Kisaragi Station || Apocalypse Paradise #3

226: That Fella

Reno and Rena turned around and looked doubtfully at the dim light from the tunnel's end in the direction Lin Sanjiu had pointed.

"Someone? But I don't see anyone," Rena said, though she had already put on her gloves and was gripping her two fists tightly in front of her while she stretched her neck to look as far as she could. Similarly, Reno switched between looking at Lin Sanjiu and ahead of them. Once they stopped, the tunnel fell into a still silence once more. They couldn't even hear a breeze. It seemed as though there wasn't anyone hiding in the darkness.

The spot Lin Sanjiu pointed to was 600 meters away from them. Furthermore, the few people weren't moving as they intentionally hid their presence, so it was hard for Reno and Rena to detect them. However, this was too troublesome to explain. After she thought for a while, she quickly wrote: YOU GUYS CAN SHOUT. WHO'S THERE.

Reno acted immediately; once he read Lin Sanjiu's words, he raised his voice and yelled, "Who's there? Why are you acting sneakily? You better come out now!" The teenager's loud voice, with a slightly threatening tone, reverberated through the tunnel for some time. However, after he shouted a few times and the echoes in the tunnel faded, the people hiding ahead did not respond.

"Bro, if they don't want to come, let's do it!" A young girl's voice immediately followed, "Don't you still have a few of your Ripple Spheres?"

Her words were effective. Once Rena said the words 'Ripple Sphere,' they immediately heard a few distant, vague shouts coming from a distance. The people were too far from them, so they couldn't really make out what was said, except something like 'wait.' Reno and Rena held their breaths and straightened their backs, hiding Lin Sanjiu, who was behind them, from view. They watched cautiously as three black figures emerged from the faint light at the end of the tunnel and slowly walked towards them.

The black figures grew larger until they were far from Lin Sanjiu and the siblings. Both parties were now visible to each other. The strangers stopped, keeping a safe distance between themselves and the siblings, somehow showing some etiquette.

Reno and Rena blocked Lin Sanjiu from view, so she simply sat on the train tracks and peeked from behind them through the gap between the siblings. From a glance, Lin Sanjiu could tell that the three people were definitely from the Twelve Worlds Centrum. People who struggle desperately to survive from other apocalyptic worlds certainly didn't have the mood to dress that well.

The tall woman that Lin Sanjiu saw wore deep red, glossy lipstick on her plump, moist lips. It seemed well-applied and fresh. With quite a good figure in those high-heeled leather boots, the woman probably reapplied her makeup often. Standing beside a little person (LP) accentuated her height.

The LP man was short and tubby. He was wearing a small tailcoat. Despite his dwarfish proportions, he had a cheerful, amiable face that was hard to hate. When Lin Sanjiu looked at him, he blinked his eyes, which seemed too large for his face, and introduced his party with a friendly smile, "I'm Derik. This is Miss Hannie Huang. That is brother Zhu Mingchun."

The man called Zhu Mingchun had a very average appearance. Nothing was notable about it except for the muscular frame and his dull expression. His eyes had not blinked since the two parties met.

Before the siblings could react, Derik gave a modest and gentle bow. Then, he apologized to the siblings, "We heard some sounds from the tunnel before. Not knowing if you guys were friends or foes, we hid. We made enemies in this world, so we must be careful. That was why when you guys tried to call us out, we hesitated."

Derik seemed to be tasked with representing his team.

Even though he sounded reasonable, the siblings couldn't help feeling suspicious of their previous actions. The siblings might be young and energetic, but they were not so naive that they would trust these people so easily.

Reno raised his chin and replied cautiously, "Why were you guys hiding?"

"Sigh. I will tell you the truth since both of you are from Twelve Worlds Centrum." Though Derik looked unsophisticated, he sounded very cultured. Even though he was speaking to the two minors, he politely said, "We got information that an item we wanted could be found in this place. Our enemies who are looking for the same item also got the news. To avoid being ambushed by our enemies, we had to be vigilant..."

Once he said that, the tall woman, Hannie Huang, opened her mouth and spoke brashly, "You guys have Ripple Spheres? State your price. We need some right now." Lin Sanjiu immediately understood why Derik had to be the spokesperson for their team.

The explosives that Reno used to blast the building were called Ripple Spheres. Since he had thrown a chain of those explosives, Lin Sanjiu did not know if he still had any. Reno glanced at Hannie and folded his arms, "We're not selling."

Derik quickly mediated the situation, "Miss Huang, you're too rash... We are all from Twelve Worlds Centrum, so we sort of share a similar hometown. I wonder where you two might be heading?"

Even though Derik maintained the same decorum, Reno and Rena could easily sense the 'I hope you two leave quickly' vibe from the man. The situation suddenly got awkward. It wasn't as if the siblings didn't want to leave, but they couldn't move now. If they moved, Lin Sanjiu would be seen. Just when the two kids exchanged hesitant glances at each other, Lin Sanjiu simply stood up and walked out from behind them.

Zhu Mingchun was alarmed seeing a horrifying creature emerge from the darkness. While the other two people beside him gasped softly, he was the first to react. With a yell, he leaped forward. From the looks of it, he was also a fighter-type combatant. Zhu Mingchun's movements were very quick. In just a split second, like a fleeting shadow, he bypassed the siblings and aimed his kick at Lin Sanjiu before the siblings could react.

However, Lin Sanjiu, well-versed in physically fighting herself, didn't think much of his attack. How could the agility of a physical body compare to her Higher Consciousness form? In her current form, all movements created from any physical body seemed somewhat sluggish to her. With a slight jump, she avoided the man's kick. As she fell, she condensed the Higher Consciousness of her leg bones, making them tangible. Then, she landed a kick on the man's knee. Zhu Mingchuan immediately let out a painful cry.

At the same time, Reno and Rena finally reacted to the situation. As Rena stepped forward to block Zhu Mingchuan, Reno said angrily, "What are you trying to do with our teammate?"

The three people in front of them were shocked. Derik and Hannie exchanged glances before Derik stammered, "Isn't that... Isn't that a duoluozhong? How could..."

It wasn't all that surprising how Lin Sanjiu was misidentified. The incident was not a big deal, but Lin Sanjiu could shake off the feeling that the Hannie woman had been trying to size her up. This wasn't unusual since something like Lin Sanjiu was a rare sight. However, Hannie seemed to concentrate on only one part of Lin Sanjiu. As Lin Sanjiu faced the three people directly, she spotted Hannie taking two steps to the side and tilting her head as if trying to see Lin Sanjiu's back.

Lin Sanjiu's back only consisted of two kidneys and some mucous membrane; there wasn't anything interesting about it. Suspicious, Lin Sanjiu shifted her position. As Hannie didn't want to appear too conspicuous, she had no choice but to give up on seeing Lin Sanjiu's back.

"Oh, is that so? What a rare ability!" Derik did not doubt the siblings' words, "But it is easy to make such faux pas in a place like Kisaragi Station. It pays to be careful..." After his superficial comment, Derik hesitated momentarily before saying almost apologetically, "I think you guys and that fella must be quite powerful," he pointed at Lin Sanjiu. It was probably inconceivable to him that a woman would look like that. "Since you got the upper hand fighting against Brother Zhu, may I be so bold to ask a favor..."

"Could I invite you three to join our operations to fight against our enemies? They have more men and are more well-equipped." Derik clenched his teeth for a second. "We heard that there are quite a number of Special Items around here. With only the three of us, we can't get all of them. Once everything is settled, we can give you 30% of the stash."