Outside Tivian, beyond the East Gate of Royal Saint Crown University, Green Shade Town.
The soft afternoon sun shone down on the quiet streets of Green Shade Town. This pleasant town, specifically serving students, had a multitude of shops, mostly restaurants selling various cuisines, along with many stores selling sports equipment, cosmetics, books, and so on. Besides the shops, most other buildings in Green Shade Town were residences, inhabited by university lecturers and professors, as well as many financially well-off students who preferred not to live in dormitories. Dorothy was one such student.
On both sides of the quiet streets, shaded by green trees, stood rows of various small buildings. And this was where Dorothy currently resided.
On the second floor of a certain small building, in an independent tea room facing the street, Dorothy, dressed in casual clothes, sat before a small table, drinking coffee while admiring the street view through the window.
This was the house Dorothy rented in Green Shade Town, No. 17 Green Shade Town. It was a delicate two-story wooden building with a small garden. The first floor had a living room, kitchen, study, and guest room. The second floor had the master bedroom, washroom, tea room, and balcony... The decoration was complete and the environment was comfortable. Dorothy was very satisfied when she first saw it. She ultimately rented the house for a total price of 32 pounds, with a monthly rent of 8 pounds, three months prepaid, and a one-month deposit.
This was at least seven or eight times more expensive than the apartment she lived in on Nanyang Flower Road in Igwinte, which Grego had rented for the two of them. However, fortunately for Dorothy now, affording this amount was completely not a problem. Or perhaps, every time she spent money on mundane things, she felt a sense of guilt, so much so that she didn't even haggle with the landlord, making the landlord think she was a young Miss from a wealthy family.
After adding enough sugar, Dorothy stirred the coffee in the cup with a spoon, dissolving all the sugar cubes poured into the cup. Then she picked up the cup and began to sip. While sipping, she occasionally glanced out the window, towards another two-story building diagonally across the street, which was No. 23 Green Shade Town.
Although in Dorothy's own eyes, that small building in the distance seemed nothing special, in her other fields of vision, she had already discovered unusual situations.
Birds circling in the air, geckos clinging to trees, rats lurking in the garden... Dorothy's small Corpse Puppets had already spread throughout the vicinity of No. 23, transmitting all the information they perceived to Dorothy's mind, allowing Dorothy to have a very detailed grasp of the surrounding environment.
Unlike before, this time, these small Corpse Puppets were not here to monitor No. 23, but to monitor those who wanted to monitor No. 23. And such people, they had already found.
One was a man sitting on a chair across the street, pretending to read a newspaper, but glancing at the distant house with the corner of his eye. Another was a young man eating at a restaurant opposite No. 23, but looking at the house across the street while dining. Occasionally, he would ask the waiter about something.
'They've all come... and it seems no one is willing to proactively knock on the door to buy things, they all prefer to observe in secret.'
'Very good, it's best if you think you're in the dark.'
Looking at the two suspicious figures around No. 23, Dorothy thought to herself. In Green Shade Town, Dorothy herself lived at No. 17, and No. 23 was also rented by her, costing about 30 pounds in total. However, this time she had a Corpse Puppet handle it. She used a fake identity obtained from the Tivian black market for 5 pounds. As for the location of the black market, she bought it from Beverly for 10 pounds.
Dorothy published a lost property notice in the school newspaper, hoping to attract members of the school's secret society to confirm the item, which was a storage item of the 'enlightenment' pathway. Of course, Dorothy couldn't fill in her real address as the confirmation target, but rather the address of her Corpse Puppet.
Dorothy now understood that in this era, there were likely no other Extraordinaries of the 'enlightenment' pathway besides herself. Therefore, the 'enlightenment' Spirituality storage item, which had the effect of divination and anti-divination, became extremely precious and important.
Thus, not many secret societies could resist the temptation of the 'enlightenment' Spirituality storage item. She concluded that the secret society hidden within the school, upon seeing the lost property notice, would definitely come to confirm it, even if just to try their luck. Moreover, this secret society had just had a bit of 'enlightenment' consumed by Dorothy's divination.
Of course, the other party might also suspect this was a trap and wouldn't directly visit, but would first conduct a secret investigation, and only make a decision after confirming the background of the person who found the item, just like now.
However, Dorothy had also anticipated this, so she had already deployed small Corpse Puppets around No. 23, waiting for these surveillance investigators, and then counter-monitoring them.
To prevent the other party from having an Extraordinary of'Silence' using spirits for investigation, Dorothy herself lived in a place where she could see No. 23, activated her Spirituality vision to monitor with the Corpse Puppets, and constantly paid attention to the ring of concealment on her hand, observing the consumption of Spirituality within it to defend against Extraordinaries of 'Lamp' using area-of-effect Extraordinary search. If she sensed such a search, Dorothy would immediately use the area-of-effect clear-sightedness talisman she obtained from Sodod to counter-search the other side.
After making sufficient preparations, Dorothy set this trap. It didn't matter to her if the Corpse Puppet was found to be abnormal; she just needed to find the secret society members who came to investigate. This was equivalent to catching their tail, just like now.
'I originally thought they would use some Extraordinary investigation methods, but I didn't expect it to still be the same old routine of surveillance and inquiries. Perhaps there isn't a large secret society among the students, so they didn't use them to save Spirituality or talismans.'
Monitoring those who thought they were monitoring her, Dorothy thought to herself. Her goal had been achieved; she had successfully lured out the secret society members hidden within the school. Now she just needed to track them back to find their base.
Just as Dorothy was thinking this, suddenly, Dorothy's bird corpse puppet discovered a figure walking in the distance down the street.
It was the figure of a woman. She seemed to be about eighteen or nineteen years old, wearing a simple white long dress and a white short-sleeved shirt, with regular features and bright eyes. Her hair was dark brown, slightly curled and reaching her waist, and her skin color was a bit dark, leaning towards wheat-colored. She was holding two books in her hands, and the very obvious Bump on her chest slightly trembled with her steps. She looked like a student of Saint Crown University.
Walking on the street, the woman looked around, seemingly looking at the house numbers searching for something. And when she saw the house number for No. 23, her eyes suddenly lit up, and she quickly walked over. Both the two men monitoring No. 23 and Dorothy couldn't help but be startled.
Arriving at the door of No. 23, the woman directly rang the doorbell. Seeing this scene, Dorothy immediately controlled the Corpse Puppet that had been waiting inside No. 23 to stand up and go to the door to open it.
Holding the books, the woman waited at the door. After a while, the door before her opened, and what appeared before her was a young man wearing round glasses and with neat hair, looking refined and courteous. He looked at the woman in front of him and asked in confusion.
"Excuse me, are you..."
"Hello, fellow student. My name is Naifnis Boyle, a 24th-grade archaeology student. I saw the lost property notice published in the school newspaper. The craft item you found is very likely mine. I'm here to claim it."
With a smile, the female university student named Naifnis said with a smile. Hearing her words, Dorothy was taken aback.
'Damn... Two groups of people came. Can one hook catch two fish? And also, Senior Sister, if we're running a secret society, can we be a bit more discreet? Don't just show up at the door, okay? Can you learn from the other two who are hiding?'
Although she was complaining inwardly, Dorothy's actions didn't falter. She controlled her Corpse Puppet to respond with a smile.
"Ah, an archaeology student. My name is Brandon. Come in and sit for a while. The item is inside. We'll just verify that it's yours and then return it to you, okay?"
"Okay." Naifnis nodded and followed Brandon into the house, closing the door. The two men who were monitoring paused slightly, then also left their positions, planning to get closer to No. 23 for surveillance.