Chapter 56: The Mischief-Maker

In the Kongji Mall, which operated out of thin air.

On the second-floor corridor, Zhang Yunfan bent over and dry-heaved, as if trying to spit something out of his mouth.

But, other than some saliva, there was nothing.

The liquid seemed to have merged into his body, impossible to expel again.

Perhaps because the amount was small, Zhang Yunfan regained his composure, looked at the remaining 62% "Threshold," and showed relief.

He realized at this moment that just now, for some reason, he had been bewitched, and had almost drunk that bottle of water!

While feeling relieved, he panted and thanked Ding Mo, who was walking over:

"Thanks to you, Ding Mo, otherwise I would have been done for just now."

Looking at his bitter smile.

Ding Mo also let out a breath.

Not to mention him, even Ding Mo himself had almost fallen for it; fortunately, he reacted at the critical moment and resisted the "temptation" in time.

"Never let your guard down!" Ding Mo said heavily.

Zhang Yunfan swallowed a mouthful of saliva with some difficulty and nodded.

Then, the two rested for a while before continuing their exploration. Only this time, they dared not easily enter any unmanned shop!

The hot pot shop with red lanterns, the barbecue shop with sizzling meat sounds coming from behind the curtain, the clothing store with an abnormal number of mannequins...

Both of them only watched from the doorway for a while, and left when they saw no movement.

Soon, they arrived at the fourth floor of the Shopping Mall.

But after searching for so long, the two still had no gains. Ding Mo even began to suspect that the target was not here at all.

Otherwise, they had searched half the area of the Shopping Mall, so why hadn't they found even the slightest trace of the target's activity?

Ding Mo was thinking this, and just after stepping off the escalator and walking forward a few steps, he suddenly noticed Zhang Yunfan had stopped.

Ding Mo turned his head and said: "What's wrong?"

Zhang Yunfan stood where he was, seemingly lost in thought, and replied upon hearing this:

"If we go on like this, it's not a solution."

"You mean..." Ding Mo turned around.

"I have a proposal."

... Soon, the two returned to the first floor of the Shopping Mall.

"I've been observing along the way; there are quite a lot of cameras in the Shopping Mall, they should be effective."

As Zhang Yunfan spoke, he led Ding Mo to a heavy fire door.

If his estimation was correct, this door should be where the underground facilities of this Shopping Mall were located.

There should be a Security Room there, and through the surveillance, they would be able to know the situation in most areas of the Shopping Mall.

If the target was really hiding here, then even if the two couldn't find her directly, they could indirectly confirm her approximate floor and location through her activity traces.

It was better than the random running around they had just done.

"You seem to know this place well?" Ding Mo was somewhat surprised.

"Heh, I worked in fire facility maintenance for three years. For work, I've been to all kinds of shopping malls, and more than once..."

Zhang Yunfan said with a chuckle, and as if remembering something, he turned his head and subconsciously glanced at the center of the Shopping Mall.

But just this one glance... his smile suddenly stiffened.

"What's wrong?" Seeing this, Ding Mo looked in the direction of his gaze in surprise.

Only to discover that those "child mannequins" originally in the center of the plaza,

had disappeared!

Where they had originally stood, only an empty space remained, along with several large, dust-covered footprints.

"When..." Looking at this scene, Zhang Yunfan's eyes widened, and he took two steps back.

Yet a hand grabbed his shoulder from behind!

Zhang Yunfan was startled, but when he turned back, he saw it was Ding Mo.

"We'll know once we go check the surveillance." Ding Mo pointed inside the door, his expression also becoming somewhat grave.

At least they could know where these "things" had hidden, to prevent a surprise attack!

"Come to think of it, there should be other exits inside, right? I don't want to be trapped inside."

"There are... follow me!" Zhang Yunfan took a deep breath, trying his best to calm down.

The two went one after the other, quickly pulled open the door, walked through the cool underground corridor, and arrived at the Security Room.

Inside the Security Room.

After closing the door, Zhang Yunfan went to the console and immediately performed a series of familiar operations, pulling up a string of surveillance records.

He had to find these "mannequins," find out where they had gone!!

As for Ding Mo, he was responsible for carefully observing the real-time surveillance of various areas of the Shopping Mall to confirm the location of the Task target.

His eyes swept across every surveillance screen rapidly and steadily, striving not to miss any details while maintaining speed.

"Fourth floor, nothing found... Fifth floor, nothing found either..." The faint light of the electronic screen reflected in Ding Mo's eyes.

The Shopping Mall had ten floors in total; the first three floors had already been carefully searched by the two, so he chose to check them one by one starting from the fourth floor.

And Zhang Yunfan, before long, after pulling up the footage from various time periods, locked onto one segment.

"Found it!"

He clearly remembered that before entering the Snack Shop, he had observed that those "things" were still there.

It was just that after coming out of that eerie Snack Shop, he had been contaminated by an unknown liquid, his mental state had deteriorated, and coupled with the fact that those "things" hadn't moved,

he hadn't paid any attention to them.

Who would have thought that upon reaching the first floor, they would discover these "things" were gone!

It must have happened during that half-hour!

His voice drew Ding Mo's attention, and the latter turned his head to watch him click on this recording.

In the footage, the camera seemed to be in a side-angle position, perfectly able to see the center of the Shopping Mall and most of the first-floor area.

At the very beginning, the "mannequins" in the center of the Shopping Mall were still there; they were wearing childish overalls and red tops, appearing extremely "short and stout" by human proportions, looking particularly eye-catching even on the monitor.

Seeing this, Zhang Yunfan clicked "fast forward."

As the recording time progressed, the surveillance footage suddenly blurred for a moment, as if it had been subjected to some kind of interference.

?!

Once the image cleared, Ding Mo, standing to the side, could not help but narrow his eyes.

That "child mannequin" had actually moved! It had deviated from its original position!

It was not the kind of "movement" where a human walks, but rather, once the image recovered, it had "teleported" to another location.

Standing stiffly, it showed no trajectory of movement, no action at all—it was eerie and inhuman!

Zhang Yunfan watched, gritting his teeth.

This thing was indeed "alive"!

Damn it!!

He continued to watch, and soon, the footage blurred and flickered multiple times; one of the "child mannequins," over three meters tall, arrived in front of a door at the edge of the Shopping Mall.

The other "child mannequins" had left this surveillance frame, their whereabouts unknown.

But this single glance was enough to make both of them feel a chill run down their backs instantly!

This is... Ding Mo's pupils constricted slightly!

This door,

isn't it the very one they just came through?!

The "child mannequin" was smiling, its eyelids squeezed so tightly that its pupils were invisible, its tall body pressing against the ceiling, making the door in front of it appear very small.

But the next second, the image blurred, and when it became clear again,

it had already vanished from in front of the door!

Zhang Yunfan's complexion turned extremely ugly in an instant.

Did it... come in?

"Let's leave this place first!" Ding Mo, having reacted, said with extreme seriousness.

He had already drawn his Alloy Sword, prepared for the worst-case scenario.

Zhang Yunfan had long since placed great trust in Ding Mo, his savior, and given that the situation was extremely critical, he nodded without the slightest hesitation.

The two turned toward the door of the Security Room, intending to flee, but just as they took a step,

they came to an abrupt halt!

Because, at the entrance of the Security Room,

the door that had clearly been closed just a moment ago had inexplicably opened!?