Chapter 573: That Friend over There (Happy New Year＼/Please Vote for the Big Chapter)

15 Vicente Street.

This is an abandoned industrial building.

He Ao got out of the taxi, said goodbye to the driver, and stared at the building.

Most of the doors and windows of the building have been broken, only a few of the surrounding buildings are still shining, and even the street lights on the roadside have been broken.

He had just searched and found that this area was included in the planning of the Wetland New Industrial Zone and was to be demolished. Most of the surrounding businesses and residents had already moved out.

He Ao did not enter the abandoned industrial building directly, but raised his bracelet and took a look.

The signal scale of the bracelet is displayed as ‘x’.

There is no signal here.

Theoretically, there is no place without signal inside the fortress city.

In a federation that relies heavily on intelligence and automation, communication consortiums have covered almost every location with signal transmitters. Where there is no signal, unmanned buses and unmanned taxis cannot be used, and various smart robots will also stop working.

Even in some chaotic slums, such as the Zarot area where waste pickers live, there are few automated machines and few smart devices, but there, the communication consortium has maintained the weakest signal coverage.

Of course, this is not because the Communications Foundation has so much good intentions that it will lose money on charity.

Even if there are fewer, the Zarot area still has communication with the outside world, including communication with cleaning companies, including the use of partially intelligent machinery.

In order to recover costs, communication service fees in the Zarot area are much higher than in other areas.

If there are few users, they rely on increasing the unit price to make profits.

Therefore, people in the Zarot area use the worst network and pay the highest communication service fees in the entire Vitland.

Of course, this is naturally an achievement worthy of the Communications Consortium Alliance. They can confidently claim that they have laid the communications network to every corner of the fortress city, so that users can use their services with confidence.

He Ao put down his bracelet and looked at the abandoned building in front of him.

The location here is not remote. Even if it is a demolition area, the area is not large. Even if all the surrounding signal base stations have been demolished, weak signals can still be spread from nearby base stations.

Therefore, the reason why there is no signal can only be that someone has used signal shielding equipment nearby.

He Ao took out the bone ax and wooden box wrapped in a cloth cover.

Then he took out the super-strong rope he bought near Witland University after leaving home, tied it into two nooses, tied the bone ax and the wooden box respectively, and carried them behind his back.

This kind of rope is made of some kind of strong fiber and is very tough. It can withstand hundreds of kilograms of bone ax without any problem.

He Ao tried it, and the bone ax and wooden box could be easily released from the noose, and then he completely tied the rope to his body.

After freeing his hands, he looked around the abandoned industrial building again.

It was now past midnight, and the surrounding area was pitch black. Especially when there was a brightly lit business district not far away, this area seemed even darker.

But this did not affect He Ao's vision. He turned on his super memory and quickly glanced around.

Soon, he discovered some detailed clues.

At the entrance of the building, there are many flat incisions on the broken windows and cement walls, as if cut by extremely thin blades.

This is the damage caused by Haixi's silk weapon.

This proves that Haixi was here just now, fighting someone.

Deep in the first floor of the building, a few drops of blood were dripping on the ground. It didn't last long. This battle happened not long ago.

It took about thirteen minutes for He Ao to take an express taxi. Including the two minutes of waiting, it only took fifteen minutes in total from Haixifa's location to He Ao's arrival.

The blood on the ground has not dried yet, and the battle happened almost ten minutes ago.

In other words, Haixi encountered some kind of fierce battle before and after sending the address to He Ao. She didn't know whether the blood on the ground belonged to her or the person who attacked her.

He Ao turned off Super Memory and walked into the building step by step.

The surrounding night was eerily silent.

This abandoned industrial building itself is relatively close to the North Wetland District, and Ho Ao was walking from the North Wetland District to the Plant District from the beginning, so after receiving Heishi's address, he didn't arrive in time. not long.

But in ten minutes, for the powerful transcendent, some battles can be ended.

After entering the building, more details were presented to He Ao.

There were many footprints at the entrance of the building. It seemed that many people ran into the building, but the total number of people should not exceed ten.

Moreover, these footprints are very messy, which proves that they are not professional mercenaries with strict discipline like those He Ao encountered before. Even if they are professional, the degree of professionalism is not high.

He Ao lowered his head and stared at these footprints.

Most of the footprints were leather shoe soles, and they were very wide, and looked like they came from some tall man.

And between these wide footprints, there is also a very light, slender little footprint with steady steps.

This should be Haixi's footprints. Haixi's feet are not big and are about 230 mm long, so they can be easily distinguished.

Compared to other chaotic footprints, her footprints were clearly organized, which proved that at least when she arrived at this shopping mall, her mood was relatively stable.

Judging from the mixed proximity of these footprints, Haixi and the owners of those chaotic footprints should be together. They are a team.

These footprints extend all the way to the depths of the lobby on the first floor of the building. They seem to be avoiding something.

He Ao turned around and looked behind him.

There was nothing on the ground behind him, it was so clean that nothing seemed to have walked on it.

He thought for a moment and activated super memory.

From Super Memory's perspective, some small areas on the ground behind were revealed that were different from other places.

Those were the footprints of a person, so light that they seemed to leave no traces.

These footprints were not coherent, and some had been buried by the dust blown by the night wind. Even relying on super memory, He Ao could only barely distinguish that there might be a footprint in front of a certain area.

This man's movements were as light as the wind.

Different from the panic of Haixi and others, this man's steps had obvious regularity, which proved that he was not in a hurry and was chasing Haixi and others leisurely.

This is a combat-oriented transcendent, at least C-level.

He Ao withdrew his gaze and continued to move forward.

Signal shielding devices were installed around the building. This was obviously to prevent Haixi from contacting the outside world. It seemed that the other party deliberately 'drove' Haixi and others to this area.

The footprints along the way became increasingly chaotic.

Then He Ao found the first body behind a simple partition wall with only half of it left.

It was a tall, bodyguard-looking man in a black suit. An extremely small wound pierced his heart, killing him with one blow.

Seeing that his footprints were not the same as those of the large army, he should have been completely panicked and wanted to escape from the other side, but he was killed first because he was alone.

The opponent's attack was ruthless, leaving no chance of life, and did not even let the blood splash out of the area covered by the half wall.

A few steps further past the body, we arrived at the place where the blood dripping that He Ao had just seen outside.

There was a dull white light in these bloodstains, surrounded by the footprints of Haixi and the strong man chasing them.

It seems that they had a fight here. Haixi's metal wire can attack from a distance, but the footprints of the two are so close, so they must have been approached by the strong man.

It seemed that the strong man was holding some kind of close-quarters weapon like a rapier.

In the close state, the long-range advantage of Hexi's wire cannot be brought into play. Instead, the attack moves will be restricted due to space limitations.

He Ao looked at these footprints and the traces left by the surrounding metal wires, simulating the scene of the two fighting in his mind.

Haixi originally planned to hinder the strong man from approaching remotely, so she controlled the metal wire to attack remotely, but her attacks were easily dodged by the strong man.

There are no traces similar to those left by a rapier around, which proves that the opponent can easily cope with Haixi's attack and close the distance with Haixi.

He Ao stood on the last footprints left by the two of them, thinking about what they had just done.

In this extremely short hand-to-hand battle, the strong man closed the distance and stabbed Haixi's left heart with his sword, but Haixi dodged it. In the end, the sword light cut through Haixi's left upper arm, drawing blood. Sputtering out and dripping to the ground.

He Ao looked at the blood stains on the ground. The shape and direction of the blood stains were exactly as he expected.

His simulation was completed in a very short time. He almost finished all the battles in his mind within a few seconds of stopping in front of the blood stains.

Then he raised his head and looked at the footprints in front of him. Those messy footprints gathered together, distanced themselves from Haixi's footprints, and ran towards the depths of the building.

It seemed that Haixi was trying to cover these people and took the initiative to delay for them.

He Ao continued to follow the footprints, which turned into the deepest part of the building. Here, He Ao saw more blood stains and traces of the struggle between Hai Xi and the strong man.

It seemed that Haixi's condition was not good. She did not get rid of the strong man easily. She kept fighting and retreating, and she suffered more and more injuries.

The strong man didn't seem to want to kill her, but was constantly consuming her power.

Finally, the trembling steps came to an abrupt end at the abandoned fire stairwell.

He Ao walked to the top of the stairs, squatted down slightly, and picked up a black, crushed object from the ground.

This is a bracelet, a broken bracelet.

The inside of the bracelet is completely damaged and cannot be opened.

Judging from its shape, this is Hexi's bracelet.

There are a lot of scratches on the surrounding walls, the rusty steel handrails have been cut off, and broken steel fragments are scattered all over the stairs. Just looking at this ruin-like scene, you can imagine how tragic a tragedy happened here. fighting.

In the gaps between the stairwells, between the rusted steel, and in the walls cut open by rapiers, blood with a white glow was splashed everywhere.

In this battle, Haixi was seriously injured and paid a heavy price, but she finally got rid of the strong man's pursuit and escaped.

He Ao continued up the stairs and entered the second floor of the building.

The chaotic footprints covered by Haixi were running around in a panic.

On the second floor corridor, He Ao once again saw the body of a bodyguard in a black suit.

He knelt on the ground and leaned back against the wall.

There was a look of panic, fear, and pleading on his face.

A small wound pierced his skull.

It seemed that he wanted to surrender, but the strong man chasing and teasing them was not willing to accept his surrender.

He Ao continued to move forward and encountered several more corpses.

Most of them wanted to surrender, but their vital points were pierced by the strong man's sword.

At this point, He Ao has discovered that the strong man is not eager to kill Haixi, but is like a cat catching a mouse but not eating it immediately, playing with Haixi and the people around Haixi.

Little by little, it brings fear and despair to them.

But if the other party really had this kind of intention, Haixi would most likely still be alive.

She should be hiding somewhere now.

He Ao briefly activated his super memory and scanned all the surrounding space.

——

Huge cockroaches crawled across the old black eucalyptus boards.

A middle-aged man wearing a black suit and neatly styled hair huddled in the low, dark counter.

The bright moonlight shines through the broken windows onto the dirty floor of the old kitchen.

A figure blocked out the moonlight, casting a long shadow on the floor.

The shadow moved forward little by little, passing by the cabinet door where the two men were hiding.

The man held his breath and saw the dim shadow blocking the moonlight through the gap in the cabinet door, and his body trembled a little.

In front of him was a woman with short burgundy hair wearing a denim sportswear and a small jacket.

Most of her clothes were torn, and her white skin and hideous wounds were exposed to the silent night.

The man couldn't see clearly the woman's specific condition, but he knew that the woman was seriously injured. He stared at the woman tremblingly. He had no idea what to do at this moment.

The woman just put her index finger to her mouth to signal him to be quiet.

The shadow at the door slowly moved forward, and finally left the cabinet door completely.

The bright moonlight once again spread on the smooth floor.

The man stared at the bright light through the gap. He was still holding his breath nervously, for fear that the shadow would kill him with a counterattack.

One second, two seconds, three seconds.

There was no movement in the bright moonlight, as if the figure had finally gone away.

At this moment, the man finally breathed a long sigh of relief.

At this moment, a little dark shadow covered the upper part of the cabinet door from top to bottom.

The man was stunned and looked at the dark shadow.

It was a head hanging upside down, leaning in front of the cabinet door, its bloodshot eyes looking at the man through the gap in the cabinet door.

He noticed that the man was looking at him too.

He cracked the corners of his mouth, revealing a row of teeth that were white under the moonlight.

A biting chill climbed up the man's back, and an abyss-like fear filled his body.

Bang... Bang...

At this moment, a slow knock on the door slowly sounded.

Then, there was a gentle and gentle voice,

"That friend over there who is leaning on the cupboard and looking down, please don't stick your butt up too high, it's very unsightly."