Chapter 150: Hide and Seek

Everything was going according to plan.

CC, the password expert, quickly navigated the computer systems. Once he confirmed the actions, the checkpoint gates began to open slowly. The idle garbage trucks rumbled to life, lined up neatly, and rolled out of the gates.

“Quick, get in,” urged Lin Xian. He and CC squeezed under the dumping section of a garbage truck, heading towards Donghai City.

As they progressed, the garbage trucks veered off the planned route. Eventually, only two trucks continued towards the Time Bank.

Screech—

After about 20 minutes, their heavy truck came to a sudden stop. The force of the stop pushed Lin Xian and CC together. They peeked out; the truck ahead was stopped right at the bank’s entrance, theirs just behind. Above, the large sign reading “Time Bank” loomed, with some English beneath. The sign was off, unlike the other illuminated signs around, adding a neglected feel to the scene.

“We’re finally here,” Lin Xian sighed after their rough ride.

CC blinked, puzzled. “Wasn’t that smooth? It actually went really well.”

“It cost me countless lives to get here,” Lin Xian said with a dry laugh.

For CC, it was a straightforward task. But for Lin Xian, starting from the garbage dump, he had ‘died’ many times to finally reach this point.

They climbed out quietly and peeked from behind the truck towards the bank’s entrance. In front of them, several robots were busy moving aluminum alloy safes from a warehouse, loading them onto other trucks. A man, likely the supervisor, sat smoking nearby, his legs crossed.

“The gunfire would be too loud; it might draw the patrol mech dogs,” CC whispered, pulling out a tranquilizer dart from his pocket. “I’ll take care of him.”

“Okay, show me what you’ve got,” Lin Xian said, confident in CC’s abilities.

CC crouched and moved silently, sticking close to the walls as he approached the smoking man from behind.

“Mm—!” In a swift motion, CC covered the man’s mouth and nose and pressed the tranquilizer dart against his neck!

After about twenty or thirty seconds, the man’s body slackened. CC held him until he was completely unconscious, then gently laid him against the wall.

“No wonder this tranquilizer is so potent,” Lin Xian remarked as he joined CC.

In hospitals, surgical anesthesia, except for the inhaled type, usually takes time to take effect, and the dosage needs careful control. But with animal tranquilizers, high doses seemed to do the job quickly.

“Let’s go,” said Lin Xian.

They sneaked past the robots loading the safes and entered the bank’s warehouse. Since the bank had been bankrupt for some time, most valuable items had already been removed. After today, the remaining safes were essentially unclaimed.Thê source of this content n/o/v/(el)bi((n))

The robots, lacking an alarm system, automatically avoided obstacles and people, showing advanced user-friendliness. They quickly reached the area filled with safes.

“Long time no see,” Lin Xian murmured, looking at the gleaming safes. He felt nostalgic; he had dealt with these daily in his first dream. Today, he had come full circle.

Originally, these safes were embedded in the walls, but now they lay scattered on the floor. They made their way to the back of the warehouse, and soon, they found the safe labeled with Lin Xian’s name.

“This is it!” CC exclaimed, crouching to work on the combination lock.

Click.

Click.

“If Time Bank was founded in 2023... when did I store things in the safe and set the password?”

Lin Xian wasn’t sure if he was one of Time Bank’s first customers, but it was a possibility. Lin Xian had searched the internet before but found no information about Time Bank.

That means maybe in the coming months, Time Bank will be established no later than New Year’s Day 2024.

“This might be the link that connects 600 years of time!”

Lin Xian had always wondered if there was a way to hide something from 600 years ago and retrieve it 600 years later. But in the first dream and real life, there were no common coordinates, no corresponding places. Even if he buried something, it would be in vain. The second dream was even more different from the real Donghai.

But now it was different.

As long as Time Bank was founded in 2023, he could open a safe there, easily transporting items from 600 years ago to 600 years later! Though he couldn’t think of anything that would be useful after 600 years, having a link was better than none.

“If only there was a way to send something from 600 years in the future back 600 years, but... time doesn’t flow backward.”

Lin Xian leaned against a dusty metal cabinet, pondering his next steps.

For now, the safe couldn’t be opened. But Lin Xian didn’t mind.

One, Time Bank would be founded soon, and the answer would be revealed. Two, if his future self didn’t want his present self to open the safe, there must be a good reason. Lin Xian believed his future self wouldn’t deceive himself; he must have a purpose, so he deliberately set an unbreakable password.

“So, I’ll put the safe aside for now and patiently wait for Time Bank to be established in 2023.”

“The focus now is on the cat-and-mouse game Yellow Finch mentioned and the Genius Club invitation.”

These two things. One was a crisis he faced, the other was the key to solving all mysteries. Both were equally important. But both were also without any leads, not knowing where to go or what to do next.

Clearly, Yellow Finch knew all the answers. She spoke with certainty but chose to be cryptic.

Of the two, Lin Xian was more concerned about the cat-and-mouse game. A cat-and-mouse game, essentially, is hide-and-seek. Since Yellow Finch gave him this hint, it meant he was about to, or already, fall into some danger.

Lin Xian was somewhat aware of this.

If the cat referred to the person who killed Xu Yun, they could easily trace the “interest relationship” between him and Xu Yun. Although these interests didn’t directly prove anything, they indicated some undisclosed secrets between them. Those secrets might be what the killers cared about most.

Fortunately, Xu Yun had destroyed the manuscript he gave Lin Xian, so the killers shouldn’t find direct evidence of his research assistance. But that wouldn’t stop them from suspecting him.

Why did they kill Xu Yun? Unknown.

Would they kill him at 00:42 too? Uncertain.

“But at least one thing is certain,” Lin Xian thought, looking out the window at the robots loading safes onto the garbage trucks. He recalled the hide-and-seek games he played with friends in the residential complex as a child. “Since it’s hide-and-seek, they’ll come out to find me, right? They’ll have some contact with me?”

He closed his eyes, recalling the people who had recently appeared around him, either actively or passively.

“Who could it be?”

This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation