Chapter 724
Chapter 724
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 724
>Chapter Title: Car
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"This car must be expensive, right?" Li Huowang ran his hand along the red leather trim beside him and asked Qingwanglai, who was seated in the driver's seat.
The car sped along, the engine's hum dipping low and rising high by turns. Though he didn't know much about cars, just from the sound and the shape of the hood, he could tell it was the kind his family couldn't afford.
Just then, Yang Na glanced in surprise at the price she'd just searched up on her phone. She leaned over and whispered it into Li Huowang's ear.
After hearing the price from his girlfriend, Li Huowang slowly withdrew his hand from the leather.
Seeing the guy's frugal cafeteria lunches at school, he really hadn't pegged him as this loaded.
"Expensive or cheap, what does it matter? It's all just a projection anyway. What I really want to know is whose projection this car is."
Seeing Qingwanglai start in again on his worldview spiel, Li Huowang changed the subject. "Where are we headed now? What's the exact spot?"
"Orange Isle." As Qingwanglai's fingers tapped rapidly on the screen, a soothing piano melody began to fill the cabin.
"Orange Isle? Why there of all places?" Compared to the long-hospitalized Li Huowang, Yang Na clearly knew more details. "I heard all those river-view apartments there stalled out over debts. No one's around there at night."
"That's exactly why—no people means no loose lips. Oh, and turn off your phones so no one can track us. I'm still not sure whose projection our electronics are."
Li Huowang pulled out his phone, sent Sun Xiaoqin a quick I'm-safe message, and held down the power button.
As the shutdown jingle played, Li Huowang eyed Qingwanglai's dimly lit profile under the passing neon lights. "Can you tell us now who these people we're meeting are?"
"Since they're on our side, they must buy into that global projection hypothesis you mentioned, just like you?"
"No. Not the same." Qingwanglai shook his head. "Let me start from the beginning. Our world is a mapping of some existence—not just I know this, others do too, including you."
Hearing this, Li Huowang perked up. This was good for him—the more allies like this, the better his odds against those things.
"I've sought them out specifically, but they're rare. Most aren't all there mentally, and due to superstition or low education, they don't grasp the truth of this world. They're stubborn, spinning their own worldviews to explain the unexplainable."
"I once gathered them, categorized them uniformly, and ran all sorts of tests and experiments on them."
"Experiments?"
"Yeah. Once I collect enough hard evidence, I'll decide whether to publish—proving the full-universe projection hypothesis."
"You've already got hard evidence? Then you have to publish! What a monumental discovery—you'll go down in history. Can I see it?" Yang Na sounded shocked at this.
Qingwanglai glanced at Yang Na in the rearview mirror. "It's not that simple. Know the observer effect? I spotted it in my thirty-first experiment and the fifty-second control run."
"Before we fully understand it, this is like Pandora's box. If we spread it and seven billion people worldwide trigger the observer effect, who knows what happens?"
"If something goes wrong, we might not even have projections left."
"Ahem." Li Huowang cleared his throat to cut them off. "Qingwanglai, you're off-topic. I asked who these people are that we're meeting tonight."
Qingwanglai thought for a moment before answering. "They're friends, on our side. Since you can sense them, you're on our side too. Since they're threatening you and Qian Fu, I got them to help out—figure out this mess together."
"How many of these friends do you have?"
"I rounded up thirteen for now. Five refused or couldn't communicate, so eight total—including you."
"What do you know about the ones who tried to kidnap me?"
"Not much more than you. I asked them specifically when I got back. Some sensed something off too, but no major impact yet. Anything else I missed?"
"Nope." Li Huowang shut his mouth and started reckoning in his head: himself, Qian Fu, Chen Hongyu, Qingwanglai—that was four. So four more coming tonight.
He had no idea how much these unseen four could help. Without knowing who exactly wanted him kidnapped, it was hard to say. For now, he'd have to play it by ear.
The car fell quiet. None of the three spoke, each lost in their own thoughts.
Gradually, the lights outside dimmed. Qingwanglai's car entered Orange Isle, which looked deserted. The infrastructure seemed only half-built.
No traffic lights worked at the intersections, and his was the only car on the road.
In the distance, the rows of unfinished townhouses looked like a field of graves.
Compared to the bustling area they'd just left, this felt like an abandoned graveyard, overgrown with weeds everywhere.
Yang Na, looking worried, hugged herself and rubbed her goosebumped arms.
Li Huowang pulled her into his arms and said to Qingwanglai, "Crank the AC up. It's getting chilly."
"Got it." Just as Qingwanglai agreed, Li Huowang's instincts flared. He whipped his head toward the pitch-black intersection to the left. "Ambush!!"
The words were barely out when a plateless truck with no lights on barreled out from that intersection and slammed into them.
The instant Li Huowang instinctively pinned Yang Na beneath him, a screeching of brakes rang out, and the whole car started tumbling violently.
Amid the brutal impacts, Li Huowang felt pain everywhere, but he couldn't let his guard down. The intense danger sharpened his focus to a razor's edge.
As things stabilized slightly, he yanked at the door—it wouldn't budge. Pinned by the seat, he gritted his teeth, reared back his head, and smashed it into the window. "Bang!"
"Bang bang bang!!" After several hits, blood trickled down through the cracks in the glass.
Through the blood-red glass, Li Huowang spotted two men climbing down from the truck parked at the roadside. They were carrying long weapons!
>(End of chapter)