For a full two or three seconds, the short man simply stared at her, mouth slightly agape.
Lin Sanjiu stared back at him, saying nothing.
"W-what? The one with the long hair—" His mind and tongue were in complete disarray. In his agitation and confusion, he blurted, "Did the pocket dimension make you forget him? Or do you not remember that he's your friend anymore?"
Lin Sanjiu stayed where she was, her brow furrowed, motionless. The small cube formed by the pocket dimension had long since vanished in her palm.
If she didn't even remember the person, there was no way to use him as leverage. The short man wasn't slow on the uptake; the moment he realized this possibility, he abandoned the threat and switched to intimidation. "You don't want trouble, do you? Let me tell you, the true owner of that pocket dimension is a group you definitely don't want to cross. With their resources and power, they could upend the entire Twelve Worlds Centrum if they wanted to. Return what doesn't belong to you, and I'll pretend this never happened!"
The memory pocket dimension only ends after the mission is completed. Since it had reverted to its original form, it was clear that it had already achieved the desired effect on Lin Sanjiu—she should now be a coward.
1
Lin Sanjiu's previously indifferent expression finally shifted slightly at those words, showing faint signs of apprehension and hesitation.
"What group?" she asked, though her voice was entirely drowned out by the roaring winds generated by the ship's engines. The short man had to squint to read her lips to understand.
His mouth twitched slightly, as if partly relieved and partly thrilled at the thought that the pocket dimension's effect had taken hold.
"Want to find out? Should I call someone over now?" he yelled again, his voice booming with aggression. After all, when dealing with someone cowardly, the more forceful and intimidating you appeared, the more effective the scare tactic. "Enough talk! Hand it over right now!"
Lin Sanjiu's brow remained furrowed. "How do I return it? Should I come up there?"
The short man hesitated for a moment. This was enemy territory; everything aboard the ship was unfamiliar to him. Besides the long-haired, androgynous figure, there was certainly at least one other person piloting the ship, someone who could appear at any moment or act in unexpected ways. His incursion had been solely to capture someone, but staying longer would be unwise.
He turned his head to glance into the ship and made up his mind. Looking back down, he shouted, "You—"
A vortex of air, sharp and shrieking as though it could tear apart the heavens and the earth, rushed violently into the ship's cabin and struck him square in the chest and abdomen. He had no chance to cry out before the force sent him flying, his limbs flailing uselessly as if trying to cling to the ground. Instead, they flapped wildly as he arced through the air.
Despite the brutal blow, when the short man slammed into the wall of the airlock with a resounding thud, he still hadn't entirely lost the will to fight. Tumbling to the ground, he thrust his hands out to catch himself, barely managing to avoid another hard impact.
A soft "click" made the panting short man snap his head up.
Lin Sanjiu had leaped into the airlock and now crouched at the edge of the entryway. Her black combat boots, visible beneath the combat trousers hugging her knees, rested on tiptoe. The dim light of the cabin spilled upward, casting her into a silhouette of half-light and shadow. The simple shift in lighting transformed even the contours of her figure, turning her into something entirely different.
She cast a glance at the short man, then shifted her gaze to the other side, landing on Ji Shanqing, who was trapped in the glow of a projector's light.
Strangely enough, though Ji Shanqing was merely caught in a beam of white light, his sense of physical presence seemed to have vanished. He no longer appeared as a three-dimensional being with flesh and bone, but rather, as an image projected into midair. If not for his expressions reacting to the world around him, one might easily mistake him for a character in a movie. The light seemed to transform a living, breathing person into a flat, two-dimensional projection. Once illuminated, he became a creature of a 2D space, unable even to extend his hands outward. No wonder he remained trapped despite his data-decoding abilities.
"Si—" Without a speaker, Ji Shanqing's voice couldn't reach her. He barely managed to form the shape of a single syllable before her gaze slid away from him, returning to the short man.
Ji Shanqing froze, his movements stiffening.
1
"You... you... how..." The short man coughed violently as he tried to speak, needing a moment to catch his breath. "The pocket dimension was supposed to—"
"Turn me into a coward, right?" Lin Sanjiu finished for him. "I remember everything. You forgot to tell the pocket dimension NPC to erase that part."
The blood drained from the short man's face before rushing back in a wave of red. He stood there, stunned. "You—so what are you now?"
"That device of yours is quite interesting." Lin Sanjiu tilted her head slightly toward the projector trapping Ji Shanqing, still not looking directly at him. "Is it yours? Or does it belong to that organization?"
The short man bit his lip hard, struggling under her gaze as he slowly got to his feet, his movements weighed down as if carrying a hundred-pound burden on his back. "I don't understand... why weren't you affected at all? Does the pocket dimension have a failure rate?" 𝐫АNОᛒЕʂ
Lin Sanjiu acted as though she hadn't heard him.
"Leave everything you have on you behind, including that projector," she said calmly. Plates of metallic armor swiftly encased her right hand, forming a gauntlet. Though the short man couldn't see it, he seemed to sense something, his eyes instinctively flicking toward her hand. If he could see, he would have noticed that her Higher Consciousness had formed a crescent-shaped blade in her grasp.
"You dare?" the short man barked, his voice sharp yet unconvincing. He raised his hand, and a small flag materialized. "Aren't you afraid—"
"Afraid of that organization you mentioned?" Lin Sanjiu interrupted coldly. "If what you're saying is true, then of course I wouldn't want to anger them. Even if I'm not sure whether you're bluffing, the thought alone makes my bones feel cold. That's a feeling I don't think I had before, so yes, you did manage to make me more cowardly."
The short man, half-bent over as if his injuries were severe, seemed at a loss for words.
"What you don't know," Lin Sanjiu said softly, tilting her head slightly, "is that the pocket dimension NPC was surprisingly helpful. Within the limits of his abilities, he made quite a few concessions for me. You see, the demand you made in your panic left plenty of loopholes to exploit."
The short man stared at her, his pant legs trembling slightly.
"First, cowardice comes in many forms. Did you know there's a type of person whose innate cowardice makes them exceptionally ruthless and cold-blooded? Many historical tyrants fall into this category." Lin Sanjiu's gaze bore into him as she stood blocking the airlock entrance, his only exit. "Second, I do fear those who are stronger than me. But haven't you noticed? Your combat ability... is far inferior to mine."