Part 2
When he said “letting him suffer enough before finally letting him die,” there was even a hint of satisfaction and enjoyment in his tone.
Xiao Shan rolled his eyes, suspecting this was Lu Qiujin’s self-introduction.
Luo Shizhen, however, expressed his admiration very supportively: “That makes sense! Let me check something.”
He quickly filtered through the list of scammed patients.
“But it shouldn’t be that reason. All the scammed patients and their families are accounted for. Some have passed away, and some are still undergoing treatment. There are records for all of them; none have suddenly disappeared.”
Rong Nian mused, “If it were me, I would definitely want to gather some ‘food reserves.’ So I wouldn’t just kidnap one person; I’d kidnap a bunch and keep them. When I get hungry, I can eat them right away.”
Luo Shizhen quickly checked if there had been any frequent human disappearances or cases with traces of pollution at the scene recently.
After checking, he shook his head. “It shouldn’t be that either. This is the only case of a pollution-related kidnapping recently.”
Wen Hu: “If I were the anomaly, I wouldn’t kill him but take him away because I’d find this place too small and want to take him outside to kill him.”
Chu Xiao: “If it were me, I would value his ability to deceive people. Kidnapping him would be to use him to lure in more humans. That way, I would have a constant supply of food.”
He even had a follow-up plan: “I could have Zou Tangzheng claim that acupuncture can cure all sorts of diseases, luring patients to my lair. At first, I wouldn’t eat the patients; I would use pollution to deceive them, making them feel like their illness has been cured.”
“That way, word of mouth will spread from one to ten, and ten to a hundred. From every hundred people, I would pick the tasty ones to eat. At the same time, I’d spread a cult, saying that as long as they have faith in me, all diseases will vanish and they’ll gain immortality. I’d build momentum for myself and, relying on human faith, evolve into an Evil God.”
Chu Xiao’s speech was practically a continuous flow, but looking at Luo Shizhen, who was seriously taking notes, there was one thing he didn’t say.
In this plan, he would naturally include Luo Shizhen. If the believers wanted to worship him, they would have to worship Luo Shizhen first.
The teachers currently in the tactical vehicle outside: “…”
“Did Chu Xiao just… describe an evolutionary plan for an anomaly career?”
Another teacher nodded. “More than that. He even planned out how to scam people.”
This teacher was practically terrified. “Thank goodness this child has been purified. If he had become an anomaly, it would be unthinkable.”
Lu Qiujin laid everything out in the open. Even if he didn’t say it, the teachers could see that his previous thought was always that if he mutated into an anomaly, he would definitely rush to the Lu family first and kill everyone.
But a student like Chu Xiao, who hid his madness behind a calm face, was someone you really couldn’t tell apart during normal times.
Luo Shizhen, however, saw none of the bloody and cold underlying meaning in Chu Xiao’s plan.
He only looked at Chu Xiao with admiration, thinking that Chu Xiao’s idea was truly reasonable and meticulous. Then he buried his head in his checks.
“There haven’t been any recent scam cases, and there’s no talk of a ‘miracle doctor’ either.”
He looked back at Cheng Yunshao. “Cheng Yunshao, what do you think?”
Cheng Yunshao wasn’t blind. He didn’t believe for a second that his teammates’ cooperation in brainstorming was because everyone was perfectly in sync and had a heart full of friendly, collective desire to complete the mission.
It was very obvious—the only reason they were being this cooperative was purely because Luo Shizhen was there.
These “peacocks” were practically blinding him with their displays.
Internally, Cheng Yunshao expressed his contempt for this behavior.
But that didn’t stop his competitive drive from being ignited in this atmosphere (referring to the competition over catching the mission target).
Think about it: in a situation with zero clues, he could deduce the correct result relying solely on his theoretical knowledge and IQ—wasn’t that interesting?
Cheng Yunshao spoke with a confident air:
“I believe the anomaly kidnapped Zou Tangzheng because it surely wanted something from him. Whatever that ‘thing’ is doesn’t matter for now, but we all know the traits of anomalies: greed and never being satisfied.”
“It won’t be satisfied with just one Zou Tangzheng. Or rather, it will want to select a better one. Therefore, we can replicate a persona similar to Zou Tangzheng—same appearance, wealth, and profession—but even slightly better than Zou Tangzheng to lure that anomaly out.”
Luo Shizhen gasped in admiration. “Wow!!”
“That’s a great idea! Cheng Yunshao! You are so smart!”
Cheng Yunshao was stunned by the praise. He knew his idea was good—carving out a path to lure the anomaly into a trap when there were no clues.
But this was the first time he had encountered such an outward, intense, and straightforward compliment.
Cheng Yunshao’s expression, which had been brimming with calm confidence, was suddenly thrown into a bit of a mess by Luo Shizhen. He thought to himself: No wonder so many people like Luo Shizhen; he praises people so sincerely.
To cover it up, he adjusted his glasses again and looked at the others:
“What do you all think of this method? If no one objects, let’s vote on whether to do it.”
Luo Shizhen immediately raised his hand. “I vote for this method!”
Hearing this, Cheng Yunshao knew they were set.
Sure enough, after Luo Shizhen took a stand, although the remaining few looked at him with hints of annoyance in their eyes, they all followed Luo Shizhen’s choice and expressed their agreement.
Cheng Yunshao suddenly felt comfortable all over.
It had been some time since he enrolled, and almost every time they had team training or a mission, his teammates refused to cooperate.
This included Wen Hu last time. Although Wen Hu eventually came to the rescue, Cheng Yunshao hadn’t forgotten that at the start, Wen Hu was practically desperate to separate from him.
A Puppet Master is very fragile in the early stages and desperately needs protection from teammates. Cheng Yunshao had been trying to find reliable teammates, but he had made no progress.
Most young Awakeners didn’t like grouping up; even those with blood relations preferred to fight separately.
Even after developing some camaraderie with Wen Hu later, Wen Hu would still slip away whenever it came time to form a team.
Now, Cheng Yunshao had finally found a way!
—By staying beside Luo Shizhen. As long as Luo Shizhen was willing to accept him, the others would have to.
In the eyes of the logic-driven Cheng Yunshao, Chu Xiao and the others had their heads completely clouded by emotion. They would agree to whatever Luo Shizhen said.
So, as long as he built a good relationship with Luo Shizhen, he could borrow Luo Shizhen’s influence to get through the fragile early stage of a Puppet Master.
It was “the fox borrowing the tiger’s might,” but the “tiger” was being very cooperative with his plan.
Plan successful. Everything was proceeding exactly as he thought. Cheng Yunshao asked in a good mood:
“So, first of all, this persona’s profession needs to be a doctor. We need to choose someone to play the role of this professional doctor scammer.”
He favored Chu Xiao. After all, Chu Xiao was smart enough that playing a scammer doctor shouldn’t be an issue for him.
Perhaps Chu Xiao himself would be unwilling, but as long as he convinced Luo Shizhen to agree, Chu Xiao would definitely volunteer just to make Luo Shizhen happy.
“Me!!”
Beside him, Luo Shizhen raised his hand excitedly once more, looking at everyone with immense anticipation:
“I want to be the doctor! Is it okay? I’ll be very serious about playing the part!”
Cheng Yunshao: “…”
The fox who “borrowed the tiger’s might” finally realized the flaw in his plan.
When he needed the “tiger” to help support something, everything was perfect.
But when the “tiger” wanted to do something he didn’t approve of, the “fox” had no way of stopping him.
Even if the “tiger” were willing to listen to reason, the wolves, leopards, and tigers behind the “tiger” would be even more willing to satisfy the “tiger’s” wish.
An hour later—
Luo Shizhen put on his white lab coat and looked with great interest as the makeup artist helped him apply “old age” makeup. From the wrinkles being drawn, he tried to find a resemblance to his grandmother.
He was his grandmother’s biological grandson; when he got old, he should naturally look like her.
Although he still couldn’t find any similarities in the end, Luo Shizhen was still very excited. He gently and carefully stroked the white coat on his body, as if afraid he might get it dirty.
Grandma had said that the best three professions were teachers, doctors, and lawyers.
Although Grandma had never said she hoped Luo Shizhen would pursue one of these three—only that he should find a steady job, not necessarily needing to be excellent as long as it was stable.
But Luo Shizhen knew that if she saw his old-age look in a white lab coat, Grandma would be very happy.
Once the makeup was done, Luo Shizhen happily took a selfie.
When he returned to his hometown, he would print it out and burn it for Grandma to see!
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