Chapter 2086: Chapter 2086: Pumpkin City
"Your son is really impressive," said a middle-aged woman with a small vegetable basket nearby. "Working at Starlet Company must earn him a good salary."
The middle-aged man wore a proud expression but didn’t forget to praise the woman, "I’ve heard your daughter is about to finish her degree in chanical engineering. She might beco a famous designer in the future, and if she joins a research team, her prospects are limitless."
The woman was also quite proud, "My daughter has never been a worry for
since she was little. Whatever she chooses to do in the future, I’ll support her because respecting a child’s wishes is most important for parents."
The middle-aged man nodded repeatedly, "Life is so good now, anything you do can lead to a pretty decent life, unlike the big pressures we faced back in our day."
As they chatted, a small robot rolled over from the roadside. After detecting garbage nearby, its two round glass eyes flickered, and it extended tallic arms from its sides and announced:
"Please take note, I’m about to pick up trash!"
"Please take note, I’m about to pick up trash!"
The chatting crowd made way for it, watching it clumsily try to pick up a candy wrapper from the ground. After a few failed attempts, the middle-aged woman laughed and picked it up to help, tossing it into the robot. The cleaning robot retracted its arms, turned around, and played music:
"You are a good citizen, loving life and your ho. A small ho is our ho, and the big community is our ho too. Let’s work hand in hand to create a beautiful future!"
The chatting people soon dispersed, calling the children who were playing near the Ti Tower back ho for dinner. A restaurant invited Xu Huo and his group, "It’s almost dinnerti; would you like to try so local delicacies?"
Who would dare eat that?
Xu Huo replied, "We’ve already booked a al at the hotel."
The waiter, regretting it for a second, quickly smiled and said, "High-end food at a big hotel surely tastes better than what my boss makes."
The busy boss poked his head out the window, "Shut up and serve the dishes!"
"Enjoy your al," the waiter waved them goodbye and went back inside to work.
"Everything seems so real," Feng Hui moved his hand, "I could even feel human warmth when that kid bumped into
just now."
"If the entire city is just a dream, feeling warmth isn’t a big deal," Wang Ling comnted.
The group then walked over to the newsstand.
The small note Xu Huo had left was gone, and the notice they posted earlier had already been read. The notice was very simple, advising residents to securely lock doors and windows and not open them to strangers, without providing details of the case.
However, there were many older notices posted nearby, by residents from nearby streets and neighborhoods. At least three of them. Additionally, there were notices about upcoming events like weddings and funerals from nearby street offices, as well as small advertisents about shop openings, which made it to the recent major news headlines.
"There seems to be a number of burglary cases," ng Wenguang, after taking a photo of the new newsstand, remarked, "Just in this area, there are three to five cases."
"Could it be a hint?" Yue Rui suggested, "I’ve heard people around talking about this."
"But the area is too broad." Long Jianfeng pointed at the map the patrol officer gave, "Pumpkin City isn’t small."
"Why is this city called Pumpkin City?" Hong Chen asked, puzzled, "I don’t see any pumpkin decorations on the street."
"Maybe it’s related to the terrain." ng Wenguang took the map, "If you look at the city from above, it resembles a pumpkin’s side. The city is curved on both sides, starting from the ’First Street’ on the left, stretching across to the Twenty-Third Street on the right. These twenty-three main roads span up and down. Apart from the straight central road, the others are curved, with the curvature increasing the closer to the edge.
They were currently on the central Twelfth Street, near the top of the map. Another walk slightly outward, and they would likely see the city’s edge.
"Could there be so special aning?"
He looked up at the others.
"Hard to say," Wang Ling said, "What kind of strange city layouts don’t exist in gas? Maybe this is just the city’s frawork. For now, let’s focus on the burglary cases and Starlet Company."
Xu Huo nodded as well, "We can set aside the terrain for now."
"Residents of Pumpkin City seem pretty happy overall. Judging by the chanical devices in use, it might be in the early stage of an intelligent technology boom. At this stage, the municipal governnt or tech giants should ordinarily have comprehensive data control."
"The two most obvious clues for now are best pursued by splitting up, going to Starlet Company or the municipal governnt."
Given the size of Pumpkin City, casting a wide net to find potential clues is too slow.
"Hong Chen and I are slow walkers," Yue Rui said, "so we’ll stay here to gather information from the people nearby."
Their communicators still weren’t working, but there was a store nearby selling communicators, so Xu Huo and Wang Ling bought two to try.
"Hey! It actually works!" Wang Ling exclaid.
"Of course communicators work," the store clerk looked at him puzzled and added, "But recently, Starlet Company is installing signal towers, which might cause communicators to malfunction."
Whether or not they would work, they each took one anyway.
After confirming contact details, they started distributing roles.
The municipal governnt was on Sixth Street, while Starlet Company’s main office was on Sixteenth Street.
"With the two places so far apart, splitting up saves ti." Xu Huo said to Wang Ling, "Which side will you go to?"
Only the two of them clearly carried ti-related items, so it was best to split up.
"I’m not good at discerning information," Wang Ling said, "I’ll go to the municipal governnt; maybe I can find ready-made archives."
"I’ll join you," Long Jianfeng said.
"Then I’ll go with Mr. Xu to Starlet Company." ng Wenguang looked at Feng Hui, "Will you co with us?"
"Why don’t I stay back?" Feng Hui suggested, "In case other players co in."
The thick fog made it inconvenient to move around. There must be other players in the city, so they couldn’t definitively say that new players wouldn’t enter. The entire city might have changed.
But ng Wenguang didn’t agree, extending his long arm to pull him over, "Just co along. You’re an advanced player, after all. A company is huge; how can just two people search it?"
He then reminded Yue Rui and the siblings, "Be careful, if you see other players, hide quickly."
Xu Huo checked the ti again, "It’s already past 12:03. It seems the other three tis on the Ti Tower are all after 9:17 PM."
"Make sure to docunt the process with the recorder. Whether or not we manage to contact each other, we must return here by 7 at the latest."
"We’re running low on recorders," Yue Rui reminded.
Players don’t often use recorders, so two or three are usually enough. They’ve already lost several since entering, on top of needing to keep prior records, aning at least two or three must be put aside for storage. Considering future use, by 9:17 PM, they could only place one more recorder outside.
Xu Huo nodded slightly, "Let’s see if we can encounter other players along the way and borrow so."
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