The numbers on the player were still ticking forward.
00:00:26.
Chen Mo stood in the center of the hall and called out again.
"Anyone here?"
His voice traveled around the seemingly endless office area.
Still, no one answered.
The time door platform was lit, the elevators moved up and down as usual, and file carts still ran along tracks in the distance. The enormous Time Variance Authority continued operating normally, but its staff had vanished en masse. Even Deadpool hadn't left a single wisecrack.
This was serious.
Any place that could silence Deadpool deserved a danger warning on at least the first page of the employee handbook.
Chen Mo looked down at the player. The timer was running normally, the calibration program was stuck at forty-seven percent, and the return button was grayed out.
"Fine."
Chen Mo tucked the player into his wrist strap.
"Before someone comes to rescue me, I might as well tour a government office."
More than a dozen corridors branched off behind the hall.
Chen Mo chose the one marked "Evidence archives."
The offices along the way were all open. Cups sat on the edges of desks, screens displayed approval pages, and a printer was still spitting out paper. Chen Mo stepped around the reports scattered across the floor and casually pulled open a drawer that hadn't been shut properly.
Stones in six colors were crammed inside.
Red, yellow, blue, purple.
Two green ones were buried at the very bottom.
Chen Mo pushed the drawer shut, then opened it again.
The stones were still there.
"Holy shit."
He picked up the purple gem and examined it under the light.
The player automatically displayed a description.
Cosmic-level energy carrier. Inert outside its native universe. Current use: paperweight.
Chen Mo looked at the gem, then at