Chapter 244 The Other Hidden Card (1/2)
The explosion sounds came from afar, and Hila's face tensed up. She knew that Han Xiao had Germinal's attention for the moment.
A large group of troops were quickly approaching, and when the Executive Officer saw Hila, he frowned. ”You're going in the wrong direction; the enemy is that way.”
”I have a different mission.”
Hila had once again put on her usual ice-cold expression as she waded through the group of soldiers and hurried off in the opposite direction.
They passed over ten groups of Germinal reinforcements along the way, but Hila did not dare stop moving. Thankfully, the most people did was give her a confused glance, and none tried to stop her.
Everything happened so suddenly that Hila's betrayal had not been exposed. Even though she had a strong will, she was still secretly glad at how Han Xiao had reacted in time and destroyed all the cameras, giving them this advantage.
Only things that had to do with her sister could move her emotions.
The Germinal forces faced no opposition as they rushed to get to the floor that Zero was on. However, no one was to be found. Hila also started to destroy all the cameras along the way to prevent the discovery of the secret passage. When Germinal came to their senses, Aurora would have long disappeared.
After she finished her precautionary measures, Hila opened the door to the passageway and entered while carrying her sister. It was a pitch dark and narrow tunnel, and one could only move forward by crouching.
Once she closed the door, all the noise from outside suddenly disappeared. Silence permeated through every nook and cranny, and the tension also started to drop along with Hila's previously heightened heartbeat as she calmed down.
Hila could finally take a deep breath and relax.
Now that they were in the tunnel, the escape plan could be considered almost successful.
As her bag was wriggling around, Hila unzipped it and Aurora's tiny head popped out.
”Have we escaped?” Aurora asked as she looked around curiously.
”Almost,” Hila replied as she lovingly touched Aurora's head.
Aurora then went back into the bag and hid her face inside, only showing her two big, round eyes, as she suddenly asked, ”Where's Uncle Zero?”
”We will wait for five more minutes. He should… be here soon,” Hila said after a pause.
Aurora cocked her head and asked again, ”Sis, Uncle Zero seems really strong, right?”
”He's alright.” Hila did not want to give a clear answer.
”Sis, why did he come save me?”
”How would I know?” Even as Hila said that, her hand subconsciously reached for the photo in her pocket. She remembered that Zero had once seen this photo back in his training base. It could not be…
But back then, Zero did not even have time to protect himself, so why would he remember this inconsequential thing, even to the extent of carrying out this huge rescue plan? Unless he really did have the capability to see the future…
Hila shook her head; she still could not figure out his motives. All she could feel was fear and respect to this mysterious figure, who single handedly devastated the behemoth that was the Germinal Organization.
To think that he had once been that weak little trainee back in the base but had now risen to such heights in such short amount of time. She could only sigh at this. The world truly worked in mysterious ways.
”Sis, Uncle Zero…”
”Stop mentioning him.” Hila got a little bit annoyed. Although he did save her sister, for some reason, she felt some sort of unexplainable familiarity with this Zero. It was as if she had met him somewhere else after he escaped from the base. However, that should not have been possible.
”But Sis, you usually spoke so highly of him and even praised him whenever you told me stories about him.” Aurora felt wronged.
”Nonsense,” Hila said as she gently pinched Aurora's cheeks.
At this moment, a third, odd-sounding voice spoke out in the cramped and lightless tunnel.
”Did I hear that right? You were praising me?”
Hila turned in an instant and was just about to send out her powers before a powerful force squeezed her hands and brutally pushed her against the tunnel wall.
With the help of the red lights, she was finally able to identify the owner of the odd voice. It was Han Xiao, who was supposed to be outside fighting still.
”Why are you here‽” Hila was shocked.
Han Xiao let of his hands before laughing lightly. ”I'm everywhere.”
Hila relaxed and called back her powers while making a face. She remembered clearly that the tunnel door was opened and closed only once. How did Han Xiao manage to get in? Did he go through the walls?
Han Xiao laughed and said nothing. When he took the initiative to propose splitting up, he had already made a simple but effective plan in his mind. Of course, he would not gamble on Hila telling him the real position, so he had then been left with two choices. The first was to leave simple tracker on Aurora's bag, while the second was a character card that had never used. The Dion card obtained on the Western Continent had a special stealth ability.
Although he was very strong, he was not willing to be encircled and ganged up on for no reason. His main goal was to get out of the germinal headquarters. So, after he taught No. 1 who was boss, Han Xiao went and blasted all the cameras at the intersection, giving Germinal the idea that he was in the area before he activated Dion's character card and backtracked along the original way.
Regardless of the truth of her words, she must have been headed to the real passageway.
The character cards' ability name was 'You Can't See Me'. As the name suggested, Han Xiao simply waltzed along the way without anyone taking notice of him.