Chapter 146 - Tang Ci (1/2)
Ch146 – Tang Ci
That night, the eight people gathered in the villa ate and talked like it was a holiday. They didn’t go to sleep until 11 o’clock.
Xiao Lou gave everyone the day off. They rested all of Tuesday and could lazily sleep.
The group slept until noon before getting up. They were bored in the afternoon and watching TV at home. Liu Qiao had just changed to a news channel when she heard a news flash. “This weekend, the Caribbean and Full Star cruise s.h.i.+ps were hit by a typhoon and sank into the open sea. The wreckages of the cruise s.h.i.+ps have been salvaged. According to statistics, 386 people died in the s.h.i.+pwreck…”
Xiao Lou immediately looked up when he heard this. The footage showed rescue teams salvaging the wreckage of a cruise s.h.i.+p at sea. It was the Caribbean cruise s.h.i.+p they had been on where 386 people were killed, including locals, challengers and hunters.
There were tens of millions of challengers in this world. There couldn’t be so few people who died in the World Weekly secret room. Xiao Lou looked at Mo Xuemin in a puzzled manner. “Old Mo, there should be many cruise s.h.i.+ps who went to the sea at the same time. Why is it only reporting on these two?
Mo Xuemin explained, “Other cruise s.h.i.+ps have no locals and are all challengers. They have been pulled into another s.p.a.ce and no one knows if they are dead or alive. Our cruise s.h.i.+p is reported on because there were local people.”
Yu Hanjiang frowned. “You mean, the other World Weekly instances all contain challengers and they were transported to a different s.p.a.ce?”
Mo Xuemin nodded. “Yes, every time, 99% of challenges will be transported to a local s.p.a.ce and no one knows they have died. The local residents have long been used to the sudden disappearance of foreigners. The probability of encountering a complex instance where hunters and challengers are mixed in is around 1%. If we encounter a hunter then we can be considered unlucky.”
Since he had encountered hunters two weeks in a row, Mo Xuemin felt that his luck was really bad. He had to wash himself from head to toe. There was a 1% probability yet Brother Jiu bought tickets in advance to enter. Was it so coincidental?
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang glanced at each other and thought of a possibility. The hacking master of the Intelligence Bureau.
On the afternoon of the same day, Xiao Lou checked the responses on the forum. External forums expressed their condolences over the s.h.i.+pwreck. The challengers’ forum was full of posts. Some people said their s.h.i.+p’s elimination rate was as high as 50% with half the challengers eaten by sharks. Others said that in order to s.n.a.t.c.h the escape boat when the s.h.i.+p was overturned, the challengers experienced internal fighting and suffered heavy causalities.
There were some World Weekly rooms that encountered the control of a big guild and all of them survived. Taken all together, the average elimination rate of the World Weekly was between 10%~20%. Only Xiao Lou’s instance involving the Caribbean met a team of hunters.
The next day was Wednesday and the Intelligence Bureau would open.
In the afternoon, Xiaolou and Yu Hanjiang drove together to the Intelligence Bureau. Liu Qiao came over and asked Xiao Lou, “Professor Xiao, can I go with you?”
Xiao Lou knew she wanted to continue to check on the whereabouts of her sister so he took her with them. Qu Wanyue was worried that Liu Qiao couldn’t bear the blow and also followed.
Yu Hanjiang drove the black car, Xiao Lou sat in the pa.s.senger’s seat while the two girls sat in the back. By the time they arrived at the Intelligence Bureau, there was a long line at the door. They waited for half an hour before it was finally their turn.
The lottery store still had the same woman as last time, looking indifferent with her silver-rimmed gla.s.ses. She glanced at the four of them and asked, “What are you going to check this time?”
Liu Qiao stepped forward. “Please continue to help me find our Liu Ying’s whereabouts, thank you.”
The woman’s slender fingers quickly tapped on the keyboard. After a moment, she pa.s.sed the result of the search query to Liu Qiao. Last time they checked, the result was that there was no such person. Unexpectedly, there was news today! Liu Qiao was very happy and immediately took a look.
The girl in the photo was beautiful. She had an oval face and hair tied back in a high ponytail. This was indeed her sister Liu Ying. Xiao Lou also remembered this girl from 2 of Clubs. She might’ve been wearing a mask but the height, hairstyle and eyes were right.
However, the result of the inquiry under the photo made Xiao Lou scared.
Liu Qiao and her teammate, Zhong Tong came to the main city last Thursday, which was why they hadn’t found her whereabouts on Wednesday. She was one day later than Xiao Lou and Liu Qiao. During the time when Liu Qiao checked her last week, she was still struggling through the fourth level.
It was Wednesday, three days after the World Weekly. It was clear what it meant by their location being unaccounted for.
The woman sitting in front of the computer pushed up her gla.s.ses and said, “Sorry, your sister wasn’t well prepared when partic.i.p.ating in this week’s World Weekly. No news of her has been found in the main city, proving that she died in the World Weekly.”
Liu Qiao clung to the paper. She thought of the sharks at sea and couldn’t help her hands shaking. She followed Group Leader Yu to kill dozens of sharks, turned into a shark to try her light footwork card and under the leaders.h.i.+p of Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou, she easily cleared the instance. At the same time, her sister might’ve been torn to pieces by a shark in another area!
The two girls entering the World Weekly secret room, the chances of survival were too low…
Her sister had pa.s.sed through the first four levels with much difficulty but was eliminated in the World Weekly. Liu Qiao had difficulty accepting this face. The photo on the data sheet gradually blurred in her vision and before she knew it, tears had poured out.
Qu Wanyue gently hugged Liu Qiao and spoke softly, “Xiao Qiao, cry if you’re sad. Don’t bear it.”
Liu Qiao’s body was shaking as she clenched the questionnaire with her sister’s photo and sobbed. “My parents were busy with work. My sister was four years older than me and since childhood, she took care of me, cooking for me and telling stories to make me sleep. Is she really dead?”
Xiao Lou was silent for a moment before suddenly saying, “She just disappeared in this world. She isn’t necessarily dead.”
Liu Qiao looked up at Professor Xiao. “What do you mean?”
“If my guess is correct, after clearing all the secret rooms in this world, the method the keepers will use to let us return to reality is to go back to the past and change history. It is because this is the only way we can survive. Since you were in a car accident with your sister, you will go back to before the accident and can save your sister in reality.”
Liu Qiao’s eyes lit up and she quickly wiped away her tears, asking seriously, “Is it true? Can I go back in time and avoid that car accident?”
Xiao Lou nodded. “The probability is high.”
The woman sitting in front of the computer heard it and smiled. “Your reasoning has no basis in fact.”
Xiao Lou looked back at her. “However, you can’t say that my inference is wrong. It is only once we clear the SS-grade secret room that we will know how to return to reality.”
The woman shrugged. “Yes, after all, no one has cleared the world.”
Yu Hanjiang stepped forward. “Continue to help us find a few people.”
The woman nodded. “Please say it.”
Yu Hanjiang took the questionnaire and quickly wrote down a name: Lu Jiuchuan.
After entering the information, the woman concluded, “This person can’t be found.”
Yu Hanjiang wasn’t surprised by this result. The Intelligence Bureau’s master had completely erased his brother’s information so that no one could find the whereabouts of Brother Jiu.