Ye Qi and Chu Huaying's private room was right next to the bed, and through the floor-to-ceiling windows, they could clearly see the crowd in the square.
Chu Huaying pondered the prompt in the floating window, then frowned and said, "The mission requires us to find all the Hunters. Xiao Lou was the first, so there are obviously others. Could it be that the other teammates have also been replaced by Hunters?"
Ye Qi strongly agreed: "I also think this is very likely. Sister Ying, have you seen any of your other teammates?"
Chu Huaying shook her head: "When I woke up, I was on the bridge where the accident happened. I was driving and almost got hit by a truck. After dodging the truck, I immediately came to this Western Restaurant to wait for someone. I didn't contact my other teammates on the way."
Ye Qi briefly recounted his experience after arriving at the secret room: "After waking up, I first called CEO Shao, then went to the Medical University next door to find Liu Qiao, and then went to Jiangzhou City at noon." Criminal Police Detachment found Captain Yu, and in the afternoon they ran into Professor Xiao. Apart from Professor Xiao, who was actually Hunter in disguise, the other three didn't recognize me, and they didn't seem to be acting.
Chu Huaying raised an eyebrow: "You don't recognize me? Have you lost your memory?"
"It shouldn't be amnesia." Ye Qi analyzed seriously, "I guess CEO Shao, Liu Qiao and Captain Yu are not Hunter. We are more likely to have encountered them from the past. Their memories are stuck in the world of December 24th. At that time, the three of them had not seen me, so it is normal that they did not recognize me. Sister Ying, you are a real person who traveled to the world of December 24th, so you can recognize me."
After listening to his tongue-twisting analysis for a long time, Chu Huaying finally understood: "In other words, the current time in this world is December 24th. Logically speaking, everyone hadn't been pulled into Card World yet, hadn't met, and naturally wouldn't know each other. Those who could know each other are either teammates who traveled into this secret room, or they were replaced by Hunter — Hunter knows our information."
Ye Qi nodded vigorously: "That's right, that's what I think too."
Chu Huaying stood up and said, "That makes things easier. Apart from CEO Shao, Liu Qiao, and Captain Yu, we can eliminate the rest of our teammates one by one. Those who recognize us but can't match the code are most likely Hunters in disguise. The mission objective in our world is to find all the Hunters. So far, your idea seems quite reliable."
Ye Qi was very happy to receive the approval. He glanced at Xiao Lou, who had been knocked unconscious with a karate chop across from him, scratched his head in distress, and asked, " Professor Xiao, what should we do?"
Chu Huaying said coldly, " Hunters might have their own ways of communicating. If we take him with us, he could call his companions to ambush us at any time..." She frowned and thought for a moment, then made a suggestion: "How about this, let's find a place to lock him up first, take all the cards from him, and after we find all the Hunters, we can think carefully about how to deal with them."
Ye Qi nodded and said, "Let's check if he has any cards on him first."
Chu Huaying supported Xiao Lou with one hand, and with the other, she felt in his pants pocket, finding a familiar card holder. She took it out and placed it on the table. Ye Qi opened it and his eyes widened in shock—
Tao Yuanming, Bai Juyi, Li Qingzhao, Character Card, Qin Guan, Historical Figure Summon, Tea Saint, Historical Figure Summon...
The uniquely styled ancient-style character cards are neatly arranged in the card holder. In addition, there are the [Swift Wind] running shoes given to him by Captain Yu, the S-level tool card [ Compass ] drawn early on, and some unused low-level cards such as [ Fruit Knife ] and [ Rose Perfume ].
Chu Huaying was stunned when she saw these cards: "Isn't this Professor Xiao's card holder?"
Ye Qi's expression was complicated: "That's right, Professor Xiao has a habit of putting [ Tao Yuanming ] and [ Bai Juyi ] on the first page. Many of his character cards are unique. This must be Professor Xiao's card holder... But why would Hunter be holding Professor Xiao's card holder?"
He paused, then suddenly felt a chill run down his spine: "Could something have happened to Professor Xiao?!"
I remember Xiao Lou and Captain Yu previously analyzed that the Hunter's cards most likely originated from stealing the Challenger's cards after killing them. Now, Xiao Lou's cards are on this "fake Xiao Lou," could it be that the real Xiao Lou has already been...?
Chu Huaying interrupted Ye Qi's thoughts: "Impossible. Don't forget that Xiao Lou is currently the owner of the contract book and is our captain. Once he dies, the ownership of the contract book will automatically transfer to the second person who signed it, and the pop-up window will also tell us that the captain has changed."
Ye Qi was taken aback, and couldn't help but wonder: " How does Sister Ying know all this?"
A flicker of pain flashed in Chu Huaying's eyes, but she quickly calmed down and said, "Our captain has changed. At first, our captain wasn't Ninth Brother, but a very prestigious senior. Unfortunately, she sacrificed herself in the Spade 10 level, and the captain was automatically handed over to Ninth Brother. At that time, everyone received a system notification that the captain had been changed."
So that's how it is.
Ye Qi fell silent and didn't ask for any more details. However, according to Sister Ying, the real Xiao Lou must still be alive, otherwise the contract book would have been transferred to Yu Hanjiang, who signed it second.
Chu Huaying said, " Xiao Lou's card holder is in this Hunter's hands. Luckily, we were careful enough, otherwise, if he had used his card skill just now, we might be dead."
Ye Qi suddenly realized a detail: "Assuming this world only has you and me as teammates, and Hunter knows the number of Challengers in this world, the moment he saw you, he would definitely have used his card to forcibly control us. But he didn't, which means this world definitely..."
"And there are other teammates—is he planning to wait until everyone shows up before wiping us out all at once?"
Chu Huaying looked at Ye Qi approvingly: "That makes sense. He didn't kill us directly because he didn't want to alert the enemy. He wanted to lure everyone out before making his move. It's very likely that Hunter's mission in this world is to eliminate us all."
After discussing it for a while, the two finally determined their next course of action.
Chu Huaying said, "I haven't been in your team for long. I'm not familiar with Long Sen, Qu Wanyue, and Lao Mo, but I know where Old Gui and Xiao Tang live. You can go find them first."
"Brother Long is a coach at the sports school, Sister Qu works at the largest dance training center in Jiangzhou, and Uncle Mo seems to have opened an independent design studio called…" Ye Qi paused, then quickly remembered the name of the studio that Old Mo had mentioned in real life, "Xinran Design. His daughter's name is Mo Xinran, and she is a student at No. 7 Middle School."
"Okay, one at a time."
"Uh, it seems like Ninth Brother is missing, right?" Ye Qi remembered that Sister Huaying hadn't mentioned Ninth Brother.
" Lu Jiuchuan died unexpectedly during a mission three years ago. Now, we are in the world of December 24th, a year ago. If you want to find Brother Jiu, you can only go to the Martyrs' Cemetery to pay your respects." Chu Huaying explained calmly, "Once he appears in front of us, there is no doubt that the resurrected Lu Jiuchuan is Hunter."
"..." Ye Qi blushed, almost forgetting this crucial point: Ninth Brother's sacrifice occurred long before the current timeline, so it was absolutely impossible for Lu Jiuchuan to exist in this world.
"Let's go, let's hurry." Hua Ying's physical abilities had been enhanced by Card, allowing her to easily snap a person's neck. Her arms looked slender, yet she could lift Xiao Lou with one hand and drag a man over 1.8 meters tall along without any apparent effort.
Ye Qi covered Xiao Lou's bound hands with a coat, and the two led Xiao Lou to the underground parking garage, where they found the car Chu Huaying had driven. The right passenger side of the black sedan had a large dent, which showed how dangerous it must have been for her when she first entered the secret room. If she had reacted even a second slower, she might have died again.
Chu Huaying drove at high speed and soon arrived at her residential community, Nanhua.
After going upstairs, Ye Qi quickly surveyed her room—a small two-bedroom apartment, clearly the residence of a single woman, very clean and tidy. One room was a bedroom, and the other, a study, contained a cool gaming console. Ye Qi's eyes lit up, and she asked, " Sister Ying, is this computer one of the new Halloween limited editions released this year?"
Chu Huaying nodded: "Mm."
Ye Qi touched the computer case with an envious look. He also loved playing games, but as a student, he didn't have the money and was too embarrassed to ask his parents for such an expensive machine. This computer had been sitting in his shopping cart for a while. However, now wasn't the time to dwell on that. Ye Qi quickly withdrew his hand and asked, "Where are you going to hide Professor Xiao? Do you need any help?"
"No need, lock him in the study first." Chu Huaying took a clean towel and stuffed it into Xiao Lou's mouth, then tore open a bed sheet and tied Xiao Lou up like a big rice dumpling, fixing him to the gaming chair in the study. She then locked the doors and windows and drew the curtains.
In this way, Xiao Lou would have no way to escape.
After doing all this, Chu Huaying waved to Ye Qi: "Let's go find someone."
Ye Qi immediately followed her.
Chu Huaying took out her phone and searched for possible locations where her teammates might be. She said, "Let's start by looking for the nearest ones. I found a Xinran Designer Studio nearby. Lao Mo might be there."
Ye Qi nodded: "Okay, then let's go find Uncle Mo first."
Chu Huaying drove quickly to the entrance of Xinran Studio. She parked the car in a roadside parking space and walked into the studio side by side with Ye Qi. As soon as they entered, they saw a middle-aged man carefully revising drawings in front of a computer. Ye Qi was about to call out " Uncle Mo " when Chu Huaying gestured to stop him. Instead, she walked up to him, took off her sunglasses, and calmly asked, "Hello, are you Mr. Mo?"
Mo Xuemin looked up, smiled, and said, "Yes. Hello, how can we help you? Are you looking for interior design?"
Chu Huaying glanced at Ye Qi, who had no choice but to bite the bullet and say, "Uh, my sister recently bought a two-bedroom apartment and wants to hire a professional designer to design it..."
Chu Huaying simply drew a floor plan of her house on paper: "Look, this is the floor plan. The house is relatively small, and I want to expand the space through reasonable design."
Mo Xuemin glanced at the drawings, nodded, and said, "No problem, I usually produce renderings within three days. You can tell me your preferred style first..."
Chu Huaying and Lao Mo discussed some house design issues, while Ye Qi listened attentively. Finally, the two paid the deposit, turned around, and left the studio. Chu Huaying shook her head at Ye Qi: "This Lao Mo seems to be the same old him."
Ye Qi wasn't discouraged: "What about next?"
Chu Huaying said, "Find Senior Gui."
Mr. Gui lives in a secluded villa in the Chinese style. When the two men went to his door, they were told that "Mr. Gui is on a nationwide lecture tour and will not be home until next month."
Immediately afterwards, Chu Huaying contacted the company where Tang Ci was responsible for developing intelligent robots, only to be told: " Tang Ci is away on a business trip."
Those not in Jiangzhou are definitely not from the same instance, and those who don't recognize them are naturally not their teammates.
Only Long Sen and Qu Wanyue remain.
Ye Qi saw a building at the street corner ahead with the words "Boya Arts Training Center" written on it. He remembered that Teacher Qu was a dance teacher at this largest arts center. It was almost closing time.
He hurriedly said, "Let's go find Teacher Qu and take a look."
Chu Huaying followed Ye Qi upstairs.
The two approached the front desk, and Ye Qi asked, "Hello, is teacher Qu Wanyue here? My child would like to enroll in a dance class."
The receptionist smiled and said, " Teacher Qu is teaching a class right now. You two can wait in the lounge for a while."
Ye Qi followed the receptionist to the lounge. After waiting for about ten minutes, Qu Wanyue walked in side by side with a man— Long Sen was also there. What a coincidence! They didn't have to make another trip to the sports school to find Long Sen.
Upon seeing Ye Qi and Chu Huaying, Qu Wanyue quickened her pace and walked up to Ye Qi, smiling as she said, "I was just about to go find everyone after class, but I didn't expect you to come to me first."
Long Sen, who was standing next to him, scratched his head and asked, "Where are the others?"
Ye Qi and Chu Huaying exchanged a glance, both thinking the same thing: the Longqu Couple were together, and they recognized them. Were they the teammates they were looking for? Or... the Hunter?