Capítulo 1628: Chapter 1628: Friendship

“Loren, since when did you learn these things?” Finn, who was being carried on He Ao’s shoulder, was unexpectedly excited, “You just knocked down those school workers so easily.”

“Learned it outside.” He Ao replied casually.

“Have you been exposed to so many things outside?” Finn asked excitedly.

“Shh,” He Ao lowered his voice, “She’s coming after us.”

“Who?” Finn was stunned.

Vaguely, slow footsteps were heard behind them.

“The Ghost.” He Ao looked up and glanced ahead.

Noisy sounds came from the front, right in the classroom that the security guards had just entered.

And behind him, there were faint, extremely faint footsteps coming from the direction of the corridor.

He raised his steps and quickly moved towards that direction.

“Loren, there’s a sound there, seems like security!” Finn said quickly.

“I know.” He Ao nodded slightly.

Quickly, he reached the door of the classroom.

The three Ash Man security guards were just walking out of the classroom.

They raised their heads, saw He Ao standing in front of the door, and were slightly stunned.

Then, the security guard in the middle stepped out, looked at He Ao, and quickly said, “Kid, you violated the rules!”

In the next instant, He Ao only felt a huge and high-tier force acting upon him, and before he could react, it took effect instantly.

The next moment, both he and Finn disappeared from the spot.

“Finally caught these troublemakers,” the middle security guard breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the two disappear, “Let’s head back.”

However, at that moment, a white skirt figure appeared at the classroom door.

The security guards were slightly stunned when they saw this white skirt figure.

The next moment, fierce flames erupted from within them, engulfing their bodies, and in an instant, they were burned to ashes.

The girl in the white dress looked up, her ‘gaze’ swept across the empty classroom.

After a brief pause, she slowly moved back, passed through the corridor, reached the small door she had just entered, and walked out through it.

After she left, the three piles of ashes on the ground slowly wriggled, like clay figures crawling off the ground, struggling up, and once again forming Ash Man shapes.

Two bright sparks were lit where their eyes should be, and blue security uniforms wriggled out of the ashes, draping over them.

But at this moment, they seemed to have lost their minds, forming a line, passing through the corridor, and exiting through a side door near the kitchen, leaving the corridor.

······

At the edge of the other corridor, He Ao, who was hung on the wall, saw the silhouette of the white dress girl disappear, and heaved a long sigh of relief.

The ‘rule’ just now took effect in an instant, and he didn’t even have time to react, it was indeed pure rule-based power, and had far surpassed the scope of angels.

After waiting for a brief moment to ensure there were no effects, he controlled the folding knife in his pocket to fly up, hit the button on the buckle, and released himself.

This was his first time being caught, so he was only hung up.

All in all, he was quite lucky, being hung up in a secluded corner opposite from where Reid was previously hung, not easy to be found.

Otherwise, he would have to be ready to release himself immediately when caught, to avoid the ‘ghost’s’ pursuit.

This rule-based power is really unreasonable.

Sigh——

He sighed in relief, picked up the folding knife that had fallen to the ground, and pocketed it.

He had a premonition that as time passed, the ghost outside the door seemed to be becoming more aggressive and proactive.

For whatever reason, this was not good news.

He stood up and felt the keys in his pocket.

Fortunately, this anomaly doesn’t explode props when caught.

He quickly stood up, passed through the corridor and the stairwell, and proceeded to the second floor.

He knew very well where the confinement room was.

The original orphanage had this place, Loren got into a fight with the previous school bully and was locked up for half a day.

Soon, he reached the end of the second-floor corridor and found four rowed small doors.

Originally a small classroom, it was converted into four confinement rooms.

At this moment, the middle two of the four confinement rooms were closed, and the small doors on the left and right sides were open.

He Ao picked up the keys and tried them one by one, first opening the door to one of them.

As the small door opened, Reid, who was squatting in the confinement room, looked up, bewildered, at He Ao.

After a brief pause, he said in slight surprise, “How do you have the key to the confinement room?”

“I belong here, so naturally I know where the keys are.” He Ao shrugged and smiled.

Then he tried again and opened another door.

Finn appeared in his field of view, tightly bound and showing a dejected face.

This time, before Finn spoke, He Ao raised the long gun and cut through the charred ropes on him.

The ropes fell to the ground and instantly turned to ashes.

He Ao put away the long gun.

Finn looked at He Ao and was slightly stunned, as if he didn’t understand how He Ao opened the door.

Then he looked at the keys in He Ao’s hand and seemed to remember something, “Is it the guard’s key?”

“Yes.” He Ao nodded gently.

Loren had indeed stolen the key before, and in the real orphanage, the guard had many keys, keys to all openable doors were with the guard.

Each key had a label pointing to the door it could open. Loren, in search of the main door key, had gone through most of the keys.

Among them were the keys to the confinement rooms, four connected together and somewhat smaller than the other keys, making them very distinguishable.

When He Ao saw these four keys, he knew they were for the confinement rooms.

This was also why he dared to find the security guards to avoid the ghost’s ‘chase’.

After putting away the keys, He Ao looked at Reid who had walked out, “How did you get caught?”

Based on his understanding, Reid shouldn’t have been easily caught.

“It was the school workers.” Reid did not hide anything and directly recounted what had happened to him.

Then he looked at the slightly strange expressions on He Ao and Finn’s faces, “Did you guys also encounter school workers?”

“Yes.” He Ao nodded, quickly recounting his own experience.

“Were you actually able to use security to avoid the ghost’s chase?” Reid looked at He Ao, quickly understanding He Ao’s earlier plan, he smiled, “You’re really talented, learning to use the anomaly’s rules to avoid another rule in such a short time of exposure to anomalies.”

“Thanks for the compliment, but there’s still a bit of luck involved.” He Ao shrugged.

Rule-based powers are really buggy; even a small issue could trap someone in a dead-end situation.

“Luck is also a form of strength,” Reid laughed and changed the subject, “those ‘school workers’ seem to be acting under some sort of ‘command’.”

“It should be the Anomaly Sect,” He Ao nodded slightly, “They must have found a way to ‘control’ these school workers, seems like they’re indeed hiding in this abnormal space.”

He turned his head, looking at Finn who seemed a bit confused, and said slowly, “Do you still have those fragments with you?”

“Yes,” Finn nodded, “Are you guys going into that so-called ‘Inner Space’?”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a stack of black fragments, “There are twenty-six in total, we have twenty-nine children in our courtyard,”

He looked at He Ao, “Do you still have the fragments of Karto and the child caught playing hide and seek?”

“Yes,” He Ao stretched out his hand and took out three fragments from his pocket, “One from the child playing hide and seek, one from Karto, and one from the Ghost.”

“The Ghost too?” Finn widened his eyes; he looked at He Ao and thought for a moment, “Then that makes it thirty children in total, we have twenty-nine fragments here,”

He handed the fragments in his hand to He Ao, smiling as he looked at him, “Just missing yours.”

Upon hearing this question, Reid, standing aside, paused slightly.

He Ao was silent for a moment, then said slowly, “I don’t have any.”

Hearing this, Finn was slightly taken aback, his eyes widened as he gazed at He Ao, mumbling, “You don’t have any?”

Reid, standing aside, watched all this, his hand reaching for his waist, muscles tensing instantly beneath his loose clothing.

Meanwhile, He Ao quietly lowered his head, looking at Finn.

Gazing at that slightly freckled face with baby fat, and those clear, azure eyes.

Finn quietly watched He Ao as well.

Then, he slowly handed over the fragments in his hand, the corners of his mouth lifting into a faint smile, “That’s good then.”

He Ao was slightly surprised, accepting the fragments from his hand.

“If you don’t have any, then it’s still twenty-nine fragments in total,” Finn said with a smile, “It’s complete!”

At this moment, as all the fragments touched together, a faint glow, resembling flames, lit up slightly on these fragments.

He Ao unraveled the rubber band binding the fragments, mixing the stacked fragments with the one in his hand.

Finn used two rubber bands to tie the whole set of fragments tightly, and He Ao took some time to untie them.

Whish—

At that instant, a mass of flames suddenly erupted from all the fragments, enveloping them and carrying them skyward.

Within the intense flames, a complete ‘six-inch’ photo slowly emerged from the fire, coalescing in mid-air.

As the flames dissipated, the photo gradually floated down.

He Ao reached out and caught the photo.

The surface of the photo was covered in a layer of deep black, obscuring the specific content inside.

Only faintly, could flickering trails of flame be seen passing through it.

“Are you going to that ‘Inner Space’ next?” Finn looked up, glancing at He Ao and Reid.

“Yes.” He Ao put away the photo and nodded slightly.

“I promised them before to go to the newcomer room and prepare for the newcomers,” Finn chuckled, “so I won’t be going with you.”

He glanced at the empty corridor and smiled, “Don’t worry about me; the security caught a misbehaving kid once, and as long as you don’t make the same mistake twice, they won’t catch you again. Besides, I can call security from the classroom anytime; even the School Workers won’t dare come in.”

“Alright then,” He Ao looked at him, pausing for a moment, “let’s go down together.”

“Okay.” Finn nodded.

The three of them followed the stairs down to the first floor, walked through the corridor, and arrived at the doorstep of the newcomer room.

He Ao looked up and saw many children bustling inside.

As soon as Finn reached the door, several children greeted him, inviting him to go in and help.

“Shall I go in then?” Finn stood at the classroom door, pointing inside.

He was about to turn around and enter the classroom as he spoke.

“Finn.” At this moment, He Ao suddenly called out to him.

“What is it?” Finn turned his head, gazing at He Ao, puzzled.

He Ao looked at him, paused quietly for a moment, then slowly asked, “Are we friends?”

Finn was slightly taken aback, then lifted his head, his half-lowered eyelids raising to reveal that trademark bright smile, “Of course we are, we have always been friends.”

Having said that, he waved at He Ao, “I’ll go in and help now, Loren, good luck to you guys!”

“Alright!” He Ao nodded with a smile.

At this moment, he seemed to remember something, raised his hand, and handed the two rubber bands to Finn.

Finn looked at the rubber bands, hesitated slightly, then came over, took one of the rubber bands, placed it on his wrist, then waved at He Ao, “Bye-bye.”

With that, he turned and walked into the classroom.

The rain outside was pouring down, seemingly extending like the passage of time in one’s field of vision.

“What is it?” Reid, standing beside, asked softly.

“Just remembered something.” He Ao chuckled casually, placing the remaining rubber band on his hand.

He suddenly understood why he had encountered Finn immediately upon entering.

Perhaps, on the day Loren left, Finn was the only one who noticed Loren’s absence and came out searching for him.

“He is a genuinely good person.”

Reid watched Finn’s back as he entered the classroom, sighing.

Before coming in, he had actually been vigilant about Finn, though even now, that vigilance hadn’t entirely dissipated, it had lessened considerably.

“Perhaps,” He Ao nodded slightly, “but such good people don’t live to adulthood.”

Reid paused slightly, sinking into silence.

Everything happening here was merely a reflection of six years ago.

The real Finn had died in the great fire six years ago.

“Let’s go.”

He Ao looked away, focusing on the corridor, heading towards the back door.

Reid quickly followed him.

The two soon crossed the corridor, just as Finn had said, after being ‘caught,’ the security wouldn’t pursue them again.

Opening the back door, the patrolling security was still on patrol, and the pond in front of the door remained.

He Ao and Reid exchanged glances, watching as the security left, then fully opened the door.

He Ao retrieved the photo from his bosom, grasped it, and extended his hand towards the reflection in the water curtain.

Soon, the photo was submerged into the reflection, along with He Ao’s fingers.

At that moment, a tremendous pulling force surged from the water.

He Ao immediately reached out, grabbing Reid beside him.

Their figures seemed to plunge into a massive whirlpool, falling into the water.

Not far away, the security guard turned his head, glanced at the open door, seemingly pondering, but soon abandoned the thought, turned back, and continued patrolling.

Raindrops fell rapidly onto the water’s reflection, creating ripples.

The two figures appeared in that reflection at that moment.