Chapter 2092: Early Arrivals
The few people looked at each other and shook their heads. The affinity player said, "My name is Kong Ying. Chen An, Li Shicai, and I have only been here for less than ten days. Han Xiaole and Song Yuchen have probably been here for nearly twenty days."
"We only met recently. We've been wandering around the city these past few days. We didn't expect the city to suddenly change today..." Kong Ying looked at Xu Huo. "I suspect someone has touched the core of the instance. We just don't know who. We came here to try our luck."
Players who had been repeating the same day in Pumpkin City were unlikely to be the key to the change, so the most likely candidates were newcomers who knew some inside information.
"Don't look at me," Xu Huo said. "I'm just lucky."
Kong Ying forced a smile, then struck up a conversation with Shen Liang. "Is the boss of this company really the person whose face is on the White Note?"
"I haven't seen the boss since I got here. I don't know if the instance is deliberately using that as a red herring," Shen Liang said weakly. "If you want, you can look around the company and see if you can find any clues. But don't cause any major trouble. If Pumpkin City disappears, we're all finished."
The group had the same intention, so they dispersed after lingering for a while.
"Seeing that you didn't seem too keen on talking to them, I thought I'd do you a favor," Shen Liang said, tilting his head towards Xu Huo.
Xu Huo glanced at him. "Don't get your hopes up too high. Coming in early or late might be the same."
"Just trying my luck," Shen Liang gave him a thumbs up. "The only reason I've survived this long is my good attitude."
A moment later, Feng Hui hurried back. He had met Kong Ying and the others upstairs and came down to inform Xu Huo. Upon learning that Xu Huo had already met them, he lowered his voice and asked, "They were asking me about Pumpkin City."
"Do you know any clues about getting out?" Xu Huo asked.
Feng Hui immediately shook his head.
"Then there you go," Xu Huo said, getting down to business. "Any leads?"
"I didn't find out anything," Feng Hui said. "I tried every excuse—sending gifts, sending flowers, delivering documents, courier packages. The HR manager, key staff, the receptionist... none of them know Dr. Wu's address. Whenever I asked, they said anything could be given in person. And they're very sensitive about private information like home addresses. They'd change the subject after a couple of questions."
Xu Huo checked the time. "Take a break. Wait for Meng Wenguang."
Feng Hui had just sat down for a drink of water when Kong Ying and her group of five returned, choosing to rest nearby.
Soon, another player arrived.
Unlike the miserable state of the previous two groups, this person gave them a show of force with a time item before even entering. When the time power spread through Little Star Company, more than half the people in the building—including Feng Hui, Shen Liang, Li Shi, and Han Xiaole—were frozen. The range wasn't wide, but because the company was densely populated, it caused a large number of people to be completely still, as if paused.
"What's happening..." Kong Ying, Chen An, and Song Yuchen, who weren't caught in the time power, first retreated when they noticed something was wrong with those around them. Before they could say anything else, they saw Xu Huo disappear from his spot and reappear at the company's main entrance a second later.
Glancing back at the completely frozen Feng Hui and the others, Kong Ying and her group quickly followed out of the company.
The newcomer was a man in his early forties, dressed very energetically and fashionably. He had a bandana wrapped around his head with a baseball cap worn backwards on top. Seeing Xu Huo come out, he whistled and waved from between two large screens some distance from the entrance. "New partner, not bad. Let's see how long you can last."
As soon as he finished speaking, he retreated from Little Star Company.
Seeing the man leave without hesitation, Xu Huo frowned slightly. By then, Feng Hui and the others, who had returned to normal, sensed something was wrong and chased out. "What happened?"
"Your time was probably stopped just now," Kong Ying said.
"A time item?" Feng Hui asked nervously. "Or a super player?"
Advanced players had a certain chance of obtaining time items, but being able to control time freeze through time evolution was something only super players could do in the eyes of ordinary players.
"The other party looks like an A-rank player," Kong Ying added.
"Mr. Xu, did he just leave without doing anything?" Feng Hui asked. "Wasn't he curious... about Little Star Company?"
"He's probably not here for the first time. He already knows everything he needs to know." The man was already out of Xu Huo's perception range.
Just then, Meng Wenguang returned. Seeing the situation, he asked, "Trouble?"
"We'll deal with it later." Xu Huo asked him, "Back so soon? Any findings?"
"Let's talk privately." Meng Wenguang avoided Kong Ying and the others, even leaving Feng Hui outside. He only called Xu Huo to find another spot in the company. "I did find something. The problem is, I found too much."
He opened his communicator. "In this short time, I found nearly twenty addresses. I had Yue Rui and the others check the first two. They were also fake addresses."
"I suspect none of the addresses here are real. But the fake ones are all concentrated between 8th Street and 16th Street. I also made some inquiries. Security around Little Star Company is especially tight. Maybe Dr. Wu's family lives nearby."
Xu Huo nodded. "Then let's start searching nearby."
Meng Wenguang sent him a copy of the addresses and pointed outside. "What's the situation?"
Xu Huo briefly explained what happened. "This brings up another problem."
That is, where were the players during the time between 9:02 and 12:32?
This time period was set based on when they entered the abandoned city. But in reality, people could enter at any minute of the 24-hour day. So where were the players who entered at other times before their arrival time?
According to the multi-space hypothesis, if the time refreshes before their arrival time, the most likely scenario is that they remain in the Pumpkin City space. But if the space here only has two layers, then before their arrival time, players entering Pumpkin City might have been lingering here all along, only leaving at their arrival time the next day.
If that were the case, then because Pumpkin City opened early, players whose arrival time hadn't come yet would naturally have been lingering in the Pumpkin City space since the previous day.
Unless the time after 9:17 in Pumpkin City was shortened.
"Since people with time items have come in before, could someone have stayed here for more than two days?" Meng Wenguang also thought of this.
"Hard to say, but the probability is probably low," Xu Huo said. A key point of Pumpkin City was the time refresh. Continuous lingering went against the intention of the venue's setup. Of course, this possibility couldn't be ruled out either.
"If that person who just came entered after we entered Pumpkin City, could he possibly know the exact location of the home invasion robbery?" Meng Wenguang asked.
(End of Chapter)