Chapter 228: An Unexpected Discovery
Translator: Pluto Editor: Vermillion
Daytime only lasted for a short while before nightfall silently arrived. The last rays of the sun lingered in the dark murky sky as if unwilling to depart. Finally, reaching a consensus, the sky turned into a dark deep blue, such that the clouds appeared blue. The wind swept gently through the silent cities devoid of human life. The sound of the breeze ironically accentuated the silence all around.
The group stood on the rooftop of the bank building and looked at the dots of yellow light in the distance. Those light seemed like the only sign of anything living within the lifeless darkness. Though Kisaragi Station was a recently formed world, the sides of the bank building were already overrun with ivy.
"Those lights are probably switched on by duoluozhongs to attract survivors," Hannie suddenly commented, as though she had noticed Lin Sanjiu looking in the direction of the lights. Lin Sanjiu was startled by the woman's keen observation.
Even though their agreement was for Reno and Rena to guard to place, Derik's group probably didn't trust them enough. Consequently, Derik sent Hannie to patrol the place with Lin Sanjiu.
After they ate dinner, Hannie's lips were once again a bright red. She had done some touch-up when nobody noticed. Whenever she walked, her high-heeled leather boots made loud clackity sounds which could be heard from afar. However, it didn't seem like a concern for Hannie. She wore her boots proudly without showing any signs of changing her footwear any time soon.
Her acute sense of observation mismatched her straightforward personality.
After observing for some time that the western streets were quiet, the two women turned and headed toward another side of the building.
"Your ability is quite strange," Hannie couldn't help commenting after a long time of silence between them. "Is it for scaring others?"
Lin Sanjiu shot a glance at Hannie and shook her head. As she moved, the neck muscles pulsed and contracted. It was a rather gruesome sight to behold, so Hannie quickly looked away. Lin Sanjiu did not communicate by written in front of Derik and the others just to keep a hidden ace with her.
From Hannie's perspective, it was better to patrol the place with a mute than a hideous, incomplete anatomy figure. Hannie scoffed and ignored Lin Sanjiu, walking away noisily. Lin Sanjiu couldn't fathom how that woman could survive in an apocalyptic world.
"Perhaps, this was an affordance only residents of Twelve Worlds Centrum have?" Lin Sanjiu thought to herself. Even though Hannie was constantly on standby, her makeup was perfect and her soft wavy hair was always kempt. She wore a high-collared, wine-colored sleeveless blouse and a pair of skintight shorts. Her outfit accentuated her beautiful figure but it was hard to imagine that she could fight in it.
"Maybe she can activate her ability from afar?" Lin Sanjiu couldn't help guessing.
Their surroundings were so quiet that it was almost peaceful. Lin Sanjiu and Hannie's patrol was actually the second shift. When Reno and Derik patrolled earlier, they also didn't notice anything out of place.
Being vigilant, Lin Sanjiu kept the scanning area of her higher consciousness within the radius of 600 meters. After a few hours, she didn't discover any threats but instead used up quite a lot of her higher consciousness. Her left calf muscles shrunk quite a bit. After a quick consideration, Lin Sanjiu reduced her scanning radius to 200 meters.
"I can't believe this. I still have to patrol this place with 'it' for another two hours…" Hannie mumbled softly to herself some distance away from Lin Sanjiu, though Lin Sanjiu could capture what she said clearly.
Lin Sanjiu was not bothered but such complaints and instead she stretched her neck and looked around her. Even though her current body was just made of higher consciousness, Lin Sanjiu valued the regained sensation from stretching her muscles that she had lost for some time. When she had the chance, she would move her neck.
When Lin Sanjiu turned back to look at Hannie again, a sudden gust of wind blew Hannie's wavy hair in the opposite direction.
"A breeze?" Just as Lin Sanjiu had that thought and before she could react properly, she suddenly sensed that something was wrong. Moving solely on her intuition, Lin Sanjiu floated backward. A gust of wind brushed the tip of her nasal bone.
It had become windy, but the wind was created by a ball-like thing flying toward them in mid-air. That ball-like thing looked similar to a cannonball. It appeared to have been shot from the rooftop of another high-rise building. It whistled in the air as it whizzed toward Lin Sanjiu and Hannie. It was accelerating at such a high speed that it stirred up a piercing wind.
"It's an enemy attack!" Hannie immediately shouted into her communicator while she climbed up from the ground in a slightly embarrassing manner. At the same time, the ball-like thing had already reached the edge of the rooftop they were standing on. It suddenly unfolded, exposing a person who was smiling with its tongue stuck out. The person gripped the edge of the rooftop, did a flip, and landed on the rooftop. That "cannonball" had transformed into a shirtless man with dark-colored skin.
Lin Sanjiu was slightly startled. She did not know where the other six members were hiding. She only knew that the man in front of them wasn't going to be someone easy to deal with. Under such circumstances, it was quite impossible to get out of this situation by stating that she was just on "guard duty". In a quick decisive manner, she lowered her body and launched herself toward the man.
"Ah, what is this!" the dark-skinned man was stunned for a split second before he avoided Lin Sanjiu's attack. He stuck out his long tongue and licked his own cheek. He cast a sweeping glance at Lin Sanjiu's lower back and his expression changed instantly. With a few somersaults, he evaded Lin Sanjjiu and blocked Hannie's path.
"I don't want to fight with you!" the man shouted to Lin Sanjiu. Lin Sanjiu stopped. Then, he turned to Hannie and chuckled, "You're my target!"
"You're overestimating yourself!" Hannie yelled. A ball of white light appeared in her hand as she briskly aimed at the man's face. Much to Lin Sanjiu's surprise, Hannie had a melee close-combat style. Lin Sanjiu decidedly restrained herself from helping.
This was a rare opportunity for Lin Sanjiu to observe Hannie and her real capabilities. After watching her for a while, Lin Sanjiu realized that Hannie definitely had some level of combat skills. After exchanging a few blows, Hannie had the upper hand and forced the man toward the rooftop access door. Meanwhile, the sound of footsteps came from the stairs. Derik and the others came to help and they now had the dark-skinned man trapped.
The dark-skinned man uttered an indiscernible curse and nimbly crouched and rolled away from Hannie's attack. Following which, he rushed to the edge of the rooftop without even taking a gasp of air. When Zhu Mingchuan pushed open the rooftop access door violently, the man had already jumped off the building with no qualms.
Zhu Minghchuan and Hannie immediately rushed to the edge of the rooftop. However, without any abilities to jump off a high-rise building unscathed, the two of them could only look down from above and mutter vulgarities. Apparently, the man had escaped by air.
"How are you? Are you hurt?" Reno and Rena, who had been behind Derik, asked worriedly as they ran toward Lin Sanjiu. They were late and missed that brief battle. Rena looked away hurriedly and asked, "What just happened?"
Lin Sanjiu did not reply.
Derik and the others were standing nearby, so Lin Sanjiu didn't want to write a reply.
When the dark-skinned man jumped off the building, Lin Sanjiu clearly saw a "7" on his back.