Cyberpunk, but urban

"When did you figure it out?" Ye Lan asked.

"At the party. You seemed sorry when I mentioned not going to the library."

"After all, I'm going to the library. Is that the new company that our company's headquarters members rebuilt? By the way, let me remind you all, if you suddenly receive an invitation letter from the library one day, when you are faced with a situation that you can't escape, you can try to write down each of your names on it."

"Of course, there is a price to pay for escaping danger in this way, but at least it won't endanger your life."

"I always feel that you are hiding some information... Never mind, we should go in."

Moses took a puff of smoke from the pipe and then slowly exhaled. After watching the smoke blend into the surrounding mist, she led the others to push open the door of the laundry and walked in.

The glass door made a shrill sound, and inside the door was an old laundry with 28 washing machines. Faded fluorescent lights illuminated the golden floor tiles, a few flies buzzed in the light, and nostalgic pop songs came from the ceiling.

"You came right in to show that you judged this to be a threatening distortion, Ms. Moses." Vespa said as he looked around. Ezra walked to the washing machine and observed something.

"We killed a Level 3 finisher and his companions here. Intelligence says they were found somewhere else, but they have transformed into other people. Although they still look the same, they are someone else inside... They have become people no one recognizes."

Ye Lan handed Luna to Vespa to look after, walked through the gap between Moses and Ezra, and went to the door of the clothing collection room.

When the door of the clothing collection room was opened, the refreshing scent of softener immediately spread. However, the scene before everyone's eyes was not refreshing at all, with more than a dozen human skins hanging on hangers.

Obviously, what this dream laundry cleanses is the skin of urban people.

"Detective! The washing machine here won't work even if I put coins in it!"

When no one was paying attention, Ezra casually threw a coin into the washing machine.

"Who told you to touch the washing machine without permission? Don't do anything weird when I'm not around."

"Yes……"

Ezra answered listlessly, but her behavior was extremely stupid in Moses' opinion. If Ye Lan were to say, Ezra's level of caution was definitely less than level 3, and even her self-discipline might not be high.

"Detective, will there be any problem if I change coins at the coin exchange here...?" Ezra said something even more speechless, and even made Ye Lan laugh.

"Give me the coin."

"It's too late. The mechanism has already started the moment the coins are exchanged."

The room began to shake with the loud noise. The coin that Ezra wanted to give to Moses slipped from her hand.

"Ezra! Give me the coin...!"

Before Moses finished speaking, Ezra had already put her palm under the coin. She should have caught it, but the coin did not stop. It went through Ezra's hand and continued to fall. As if it was inevitable, it finally rolled into the sewer opening on the floor.

Dingling bang-

"Woooo..."

Ezra groaned as he held his hand pierced by the coin.

Chapter 62. Dream Laundry (Part 2)

The room was spinning, and Ezra seemed to have difficulty breathing. Moses looked at Ezra, and from her feet, dirt like sticky blood was gradually climbing up her body.

"...Detective. Do you remember? I was a coward during the war... I will never be forgiven, right...?"

The memory of that day was one of the things that would appear every time the distortion touched Ezra's psychological shadow. The memory of the Smog War endlessly entangled Moses and Ezra. Ezra could not bear these memories, and something would definitely go wrong.

But because of this, Moses is already familiar with dealing with this psychological shadow.

“Ah! Such a dirty body!!”

There was a cracking sound. Ezra tore her skin from her forehead downwards. After shedding the human form that she herself did not want to see, Ezra could only be described as a form that was unbearable to look at, a mass of desire.

Everyone present understood the mechanism here - take off your own skin, put it in the washing machine to wash it, then go to the collection room and put on someone else's skin. Put on the clean new clothes and become someone else's skin when you walk out of the laundry.

"Ye Lan, do you have any suggestions?" Moses asked.

"Just do what you want to do. Ezra's problems are problems that only you can solve. Her heart is only open to you."

"Vespa! Close your eyes."

Moses sighed, then inhaled, she held the pipe and blew out white breath, filling the room with white smoke. This cloud of white smoke had the same power as the white protection of the brain lobotomy company, which could protect the spirit of the person shrouded in it.

Then Moses took another deep breath, exhaled purple breath that turned into a purple whip, and entangled the lump in the smoke that was presumed to be Ezra.

If the distortion itself is to be preserved, it cannot be killed with violence, but resolved with contradiction. It is necessary to deny what should be done here, and then do the opposite, that is, to put on the dirty skin of oneself before cleansing.

This incident will also weaken the Dream Laundry itself.

Fortunately, Moses was very familiar with everything about Ezra. This silly girl who seemed carefree in daily life was raised by her.

"Do you think you are dirty now?"

"I'm covered in too much blood. It's so dirty! I hate it!"

"I think you're fine this way."

Moses told Ezra his thoughts directly, without embellishment, and in the most fundamental way.

"Really……?"

"real."

Ezra was a girl who acted according to other people's expressions, especially Moses's expression. Although this was not a good thing, Moses liked Ezra like that. She was a girl that he could not dislike no matter what, and she was also a subordinate and colleague that Moses had to take responsibility for.

It is assumed that Ezra's lumps slowly picked up the scattered dirty and smelly shells and put them on again. The laundry gradually stopped twisting and returned to its original shape.

The entire space began to shrink and everyone quickly left the laundry.

The cold air and humid mist at dusk irritated the nose. Everyone came out safely without any new obstacles. Behind them, the Dream Laundry fell to the ground like a small doll house.

"Is this the solution?" Vespa asked as he carried Ezra out of the laundry.

"Yes."

“Is it always like this? It’s easier than I thought. I don’t even need to help.” Vespa seemed to have some unrealistic fantasies about solving the distortion.

Ye Lan interrupted his fantasy with a smile: "It's just because the target this time is Ezra. That's the person Moses is most familiar with, so it's easy to find out what kind of emotion she is looking for. If it were you, I'm afraid that when you become someone else and go out, we won't be able to find a way to make you give up and wash away your self."

“Like human relationships,” Vespa commented.

In fact, Moses's way of dealing with distortion is indeed similar to interpersonal relationships. Face the problem of the twister directly and then make a complete break. This method requires a complete understanding of the twister, but this is a very difficult thing to do in the city.

"Ms. Moses. If it is not to ensure the distortion, but to solve it, can you make that laundryman turn back into a human."

"It is possible. The method is more complicated than before. Want to know?"

"No need. If it was information I had to know, you would have told me then."

Vespa shook his head and helped Moses load the laundry, which looked like a doll house, into the car. Then, he laid the exhausted Ezra on the back seat.

"Did you two participate in the smog war?"

"I don't really want to talk about this right now."

"understood."

Vespa took the driver's seat, and Moses took the passenger seat with a pipe in his mouth, and then she began to operate the prosthetic hand.

Beep-

"Han Xijun."

"Yes, teacher." The voice that Moses really didn't want to hear came from the prosthetic hand.

"We have finished with the Dream Laundry, now let's deal with the Thunder Man."

"It was resolved safely."

"Bye."

"Wait a minute, teacher. Have you come into contact with the Black Cloud Society?"

"Correct."

Should I say that he is worthy of being a member of the Seventh Association in charge of intelligence? Moses thought to himself that Han Xijun might be about to lecture me next.

"The Black Cloud Society is a gang under the command of Thumb. In order to complete the mission smoothly, we should avoid friction with the finger..."

really.

"Now that this commission has been completed, Luna and I should go do our own things."

Ye Lan, who had already taken his luggage from the trunk of the van, walked to the passenger seat and asked Moses, "Is there anything else you want to ask me? If you miss this opportunity, you will never get it again."

"You already know everything you want to know. I don't think you'll answer the rest even if I ask you, right?"

"That's right. Then our relationship has come to an end for now. When Yuria's body is transported to Nest L, Ms. Moses, you can come to me to complete this gift."

After saying that, Ye Lan pulled little Luna away from the street, and Vespa slowly started the van and drove towards the place where the Thunder Man last appeared as given by the prosthetic hand.

After walking for a while in the fog, Ye Lan and Luna turned the corner and headed towards Alley 12, which was under the jurisdiction of L Nest. If Ye Lan remembered correctly, there should be a branch of the Brain Lobe Company there.

"Ye Lan, something came out of your pocket!"

Luna, who was walking next to him with her small suitcase, tugged at the corner of Ye Lan's clothes and said to him.

Chapter 63. The last night before the library opens

"Hmm?" Ye Lan reached out from his pocket and took out the thing that Luna pointed out. "Isn't this an invitation? What happened to your sister Angela?"

Ye Lan waved the invitation in his hand and asked Luna, "Do you have the pen?"

Luna rummaged through the pockets of her clothes, and then said to Ye Lan, "Well, there is only one marker left. It seems that the water-based pen was forgotten in Grandma Moses' car."

"That's fine." Ye Lan handed the invitation letter to Luna, and after the little girl signed her name, he signed his name.

The next moment, they opened their eyes together in the reception room of the library. The first thing they saw was Roland's face, which was so badly beaten that even his old friends in Charles' office couldn't see through it.

"Wow, isn't this Roland? How come he's been beaten up like this after not seeing him for a few days?" Ye Lan let Luna go play with sister Angela, and appeared in front of Roland, who had been kneeling on the ground for some reason.

"Hey, how come you got beaten in this library? Wait, weren't you beaten by Mrs. Angelica?"

"..." Roland was silent.

After a while, his lips trembled, and he said to Ye Lan in a very embarrassed tone: "Angelica...she is really not dead..."

Then, Ye Lan saw a dictionary that seemed to be inlaid with metal edges flying from a distance and knocking Roland, who was kneeling on the spot, to the ground.

The dark-skinned and dumb old man lying on the ground was even still mumbling thanks to him.

"So can anyone tell me what happened before? Before I was kicked out of the library." Ye Lan looked at himself who was only 90% transparent, raised his hand and asked the people in the reception room.

Finally, it was Angela, with a slight smile on her face, who told him what had happened during this period.

The story begins when Angela discovers that someone has inexplicably appeared in her director's office. Angela, who was learning how to breastfeed her child from Angelica, sensed Roland's presence and informed Mrs. Angelica that an intruder had entered the library before it was opened.

Although Roland took away the gloves that Madam used to store her weapons when she came, the last thing that is lacking in the library is the fulfillment of one's wishes.

Under Angela's instruction, and relying on her familiarity with the weapons of the Beech Workshop that she used most often, Angelica quickly used her imagination to take out the hammer and the battle axe from her book. Then, she handed her child to Angela to take care of, and rushed into the curator's office alone.

Oh, I seem to have forgotten to mention that Mrs. Angelica gave birth to a girl. Perhaps because she was treated by the library and was born in the library, the little girl was loved by many abnormalities sleeping in the library as soon as she was born. When Angela picked up the little girl, ego gifts that were enough to bury her also fell around them like rain.

"Ah, that seems to be a bit off topic." Angela made a surprised expression stiffly, but unfortunately her voice was still as flat as before.

"It doesn't matter. I'd rather say that I like this part." Ye Lan smiled. His body had become translucent. If we continue to talk about transparency, it would probably be only 60%.

So the story continues. Angelica thought that some extremely powerful enemy had invaded and didn't pay any attention to who the figure in the director's office was. Before she could see the person clearly, she had already swung the hammer and spear in her hand.

It was not until the hammer and spear were almost touching the figure's face that Angelica finally recognized that the figure was actually Roland.

"Roland?" Angelica asked.

When Angelica saw that it was Roland, she stopped her attack and even planned to put down her weapon and ask Roland what he had done in the past few days.

However, under the instigation of Violet Teardrops, Roland, who was more convinced that Angelica was dead, did not regard the Angelica in front of him as the real, living Angelica.

"...How long are you going to insult me? How dare you...how dare you talk to me with Angelica's face!"

Roland, whose gloves and mask had been taken away by Olivier, was left with bare hands, but he still swung his fist at Angelica in front of him.

This made Mrs. Angelica very angry…

The fist that was swung out without any order was blocked by the battle axe in the lady's hand, while the hammer in her hand mercilessly left a mark of Mrs. Angelica's love on Roland's face.

Roland was stunned for a moment after being hit by such a familiar attack method, but eventually his anger overwhelmed his reason and he rushed forward again.

The lady, who knew from Angela that injuries could be easily healed in the library, did not hold back. Relying on her fighting ability that far exceeded Roland's, she soon twisted him into a kneeling position.

I can't beat her. I can't beat her at all. This woman in front of me has amazing strength, looks like Angelica, and even has the same fighting skills as Angelica.