Chapter 419 - 364: What Brianna Discovered

"...What's in it for me?"

Now that its mind had evolved and gained self-awareness, it was almost inevitable that the Vulture would ask such a question.

Brianna wasn't the least bit surprised.

The Vulture glanced sideways at Brianna. It lost control for a moment, and its eyeball took two or three seconds to slide back into its socket. "You want to dig up some dirt, that's your business. But if you want me to tell you what I know, I need a motive, don't I?"

"...What do you want?"

Brianna wasn't surprised, but that didn't mean she was calm. She suppressed her anger and asked, "Haven't I been listening to you complain for this long?"

After finding the culprit, even though the Vulture couldn't kill her, it tortured Brianna in another way for half an hour. It recounted in painstaking detail just how miserable it had been, physically demonstrating the abuse it had suffered, and griped that its reputation among the other Vultures was now no different from a piece of gum stuck to the bottom of a shoe...

In the past, Brianna might have been full of sympathy. Now, she just wished she could wring its neck.

Ever since she died, she couldn't stand seeing others play the victim. The Vulture's whining made her head spin. Several times, she thought about just giving up. 'Jin Xueli is just one person, and she's going to die sooner or later. It's not worth putting myself through this.' But each time she was about to turn away, she couldn't bring herself to leave.

But the Vulture's griping was a relentless, airtight barrage she couldn't break through. Worried about Jacqueline, she could only inch her body backward every few moments.

Every time Brianna shuffled back, the Vulture would take a step forward to close the distance. By the time it was done complaining, she had backed up a considerable way. When she glanced back, she could see the tree where Jacqueline was sitting.

"Just listening to me vent isn't enough." The Vulture smacked its lips. Its mouth rippled for several seconds before stabilizing its form again. "Hmm... What kind of reward do I want... Do you have any ideas?"

'So it doesn't even know what it wants. It's just being greedy.'

'When I finally get to wear Jin Xueli's skin, I'll have to dress her up beautifully... only then will it be worth the trouble I'm going through now.'

Brianna said patiently, "What desires could a resident have besides preying on humans? I'll bring you into the human world?"

She felt she was already making a huge sacrifice by offering to bring a creature like this into the human world, but to her surprise, the Vulture shook its head.

"Entering the human world... I can manage that on my own now. Think of something else."

'How about I kill you? Drown you, burn you, grind you into a cup of disgusting, pulpy sludge? There are a lot of you anyway, so I'll just kill them all until there are no Vultures left in the world. Hmm, wait, there are a lot of Vultures... what was it saying just now?'

"...Help you improve your reputation among the Vultures?" she asked tentatively.

The Vulture's eyes lit up. "Be-become a famous Vulture? Me? A star? How would you do that?"

'This might work.' Brianna thought for a moment. "I'll create an opportunity for you to kill a Dominion Game player. You'll become famous overnight. How about it?"

"Not Mai Mingle, though," the Vulture immediately waved its hands dismissively. "That one, well, you probably know... going after her will only lead to suffering..."

"It's not Mai Mingle."

'Who's Mai Mingle? Another player? Is she that strong? I'll have to look her up later.' "It's Chaisi Monroe."

Brianna upped the ante. "I won't just create the opportunity. I'll also help you cook up a plan, and we can do it together. After he's dead, I'll say you did it all by yourself. I'll go back to the Nest and spread the word for you, vouch for you... How does that sound?"

The Vulture was so excited it spun around twice. "Killing is good! I love killing!"

To a human, it was obvious this was just doing someone else's dirty work. Plus, the target was Chaisi, making it a thankless task anyone would avoid. But for a resident, it was a different story—the act of killing itself was a resident's greatest pleasure.

Getting to have fun and become famous, it naturally became much more cooperative. It lowered its head and said obsequiously, "I'll tell you everything I remember. After all, Han Liuyue once had me turn into Jin Xueli."

"Why?"

The Vulture blinked a couple of times. "Um... She wanted to know about Jin Xueli's past."

'What a coincidence. Why does everyone want to know about that woman's past?'

"Oh, I think I've heard about that. After you transform into a target, you can inherit the original person's memories, right?"

"Of course," the Vulture said with a nod.

Brianna gave it a look.

'Am I just being paranoid?'

What the Vulture told her didn't contradict what she already knew, but she just felt like it was hiding something.

"...So whatever you said, Han Liuyue just believed it?"

"Ahem," the Vulture turned its face away and scratched its chin. "Whether she believed me or not, I can't control that. And what could she do if she didn't? She couldn't kill me either. I'd already been tortured into that state, and, oh, you have no idea..."

"Shut up."

"Okay, okay."

Brianna mulled it over for a moment.

'How Han Liuyue verified the information probably isn't that important. What's more important is what happened to Jin Xueli. I want to know. I desperately want to know, right now. I can't wait until I get to kill her.'

"Spit it out," she said with a wave of her hand. "Tell me everything about Jin Xueli's memories and her past."

The Vulture squirmed.

"Um, well, a lot of time has passed. It's been a while, and I returned to my original form long ago..."

Brianna could feel her expression slowly darkening.

"We Vultures have this trait where, after we revert to our original forms, we erase the memories we gained from our last transformation. Think about it. If we kept every memory, after changing into a few different humans, we wouldn't even know who's who anymore. The memories of different people would get all mixed up. That would be a disaster..."

Brianna beckoned to it with her finger. "Here. Come closer and say that."

The Vulture bent down, acting embarrassed. "Oh, you didn't hear me clearly?"

Before it could finish its sentence, Brianna slapped it across the face.

Since becoming a half-resident, her strength had skyrocketed. The slap was as hard as a steel bar, sending the Vulture's head flying—its neck couldn't withstand the sudden force. With a CRACK-CRACK of breaking bone, the Vulture's head drooped to the side, one half of its face caved in.

"You have such a bad temper,"

the Vulture mumbled from the hole where its caved-in mouth used to be. "You should let me finish. This memory-clearing process, it also takes time... Although I've erased most of Jin Xueli's memories, there's still a part I haven't had time to clear yet."

After taking the slap, it became much more straightforward and told Brianna the rest of what it remembered. "Jin Xueli's Path is jumping off a building. But she's afraid of heights, so before she enters each time, she has to drink a lot of alcohol. Only when she's drunk and numb does she dare to jump."

"Isn't that incredibly dangerous?" Brianna's heart tightened.

"It is," the Vulture said, as if with regret. "So she found herself a fixed landing spot. Through a scenario reward in the Nest, she secured a private room. Every time she jumps, she's guaranteed to land in that room. She only comes out after she sobers up, which ensures her safety."

It rolled its eyes, thinking. "Hmm... what else was there... Right, I think she also hid something very important in that room... an Illusion, maybe? Ahem, residents don't care about Illusions, so I didn't think much of it. It's a bit fuzzy."

As if to prove its usefulness, the Vulture added emphatically, "It's really, really important. To this day, I can still remember the precious, cherished feeling she had every time she took it out."

Brianna's fingers tapped slowly on the ground a few times. "...Do you still remember where that room is?"

The Vulture was clearly pleased with itself, its face lighting up. "Of course I remember. I can even take you there."

It was thanks to the Vulture that Brianna was able to find that red brick house.

The red brick houses were of a typical 19th-century style, built one after another in a row. Jin Xueli's landing spot was the one on the street corner, adjacent to the road. Besides the main entrance at the front, there was also a separate side door, supposedly for tenants, which connected to a small, narrow garden.

Brianna, now wearing Jacqueline's skin again, walked up to the side door. Just as she reached out to push it open, someone knocked on the window from the side.

She turned her head and, through the dark ground-floor window, saw Jin Xueli.