Chapter 1381: The End of Fifteen Minutes
Running had become an extraordinarily strenuous and draining task.
Lin Sanjiu"s reflexes were indeed sharp. The moment her gaze fell on the swimming pool, she timely dashed to the left, avoiding the fate of being stuck between two Blue Wall Watchers simultaneously. Just after two desperate sprints to the left and right, she understood one thing: there would only be one Blue Wall Watcher in a given direction.
There was already one behind her. The Blue Wall Watcher she spotted in the pool claimed the position in front of her: no matter how many times she ran in any direction, that wet Blue Wall Watcher would always reappear about ten meters ahead in her field of vision, backing towards her straight on.
To avoid being surrounded, Lin Sanjiu could only constantly change directions and keep running, fighting for each second.
"Next one; don"t approach the West District Fitness Center basketball court!" Ji Shanqing shouted. He still didn"t know that his sister, on the other end of town, was caught between two Blue Wall Watchers. Constantly changing directions to dodge required Lin Sanjiu to concentrate heavily, and she didn"t have the time to inform him.
"I pa.s.sed by there just now, from a distance," Silvan suddenly said. "There was a blue sign hanging on the basketball court"s fence, which I"ve smashed. There should be no danger there now."
"Grand prize!" Lin Sanjiu finally managed to squeeze out a breath. Seeing the back of a Blue Wall Watcher appearing in front of her again, she sprinted to the left. "How much longer?"
Her insides felt like they were on fire, and several times, she had narrowly slipped between two Blue Wall Watchers. She didn"t know how much longer she could keep walking this tightrope.
"Less than five minutes left," Ji Shanqing said, his tone revealing no clue if he had any leads yet. "Something strange is that all the Blue Wall Watchers that have appeared so far did not appear in front of a truly blue-painted wall. The locations in the sighting reports don"t seem like places where there would be blue walls."
"C-could it be that there"s only o-one real blue wall in the town?" Han Suiping said, his voice trembling at the surreal experience. "And the real target is in front of that wall?"
"No, that"s unlikely," Ji Shanqing said. "Before a Blue Wall Watcher targets someone, he is always sitting in front of a blue backdrop, then starts backing away from this backdrop towards the target. This applies to both those on the TV screen and the ones we just saw. The walls can"t move; if he could appear anywhere in the town without the wall, could he still be called a Blue Wall Watcher?"
"So, what could it be?"
Lin Sanjiu was so focused on listening that she didn"t immediately continue sprinting in a different direction after turning the corner. The soaked Blue Wall man suddenly approached her, and the sound of chair legs dragging across the ground resounded from both front and back.
Twisting her body, gathering strength, sprinting—it was already too late. She was sandwiched between two dark napes; in that silent moment, the last thing Lin Sanjiu heard was her heavy breathing.
But as her vision blurred, a strong force suddenly rushed to her waist, sending her flying far away from the two Blue Wall Watchers. The communicator on her waist instantly shattered into pieces; Lin Sanjiu fell heavily to the ground, rolling out, and the severe pain brought her back to consciousness.
"Get up quickly!" Silvan shouted from a distance, rus.h.i.+ng towards her. "They"ve pa.s.sed again!"
As Lin Sanjiu clumsily got up amidst the pain, she realized that she was. .h.i.t by Silvan just as she was about to be transformed by the Blue Wall Watchers, and that"s how she was brutally thrown out of their a.s.similation range. Silvan was already there in the blink of an eye. He wrapped his arm around her waist and threw her over his shoulder without stopping.
"Th-thank you," she said with a gasp as she rested on Silvan"s shoulder. "Let me take a quick break, then I"ll be back on my..."
Lin Sanjiu froze. She pushed against his back, did a back flip, and jumped off his body. The Blue Wall Watcher that had appeared would always appear in front of her—even when she lowered her head from Silvan"s shoulder.
The Blue Wall Watcher lay on the ground, his back facing her eyes, and the chair seemed to rest on his calves.
"I"ll follow you," Silvan said, not looking back but sensing something was wrong. He took a few quick steps forward. "Go quickly!"
Without a word to spare, Lin Sanjiu took off running. She had long lost track of which locations were the reported sightings amidst the constant zigzagging. The two Blue Wall Watchers were like a thumb and forefinger trying to pinch together, forever closing in on the tiny figure between them. In her frantic run, she had approached Pine Cone Street, where they encountered the first Blue Wall Watcher.
"Sis!"
Ji Shanqing was standing outside the original house, along with several other posthumans, each holding a large stack of letters. Seeing Lin Sanjiu"s situation, he was taken aback, seemingly forgetting what he was about to say. As they rushed past him, he hurriedly shouted from behind, "I have an idea. We all need to gather at the big screen. Time is almost up!"
Lin Sanjiu"s heart tightened, and she quickened her pace—had he found a clue?
The big screen that the grand prize mentioned was located at the T-junction of Pine Cone Street. It was typically used to display the town"s weather and news. Now, only an increasingly large nape covered the screen, covering more than half of the distant blue background wall.
As she tried to get closer to the big screen while constantly changing directions, Ji Shanqing and his group also rushed over. Just when everyone regrouped, the sound of chair legs dragging, which had been going on for ten minutes, finally stopped. Lin Sanjiu looked up and found that the Blue Wall Watcher in front of her had frozen about ten meters away, just like the Blue Wall Watcher behind her, no longer moving.
She subconsciously glanced at the big screen, and when she hurriedly looked back, both the Blue Wall Watchers had disappeared.
"Time is almost up. He"s about to turn his head!" someone cried out tremblingly.
Lin Sanjiu, panting, walked back to the group. The town fell silent again, no one moving. Only the dark nape on the big screen was slowly turning to face forward—bit by bit, still covered in black hair.
Gradually, the edge of an ear was revealed. Though all that could be seen was a line of skin near the ear, the Blue Wall Watcher seemed to be a woman.
Moreover, she seemed to be a woman very familiar to Lin Sanjiu.
"Wait, where"s Nu Yue?" Han Suiping shouted in alarm. "I haven"t heard her respond since earlier!"
Silvan stared at the area behind the group, his lips pressed into a line.
As everyone slowly turned their heads, Nu Yue stood quietly behind them, not moving at all. She faced the group, her face looking like the moon undergoing a lunar eclipse, gradually being encroached by black hair; the black hair spreading from the back of her head was like a curtain, about to be pulled over her face.
"I"ve found the target!" Ji Shanqing shouted, causing Lin Sanjiu to jump. "The Blue Wall Watcher on the screen hasn"t turned around yet, but I"ve found the target. According to the rules, we should end the game!" His tone was urgent and fast, his words tumbling over each other.
"Where?" Lin Sanjiu asked before feeling a shadow lightly cast over her.
She slowly looked up. A Blue Wall Watcher floated above their heads, facing away toward the light blue sky.