CHAPTER 1627: CHAPTER 1627: THE KEY

"Case, what did you say?"

Hearing this, Finn’s face turned red, and he stared wide-eyed at the short-haired boy.

"I said you’re a hypocrite! A cunning little rat!" The short-haired boy looked at Finn and said without hesitation, "Everything you do is just for show in front of the teachers! You’re nothing but the teacher’s and the headmaster’s lackey!"

"I’m not!" Finn shouted loudly.

"Yes, you are!" The short-haired boy turned his head and looked at He Ao, "Loren, he’s the bad guy, you shouldn’t trust anything he says, he’s just trying to deceive you!"

Bull——

At this moment, a sharp alarm sounded throughout the orphanage.

The short-haired boy turned back to look at He Ao, "Hahaha, the teachers found out you were causing trouble, the security guards will be here soon, and you’ll all be caught. This teacher’s lackey will definitely sell you out—uh—"

Before he could finish, He Ao had already pulled out the tape he had taken from the fat guy earlier from his pocket and stuck it over the boy’s mouth.

"Mmm mmm—" The short-haired boy seemed to want to say something more.

He Ao just glanced at him and said casually, "Aren’t you also doing things for the teacher?"

The boy’s voice froze.

He Ao ripped a strip of cloth from the boy’s shirt, tied his hands and feet, and placed him against the wall.

At this moment, hurried footsteps could be heard approaching from not far away, seemingly belonging to security guards who had received some sort of specific instruction and were quickly making their way in this direction.

He Ao pulled Finn and quickly left the area.

Quickly, He Ao and Finn returned to the main building, and they no longer heard the approaching footsteps.

It appeared that controlling the short-haired boy’s actions had triggered some kind of rule, alerting the security guards to the boy’s location, prompting them to "pursue" this way.

Sure enough, the orphans here must not be ’harmed’.

He Ao withdrew his thoughts and turned to look at Finn beside him.

At this moment, Finn’s face was somber, as if he were deep in thought.

"Still thinking about just now?" He Ao asked casually.

"No," Finn shook his head, smiled slowly, "Should we go back to the meeting place to wait for Reid?"

"No," He Ao glanced at him, knowing he didn’t want to delve deeper into the topic, shook his head, and continued, "We have something else to do first."

The two quickly moved through the corridor, entered the outermost classroom of the building, and stood by the classroom window, from where they could see the front gate and the security post beside it.

"Shall we climb over the gate?" Finn looked at He Ao and asked softly.

"No," He Ao shook his head, "Let’s get the keys."

"Keys?" Finn was taken aback.

"Yes, on the security guard at the gate," He Ao said softly. He raised his head, looked towards the security post, and said in a low voice, "We need to coordinate, but it might be a bit dangerous."

"I can handle it!" Finn looked up at He Ao, gazing at his side profile, as if to prove something, and said seriously.

"Good," He Ao nodded, "But make sure to stay safe."

Thump thump thump—

During their conversation, urgent footsteps sounded from outside, "Search each classroom, we have to find those disobedient kids."

The voice was rough and familiar.

It was the sound of the security guard who had been patrolling outside the back door earlier.

He Ao and Finn exchanged a glance and quickly moved toward the classroom door, peeking down the corridor.

Seeing a few security guards enter the classroom to search, the two immediately turned toward the outside, opened the outermost side door, and stepped into the rain.

——

The harsh alarm echoed throughout the orphanage grounds, while the security guard in the security room stood silently, gazing at the closed gate, motionless.

At this moment, a figure emerged through the rain, stopping before the gate.

He picked up the gate lock, jostling the gate quickly, seemingly trying to force it open.

In an instant, the security guard abruptly stood up, grabbed the flashlight from the table, and pushed open the door.

The bright beam illuminated the face of the blond boy banging on the gate, the ash-formed figure quickly approached the boy, shouting loudly as he walked, "Hey, kid?! What do you think you’re doing?!"

"Uncle, I need to get out, it’s urgent!" Finn yelled loudly as the guard approached.

"No one’s allowed out," the guard walked to the gate, shouting as he went, "Didn’t your teacher tell you? You need a teacher to take you out."

He strode forward, the keys at his waist clinking together.

Behind him, in the zone behind the security post, He Ao’s figure slowly emerged, gazing at the keys on his waist.

——

Click——

Reid opened the third-floor window of the main building, climbed out, and sat on the windowsill, looking down.

His position faced outward, toward the side of the gate.

The height from this spot exceeded the power grid on the ground, allowing Reid’s view to naturally traverse the walls and electric fences, gazing at the ’scene’ outside the orphanage.

It was a stretch of hazy mist, within which the presence of buildings seemed both existent and absent, with only the floating mist itself lingering.

For a moment, he couldn’t discern whether this was merely an abnormal space or something that still partially overlapped with the real world as an anomaly existing in reality.

Reid sighed lightly, lowered his head, and prepared to slide back into the window.

Just then, the corner of his eye caught sight of the gate below, saw the blond boy at the gate, and observed the guard approaching the boy.

His gaze shifted to the back, where he saw the slender boy standing behind.

At that instant, the boy lifted his head, looking in his direction, momentarily exchanging glances with his own.

And he gave him a slight nod.

Loren...

What are they planning to take?

As he pondered this, Reid’s gaze shifted to the side.

In the space behind the security post, a few security guards wandering in the rain were quickly approaching.

After a brief contemplation, Reid slid down from the window, moving toward the direction of those guards.

——

He Ao did not see Reid’s actions; after confirming Reid was up there, he withdrew his gaze, focusing his view on the keys swaying at the guard’s waist.

A keychain held about five keys: one large key and four small ones, hung at the guard’s belt.

The real orphanage keys were much more complex than this set of keys, and the guards didn’t like carrying them, often just tossing them into the guardroom, making them easier to take than in this situation.

In the midst of reflection, the security guard was already very close to Finn.

He Ao watched the guard’s back and took a step forward, his whole body appearing like an illusion as he glided forward, approaching the guard.

"What’s your deal, kid?" At this moment, the guard had stopped not far from Finn, the eyes made of sparks gazing at ’Finn’, the flashlight shining on Finn’s cheek.

Just then, it seemed like a slight breeze passed behind him, as if something had happened, yet as if nothing had happened.

But subconsciously, the guard reached towards his waist.

The keys that used to jingle had disappeared.

He immediately turned around, only to see a blurry figure quickly moving through the rain, vanishing behind the building.

"My keys! You brat! Don’t run!"

The guard grabbed the flashlight in his hand, turned around, and chased towards the place where the figure disappeared behind the building.

Seeing this scene, Finn, who was standing at the door, breathed a sigh of relief, quickly turned around, and ran towards the main building.

But in the area invisible from his angle, several figures were quickly emerging from the rain curtain.

And in the distance, the security guard made of ashes chased to the back of the main building, but all he saw was a desolate rain curtain; the figure in the rain had completely disappeared.

——

"Where did that kid run off to?"

And in the deeper part of the rain curtain, around the corner of the warehouse building, two security guards were quickly looking around the scene, searching for something.

Reid leaned his entire body on the other side of the corner, watching these guards pass by the corner through the reflection on the water’s surface on the ground.

The two guards were originally heading towards the gate. To prevent them from interfering with Loren’s actions, Reid led them here.

However, despite their keen instincts, these guards didn’t seem very smart and were relatively easy to shake off.

The sky seemed to dim significantly, and the reflection on the water’s surface was not clear, only showing vague human shapes.

Seeing that the guards seemed about to leave here completely, Reid let out a slight sigh of relief.

At that instant, he felt a hand tap on his shoulder.

His body suddenly stiffened; he turned around only to see a figure charred into cinders.

And behind this figure, there were several similar figures standing there.

They formed a dense circle, blocking Reid’s escape route from this side.

When did these guys appear?

Reid instantly reached towards his waist.

Just then, a bright flashlight beam shone into this corner, "Ha, so this is where you are!"

Two figures with bodies made of ashes, propped up by blue security uniforms, appeared at the turn, the bright light illuminating Reid’s face.

——

He Ao, flipping into the main building classroom from the back, glanced at the keys in his hand, withdrew his gaze, leaned against the edge of the classroom wall, and moved forward quickly.

Voices and footsteps came from afar, those were the security guards still searching this floor.

He lifted his gaze and took a glance, quickly leaving the classroom while the guards were entering a new classroom to search, crossing the corridor, and entering the diagonally opposite art classroom.

If nothing went wrong, Finn should be meeting him in the art classroom.

But upon stepping into the art classroom, he raised his head, only to see several charred figures outside the window holding onto Finn.

"What do you want?! Let me go!"

Finn struggled vigorously, but it was met with the charred figures taking out a burnt black rope and tying him up.

’School worker’?

He Ao watched this scene, furrowing his brows tightly.

He reached out, gripping the long spear on his back, then slowly moved forward, leaning against the window edge, looking out.

These charred figures were carrying Finn, walking towards the small door where they had just encountered a ghost.

At this moment, the struggling Finn saw He Ao leaning against the window, and He Ao nodded gently at him.

Finn withdrew his gaze and shouted loudly, "I’m not running around; can you tell me what you want to do?"

But the charred school guards seemed to not hear him, still controlling him and walking forward.

These school guards were natural in their movements, but their expressions were dull, seemingly unable to communicate.

And by this time, He Ao had already opened the window, flipped over it, drew the Vestara’s Spear from his back, and quickly approached.

He didn’t intend to waste time observing what these school workers planned, solving them directly to rescue Finn was more important.

Moreover, the longer they stayed in the square outside the door, the more dangerous it got.

At that moment, a white, flickering figure slowly appeared from the innermost side of the main building, near the kitchen.

Finn, still speaking, immediately shut his mouth to avoid making a sound that would attract the white-skirt figure.

Seeing this white-skirt figure, those school workers quickened their pace and swiftly approached the white-skirt figure.

Were they trying to use the ’ghost’ to kill Finn?

In the midst of this thought, He Ao dashed forward.

The brilliant radiance split the sky, directly piercing through the neck of a school worker at the back; this worker hadn’t even reacted before burning into a mass of ashes.

The school workers who were moving forward at speed immediately froze and turned to look back.

Their bodies hadn’t fully stopped yet, and scintillating spear flowers bloomed behind them.

The three school workers closest to Finn were pierced in succession in a single breath, their bodies crumbling and scattering as drifting ashes.

The school worker gripping Finn moved quickly, already turning completely, raising his hand to attack He Ao behind him.

But in the blink of an eye, his neck was pierced by a star-like crystal spear tip, and he collapsed instantly, turning into a mass of ashes.

In Finn’s confused gaze, He Ao reached out and caught Finn, who was still tied up, and instead of untying him, he hoisted Finn onto his shoulder and darted into the nearby small door.

The remaining few school workers finally snapped out of their daze, looking towards the direction He Ao disappeared and were preparing to pursue.

At that instant, a white-skirt figure appeared in front of them.

The white-skirt girl lifted her head, ’gazing’ at these charred school workers with her faceless face.

In the next moment, surging flames erupted from the bodies of these school workers, instantly burning them into ashes.

Then, the white-skirt girl turned around and looked at the open small door.

She stepped forward, passed through the narrow small door, and walked onto the clean and tidy floor indoors.

She lowered her head and glanced at the wet footprints on the ground.

Her body flickered, continued forward, completely crossing the small door, and entered the corridor, step by step following the faint footprints into the depths of the building.