CH 136

“He’s shedding, it’s not a plaster statue. The plaster cover on his body has turned into quicksand and had fallen off.”

“He’s moving now, the hourglass he’s holding in his arms has finished running.” 

“It’s a young omega.”

“His eyes are injured. It’s an old injury, caused by drugs. Based on my judgment, he’s blind and finds your location by hearing.”

Han Xingqian told them what he saw from the surveillance video through the communicator.

The few people hiding in the warehouse held their breath. Rimbaud was not afraid of him at all and wanted to go out to fight, but Bai Chunian caught him back into his arms and covered his mouth.

“It’s subject No. 613, Specter Hourglass.” Bai Chunian lowered his head, typed a few words on the touch screen on his wrist, and sent a message to Crawler, asking him for a copy of Specter Hourglass’ information.

Crawler and the others had gradually gained trust in IOA’s good intentions and they achieved a win-win situation in their cooperation. They had also helped with the International Prison incident. Their intentions were clear enough, so Bai Chunian had become more confident in asking them for information.

But Crawler, who had always answered questions in a flash, had not responded to the message for a long time.

“Weird, why didn’t he seize such a good opportunity for cooperation?” Bai Chunian scratched his head and moved to He Suowei’s communication, asking him to collect as many clues as possible about Specter Hourglass and send them over. 

He Suowei led his team members to wait for the signal ten kilometers away from the island. Seeing Bai Chunian’s message, he tried his best to recall the information needed from his mind for a while.

They had seen a test report on Subject 613 during the ATWL exam, which was found on the corpse of one of the defeated enemy team members.

The laboratory test report wrote,

“Special Operations Weapon 613, Specter Hourglass, an experimental subject in the cultivation stage. Created through making an inanimate body implanted with a gland and endowed with advanced chip thinking, obtaining the ability to feel emotion and think.” 

“In addition to these contents, the disease “Empty” is written after the items in the class, and only some observations are scribbled in the last remarks column—”

“Specter Hourglass likes to stand or sit motionless, watching the actions of people around, sometimes he can stand motionless for 96 hours without even blinking his eyes.”

“The researcher sent him here because he was too slow to respond, but tests found that he had no problems.”

About Specter Hourglass, He Suowei only knew so much, relying on vague memories he recounted to Bai Chunian. 

“Got it.” Bai Chunian summed it up, “Sounds pretty easy to bully.”

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Specter Hourglass stood expressionless, with only a long piece of white silk wrapped around his body and head, covering the private parts, his skin color was close to white sand, and his eyes were covered with a sickly white mist, except for some blue-green dots inlaid with gold borders that were distributed in an inverted triangle on his forehead, adding a little color to this frail and fragile boy.

As he approached him, Bai Chunian could see clearly how he was connected to the hourglass. The palms of his hands grew together with the top and bottom of the hourglass respectively, unable to separate. The hourglass was part of his human mimicry.

Specter Hourglass heard two loud noises and slowly turned his head toward the sound. He was originally facing Bi Lanxing, but at this time his head had slowly and smoothly twisted 180 degrees and he used a pair of foggy eyes to stare at Bai Chunian.

Although he was blind, his hearing was very sensitive. He judged the direction of Bai Chunian and Rimbaud’s attack from the sounds and suddenly turned the hourglass in his hands upside down. 

After the hourglass had turned, the white sand in the glass started falling down slowly from the narrow channel in the middle of the hourglass.

Bai Chunian bumped his head against Bi Lanxing’s vines for no reason, meanwhile, the water that fell on the ground when Rimbaud moved down the bucket of the water dispenser burst into flames.

The places where the lights illuminated the ceiling of the corridor became pitch black, while the two warehouses with lights turned off were inexplicably lit as bright as day.

Bai Chunian felt that it was difficult to breathe. His first reaction was to think that he had been poisoned by the vines, but then he realized that his body was not injured. It was just that the oxygen he breathed could not be supplied to the body, and the remaining oxygen in his blood was quickly depleted. 

Bai Chunian reached out to grab Specter Hourglass, but Bai Chunian missed because of suffocation, and so Specter Hourglass took advantage of the chaos he created to escape.

Others also fell into suffocation, Omega Tan Yang with oxygen glands was severely affected, while Alpha Tan Qing with hydrogen glands was unscathed.

It was also the first time for Tan Qing to participate in actual combat. Although he was nervous, he was able to maintain the most basic calmness. He threw Bi Lanxing out of the door, and Bi Lanxing recovered his breath.

“Come out quickly.” Bi Lanxing immediately entangled the others with vines and dragged them out of the corridor. They finally recovered their ability to breathe, leaned on the wall, and gasped for breath. 

Bai Chunian rubbed his face to wake himself up.

“I was careless, is there actually such a powerful experimental subject in the cultivation stage?”

Bi Lanxing looked at the entrance of the pharmaceutical factory in a daze and seemed to be weighing his next move.

Bai Chunian looked at the time. Right now there was a strong unpredictable experimental subject in the pharmaceutical factory. For the safety of the students, he had to consider applying for a retreat. 

But after today, the research institute might notice them whether it be transferring HD medicine to another location or increasing the density of guards, their subsequent searches would become very troublesome.

But it seemed that Specter Hourglass also sneaked in. He killed the security guard, but he didn’t get entangled with Bai Chunian and the rest. This encounter might be a coincidence.

As the saying goes, the enemy of an enemy was a friend, Bai Chunian was considering whether to take a risk and go deeper.

“I think we should follow.” Bi Lanxing said, with some uncertainty, “We could use Specter Hourglass to show us the way and see what his purpose is by following behind.” 

“Great, you’re quite gutsy. Rimbaud and I will go ahead.” Bai Chunian said.

He had to be responsible for the safety of the students at all times. These teenagers have not experienced many actual combats, they were not ready to take the lead on their own yet.

They entered Entrance F again. Before going upstairs, Bai Chunian re-examined the corridor they were in just now.

When stepping into the location where they were attacked just now, the suffocation surged again, but as soon as they left that location, the suffocation disappeared. Bai Chunian quickly walked through this suffocating corridor and went back to the two warehouses that have been investigated. 

The water on the ground was still burning, and in the other warehouse that Bi Lanxing and the others had searched, there was a fresh ripe mango on the table.

“Lanxing, what did you say was in this warehouse before?”

“A newspaper clipping on the wall and a rotten mango on the table.”

Bai Chunian picked up the mango from the table and weighed it. It was yellow and heavy, exuding a faint fruity fragrance. 

The entry and exit records on the warehouse desk clearly recorded that a batch of fresh fruits entered the cafeteria in the morning, including mangoes. This mango should be taken from the incoming goods. It should be fresh. Even if the temperature here was high, things like mangoes would not rot within a day.

Bai Chunian weighed the mango and walked over to the wall to look at the newspaper clippings hanging there. There were indeed many newspaper clippings on the wall, basically all promoting the honors obtained by the research institute.

The most eye-catching thing was the interview with the big boss of Wanzong Group. The layout was very complete, and it was pressed on top of other newspaper clippings.

The founder of Wanzong Group, Qiu Wanzong, had a son at an old age. He sincerely thanked the research institute for its help and specially donated a batch of expensive equipment. The interview time was October 4, K033, and Specter Hourglass’ release date of departure was on November 20, K032, about ten months apart, which happened to be the time required for human gestation. 

Bai Chunian went back and looked through the storage records after K033, and indeed a batch of new equipment entered the warehouse, the donor being Wanzong.

There was a scandal in the Wanzong Group three years ago. Qiu Wanzong’s grandson, Qiu Hui, made good friends with powerful young men and often went in and out of high-level clubs. Because of some vague things, he got drunk and accidentally killed a rich family’s son. That family wasn’t a helpless vegetarian that could be bullied. The case went through many twists and turns, but in the end, Qiu Wanzong failed to keep his only seedling. Qiu Hui was finally sentenced to ten years in prison and committed suicide in his second year in prison. As for whether he really committed suicide, most people knew clearly in their hearts.

Not long after Bai Chunian joined the secret service, his seniors went to investigate the hidden situation and came back to chat with him about the grievances between the wealthy families, so he heard some rumors.

That old alpha Qiu Wanzong was really unlucky, his son died early, his grandson was gone, the good Wanzong Group had no successors, and there were countless people coveting their riches 

“That old man…. coincidentally had gotten a child at a great timing.” Bai Chunian peeled off the mango and took two bites. It was quite sweet.

If Qiu Wanzong bought 613, this might be the ability of Specter Hourglass.

“The last 3 represent altering ability…backflow…subversion… is it reversing time?” Bai Chunian focused on inferring his abilities and glanced down at the electronic screen on the watch, but Crawler hadn’t answered yet.

Rimbaud crawled over from the ceiling and called him, “I searched around, but there was no one, it was very quiet.” 

Bai Chunian left the warehouse, met Bi Lanxing on the second floor, and asked Han Xingqian about the situation under surveillance.

Han Xingqian, “I have confirmed that there is no one in Area F where you are. Specter Hourglass is still moving forward and is about to leave the monitoring range. He should be close to Area A. I will move to Area C now and see if I can stop him in the middle.”

There were six entrances in the outer section, divided into six areas; ABCDEF, counted counterclockwise.

Bai Chunian, “Okay, how long will it take?” 

…

Bai Chunian, “?”

No one answered.

Bi Lanxing also called other people in Group B on the communicator, but no one answered. 

“Lu Yan? Lu Yan!” Bi Lanxing’s voice was a little more flustered.

“Calm down. You are the commander. What you need to think about is what to do next.” Bai Chunian taught him, “It’s just an experimental subject in the cultivation stage. Han-ge’s A3 Pegasus gland will kill him in minutes. What are you afraid of?”

Bi Lanxing closed his eyes hard, and Bai Chunian could see that his legs were shaking, and his hand that was holding the gun was also shaking.

“I can’t, I don’t know how…” 

Bai Chunian straightened his head, held his pale face in both hands, and stared at him, “Sooner or later, you will have to do this. If I am not there, they can only listen to you. If you hesitate for a second, one more body of the team member will be sent back to you.”

Beads of sweat trickled down Bi Lanxing’s forehead to his chin, and he said hoarsely, “I’m not ready yet.”

“When will you be ready? Are you waiting for that stupid rabbit and the others to get wiped out?”

Bi Lanxing’s shoulders trembled. 

A cold muzzle hit Bi Lanxing’s temple. Rimbaud wrapped himself around him and whispered in his ear, “If you do something wrong, I will shoot. No big deal, no one will blame you when you die, the worst outcome is nothing more than that.”

Being persecuted from both sides by this agent couple, Bi Lanxing felt as if he was standing on the edge of a cliff, forced to leap over a 100-meter ravine. He had a splitting headache and was on the verge of going insane. Snapping, he shouted an order in a low voice, “Bai Chunian, Rimbaud, you go to the middle section’s security control room, Tan Qing and Tan Yang will follow me to the outer section’s security control room to search for the members of Group B. Make sure to attempt to contact them each minute. After the investigation, we will rendevous at my map point and first specify the location of Specter Hourglass.”

Bai Chunian paused for a moment.

He loosened his hands and snapped his fingers in satisfaction. “That’s right, good boy. Rimbaud, let’s go. ” 

Rimbaud joggled the gun into the air and caught it back, his fishtail wrapped around Bai Chunian’s body, followed him down from the window more than ten meters high and both ran to the middle section.

“I told you not to pull your gun out recklessly, in case he gets scared silly. ”

“Are you teaching me how to do things?” Rimbaud wrapped around him lazily, rubbing the dust off his pistol on his back. “I have taught more children than you have eaten meals. You were also raised by me, and didn’t I raise you well? You weren’t frightened.”

[Bamboo note] 

I love hourglass! Hourglass is such a cutie! Hourglass my new favourite baby! Hourglass how could they do this to you…..

Bamboo note 2.0 (after rereading)

Hourglass wah! Hourglass is such a cutie! Hourglass hourglass hourglass (sobs)