Fire to the Abyss

Four o'clock in the morning, one hour left.

Xia Lin was lying on the hospital bed with earphones plugged into her ears, listening to the latest developments on the police channel, and playing the scenes she experienced in the clock tower a few hours ago frame by frame in her mind.

Contrary to what Xia Yan expected, Lu Yuan didn't suffer from Xia Lin, but Xia Lin couldn't stretch his claws in front of Lu Yuan at all, and wouldn't let him do anything other than use his brain—it was also because of Lu Yuan's presence. Yuan Zai, this experience was neither thrilling nor exciting.

In the exhibition hall on the first floor, a corner of a painting was painted with fluorescent materials. When the painting was removed, there was a piece of paper with a guessing game printed on it and a mobile phone. It must be through this mobile phone that Chen Mubai and the others were able to locate the clock tower. On the main interface of the mobile phone is a The timing card starts a countdown of 10 minutes when the painting is removed. The background of the timing card is a dynamic picture of a small bomb exploding. The meaning is simple and clear. When the time is up, the explosion in the background animation will be happened somewhere.

The answer of the guessing game points to another location of the clock tower. After going to the next location, new puzzles are found, one after the other, each place can find a clue to the next location. Mini-game, guessing game There are various categories, such as Sudoku, residual chess, reasoning, etc., which are similar in nature to the small games usually played in detective agencies. The difficulty is average, and they are mainly used to consume time.

Xia Lin didn't know when Zero became obsessed with this countdown game. The purpose of designing this game must be similar to kidnapping Zhong Qing. His pleasure lies in estimating the time for the opponent to solve the puzzle and planning the player's actions. Create a sense of superiority from the perspective of God, and stupid human beings are in control.

Some people get tired of being human and want to be gods.

However, Zero is obviously not qualified to be a god. He still underestimated Xia Lin’s speed of solving puzzles. There were 5 minutes left when Xia Lin solved the last puzzle. Combine all the answers to the puzzles and see that it is a string of numbers and The combination of characters coincides with the number of the wish tree hole on the 39th floor of the clock tower. There is a wish tree hole on the 39th floor of the clock tower. Tourists can buy a piece of red letterhead for twenty oceans, write their wishes on it, and fold it into All kinds of geometric patterns are stuffed into the small lattice in the tree hole, so that you can listen to the pure bell every day and accept the blessing of the ancient clock.Each grid has a number so that tourists can come back to review their wishes many years later.

It took Xia Lin less than 1 minute to make this reasoning, so they had 3 minutes left when they found the wish tree hole with the matching number. Then they just need to take away the things in the small grid and leave before the countdown reaches zero. up.Of course, such a "dangerous" action of fetching things is definitely not allowed to be done by Xia Lin. Lu Yuan only gave him a look, and Xia Lin obediently rolled aside.

Xia Lin originally thought that this uneventful adventure would end in peace, but he didn't expect that the designer of this game was even more unscrupulous than he imagined. As soon as Lu Yuan took out the small grid, there was a countdown ticking sound, and he went to Looking in the empty grid, there was actually a small bomb inside, and a smiling face was drawn on the shell. Xia Lin took out his mobile phone and saw that the countdown on the timer card dropped to ten seconds.

Fortunately, Lu Yuan's nerves were tense all the time, and he carefully observed the surrounding environment as soon as he came up. He planned a ten-second escape route as soon as he heard the sound, and dragged Xia Lin to the nearest corridor, successfully avoiding it. The most deadly high-temperature gas was released, but under the influence of the shock wave, the two were still thrown flying for a certain distance and fell quite terribly.

Xia Lin's back, arms, and knees were all bandaged, his face was painted, and his waist was severely scratched by the horizontal railing. He had to lean on the wall when he went to the bathroom—although there was always a door outside the door. The special police who greeted Xia Lin still chose to support the wall considering his face.

Not to mention Lu Yuan, when the explosion occurred, he protected Xia Lin inside. The external and internal injuries were much more serious than Xia Lin. The back of the head was hit by fragments flying from nowhere, and a cut was opened in the scalp. The collar was more than half dyed red.Even so, after confirming that Xia Lin's limbs were intact and still able to breathe, he took out his cell phone with a badly broken screen and sent a message with difficulty before fainting.

Xia Lin didn't know who Lu Yuan was still sending messages to in that situation. He glanced at the man next door with a gauze wrapped around his head and a disturbing sleeping face. He only knew that no matter who he was, he was guilty of serious crimes.

Just when Xia Lin was about to look back, he seemed to hear a familiar syllable from between Lu Yuan's tightly pursed lips. Xia Lin turned his head reflexively. Except for the unsightly gauze at the beginning, the line of the man's side face was almost Impeccable, his brows were furrowed, and his tightly closed lips seemed to have never opened.

Xia Lin stared at the sleeping face full of pain and said to himself: "Is it because I am too sensitive to my brother's name? Otherwise, why did I hear him call Yan..."

Xia Lin couldn't figure out the relationship between his brother and Lu Yuan, the phone rang, and he pressed it to take a look, and quickly dialed his number.

Xia Yan's "fishing" team didn't even have time to wring out their wet clothes, so they received new instructions from Liang Song. Xia Yan rushed all the way to Nanlu Fishing Ground at high speed. According to the address sent by He Rong, he cooperated with the local police station and searched the place first. Three abandoned factories.

Regrettably, there are no hostages waiting to be rescued in the factory, only various insects with clearly defined territories and ubiquitous dust and spider webs.

When Xia Yan came out of the last factory, his hair was dyed into fashionable "grandma gray", his coat was covered with cobwebs, the sweat and ashes on his face were entangled with each other, and he wiped it casually, covering most of his face. As ugly as that looks.

People from the Chengzhou detachment and the police also arrived. Liang Song glanced at the disgraced people lying on the steps from a distance, and was a little confused who was who.

Xia Yan walked over like a dead dog, and said weakly: "The three abandoned factories have been searched, and no hostages were found."

Liang Song handed him a bottle of water and patted him on the shoulder. Before Xia Yan could unscrew the bottle cap, the phone rang suddenly. Seeing that it was Xia Lin, he directly pressed the speakerphone—— After four o'clock, no younger brother would be idle and bored to call his elder brother who was on a mission. He must have found out.

Xia Lin's voice came out in a hurry: "Brother, go to the salt factory right away, I found some crystals attached to the hair of the puppet doll, and the test results just came out, it is salt, there is still half an hour, enough time. "

"okay."

Xia Lin wanted to ask a few more words, but hung up the phone hastily.When he finished saying "time is enough", he suddenly remembered the picture of the clock tower counting down steeply. Zero didn't explain this situation in the game rules. Obviously he is not a reputable planner.This kind of behavior is more like a back trick he left for himself. It is a layer of protection program activated when the game does not run as expected and he is in a disadvantageous situation, allowing him to regain control of the situation.Therefore, even if Xia Yan and the others rescued the hostages within the scheduled time, there was no guarantee that Zero would not be able to do anything later. After all, he had not yet achieved the ultimate goal of rescuing Nine.

On the other side, a row of police cars was speeding along a small road in a town where there is little traffic. The flashing red and blue lights on the roof almost illuminated the whole road. He Rong's voice came from the public frequency in the police car: "We found it This salt farm has two branches, east and west, and the west branch has been sold due to poor management in the past few years. The buyer is He Zhaoxu’s cousin-in-law, and I sent you the address of the west branch.”

As soon as Liang Song received the address from He Rong, he saw a police car speeding up abruptly and getting to the front of the large army. He didn't need to look at the license plate to know who it was, and then Xia Yan's unsteady voice sounded on the channel. : "I know a shortcut, so follow closely."

Having said that, Xia Yan slammed on the accelerator all the way, feeling as if he had driven the police car out of the plane. It was already very difficult to keep up, let alone follow closely. He didn't dare to open his eyes, feeling that Xia Yan was either driving too fast or flying too low.

The west branch was built in the middle of an undeveloped wasteland, with only a cement road one car wide leading to the inside. According to rumors, the surrounding land was bought by a real estate developer, but due to lack of funds, construction was delayed. , just surrounded by a low wall, the weeds inside are higher than the top of the wall, gently swaying with the wet and salty sea breeze, the "rustling" sound of the branches and leaves rubbing against each other is like whispering ghosts.Seen from a distance, the faded roofs of the West Branch factory stood upright in the middle of the wild grass, a bit like a castle built by a solitary witch.

Xia Yan directly smashed open the weak gate of the West Branch with a police car, and a black van was parked in a conspicuous place in the yard. The license plate and model were the same as the car tracked in the surveillance.Xia Yan glanced at the time on the car stereo. It was only ten minutes before five o'clock. He made a sharp turn and parked the car at the main entrance of the factory building. After getting out of the car, he drew his gun and rushed towards the gate. Several other people followed immediately. up.

The rusty gate of the factory building was only ajar, and it opened with a light kick.The inside is not very big, not as big as the warehouse of Asahi Brewery. Many rooms have no doors, and those with doors can be dropped or broken. They are the kind that can be kicked open with one foot, which did not cause any obstacles to the search.

Xia Yan shouted Zhong Qing's name all the way, but he did not receive any echo other than the sound of the wind.

Finally, when Xia Yan kicked open the last door, he found Zhong Qing who was hanging on the iron frame.

At this time, the sky was already dark, and the weak sunlight shone in through the uniformly rotating exhaust fan. From time to time, the pale and painful face could be seen clearly. Lost consciousness.And the rope hanging from her wrist seemed to be thinner than it appeared in the photo, as if it could be broken at any time, and the sink under her was filled with muddy liquid, like a monster ready to devour its prey at any time.

The small box tied to the rope shows that the remaining time is only 8 minutes.

The reality in front of him is more powerful than the photos, Xia Yan felt as if he had been punched hard in the chest, and the suppressed anger, mania, self-blame, and all kinds of inexplicable emotions suddenly came out. , he let out a low growl, and his breathing became disordered.

Xia Yan supported the door frame and took a few deep breaths, finally brought the breathing rhythm back to an acceptable level, opened his legs and rushed towards Zhong Qing's direction, running around all night, his two legs seemed to weigh a thousand catties, Every step seems to exhaust all the strength, but the person he is looking for is right in front of him, even with the weight of the whole world hanging on his legs, he still has to grit his teeth and rush forward against the clock.

Xia Yan was almost biting his gums to bleed, and then he arrived at Zhong Qing's side at a normal speed. Just as he stepped on the side of the sink, and was about to reach out to grab the person directly, there was a "beep" sound similar to when an electronic watch was turned on. It was only then that Xia Yan felt an obvious strangeness under his feet - it wasn't the solid feeling of stepping on the ground, the small piece of ground obviously sank after he stepped on it, as if he touched some kind of switch, for example, by pressure Sensor-activated bombs.

"Don't come here yet!" Xia Yan yelled at Yang Ming and the others who had just rushed over, looked down, and there was a lit electronic screen buried under the dust, Xia Yan squatted down to push the dust away and looked, it turned out to be a countdown card , the number on the timing card is consistent with the timing on the igniter on the rope.And what he stepped on was indeed not a solid ground, but a square cover.

Xia Yan said in a deep voice, "It seems to be a bomb."

Several people at the door looked at each other. Yang Ming's legs went limp for a while, and he almost fell to his knees. He barely stood still by holding on to the door frame.

At this time, a burst of cheerful mobile phone ringing suddenly broke the dignified atmosphere in the room. Xia Yan looked around, only to find an old-fashioned flip phone on the ground. Press the answer key.

"Congratulations, Brother Xia Yan, I knew you must be the first one to find Mr. Zhong, let me see... It's 5 minutes earlier than expected, Brother Xia Yan, don't put on a bitter face, come on, Smile for the camera."

Xia Yan looked around, and sure enough, he found a camera with red dots flashing in an inconspicuous corner of the wall. Xia Yan raised his gun and aimed at the camera, and pulled the trigger expressionlessly.

"Hahahaha... Brother Xia Yan, it's fine if you don't laugh, don't be so rude——I spent so much time planning the game, it would be too boring to end the game like this, so, I prepared a little easter egg for you. I I advise you not to move around now, the little thing under your feet is very sensitive to pressure, and it will make a "bang" sound when there is a change in pressure. Of course, the condition of adding an hour is still valid..."

"Zhao Yang," Xia Yan yelled, interrupting his eccentric speech, "Are there any other bombs here?"

"Hey, no, as long as you still step on it, it's safe. After all, I don't really want to kill Mr. Zhong. Of course, I don't want you to die either. There are two wires on the display screen, cut one of them. One can live... Ah and, I still prefer you to call me Zero..."

"Yang Ming, come here and put Zhong Qing down, take her with you and leave quickly—Okay, Zero, if I can survive today, I will definitely make you die with my own hands."