Toys welcome toys that become toys.
Okay, because the world inside the door is unknown, the Ability Control Bureau specially had a precognitive ability user deduce the fortune of this trip. The result showed that this trip was extremely unlucky, but if they could bring one person along, they would definitely be able to turn bad luck into good. And that person pointed directly to the super-powerful Healer in City A.
In fact, the Ability Control Bureau did not rush to approach the Healer as soon as the outcome was known. Prior to this, the high-level officials held repeated meetings and debates before making this difficult decision and approaching the Healer.
Now that the Healer has agreed, the leaders in the conference room are starting to regret it, feeling that they shouldn't have brought the Healer into the game.
The inner struggle culminated in a series of sighs.
"Don't worry, Healer. Your safety will be our top priority during this mission. We will definitely not let you..." said Branch Chief Shi Tao, but he couldn't continue, feeling that his words sounded hypocritical, so he decided to remain silent.
Ye Jiang: "?"
Why did she get the feeling that the Ability Control Bureau deemed that door very dangerous?
Is it dangerous?
Ye Jiang recalled her first impression of that tall gate and answered in her heart, no.
Not only did she not feel that way, she also felt an inexplicable sense of closeness to her.
Ye Jiang walked out of the Ability Control Bureau, declined Ability Control Bureau offer to drive her, and immediately turned towards the South City. The tall stone gate was still in the same place. Unlike the Blood Moon and the Moon Tree, which appeared briefly and then disappeared, the gate had been there for more than a week.
The cordon was still in place, and elites from the Ability Control Bureau were guarding the outside. Ye Jiang didn't get too close, not wanting to disturb the elites while they were carrying out their mission.
But some people aren't as well-behaved as she is.
Using its abilities, the octopus- Shi Li concealed itself, circling the perimeter of the security line again and again, observing the central gate from all angles. Its tentacles seemed eager to reach inside.
Ye Jiang's appearance attracted the monster's attention. She barely managed to suppress her impulse and flew to Ye Jiang's side.
"Ye Jiang, you've come to watch the fun too?"
Ye Jiang grabbed her tentacle and kneaded it, casually replying with a "hmm." Shi Li then launched into a long-winded monologue, chattering about the gossip she had heard. The high gate that appeared in the southern city was shrouded in mystery, attracting crowds of citizens every day. Knowing little of the inside story, the citizens indulged in their fantasies, fabricating all sorts of tales about the gate—some so fantastical that even myths wouldn't dare to embellish them. Shi Li, of course, didn't believe them, but that didn't stop her from enjoying listening, nor did it stop her from wanting Ye Jiang to be happy too.
They were happily sharing their moment when a tall, slender figure silently appeared beside them. When Shi Li noticed, her heart nearly leaped out of her chest. How could this person appear and disappear so suddenly?!
The young man completely ignored Shi Li. He moved closer to Ye Jiang and, when Ye Jiang looked at him, whispered, "Long time no see."
Chapter 108 Toys welcome to become toys.
A faint scent of pine wafted through the air, and Ye Jiang saw the young man who had bid her farewell in the town. He exuded a cold and austere aura, as if he carried with him the loneliness that had accumulated in the desolate green mountains for hundreds of years, as cold and hard as the ancient mountains.
But that was just an illusion. Deep within his pupils, beneath that layer of coldness, something molten and scalding seemed to be suppressed. It flickered for a moment as he uttered "Long time no see," before being deeply hidden away again.
Ye Jiang looked into the young man's eyes and saw only herself reflected in his deep gaze. Noticing this, she felt inexplicably overwhelmed by his gaze, so she lowered her eyes to avoid eye contact.
Her gaze shifted and unexpectedly fell on what the young man was carrying: a shopping bag filled with fruit.
The young man's eyes flickered as she looked away. Seeing her staring at his hands, he slightly raised his hand, naturally offering her the shopping bag, saying, "I bought too much at the supermarket I passed by..."
Ye Jiang silently accepted it.
She felt a weight in her hand and reached inside, pulling out an energy willow leaf—the one she had received the day she left Shuiling Town.
She offered the willow leaf to the young man, and he accepted it.
Everything was the same as in Shuiling Town; nothing had changed.
Neither of the two monsters seemed to think they were doing anything strange. Only Shi Li, the eight-clawed monster, floated to the side, glancing at Ye Jiang and then at the young man. Even a double-digit number of eyes couldn't keep up with her gaze. Didn't they really think they were acting a little odd?
Click--
I didn't feel strange at all as I pulled an apple out of my shopping bag and started eating it.
Shi Li: "..."
The Ability Control Bureau's exploration team was quickly finalized, consisting of eight members: seven B-Rank ability users and one A-Rank ability user. All of them were elites from the Ability Control Bureau's Operations Team, half from the City A Branch Bureau and half from the City M headquarters. This was a joint exploration mission.
The A-Rank ability user is named Yu Hai, and he belongs to the General Bureau. Because the City A Branch Bureau only has two A-Rank ability users, and City A has recently been frequently harassed by S-Rank Polluted, it is not possible to disperse top combat forces to exploration missions. Therefore, the General Bureau sent someone to serve as the captain of this exploration mission.
Ye Jiang met with the exploration team from the Ability Control Bureau in the evening. After being introduced by the leaders of the Ability Control Bureau, the two sides got to know each other briefly, but did not talk much. Under the cover of darkness, they entered the cordon.
The cordon around the high gate had been in place for over a week, and this was the first time it had been opened to the public since the cordon was established. The senior leaders did not leave; they stood guard outside the cordon, seeing off the exploration team, anxiously watching, and praying for a successful outcome.
The atmosphere tonight was unusually tense. When the first exploration team member stepped into the cordon, the leaders' hearts were pounding, and then came the second, the third... All the exploration team members, including Ye Jiang, walked into the cordon.
However, nothing happened; the door didn't pack them up and take them away like the Logistics Team.
Is the area under confinement too large?
The exploration team members, suppressing their unease, tentatively walked towards the door.
They walked for a while, and by visual estimation, they were well beyond the range where the Logistics Team had disappeared, yet they still hadn't vanished.
Their heartbeats gradually increased. They walked a little further and this time came straight to the door, which was just a few steps away. The special stone reflected the cold night, and the cat on the door seemed to be staring at them indifferently.
But they still didn't disappear.
"..."
"..."
The night wind blew, brushing past blank faces.
The exploration team finally couldn't hold back any longer. They turned around and looked at the leaders of the Ability Control Bureau outside with questioning eyes. The leaders opened their mouths, not knowing what to say for a moment, and were only given a mouthful of night wind.
What's going on?
They had initially speculated that the door would devour people within a certain radius of it, but now it seems that this speculation was wrong, and humanity's exploration mission failed at the very first step.
The leaders exchanged words, while the exploration team waited quietly, awaiting both instructions from their superiors and the door's reaction. In a moment of inattention, a figure moved. In the night breeze, Ye Jiang stepped out from the exploration team's protective circle and headed straight for the door, intending to pass directly through it!
"Wait--"
Everyone was startled, but it was too late; they watched as the person they were protecting walked through the door.
Then it disappeared.
"..."
There was a moment of silence both inside and outside the line; then the night wind picked up.
The exploration team also planned to go directly through the portal, but because this differed from how the logistics personnel disappeared, they intended to test it cautiously after receiving instructions from their superiors. Faced with the unknown, weak humans are always more prudent. Little did they know, the Healer among them, who was supposed to be under their protection, would be so reckless!
There was no time to hesitate. The exploration team members glanced one last time at the leaders outside the line, turned back, their faces resolute, and quickly went inside to catch up with the Healer.
The team members disappeared one by one.
The leaders who had come to the cordon looked around anxiously.
call--
The wind blew by, and no one noticed that the cat on the high gate blinked.
Yu Hai, A-Rank ability user, opened his eyes from a moment of dizziness. The light shining from above stung his eyes, but he endured the discomfort and quickly scanned his surroundings to assess his environment.
Before him lay a clean and bright world, beneath his feet was warm-colored, gleaming marble, and everywhere his gaze fell were smoothly designed partitions. Light and shadow flowed quietly in the fragrance. This familiar scene allowed him to quickly conclude that this was a high-end shopping mall.
The connection inside the door is not strange.
Another world
The world is just a slightly more luxurious shopping mall!
However, this was nothing like any other shopping mall Yu Hai had ever seen; it was enormous!
The area is surrounded by shops, and looking up, you see countless buildings, with the dome reaching hundreds of stories high in the sky!
The elevator system stands in the center of the atrium, connecting the ground floor atrium to the dome decorated like the Sky. Its rounded shape is complemented by six corridors extending outwards from each floor, linking to the shopping mall on each floor.
Yu Hai continued to observe. Seemingly in preparation for some event, two huge, adorable cats were lying in the atrium of the mall. The cats were exactly the same as the two above the door outside, all gilded, but their expressions were even cuter, like two identical cats in different states.
The mall is filled with wind-up toys that are over a meter tall. They have springs on their backs that can be pulled or turned. There are many kinds of toys, including animals, plants, and imaginative creations. They look cute and are placed in various parts of the mall, like decorations for a themed event.
The mall was quiet, with all the lights on, but there were no customers in the huge mall. Yu Hai's colleague, who had stepped in with him, was not by his side, and the Healer had entered before them was nowhere to be seen.
Where are they?
Where did they go?
Yu Hai searched with his eyes, trying to find his colleagues, but most importantly, Healer.
A pleasant fragrance wafted over, momentarily affecting his thoughts. He felt a sense of disorientation, as if something was hidden within the mall. But what was it?