coat, and with the help of the Corpse Puppet, she crossed several more rooftops, finally descending from a rooftop she had chosen beforehand, and quickly left Elm West Lane, where more and more people were gathering.
However, Dorothy did not go far. After giving the items to Edrick, she waited in an empty corner. She looked at the sun in the sky, and then at the watch on her hand.
It showed that the current time was 9:11 AM.
"It should be soon..."
Looking at the watch in her hand, Dorothy murmured, and then carefully linked her attention to the Corpse Puppet Burton, who was still at No. 22 several hundred meters away.
At this moment, at the blood-soaked crime scene at No. 22, which was now empty, the Corpse Puppet Burton sat quietly in his chair, as if waiting for something, or rather, Dorothy had him waiting here for something.
And after a while, a disturbance sounded in the originally quiet study.
On the bloody altar in the secret room, there was a skull with only the upper half. This skull was covered with a layer of flesh, and an ear grew directly on this layer of flesh.
Suddenly, this layer of flesh began to move, and after a while, a mouth grew below the ear. Then this mouth directly opened and emitted a man's voice.
"Burton! Burton? Are you in the room? Answer if you hear me, Burton!"
Listening to this voice, the Corpse Puppet Burton, sitting in the chair, turned his head, then slowly got up, limped to the altar, and spoke in a deep voice using his still intact mouth.
"I'm here..."
"Huff... Good that you're here. Listen to me, Burton, your hiding place has been discovered by those dogs from the authorities! Leave quickly, the Hunter should arrive within ten minutes..." The mouth on the altar continued, and listening to his words, ""Burton"" couldn't help but speak in an angry tone.
"How did the An Yin Bureau find me? Could it be that we also have an inside traitor leaking information? Could the failure of the operation a few days ago also be due to an inside traitor leaking information?!"
"That shouldn't be the case. If Gregorius knew that we wanted to corrupt him using his sister, then he would have applied to James for family protection long ago. The fact that he didn't do so proves that our information was not leaked. According to the information from over there, it's possible that a third party has intervened. In any case, now is not the time to talk about this, you should leave quickly and go to Clifford on White Pearl Street!"
The mouth on the altar continued, and ""Burton"" also nodded in response.
"I'm leaving now..."
"Okay... hurry up, we'll discuss this matter properly later..."
Then, the mouth on the altar stopped moving, and slowly melted into flesh.
And after ""Burton"" slowly watched all of this, like a puppet whose strings had been cut, he fell to the ground, and the study at No. 22 returned to silence.
And in the empty corner of the alley several hundred meters away, Dorothy slowly opened her eyes.