by <unknown>
Han Xiao never would have guessed that it was No. 1, as the appearance was much too different. Moreover, to him, No. 1 had died already.
“Have we met?” Han Xiao asked confusingly.
“How could you not know me‽” No. 1 was furious. “I’m your rival!”
What rival? He must be delusional. Who on earth is this metal head?
Han Xiao was baffled, and his ear was starting to hurt from No. 1’s screaming, so he flipped the limbless No. 1 around to face the ground.
It was instantly much quieter.
No. 1’s mouth was plastered onto the ground and could only make muffled noises. He was enraged, yet there was nothing he can do except stare at Han Xiao out of the corner of his eye.
Gradually, the shining halo faded, only to welcome a curtain of black.
Soon after, the sound of security cameras being shot could be heard again.
Chapter 244. The Other Hidden Card |
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.
The enemies were then all baited to the intersection where Han Xiao had been without knowing where he had disappeared to. Han Xiao simply followed Hila and jumped into the tunnel together with her.
What surprised the Great Technician Han, however, was that Hila had actually given him the correct directions. Both the room number and the floor tile location were correct. To be honest, when they were about to split up, Hila’s fishy look had made him almost think that he was going to be sold out, but the result was unexpected.
In truth, Hila had also struggled with this, but she had finally decided to give Han Xiao the right information.
Han Xiao did save Aurora, and if she had lied to him, she would not know how to face her sister. Although a part of her kept tempting her otherwise, she finally abandoned such thoughts and told him the truth.
Compared to ‘Goddess of Death’ in Han Xiao’s past, this Hila had not been consumed by darkness, and her heart was still illuminated by the stars and moon that was Aurora.
Han Xiao originally thought that if Hila had sold him out, if he suddenly appeared again, Hila would be very embarrassed and even owe him a moral favor. However, since she did not, Han Xiao could not help but look at her in a new light. Although he was prepared, no one wo
uld want to be betrayed, and his mood was instantly better.
“Brat, what kind of stories did you sister tell you about me? Let’s hear them.” Han Xiao finally got to ask this question.
Aurora was about to politely answer, but Hila cut in expressionlessly and said, “Stop wasting time. This is only the first part of the secret passage. We still have to get to the abandoned underground tunnel. Let’s go.”
Hila led the way with Aurora and took off with enthusiastic strides.
Han Xiao shook his head and was about to follow when he suddenly remembered something. “Ah. I forgot to ask the old man what Aurora’s brainwashing code word is. Oh well. Let’s just get out of here first.”
…
On another side, tens of thousands of Germinal troops had gathered and were searching for Han Xiao around the area where he disappeared.
“Reporting to leader, target was not found.”
One by one the executives brought in the same results.
The leader was furious, and he held his hands so tight that his glove started to rip. “This is where the cameras last caught him. How could we not find him?
“That’s right, I saw him walk down this way.” No. 1 said as he lay on the ground to one side, his face full of resentment, as the researchers helped reattach his limbs.
“Just find him!” the leader roared as he slammed his fist on a nearby wall. With a bang, steel and concrete components ripped apart and flew out as if they were made of paper. The executives were frightened and had no choice but to continue searching.
The leader originally had thought that Han Xiao was trapped and had been cracking his knuckles to get ready to beat Zero up for all the grievances that he had caused the organization. Now that there was nothing to vent his frustration, the leader was feeling a sense of loss that was making his chest feel like it was going to explode.
Every time he dealt with the Zero, it had ended in failure. The leader could hardly tolerate it anymore. He glanced at the scattered parts of the super soldiers on the ground and cursed them for being so useless in his mind.
He took out his laptop and made another search. It was then that he found something odd. All the cameras in the lower floor had also been destroyed.
“Could he have accomplices?” The leader tapped the keyboard and quickly called up the interface. He soon found a new lead. The camera records in the A-4 area seemed to have been modified. He suddenly thought of something and quick gave his orders. “Send someone to A-4 to investigate.”
Soon, news came back.
“Security measures had been shut down, the guards have been killed, and the little girl had been taken away.”
In that moment, the string of information from Aurora’s disappearance, the destroyed cameras, and Hila’s absence in the previous battles to stop Zero started to make sense.
They had been fooled!
“Hila, you traitor!” The leader suddenly realized what had happened and was so enraged that the sound of his teeth gnashing together was like steel grinding against each other.
“Get man to search for Hila now. She escaped with Zero!”
The soldiers around were startled into action. The order was passed down one wave after another. Soon, a large force was mobilized to search yet again. However, Hila had already destroyed all the cameras on the lower floor. There was no way of knowing where they could have gone.
Then, someone finally brought the dazed Cyberlos to the leader, and with a slap, Cyberlos was awoken with a shock. Seeing the leader’s face that was full of hostility right after waking made Cyberlos tense up.
“Tell me everything you know!” the leader said coldly.
Cyberlos did not dare keep anything to himself and told the whole story from when he had been taken hostage until he was knocked unconscious.
“He took the organization’s classified information, kidnapped Aurora…” Cyberlos tried to be as careful. “He… He might be an Inhuman!”
Inhuman‽
The leader felt his body sway when he heard that. If Zero really was an undying Inhuman, then Germinal faced certain defeat.
After taking a deep breath, the leader said decidedly, “That’s only a guess. I will just have to kill him first and see if he really is an Inhuman.”
Cyberlos was then taken away. Seeing as the man had done a lot for the organization in terms of research, the leader decided to spare his life. Cyberlos had never been hired for his loyalty anyway.
“Widen the search net. Even if that Zero can get out of headquarters, I won’t let him get off the continent,” the leader said calmly.
The forces were but a small part of his plan.
Chapter 245. Predicament |
After travelling down the winding tunnel for some time, the path in front suddenly widened.
Right in front of them was an underground tunnel with an open space. The exit for this dark path was located on top of the wall at the side of the tunnel, which was around five meters above the ground.
The air was filled with the smell dust and mold. The place had been abandoned long ago, and the walls were covered with spider webs. The front door of underground tunnel had also been locked for a few years.
Hila hugged Aurora and jumped down. Dust and debris scattered as they landed. Han Xiao followed.
“This was an early stage of the underground tunnel. After they built the headquarters, people left it without any maintenance. I dug a path from the air ventilation pipes which lead to this place. All the cameras and gates are gone, and the railroads are broken, too. We need to walk out of here. The exit a hidden door that is located at the fringe of the headquarters, and it will take around four hours for us to reach there.”
Han Xiao looked back at the hole and said, “Won’t they be able to catch up?”
“Nobody knows we are here, but we still have to be on alert.” Hila carried Aurora on her back and started walking forward.
Han Xiao quickly followed and walked right next to Hila. He occasionally dropped a few small landmines to blow up the tunnel in case anyone came later.
Three of them continued to march forward in silence.
Just now, the situation had been intense, so there were a lot of things that they were still unclear of. Now that they had the time, Hila seemed to be more confused as she kept recalling what had happened. She kept on turning her head toward Han Xiao.
Hila had a few questions to ask, but because of her cold personality, she pursed her lips and kept on walking.
Aurora, who was on Hila’s back, covered her head inside her sister’s long red hair and smelled the delightful scent she had. Her eyes were calm and safe, and she turned to look at Han Xiao.
“What are you looking at, you little brat?” Han Xiao raised his eyebrows.
Aurora quietly replied, “Do you not have a name, or is your name just Zero?”
Paying attention, Hila’s ears perked up.
“Han Xiao. That’s my name.”
“My sister said you were brainwashed. She couldn’t figure out how you escaped.”
Han Xiao stroke his chin and said, “Everything has its own destiny.”
Hila rolled her eyes.
“My sister said you are only twenty years old, but why do you look so old?”
Han Xiao’s face darkened. Didn’t I already change my appearance? This brat doesn’t appreciate beauty at all.
Then Han Xiao looked at Hila and realized that she was being oddly quiet. Han Xiao started to tease her interested and smiled. “So, do you have anything that you want to say to me?”
Hila pushed Aurora higher up on her back and coldly replied, “Thanks.”
“You don’t sound like you mean it at all.” Han Xiao started to flip the bullets in his hands. “Don’t forget that I came a long way to save your sister. There’s no need for you to kneel on the ground to show your gratitude, but at least be more polite, will you?”
Hila turned her head around and frowned. “How did you know about my sister? What are
you trying to do?”
Hila could not believe that Han Xiao really came here to save her sister, and she thought that he must had an ulterior motive. Although Hila was right, she could never guess that Han Xiao’s target was her.
“You sound like you are trying to interrogate me even though I am your savior and your teammate.” Han Xiao raised his eyebrow. “If you want to ask anything, you must at least try to show some respect.”
Savior and teammate… Hila was having a hard time getting used to someone with these two roles. After a long silence, she still could not say the word ‘please’. She boldly said, “Tell me.”
“What now? Do you think I’m like the Germinal Organization, trying to use your sister to control you?” Han Xiao yawned. “I might try if I want to.”
There was no way that he could do what he said. Hila relaxed for a bit and replied, “So, what do you want?”
“I want world peace.”
Hila ground her teeth in frustration. Han Xiao had just been playing with her all this time, and she did not get anything useful out of him. Hila shut her mouth again.
“Sister told me some stories about you, and she said you were very talented.” Aurora then curiously asked, “Are those stories real?”
Oh… Hila actually complimented me behind my back.
Han Xiao looked over, and Hila did not even flinch. Her face was still as cold as ice while looking straight ahead, ignoring Han Xiao. Well, there’s a saying that if you don’t say anything. then you agree to whatever that’s happening.
“Of course, it’s all real.”
“Then what happened after you escaped?” Aurora was really interested into Han Xiao’s story. During her time of imprisonment, when she and her sister meet up, her sister would always tell Aurora about the stories of the world outside. The stories of Zero had left the deepest impression on her.
Hila thought that Han Xiao had some things that he did not want to say, so she suddenly had an idea.
“Even though we don’t know how Zero… Han Xiao has gain so much power in such short period of time, when he escaped the base, he was not strong. After he finally got the freedom he longed for, he was frightened that the organization might capture him, so he had no choice but to change his name and hide away from the eyes of the Germinal Organization. He never showed himself and only gathered information in the dark, and the organization could not find him.”
