Tacit Cooperation

Turning to look beside him, Xiao Ming saw Qu An and Yi Xiaoda return to the starting point. He also saw the suddenly appearing Virtual Hunter.

"There's a hunter!"

The path ahead had already been difficult, and the hunter's appearance made it even harder. Meanwhile, time ticked away second by second.

Xiao Ming calculated the distance. The hunter was still relatively far from him. As long as he was careful not to touch those things, he should be fine. He just hadn't expected the hunter to be able to teleport.

That greatly increased the risk of being caught.

At the same time, the team members who had not entered the Interstellar Universe area received a task prompt as well. They had to activate the live surveillance feed in the security room and notify the accelerators inside the Interstellar Universe of the hunter's location.

A security guard uncle was stationed in the security room. Whenever he saw an accelerator, he sounded the alarm, and the alarm would attract the hunter.

If no one remained to guard the monitors after they were turned on, the security guard uncle would shut them down. The accelerators had only two choices: risk staying there or lure the security guard uncle away.

As it happened, You Duidui learned something about the security guard uncle while searching for clues about the hunter. He cared deeply about his children, so someone used his children as bait to lure him away.

Once they could see the hunter and avoid obstacles in time, the task became much less difficult.

Qu An was the first to arrive and obtain a key.

"72! My number is 72."

Yi Xiaoda had retreated several times, while Xiao Ming had moved farther from his destination in order to avoid the hunter.

After reaching his own point, Qu An headed toward the closest location Yi Xiaoda needed to reach.

"Brother Xiaoda, I'm coming over to help you."

The three points were not particularly close together. Just as Qu An was about to arrive, the hunter appeared not far ahead of him.

It turned out that something had gone wrong at the security room. After being lured away, the security guard uncle failed to find his children for a long time and realized he had been tricked, so he returned to the security room.

Meanwhile, Xiao Ming took advantage of the hunter chasing Qu An and reached the virtual machine. "36. Mine is 36."

With only the last one remaining, they could solve the complete key.

Not long after he called it out, the hunter nearly came face-to-face with Xiao Ming. Fortunately, Xiao Ming reacted quickly and touched an obstacle, returning to the starting point.

Fortunately, hunters would not capture them while they were retreating, though it cost them a great deal of time.

Yi Xiaoda was nearly just one step away from the final key. However, that was precisely when the unexpected happened.

The hunter suddenly appeared in front of Yi Xiaoda. He did not have time to dodge and was caught on the spot.

They had lost another major player.

The hunter seemed to keep teleporting around the final key, blocking both of them from advancing, and there was little time left.

"Brother Qu, I'll lure the hunter away. Take the chance to check the last two digits."

"Okay."

With their roles decided, Xiao Ming began drawing the hunter's attention. "Hello, hello, I'm over here."

It looked incredibly foolish, but it worked.

Xiao Ming was about a hundred meters away from the hunter. He was immensely grateful for those days when he had crazily run three thousand meters for credits. His stamina could still hold out for a while.

This tactic of creating a diversion successfully allowed Qu An to see the final number. "54."

Xiao Ming also touched an obstacle and returned to the entrance just before the hunter could catch him.

"725436, or 365472."

Qu An called Yuan Yangming, who answered very quickly. As it happened, he was near the security room.

With less than a minute left, the ringtone signaling task completion finally sounded.

Xiao Ming and Qu An also shut off their AR 3D projections and ran off to hide.

"There should be one final task. Chang Le's mom didn't come with us just now. I feel like it should have something to do with her."

They had run quite a lot today, and after dodging the hunter just now, Xiao Ming felt he did not have much strength left. He analyzed the situation between breaths.

Qu An nodded in agreement and took out the map again. "Let's first see where we are."

The two of them were hiding behind a small signboard, standing rather close together. When Xiao Ming lifted his eyes, he could see Qu An's long lashes fluttering up and down.

"They look over a centimeter long."

"What?"

Xiao Ming froze, then a flush spread across his face. He had not expected to accidentally voice his thoughts aloud. "Oh... nothing. I was just saying your eyelashes are pretty long."

Qu An was startled as well, then his eyes curved as he smiled and thanked him.

That was awkward.

Fortunately, the awkwardness did not last long before the final task was released.

Chang Le was about to begin his competition and had already entered the stadium to wait. However, Chang Le had taken his mother's admission ticket with him, and she was still waiting at the stadium entrance.

The accelerators' final task was to get Chang Le's mother's ticket from Chang Le on the stadium track within the remaining two minutes and deliver it to the stadium entrance. Otherwise, thirty hunters would be deployed.

"The stadium track—isn't that right beside us?" It was exactly where they had just completed the previous task.

"Congratulations, student Xiao Ming. You guessed the task content again. Let's go together and complete the final task."

The teasing in that "student Xiao Ming" was not malicious, and it brought the two of them a little closer.

Qu An quickly got the ticket, but there was not much cover on the route from the track to the entrance, and the hunter was gradually approaching this area as well.

"Brother Qu, if there's a hunter later, just run forward. Don't worry about me. I'll lure it away for you."

After they ran for a while, two ringtones sounded in succession. You Duidui and Yuan Yangming had been captured by the hunter. Only three people remained now.

As Xiao Ming watched their surroundings, the incessant ringing made him somewhat nervous.

Then, at a stairwell not far away, the hunter silently arrived.

Following the plan, Xiao Ming ran a few steps into the hunter's field of view to make it lock onto him, then began a desperate escape.

The hunter was fast, but Xiao Ming was no slouch either. Still, having just run a huge lap, he could only lure it away for a limited distance. Fortunately, Qu An had already left the track with the ticket.

The moment the hunter caught him, he was unexpectedly quite happy.

Running three thousand meters had been something from his freshman and sophomore years. In his memory, even running one thousand meters had been "half a year ago," so it had been a long time since he had run so freely and wholeheartedly.

He did not need to worry about his credits. He did not need to worry whether his thesis would pass. He only needed to run to his heart's content.

Not long after he was caught, Xing Tong was caught as well. Only Qu An remained.

With three minutes left, Qu An successfully delivered the ticket to the entrance.

Next came the final showdown.

The last task point was fairly close to the Pause Room. As Xiao Ming walked over, he happened to see Qu An looking for a place to hide.

There was a minute and a half left. Having worked on tasks with Qu An all day, Xiao Ming had come to see him as half a friend.

Because he had been so busy competing and striving, he had not had time to make friends. So now, he rather hoped the other man could last until the end and win.

Xiao Ming's eyes had not been ruined by his excessive studying. With his 2.0 vision, he spotted the hunter around the corner.

"Hunt—hunter! Brother Qu, run!"

Qu An received Xiao Ming's warning and turned to run. However, he was surrounded from three sides, and with thirty seconds remaining, Qu An was regretfully captured.

Xiao Ming felt sad for him just watching it happen. After hesitating, he offered a few words of comfort. "It's okay. You were already amazing. You were just a little short. You'll definitely win next time."

Qu An found Xiao Ming's unconscious effort to comfort someone while keeping a straight face rather amusing. Xiao Ming could talk quite well when he was guessing and analyzing tasks, but he seemed not to know how to chat at other times.

"Okay~ It's fine. Next time, let's win Acceleration King together. Luckily, you helped lure away the hunters in the Interstellar Universe and at the end just now. Otherwise, we couldn't have completed the tasks at all."

When they first met, Qu An had thought Xiao Ming would be the type to handle tasks alone. He had not expected him to have such a strong sense of teamwork.

If Xiao Ming could hear Qu An's thoughts, he would probably only foolishly say that the task came first.

He was not obsessed with winning, but he was extremely obsessed with whether the tasks could be completed.

That was simply the nature of a driven overachiever who wanted to be a slacker.

Before leaving, Qu An asked Xiao Ming for his contact information, and the two exchanged WeChat accounts. The others nearby happened to see their actions and came over laughing to add each other on WeChat as well.

Although Xiao Ming did not really understand socializing, he knew the people adding him were mainly there for Qu An. He was just incidental.

However, Xiao Ming's WeChat only contained his advisor, teammates, and family, so he did not say anything. He could not really chat anyway, so it probably would not make much difference.

It was only after returning to the hotel that Xiao Ming discovered Qu An's room was right next to his. The production team treated everyone equally and had booked identical rooms for them all.

Today's filming had ended, but there would be another session tomorrow, in the neighboring city.

The senior who had recommended "Xiao Ming" had only been invited for one episode, so Xiao Ming's task had come to an end for the day.

After packing his luggage, he planned to leave. However, he happened to run into Qu An, who was heading out for lunch.

Seeing his luggage, Qu An understood that Xiao Ming was leaving and politely asked, "How about we have a meal together before you go?"

"Okay." Unfortunately, student Xiao Ming was a little foolish and did not yet understand what "polite small talk" meant. Then again, not many people made polite small talk with him. His parents and advisor always said exactly what they meant.

Moreover, Qu An's expression looked no different from usual—courteous and gentlemanly. Xiao Ming did not yet know that the person in front of him was famous enough in the entertainment industry that even having a meal with someone could land him on the trending searches.

"But I might have to bring my luggage with me. The staff just came to collect my room card."

"That's fine. Leave it in my room first."

The layout of Qu An's room was not much different from Xiao Ming's. It was spotless. Even Qu An's own suitcase had been packed away and closed, while the blanket was neatly spread over the bed. If not for the bed runner having been removed and folded on the bedside table, no one would have believed anyone had slept there.

Out of politeness, Xiao Ming did not look around after entering. Aside from a subconscious glance, he did not look any further. He set down his suitcase and left Qu An's room.