A New Trend

Room 1F, No. 3. Heming arrived at the door. As expected, things had unfolded just as he'd predicted. No one had come here yet, which meant no one else would come. It was entirely within his expectations.

Room 1F, No. 3 had two features that made it an unlikely choice. First, the number was near the beginning. Nos. 1, 2, and 3 were easy picks, so some people would think in the opposite direction and avoid them. That meant few people would come. Second, the three consecutive numbers were something Westerners disliked, so no one would choose this room. Heming was different, though. They were Easterners, and they didn't really care about that sort of thing...

This room, which should have been the safest, had now become Heming's prey. He wondered whether the poor lamb inside would escape its fate.

Time was up. As expected, no one else arrived. Only Heming and Rie stood outside the door. Now they could go in. Their first search target was the ceiling...

After three minutes of searching, Heming was even more certain of his target. There was no one on the ceiling. He knew where the lamb was hiding.

That's right: their second search target was under the table. If he wasn't mistaken, this person had probably been agonizing over whether to hide under the bed or the table, wondering which would be better.

Heming lifted the cloth covering the table. A foreigner really was hiding underneath.

The moment Heming lifted the tablecloth, the foreigner shouted, "Oh my God, a Chinese person!"

Heming smiled at the foreigner. "What's wrong with Chinese people? Either my luck's too good this time, or yours is too bad. Well, goodbye..."

Heming left the room with Rie. His task was complete: he'd successfully found the lamb. Tomorrow morning, they'd be able to talk again. He guessed Zeng and Deng had succeeded, too.

Back in their room, Rie lay down on the bed again. Maybe she still felt tired. Heming gently leaned against the bed and let Rie fall asleep holding his hand. It made him feel a little more at ease.

Actually, Heming had prepared two backup plans earlier. In an unpopular room like Room 1F, No. 3, the lamb probably wouldn't put much thought into hiding, so he'd chosen simple spots like the ceiling and under the table. The foreigner probably hadn't even considered hiding behind the vanity. That was just a hypothetical option, because it wouldn't be good if the lamb counterattacked and killed the killer after being found on the third search. So the third place had to be somewhere no one would be found, while the first two needed to have a high chance of finding someone.

If he hadn't found anyone this time, Heming would have used exactly the same method again. Why? He didn't know. He just felt that was what he should do.

Rie fell asleep before Heming had thought for long. He let go of her hand and went to the bathroom. He just wanted to take a quick shower. Mm...

After showering, Heming sat on the sofa and began practicing the Pitch Black Heart Method.

Meanwhile...

The Pitch Black headquarters in Portugal...

"Guangcheng Heming has successfully joined the game organized by the Holy War Council. According to the Council's intelligence, he has successfully hidden once and killed once, earning points. The Asian Twin Eagles have also successfully hidden once and killed once, earning points."

"According to the latest intelligence, about a hundred people have been eliminated. After the second round of role-swapping, Killer vs Killer is about to enter its second phase."

"According to the intelligence, last time the second phase involved making choices on the spot, which made the game more difficult. So far, we haven't obtained any detailed intelligence about the second phase."

In the central plaza, a Pitch Black member gave a report. Kuo Ming and the others sat in the very center. Pitch Black had convened this special meeting to discuss three matters. The first was Heming's participation in the game.

At first, Pitch Black hadn't planned to let any of its own people participate in the game. Only Kuo Ming had arranged for the Asian Twin Eagles to enter. But unexpectedly, the Asian Twin Eagles had invited Guangcheng Heming, who was in Japan.

In fact, Pitch Black was preparing to build a world-class underwater park somewhere. There were already three underwater parks in the world, but they had all been built in artificial seas. Pitch Black didn't want to build one in an artificial sea, because that would take away the fun. They'd originally planned to buy a small island and build it there...

"I think we should just change the plan. There's no need to overthink it. I believe the Asian Twin Eagles can win this game. Even if they can't, we still have Heming. I think a lot of people know what he's capable of. He even found a Tyrannosaurus at Meihe—a magical dinosaur resurrected with Heavenly Dew. I imagine something like that would be very popular in a zoo." Ming Jian was the first to offer his opinion.

"I disagree. This is the biggest Killer vs Killer game in history, and every organization in the world has sent people. Even if the Asian Twin Eagles and Heming are very capable, there's no guarantee they'll take first place. I think we should just buy the island. The other side has already offered us their lowest price. If we make a move first, those countries that have been interested for a long time certainly won't just sit back and watch." The speaker was from Pitch Black's External Commerce Executive Department. Ming Jian didn't seem to know his name.

"Pitch Black is in good shape now, but we still need a large amount of money for development. If we spend such a huge sum all at once on the underwater park, we might as well put our hopes in Heming and the Asian Twin Eagles." Kuo Ming gave his opinion, too.

No one spoke after that, because the opinions of two top-level members essentially decided the outcome. No one would question a top-level member's decision. Even if someone spoke up, they'd only be offering their own opinion.

Yaming didn't speak at this meeting, because she had been the one to first propose the underwater park...

"Now, let's move on to the second matter."

"According to our investigation, Sa Company has moved its headquarters to a city in Australia. They'll continue their human resurrection experiments there."

"Three countries have contacted us, hoping to obtain Sa Company's confidential information."

"Several other countries have expressed great interest, but a few organizations have made it clear that they'll find a way to destroy the company."

"Human resurrection experiments? They've been at it for more than ten years. Let them do as they please. Make it clear that we won't take any action against the company. And turn down those countries. There's no need for us to get involved in something like this!" Yaming was the first to speak.

Everyone present understood the odds of the experiment succeeding. Unless they were a world-class organization working with people with special abilities, resurrecting a human body was absolutely impossible. Those companies were probably using that as a pretext to research biochemically engineered people and biological weapons.

"Next, the final matter."

"The design blueprint for our newly developed Fantasy Realm appears to have been copied using a special method. Of course, the copied blueprint hasn't been handed over to anyone else yet. Headquarters' special operations team has already identified the target."

"In fact, it was a petty theft attempt by a hostile country. They were just lucky enough to copy it."

"I've already worked this out with that country. They plan to compensate us with some money in exchange for letting the culprit go. Their original goal was only to learn about our underwater park's design. That country is afraid we'll kill their intelligence agent. Sigh, there really aren't many intelligence agents left who can successfully connect to our computers from outside. Never mind. Retrieve the blueprint, have the special team erase his memories of it, then let him go." Kuo Ming seemed to know the matter well. He settled it directly.

At that point, Yaming stood up and said, "That concludes today's special meeting. You may all leave."

As soon as she finished speaking, everyone except those in the center stood up, bowed slightly, and left the central plaza.

"Now, let's discuss the matter in Ao City."

Back with Heming, Rie had woken up. She sat up and watched him practicing the Pitch Black Heart Method.

Heming had actually realized Rie was awake, but he kept pretending to practice. After all, it was his first time, and he didn't know how to face her. He'd avoided things like this a few times before...

Rie glanced at Heming, then went into the bathroom to wash up, since they'd soon be free to move around...

Breakfast had been brought in. Heming and Rie ate everything, just as they had the day before. This time, they planned to look around and then visit Zeng and Deng's room. It couldn't hurt to get more familiar with the place!