Chapter 961: You, Come Here for a Moment
Lin Sanjiu was generally an upright person, except when it came to battles.
In terms of combat power, she was probably capable of handling a group of people, including Tan Zhang. However, this was the territory of the Night Wanderers after all. If she got entangled with them for too long, the battle would turn into a war of attraction with the constant arrival of reinforcements. What she lacked the most at the moment was time.
Therefore, in this sudden and rapid battle, she didn’t focus on the enemies at all.
With a loud bang, several sparks of electricity jumped within the billowing white smoke, shattering the mist like miniature lightning bolts. The ceiling cracked, and a few electrical wires with peeled insulation dropped down, swaying back and forth in the smoke, waiting to ensnare someone.
"Be careful!" Tan Zhang shouted angrily in the thick smoke. "Don’t let her cause any more damage! Stop her!"
Including the piece of ceiling just now, Lin Sanjiu had already damaged four or five places in an instant. She had no intention to engage in a prolonged battle and instead maneuvered between the enemies, trying to make her way out while causing as much destruction as possible—after all, it wasn’t her s.h.i.+p. Moreover, both she and the Night Wanderers knew that the Ocean Voyager was currently in s.p.a.ce, and this was not a time to tolerate destructive risks.
Tan Zhang and his team had made some preparations to capture her, but once their trump card, a telephone booth that could instantly trap a target for 15 seconds, lost its effectiveness against Route 300, a few of the others panicked. The area was in chaos: in the permeating acrid smoke, many exposed electrical wires hung in the air, and sparks of electricity jumped, ready to strike someone’s leg at any moment. Faint creaking sounds came from somewhere, as if a structural support had been hit. The frantic group of people couldn’t attend to everything and, in the midst of the chaos, Lin Sanjiu seized the opportunity. She swiftly created a small tornado behind her, and just as someone exclaimed, she vanished into the depths of the corridor.
"A few of you stay here, the rest come with me in pursuit!"
She faintly heard Tan Zhang’s loud command from a distance.
So, there were probably two pursuers behind her... Of course, if they couldn’t catch up to her, Tan Zhang would definitely call for reinforcements. As she ran, Lin Sanjiu glanced at the surveillance cameras in the corners of the ceiling. These devices were installed on the s.h.i.+p before doomsday, and she didn’t know if the Night Wanderers had utilized them. But just to be safe, she needed to find a place without surveillance cameras to hide.
Fortunately, there was such a place.
Not only were there no surveillance cameras, but Tan Zhang and the others probably wouldn’t think she would go there... What’s more, it was a place she should have visited anyway.
Relying on her memory, Lin Sanjiu changed direction and dashed towards the residential area of the Night Wanderers. However, not only did the pursuers continue to chase her, but as she got closer to her destination, there were more people on the way. Unlike the surface society, once Tan Zhang shouted, the members of the Twelve Worlds on the s.h.i.+p would quickly block her—she, who was running frantically and seemed suspicious. The hurried footsteps behind her were gradually getting closer, and she knew that if she turned one more corner, Tan Zhang would be able to see her again. Lin Sanjiu was anxiously trying to figure out what to do when, at that critical moment, an orange transport trolley came from the opposite direction in the corridor. It hummed as it pa.s.sed by her, and the wooden crates on the trailer were neatly arranged.
Great, that’s it!
Taking a quick look around and seeing that no one paid attention to this direction, she immediately pushed off the ground and leaped onto the trolley. The trailer shook under her weight, and she immediately bent down and hid herself between two wooden crates—almost at the same time, the driver’s gaze also glanced through the rearview mirror.
There was nothing in the rearview mirror except the wooden crates, and he seemed to mutter something before withdrawing his gaze.
"Where is she?"
After Lin Sanjiu hid herself, she finally heard the voices of Tan Zhang and the other person in the distance. They looked around in both directions of the corridor, clearly confused about how she suddenly disappeared. Their voices asking pa.s.sersby ("Did anyone rush out of this corridor just now?") grew more distant and were eventually completely replaced by the light humming of the trolley. When their shadows finally disappeared from sight, she let out a long breath.
After a while, when she jumped off the trolley, she could go straight to the residential area. Now she needed to see if she still had the mask...
As she searched through her card inventory one by one, the driver was talking loudly on the radio.
"Yeah, I don’t know which b.a.s.t.a.r.d did this! What’s the point of stealing electrical supplies? Oh, you’ve heard about it too... Yeah, when we were moving the cargo, we found that one of the boxes was half-empty... d.a.m.n it, I won’t take responsibility..."
Taking advantage of his engrossed conversation, Lin Sanjiu quietly put on the final middle-aged man mask and stood up without making a sound. When the trolley slowed down and made a turn, she gracefully descended to the ground like a droplet sliding down the side of a cup. She wasn’t very familiar with the layout of the Ocean Voyager, so she had to compare it with the map in her mind and explore, which took some time before she finally returned to the crew’s residential area.
Casually, she walked among the bustling crew members, and no one paid any attention to her. That was the advantage of the middle-aged man mask. If she could appear as if weathered by wind and frost, she would be even less noticeable.
As Lin Sanjiu marveled at the effectiveness of the mask in her mind, she knocked on Octo’s door.
"I... I can’t, " someone protested in the distance, murmuring hesitantly, "I really don’t have time right now—"
"You’re already here," another person commanded with a strong tone, and it was unclear what the two of them were arguing about, "Just do it if it’s convenient for you. Hurry up, you wouldn’t make me do it myself, would you?"
Lin Sanjiu heard the words, but she didn’t take them to heart. She knocked on the door again and waited for a while, but there was no response.
Could Octo’s roommate also be out?
Regardless of whether someone was inside or not, she had to figure out a way to get in. First, it was to avoid Tan Zhang’s pursuit, and second, it was to lie in wait for an opportunity.
But how could she get in?
She glanced to the side and saw the middle-aged janitor, who was still engaged in an argument with another member of the Night Wanderers about cleaning the room. The middle-aged man seemed reluctant to clean for the other person and was suppressing his temper. It looked like they were about to start quarreling. Lin Sanjiu thought for a moment and then loudly called out to him, "Hey, come over here!"