CHAPTER 1624: CHAPTER 1624: FINDING REID

He Ao estimated that there might be a ’counteraction’ rule, so he remotely used his Divine Sense to control the folding knife and touched the button.

Compared to direct throwing, the Divine Sense has a kind of ’autonomy,’ making it seem as if it can move on its own.

This might lead to a misjudgment of the rule, treating the folding knife as the ’subject’ and confiscating it.

That’s equivalent to exploiting a bug.

He Ao originally estimated that the most likely event was some sort of ’attack’ on the person who unlocked the button. He did not expect the rule to be ’exchange,’ which coincidentally exploited the rule’s loophole.

This had a bit of luck involved.

Of course, if unlucky, he would just be caught, and then Finn would save him, or they’d just find another kid to ’exchange’ with.

Once you understand the rules, as long as you follow them, there will always be a solution.

The most dangerous thing is when the rules are unclear.

"Hey, save me, someone," at this moment, not far away, the fat Karto was also staring dumbfounded as Finn was saved. He didn’t know how He Ao did it, but it was clear He Ao had mastered some method to rescue someone without any cost.

He raised his voice, "Someone, Loren, come and get me down, or I’ll shout and call the teachers, letting them know you escaped punishment! The security will definitely lock you in the dark room!"

"Do you know where the craft room is?" He Ao looked at Finn.

"It’s this classroom." Finn pointed to a classroom nearby.

He Ao walked into the classroom, took some things, and then quickly walked out, standing in front of the chubby guy hanging on the wall.

"Heh heh, Loren, scared now?" The fat guy looked at He Ao, slightly opening his mouth.

However, before he could finish his sentence, a silver tape stuck to his mouth.

Then seven or eight more tapes followed, covering his mouth and even his cheeks completely.

"Mmm mmm mmm——"

He looked at He Ao, hands cuffed, the whole person struggling like a salted fish hanging on the wall, unable to say a word.

"Hahaha——"

Finn saw this scene and burst out laughing.

He Ao returned to Finn’s side and walked towards the depths of the corridor, "Let’s go."

"Blah blah blah." Finn made a face at the fatty and followed He Ao, "Loren, you’re amazing, I didn’t know you were so incredible before."

"We’ve never done this kind of thing together before," He Ao said casually.

"Right, oh." Finn scratched his head and looked at He Ao, "Did you find the director in the director’s office?"

"No, the director doesn’t seem to be in the office," He Ao shook his head, "I only saw two silhouettes like they were burnt into charcoal."

"Those are ’School Workers’," Finn scratched his head and looked at He Ao, who had turned around looking at him with puzzlement, and continued, "They appear and disappear like ghosts, sometimes suddenly appearing, sometimes suddenly disappearing, sometimes seen chatting in a corner."

He looked somewhat puzzled at He Ao, "Haven’t you met them before?"

"Sounds like ’volunteers’ who come to the orphanage from outside." He Ao shook his head and spoke slowly.

It seemed Finn’s ’memory’ was somewhat different from reality.

This made He Ao recall that the orphanage indeed had some secretive volunteers visiting, who were strong but not very friendly, only working and rarely chatting with the kids.

Of course, for an orphanage that keeps getting new kids but the total number never grows, such ’abnormalities’ were nothing unusual.

However, if those charcoal silhouettes were really ’volunteers,’ then the director was indeed not in the office.

He Ao looked at the anger and slowly asked, "Have you seen the director recently?"

"No," Finn shook his head, "I haven’t seen him recently."

What if, on that day, the director wasn’t even in the orphanage?

He Ao mused.

Where could those Anomaly Sect people be hiding?

"By the way," Finn suddenly remembered something and looked at He Ao, "didn’t you ask if I saw any unfamiliar faces?"

"Hmm?" He Ao looked at him.

"I just ran out, ran a bit towards the kitchen, and through the classroom window, I seemed to see an unfamiliar face in the corridor," Finn scratched his head, "hanging on the wall."

"Over there?" He Ao asked quickly.

"Just ahead," Finn pointed forward, "he’s hanging by the porch over there, just around the corner, let me take you."

With that, he started jogging.

He Ao followed his pace, and soon, they turned a small corner.

A figure appeared.

There was a little boy wearing a slightly oversized coat, with light brown hair, a chubby white face, and faint dark brown pupils.

He looked fair and chubby, only a little over a meter tall.

The two walked up to this figure.

Gazing at the figure hanging on the wall, He Ao was silent for a moment, pressed his lips, silent for a moment, and quietly asked, "Reid?"

The little boy hanging on the wall was also silent for a moment. He looked at He Ao and tentatively asked, "Loren?"

Then he was silent for a moment and slowly said, "Go ahead and laugh."

"It’s okay, you’re quite cute." He Ao covered his mouth and laughed softly.

Then he turned his head.

Reid:······

"You know each other?" Finn asked curiously from the side.

"This is Reid," He Ao cleared his throat, composed himself, and looked at Finn, introducing, "He’s a friend I got to know outside."

"Outside?" Finn was obviously taken aback, "Outside the orphanage? You have friends outside."

"Yes, I just met him not long ago." He Ao nodded lightly, then looked at Reid and slowly introduced, "This is Finn, my companion here."

"A ’companion’ here? You have a companion here?" Reid was also a bit taken aback, clearly surprised.

He understood the implication in He Ao’s words, ’Finn’ was not an outsider ’Explorer,’ but an ’existence’ within this anomaly.

He Ao looked at him, softly said, "I originally belong here."

He was also one of those orphans himself.

Upon hearing this, Reid quickly reacted.

"Loren, should we let your friend down?" At this moment, Finn, who was somewhat dazed, asked.

"Hmm," He Ao nodded. As he spoke, he actually already picked up the folding knife again, and looked at Finn, "Let’s move further away."

"Okay." Finn nodded.

The two quickly retreated, maintaining their line of sight, and increased the distance.

Then abruptly, he ’threw’ the folding knife.

The folding knife flew through the air, seemingly heading straight just from a distance, but it was continuously adjusting its trajectory, making many ’little turns’, and ’precisely’ hit the button above the buckle where Reid was hanging.

Click—

Accompanied by a soft sound, the buckle released, and Reid fell from the wall.

The folding knife, on the other hand, was caught by a buckle protruding from the opposite wall, then quickly slipped and fell to the ground.

Once everything was over, He Ao walked back.

He Ao reached out and picked up the folding knife that had fallen on the ground, while Finn went to help Reid who had fallen.

His body was visibly stiff, with muscles poised to react at any moment.

"Finn is a good person," He Ao came over, lent a hand, and helped Reid up, "He’s the most popular and enthusiastic child in our orphanage."

"Loren, don’t say that," Finn quickly waved his hand, "I’m just trying to lend some of my strength."

"Thank you." Reid looked at Finn and smiled.

His face was calm, but He Ao could sense that his muscles under the loose clothes were still tense.

"How did you end up hanging here?" He Ao asked Reid curiously.

"After I came in, I didn’t see you," Reid replied slowly, "so I went straight into the main building."

"Which door?" He Ao asked slowly.

Reid raised his gaze, glanced around, then pointed behind him, "I probably came in from over there."

"It’s the side door on the right," Finn glanced in the direction he pointed, and said slowly, "which is different from us; we came in from the front,"

He looked at Reid, puzzled, "The ghost was also at the front, but coming in through the main door and going right, you might also have encountered the ghost."

"What ghost?" Reid was puzzled.

"A little girl in a white dress who grabs people outside." He Ao said slowly.

"I didn’t run into it," Reid shook his head, "I crossed the plaza outside and went directly into this main building."

"Then you were very lucky to just avoid the ghost." Finn said with admiration.

"Entering through the side door leads directly to the stairwell, did you go upstairs?" He Ao asked curiously.

"Yes," Reid nodded, "This kind of anomaly with buildings usually has obvious distortion points within the building itself. It’s easier to find central intelligence near the distortion point. This building’s exterior had no distortion, so the distorted part must be inside. I glanced at the first floor briefly; there was no obvious distortion, so I went upstairs directly."

"What’s a distortion point?" He Ao asked directly.

"You can think of it as something that is immediately out of sync with common sense," Reid explained, "A large anomaly can have many distortion points. For example, in the Three-in-One Building, the Endless Corridor is a distortion point, as are the dense fog, containers, and echoes on the 27th floor."

"Abnormal?" He Ao pondered his definition of ’distortion point,’ and uttered a word.

"Yes, it’s actually the most ’abnormal’ part of an anomaly." Reid nodded, "You can’t always find important intelligence near every distortion point, but significant intelligence usually appears around the distortion points."

"Looks like you found a distortion point?" He Ao quickly asked, glancing at the opened buckle on the wall.

"Found one," Reid nodded, "on the fourth floor,"

He lifted his head and looked at the corridor to one side, "The corridor on the fourth floor is much longer than this one, extending into darkness on one end, with an Ash Man wearing a blue uniform guarding it before the darkness."

"That’s the orphanage’s ’security guard,’" He Ao explained slowly, then also looked back at the corridor, "But this building doesn’t have extended parts on the fourth floor."

"Exactly, so that’s obviously a ’distortion point,’" Reid nodded, "That corridor probably leads to another deeper ’space.’

He sighed as he said this, "But the guard is stationed there; I wanted to throw something to divert the guard, sneak past behind him, but as soon as I approached the dark area, the guard instantly appeared in front of me,"

He raised his head and looked at the buckle on the wall, "and then I ended up hanging here."

"The security here has very strong ’intuition,’" He Ao explained slowly, "Once they detect any threat, they’ll directly ’take’ people,"

He glanced at Finn next to him and continued, "The first time is hanging on the wall, the second time is getting locked up, and the third time is unknown."

"The third time is probably some kind of forced ’instant death’ attack," Reid sighed, "like three lives in some old games."

"I didn’t expect you to use a game analogy." He Ao looked at him in surprise.

"I’m only ten to twenty years older than you," Reid laughed, "I’m not from the Era of the Great Cataclysm, I went to high school, college, played games with roommates and classmates."

"Wait wait," Finn raised his hand, "What are you guys even talking about? I can’t understand any of it."

"Talking about the passage at the end of the fourth-floor corridor," He Ao looked at Finn and asked slowly, "Do you know how to get past that passage?"

Reid’s ’experience’ was indeed useful. As soon as he entered an anomaly, he knew what to look for, where to find it, and indeed discovered key clues.

"That passage?" Finn looked at He Ao, seemingly falling into remembrance, "That passage seems only the director and them can go through, the guards there are the fiercest, as we get slightly close to it, we’ll get hung up."

"Even teachers can’t go through?" He Ao looked at him and asked slowly.

"Apparently not," Finn shook his head, "I haven’t seen any teachers go through."

"Where is the director’s office? Perhaps we could try to find that ’director.’" Reid pondered.

"No, I’ve already searched," He Ao shook his head, "The director isn’t in the director’s office, might not even be in this building."

He paused for a moment, briefly recounting the actions he had taken earlier to Reid.

"So, people from the Anomaly Sect aren’t here?" Reid was slightly taken aback, then contemplated, "This suggests, this anomaly probably has another ’Inner Space,’ one that can hide people."

"The dark passage guarded by that security guard leads to the Inner Space?" He Ao pondered.

"Possibly." Reid slightly nodded.

After exchanging intelligence, the situation in the fog became much clearer.

"If that’s really the case," Reid thought, "I doubt the Anomaly Sect would leave any credentials or method for us to pass through the passage normally."

"There might be other ways to enter the Inner Space."

Just at this moment, He Ao seemed to recall something and said in a low voice.