Ring of Fate

Chapter 952 Action Outline
Lumian waited until the Dream Tutorial School opened before using the voice input method to send a WeChat message to Anderson Hood:
"Mr. Anderson, does your cram school offer painting courses? I have a friend who wants to learn more about it."

Late last night, after receiving Janna's message, Lumian was thinking about how to test Anderson Hood. Based on the premise that Roxanne had been controlled and the personality alienation situation had been initially resolved, he thought that the matter was not urgent and there was no need to take screenshots of the legal person and shareholder information of the "Painted Hotel" and send them directly to Anderson, "tease" him that he had other careers in private, and then observe the subsequent reactions and wait for the unexpected events that might come as a result.

He planned to start with painting as a preliminary test, preferably without alerting Anderson.

Anderson did not reply to Lumian immediately, and Lumian did not stay in the bathroom. He put his phone in his trouser pocket and walked back to the monitoring room.

He looked at the large screens in front of him, and some of the "experiments" he had done before and would need to do later flashed through his mind:
1. Observe Mr. Fool’s dream image Zhou Mingrui and the people around him;

2. The first time I met Zhou Mingrui during the day, I was left with a certain impression;

3. Contact people who are close to Zhou Mingrui. This is divided into multiple steps. Eliminate the suspicion of one target before contacting the second one, and so on;
4. Meet Zhou Mingrui again during the day to leave him with a deeper impression;
5. Establish a conversational relationship with Zhou Mingrui during the day, hinting at his supernatural powers and goodwill;

6. First contact with Zhou Mingrui at night;

7. At night, it hints at the existence of Zhou Mingrui's extraordinary power and his good intentions;
8. Based on the previous experimental results and the information collected, formulate a formal awakening plan.

This is the action outline of the Lumian team. The first four parts have been completed so far, and no member has been kicked out of the dream or restricted. The third part is scattered throughout all subsequent steps, and the team members responsible for contact must self-isolate for a day and a night after contact before they can move forward.

In the following parts, the danger gradually increased. Lumian did not think about avoiding it because determining the degree and source of danger was one of the purposes of the experiment.

Only after knowing what can be done and what cannot be done, what will result in immediate kicking out and what will take some time to erupt, can their team formally enter the eighth part of the action outline and formulate a targeted awakening plan.

At this stage, Lumian is neither worried nor afraid of failure. What he is worried and afraid of is not being able to find the reason for failure.

It was with this idea in mind that he adopted a "testing" mentality in many things, including whether the "Information Crushing Box" was useful, whether Stiano was trustworthy, what was the relationship between Anderson Hood and the "Painter" channel, whether Green became one of the tools for the "Great Mother" to influence dreams, and so on.

Once you get the results of the "test", contact the Major Arcana cards and check the accounts, and you may find some interesting and useful details.

If they seek confirmation from the Major Arcana cards at the beginning, they will have preconceived ideas and form a fixed thinking pattern. They may not "test" some things and will not get their own results. The only things in their minds are the conclusions given by the Major Arcana cards, which may cause them to miss key information.

As Lumian was thinking about what to do next, he noticed that there was an extra person in a surveillance camera on the tenth floor.

The camera was pointed at the main door of Aurora Company, and a man wearing a black robe and a wide, deep hood walked out. He looked completely different from the other white-collar workers nearby.

Suddenly, a bunch of things fell out of the man's robe and landed on the floor.

The man squatted suddenly, and the hem of his robe covered the fallen objects.

When he stood up, the ground had been clean again, without any debris.

After watching the man walk out of the surveillance camera and seeing him enter the elevator camera again, Lumian muttered to himself:

"The counterpart of a certain gentleman from the Aurora Society in the Dream City?"

The security guard sitting next to him followed his gaze and laughed:
"Don't be afraid. That's how those funny people in Aurora Company are. It's nothing serious."

“I thought it was performance art.” As Lumian spoke, he saw Roxanne walk out of the elevator and enter the Intis Group.

…………

Administration department, inside the large office.

When Luo Shan saw the table with some things missing, she stood there in confusion.

"I helped you throw away all those paintings." Franca walked closer to Roxanne and explained with a smile.

Luo Shan suddenly realized:

"I've totally forgotten about this. I'll draw something new later..."

She paused, looked around, and asked in a low voice:

“Will I be able to paint after this?”

"Sure, it won't affect your ability to use it." Franka whispered in a comforting voice, then raised her voice, "Director Zhang asked you to help me familiarize myself with the work process."

Zhang Qing’s full position is Deputy Director of Administration Department of Intis Group.

"Okay." Roshan pulled Franca over and talked to her openly about the rumors within the company.

Luo Shan finally said:
"I forgot to tell you last night that there's a very aggressive young security guard who dares to confront those people from the MCN company. He's really handsome, but don't tell anyone else, he already has a 7-year-old son and he's only 22!"

Theoretically, I am the child's mother, one of them... Franca's mouth twitched slightly, and she echoed the sigh:
"Isn't this a junior high school with a child?"

After chatting about this for a while, Franka sat back in her seat and started working according to Roxanne's instructions.

After getting familiar with the office system, she turned her chair and stood up, wanting to help Luo Shan share some of the work.

She saw Luo Shan holding a pencil and drawing on a piece of white paper with a focused expression.

What are you drawing? Franca walked quietly to Roxanne's side in complete silence.

She found that Luo Shan was sketching her own portrait. Luo Shan in the painting had empty eyes, a cold expression, and the corners of her mouth were raised.

This... Franca's eyes narrowed, and she immediately stretched out her right hand and patted Luo Shan on the shoulder:
"What are you drawing?"

Luo Shan was startled and stopped drawing immediately.

She turned her body and saw that it was Franca. She was obviously relieved and held her chest and said:
"I was so scared! I thought Lao Zhang caught me slacking off."

As she spoke, Luo Shan glanced at the sketch on the table, and her expression quickly turned into horror:
"How can I draw this?"

Franca hesitated for two seconds, then smiled, which made Roshan feel very relieved:
"Don't worry, you can just finish the last few strokes and I'll take care of it."

Luo Shan leaned forward again in doubt and added the final strokes to make the portrait more realistic.

As soon as she finished the drawing, she seemed to be coming alive in the sketch.

Franka grabbed the painting, and a black flame secretly burned in her palm.

Roxanne's expression in the painting immediately became painful, her face full of resentment and hatred, as if she was being burned by flames.

In just a blink of an eye, the painting curled up, spontaneously combusted, quickly turned into ashes, and fell into the trash can.

While completing this task, Franca used the transparent baffle on the side of the desk, Roxanne's mobile phone screen, and the mirror that a nearby colleague was using to touch up her makeup to create a "mirror maze" to deal with the camera's surveillance and leave no trace of her extraordinary abilities in the corresponding screen.

Luo Shan stared at Franca processing the portrait, and after a few seconds she said:

"I feel a lot more relaxed and in a better mood..."

Franka nodded and said:

"You can think of it as another outlet for your negative emotions and desires."

She thought for two seconds and added:
“At present, we can only cure your symptoms, but cannot solve the root cause of the problem. In short, we can only treat the symptoms, not the root cause.

"So, you have to be alert to your own condition and examine yourself from time to time. If you find something wrong, come to us immediately for a new round of treatment. Don't delay, otherwise the behavior just now will happen again, and the consequences are unpredictable.

“Power is a double-edged sword. It can hurt others as well as ourselves. This will accompany us throughout our lives.”

Luo Shan listened quietly, was silent for a moment, lowered her head and smiled:
"I understand what you mean. I hope I can last a few more years, preferably until I retire. No, let me enjoy life for another five years after retirement."

Seeing Roxanne's smile, Franca suddenly felt it was a bit dazzling, making her eyes sore.

She said in a soft and soothing voice:
"We must hold on if we can, just like some diseases that were terminal in the past, but if we actively cooperate with the treatment and extend our life as much as possible, with the development of technology, we can now be cured or the disease can be better controlled.

"In the future, we may become stronger, or we may encounter stronger people who can solve the problem of power pollution."

Luo Shan nodded slowly and said to Franca with a smile:
"I'm working hard, well, you have to work hard too, let's all work hard!"

Franka was silent for a moment, then released the "Mirror Maze" and returned to her seat.

She picked up her phone and found that Jenna, nicknamed "Nana and Lily", had sent her a message, which told her about the dangers she experienced on the way to deliver the painting to Star Dream Grocery Store, the help she received, and the final outcome.

Franca was frightened after seeing this and felt quite upset that she did not go with Janna.

She anticipated that there would be a great danger, but thought that Janna, who could voluntarily exit the dream, would at most waste an opportunity. She did not expect that the power of the evil god representative of the "Fantasy Society" could actually prevent them from returning to reality.

Jana almost died for real.

"Luckily, Amon and his father are on our side... Janna's experience has also brought us important information. If we encounter people and things from the 'Painter' path in the future, we must be careful not to exit the dream..." Franca thought that Lumian was about to or had already gone to test Anderson Hood, so she quickly forwarded Janna's message to him and reminded him to remember to delete it using the "Message Shredder".

After confirming that Lumian was fine and had been reminded, Franca glanced at Roxanne sideways and roughly understood why the other party's condition had suddenly relapsed just now.

That coincided with the time when the abnormality in the painting occurred and when Janna nearly died.

…………

Monitoring room.

After Lumian used the "Message Shredder" to delete the messages sent to him by Franca and Janna, he reminded Anthony.

He continued to watch the surveillance, looking for people and things that might be unusual.

At this time, Xu Xinyang, the captain of the second security team, walked into the monitoring room, patted his two subordinates on the shoulders and said:
"After work in the afternoon, we went to see Lao Wang and Lao Ding together. They are out of danger now.

"After visiting the patients, the brothers who are not on duty can get together to welcome Xiao Li to join our team."

"Lao Wang and Lao Ding?" Lumian could guess who Captain Xu was talking about, but he still had to pretend to be confused.

Xu Xinyang, who is tall and strong, has a square face and tanned skin, said with amusement and helplessness:

"Didn't you see the news? Several of our brothers were struck by lightning. Luckily, it wasn't anyone from our second team who died. Damn it, how could they be struck by lightning?"

"Oh, I remember now." Lumian asked, "Which hospital are Lao Wang and Lao Ding in?"

Xu Xinyang simply replied:

"Mushu Hospital."

(End of this chapter)