Chapter 516: Chapter 516
"The Father of Puppets is... the Mentor?"
Black Cocoon murmured softly, his eyes narrowing slightly beneath the dark red mask.
He lowered his face, looking incredulously at the man in the photo.
It was a man with a fair complexion and a warm demeanor. Undoubtedly, apart from the glasses on his face that were slightly different, his features and even his physique were identical to those of the Mentor. Except for a trace of sinister shadow in his eyes. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ NoveI[F]ire.net
Staring at this face, Black Cocoon remained silent for a long time before finally recovering from his shock and bewilderment.
It felt like going to the Olympics and, just as you’re about to start running, turning to find out your competitor is the landlord who plays mahjong every day in your apartment.
Before this, Black Cocoon couldn’t associate the Mentor, a civilian member of the Salvation Society, with the Father of Puppets, a martial member.
Yet this scene unfolding before him brutally tore open his perception.
He scratched his chin, "No... impossible. Could it be that those puppets are still alive, so the Mentor can control them with psychic abilities? But that flaw is too obvious; how could the Rainbow Wings’ people not notice?"
"But if that’s not the case, assuming those puppets are indeed dead, mere corpses, then it’s even stranger... The Mentor can’t control the dead, as I’ve previously confirmed — the traffic light, Julius, they were out of his control after death."
"What can be confirmed, in any case, is that the Mentor is a Superpower User of psychic ability, but the Father of Puppets’ ability to store and control the corpses of superpower users clearly doesn’t align with psychic ability... or does it not align at all?" At this thought, Black Cocoon paused in confusion.
The next moment, his mind suddenly echoed with his conversation with Koajenna.
"Yeah, the Mentor loves doing these things," Koajenna said, "He previously used his own genes and the genes of a Catastrophe-level superpower user to create an artificial human, and now he wants to use your brother’s genes and... oh, I can’t say this part."
"Ar...tificial human?"
Black Cocoon raised an eyebrow, mentally enunciating word by word. At this moment, an intriguingly delightful hypothesis suddenly popped into his mind.
Objectively speaking, this hypothesis wasn’t too implausible.
"Could it be... that the Father of Puppets is actually an artificial human made by the Mentor using his own genes and the genes of another superpower? That would make sense, which is why he looks so similar to the Mentor, even inheriting the Mentor’s nearsightedness, and the ability to control corpses should include some traits of psychic superpowers, but not entirely."
He bowed his head, sighed, "But it’s just a conjecture for now; there’s no evidence."
While thinking, Black Cocoon used a restraint belt to wrap himself into a giant cocoon, dangling under the eaves of the izakaya, as shadows gradually covered his pupils.
"If he is the real Mentor, that would simplify matters, because regardless of who is behind the Father of Puppets’ mask, he must die on the Deserted Island in a few days, and that won’t change."
"It’s highly probable the Mentor doesn’t know that Cezar, Yaguba, Old Ghost Clock, and Su Wei will appear on the island. Using intelligence gaps and the Bee Prince to distract as bait, taking down the Father of Puppets wouldn’t be too difficult for us."
"This time, I should be able to make that old Mentor suffer."
Black Cocoon extended a restraint belt, tied it to the red lantern above the izakaya, then pulled the restraint belt, swinging up and flying over the canal illuminated by advertisement billboards.
A moment later, he returned to the familiar hot spring inn, just about to slip through the window back to his room, when he heard loud exclamations from next door, and swung over with the restraint belt.
Black Cocoon raised his hand and knocked on the window of the neighboring room.
Cezar and Yaguba were sitting on the floor playing Monopoly, with Little Shark standing up straight, raising his fin to point, playing Monopoly with the vigor of a failed art student commanding on a battlefield, while Cezar scratched his head gills on the side.
It was the first time both had played Monopoly. But they were gambling money, with the loser paying the winner a hundred bucks.
"Knock, knock... knock, knock." Seeing someone knocking at the window, Cezar first paused, then turned his head curiously to look outside, seeing an inverted black silhouette hovering.
He quickly walked to the window, unlocked, and opened it.
"Why are you here, Mr. Black Cocoon?" Cezar asked.
"I came to play Monopoly with you," Black Cocoon shrugged, "Really got nothing else to do."
"Oh? You’re here to be bullied, Big Moth?"
Yaguba slowly raised his head, a die on his left fin, pointing at Black Cocoon with his right fin.
"Just so you know, I’m out of money," Black Cocoon confidently said with his hands on his hips.
"No problem, Yaguba has lots of money! It’s so kind, it will definitely share with you," Cezar said. When he and Yaguba went to work together, they generally split the earnings evenly. Yaguba didn’t have a wallet, so Cezar kept the money.
"That’s Shark’s money!" Yaguba roared, "Why should I share with Big Moth?"
"Your money is my money," Black Cocoon said, "I am your lifesaver after all."
"Makes sense." Little Shark nodded solemnly, leaving Cezar stunned as he looked at the swift consensus reached between the fish and human, apparently not expecting Yaguba to be so compliant.
Afterward, the two humans and a shark sat cross-legged on the floor of the inn room, engaging in a tactical battle akin to being in a college entrance exam hall as they strategized seriously over the Monopoly board. The TV played a song request, "Hotel California."