That night, the eight people gathered at the villa to eat and chat, just like celebrating a festival. They talked until eleven o'clock before going to sleep.
Xiao Lou gave everyone a day off. Tuesday is a full day off, so everyone can sleep in.
The group, having let loose, slept until noon. Bored in the afternoon, they watched TV at home. Liu Qiao turned on the news channel and happened to hear a breaking news report: "This weekend, the Ocean Cruises' Caribbean and Star Cruises encountered a typhoon and sank in the open sea. The wreckage has been salvaged. According to statistics, a total of 386 people died in this maritime disaster..."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Lou immediately looked up—the scene showed rescue teams salvaging the wreckage of a cruise ship at sea, the very same Caribbean they were on. The 386 victims included indigenous people, Challenger, and Hunter.
There are tens of millions of Challengers in this world. It's impossible that only so few people died on the Endless Sea Weekly Routine. Xiao Lou looked at Mo Xuemin with doubt: "Old Mo, there should be many cruise ships sailing at the same time as the Weekly Routine mission. Why is the news only reporting on these two?"
Mo Xuemin explained, "Other cruise ships don't have indigenous people; they're all Challengers. They might have been pulled into another dimension and died without anyone knowing. Our cruise ship gets more media coverage because it has indigenous people."
Yu Hanjiang frowned and said, "You mean, the entire ship of the other Weekly Routine instances was filled with Challengers and was transported to another dimension?"
Mo Xuemin nodded: "That's right. Every Weekly Routine, 99% of the Challengers are teleported to another dimension and die without anyone knowing. The locals are already used to the sudden disappearance of outsiders. As for the complex dungeon that combines Hunters and Challengers, the probability is only about 1%. If we encounter a Hunter, it's just our bad luck."
Moreover, having encountered Hunter on his weekly routine for two consecutive weeks, Mo Xuemin felt his luck was absolutely terrible. He vowed to give himself a thorough wash from head to toe before his next weekly routine.
Is it possible that there's only a 1% chance that my brother just happened to buy a ticket in advance?
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang exchanged a glance, and simultaneously thought of a possibility— the hacking expert from the Intelligence Bureau.
That afternoon, Xiao Lou checked the forum reactions online. External forums were filled with condolences for the shipwreck, while the Challenger internal forum was full of complaints. Some said that the ship they were on had a 50% failure rate, and half of the Challengers had been eaten by sharks; others said that when the ship capsized, Challengers fought amongst themselves for the lifeboats, resulting in heavy casualties...
In some Weekly Secret Chambers, large guilds controlled the situation, and everyone survived.
Overall, the Weekly Routine's attrition rate was kept between 10-20%. This week, they encountered Hunter's team, with only Xiao Lou and his team from Caribbean remaining.
The following day is Wednesday, and the Intelligence Bureau will be open for business today.
In the afternoon, Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang drove together to the Intelligence Bureau.
Liu Qiao walked over and looked at Xiao Lou, saying, " Professor Xiao, may I come along?"
Knowing that Liu Qiao wanted to continue investigating her sister's whereabouts, Xiao Lou took her along. Qu Wanyue, worried that Liu Qiao wouldn't be able to handle the shock, also came along.
Yu Hanjiang drove the black sedan, Xiao Lou sat in the passenger seat, and two girls sat in the back. When the four of them arrived at the Intelligence Bureau, there was a long queue at the entrance, and they waited for half an hour before it was finally their turn.
The same woman on duty at the lottery shop today, wearing silver-rimmed glasses and with a cold expression, was there again. She glanced at the four of them and asked, "What are you investigating this time?"
Liu Qiao stepped forward and said, "Please continue to help me find Liu Ying's whereabouts, thank you."
The woman's slender fingers tapped rapidly on the keyboard for a moment, then handed Liu Qiao a search result. Last Wednesday's search had yielded "no such person found," but unexpectedly, there was news today! Liu Qiao was overjoyed and immediately took it to read—
The girl in the photo has delicate features, an oval face, and a high ponytail; she is indeed her older sister, Liu Ying.
Xiao Lou also remembered this girl; they had met her once at Plum Blossom 2. Although she was wearing a mask, her height, hairstyle, and eyes matched.
However, the lines of search results below the photo alarmed Xiao Lou—
Liu Ying and her teammate Zhong Tong arrived in the main city last Thursday, which is why her whereabouts were not found on Wednesday. She arrived in the main city a day later than Xiao Lou and Liu Qiao. When Liu Qiao checked on her last week, she was indeed still struggling in the first four levels.
It was no easy feat for the two girls to get through the first four rounds, but they made a fatal mistake.
They lacked sufficient information gathering, underestimated the Weekly Secret Chamber, and instead of seeking a strong team, the two of them entered the Weekly Routine world, " Endless Sea," and then disappeared without a trace...
It's Wednesday now, and three days have passed since the Weekly Routine went missing. Everyone knows what that means.
The woman sitting in front of the computer adjusted her glasses and said, "It's a pity that your sister didn't prepare adequately for this week's Weekly Routine. We can't find any information about her in the main city, which proves that she died in the Weekly Secret Chamber."
Liu Qiao gripped the paper tightly.
The thought of sharks at sea made her hands tremble.
She followed Captain Yu, slaying dozens of sharks, and even had the leisure to transform into a shark to test her Lightness Skill card, easily completing the Weekly Routine under the guidance of Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou. Meanwhile, her sister might be in another sea, perhaps being torn to pieces by sharks!
The chances of two girls surviving after entering the Weekly Secret Chamber are extremely slim...
Liu Qiao struggled to pass the first four rounds, only to be eliminated in the Weekly Routine. She found it hard to accept. The photo on the application form gradually blurred in her vision, and tears welled up in her eyes without her realizing it.
Qu Wanyue gently hugged Liu Qiao and said softly, "Xiao Qiao, if you're sad, just cry it out, don't hold it in..."
Liu Qiao's body was trembling. She clutched the survey form with her sister's photo on it and choked out, "My parents are busy with work. My sister is four years older than me. She took care of me when I was little, cooked for me, told me stories to lull me to sleep... Is she really dead?"
Xiao Lou was silent for a moment, then suddenly said, "She just disappeared from this world; she doesn't necessarily die."
Liu Qiao paused, then looked up at Professor Xiao: "What do you mean?"
Xiao Lou said, "If my deduction is correct, the way Guardian will bring us back to reality after we clear the game is by rebirthing us back in time and changing history, because only in this way can we survive. Since you and your sister were in the car accident together, once you can go back and be reborn before the accident happened, you can save your sister in reality."
Liu Qiao's eyes suddenly lit up. She quickly wiped away her tears and asked earnestly, "Is it true? Can I go back in time and prevent that car accident from happening?"
Xiao Lou nodded: "The possibility is very high."
Upon hearing this, the woman sitting in front of the computer chuckled and said, "Your reasoning has no factual basis."
Xiao Lou turned to look at her: "But you can't deny that my reasoning is wrong. Only by going all the way to the end and clearing the S -level secret chamber will we know how to return to reality."
The woman shrugged and said, "That's true, after all, I've never completed the game either."
Yu Hanjiang stepped forward and said, "Continue to investigate a few more people for us."
The woman nodded: "Please go ahead."
Yu Hanjiang took the survey form and quickly wrote down a name: Lu Jiuchuan.
After the woman entered the information, she concluded: "No such person found."
Yu Hanjiang was not surprised by this result, because the expert from the Intelligence Bureau had completely erased his brother's information, and no one could find out where Ninth Brother was.
He then wrote down several names: " Gui Yuanzhang, Chu Huaying ".
The woman quickly checked and said with a smile, "No such person found."
Yu Hanjiang raised an eyebrow and looked at Xiao Lou: "We can't find any of them."
Xiao Lou nodded: "It seems the director of the Intelligence Bureau is very powerful. He erased all the information about teammates like Old Gui and Spider Goddess. This is also a way to protect them."
Yu Hanjiang looked at the woman and said, "I want to see the director of your Intelligence Bureau."
The woman laughed and said, "Our bureau chief isn't someone you can meet easily; I've never even met him."
She picked up her phone and sent a message saying, "However, the director specifically instructed that if Professor Xiao and Officer Yu come looking for you, I will take you somewhere." She glanced at Liu Qiao and Qu Wanyue and said, "I will only take the two of you."
Xiao Lou looked at Qu Wanyue and whispered, " Teacher Qu, you and Xiao Liu take a taxi back first. We're going to see Director Tang."
Qu Wanyue nodded: "Don't worry, I will bring Xiao Liu home safely."
He watched the two get into the taxi before turning back to the lottery shop.
The woman with glasses closed the lottery shop door, hung up the "Closed" sign, and then turned and walked towards the wall—the wall, like a security door in a science fiction movie, suddenly opened after scanning her pupils, revealing a long, narrow corridor that seemed to have no end.
The two exchanged a glance and followed behind her.
After walking down the corridor and taking the elevator to the underground parking lot, the woman helped Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang into the car and drove out of the basement. The scenery outside the car window rushed past, and after about half an hour, she parked the car in front of an abandoned factory and said, "The boss asked me to bring you here. You two can wait here."
Upon closer inspection, Xiao Lou discovered that the factory was three stories high and very spacious, likely an unfinished building.
Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou exchanged a glance, wondering why Director Tang had brought them to such a desolate place.
Just then, a strange sound suddenly rang out, and the ground began to shake. Before Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang could react, the ground beneath their feet suddenly collapsed—
Their bodies plummeted downwards at breakneck speed!
The feeling of weightlessness made Xiao Lou nervously grab Yu Hanjiang's hand tightly: "Was it an earthquake?!"
Yu Hanjiang squeezed his hand back and whispered to comfort him, "Don't be nervous, it's not an earthquake. It's either a card effect or... there's a dungeon hidden here, and the place we're standing in is right on the elevator that leads to the dungeon."
The man's long, strong fingers gently gripped hers, and Xiao Lou noticed this, her ears suddenly burning.
In complete darkness, with nothing visible, the sensation of having one's fingers held becomes exceptionally clear.
Xiao Lou could hear her heart pounding.
Yu Hanjiang's lips curled into a slight smile—he could sense Professor Xiao's nervousness. Xiao Lou's fingers were smooth and delicate, unlike his own, whose palms were covered in calluses from missions. Holding Professor Xiao's hand felt unexpectedly good; he really didn't want to let go.
One person didn't struggle, and the other was reluctant to let go. The two of them inexplicably held hands until a loud "boom" rang in their ears, the elevator stopped, and a blinding light appeared around them. Only then did Xiao Lou pull his hand back as if he had been electrocuted.
Xiao Lou's ears turned slightly red, and she took a deep breath to steady her heartbeat...
In his desperation, he actually grabbed Yu Hanjiang's hand; that was absolutely wrong of him. What will Captain Yu think?
Look at him?
Yu Hanjiang remained calm, as if nothing had happened.
An empty corridor appeared before them. After exchanging a glance, they took a few steps forward, and a mechanical voice sounded in their ears: "Pupil scanning in progress... Identity verification successful, Xiao Lou, Yu Hanjiang, welcome to the Intelligence Bureau!"
A metal door slowly opened in front of me.
Xiao Lou was so shocked by the scene before him that he was speechless.
The underground factory, the size of two football fields, was filled with countless machines operating in an orderly fashion. The sophisticated instruments and conveyor belts seemed to be producing some kind of tool. There wasn't a single worker in the entire factory; it was all automated production lines and many robots!
A man sitting at the control panel turned around when he heard footsteps.
The man looked very young, dressed in all white, and his entire body was spotless.
He had delicate features, but his complexion was sickly pale, and his body appeared rather thin, giving him the appearance of a "sickly beauty." Even more strangely, he was in a wheelchair with a thin blanket covering his legs… Could it be that he couldn't stand?
In front of him was a large blackboard covered with countless diagrams filled with formulas, and the computer on the desk was filled with dense, headache-inducing data. The man's wheelchair didn't require manual turning; it seemed to be equipped with a special device that allowed it to move on its own.
He approached the two men in his wheelchair and said, "Hello, I am Tang Ci, the director of the Intelligence Bureau."
Her voice was clear and cold, like a spring in winter, and her gaze was extremely calm, making her seemingly delicate features appear somewhat indifferent.
Before meeting him, Xiao Lou had imagined many different images of him, but she never expected that he would be a handsome man with disabilities in both legs.
Xiao Lou greeted him with a smile: "Hello, Mr. Tang."
Yu Hanjiang also whispered, "Ninth Brother sent us to find you."
"I know, he told me." Seemingly sensing their confusion about the wheelchair, Tang Ci explained calmly, "My leg injury was sustained when I was escaping from the Plum Blossom J secret chamber. When you are injured in an S-level secret chamber, the data is not erased, but carried out of the chamber. This wheelchair is something I designed for myself, and the direction and speed of movement are controlled by buttons."
Xiao Lou's eyes widened slightly—previous secret chamber injuries would automatically heal, essentially restoring the player to full health. However, injuries sustained in S-level secret chambers would carry over, and as the later secret chambers progressed one after another, accumulating injuries would make each level increasingly difficult.
Yu Hanjiang asked in confusion, "What is this underground factory?"
Tang Ci said, "This is my research base. In reality, I am a software engineer responsible for the research and development of intelligent robots."
Xiao Lou turned around and saw a cute robot, about a meter tall, placing materials onto the conveyor belt...
The programming expert is truly amazing! Not only did he hack into Card World's official database, giving the Intelligence Bureau access to Challenger's data, but he even managed to create an underground factory within Card World itself?!
Looking at his wheelchair, Xiao Lou felt immense admiration.
Despite his physical disability, he didn't succumb to sadness or despair; instead, he built himself an automatic wheelchair. Such resilience—no wonder he was one of the four survivors in Brother Jiu's team!