Show Yourself and You're Dead

To be honest, the Puppet Master was numb by then.

The listening device had undoubtedly let him hear Yinlin and Ling An's conversation.

It had also revealed that Yinlin had betrayed him.

Relying on the base's many layers of defenses, he had barely lifted a foot to flee when a spear wreathed in purple flames flew straight at him.

At that moment, the spear was only 0.01 centimeters from his throat.

That cat...

How on earth had he found him?

But in the face of the overwhelming power Ling An had displayed, none of those questions mattered anymore.

Meanwhile, inside the base.

Someone was even more shocked than the Puppet Master.

Yinlin.

She stared blankly at Ling An, then turned to the Puppet Master.

Her gaze went back and forth twice, yet she still couldn't hide her astonishment.

She had prepared a thorough, well-considered plan. It only required Ling An and Tide Sis to keep up the act with her a little longer.

Who could have known that Ling An's first move would be a killing blow?

If this were a game, she was still busy figuring out how to follow the level's rules and clear it.

Meanwhile, Ling An had driven his spear straight into the finish line.

Over her years as an undercover investigator, she had seen countless people and situations.

The Exiles, the Fractsidus, the Soul-Return Mutual Aid Society, the Midnight Rangers...

But Ling An's spear strike today had truly redefined what she thought was possible.

"What are you standing around for? Time to get to work." Ling An's voice reached her through her daze.

Only then did Yinlin notice that the purple flames had long since dispersed, and both the arm and spear had vanished.

All that remained before her was a gray cat.

She immediately snapped out of it, sending lightning threads surging toward the Puppet Master as she charged.

Ling An, meanwhile, looked at Tide Sis as if waiting for praise. "Well? I didn't let you wear yourself out, did I?"

Tide Sis nodded with an indulgent smile.

Had anyone else seen Ling An like this, they would surely have sneered and called him a feline simp.

But Ling An's answer would have been: You're too young to understand.

Does fawning over Tide Sis even count as simping?

This is called keeping up with the tides of the times.

Soon, under the Puppet Master's shocked gaze, two women and a cat blocked his path.

He had nowhere left to run.

The Puppet Master's furious voice came from beneath his mask. "Yinlin, you traitor!"

"Traitor?" Yinlin shook her head gently. "Puppet Master, you've caused far too many deaths. Today, you'll answer for them."

"Hehehe. You don't understand at all. What do these sacrifices matter if I can revive my master and his wife? Yet you've cut off that hope with your own hands. Don't you want to see them again?"

At those words, a trace of sorrow colored Yinlin's expression.

She shook her head forlornly. "Over the years, I've seen too much in the Soul-Return Mutual Aid Society. I've come to understand that these so-called puppets offer nothing but false happiness. Puppet Master, you still haven't seen through that."

Her voice grew steadily firmer. "I can't hurt others for the sake of my own happiness!"

"Hahahahaha!" The Puppet Master laughed wildly. "Spare me your pathetic sense of justice. Being a Patroller must have rotted your brain!"

"My parents were Patrollers, and I will become a worthy Patroller myself. I believe they would approve of what I'm doing."

With that, Yinlin said no more. A faint glow of lightning began to shimmer around her.

Time to fight?

Ling An was itching to get started.

Talking was useless against someone like the Puppet Master.

Yinlin's parents were his obsession, and anyone bound by an obsession was a fanatic.

Across from them, the Puppet Master spoke without restraint. Leaning against a machine, he sneered coldly:

"A Patroller? Heh. I've kept records of everything you've done for me over the years. If I send that data to the Public Security Bureau, do you think you'll still get to be a Patroller?"

Yinlin seemed to freeze for a moment at his words.

But she soon answered firmly, "Justice has never been defined solely by a person's position. There is no shortage of heroes in the darkness, either."

At that, the Puppet Master dropped all pretense.

He pressed a hand against the machine, and streams of data began transmitting.

"In that case, don't blame me for being ruthless. I've already sent out all the information on your past. This is the price of betraying me!"

Watching this father and daughter turn on each other, Ling An felt a pang of sympathy.

If that data truly reached the Public Security Bureau, it would undoubtedly deal a devastating blow to Yinlin's future.

It would mean she could never again walk openly in the sunlight.

She might even become wanted in Jinzhou.

She had struggled in the darkness for far too long. She deserved a little genuine light.

Watching the data transmit at high speed, the Puppet Master finally laughed aloud.

Though the situation was overwhelmingly against him, he had at least won this round.

Besides, he still had a trump card.

He turned to Ling An and sneered. "Well? After all that trouble, I still got one over on you."

His face was hidden beneath his mask, but everyone could sense the smug grin he wore.

Then Ling An's voice rang out abruptly, breaking the deadlock.

He gently lifted his gourd with a paw and said calmly, "Has it occurred to you that the Public Security Bureau might not be able to receive that data?"

The Puppet Master froze. Ling An had already given him too many "surprises" for him to dismiss this.

He muttered, "How is that possible? You're just a newly appointed Patroller. What gives you the right to say that with such certainty?"

Ling An chuckled softly. "I forgot to mention. My clearance..."

"Is very high."

He began operating his terminal.

Meanwhile, at the Jinzhou Public Security Bureau.

A uniformed Patroller looked at the device before her in confusion:

"A data stream is trying to connect to the terminal. It seems to be attempting to transmit some information."

She was just about to accept it when her hand suddenly stopped in midair. She murmured:

"A higher clearance has intervened and rejected reception. Let me see... Oh, it's viral data. Good thing I didn't connect just now. I almost made a mistake."

Inside the Soul-Return Mutual Aid Society's base, the Puppet Master stared blankly at the bright red rejection on the machine's screen.

He began questioning his entire existence.

His hate-filled gaze fixed on Ling An.

Why?

Every move he made had been stopped by this damned cat.

Hatred engulfed him like a surging tide, and he roared, "You think this is over?"

The Puppet Master raised both hands high, and terrifying tremors shook the base.

Overhead, an enormous mechanical construct slowly descended.

"Behold my most powerful creation!"

His voice seethed with resentment, and he looked utterly deranged.

This was the ultimate weapon he had spent years creating. Under his nurturing, its strength rivaled that of a Rumbling Tide-Class Tacet Discord.

More importantly, the construct seemed to have developed a sliver of sentience.

That undoubtedly made it even stronger.

This was his final trump card!

Above them, the construct roared as it slowly lowered itself toward the ground.

Scarlet light blazed from its mechanical eye sockets.

Seeing this, Yinlin quickly turned to Ling An and Tide Sis behind her. "I'll hold it off. You two go capture the Puppet Master!"

The construct slowly descended, one huge foot assembled from countless metal parts planting firmly on the ground.

Countless clouds of dust erupted in an instant.

The Puppet Master looked crazed. "Rage! Tear them apart!"

ROAR!!!

The mechanical construct answered his plea.

But almost immediately, in the very next second.

His waving arms froze in midair.

A pressure even greater than the mechanical construct's cut off his voice.

On the ground, Ling An had vanished, replaced by a mass of fiercely burning purple flames.

Within the flames, the outline of a tall humanoid figure was faintly visible.

The invisible pressure rose rapidly.

The roaring mechanical construct suddenly fell silent.

Its entire body shuddered, and a few parts fell off.

Its tiny sliver of sentience told it that something unimaginably dangerous lurked within those purple flames.

Tentatively, it quietly drew its foot back.

Ling An's voice came from within the purple flames as he addressed the mechanical construct indifferently:

"Show yourself and you're dead."