Chapter 2094: Showing Good Faith
When he returned to the Time Tower from 12th Street, he checked the time again. Just as he was about to head to 10th Street, he happened to run into Wang Ling and Long Jianfeng, who were fleeing from a distance. As they landed on a building on 10th Street, two streaks of light followed closely behind from afar. They were deflected by the defense barrier but quickly turned around in midair and charged at them again.
Judging from their collision with the defense barrier, the two flying arrows weren't high-level attack items, but they were fast. With their relentless assault, one or two strikes would inevitably slip through the gaps in their defenses.
"How troublesome." Long Jianfeng's shoulder was grazed. The wound wasn't a major issue, but the item was poisoned. He had already taken an antidote, yet he still felt dizzy and groggy, and it seemed the symptoms wouldn't ease anytime soon.
"Can't split up, can't stick together either." Wang Ling tried to grab the two arrows but failed every time. He flexed his fingers. "Slippery as eels."
His gaze quickly swept the surroundings, but he still couldn't find who was chasing them.
The flying arrows struck again. Just as the two were about to jump off the building, the ground beneath them suddenly vanished, and they lurched forward, falling straight through the ceiling into the floor below.
Wang Ling and Long Jianfeng's expressions changed. They flickered and dashed straight for the nearest wall. Just as they were about to break through, they turned back and saw Xu Huo standing where they had been. He faced the two arrows that had curved in, brushed his hand across their shafts, and in the next moment, the arrows turned to ash in midair.
The two stopped in their tracks. Then they heard him say, "What are you hiding for? Come out together!"
The next second, the ground beneath them vanished again, and they instantly fell onto the street beside them. Also falling were two players who had come from who knows where. The moment they landed, they immediately retreated, but this was within the spiritual realm. As they moved, it felt like stepping on air, and their entire bodies sank into the ground. Before they could adjust and get up, taut tangents circled them a dozen times. One died on the spot, while the other used an item to burrow directly underground, emerging from the ground on the next street over.
"Mirror Space" couldn't control such a large area, but with space teleportation items disabled, they could only rely on their traits and their legs to run. As long as they couldn't clear two thousand meters in one breath, they were still within Xu Huo's spiritual realm.
So Xu Huo intercepted him again, with Wang Ling and Long Jianfeng following closely.
"Aren't you good at hiding? Hide again!" Wang Ling sneered, casually tossing out a nesting doll. As the doll landed in his hand, the air around that player visibly condensed into an enlarged replica of the doll, trapping him tightly inside. Then, as Wang Ling twisted the head of the doll in his hand, the player's head was also twisted one hundred and eighty degrees backward.
But the player didn't die. After his head turned, his entire body suddenly deflated like a balloon. As it drifted down, they saw another tunnel leading underground beneath his feet.
"Are you a mole reincarnated?" Long Jianfeng laughed in anger. "No wonder we couldn't see anyone..."
Before he finished speaking, the ground suddenly trembled. The area where they stood quickly collapsed, and then several metal frames sprouted from places they shouldn't exist, shooting straight upward.
The player had a hovering item, so dodging this trap wasn't hard. But with the ground caving in, the tunnel the player had dug was also blocked. Chasing him down was impossible, and the underground was too deep. Even if they used items to explore, it would be difficult to do anything.
"And he got away just like that!" Long Jianfeng said angrily. "Those two were after Wang Ling's time item. If they came once, they'll come again!"
"They've probably learned their lesson by now." Wang Ling was indifferent. "Stealing a time item—how easy do they think that is?"
"By the way, why are you here?"
"I ran into another person holding a time item," Xu Huo said. "Their time item can freeze time. It's a bit troublesome."
Wang Ling's expression turned serious. "Could it be someone who came in yesterday?"
Xu Huo nodded. "They have records from yesterday to today."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go snatch it," Long Jianfeng said immediately.
Wang Ling glanced at him. "It's not that simple. Time frozen by ordinary items is usually easy to break. Just bring a good spatiotemporal item, and regardless of reaction speed, escaping isn't hard. Xu Huo says it's troublesome, which means ordinary spatiotemporal items can't save you."
"That means the time item in their hands is probably high quality. What if it has other abilities?"
"And if they're a Temporal Super Evolver, it's even trickier."
"Since we don't know each other's capabilities, it's better to keep our distance." Xu Huo looked at Long Jianfeng. "You want to snatch their time item, but they want to snatch ours."
Meeting their gazes, Long Jianfeng quickly raised his hands. "You two are the ones holding the time items. You decide. I have no objections."
"Any gains from the city government?" Xu Huo returned to the main topic.
"We have the details and specific addresses of the home invasion cases. As for the investigation progress, except for the one who committed multiple robberies and is still at large, the others have been caught."
"The city government also has detailed information on Little Star Company's shield plan. Additionally, we found a new energy weapon purchase contract they signed. We don't know what specific weapon it is, but unlike other documents, it only has the signature of a boss named Landau. 'Dr. Wu' and the other bosses didn't sign. It was probably signed privately."
"There's internal discord in Little Star Company. To maximize profits, someone wants to force Dr. Wu out," Long Jianfeng said. "Maybe someone used the home invasion case."
Combined with what Xu Huo had overheard at the company, perhaps it was Dr. Wu's opposition that turned this contract into one signed by only one person.
"If it's not an ordinary home invasion, can we stop it early by finding the source?" Wang Ling asked.
"Didn't one person escape? If the city government can't find him, the data from Little Star Company might not be real either," Xu Huo said. "If it's an inside job, they'll definitely alter the robber's information, or it's hard to say if such a person even exists."
"That's true," Long Jianfeng said. "Besides, even if the robber matches up and it really was him, can we really stop it?"
No one knew why they were pulled into Pumpkin City. At the very least, they needed to understand what happened at 9:17. What if it had little to do with the robbery?
"Let's check the addresses first," Xu Huo said. "They're on these few streets nearby."
Just as the three were about to move, a person appeared on a rooftop not far away. They tossed down the player who had just escaped and said with a smile, "If we're going to cooperate, we have to show good faith first."
(Chapter End)