After seeing the signal, Jack immediately strode forward without a word. He held a stone in his right hand behind his back. His gait looked a little odd, but apparently no one noticed.
Tom followed close behind, one hand in the pocket of his trench coat, gripping a stone as he quickly approached.
A few seconds later, Jack reached the display case and suddenly swung his arm down to smash it! But the moment his hand gripped the stone and raised it, a faint sound came from nearby!
Jack's body jerked. An incredulous look appeared on his face, and he froze completely. His eyes quickly grew dim. He stumbled backward two steps and leaned against the wall to keep his balance, then slowly toppled over.
Tom didn't notice any of these little changes in Jack. His mind was probably full of thoughts about the two hundred dollars he'd have left. He had already moved into position and rushed forward, but then came another faint sound, and Tom froze in place too, his whole body trembling like he was having a fit.
Only then did the seemingly lazy middle-aged guard shrug and approach, cigarette dangling from his lips. He matter-of-factly reached out with both hands, grabbed Tom and Jack by the necks like an eagle snatching up chicks, and tossed them straight out the door! The other visitors were stunned by the sight. One woman even covered her face and screamed.
Fang Linyan's heart lurched.
"This guy was protecting the Mayflower Compact? Damn it, was he a Contractor too?"
After obtaining this crucial piece of information, everything suddenly became clear to Fang Linyan.
"That's it. No wonder this milestone seemed noticeably easier to complete. It was only easy on the surface! I hadn't noticed before, but there was a question mark after the Scholar milestone. Now it looks like that question mark concealed the words (PVP)!"
"My Scholar milestone requires me to touch the Mayflower Compact. So there's a good chance this guy's objective is to protect it. I was careless, truly careless! No wonder the Scholar milestone was the last one available to choose."
"Fortunately, I don't think I gave myself away earlier. I used those two to do it, so I probably haven't attracted attention yet."
Once he'd pieced together what had happened, Fang Linyan began to panic. A chill ran through his entire body.
He realized that what he faced now might be the greatest crisis of his life. If he couldn't react effectively in the next two or three seconds, he might be doomed! At this life-or-death moment, Fang Linyan's brain worked like an overclocked computer processor, churning furiously and reaching its absolute limit in an instant!
At the same time, the seemingly ancient Black Old-Fashioned Phone he carried also seemed to sense his danger. It quickly heated up, and its screen lit up. But the display filled with a flood of zeroes and ones, streaming past like water. In an instant, they resonated with Fang Linyan's brain.
Fang Linyan himself felt none of these strange changes. He only felt that his mind was exceptionally clear. Everything seemed as clean and lucid as a stream flowing over stone, leaving his thoughts incredibly calm and empty! That wasn't all. If his pupils were magnified several hundred times, one would see streams of zeroes and ones flowing through them too, as if the Black Old-Fashioned Phone were transmitting data to him.
In a fraction of a second, Fang Linyan's brain worked furiously. It was like watching a high-definition movie: everything he'd observed since entering Hall 4 replayed in his mind, frame by frame, in slow motion.
Not only that, but all kinds of data about his surroundings seemed to calculate themselves automatically, appearing at a mere thought. For instance, he was 5.623 meters from the case holding the Mayflower Compact; he was moving at 4.22 kilometers per hour; the exhibition hall was 11.274 meters tall.
"Hmm!" Fang Linyan's heart gave a sudden leap. He'd spotted an extremely important clue. His brain made thousands of calculations in an instant and laid out the three most likely possibilities. He immediately made his decision.
Fang Linyan remained composed and quietly began walking to the side, where another exit was only three or four meters away.
But the middle-aged guard had already turned around. His eyes narrowed slightly as he sized Fang Linyan up, then a cold smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"You're putting on quite a convincing act, but you're still too stupid. When I threw those two guys out, everyone else was either screaming or stunned. You're the only one casually walking toward the exit. That little trick of yours is laughable, haha!"
The middle-aged guard smirked. With a twist of his wrist, a compact black stainless-steel crossbow slid silently out of his sleeve. It was small enough to hide beneath one palm, and its color matched his sleeve exactly, making it extremely hard to spot.
He raised his wrist slightly and aimed the crossbow at Fang Linyan. A steel needle rested on it, blue sparks crackling along its tip! He'd hit Tom and Jack with the electric needles earlier, instantly paralyzing them.
But what the middle-aged guard could never have expected was that just as he discreetly raised his hand to take aim, Fang Linyan suddenly shouted. As if he were ready to fight to the death, he turned, raised his arm, and hurled a stone at the glass case.
For an instant, the middle-aged guard froze. His finger, already resting on the trigger, couldn't pull it. Then, within a mere tenth of a second, he made his decision! He immediately turned, took aim, and fired. A dark steel needle shot out, sparks flashing at its tail, and knocked Fang Linyan's stone off course in midair.
The middle-aged guard's actions were easy enough to understand. In his eyes, he could deal with a weak newbie like Fang Linyan at any time, but if that stone hit the case, he'd probably fail his Scholar milestone. So stopping the stone had to come first. Taking care of Fang Linyan afterward would only take a moment.
When Fang Linyan saw that the stone he'd thrown had been knocked aside, a glint flashed in his eyes. He knew the first step of his plan had succeeded.
Before you continue