Lin Sanjiu placed the [Ability Polishing Agent] high up on the shelf. Under its silver glow, Lin Sanjiu carefully examined the windbreaker inside and out.
The logo and label were so worn that she couldn't even make out a single word. In the left pocket of the windbreaker, there was a moldy tissue and a gum wrapper. There was also some rust on the paper, which was left by the small key. In another pocket, she found an employee card in a plastic sheath. The lanyard was broken. That was probably why the card was in the pocket.
Under the yellowish plastic sheath, there were a few words on the employee card. She could only make out the words "Service Company", "Member", and the word "Lee", which seemed to be part of the name.
Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath. She suddenly understood, "The deceased is not a posthuman!"
"No wonder I felt something was wrong …" She rubbed the space between her brows. When she looked up at the warehouse again, she felt that everything was different. "What made me suspicious wasn't the things in the pocket dimension, but the things that shouldn't be in the pocket dimension."
There were definitely more than one posthuman who had died in this pocket dimension, if not in the hundreds or thousands. However, there was only a small pile of bones and a strand of hair left in the pocket dimension. What about the other people's bodies?
Almost all the people who had died in the pocket dimension had disappeared from the pocket dimension. It was obvious that this was the pocket dimension's doing because it didn't need Lin Sanjiu to think about the posthuman. It had used some kind of method to dispose of all the bodies except for this small pile of bones. Combined with the hint, it was obvious that this pile of bones was a clue that was conveying a message to Lin Sanjiu.
"Someone died here."
The other message was conveyed through the employee card.
"The deceased is a person who was still working."
If that was the case, the time of death was most likely before the apocalypse. Even if it was a little later, it wouldn't be later than the apocalypse. After the world ended, no one would wear an employee card and go to work faithfully.
"There are no living necessities here, and there are no household waste," Mrs. Manas agreed, "So, the deceased couldn't have used the warehouse as a shelter."
"He was killed in a normal society," Lin Sanjiu stared at the knife wound on the back of the jacket and raised her eyebrows. "Is this a murder?"
"It can't be such a coincidence, right?" Mrs. Manas was filled with doubt. "The secret room pocket dimension happened to be the scene of the murder?"
"The two must be related." Lin Sanjiu put down her jacket and reached for the pair of jeans. The moment she picked them up, she heard a soft clanking sound of metal against metal. She froze.
She reached into her trouser pocket and pulled out a set of keys.
Either there was not a single key, or there were so many of them … She did not find any key in her pocket when she was packing the items for the first time. It seemed that as she progressed in deciphering the secret chamber, new clues would emerge.
"There are five keys," Lin Sanjiu counted and felt a little worried, "But how can I find the right one among these keys?"
If there had been locks, she might have tried them one by one - but there was no door.
Unlike the thin little key from before, these five keys were all cylindrical, solid, and heavy. The iron ring of the key ring was a little loose. Lin Sanjiu took out the small key and found that it fit perfectly. It seemed that the owner had slipped it into his pocket after it fell off the key ring.
"Let me sort this out …"
Lin Sanjiu looked at the keys, the tissue, the employee card, and the windproof jacket on the ground. She said as she pondered, "Judging from the size of the jacket, he should be about 1.75 meters tall, and his body is moderately thin … As for his age, it's hard to say. A man who doesn't care about his taste in clothes will dress the same regardless of his age."
"The employee card in his pocket should belong to the deceased as well. Since he is here with an employee card, it means that he might be working in this warehouse. Could the word 'member' refer to a 'storekeeper'? "
After all, if he was a storekeeper, the set of keys in his pocket would make sense. Lin Sanjiu did not forget that the concrete floor was the same inside and outside the door frame. If this warehouse was just a room in a building, it wouldn't be strange for the floor to be the same inside and outside the door. At the same time, it also explained why the storekeeper had more than one key. He might be in charge of all the warehouses in this building.
"A storekeeper who was stabbed to death in the warehouse …" Lin Sanjiu mumbled to herself, "But why is the jacket so clean? There are no bones at all."
She remembered that the place where she found the jacket was at the deepest part of the warehouse, but the pile of broken bones and human hair was found in the middle of the warehouse.
There were only two possibilities for the jacket and the bones to be separated from each other. One, the bones and the clothes did not belong to the same person. Two, after the storekeeper died, his jacket was taken off and thrown into the deepest part of the warehouse.
No matter how she thought about it, the first possibility was more likely.
Lin Sanjiu frowned and thought for a while. In the end, she sighed unwillingly. If she admitted that the jacket and the bones did not belong to the same person, then all her conjectures would be in vain.
"To think that I was so confident in my conjecture …" Lin Sanjiu muttered to herself as she put the keys and the employee card into her pocket. "Forget it. It seems like I have to rebuild the door —"
Just as the thought came to her mind, the silver light from the [Ability Polishing Agent] on her head flickered. It was as if a huge shadow had walked through the light. Then, she heard a thud as something fell to the ground. Lin Sanjiu's body tensed up. She quickly looked around and heaved a sigh of relief. It turned out that one of the shelves near the [Ability Polishing Agent] had disappeared due to its time limit. That should be the reason why the silver light flickered.
The reconstruction of the walls, shelves, and goods was about the same time period. Since one shelf had disappeared, it meant that the others would disappear soon. Lin Sanjiu called out her [Power of Description] and went through the details of the description in her mind. Two more shelves disappeared.
"Lin Sanjiu," Mrs. Manas suddenly called out to her. Her voice was a little shaky, "Lin Sanjiu."
"What's up?"
"I … I'm not sure. It's just that … I feel something. Don't turn around. "
Lin Sanjiu stopped moving. Her back was stiff as a ramrod. She opened her hypersensory noiselessly. However, the pocket dimension was silent. Even the air had stopped moving. It was as if the interior of a coffin had been buried deep underground. There was no movement at all.
"You … take a step forward."
She did as she was told. The sound of her boots rubbing against the floor was clear and loud in the dead silence.
Mrs. Manas did not have a physical body, but at that moment, she gulped as if she had swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
"Don't you have a mirror?" she asked weakly, "The grand prize gave it to me …"
Lin Sanjiu did not say anything. Instead, she took out a small round mirror. She held the handle and slowly lifted it up. Then, she shone the mirror behind her shoulder.
After looking for an angle a few times, she finally saw it.
The place where the shelves used to be was now shrouded in darkness. It was just outside the silver light of the [Ability Polishing Agent]. A human-shaped shadow stood silently in the darkness, as if it had been soaking in the ice-cold seawater for a few months. Its body was deathly pale, without a trace of warmth.
In the mirror, the figure had his head lowered. His neck was almost at a ninety-degree angle from his chest. His head was buried deep, and his body was facing a shelf. He was clinging to it as if he could only stand upright with the support of the shelf.
"Move … move a little to the left," Mrs. Manas said with a trembling voice.
Holding her breath, Lin Sanjiu moved the mirror slightly.
In the mirror, the pale figure revealed his long and bare limbs. The white singlet he was wearing had turned dark black. He was only wearing a pair of checkered boxers. His legs were hidden in the shadows.
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