New Trends

Room 3, Floor 1. Guangcheng Heming arrived at the door. Yes, things were unfolding exactly as he had anticipated. Not a single person had come here yet, and none would be coming later; it was all entirely within his expectations.

Room 3, Floor 1. There were two reasons why this room was unlikely to be chosen. First, the number was too low; people tended to gravitate toward numbers like 1, 2, or 3, so some would intentionally avoid them, thinking in reverse. Naturally, few would come. Second, the number "4" was considered unlucky in the West, and since the rooms were numbered consecutively, no one would want to pick this one. Heming was different; he was Eastern, and generally didn't care about such things.

This room, which should have been the safest, had now become Heming's hunting ground. He wondered if the poor lamb inside could escape this calamity.

Time was up. As expected, no one else had arrived. Only Heming and Rie stood outside the door. Now they could enter; their first target for the search was the ceiling.

Three minutes of searching only solidified Heming's objective. There was no one on the ceiling. He knew exactly where this lamb was hiding.

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

Heming pulled back the tablecloth, and a foreigner was indeed huddled underneath.

The moment Heming lifted the cloth, the foreigner shouted, "God, a Chinese!"

Heming smiled and said to him, "Is there something wrong with being Chinese? Either my luck is too good today, or yours is just too bad. Well then, goodbye..."

Heming led Rie out of the room. His mission was complete; he had successfully found the lamb. Tomorrow morning, they could proceed to the next exchange. He figured Zeng and Deng must have succeeded as well.

Back in their room, Rie went to sleep on the bed again; perhaps she was still feeling tired. Heming leaned gently against the bedside, letting Rie hold his hand as she drifted off. This made him feel a bit more at ease.

In truth, Heming had prepared two contingencies earlier. In an unpopular room like 3, the "lamb" likely wouldn't use much brainpower to hide, which was why he had chosen simple spots like the ceiling and under the table. The foreigner probably hadn't even considered the space behind the vanity. This was just a hypothetical choice, because if he were to find the lamb on the third search, it wouldn't be good if the lamb counter-attacked the killer. Therefore, the third location had to be one where no one could be found, while the first two needed a high probability of success.

If he hadn't found anyone this time, Heming would have used the exact same method again. Why? He didn't know; he just felt that was how it should be.

Not long after Heming finished his thoughts, Rie fell asleep. Heming let go of her hand and walked to the bathroom; he just wanted to take a quick shower. Hmm...

After his shower, Heming sat on the sofa and began to practice the Pitch Black Heart Method.

At the same time...

The Pitch Black headquarters in Portugal...

"Guangcheng Heming has successfully participated in the game organized by the Holy War Council. According to intelligence from the Council, 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 [number] people have been eliminated. After the second swap game, Killer vs Killer is about to enter the second stage."

"According to reports, the last second stage was a real-time selection, which made the game much more difficult. Currently, we have no detailed intelligence on the second stage."

In the central plaza, a Pitch Black member was reporting. Kuo Ming and the others sat in the very center. Pitch Black had held a special meeting for three matters, the first being Heming's participation in the game.

Actually, Pitch Black hadn't intended to let their own people participate in this game initially; only Kuo Ming had arranged for the Asian Twin Eagles to enter. However, he hadn't expected the Asian Twin Eagles to invite Guangcheng Heming, who was in Japan.

In reality, Pitch Black was preparing to find a place to build a world-class underwater park. There were already three such parks in the world, but they were all built in artificial seas. Pitch Black didn't want to build in an artificial sea because it would lose its charm. They had originally planned to buy a small island to build it directly...

"I think we should just change the plan; there's no need to overthink it. I believe the Asian Twin Eagles have the ability to win this game. Even if they can't, we still have Heming. I think many people know of Heming's abilities, right? He actually found a Tyrannosaurus in Meihe. Yes, a magical Tyrannosaurus resurrected through Heavenly Dew. I think such a thing would be very popular in a zoo, don't you?" Ming Jian was the first to offer his opinion.

"I don't think so. This is the largest-scale Killer vs Killer game in history, and every organization in the world has sent people in. Even if the Asian Twin Eagles and Heming are very capable, we can't be certain they will take first place. I think it's better to buy it directly. The other party has already opened with the lowest price. If we move first, those countries that have long had ideas won't just sit by and watch." The speaker was from the Pitch Black foreign commercial executive department; Ming Jian didn't seem to know his name.

"Pitch Black is in good shape right now, but we still need large amounts of capital for development. If we use such a massive amount of funds for the underwater park all at once, we might as well pin our hopes on Heming and the Asian Twin Eagles," Kuo Ming stated his opinion.

No one spoke after that, as the opinions of the two special-grade personnel basically decided the outcome. No one would question the decision of a special-grade member; even if someone spoke, it was merely to offer their own thoughts.

Yaming did not speak during this meeting, as she was the one who had originally proposed the underwater park...

"Then let us proceed to the second matter."

"Through our reconnaissance, Sa Company has moved its headquarters to a city in Australia, where they will continue to conduct human resurrection experiments."

"Three countries have already contacted us, wanting to obtain Sa Company's classified data."

"Several other countries have also expressed great interest, but a few organizations have explicitly stated they will find a way to destroy this company."

"Human resurrection experiments? They've been at it for over a decade; let them be. Make it clear that we will not take any action against this company. Hmm, reject those countries; there is no need to get involved in such things!" Yaming was the first to speak.

Everyone here knew the success rate of this experiment. Unless it was a world-class organization with the cooperation of ability users, it was absolutely impossible to resurrect a human. Those companies were surely using that name to research biochemical humans and biochemical weapons.

"Next is the explanation of the final matter."

"The design blueprint for our newly developed Fantasy Realm is suspected to have been copied by someone using special means. Of course, that copied blueprint has not yet been handed over to anyone else. The headquarters' special operations team has already locked onto the target."

"In reality, it was a petty theft by a hostile country; they just got lucky and managed to copy it."

"I have already negotiated with that country regarding this matter. They intend to pay us some money to let this guy go. Originally, their goal was just to find out our underwater park design. Hmm, that country is afraid we will eliminate their intelligence personnel. Sigh, there really aren't many intelligence personnel left who can successfully connect to our computers from the outside. Forget it, retrieve the blueprint, tell the special team to erase his memory of the blueprint, and then let him go!" Kuo Ming seemed very familiar with this matter and resolved it directly.

At this point, Yaming stood up and said, "Everyone, today's special meeting ends here. You may all return."

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

"Now, let us discuss the matter of Ao City!"

Back to Heming, Rie had woken up. She sat up and watched Heming, who was practicing the Pitch Black Heart Method.

Heming actually knew Rie was awake, but he continued to pretend he was still practicing because, after all, it was his first time, and he didn't know how to face her. Heming had done his fair share of avoiding things like this...

Rie looked at Heming for a moment before heading into the bathroom to wash up, as they would be free to move around soon...

Breakfast had already been delivered. Heming and Rie ate everything just as they had the day before. This time, they planned to walk around and visit Zeng and Deng's room; getting familiar with the environment couldn't hurt!