I forgot to publish this chapter before 1151-1152 :(
Amid Abby's shriek, Wu Yiliu leaped over the sofa, reaching out to grab Pence, who was half-crouching on the ground and had not yet straightened up. Pence's reaction was extremely quick, and without even lifting his head, he stretched out his arm and leaped forward like a four-legged hound, escaping from under Wu Yiliu's hand.
As the two of them steadied themselves almost simultaneously, Pence quickly backed against the wall, tightly holding the torn plastic bag, and yelled, "Wait!"
Wu Yiliu stood straight, remaining silent.
He knew that his rapid attack on Pence was probably too late to seize the items, but he realized that his attempt was not entirely in vain. During Pence's dodge, he hadn't grabbed the torn bag securely. The combat shoes were the first to fall and roll on the ground, followed by the hard-to-grasp hat. Now, all that Pence held, wrapped in the bag, was the pullover.
The two female posthumans had also jumped up by this time, and the three of them surrounded Pence, forming a loose semi-circle. In this situation, no matter what Pence was planning to do, it would be almost impossible to pull the cloth over his head and out again in front of them. Even with posthuman speed, putting on a pullover required the same hassle as a regular person.
Thus, for the moment, it seemed like Pence had grabbed the items in vain.
"What are you doing?" Abby almost forgot to control her volume, her voice high and alarmed. "Why would you...?"
Pence took a breath and waved the pullover wrapped in the plastic bag, saying, "No, you misunderstood. It's not that I wanted to take it, but some force... I think I must have experienced what Wu Yiliu just went through. I don't know why, but when I came to my senses, I found that I had rushed over and picked it up."
Abby stepped closer, right into the moonlight, and her relieved expression was illuminated by the faint white light. She was a bit naive, but not stupid, and quickly pieced things together. "Oh, is it possible that the force making you act is a voice? Something in this pocket dimension is maybe looking for a chance to speak to us? Because you said earlier that you heard someone talking."
Pence also seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, his shoulders relaxing. "Your reasoning is likely. Indeed, it was after hearing a voice that I suddenly wanted to rush over and grab something."
Had he heard someone speaking before he found himself putting on the combat shoes?
Wu Yiliu strained to remember for a few seconds but couldn't find any such memory. His memory wouldn't be flawed, so if there were none, it meant that even if he had heard voices at the time, he hadn't recognized them—this was strange.
Cuining, who stood farthest from Pence among the three, was shadowed by the light from the window outside; she had been silent until now when she quietly spoke. "Then you can put the things down for now," she suggested calmly. "You're not planning on wearing them, are you?"
Pence lifted the hand holding the clothes and then let it drop without letting go of the garment. He pondered for a few seconds then said, "Have you considered that if we all avoid triggering the setup, we won't know the pocket dimension's intentions or rules, and the danger might be even greater, right?"
"What you say does make sense," Abby said, looking a bit worried as she rubbernecked between them. "But something that makes people unknowingly put it on is too unsafe..."
Cuining tilted her head and asked Pence, "So what's your point?"
"My point is, I'll try on this garment first, and we'll see what changes happen next," Pence said, trying to keep his voice steady. "This is a serious and dangerous matter. You must watch me carefully. If anything goes wrong, I'll have to rely on you to intervene."
"Are you willing to take such a risk?" Abby exclaimed. "Well, rest assured, we'll watch you carefully."
Wu Yiliu couldn't help but glance at her. The more insecure and chaotic a place was, the more people were on guard; only when the sense of security in a human habitat reaches a certain standard will there emerge people like Abby who tend to trust others—yet even in the well-ordered Twelve Worlds Centrum, such people are undoubtedly rare, probably the product of a series of coincidences and luck.
"Wait a minute," Cuining interjected. "I think it's too risky for you to put it on so hastily."
Pence paused, but before he could reply, Cuining had already walked past the sofa towards the door, bending down to pick up the hat near Wu Yiliu's feet, and continued, "Let me take a look at this hat... I have a skill. I want to try to analyze the properties of these things."
"What skill?" Abby asked with concern.
"Everyone's way of identifying Special Items is different. I judge them by feeling their temperament," Cuining said, smoothing the hat. "But this is not a Special Item; it's something from the pocket dimension. So I'm just saying let me try. I don't guarantee the result."
Pence smiled at her. "Then I'll try too. It won't hurt for us to try at the same time."
Abby was so nervous that she twisted her hands together, glancing at Cuining and then at Pence. "Then you guys be caref—"
"You both better not move. I'll act against anyone who puts it on," Wu Yiliu said quietly.
This statement silenced the three others in the room. After a pause, Abby responded, "What? How can you..."
"Were you driven by a force to get the clothes?" Wu Yiliu asked Pence, ignoring Abby. "That power can drive people unconsciously. When it affected you, there was no need to let you hear someone speak. You asked if anyone was speaking and then rushed to the clothes at the door. Was it because you wanted to divert our attention first?"
"You better not talk nonsense," Pence said, his tone carrying a warning.
"If you think I want to be your enemy, you're wrong," Wu Yiliu replied, looking back at Cuining, who was standing not far away, holding the baseball cap, her shadow tense and still, probably sensing his warning in his eyes.
"I know what you two are thinking," Wu Yiliu said slowly. "Four people came in, but there are only three sets of hats and clothes, as if there's intentional competition to exclude one of us. If this premise is true, it means that these clothes have a positive effect on us—like, whoever gets them can pass the first level or something. Only then would there be value in fighting over them."
No one spoke for a moment in the cabin.
"Pence probably suspected something because of my attempt to put on the shoes; and Cuining, you wanted to look at the hat because Pence was adamant about putting on the clothes. Neither of you said anything because you didn't want the remaining person to react and fight you for it."
The words "remaining person" made Abby suddenly gasp.
"I'm stopping you not because I want to fight over these clothes and shoes, but because I believe that putting them on is definitely not a good thing."
Wu Yiliu steadied his breath, clenched his fists, feeling the sweat in his palms. He had been forcing himself to maintain a surface calm, even looking away from Cuining in a casual manner, pretending not to see her slowly melting face.
The illusion was back.
He resisted the urge to run out and glanced at Cuining again—her face had returned to normal in just a second or two. If he wasn't the one having issues, this phenomenon would be nearly unexplainable, and it's also unexplainable why the other two didn't notice.
"In that case, just don't wear them," Pence said softly. "Abby? Those shoes are women's shoes. Take them."