Chapter 403: Unknown?
Jiang Nan was in the ruins of An City?
And he was still fighting against the "Unknown"?
But at this moment, the Heavenly Eye System could only see Jiang Nan standing on the street, laughing wildly!
Yet it couldn't see what was happening inside the mall!
At this moment, the spatial barrier cage had already shrunk to a mere three meters square!
The translucent girl was still relentlessly charging against the void barrier!
Sending out bursts of pearly light!
Her body seemed to exist somewhere between solid and ethereal!
Several times, she even cracked the spatial barrier with her impacts!
Each collision brought a wave of chill air, and her large eyes were filled with fear and anxiety!
[Resentment from ??? +1000!]
And this had completely surpassed Jiang Nan's understanding.
"What the hell is this thing?"
Just then, Jiang Nan's wristband suddenly transmitted a voice!
"Jiang Nan! Jiang Nan! Can you hear me? I'm Han Menglu!"
"Don't get close to the 'Unknown'! Extremely dangerous!"
Jiang Nan was stunned. Unknown? She was the Unknown?
Her? Dangerous?
A little scatterbrain who seasoned a chicken leg by dumping the entire jar of chili powder—how dangerous could she be?
"What's an Unknown?"
Han Yulu said anxiously, "A life form higher than humans! Its body is in a Bose–Einstein condensate state!"
Jiang Nan: (･᷄ὢ･᷅) Huh?
"What kind of spinach?"
[Resentment from Han Menglu +999!]
"Spinach your head!"
"Matter has six states! Gas! Liquid! Solid! Plasma! Bose-Einstein condensate! Fermionic condensate!"
"The Bose state of the Unknown requires temperatures below -273.5°C, absolute zero, to form. Some things our current foundation can't understand!"
"Anyway, it's dangerous! Ah! I'll explain later! You go first!"
Jiang Nan scratched his head. Although he didn't understand the "spinach" Han Menglu was rambling about, he did figure out one thing—the translucent girl with horns in front of him was definitely not human.
"Where's the danger? I caught it, didn't I?"
"I think she's pretty cute. Just not much... you know, flat."
"Hmm... still better than Nightingale."
At this moment, the entire hall fell silent for a beat, followed by a sharp intake of breath.
The researchers' heads were buzzing.
(°ﾛ°٥)
He caught one?
Jiang Nan caught an "Unknown"?
Zhao Dezhu's eyes went wide, his face full of disbelief. "How... how did this brat do it?"
Xiao Chuihuo's old face flushed red with excitement. "Jiang Nan is a Space System! You know their special nature. It's not impossible!"
Han Menglu's chest heaved with excitement. "You... you really caught the Unknown? What... what does it look like?"
"Don't move! Don't move at all! I'll send people over to capture it right away!"
At that moment, the spatial barrier cage had shrunk to just two meters square.
The translucent girl stopped trying to ram it. Instead, she pressed both hands against the barrier.
Pressing her whole body against it, she stared fixedly at Jiang Nan.
Biting her lower lip, her pretty face was full of pleading and fear. She shook her head repeatedly.
Her eyes were helpless, and tears streamed down her cheeks.
Jiang Nan's heart clenched.
It reminded him of when he was in the orphanage, the morning Zhong Yingxue was taken away by the Zhong family.
He himself had cried just as sadly.
He rubbed his nose and muttered, "Capture, huh?"
Then he opened an alternate dimension and shoved his wrist inside, completely blocking the wristband's signal.
Inside the giant egg hall!
"We've lost contact with Jiang Nan!"
"How did he walk in? The Heavenly Eye System can't see him anymore!"
"What's happening? This is killing me!"
Jiang Nan walked up to the cage and locked eyes with the translucent girl.
Only then did he clearly see her face.
A slightly baby-fatty face, a delicate little nose, eyes clear as lake water—almost no different from a human.
Seeing that Jiang Nan hadn't reported her, the translucent girl showed a hint of gratitude.
One little hand made a little person shape and took two steps.
Then she put her hands together as if in thanks, her face full of pleading.
Jiang Nan smirked. She wanted him to let her go?
"How can that be? You ate my skewers and still want to leave?"
"You have to pay me some money!"
The translucent girl pouted, her face full of grievance.
She looked down at herself, then took off a pendant from her neck.
It was a crystal conch shell, sparkling and translucent, gorgeous. She placed it in her little hand, her big eyes full of reluctance, and handed it to Jiang Nan.
[Resentment from ??? +333!]
Jiang Nan's eyes lit up!
A treasure from an "Unknown"? It must be worth a lot of money, right?
He grabbed it and hung it around his own neck, tucking it close to his body.
"Alright, I'll let you go, but don't hit me, okay?"
With that, he retracted the spatial barrier.
The translucent girl stepped out, wiped the tear stains from her face, gave Jiang Nan a dark look as if slightly sulking, and then—
Suddenly, a pearly light flared, and an extreme cold spread out, making Jiang Nan shiver violently.
When he opened his eyes again, the person had vanished, as if she had never been there at all.
Jiang Nan quickly felt his chest—the crystal conch shell was still there.
A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"Not a loss!"
Just then, his wristband transmitted Han Menglu's anxious message.
"Jiang Nan! Are you alright? Are you okay? What about the Unknown? Is it still there? I just saw some shimmering light..."
Jiang Nan scratched his head. "Uh... it ran off. The Unknown was too strong. I couldn't beat it."
Han Menglu paused. "Whew... glad you're okay."
"If it got away, it got away. Let's talk everything over after you come out."
In the giant egg hall, many researchers' faces showed disappointment.
"Ah... what a pity."
"Catching an Unknown is never easy. It's already good we recorded some data."
"Can we still track the Bose particles?"
"Can't track them anymore."
Jiang Nan cut off the communication, rubbed his chin, and grinned.
From his alternate dimension, he pulled out a pile of snacks—fries, bread, chicken legs, sausages—and put them on the ground.
Then he set down a box of old lady's chili sauce.
With a teleport, he was gone.
A full half hour after Jiang Nan left,
a small figure emerged from behind a pillar in the mall. Seeing the mountain of snacks, her face was full of happiness.
They... they were all left for me to eat, right?
٩(ŏ﹃ŏ٩)
It seemed she had already forgotten about the crystal conch shell.
By now, more than two hours had passed since the game started.
The orange cats had already captured over three hundred of the glowing bald heads, leaving only a few dozen.
But they couldn't be happy at all.
Because they hadn't caught many of the other little mice.
"Damn it, Jiang Nan! What is this stench? It can be smelled for kilometers!"
"The little mice smell it from kilometers away and run. How are we supposed to play this?"
"Putting a bell on a cat? What a trick!"
"This won't work. Water element users, get over here! Wash this stink off our people!"
"We're changing maps soon! Hurry!"
——
Author's note: