Chapter 431: Three Acquaintances
Chapter 431: Chapter 431: Three Acquaintances
Grim chuckled and replied,
"I bet that cat doesn’t have a Superpower. Want to make a wager? We can have Reinhard Caldwell be the judge."
"That won’t be necessary. I have other things to attend to."
Wyatt Holden said as he stood up.
"By the way, Nina Jacobs, don’t go out for the next couple of days. I heard someone’s already found out where you live."
"Try not to let this blow up."
Wyatt Holden warned.
"It’s just a cat. What kind of trouble could it cause?"
"Don’t worry. When General Hughes gets back, I’ll report it to him truthfully."
Nina Jacobs replied.
Only after they heard Wyatt Holden leave completely did Nina Jacobs and the others let out a sigh of relief.
She had only found out today.
Of the five supervisors in the Correction Facility, besides Everett Young of Team 3 and Wyatt Holden of Team 5, the other three all knew each other.
But in front of outsiders, the three of them acted like they were at each other’s throats.
The three of them had come together for their own reasons.
Harlan of Team 1, because of his promise to cure someone.
Grim of Team 2, because of the old base commander’s last request.
And Reinhard Caldwell of Team 4, to get revenge for his daughter.
The three had originally held their own positions within Lornwood Base, but some things were just more convenient to do inside the Correction Facility.
"Are you saying the Correction Facility only exists to make the Puppetry Technique more stable?"
Nina Jacobs still found it a bit incredible after hearing what Harlan said.
The night before, Harlan had successfully used Hypnosis on Mrs. White.
"I followed Harlan last night. The guy nearly put me under, too."
Grim said, his eyes narrowed.
The Hypnosis had begun the moment Harlan entered Mrs. White’s house and started taking out his equipment.
Mrs. White had no idea, to say nothing of the child who was only a few years old.
Of course, even if they were to wake up, they still wouldn’t realize it.
"That’s right. The Puppetry Technique is real."
Harlan said.
"The first step of the Puppetry Technique is to break a person’s psychological defenses. Evander Langdon was once locked in a man-eating hell for a full twenty days..."
They make bloodshed and violence the norm, destroying a person’s mind and spirit until they become a numb "marionette."
Harlan sighed and continued.
"In psychology, this is actually called ’violence desensitization’ and ’learned helplessness.’"
"On top of that, Evander Langdon also received a blood transfusion, and one of his ribs has been replaced with wood. From a medical standpoint, it’s a miracle he’s even still alive."
"A blood transfusion? Was it Mrs. White’s blood?"
Nina Jacobs asked.
When Harlan nodded, she understood everything.
Mrs. White was most likely using herself as a medium to control Evander Langdon.
The Correction Facility was a large cage built for Evander Langdon, and the bloody fighting competitions were his spiritual tranquilizer.
"Unbelievable. And so cruel."
"I’m afraid he can’t be restored, can he?"
Reinhard Caldwell asked.
"I made a promise to Holly Morgan, and I will keep my word."
"If it’s a psychological problem, I’ll use psychotherapy."
"I don’t believe this so-called Puppetry Technique can completely destroy a person."
Harlan replied.
The only condition was that they had to leave the Correction Facility, leave Lornwood Base.
Harlan himself was a Gold Element Superpower User, so leaving the base wasn’t difficult for him.
But trying to leave with Evander Langdon was basically impossible.
Those so-called guards protecting the base commander were all put there by General Hughes to imprison Evander Langdon.
Besides, even if they did leave the base, he would have nowhere to go with Evander Langdon in this state.
"If you can get away, you can just go to Tomorrow Base."
Nina Jacobs said.
"You’ve been there? I heard that no one who goes there ever comes back."
Reinhard Caldwell remembered that Nina Jacobs hadn’t been at Lornwood Base before. Perhaps she knew something, which was why she sounded so certain.
"I have. I have friends there."
"Maybe you could try mentioning my name when you get there?"
Nina Jacobs said after a moment of thought.
She had been away for over ten days. Felix Finch and the others were still there.
’I just don’t know how the base is doing now.’
"If anyone else said that, I might not believe them."
"But since you’re the one saying it, it seems Tomorrow Base really isn’t like what the rumors claim."
Harlan said.
But he still had no way to get Evander Langdon out right now.
Grim sighed.
"I want to leave, but the old base commander saved my life, and I can’t stand to see this place get ruined."
"The thing the old commander cared about most was the soldiers who fought and struggled alongside him."
He couldn’t do much, but with him in the base, he could at least ensure that the old guards had enough food and clothing to get by.
"All the winnings Grim earned from his bets went to those old guards."
"General Hughes never treated them well."
Harlan explained. Outsiders only knew that Grim loved to gamble, but they didn’t know he had never once gambled for himself.
Reinhard Caldwell stared at the tea in his cup and mused,
"Yes... It’s shameful, really. We were some of the last to find out about that underground passage."
"They hid it well. I suppose their next step is to make a clean break for it."
Nina Jacobs had also just learned that Reinhard Caldwell used to be a captain of the guards. General Hughes had transferred him here to consolidate his own power.
"If they were just planning to run off, that wouldn’t be the worst outcome."
"Where there’s life, there’s hope."
"But what if that’s not all they have in mind?"
Nina Jacobs cautioned.
"You think they would do something even more drastic?"
The look in Reinhard Caldwell’s eyes behind his glasses sharpened.
Previously, after Harlan had found them and told them about Nina Jacobs, he hadn’t thought she would survive for long.
But now, not only was General Hughes using her, he had also given her considerable privileges.
She had even been to the underground warehouse.
This made him believe her words a little more.
"Have you ever wondered why they did this to Evander Langdon?"
"If all they wanted was to secretly transfer the base’s resources, they could have done that even with General Hughes in power."
Nina Jacobs said.
But instead, they insisted on using this Puppetry Technique, specifically built the Correction Facility, and even went to great lengths to keep Evander Langdon alive.
"Why?" Harlan asked.
That was the question on his mind as well.
In the apocalypse, every extra step required an enormous price.
"Because they’re trying to hide something."
Nina Jacobs answered.
"Hide something?" Grim asked, leaning closer.
"If there was a small group of people who possessed a massive amount of resources,"
"then to anyone with ill intentions, they’d be a living treasure trove."
"But if they found a ’scapegoat’ and killed everyone who knew the truth, they could guarantee their absolute safety."
"If I were them, I definitely wouldn’t stop at just moving the resources."
Nina Jacobs’ words left the three men in stunned silence for a long time.
The "scapegoat" was Evander Langdon.
And the people who knew the truth were...
"Everyone in the entire base. Including us."
Nina Jacobs answered.
"They’d go that far?"
Grim asked.
Although what Nina Jacobs said made a lot of sense, he still found it hard to believe.
"They would!"
"If it’s Arcadia White and her people, they absolutely would."
Harlan replied.
A family that could treat a person like that and turn him into a puppet was capable of anything, no matter how vile.
"That would be too difficult to pull off."
Reinhard Caldwell shook his head. Killing some of the people was feasible, but killing everyone in an entire base wouldn’t be easy.
"What if they used the water?"
Nina Jacobs continued to guide their thoughts.
Everyone in Lornwood Base was short on water, yet construction on the water pipelines was constantly being maintained.
"The water... Using the water..."
Harlan looked at Nina Jacobs in shock.
’They could totally pull it off that way!’