Card Room

Chapter 51 - Financial Crisis 11: Mysterious Teenager

Yu Hanjiang had Xiao Lou and Shao Qingge stay to guard the warehouse materials while he quickly followed the teenager.

Xiao Lou and Shao Qingge didn’t have any opinion on Group Leader Yu’s decision. After all, ‘tracking’ was Group Leader Yu’s expertise. If they followed then not only would they be too slow, they might attract the teenager’s attention.

The streets were very quiet in the middle of the night.

Yu Hanjiang left the decorations market and soon found the teenager.

Under the illumination of the streetlights, the teenager and his tricycle cast a shadow on the ground. His physical strength was very ordinary and he appeared to have some difficulty riding a tricycle full of supplies. Yu Hanjiang walked like he was flying and soon followed this teenager, keeping a distance of 50 metres.

The teenager seemed to sense something and turned his head in an alert manner behind him.

Yu Hanjiang immediately dodged into the shadow of the street lights.

The teenager found no one behind him and turned back, continuing to ride the tricycle. He moved a distance and looked around and behind him like a small animal sneaking out for food in the forest.

Yu Hanjiang followed him quietly.

After some distance, Yu Hanjiang soon discovered that this person was actually heading in the direction of the suburbs. Yu Hanjiang was very familiar with this direction because he had been very concerned with the construction site in the suburbs since he planned to use this site as an escape route. Was the teenager also going to the construction site?

In the northwest, there was only the construction site and no homes around.

Yu Hanjiang frowned a bit. Perhaps it was as Xiao Lou said and this teenager had been watching them, discovering that he had been going to the construction site for the past few days.

He was considering if he should keep following or not when the teenager riding the tricycle arrived at a street corner and saw two drunks at the fork in the road.

The two men were holding each other’s arms and yelling at each other. Their feet staggered like they would fall at any time.

After seeing the teenager, one of the drunk men rushed over to grab his garbage truck, speaking with a smile, “Friend, is there any wine? I haven’t had enough to drink tonight. Would you like a few drinks?”

The other drunk man grabbed the boy’s arm. “Come down from there and let’s get drunk until dawn!”

The teenager was shocked by the two drunk men emerging suddenly. His face was slightly pale but he quickly adjusted it and said, “Big brothers, I don’t have any wine. I am just a garbage collector, haha, you c-continue to drink…”

However, the drunk people had no sense of reason at all and grabbed him to drink together. One man grabbed his tricycle while the other held his arm, making him unable to walk.

A minute later, the teenager was visibly impatient.

His fingertips flashed and a 3×3 metres grid appeared on the ground and trapped the two drunk men. The teenager forced their hands off and quickly rode the tricycle.

The card he used was ‘Nine Palaces Grid’. This was a fixed reward for the 2 of Diamonds secret room and could trap anybody in the given area for nine seconds. This boy was clever to use it to escape.

Yu Hanjiang saw that the teenager riding the tricycle suddenly disappeared from the corner of the street. He strode forward and found that the teenager was already 100 metres away.

His speed at riding a tricycle wasn’t this fast.

Yu Hanjiang had maintained the distance at 50 metres. How could this teenager move 100 metres in just a few seconds?

The next moment, Yu Hanjiang knew the answer.

The teenager suddenly disappeared like a ghost and reappeared again at the end of the street.

Teleportation.

If it wasn’t for this world having all types of strange cards, Yu Hanjiang would certainly think that he had seen a ghost.

The streets late at night were cold and empty. The teenager and his tricycle ‘teleported 50 metres’ and after five consecutive teleports, he completely disappeared from Yu Hanjiang’s vision.

This was simply too mysterious.

It was unknown of the teenager discovered that Yu Hanjiang was tracking him or if he was alerted by the two drunks but the teenager directly used the card skill to teleport away before Yu Hanjiang could catch up with him.

Yu Hanjiang gently pinched his brow. Today was really bad. He tried to catch the thieves and as a result, the other side killed his teammate and ran away.

In the Card World, if people wanted to commit a crime than it would be much easier than the real world.

Teleportation, invisibility and universal key, these type of cards convenient for crime would be disastrous if they fell into the hands of the mob!

***

Yu Hanjiang soon returned to the warehouse.

Xiao Lou looked at his face and guessed the result. “The teenager also had a special card?” He believed that with Group Leader Yu’s professional tracking ability, it was impossible to lose a tricycle full of supplies unless the teenager had other means of escaping.

Yu Hanjiang nodded. “He has a teleportation card and can even take his tricycle along. He moved 50 metres in a few seconds and disappeared.”

Shao Qingge cried out, “He can teleport along with his vehicle? This card is very strong!”

Xiao Lou glanced at his smiling expression and couldn’t resist saying, “Surely you don’t want to rob it?”

Shao Qingge shrugged. “I’m not that violent… by the way, what is your fun card?”

Yu Hanjiang told them, “Talk about it later. Let’s move first.”

Yu Hanjiang moved the truck loaded with supplies and headed to the site along with Xiao Lou and Shao Qingge.

On the road, Xiao Lou lamented, “I paid 80,000 for the room and as a result, I only spent three nights there. Based on the calculations, I lost 10,000 compared to challengers who paid by the day…”

Shao Qingge comforted him. “It’s fine. Once the real estate stocks collapse, I can make at least two million in profit and half will be given to you. Then once you clear the following secret rooms, you can upgrade the contract as soon as possible.”

“That’s great.” Xiao Lou turned to him with a smile. “Mr Shao really knows how to make money. I have some savings in my bank card in the real world. If we are able to go back, can I give you the money to invest in stocks?”

“Of course, no problem…but the premise is that we can go back.” Shao Qingge stared at the empty and cold streets and whispered, “This is only 3 of Spades but the difficulty is so high. I can only imagine the difficulty of 10 of Spades and higher.”

“No matter the difficulty, we have to go back. We can’t stay here.” Yu Hanjiang’s voice was low and smooth. In the middle of the night, it seemed to have a reassuring power. “The existence of cards will help the challenger but these cards are also a breeding ground for crime. The real world has legal and moral constraints but here, many people will do whatever it takes to survive.”

“Yes, some people won’t hesitate to kill and even worse, they don’t need to bear the guilt of murder.” Xiao Lou looked dark before he softly added, “From now on, the harder the secret room, the more likely it is that these types of people will appear.”

“In the world where the weak are prey to the strong, those who are hard-hearted will naturally have a higher rate of survival.” Yu Hanjiang looked back at the two people and spoke coldly. “However, if you live by means of murder then how can you become a normal person after returning to reality?”

Both Xiao Lou and Sh were deep in thought.

Killing others in order to live, staining their hands with blood and becoming murders, even if they survived, they might have nightmares every night… what was the point of living like that?

Even so, these were things they would have to face in the future. If only one person could survive between themselves and the opponent, they would have to make a choice.

At this thought, a chill went down Xiao Lou’s back. He didn’t want to kill but in the case of a last resort, he couldn’t sacrifice himself for others. He wasn’t the Virgin Mother. He could only try to adhere to his original mindset and not turn into a bloodthirsty killer.

“We’re almost there.” Yu Hanjiang’s words interrupted Xiao Lou’s thoughts.

Xiao Lou looked up and saw the lights from the construction site not far away. At this time, it had been completely shut down and no one could be seen.

Yu Hanjiang stated, “This building has three floors and hundreds of empty rooms. here are no residents around and the workers have gone on strike. They shouldn’t be found here.”

Xiao Lou asked, “Should we pick the room with the best view on the third floor?”

Yu Hanjiang replied, “I did an inspection and there is a room in the northeast corner of the third floor. There are windows on all four walls and we can observe the surroundings with no dead angles. Once someone comes close, we can perceive it first.”

“Group Leader Yu worked hard.” Xiao Lou smiled and said, “Then we will stay in that room.”

The trio worked to move their supplies to the room in the northeast corner of the third floor.

They were just carrying the boxes into the building when Yu Hanjiang suddenly stopped and lowered his voice. “There is someone.”

Xiao Lou wondered, “What?”

“In this building, there are four people’s footsteps.”

The hairs on Xiao Lou’s body stood up hearing this in the middle of the night. His expression suddenly changed and there was the sense of the horror of ‘a haunted house late at night’. He turned and saw Yu Hanjiang’s calm expression while the other person’s low voice entered his ears, “The person moved on the stairs just now. I heard footsteps different from the three of us.”

Xiao Lou was worried. “Is it the thief who followed us?”

Yu Hanjiang shook his head. “The bigger possibility is the little guy who ran off with his tricycle. I thought he was going in this direction. Perhaps he also wants to use the construction site as a temporary residence.”

Xiao Lou was very puzzled. “Is he copying our way of clearing the instance or did he happen to think the same as us?”

The two of them had lowered their voice and used the ‘whisper’ approach. Shao Qingge heard up to here and also asked in a light voice, “Do you know him?”

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang glanced at each other before denying it. “We don’t know him.”

Shao Qingge mused, “It’s strange, why should he copy our clearance strategy? There are so many challengers yet he followed us from the beginning. Do we have ‘must clear’ written on our faces in big writing?”

Xiao Lou didn’t know if he should laugh or cry. “For students who went to copy homework, they will look for someone with good results to copy from. If he really wants to copy our clearance strategy, he couldn’t copy it if he was uncertain. Unless… he knows our identity and believe we have a great possibility of clearing it.”

Shao Qingge said, “The two of you broke the world record for 3 of Hearts and 3 of Diamonds while Group Leader Yu broke the world record for 2 of Spades and Professor Xiao broke it for 2 of Diamonds. Your names have filled the announcements many times and once he knows you are called Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang, he would certainly feel that he had encountered great gods. By following behind the great gods, he could clear the instance.”

Yu Hanjiang made an ‘shh’ gesture and signalled for the two men to place their travel bags on the ground.

He took out all the contents of the bag and turned the entire bag over.

In the corner of the three travel bags, there was a fingernail-sized black button. Yu Hanjiang gently picked up the ‘button’, carefully observed for a moment and then used his fingers to write on the ground, ‘A bug.’

Shao Qingge, “……”

Xiao Lou, “……”

Dang! A wiretap was actually placed on their travel bags so the movements of the three people in the past few days had been heard clearly!

Yu Hanjiang took out his phone to type, “I’m sure my bag hasn’t been touched by anyone. Professor Xiao?”

Xiao Lou typed, “I am the same. The bag contained enough food for three days and apart from the guesthouse where I placed the bag on the ground, I never let this bag leave my body when I go out.”

Shao Qingge wondered, “How did the bug get on it?”

Yu Hanjiang suddenly had a thought. “On the first day in this world, we heard him sing two songs near the Central Square.”

Xiao Lou’s senses quickly returned. “Yes, he sang Glorious Days and Out the Window. The city’s residents haven’t heard these two songs but the challengers would be familiar with them. Did he determine the challengers in the crowd according to the reaction of the audience?”

Yu Hanjiang’s eyes were deep. “This little fellow, him singing in the square wasn’t just to make money.”

The teenager had seen Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang in the Shanshui Guesthouse and saw them stop to listen to his singing in the central square. The familiar song brought up Xiao Lou’s memories and Xiao Lou’s face would’ve certainly shown it at the time. This allowed the teenager to identity his ‘challenger’ identity.

The three people were just unaware of when the eavesdropping bug was placed.

Xiao Lou speculated, “He should have a card where the effect is to place the bug within a certain range. It can probably release several at the same time. This little guy’s cards are very strong.”

Teleportation and a bug. The two cards might not have any attack capability but by relying on these cards, the young man’s escape and copying abilities were simply first-class!

The professional criminal investigator, Yu Hanjiang actually lost his tracks and was also bugged for several days.

The three people looked at each other.

A moment later, Shao Qingge couldn’t help laughing. “This guy with raised ears, he is an alert and flexible kitten.”

Xiao Lou thought of this image and laughed. “I estimate that when Group Leader Yu and I moved the boxes with ‘glass, handle with care’ on them, he listened to the bugs on our backpacks and heard us storing the supplies separately. He followed suit but in an upgraded manner, disguising the goods as trash in the warehouse.”

Yu Hanjiang added, “He heard I was observing the construction site and also ran to look, finding that it is suitable as a hiding place.”

Xiao Lou continued, “We caught the thief in the middle of the night and the thief unexpectedly killed his teammate to escape. Group Leader Yu decided to move immediately. He heard this, was afraid the thief would come back to hit the challengers and also moved immediately.”

Shao Qingge stated, “He is copying our clearance strategy.”

Xiao Lou smiled. “As a teacher, I can’t help wanting to praise him. He is the best student I have seen at copying. Not only did he use it, he upgraded and changed our strategy.”

Group Leader Yu disguised their materials as glass and he directly disguised it as a garbage bag. He also sprinkled egg whites and juice on the garbage bag, making them smelly so that people didn’t want to get near them.

Group Leader Yu found a moving company to move their materials and he had a ready-made ride with the tricycle.

Copying to this point, they could only say that this little guy was too clever.

Shao Qingge asked, “Group Leader Yu, what is your plan? Do you want to clean him up?”

Yu Hanjiang thought about it for a moment. “He just overheard and imitated our clearance strategy. He knew where we put the materials but didn’t think of stealing our things or harming us. There is no need to move against him for the time being. Professor Xiao, what do you think?”

Yu Hanjiang asked Xiao Lou for his opinion.

Xiao Lou replied, “If a student was cheating during an exam, I would definitely give them a warning. However, this world is too difficult to live in and copying our clearance strategy can also be considered an ability…” Xiao Lou paused before typing, “Besides, I’m very interested in the teleport and eavesdropping function of his two cards.”

Yu Hanjiang stated, “Since you are interested, grab him and see.”

The next moment, Yu Hanjiang directly picked up the button-sized bug and whispered, “I just heard wrong, there are no footsteps. This place is so remote and there definitely won’t be anyone. We will continue to move our supplies and put them away.”

Xiao Lou cooperated with him. “Yes, Mr Shao will stay here. I’ll go downstairs with Group Leader Yu to move the things.”

Shao Qingge smiled, “No problem.”

After finishing, Yu Hanjiang winked at the two men and placed the bug in the corner.

They didn’t go downstairs to move the box but instead headed west along the second floor. Then with light footsteps, they followed Yu Hanjiang to the third floor.

Yu Hanjiang was very familiar with the interior of the building.

On the third floor, the northeast and northwest corridors had the rooms with the most open views. However, the windows only allowed them to see the movements downstairs, not inside the building.

They came from the second floor and climbed the stairs to the third floor. This entire process was almost silent.

Yu Hanjiang headed into the room in the northwest corner of the third floor.

There were many supplies in the room and a thin teenager was hiding against the window, looking downstairs through the gap in the window.

Apparently, the teenager had heard their conversation through the bug and thought they would continue downstairs to carry supplies. He observed for a while but didn’t see any figures downstairs.

The teenager was feeling puzzled when he heard a low and cold voice coming from behind him.

Yu Hanjiang spoke softly, “There is no need to look. We’re here.”

The teenager’s body shook violently and he instantly froze like a statue.

Xiao Lou stated, “We found the bugs you placed and Group Leader Yu deliberately spoke those words to let you relax your guard.”

Shao Qingge smiled at the other person. “Don’t get too excited. We are currently on the third floor and you might break your leg jumping down.”

The teenager, “……”

Shao Qingge continued, “If your teleportation card can move vertically then you can choose to jump from the window.” He then opened a black garbage bag and took out milk with the packaging intact. “Hey, this is oat milk. I like this the best.”

The teenager, “……”

This group of liars!

What was that thing about moving downstairs? They sneaked to the west side of the third floor to catch him?

The teenager saw the three big men who were taller than him and his lips quivered slightly. “You, what do you want?”

The three people, “……”

Shouldn’t they be asking him this sentence?