Dr. Axel looked back, guilt in his eyes.
He had underestimated how fast these people were. He had thought he could keep Ethan out of it.
Ethan saw the words floating in the air, ford from black smoke, and let out a breath.
He nodded to Dr. Axel, telling him to go along for now.
Dr. Axel gave in and said to the man in the black hoodie: "Alright. I’ll go with you."
In an instant, the black smoke spread and wrapped around Ethan.
His sight was taken away. He couldn’t see anything, only felt soone behind him pushing him forward.
He lowered his head, glanced at his feet, and took a deep breath.
When the elevator dinged open, Ethan closed his eyes.
About half a minute later, the doors opened again.
With every step, he counted in his head: "One, two, three..."
The sound of the car door opening, the engine starting up... The whole way, Ethan kept his eyes closed and morized every sound he could hear.
After about half an hour, he heard a train rumble past, and then he felt the car co to a stop.
Next, he walked a short distance through the black smoke and heard a heavy iron gate being opened.
When the black smoke finally faded and the gate shut with a loud clang, Ethan opened his eyes at once and looked outside.
After the iron gate finally closed, Ethan started to look around.
It was a completely sealed room. The walls were all black, which made the place feel unusually heavy and oppressive.
Besides him and Dr. Axel, two other people were locked up here.
When Ethan saw their faces clearly, his pupils shrank in shock.
Lucas and Emma were here too!
Emma, with delicate, almost goddess-like features, had a trace of panic in her eyes. When she saw Dr. Axel, she took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down.
Under Ethan’s gaze, she walked quickly to Dr. Axel and asked:
"Doctor, are you okay?"
Dr. Axel shook his head and said: "I’m fine. Lucas, do you know who these people really are?"
Emma shook her head too. She didn’t know who they were.
But she was sure they had kidnapped her because of Veritas Snow Group’s research.
Emma spoke quickly: "Right before that strange black smoke brought here, I got a ssage. The lab was attacked by a group dressed in black, and you couldn’t see their faces."
"They took the test subjects, but no one was hurt.
"I think those ’n in black’ are working with the ones who kidnapped us."
Just then, Ethan said: "No. They belong to two different groups."
At once, Lucas, Emma, and Dr. Axel all looked at Ethan.
Emma frowned a little. She ignored Ethan and asked Dr. Axel: "Doctor, who is he?"
"A patient of mine," Axel answered. "He was brought here because of ."
Emma nodded and kept ignoring Ethan. To her, he was just an ordinary patient who knew nothing, so his words didn’t an much.
But Lucas couldn’t shake the feeling that this patient seed familiar.
He walked over to Ethan and asked: "Hey man, how do you know those n in black and the ones who took us aren’t the sa group?"
"Oh, forgot to say—I’m Lucas. You should’ve heard of in Dawnfall Online. My boss is [Windchaser]."
Ethan glanced at Lucas, the corner of his mouth twitching.
He hadn’t expected Lucas to introduce himself like that. Looked like Lucas felt being with [Windchaser] in Dawnfall Online was more famous than being Emma’s brother in real life.
"I know you." Ethan said.
"I think they’re not the sa group because during a kidnapping at the hospital earlier, I ran into two different factions. One was the n in black you ntioned."
As soon as he finished, Emma looked at him again and asked, puzzled: "A kidnapping? In the hospital?"
Ethan nodded. "A little girl was taken by two n. She was a patient on the eleventh floor."
Dr. Axel and Emma exchanged a look and said at the sa ti:
"Molly!"
Ethan stared at them in surprise. He hadn’t expected them to know the girl’s na.
Axel gave a quick explanation: Molly was the daughter of a Veritas Snow Group test subject.
That helped Ethan understand why soone would want to kidnap her.
He was still curious about the "test subject" Axel ntioned.
Just as he was about to ask more, Lucas cut in: "Hey man, what about the n in black? How did you see them?"
Ethan thought for a mont and didn’t answer. He didn’t want to ntion the fake cops or the mory wipe by the n in black.
Ethan changed the subject and asked: "What exactly are you researching?"
The room fell quiet. Dr. Axel glanced at Emma and was about to answer, but Emma frowned and said:
"Right now, the most important thing is to figure out where we are and find a way to get help."
Lucas let out a sigh. The whole way here, they were covered in black smoke, so there was no way to tell where they were now.
Even if they knew the exact spot and called the police, the cops couldn’t handle kidnappers with strange powers.
He pulled out his phone, checked it, and saw there was no signal at all. So they couldn’t even call the police now.
Emma reached out and patted Lucas, who looked pretty hopeless. "Dummy, you can get into Dawnfall Online, right? Ask for help in the ga."
Lucas’s eyes lit up, then dimd. "But I don’t know where we are."
Emma said slowly: "The ride was 35 minutes. That’s not enough to leave Dolren City. We’re still in Dolren City."
Ethan glanced at Emma. He hadn’t expected this goddess-like woman to rember how long the ride took.
Emma went on: "We’re probably in the suburbs. On the way, I barely heard any other cars, and we almost never stopped at lights. We also drove straight for about three kiloters, so that must’ve been a long, straight road."
Axel and Lucas stared at Emma in surprise.
Ethan didn’t know where Emma had been picked up, and he didn’t need to. He had already figured out where they were.
While Emma, Lucas, and Axel were still trying to piece together more clues, Ethan said:
"I know where we are."
All three looked at him in shock. Lucas quickly asked: "Where?"
"In the northern suburbs," Ethan said. "Building 112 on 13th Avenue. It’s an abandoned factory."
Everyone else widened their eyes, stunned. Ethan’s answer was so specific—not just the road, but the exact building number.
That made Emma doubt him a little.
She frowned and asked: "How did you figure that out?"
Ethan answered right away: "There’s an orphanage nearby that takes in holess kids. I lived there for a long ti, until the director’s child abuse was exposed. The place was shut down, and that’s when I left."
"There’s also a stretch of railway close by. Trains pass often."
"When the iron gate closed just now, I saw yellow containers outside. Those are for storing chemicals."
After Ethan finished, the room went dead quiet.
Dr. Axel was the first to speak. He looked at Lucas and Emma and said: "I trust Ethan’s judgnt. Since we know roughly where we are, let’s move now!"
Lucas finally reacted. He quickly closed his eyes, trying to enter Dawnfall Online to ask for help.
But a second later, he opened his eyes again and said worriedly: "What if the police can’t get us out? Will the kidnappers kill us, or move us sowhere else?"
At once, Emma and Dr. Axel hesitated. They couldn’t promise that wouldn’t happen.
Just then, Ethan said calmly: "I might have a way."
He closed his eyes and entered Dawnfall Online.
Compared to the police, who are just ordinary people, Ethan trusted [Grinning Ghost]’s [Ghostfang] and Leo’s Faceless Division more.
He even suspected the n in black who appeared in his hospital room were from the Faceless Division.
Ethan arrived in Safe Zone 9527 without any delay. He opened his watch and sent ssages to [Grinning Ghost] and [No Sneak Attacks].
But even after ten full minutes, neither [Grinning Ghost] nor [No Sneak Attacks] replied.
Ethan started to think that [Ghostfang] and the Faceless Division might already be in action.
He had a vague feeling that today’s events might involve several secret groups.
Right then, a ssage popped up on his watch.
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