Chapter 244: The Other Hidden Card
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
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 would 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.