Blind Spot-Chapter 57 - 055 Chase Three

Chapter 57: 055 Chase Three

Chapter 57: 055 Chase Three

Li Chengyi cared somewhat about the last time at home when Evil Thoughts inexplicably surged within him.

Although the Evil Thoughts had disappeared in the end, and he had absorbed them, the danger should have been eliminated too.

But the phenomenon of suddenly emerging and then just as suddenly disappearing gave him a very unsettling feeling.

He had tested the absorption of Evil Thoughts; it had to happen within a certain range, he couldn’t absorb them if they exceeded about thirty meters around him.

That meant that at that time, in his home, within a thirty-meter radius centered on him, there must have been someone who suddenly developed an extremely terrifying Evil Thought towards him and then, just as mysteriously, the Evil Thought disappeared.

The huge fluctuation in emotions wasn’t something ordinary people could manage.

This state of mind made Li Chengyi suspect for a while that this mysterious person might have a mental problem.

He had always wanted to ask this question, but he had been so busy before that he had sort of forgotten about it until now.

“Your sister, huh? We have indeed noticed that she has been in contact with some rather complicated individuals recently. She failed her Mecha Engineer exam, so the registration fee was wasted. Then she had a conflict in school, beat someone up, and suddenly started connecting with a few people with complicated backgrounds,” Xindela replied, paying great attention to Li Chengyi, a talent with strong mental resilience and an ability to easily Flash Appearance.

“People with complicated backgrounds? Can their identities and origins be traced?” Li Chengyi’s heart stirred, and he asked aloud.

“That’s not possible; our main focus is on you. Your sister being in a higher military academy means there’s a lot of information blockade, and often we can’t look up the internal situation of the military school which is cut off from the internet, and even getting close is not allowed. The cost of inquiry is too high,” Xindela explained.

“Of course, if you’re worried, we can send someone specifically to look into it. But we can’t guarantee results,” he said, looking at Li Chengyi sincerely.

“If it’s possible, I would like that to be looked into,” Li Chengyi nodded affirmatively.

“Hmm. Your sister is indeed somewhat difficult to describe. Are you worried about your parents?” asked Song Ran from the side.

“Yeah, a bit,” Li Chengyi nodded.

He didn’t care about Li Chengjiu, as the previous owner of this identity had understood her very well. The woman was heartless, selfish, and self-centered, so it was normal for her to do anything.

What he worried about were his parents from his previous life – genuinely good and honest people who might be in danger. It would be troublesome if they were implicated in any threats to their lives due to the unsavory individuals Li Chengjiu had been in contact with.

So he wanted to investigate and, if possible, completely eradicate the hidden danger.

“I don’t want, while I am investigating to extricate myself from the Blind Spot, something to happen to my family behind my back. If it’s not too difficult, I wish to fully resolve any potential threats,” Li Chengyi reasoned, and that’s what he said.

The atmosphere inside the vehicle chilled suddenly because of his words.

Xindela was taken aback; he remembered that not long ago, Li Chengyi was just an ordinary, naive Blind Spot newcomer, but now…

He shouldn’t be saying something like that…

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At least, not now.

“Looks like you’ve been through a lot in the Blind Spot,” Sima Gui said, raising an eyebrow.

“Hmm, the first Blind Spot I encountered, which was also the only one, was much more difficult than Mist Street. Three of us went in, and I was the only one who survived. I only survived by luck on my third attempt,” Li Chengyi replied.

“Then you’re pretty ruthless. Most Blind Spots actually aren’t that dangerous, they just make it so you can never leave,” Sima Gui gave a thumbs up.

Screech.

The car braked rapidly.

“Alright, it’s time to get out; we’re here,” Song Ran, the driver, interrupted their conversation.

“I’m thirsty, I’ll buy something to drink; what do you guys want?” Sima Gui asked, pulling the car door open to look back.

“Sparkling water,” Zhong Ying.

“Bien,” Xindela.

“Tatarduo,” Song Ran.

Li Chengyi shook his head, indicating he didn’t want anything.

Bien was a beverage similar to cola, while Tatarduo was a sweetened drink with a small dose of stimulant. He didn’t like either of these.

Everyone got out of the car one after another, and Li Chengyi put on AR glasses that automatically superimposed the topographic shadow map of the old Tianxing Road from over a hundred years ago.

The car was parked beside an old street called Tianxing Road.

As soon as they stopped, an old man in dark green wrinkled camouflage approached with a ticket to collect the parking fee.

Song Ran paid him some money in advance and received a charge receipt.

Li Chengyi, Zhong Ying, and Xindela looked around to inspect their surroundings.

This was an old street district paved with small square white bricks.

The buildings on either side were roughly the same height, about ten meters, and the exteriors were mostly gray-white, with some having a Western architectural style.

Each building had a rounded balcony, and the windows were predominantly arched.

Beneath the buildings were individual storefronts.

Some of these shops still had their doors open with rectangular signs hanging, while others had closed down for good.

Li Chengyi looked around and noticed that even the walls on the sides of the building facades retained lots of sooty traces.

He walked under the sign of one of the shops, called ‘Blue Ocean Pearl.’

The sign was hung at the bottom of a supporting column of the building, fixed with three black metal clips.

Li Chengyi reached out to lightly rub the back of the sign with his fingertips.

When he looked at his fingertip, there was already a layer of black ash on it.

He then followed the sign and looked towards the store, which had already closed its doors. The blurry red characters on the metallic shutter door spelled out the phone number for the shop’s sale, but the number was no longer clear.

“There was a fire here in the past,” Song Ran said in a low voice, walking up beside him.

“I can tell, the marks of smoke and flame are obvious,” Li Chengyi nodded.

“We don’t need to worry about the rest; we just have to find Wu’s Grocery Store. That slot machine is very likely from Wu’s Grocery Store,” Song Ran reminded.

“Understood. I’m waiting for a memory flash,” Li Chengyi replied.

If there was a Blind Spot nearby, then as a Blind Spot Individual with high mental strength, he would definitely have a high chance of experiencing a memory flash.

This was also one of their main methods of investigating Blind Spots.

“Alright, be careful with everything,” Song Ran said, understanding.

“By the way, when I’m experiencing a memory flash, what do I look like to those of you outside?” Li Chengyi suddenly asked. He was curious about his state as seen by outsiders when he was inside a Blind Spot.

“You disappear,” Song Ran said solemnly, “you vanish out of the blue, and then, once your memory flash is over, you reappear just as mysteriously. The worst part is, no matter what state you return in, we outsiders feel it’s normal. This normalcy causes a severe sense of contradiction in our perception, and it’s quite uncomfortable.”

“Is that so?” Li Chengyi understood.

“Let’s go, look around,” Song Ran patted his shoulder and took the lead, peering into each store in the vicinity one by one.

He went to the left, Sima Gui to the right, while Xindela and Zhong Ying searched a row of shops across the street.

Seeing that every direction was covered by someone, Li Chengyi decided to stroll slowly in the middle of the street, scanning from side to side.

The street of Tianxing Road had very few vehicles, requiring him only to occasionally step aside.

Li Chengyi wore AR glasses, constantly comparing them to a map restored from over a hundred years ago.

All of them could communicate through AR, verifying the shared map from over a hundred years past.

As landmark after landmark on the map lit up, the reality that Tianxing Road’s old street was formerly known as Xuezhang Road became increasingly believable to them.

Li Chengyi saw from afar Zhong Ying, taking advantage of her surgically modified face, chatting with an old man who was sitting in front of a shop to escape the heat, asking for information.

Xindela, on the other hand, was talking to a young woman passing by. The two had clear divisions of labor.

“According to the map, the location of Wu’s Grocery Store should be around here,” Sima Gui’s voice soon transmitted from the AR.

“I’ve bought the water and drinks. The place where I’m standing, if you compare it to the map, should be Wu’s Grocery Store.”

He paused.

“But… something’s not right here.”

In the AR, everyone shared the same communication channel, so everyone could hear what he was saying.

“How is it not right? It’s normal for it not to be a grocery store after so many years; it’s bound to have changed hands,” Xindela said.

“No, that’s not it…” Sima Gui hesitated somewhat. “You’ll see what I mean if you look.”

With a crisp click, he quickly took a picture and uploaded it to AR.

Instantly, a prompt asking whether to view the transmitted photo popped up in everyone’s AR.

Li Chengyi clicked yes.

Whoosh.

A clear photo popped up right in front of his eyes.

“What is this!?” Li Chengyi was slightly astonished, halting his steps and moving aside to avoid any oncoming traffic.

“Isn’t this supposed to be the grocery store, according to the map??” Zhong Ying’s voice betrayed a hint of incomprehensible agitation.

“According to the map from over a hundred years ago, indeed it is. But times change… perhaps,” Xindela began to say but was interrupted by Zhong Ying before she could finish.

“No matter what, it’s impossible for the original store to have turned into this,” Zhong Ying said shrilly.

“Yes, it’s not possible for a place to change so much over just a hundred years…” Li Chengyi also agreed somberly.

The photo that appeared before him was not of a store, not a building, nor even a street.

Instead, it was a wide, gloomy small lake with blue-green ripples.

To the left of the lake, one could faintly make out the corner of an old building on Tianxing Street. On the right was a deserted white stone arch bridge.

“Could it have been demolished to reveal the lake behind?” Song Ran speculated.

“I’ve asked the locals here, and they said there were never any buildings on this spot. In the past, it was just a desolate area with disorderly burial mounts, nothing else. The government only started developing the wasteland later, gradually building what was Xuezhang Road, now Tianxing Street,” Xindela explained through AR.

“Could the map be wrong?” Zhong Ying began to doubt.

“The maps we got from the local annals, which we also cross-checked with the national geographic database, were consistent in every aspect; it’s unlikely there’s an error,” Song Ran replied.

“So where exactly is Wu’s Grocery Store!?” Zhong Ying demanded urgently.

No one spoke; the situation was such that the map had lost all meaning, matching nothing. The clues they had found earlier were now completely without a starting point.

“Sima, are you experiencing any memory flashes?” Xindela asked.

“I haven’t encountered any,” Sima replied.

“The same for me,” Li Chengyi added.

“It seems like there are no Blind Spots nearby. The Mist Street Blind Spot might have nothing to do with this place…” Xindela concluded.