Chapter 2095: Home Invasion Robbery
"Who?" Long Jianfeng stared warily at the figure on the building across the way.
"The one I just mentioned." Xu Huo looked at the man. "Why the sudden change of heart? I thought you'd at least wait until tomorrow to come find me."
The man pressed his hat down as he leaped from the rooftop to the ground, casually kicking aside the corpse lying nearby before walking slowly toward Xu Huo and the other two. "I was afraid I'd forget about this by tomorrow... By the way, is this really the first time we've met?"
"From what you're saying, you don't have any records from after 9:17 PM either." Xu Huo raised an eyebrow.
"You've encountered plenty of players, so I don't believe you don't know." The man chuckled. "Dragging this out any longer is pointless, but before we cooperate, we need to at least agree on a distribution plan."
"If we get the Perfect Evolution Potion, what then?"
"And if we get other items from Dr. Wu, what then?"
"Split evenly." Xu Huo said directly. "The Perfect Evolution Potion—everyone involved gets a share. Since we're all already advanced players, the potion's research value outweighs its practical use for us. A small sample is enough."
"You must be joking," the man frowned. "A single injection is only that much. With so many people splitting it, how much would each person actually get?"
"Then how do you want to split it?" Wang Ling, sensing he had another idea, asked bluntly.
"Anything we find, I take half, and the rest of you split the other half." The man spoke without hesitation, clearly having thought it through before coming.
"Now you're the one joking," Wang Ling sneered. "You take half? How much would we get?"
The man smiled nonchalantly. "I chose to cooperate with him. As the cooperating party, I naturally take half. The remaining half is his. He can decide who to give it to and who not to."
"Besides, if you don't want to split things, you can cut a few people out."
As he spoke, his gaze fell on Long Jianfeng, and he added, "Only players holding time items or those with Temporal Super Evolution get a seat at the negotiation table."
"Haha!" Long Jianfeng laughed, crossing his arms and staring coldly at him. "Aren't you afraid someone will flip the table?"
"Would you dare?" the man asked. "The situation is almost clear now—only those with time items or Temporal Evolvers have a chance to leave. Flip the table? Wait to die?"
"Either way, it's death, so why not die together?" Long Jianfeng shrugged indifferently, but his eyes were sharp. "If I can't live, neither should they."
The man had no intention of getting tangled with him and turned back to Xu Huo. "What do you say?"
"You need to make concessions on the Perfect Evolution Potion," Xu Huo said. "Otherwise, there's no deal."
The man's expression darkened slightly. "What kind of deal are you proposing?"
"Even if the Perfect Evolution Potion exists, it's not going to be here by the crate. I'll stick with my earlier proposal—the potion is split evenly, but only among those holding time items." Xu Huo turned to Long Jianfeng, whose face had changed dramatically. "It's a fact that you can't get out, and only we have the chance. The potion can't be split absolutely evenly. But if Dr. Wu left behind other things—like clues about the potion or other items—the clues are shared, and the items go to those who contribute. If that's not enough, the rest get White Notes."
Long Jianfeng's expression shifted several times before he finally said, "Since you both agree, I can't refuse. But can you convince the others?"
"They'll agree," Xu Huo said.
Long Jianfeng didn't argue further and turned to look at the approaching man. "I hope everyone keeps their word."
Advanced players naturally wouldn't use binding-type items—even if they did, cheating would be easy, making it pointless. Until the final result appeared, it was all just a game of strength.
"You convinced your companions, so I'll reluctantly take a step back," the man added. "Though I think those people are useless, if you want to bring them along, fine—as long as they don't interfere with my priority claim on the items."
Wang Ling snorted. "You're quick to make demands, but I wonder if the cards you're holding are worth it."
The four moved to a nearby beverage shop. The man spoke first. "Just call me Tang Ming. Of course, the name isn't real, but for convenience, real or fake doesn't matter."
"None of you have been here long. Not every holder of a time item is lucky enough to have clues handed to them. Without me, you'd have no idea how long you'd be stuck here..."
"Get to the point," Xu Huo interrupted. "Let me remind you, it's less than four hours until 9:17 PM."
Tang Ming made an apologetic gesture, then said, "You just want to know where the 9:17 PM home invasion robbery happened. Last night at 9:17, there was only one robbery and murder. The victims were an adult woman and a young girl. The adult died on the spot, and the girl died in the hospital despite rescue efforts. They should be Dr. Wu's wife and daughter."
"The location is on 12th Street, near the southern city park."
Xu Huo recalled the address Meng Wenguang had given him and asked, "Is it Sunshine Tree No. 12, or Little Spaceship No. 27?"
"It seems you'd have found your way there soon without me," Tang Ming said. "It's Sunshine Tree No. 12. Sunshine Tree is a villa district with excellent privacy, so no one noticed the mother and daughter calling for help during the robbery. Later, I checked the villa's surveillance and confirmed the tragedy occurred at 9:17 PM. From the robber entering to Dr. Wu's wife dying, it took less than two minutes."
"Coincidentally, the automatic alarm system was running a self-check at the time. The robber quickly grabbed some valuables and fled. Less than half an hour later, he was spotted by a patrolling armed unit. He resisted and was shot dead on the spot."
"And then?" Wang Ling asked.
"Then?" Tang Ming raised an eyebrow. "What else? Dr. Wu's wife and daughter were dead."
"A high-end villa district, and Dr. Wu specialized in cutting-edge tech research. A robber breaks into his home, kills his wife and child, and escapes—and the security system did nothing?"
"A wanted robber doesn't go into hiding but commits another robbery, then immediately runs into armed personnel and gets killed on the spot—isn't that too coincidental?"
"Where was Dr. Wu during all this? How did he handle it afterward?"
Wang Ling fired off several questions.
"I don't know about that," Tang Ming said. "Dr. Wu's wife and daughter are dead, which means the matter is over. The mother and daughter might have died due to a conspiracy, but chasing down who did it is meaningless."
Wang Ling's brows shot up, but before she could speak, Xu Huo asked, "When does Pumpkin City refresh—at 12:03 or 9:00 AM?"
(End of Chapter)