12 hours!
It was so short. The mont Xiang Nan saw the system's ti limit, he imdiately stood up and headed for the town where the target was located.
The enemy was sowhere in a small town within the Republic of Padokea, not a major city. And the system had cut the usual 24-hour deadline to just half—12 hours.
More importantly, this ti the system wasn't constantly tracking the target; there was no real-ti distance or location display. That implied the intruder could move away from the coordinate area at any mont.
In earlier rounds, the system always "monitored" targets. Not now—aning the difficulty had shot up. If the intruder left the mapped area in such a vast Hunter x Hunter world, tracking him down again would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.
They had to move right away. Every second counted.
Seeing Xiang Nan depart, Manman imdiately followed. In the streets, passersby gave the odd duo curious looks. Xiang Nan cut a tall figure in a black coat despite the scorching heat, while the girl with him looked like a holess teen. They made a strange pair, definitely catching people's eyes.
They hadn't even stayed three hours in Pengli City before Xiang Nan left again, returning to the airship terminal to set off.
Since the small town was far away, he needed to take another flight.
…
Two days later, dressed in his black coat, Xiang Nan exited the small airport terminal of a new destination. The schedule was tight—out of the total 12 hours, almost a third or more would be lost just traveling there. So they'd only have 8 hours, give or take, to complete the mission. It was frustrating, but there was no help for it.
They boarded a transport blimp. This type of airship, despite looking small from the ground, was actually quite roomy inside. Each deck was like a large lounge, with private boxes on upper levels, plus special VIP suites for rich travelers. Xiang Nan and Manman, having purchased the cheapest tickets, found themselves in the public hall on the bottom deck.
When they were buying the tickets, an interesting thing happened:
Manman didn't have a single Jenny on her—zero money. Xiang Nan was surprised. After all, as a player, making so starting funds in this world shouldn't be that hard. Especially early on, money is vital. Yet here she was, completely broke. In the end, Xiang Nan bought her ticket, and they took seats side by side in the common area.
Manman sat there very stiffly, back taut, knees pressed together. Xiang Nan, however, leaned back, eyes closed, focusing on the operation ahead. After so minutes of awkward silence, Xiang Nan let out a sigh and opened his eyes.
"If you had no money, why'd you order ice cream at that place?" he asked. "We're teammates now—there's no need to fake poor."
Manman looked bashful. "I figured, once you showed up, you'd pay."
"…" Indeed, Xiang Nan had ended up paying for it.
"Then why didn't you eat it?" he asked.
"We were in a hurry… plus, since it was your money, if you didn't explicitly offer, I felt bad about eating it," she answered.
"Acting?" Xiang Nan wondered inwardly.
Pretending to be so innocent schoolgirl? That was pretty childish… He knew well that any player—a "reborn sinner"—would hardly be so naive.
Maybe she was hiding her "real self." Possibly she didn't want him reading her soul, or it could be a mask for deception. Xiang Nan also noticed that her bandaged hands, with nurous cuts and sweat-stained wrapping, seed sothing she avoided letting him see.
"By the way, do you know anything about 'Kengan Ashura'?" Xiang Nan changed the subject. If she'd watched that show in her past life, it could help them hunt the intruder.
"I barely watch ani. I prefer horror or ghost flicks," Manman murmured softly.
"…" Xiang Nan stared a mont, then shut his mouth. He'd hoped they could coordinate skill sets, but typically players guarded their info closely to avoid giving an advantage to future adversaries. If she wasn't inclined to share, oh well.
From Pengli City to the target location was about four hours' travel. Xiang Nan, a bit anxious yet resigned, told Manman, "Try to stay ready. This third Extinction round might not be so easy." Then he closed his eyes again.
"Got it," Manman replied.
A teenage girl, sure. But Xiang Nan wouldn't forget that, like Selena, she was really another "player," potentially with a repulsive soul behind that innocent front.
…
05:49:31 left on the system tir.
Finally, they arrived at the outskirts of that small town indicated by the system, with less than six hours remaining to et the deadline. The place wasn't large; from the highway, they saw mostly single-story houses, plus a few three- or four-story buildings. The whole region's population was around 20,000, spread out over a large rural area about 10 miles across, mostly farmland and ranches. So the main "town center" was actually quite small.
Xiang Nan had used his military connections to quickly pull up local data.
He tried asking around, but so far, no one had any clue about their target. anwhile, Manman ca hurrying back on a dusty side road, looking dejected.
"No luck?" Xiang Nan asked, noting her bedraggled appearance—she looked even more unkempt than usual, as if she'd been searching in vain.
"Could he have run off already? Maybe the system gave us both so intel, but also warned the target that we're after him, so he vanished before we arrived?" Manman speculated.
"No," Xiang Nan said firmly. Though he didn't fully grasp the rules of cross-dinsional intrusion, one thing he knew:
If the target had also received a notification about incoming hunters, he'd definitely flee. That would guarantee Xiang Nan and Manman failing their mission—rendering it pointless. The system wouldn't hand out a guaranteed-failure scenario.
"He's definitely still here," Xiang Nan concluded, eyeing the small settlent calmly.
There was only one reason for their predicant: the target likely had so ability to hide himself.
And it wasn't from the local HxH power system; it must be from "Kengan Ashura." That was the factor of "information gap."
~~~
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