Yong-guang heard what the white-clothed youth said, and could not help but smile bitterly and say, "Being all tied up like this, how can I unseal anything? At least untie my hands." He turned his head to look at Luo Lang and said, "Since Elder Brother Xi has already said this, why don't you untie my hands so I can help you unseal the hover car?"
The white-clothed youth's gaze settled on Luo Lang's body once more, filled with anticipation.
Luo Lang hesitated briefly — he saw the three other hover cars not too far off and an idea sparked. "No need to unseal this one. Aren't there three perfectly fine cars over there? If you don't mind, let one of them take me back!"
The white-clothed youth nodded at this and said "Don't mind, of course I don't mind! You can choose whichever of the three hover cars you like."
Luo Lang smiled, but did not point out which car he wanted. He carefully lifted Yong-guang, using him as a hostage to block his body, carefully retreating. When he was not too far away from the three hover cars, he jumped backwards abruptly, leaping to the side of one of the hover cars. Pulling the door open, he continued to keep Yong-guang as a shield before him as he slowly retreated into the car.Luo Lang sat down, and seeing the other side still standing where they were without moving a single step, he could not help but relax. It looked like they truly had no ill intent — his tightly clenched hand loosened.
Right then, Yong-guang, who had been docilely cooperative all this while, sensed the weakening of the grip around his neck. With a forceful twist of his body, he wrested free of Luo Lang's grasp, throwing himself bodily towards the ground ...
Luo Lang was greatly startled, but just as he was about to lean out of the car to reach out for the other, he suddenly heard an extremely soft mechanical click. At the same time, a beam of silver light flashed right in front of his eyes.
Luo Lang felt an unprecedented sense of danger coming right at him, and the muscles of his entire body tensed up. Many years of battle experience ensured he did not panic — with a sweep of his right leg, he kicked out at Yong-guang who was about to hit the floor, sending him flying into the air. Meanwhile, he used the rebound force of this kick to glide swiftly deeper into the hover car, trying to dodge that threatening silver light.
Quicker than words could say, despite Luo Lang's nimble reflexes, he still did not manage to overcome the speed of the silver light. Luo Lang did not manage to dodge cleanly. The silver beam grazed Luo Lang's right shoulder, drawing a streak of blood, which swiftly dyed Luo Lang's green uniform red.
Luo Lang ignored the wound on his arm — as he had glided into the hover car, he had hooked the car door with his right leg, shutting it, and Luo Lang then quickly pressed down the lock button from the inside, sealing the car. Other than the person inside, anyone outside who wanted to open the car would need to use brute force now.
After doing all this, Luo Lang calmly activated the A.I. of the hover car. Right now, he prayed that he would be able to successfully activate the hover car and escape from this place before the opponent managed to destroy the hover car. By now, no matter how dumb Luo Lang was, he still knew he had fallen into the opponent's trap. That white-clothed youth had been lying through his teeth, and was certainly not as pure and earnest as he had portrayed himself to be. Luo Lang secretly hated himself for being taken in so easily by the opponent, actually beginning to like the other. That was why he had become distracted at the end, wasting all his efforts thus far, getting injured by the other's underhanded methods.Luo Lang decided to remember this bloody lesson — next time, he definitely would not make such an idiotic mistake ever again ...
Outside the hover car, a youth dressed in a blue uniform, mostly shielded from view by the white-clothed youth, lowered his hands in frustration. In his hands was an extremely exquisite, well-crafted, pocket-sized crossbow, and that streak of silver light had been a pocket-sized bolt fired from the crossbow.
He pulled back the crossbow, frowning as he said, "Elder Brother Xi, what do we do now?" Who could have expected that Luo Lang would be able to react so quickly even when he had attacked so abruptly, actually managing to dodge ...
The white-uniformed youth glared broodily at the tightly locked hover car, and sniffed coldly. "What else can we do? Smash it! I don't believe he can escape my grasp."
He was standing at the fore, so he had seen very clearly. When the bolt had brushed by Luo Lang, some blood had been drawn, so the bolt must have injured Luo Lang. He believed that, based on the compound on the bolt, as long as the other was wounded, it would be enough to force the other to stay.
"Yes, Brother Xi!" Receiving their instructions, the others began to move swiftly. They all ran towards the other two hover cars, taking out the metal bats they had prepared from within the cars. The military academy kept a close watch on firearms, forbidding students from using those highly volatile and damaging weapons outside of their classes. Thus, students would always use this type of metal bats in their personal scuffles.
Seated inside the hover car, Luo Lang watched nervously as the A.I. booted up. He could already sense those people outside surrounding this hover car. Very soon, the clanging sounds of impact rang out from all sides of the hover car. Luo Lang knew the opponent was trying to break the hover car by force, trying to keep him behind.
Time was tight — Luo Lang was so nervous his forehead was sweating. His eyes were locked onto the screen of the optical supercomputer; with all his attention focused on the screen, he neglected the trace of numbness that had appeared in his own right arm.
When the supercomputer finally displayed the notification to enter his intended destination, Luo Lang was overjoyed. As long as he managed to enter the address, he would be able to get the hover car to bring him away from this place ... he was just about to lift his hand to key in the information when he found that he could not move his right arm. His heart clenched in fear, but before he could investigate why, he felt his vision blur, his head becoming groggy and heavy.
Not good! Ultra-effective anaesthetics! Luo Lang naturally knew what was behind this. It went without question that that silver bolt which had injured him must have had ultra-effective anaesthetic smeared on it, otherwise he would not have presented with its effects so quickly.
Luo Lang unhesitatingly bit down on the tip of his tongue. Riding this violent jolt of pain, he collected his quickly dissipating consciousness. He had to key in the address he needed to get to in these final moments of awareness.
His right arm was already completely numb, so Luo Lang gritted his teeth, using momentous effort to raise his limp and weak left hand. He began to key in the address of his dorm, and then pressed the button to confirm. When he saw the A.I. display the following message — Destination: XXXXX; please press 'YES' to confirm, press 'NO' to cancel — Luo Lang used almost all his strength to press down firmly on the 'YES' button, and then he fainted dead away.
********
In the virtual world, Little Four was displaying every digital footprint Luo Lang had left after leaving the training hall one by one before Ling Lan.
16:09, Luo Lang received a message from the treatment centre. Contents as below: Cadet Luo Lang, please present yourself at the Medical Treatment Research Centre this afternoon at 17:00 hours for a final follow-up examination. —— Main Service Counter of the Treatment Centre.
16:15, Luo Lang rode a hover car to the Medical Research Centre.
16:52, Luo Lang appeared at the entrance of the Medical Research Centre and met up with someone in a blue uniform.
16:58, Luo Lang went off with the blue-clothed person in a hover car; search for destination in progress ...
At this point, Ling Lan's eyebrows were tightly knitted. "Which goes to say that we still can't find where Luo Lang is now?"
"The hover car has been modified by a hacker. The destination keyed into it has not been recorded into the mainframe databank. For me to find out now, I need to find that hover car which Luo Lang took from all the surveillance footage. This is a little harder and will take more time." With regards to professional questions, Little Four's answers were meticulous.
"Alright, Little Four, take your time." Although Ling Lan was rather anxious, she did not want to show it and give Little Four too much pressure.
Not too long after, Little Four chimed in again. "Lu Yong-guang, 3rd year elite student from the hacker specialization ..." Little Four had discovered the identity of that blue-uniformed person with Luo Lang.
"Is he involved with any faction or group?" asked Ling Lan spiritedly.
"According to the data in the mainframe, he had joined the Tianji Mecha Clan." Little Four very quickly gave her an answer. The military academy mainframe which all hackers found so difficult to penetrate was just like his personal backyard in Little Four's eyes. He could come and go as he pleased, and the information inside it was as if part of his home, free for him to take as he willed.
"Tianji?" Ling Lan's brow furrowed at these words. Ever since Leiting Mecha Clan had lost in the wagered fight, the various factions had toned down significantly. They were afraid they would accidentally offend Leiting, giving Leiting some excuse to vent their anger on them instead. If this matter was really initiated by Tianji, why had they chosen to act during this sensitive period? Could they be trying to take advantage of the instability to knock down Leiting and become the number one faction themselves? Or was this perhaps a setup by some other faction, trying to pit the New Cadet Regiment against Tianji? So that faction could then benefit as the external third party as the two clashed and weakened each other?
There were countless suppositions in Ling Lan's mind. Although she could not be sure whether Tianji was the real culprit, she would not let the other go, so she asked, "Little Four, without affecting the search for Luo Lang, can you take control of all the surveillance equipment inside the Tianji headquarters?"
Little Four replied without skipping a beat, "Piece of cake. Leave it to me!" He had barely finished speaking when an additional window had appeared before Ling Lan's eyes. There was a garden, a living room, other rooms, and also various passages and corridors. Ling Lan knew that this was most likely the inside of the Tianji Mecha Clan headquarters. As expected, when it came to any surveillance equipment being used in this era, Little Four really had no difficulty at all infiltrating it.
Not every faction had a headquarters — only the organisations which ranked within the top four of the school ranking had this honour. The military academy would allocate official venues of different sizes to the groups according to their ranking to become their headquarters. Therefore, every year, the various factions would be embroiled in a brutal competition in order to win one of these four spots on the ranking.
The Tianji Mecha Clan was the second major faction within the military academy, so the headquarters given to them was considerably huge. All the safety and security measures were done up extremely well, and from the video feed, Ling Lan could even see some patrols passing by every so often.
However, Ling Lan was only perusing it cursorily — her main priority was still in waiting for Little Four to come up with his final tracking results.
Time passed bit by bit. Not too long after, Han Jijyun and Lin Zhong-qin too had ended their physical training classes and returned. When they heard the news, Han Jijyun asked Xie Yi to contact Wu Jiong. They waited patiently in the living room, waiting for Ling Lan to exit from the virtual world.
As the skies grew darker and darker, they began to become a little restless. Boss Lan had not logged off after so long — did this mean that he had not found anything useful in the virtual world?
Xie Yi was the first to lose his patience — after all, Luo Lang had last been with him. If he had only been more alert back then and cautioned Luo Lang, perhaps this kind of thing would not have happened. Filled with remorse, he suggested whether they should mobilise the New Cadet Regiment, sending everyone out to look for Luo Lang together.
Wu Jiong was rather stirred by the suggestion — after all, he felt unsettled just sitting here doing nothing.
