Chapter 252: North, South, East, West, and Central
Translator: Pluto Editor: Vermillion
The other teams also faced the same challenges that Lin Sanjiu’s team faced. It was simply a fantasy to think that they could find five books among close to four million books just by pure manpower. Under such circ.u.mstance, the different teams developed different strategies.
Obviously, the people who arrived didn’t simply want to “check if the required books were in the central hall”.
“If that’s the case, what is their strategy? At this point, it was impossible that anyone has already found a book. Why are they so eager to take action?”
“I am not sure which team they’re from, but I am sure it is one of the three teams who arrived earlier than us,” Lin Sanjiu couldn’t figure out their motives. At that moment, her ability to remain calm and more cool-headed as the dangers around them mounted had never been more prominent. As her skinless jaw opened slightly, she spoke quickly and softly, “The three teams who have arrived earlier are the only groups who know that we are hiding in the central hall. Secondly, they were able to take advantage of that few minutes of darkness to move. That clearly shows that they already knew that it takes a few minutes before the lights are switched on at night. Let’s not forget, the three teams ahead of us had already been waiting for 2 days! For now, I am uncertain how many members they have as I don’t have a clear view of them. But, if they dare to approach us, I guess they have at least three or more members.”
The fact that Lin Sanjiu could suddenly speak and the alarming information she was delivering to them gave the siblings more than a small shock. As a result, they momentarily didn’t think to ask her how she knew what she knew. After a few long seconds, Rena regained her composure and asked quietly, “Where are they? Why can’t I see them?”
“They are still quite far from us. They are now near bookshelf 80 something. They have split up and are moving from two different directions toward us…” Lin Sanjiu examined the image in her higher consciousness carefully, “They are walking very slowly and stealthily. I don’t think they figured out that we already discovered them.”
“What should we do?” After Lin Sanjiu could speak, the siblings seemed to accept her decisions wholeheartedly.
Lin Sanjiu herself didn’t expect that her higher consciousness would choose to develop a different body structure first. Her throat, vocal cords, blood vessels, windpipe, and esophagus could be seen clearly. She only understood what had happened when she heard Mrs. Mana’s draggy voice saying “Ah, how exhausting.”
“Let’s go along with it,” Lin Sanjiu focused her attention, once again, on the few vague figures creeping toward them. “Since they haven’t figured us out, we can use guerrilla tactics.”
“If they have around the same number of people as us, we can launch a counterattack based on the situation. If they have more people, we can try to evade them and secretly leave the central hall. But, where we should head next is also problematic.”
Over the past few hours, they did not notice any sort of conflicts. This would mean that there was a very high chance that each of the five teams were hidden in the five different sections of the library, which explained why there hadn’t been any confrontations yet.
If they could successfully escape from the central hall, they still didn’t know which wing they should go to. Even if they avoided the east wing, where Silvan’s team was, they still had to choose from three paths.
“If we know where this team, surrounding us, came from, we can go to the wing that they were originally from. It should be empty right now—” Reno added thoughtfully.
The east wing was at the upper left corner of the library; the west wing was on the lower left. The south wing was on the upper right corner and the north wing was on the lower right corner. According to the layout, the central hall was the same distance from each of the four wings. It was convenient to reach the central hall from any of the wings so they couldn’t judge the direction that their enemy actually came from.
However, they knew that they didn’t have much time left. Lin Sanjiu gave a quick nod to the siblings and they followed her without saying a word. They moved nimbly and soundlessly and quickly climbed to the top of the bookshelves.
The bookshelves were arranged adjacently without any gaps between them and somehow created an accessible pathway. Furthermore, since their enemies did not know that Lin Sanjiu and the siblings already discovered their presence, naturally the top of the bookshelves was their biggest blind spot.
Even though the fluorescent lights were switched on, the feeble light from them was simply insufficient to fully illuminate the place. The top of the bookshelves might be brightly lit but as the light poured down the tiers of books, it gradually grew dimmer. If a person were to crouch down between the bookshelves, they would certainly find himself/herself hidden in darkness.
This was also the reason why Lin Sanjiu shockingly discovered that the enemy team consisted of six members only when she and the siblings got close enough them, moving stealthily along the top of the bookshelves.
The multi-tiered bookshelves certainly affected the visibility of her higher consciousness way too much!
The two people closest to them were at bookshelf 50, which was just in front of them. They crouched as they moved one in front of the other. The other people were heading in another direction but were also approaching them quickly. As the siblings looked at Lin Sanjiu simultaneously, their expressions showed their slight cluelessness as to what they should do next. Lin Sanjiu thought for second and instantly lay flat. Then, she signaled at the siblings and they also lay flat immediately.
The two men, whose faces they couldn’t really see, crouched and moved very quickly. They looked through the gaps between the tiers of books at the spot across them every now and then and appeared to be very vigilant.
Due to the numbers on everyone’s back, it was impossible to kill anyone with a single attack unless a person uses explosives or something similar. It was too difficult to incapacitate two people at the same time. Furthermore, these two people had backups. If they sneaked past them quietly, they would be able to leave W section and even the central hall.
After hesitating for a moment, Lin Sanjiu shook her head at the kids.
The two attackers seemed oblivious to the people above their heads. They coordinated with each and quickly left the spot under Lin Sanjiu and the siblings and disappeared from bookshelf 50.
They had managed to avoid a confrontation.
“What should we do next?” The siblings looked at the skinless person beside them and waited for her directions.
They had two options now. The first option was to wait in the same spot until the enemy team returned to their own wing after failing to find them. This would mean they would retain a status quo. The second option was to find out which wing those people came from and sneak to that particular wing while they were distracted.
“I think we should move to another wing as soon as possible. It is a little safer. The central hall is linked to the entranceway of the four wings and we can’t see the others so they can go there anytime… But, how are we supposed to find out which is their wing?” Rena asked quietly, feeling a little anxious.
“Regarding this problem, I do have some insights.” Lin Sanjiu had been thinking non-stop about this matter, “Don’t you find it strange? Regardless of their reasons for trying to ambush another team, why did they choose us? Why didn’t they choose Silvan? We have three members, whereas there are only two members in his team. Clearly, it would be easier to attack them…”
Unless… unless… the invading team came from the side where the south wing and north wing were situated. The library was only in total darkness for a short time, and it wasn’t enough for them to reach the east wing!
“Even though Kisaragi Library was very large, the library had been in full darkness for two whole minutes. That was enough for a posthuman to run across the central hall… After all, the central hall was only 500 to 700 meters long…”
“It’s the north wing!” Lin Sanjiu felt a jolt through her body as she and the siblings said those words almost at the same time.
“That’s right. They must be from the north wing,” she said very swiftly while she organized her thoughts trying to find for a loophole in her reasoning. “The south wing is only a few hundred meters from the east wing. As each of the wings are about the same distance from the central hall, they had no reason to choose a team with more people over a team with fewer members. The north wing is situated diagonally across the east wing so it is the furthest, so they chose the opportunity to run across when it was dark…”
Just as she said this, she suddenly noticed a sudden bright light flas.h.i.+ng across the scanned image in her mind. “Lin Sanjiu, be careful!” the siblings couldn’t help calling out. Following which, a person suddenly jumped up from below them. An arc of white light swept toward Lin Sanjiu aggressively.