Chapter 271: Too Many Physical Fights And One Almost Forgets This Ability
"Bang!"
A bright fireball was shot into the center of the library. It stopped mid-air. The light from it instantly tore through part of the darkness. The library was now partially lit. After confirming that the ball of light hanging from the ceiling had stabilized, the leader who looked like a mushroom gave Lin Sanjiu a dry laugh, "Right now, this is the only help we can provide."
Reno instantly made a scoffing snort.
According to the South Wing team"s request, each of them had to move at least 500 meters from their current position. They demanded that only one person approached Siri"s work desk to hand over the target books to them. The South Wing team would only release Rena after they got and verified the books. In the south wing woman"s words: "Since we all have long-distance attacks, it is always better to have a little a.s.surance."
They did not know if it was part of the south wing woman"s plan, but once the woman laid out her demands—much like how Silvan described with slight contempt—the west wing team, who had already agreed to work with Lin Sanjiu"s team, suddenly became overly cautious.
"We don"t care which of you get the books," said rapidly the leader from the west wing, in his horrible sounding voice. "Though we agreed to attack those duoluozhongs in the south wing together with the condition that we got their lives… Now, you have a hostage with them. Rescuing that hostage is not within what we agreed upon."
In other words, the West Wing team seemed like they would only step in to help after Lin Sanjiu"s team resolved the hostage situation and were able to attack the duoluozhongs from the south wing.
Silvan winked at Reno, showing an "I mentioned it before, they"re really annoying" face.
As they didn"t place much hope on the team from the west wing, Lin Sanjiu wasn"t that bothered by it. She eyed the West Wing team for a second and said mildly, "Since you guys are not willing to help, you better curb yourselves. If you try to attack us before we get our member back, don"t blame us for being hostile."
Apparently, the leader from the west wing did not have a proper gauge of Lin Sanjiu"s combat capabilities, so he had a slight look of despise on his face. However, Silvan was standing on her side, so he could only harumph and said nothing more.
Lin Sanjiu also stopped talking. She held four books in her arms and said to the man and the teenage boy behind her, "I"ll go."
"Be careful," Silvan flashed a smile at her from behind his ballistic eyewear. His teeth were dazzlingly white. On the other hand, Reno nodded his head, looking slightly nervous.
Lin Sanjiu quickly covered the distance between her starting position and Siri"s work desk. Under the poor lighting, Lin Sanjiu stopped and looked up.
"I"ve arrived. The books are here!" she shouted out. Her crisp voice resonated through the walls of the library. Then, she suddenly raised her voice and yelled, "Get down here!"
There was total silence for half a second.
"Oh, you"re one hot-tempered lady."
The woman from the south wing laughed. Different from before, her voice suddenly became very airy, as if it was coming from all directions. No one could tell where it came from and her position. After she said that, the atmosphere in the library changed in an instant.
It was somewhat indescribable. Even though the intensity of light from the light source did not change, it was as if someone had adjusted some sort of light filter, creating a stronger sense of eeriness in the library. This discomforting atmosphere slowly spread. Something that had been hiding beneath the facade of normalcy was about to tear through this "reality". At that instant, everyone almost couldn"t believe their eyes.
A grayish thing slowly peeked out from the corner of the ceiling and crawled down the wall like a gecko. The eyes of a person in an oil painting hanging on a wall suddenly moved. Next, that person jumped out of the picture frame, leaving only an empty landscape painting behind. A face suddenly emerged from a wall. It glided across the surface of the walls and floor and finally reached Siri"s work desk.
Very quickly, nine different types of duoluozhong surrounded Lin Sanjiu, trapping her in the middle. Lin Sanjiu held the books and did not move. She took a look at each of them.
"Where"s my team member?" Lin Sanjiu did not see Rena, neither did the female leader of the south wing reveal herself. Lin Sanjiu shouted, "Come out! At least, you need to let me confirm that she is alive and well!"
After a moment of hesitation, the south wing woman laughed and agreed, "Okay."
A slim figure slowly walked out from the seemingly impenetrable darkness engulfing the second floor of the south wing. As the spirit in the toilet had described, the person who appeared was dressed in a Changpao and was wearing a hooded cape which concealed the person"s appearance fully. If it wasn"t for her height and her narrower shoulders, it was almost impossible to tell her gender.
Rena"s arms were bound, so the teenage girl simply followed the woman down the stairs. When they reached the middle of the stairs, the south wing woman stopped and chuckled, "We"ll stop here."
Lin Sanjiu looked up at them.
From where she was standing, she was about 400 meters from the stairs. If there were no obstructions, she could cover that distance in the blink of an eye. However, she was now surrounded by nine duoluozhongs with indeterminate strength.
"Put the books on the desk," the south wing woman requested, eyeing the work. "Step aside and let my people check those books."
The strange woman with some part of her skin still undeveloped appeared to sigh. Then, she stacked the four books on the work desk. The duoluozhong standing beside her had a very strange form which seemed to be constantly changing. It roughly checked through all four books, and then it placed the book in its hand—if that could be considered a hand—next to the four books.
Siri appeared to be totally unconcerned about the situation in front of her. She only reacted when the five books were placed directly in front of her. As if following a command, she reached out for the books and started checking them. As she announced the results of her verification one after another, Rena bent over abruptly, as if she couldn"t accept their ma.s.sive failure.
While the woman, wrapped in her cape, straightened her back, her gaze swept through the library over and over again. The other posthumans did not move from their spot. Even the tall, muscular man did not show any signs of acting up.
"How to Render… No, this book isn"t right." Siri monotonous voice paused suddenly. Subsequently, she added, "Out of the five books, one of them isn"t the target book. The current verification process had been canceled, the event continues."
"What—" The woman in the hooded cape blurted out.
In that split second, everyone stirred. The south wing woman reached behind, trying to grab Rena with her clawed hands. However, she was stunned when she saw a few pieces of paper in front of Rena, who was still bending over.
There were many words on the pieces of paper, and they seemed to be torn pages from a book. When the woman noticed a card in the teenage girl"s hand, the card had already changed into a few more book pages.
"Hehe, my apologies." As Rena"s let out a faint gleeful snicker, flashes of bright white light appeared without warning before the woman in the cape.