Chapter 1579: Chapter 1579: The Nonexistent 27th Floor
“Don’t move,” He Ao glanced at his slightly trembling body, his hand gripping the neck exerted a bit more force, producing a tallic creaking sound, “I can snap your neck faster.”
Hearing He Ao’s words, Koro fell silent for a mont, his trembling body cald down, he looked at He Ao and said slowly, “Have we t? You say I tried to kill you? Wasn’t it you who suddenly barged into the building causing trouble for our gang?”
“Take another look?” He Ao gazed at him calmly, “I also want to ask you this question, we’re strangers, why did you arrange for soone to kill ?”
Koro’s gaze lowered, observing He Ao’s face, after a brief pause, he croaked out, “Are you ‘Loren’?”
He looked down at He Ao’s hand gripping his neck, the force of this hand was imnse, like a giant hydraulic press clamping his neck.
He was now lifted and pressed against the wall, despite being a full body prosthesis, with a total weight of over 300 kilograms.
After recognizing He Ao, he recalled the fight ‘report’ delivered last night, “Aren’t you a high school student? Did you beco a Transcendent?”
Facing his question, He Ao sighed lightly, not responding to him, his hand gripping Koro’s neck slowly tightening.
The nutritional conduit connecting to the brain was tightened, Koro’s pupils instantly turned red, filled with a dense array of warning windows.
“I’ll speak, I’ll speak,” he imdiately shouted, “The boss instructed , I don’t know you, I hold no grudge against you, I was rely passing on the boss’s order.”
The boss’s order was to kill Loren in the boxing ring of the abandoned factory.
He indeed only passed on an order, but added a bit of his own ‘idea’: first let ‘Loren’ compete in illegal boxing and win many rounds in a row, increasing the odds, then have soone kill Loren in the ring, taking the gamblers’ money and Loren’s life at once, a double strike.
“The boss of the Black Wolf Gang?” He Ao listened quietly to the flipping thoughts in Koro’s mind without making any comnt, instead asking, “Where is your boss?”
“I don’t know,” Koro hastily shook his head, “none of us know our boss’s whereabouts, it’s only when he needs that I find out where he is, many people in this city want to know where he is, but no one has ever accurately grasped his whereabouts.”
“In this building?” He Ao continued to ask.
“No idea,” Koro shook his head, “no one knows where the boss is.”
He Ao looked at him, realizing he genuinely didn’t know.
He didn’t continue to inquire but instead asked, “Second question, where is ‘Mu He’?”
“What do you want with Mu He?” Koro asked blankly.
“You just need to tell where he is.” He Ao asked calmly.
“I don’t know either.” Koro shook his head.
This ti, He Ao said nothing, instead continuing to tighten his grip.
“I really don’t know, I really don’t know,” Koro shouted loudly, his breaths becoming more urgent, “like the boss’s whereabouts, Mu He’s are unpredictable, I just heard—”
He Ao’s hand relaxed a bit, letting him breathe normally.
“I just heard,” Koro exhaled a long breath, “heard from others, he often goes to the 27th floor, the boss sotis accompanies him to the 27th floor, they’re seemingly preparing sothing important, but they’ve never taken there.”
Then he lowered his head, looking at He Ao, “I’ve told you everything I know, let go.”
“27th floor?” He Ao looked at him, “But isn’t the tallest this building goes it 26 floors?”
“Yes, yes,” Koro rasped, “the headquarters’ three buildings only have 26 floors, it might be another building’s 27th floor, or,”
his voice gradually faded, “so kind of safe house or sothing…”
However, He Ao didn’t listen to him, instead lowering his gaze into contemplation.
Koro observed He Ao’s thoughtful deanor, eyebrows slightly drooping, hands at his body edge trembled slightly, from the back of his hands, a sharp cold glint faintly appeared.
And He Ao seed unaware of this, as nurous thoughts rapidly flashed through his mind.
Initially, his thought was indeed that ’27th floor’ was the floor of so other building, or the na of so safe house.
After all, giving one’s ‘safe house’ a code na is a normal thing.
But he suddenly realized, the Northeastern Federation region is different from other places.
There exists an ‘anomaly’, according to Reid, so anomalies might not exist in the real world, but in so ‘otherworldly space’.
So, this ’27th floor’, could it possibly not be so codena, but a real ‘anomaly space’?
And the Black Wolf Gang’s boss and second-in-command, to so extent, have mastered the pattern of this anomaly, occupying it as a stronghold?
But if it is an anomaly space, why hasn’t Reid’s Abnormal Investigation Association taken action? An anomaly from another dinsion, even if the association is stretched thin, it wouldn’t be left to a gang to manage.
The Abnormal Investigation Association hasn’t discovered it? Is this a ‘new’ anomaly?
This building is entirely under the control of the Black Wolf Gang, if it’s truly a new anomaly, it’s quite possible that they have sealed off the information.
But how did they discover this anomaly?
Rules?
The ‘Life and Death Boxing Ring’ has its own activation rules, requiring two boxers to fight in the ring.
Then the activation of the anomaly space, does it also follow so ‘rule’?
So kind of ‘anomaly’ rule?
eting the conditions of the rules allows entry into the anomaly space? While they also mastered the safe thods to leave the anomaly?
Hm…
If the Black Wolf Gang doesn’t want people entering this anomaly space, might they intentionally evade following such anomaly rules?
Then such ‘avoidance requirents’ should be conspicuous, otherwise, it wouldn’t effectively warn most people.
He raised his head and looked at Koro, “Has your boss, of late, issued any ‘orders’ or ‘requests’ that seem abnormal?”
Koro’s hands, previously emitting a cold glint, suddenly withdrew it.
“No,” he shook his head, looking at He Ao, seemingly a bit unable to follow He Ao’s thoughts, “the boss hasn’t issued any special requests.”
No active propositions?
“Then in this building, any recent abnormal phenona, or events like disappearances, hauntings?” He Ao looked at him, “Did these events attract your boss or ‘Mu He’s’ notice?”
“Hauntings?” Koro scoffed, “The illicit drug users in this building spend more ti in hallucinations than without them, it’s never ‘not haunted’,”
He paused, “But to speak of disappearance events that caught ‘Mu He’s’ attention, there was indeed one,
“Previously, a dozen people vanished consecutively on the thirteenth and fourteenth floors, including so who didn’t use illicit drugs, this caused uneasiness among the floor managers, so they banded together to find Mu He, not sure how they managed to locate him.
“Ultimately, Mu He arranged for a few people to search the entire floor and confirm there was no problem, no bodies were found, those people likely died outside, and the whole incident was unresolved.”
He looked at He Ao, not speaking further, implying he knows no more.
“After that incident, any strange occurrences on floors 13 and 14?” He Ao continued to ask.
“Any strange occurrences?” Koro said helplessly, “People die daily in this building, just toss the bodies out, just a few disappeared people, if it weren’t for the floor managers of those two floors being timid, going to find Mu He, Mu He wouldn’t bother with such matters.”
He observed He Ao’s gaze mixing calm with an interrogative deanor, rembering detail, he continued, “Do urban legends count?”
He Ao’s gaze sharpened.
“There are two urban legends that seed to have beco popular after that,” Koro said with a hint of impatience. “The first one says, if you are walking in the apartnt corridor and you hear a childhood friend calling you, never turn around. If you do, you’ll disappear from this world.
“The second one, if you walk forward in the apartnt corridor and see two consecutive doors with the sa number, don’t stop, don’t look out of curiosity, just keep walking until you leave this floor.”
He looked at He Ao, “Just these two, urban legends spread among children. I don’t know which little bastard played this prank.”
“Has anyone really seen the scenes from these two urban legends?” He Ao focused slightly, continuing to ask.
“I don’t know,” Koro shook his head, “so people said they’ve seen it, but there are plenty here who take hallucinations as real. There are even those who claim to have seen Divine Beings, and many who insert themselves into an urban legend just after hearing it.”
He looked down at He Ao, his hands pressed against the wall, “I’ve been cooperative enough, can you let go now?”
“One last question, where do the stairs lead?” He Ao looked at him with a hint of a smile.
“Over there, just straight ahead, the fire escape,” Koro raised his head and glanced down the hallway, “can you let go? I didn’t an to kill you, I was just following the boss’s orders, I had no choice.”
“Is that so?” He Ao smiled at him; after a brief pause, he slowly spoke, “I can give you an opportunity.”
Koro sighed in relief.
He Ao looked at Koro, “How about we make a ‘deal’?”
“What deal?” Koro was a bit puzzled.
“I can let you go,” He Ao looked at him, “but you have to go to the City Police Bureau and say I caught you. Also, you can’t attack during the gap when I release you. If you don’t go to the police station, the next ti we et, I’ll kill you.”
“Do you think I look like a fool? If you’ve already let go, why would I attack you?” Koro quickly said,
“Besides, right now, my cables have been pulled out, and even communicating with my chanized body is difficult. Both my laser cannon and electromagnetic cannon on my hands need ti to recharge. Attacking at such close range could even hurt myself.”
He sneered at He Ao, “This ti I underestimated you. I’ll go to the police station. The next ti we et, the winner might not be you.”
“So is the deal done?” He Ao looked at him.
“Of course.” Koro nodded.
He Ao released his hand, and Koro’s body fell from the wall.
And He Ao turned his gaze and looked towards the end of the corridor.
At that mont, Koro suddenly leaped up, three steel claws extending from the back of his hand, directly aid at He Ao’s heart.
“No next ti, let’s end it now!”
He almost understood that if killing was possible, this guy would surely have killed him already.
Now it seed more likely that he was too exhausted to kill him, which is why he pretended to be confident and let him go. If he got scared now, then he truly would be a fool.
A smile curved his lips; he moved with such speed, even faster than his previous flight speed. This was his specially installed extre acceleration prosthesis, ant for monts like this.
Bam—
A pair of hands slowly reached out, fingers pinching one of the three sharp blades, gently bending it. The sturdy alloy, like a thin chip, was easily snapped.
Then that hand grabbed the broken claw, thrusting it into Koro’s open chest as he attacked.
The sharp blade pierced through his sturdy chest armor, stabbing into the compressed battery in his chest.
“It seems you weren’t as cornered and weren’t ‘smart’ either.”
He Ao released his hand, sighing lightly.
Without looking back, he walked forward along the corridor.
The doors along the hallway were ajar, with pairs of eyes carefully peeking at the scene outside from behind.
The chanized body with a pierced chest tilted forward.
Boom—
Intense flas exploded from the inside of the prosthesis, tearing through the entire body, bringing blazing heat.
The firelight, like twilight, reflected off the youth’s side.
The door creaked shut a bit more, leaving only a pair of eyes cautiously watching from outside.
A string of numbers fluctuated within He Ao’s field of view.
Total bounty: 4720
Those dozen or so gang mbers were elite, providing a bounty of 2550.
After a brief pause, a new ssage popped up.
1600
Total bounty: 6330
Bounty hunter, truly a ‘high-paying’ profession.
[You have completed the E-level bounty hunter promotion task, upgrading your permissions.]
He Ao ignored this notification and entered the forum, searching for so information.
At the sa ti, he stopped before the damaged door of the fire escape, glanced at the dim and narrow staircase inside, and slowly walked in.
He didn’t descend the stairs but stopped by the handrail, glancing down at the deep stairwell, then directly flipped over and jumped down vertically.
The wind whistled past his ears as he fell about four floors, grabbing the edge of the staircase with a bang, flipping himself up.
He lifted his head, gazing at the staircase marker.
13th floor.
Although Koro said 13 and 14 floors had lost a dozen people, in his mind, the 13th floor had significantly more disappearances than the 14th.
If there truly exists an Abnormal space, then the ‘entrance’ might very well be on the 13th floor.
He Ao went past the fire door and entered this floor.
Those two ‘urban legends’ sounded like so kind of ‘rules’.
Not following the rules would lead to falling into Abnormal space, but from the lack of large disappearance cases in Koro’s mory after the legends got around, following the rules ant not entering the Abnormal space.
Of course, the premise is that all his associations were correct and that there indeed exists an Abnormal space here.
He Ao turned his gaze, glancing at the elevator in the distance.
A group of gang mbers was nervously guarding in front of the elevator.
He Ao shook his head, walking along the corridor to the other side of the floor.
And as he left, the leader of the gang mbers guarding in front of the elevator received a call, “What? He killed Koro? Went through the fire escape stairwell?”
The leader lifted his head, only to see the empty fire escape door.
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