Master of the Stars

Chapter 39: A New Way of Thinking (Part ½)

The Limestone Water Village Pub was not an independent building. Even though it had a height of 454 meters with its 108 stories, it was only one of the buildings existing in the Cloud City Water Village complex. And moreover, it was the building with the lowest height.

There were six buildings similar to the Limestone Water Village Pub, distributed in a laddered ring. They increased in height in order, altogether surrounding the Cloud City Main Building, which towered at 1179 meters, to form one of the world’s top ranking building complexes.

The architectural designs that Luo Nan could see encompassed the entirety of Limestone Water Village Pub and the several connected passageways to the next higher building’s businesses.

The transparent map was transformed into a mesh-like form, looking to be like honeycombs. But it was more complicated than this by a thousand times. There were blue triangular flag cursors scattered all around, representing the Wilderness Explorers Society. They looked to be charging around in a maze.

Seeing this scene, Luo Nan blurted out: “There are too few people.”

The 108 story Limestone Water Village Pub was the most affordable and in touch with people building among the Cloud City Water Village. Naturally, the popularity was always high. When it came to be the weekend, especially during the peak hours of the night, there were at least a dozen dinner parties lined up in a row. Counting the travelers and tourists, twenty~thirty thousand people coming and going wouldn’t be considered much at all.

But the number of ability users scattered among the various floors didn’t exceed 15 taking everything into account. One person would need to cover seven~eight floors on average. In reality, there were several teams formed, among which included these two who were present in the elevator right now…… The amount of area they could barely cover was simply riddled with a thousand holes.

Luo Nan kept on hearing stuff about an operation, causing him to believe that the Society would execute it on a large scale for the sake of hunting and destroying the Human-Faced Arachnid. He believed that they would lay down an inescapable net. But when he saw this scene, even he felt a little bit embarrassed by it.

His thoughts deviated at this time as he recalled a small detail: “I remember that Sister He, you had brought along four people?”

In the end, Luo Nan found it embarrassing to call her by “Secretary He”. He copied this tongue from Chen Weican.

“Those four should be congregated together.”

“......” Luo Nan was already completely convinced. Wasn’t this kind of deployment to hunt the Human-Faced Arachnid the same as finding a needle in a haystack?

He Yueyin suddenly asked him at this time: “Can you switch to Conference Mode?”

Luo Nan believed that she had other plans, naturally, he didn’t have a reason to refuse.

Soon, the retina interface flashed with a notification as the Wartime Encrypted Communications Channel entered Conference Mode. A row of avatars appeared on the interface in order. All 15 Society members at Limestone Water Village Pub were online and Zhang Yingying’s squirrel was among the avatars.

But what happened next was most unexpected. The following words from He Yueyin were clearly a response to his question: “The number of people isn’t the crucial factor. After all, the hidden resources that are in the Society’s control are quite considerable. And so, the appropriate deployment to kill a clone of the Human-Faced Arachnid would be three-to-five Awakened acting together. This is more than enough.”

Being the one to weaken the powerful Human-Faced Arachnid into retreating, He Yueyin was naturally qualified to speak these words. And Luo Nan didn’t object; he wouldn’t say it in this secret channel. He would wait until she was in front of a large crowd before asking, “Sister He, how did you come to this conclusion in the end?”

He Yueyin’s voice was sharp and serious, but she had no intentions of stopping: “Since our numbers are few, we can’t possibly cover everything. There is absolutely no need to scatter ourselves, especially in this case where commanding a long distance deployment will make a high level of refinement be unattainable.”

…...Shots fired!

Right when Luo Nan was stunned and speechless, another person spoke intentionally and their voice jumped out from the HexaEar: “Wait wait wait. Things are different if a military arrives. Then how do we conduct things, how do we deploy? Secretary He, give me a proper explanation!”

An impatient mood penetrated through the oily voice. A flickering indicator of number 3393 appeared at the corner of the retina interface. The avatar was an ugly black beetle.

He Yueyin didn’t get caught in the Black Beetle’s rhythm. She just adjusted the building’s design map and opened up an interface screen on the lower right corner to display a monitoring video of the interior of the pub.

Luo Nan noticed that the faces of the people in the video consisted mostly of students. Looking at the scale and form, it was none other than the Mutual Assistance Cold Dinner Party Event, which he had yet to enter.

Soon, He Yueyin made a mark on the interface. A male and a female were engaged in conversation at the edge of the monitoring area……. Xue Lei and Chen Xiaolin. The other was the male who they engaged in battle with, the Black-Suited Male who was coming endlessly closer.

Clearly, this was a recording from before the incident.

Xue Lei’s and Chen Xiaolin’s dispute was able to be seen. They probably had some misgivings about the public setting. After a few quarreling words, they left the site. They probably wanted to find a more quiet place to talk.

The Black-Suited Male followed behind them the entire time.

The video recording then switched over to the entrance of the elevator, capturing Luo Nan with his head down drawing at just the right time. Naturally, Zhang Yingying was captured as well, looking at him from the side.

“Please take notice of the position marker of every person present.”

He Yueyin’s cold and piercing voice sounded out: “According to Zhang Yingying’s description as well as what was displayed in combat, Mr. Luo discovered the anomaly on his friend’s body at this time. He yelled a warning, then he was taken by surprise by the Black Wolf……”

“Black Wolf?”

Luo Nan changed his gaze to the Black-Suited Male on the ground. So it turned out this guy had a nickname? Speaking of which, this fellow was in a much more miserable state than Xue Lei. He Yueyin’s attack just then had directly snapped his spine. Could he still be saved?

But He Yueyin’s following explanation stunned Luo Nan.

“The Black Wolf was a registered member of the Society and was also a member of this hunting operation. However, right now he is already a slave of the Human-Faced Arachnid.”

He Yueyin’s tone was undisturbed, remaining unchanged even though this was her comrade; she displayed no further emotions as well. But there was a silence within the Society’s conference channel. This matter was clearly hard for the others to take in.

He Yueyin’s analysis continued at this time: “We weren’t able to find the scene where the Black Wolf gets infected. But extrapolating from his last communications timestamp, he was infected approximately twenty minutes beforehand. Then the infected Black Wolf approached the next target.”

“We have reason to believe, from the state of him focusing on the target, that he had already been bestowed with a command. He shadowed the target, waiting for an opportunity to harvest the fruits of battle. The Human-Faced Arachnid’s methods were cruel and fierce. There was practically no cushioning time in between. And at this time, we had no inkling of this whatsoever.”

He Yueyin’s voice was the only sound left in the temporary silence of the Society’s conference channel:

“It was only until Mr. Luo captured a trace of the Human-Faced Arachnid and gave his friend a warning that we were able to start to mobilize. The first wave was the person by Mr. Luo’s side, Zhang Yingying……”

A beep indicated that the elevator had just reached the 81st floor. There were no disturbances whatsoever during their entire trip. Thinking about it, this was probably the result of some special manipulation.

The elevator door opened. Luo Nan was then stupefied. Right in front of him against the wall was a beautiful woman with an expression of lifelessness. Wasn’t this Zhang Yingying?

This young lady, who had always radiated with energy, was clearly receiving the information from the Society’s conference channel. She made a not-so-pleasant assessment after the premonition and raised her hand dispirited:

“Hi. I’m here.”