At night, after waiting for her mother Wang Yan to fall asleep, Chen Na sneaked out.
At nine o'clock, the car arrived as promised.
"Get in, Chen Na," the short-haired woman said, lowering the car window.
"Okay."
Chen Na sat in the back seat. After the car started moving, she asked with a sowhat uneasy heart, "Sister, where are we going?"
"To a factory in the suburbs."
"To a factory?"
"Yes. Put this on."
The short-haired woman handed over a round mask that only revealed the eyes.
Chen Na didn't know why she had to wear a mask, but she obediently put it on.
Soon, the car arrived at a factory in the suburbs. This place seed to have been abandoned long ago; it didn't even have a main gate.
Chen Na followed the short-haired woman into a large hall inside the factory. She saw that quite a few people had already gathered inside.
So of them wore masks just like hers, revealing only their eyes. Two circles of people wearing black hoods and holding guns stood around the periter. They looked like terrorists from a movie, which made her a little scared.
As soon as the short-haired woman arrived, those wearing masks were quite surprised when they saw Chen Na, whom she had brought.
"The last one is a child?"
"What the hell, a child is also coming to participate in the selection!"
"The selection doesn't distinguish between adults and children," the short-haired woman said calmly. "There are only participants. I will now explain the selection process."
"Do you see those people with guns around you? Your selection task is to use this factory as the activity area and evade their pursuit. As long as you are not caught after three hours, you will be considered to have passed the selection."
Everyone nodded. The rules were clear and easy for anyone to understand.
The short-haired woman specifically bent down to ask Chen Na, "Do you understand what I said?"
Chen Na nodded, "I understand. It ans not getting caught by the people with guns!"
"Yes."
"So, we can only run away?" a masked man said. "If they find us, can't we just eliminate them?"
The short-haired woman looked over, "You can. However, if you attack the ard personnel, they will also start attacking you. Any injuries or deaths will be at your own responsibility."
The man sneered, "No problem."
Listening to their conversation, Chen Na couldn't help but feel nervous: Why could there possibly be injuries or deaths in this kind of selection?
"If there are no other questions, you can start moving."
The short-haired woman glanced at the watch on her wrist.
"You have five minutes to move first. After five minutes, these ard personnel will begin searching for you."
The masked selection participants imdiately began to scatter in all directions. Chen Na also imdiately started jogging away.
She had seen it before coming in; this factory was huge. As long as she was careful and used her ability well, she could definitely pass!
Five minutes later, the short-haired woman nodded to the ard personnel, "Begin."
...
A sharp pain shot from her stomach. Wang Yan frowned and groggily opened her eyes.
She knew the cancer pain had started again. This kind of pain was extrely difficult to endure. Now she could only rely on large amounts of painkillers to suppress it, but the effect was getting weaker and weaker.
Wang Yan reached for the pills on the bedside table. The cup of water on the table was full. She swallowed the pills with the water and called out softly, "Na Na."
There was no response from the room. Wang Yan initially thought her daughter had gone to the bathroom, but after waiting for a long ti with no return, she imdiately beca restless.
"Na Na!"
Wang Yan raised her voice a bit, but there was still no response.
Gritting her teeth against the pain, she got out of bed and went to look around, only to find her daughter was not in the house at all. She didn't know whether her daughter had run out on her own or had been taken by soone.
This imdiately threw her into a panic.
She hurried back to the room, picked up the phone on the table, and wanted to call the Police Departnt to report a missing person.
But when she opened the phone's call log, she found a call record from yesterday evening, with a call duration of only a little over ten seconds.
She clearly rembered she hadn't made any calls yesterday. Not knowing if this was related to her daughter's disappearance, she imdiately called back.
Buzz... Buzz...
Guan Tong, who was sitting cross-legged in ditation, heard his phone vibrating and opened his eyes.
He picked it up and glanced at it; it was a call from Wang Yan. After speaking yesterday, he had already saved the number in his contacts with a note.
He pressed to answer. Wang Yan's anxious questioning voice imdiately ca through the receiver.
"Who are you? What did you say to my daughter yesterday?"
"... Sister Wang? It's Guan Tong."
Wang Yan was stunned for a mont, "Xiao Guan? This is your number?"
Guan Tong said, puzzled, "Yes. Yesterday, when I was leaving the city, I saw your car, Sister Wang, still parked in the developnt zone. I got the phone number from the car and called. Didn't Xiao Na tell you, Sister Wang? She was the one who answered the phone yesterday."
A sense of foreboding rose in Wang Yan's heart. She quickly asked, "What did Na Na say?"
"She said your illness wasn't serious, and you had taken a car to Yong'an... Isn't that right?"
From Wang Yan's tone of voice, Guan Tong had already sensed sothing was wrong.
"Oh no!" Wang Yan exclaid anxiously, "That child Na Na lied to you! That's not the case at all!"
"Why would Xiao Na lie to ?" Guan Tong asked, not understanding. "Sister Wang, what exactly is going on?"
"It's like this..."
Wang Yan told him about being diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer at the hospital, with only one or two months left. Also, they hadn't gone to the capital Yong'an and were still living in an abandoned residential area not far from the hospital.
Guan Tong hadn't expected it to be like this, but this still didn't explain why Chen Na had lied.
"I really don't know what's gotten into that child Na Na. She lied to you yesterday, and just now when I woke up, I found she's gone again. If sothing happens to this child..."
Hearing the urgency in Wang Yan's voice, Guan Tong tried to calm her, "Sister Wang, don't panic first. I think Xiao Na must have a reason for doing this. Has anything happened recently?"
Wang Yan thought carefully. Her gaze fell on the protective gear placed in the corner of the room, and she suddenly rembered.
"That's right! There was one thing... Shortly after the sixth rule began, soone quickly sent us protective gear and masks. They looked very advanced and expensive. The person who delivered them was a young woman with short hair, who looked very spirited."
"That short-haired girl didn't say anything in front of ; she spoke to Na Na alone, saying they had so kind of squad selecting people and hoped Na Na would participate. If selected, they would give Ascension Coins to buy dicinal items to cure my terminal illness..."
"As soon as Na Na told , I imdiately refused. Those dicinal items are so expensive; so sell for hundreds of thousands of Ascension Coins. Why would they buy them and just give them to you for free? I know the sky doesn't drop free pies, so I didn't let Na Na agree. But this child, she..."
"She probably decided to agree on her own," Guan Tong said.
He knew that child Chen Na had an extrely deep bond with her mother. Otherwise, she wouldn't have obtained an ability like [Perception Domain] from the Ascension Store back then. The reason she got this ability was precisely because her wish was to know the mont her mother returned ho from delivering goods.
So, facing her mother's terminal cancer with little ti left, it was only natural she would try every possible way to save her. At this ti, if soone ca knocking, saying that as long as she passed the selection and joined so squad, they would provide money to buy dicinal items for treatnt, agreeing wouldn't be strange.
If Guan Tong himself were in the sa situation, he would basically make the sa choice, because this was the only possible way to save his mother's life.
However, looking at it from an outsider's perspective, one would notice major problems.
Hundreds of thousands of Ascension Coins were not a small sum. Even if used to invest in talent, careful consideration was needed. Moreover, what kind of background and power did the organization behind that short-haired woman have, to still be recruiting and selecting people right as the country was about to enter a warti state?
"What should I do... I had originally planned, after the 10th, to find an official institution to register Na Na, so she could be assigned to a shelter. That way, she would have a stable place to go, and I could leave in peace. But now..."
Guan Tong asked, "Sister Wang, did Xiao Na ntion where that squad selection is taking place?"
"She didn't say, and I don't know either."
"That's troubleso." If the location was unknown, Guan Tong couldn't help either. "It seems we can only contact the Police Departnt and check surveillance caras; maybe we'll find sothing."
He said this verbally, but in his heart, he felt the hope wasn't great. If the other party could afford to spend hundreds of thousands of Ascension Coins, they must be a large organization and would definitely have anti-tracking awareness.
But he didn't say this to Wang Yan; saying it would only add to her worries.
"But Sister Wang, I have another question," Guan Tong asked. "The reason Xiao Na caught their eye must be because her ability was leaked. When and where was it leaked?"
"This... maybe at the hospital? I can't rember clearly either... I need to quickly call the Police Departnt! I'll hang up first, Xiao Guan."
After hanging up, Guan Tong put down his phone and silently pondered.
Chen Na's ability was indeed very special, especially because of the challenge tournant. After the "Team Formation" function opened, teammates could share the effects and abilities of Mind Power items.
This ant she could likely synchronize the information she perceived to her teammates, forming a huge advantage.
Moreover, if it could be further developed, there might be other changes. For example, Xu Xiaotian's Instant Noodles could develop noodles with different effects. Perhaps after deep developnt, her [Perception Domain], besides perceiving a target's movents, could also perceive other, deeper levels of information.
Such potential being noticed by so organizations was completely normal. Guan Tong even felt that if Chen Na had registered her Mind Power upper limit as over 80 back in the village, she might have been discovered by the authorities long ago and taken away for specialized training.
But in that case, it still wouldn't have changed Wang Yan's physical condition. As for whether the authorities would be willing to spend hundreds of thousands of Ascension Coins to buy dicinal items to treat Wang Yan, that was hard to say... It would all depend on how they assessed Chen Na's potential and whether they felt it was worth the investnt.
Now, it seed that mysterious organization thought it was worth it, or perhaps they were deceiving Chen Na and wouldn't actually follow through in the end.
"If I had contacted them earlier, maybe I could have done sothing. But now... we can only wait for news."
Guan Tong shook his head. He had his own troubles now.
Regarding the transaction issues on Ascendant Ho, there were indeed so difficulties. Although no one was trading on it yet, it was still necessary to prepare for the future.
"Direct transactions between users definitely won't work; both sides would feel unsafe. So if I really want to get trading going, I also have to be responsible for setting up 'logistics and transportation'..."
If he had enough Mind Power, he could consider using the Shadow with the Five Senses unlocked for ultra-long-distance transportation. But the prerequisite was having enough Mind Power—to be precise, a very large amount.
"However, there's no rush right now," Guan Tong thought. The website only had a few hundred users; there was no need to rush to perfect everything now. That would be asking too much.
His current goal was to first properly establish the "Intelligence" and "Casual Chat" sections, to let Ascendants recognize that they could communicate safely and securely on his platform. The "Transactions" and "Commissions" sections could be gradually improved later.
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