"Do you think I should count on you?" Linda began, "No, I won't rely on anyone anymore. Everyone abandoned me, and now I can only rely on myself."
"I'm glad you think that way," Kent said, "I'm not here to help you, but to independently do something. The evil happenings in this town should be known to everyone, and I'm going to expose them. Not just you, but your parents, your children, your neighbors, and friends, the believers, the town's government and police... What they did and didn't do all those years ago should be clearly and transparently known by everyone."
"Does this make sense?"
"Of course. You might think these people won't change, they may already be in high positions and don't care about things from many years ago being brought up. They believe we can't shake them, but no, we can."
"If they truly were fearless, they wouldn't have chosen to cover up when things happened. They desperately suppressed the news, erased the presence of victims, and didn't let anyone speak about it, proving they were scared to death."
"If they're not afraid of us, why bother to utterly eliminate us? The more they're afraid of something, the more we need to do it. When you hear someone's roar, it proves you've hit their sore spot, and what you need to do is to press harder until he goes down. He will eventually fail."
"Really?" Linda seemed somewhat disdainful, she said, "Regardless of whether they did these things back then or now, no one has paid any price for this, not one."
"I know, in the society they've created, they're like Gods, no one can resist them. People raised in such a society think they're unbeatable. But if you look from another perspective, you'll understand they're just failures in another sense."
Kent took a step closer, looking into Linda's eyes and said, "If they're really so powerful, why don't they go to rule Los Angeles? To rule Washington? To unify all states in America and turn them into heretics? Isn't it because they don't want to?"
Linda still stared at him blankly. Kent shook his head and said, "No, they're crazily yearning for it. Big cities are thousand times more extravagant and glamorous than you imagine, no one doesn't want to reign at the top of the world. Compared to that, what does a small town count for?"
Kent pointed one hand outside and said, "Even the best spot in this town—that waterfall, is pathetically small, not to mention compared to the largest waterfall in the world, it doesn't even rank in Utah, right? The town was once glorious, but could it compare to San Francisco back in the day?"
"Not only does it not compare, but it's far inferior. Even if you've never been outside or heard of things outside, you should know that the place you live is very small, hardly worth mentioning. Those prominent figures in your eyes are like ants compared to those truly standing at the top of the Pyramid."
"They didn't go to big cities to compete with the real elites, climbing step by step to reach the real peak, simply because they couldn't. They are failures at the higher level of competition and failed so miserably that they couldn't even stay in big cities living the lowest life, so they could only slink back to such remote places becoming local emperors."
Kent sneered and continued, "What they gain from ruling this small town probably isn't even as good as setting up a stall on the streets of Los Angeles. After all, many Michelin chain restaurants started from the streets, and what future is there here? Surely they don't really hope to develop this place into San Francisco?"
"So, you don't need to be afraid. Those who hurt you before, what they depend on is not advancement here, but the backwardness here. In areas untouched by civilization, barbarism dares to run rampant unscrupulously. Even a Congress member can squash these mountain kings like bugs."
Linda showed a complex expression, and Kent immediately realized she might know something.
Then Linda laughed to herself and said, "You're right, they were crushed to death like that."
She then lowered her eyelids and said, "What about the congressman? They should count as big figures, right?"
"Which congressmen are you talking about? If it's city council members, you need to focus on the young ones, most of them are newcomers from party backgrounds, their families must have some influence. Becoming a member at a young age suggests they have a promising future."
"But that's just the potential for the future. Very few people can go from small places to the big political stage, most current congressmen come from big cities. And even congressmen, there are always bigger fish in the sea, not to mention the big corporations controlling the government. Not to mention ordinary people, even the wealthy can't compete with them."
"Yet you said you'll make everyone pay the price."
"Yes, I dare to say that because I'm a journalist. I understand what they're afraid of. For these people, social death is scarier than physical death, which means they'll fall into an endless void and endure endless suffering."
Linda showed a face longing expression. But she bent down again, began to grind the sharp wooden stick, and said, "I don't know what a journalist is, nor what you can achieve, but if you want to do this, I won't interfere. Whatever you want to know, go search in the alley at the end of the street east of this house."
Before leaving the house, Kent looked at her deeply, softly saying, "I'm never good at letting others down."
And as soon as he left, the evil spirit eagerly jumped out. His face was somewhat distorted from anger. Without saying a word, he tightly grabbed Linda's neck.
Linda was pinned to the table, unable to move. She struggled desperately, then grabbed the sharpened stick with one hand and stabbed it backward fiercely. Although the evil spirit couldn't feel pain, this move pushed him back. Linda turned around.
Seeing the agent in an instant, she hesitated for a moment but quickly realized something. Without holding back at all, she gripped the harpoon with both hands, bent her knees slightly, exerted all her strength, let out a furious roar, and pierced the evil spirit's body with the harpoon, pushing him straight out of the room.
She quickly turned around, pulled out the harpoon, and gasped, "You shouldn't have come to find me, you bastard!"
The evil spirit continued his act, clutching his wound in pain, "Oh my God, how can you do this to me? Have you forgotten? We used to walk by the lake together, I even wanted to teach you to fish..."
"Shut up!!!!" Linda roared again. This remark from the evil spirit completely enraged her, and she thrust the harpoon again, knocking down the evil spirit who was just trying to get up.
The evil spirit cursed angrily in his heart: Why is it that while controlling this body, he can't feel any strength? After all, it's an adult male, how could he have less strength than Linda?
Although Linda was naturally strong and had done hard labor for several years, giving her significant physical strength, she wasn't trained, didn't know how to exert force correctly, relying solely on brute force. Yet, this evil spirit couldn't handle it. He didn't feel it's his lack of skill, but blamed the damn body being too weak. If only he could get that big guy's body...
Just as he thought about it, he felt a cold wind sweep past his back. A pair of ghastly white hands appeared in front of him, then tightly strangled his neck.
The familiar and irresistible immense force came again, and the evil spirit, who couldn't be physically harmed, panicked. He even felt a trace of suffocation from this terrifying attack. He was a ghost! How could he be strangled to death?!
The evil spirit struggled desperately, flailing his arms and kicking his legs like crazy. After all, he had some supernatural power, and at a moment of outburst, he could exert great strength. But those hands seemed welded to his neck, stubbornly unmoving.
Even more terrifying, he felt the curse implanted in his body suddenly come alive and start devouring his own strength. Does this guy know black magic?!!
The evil spirit was truly scared, unable to forcefully possess like before, he couldn't leave this body at all. But if he stayed like this, he'd be drained and die for real.
The evil spirit let out a terrified scream, using every last bit of strength to lunge forward. At that moment, he felt the force behind loosen, but he knew it's not because he'd broken free.
He awkwardly flipped over, seeing a pale face hidden in the darkness, but those eyes locked onto him like a physical force. The smile on the man's lips told him he was enjoying the thrill of chasing his prey.
The evil spirit lay on the ground, panting heavily. As he crawled up, he saw Linda. Linda stood there dumbfounded, as if not quite understanding what happened.
She knew the evil spirit attacked her, and she resisted, but she wasn't really that powerful. Those few moves had exhausted most of her physical strength. She intended for a final struggle, but unexpectedly, a pair of hands suddenly appeared in the dark, making this guy look like he was about to die in disgrace.
"He was right..." Linda murmured to herself. She gave a bewildered yet somewhat self-mocking smile, "They're nothing... nothing at all..."
She muttered as she walked back. The evil spirit wanted to follow, but seeing the bloodstained harpoon in her hand, he hesitated and withdrew.
He's indeed not afraid of physical harm, but now that he's trapped in this body, if someone captures this body and locks it up somewhere, he'd be effectively sealed. Linda's strength was great enough to subdue him, he didn't dare take any risks.
Besides, there's a more troublesome issue than this woman, that damn big guy, who looked like an athlete, turned out to be a journalist! If the town's affairs were exposed, it'll be over. He absolutely couldn't let him do that.
The evil spirit gritted his teeth, laboriously moving his half-paralyzed body, chasing in the direction Kent left. He knew where Linda meant.
Meanwhile, Kent, who already reached the east street, found a very small basement entrance on the side of a building, only big enough for one person to squeeze through. His body type was larger, and he squeezed in with great effort. As soon as he got in, he was greeted by a jaw-dropping scene.