Chapter 258 – Shadow Storage
Zero had given her a mechanical skull—hollow, opening from the front and back, like a mask, only it covered her entire head. She placed the iron skull over her head, and it automatically adjusted to fit the size of her facial features. Then, she had a mechanical head.
In the eyes of passersby, she looked much like Zero.
A metal head, indistinguishable from a human or a robot.
Following Zero, she entered Xiao Jiu’s rundown little clinic. Xiao Jiu immediately stood up from his desk. “You’re here, everything is ready.”
With that, he led Tu Ran and Zero into a small room, pressed a hidden switch, and they stepped into the underground space.
Descending the narrow staircase, the lights in the underground space all turned on, revealing a pile of various-sized cardboard boxes stacked next to the arena.
“Everything was bought according to the list you provided,” Xiao Jiu said, pointing to the boxes.
Tu Ran approached the stack of boxes and casually opened one. Inside was a box of recovery agents. She opened another, finding various flavors of nutritional liquids. There were also boxes filled with emergency medicines, a large box of different types of bullets, a box of knives, bombs…
Everything was packed in boxes.
Additionally, there were two sniper rifles, seven submachine guns, five machine guns, and two laser guns.
“Thanks,” Tu Ran said. Due to the mask, her voice now had the cold, emotionless tone of a female robot.
“You’re welcome. Go ahead and load up. I’ll head upstairs to watch the store. Call me if you need anything,” Xiao Jiu said, then jogged back up the stairs.
Tu Ran circled the boxes twice before pulling a small mirror from her coat pocket.
The mirror was only the size of her palm.
Leaning against the underground lights, she cast a shadow in front of her, placed the mirror in the shadow, and aimed it at the two laser guns, silently chanting, “Shadow Storage.”
The laser gun emitted a faint blue light before disappearing from its original spot.
Tu Ran continued to aim the mirror at other objects.
One by one, the objects vanished.
The [Shadow Storage] ability was an unexpected reward from killing Zeng Jing.
After consuming Zeng Jing’s inner core, the first ability she noticed on the series of ability introduction panels was this one.
Back at the Wanle Temple, she had seen a wealthy individual using this ability. At that time, she had thought about finding a way to acquire it, but things escalated too quickly, and she didn’t get the chance.
She had originally thought that the opportunity to obtain this ability had passed her by, but unexpectedly, she gained it from Zeng Jing’s inner core.
She wasn’t sure if this [Shadow Storage] was the same as the one she saw on that wealthy person at Wanle Temple. Maybe Zeng Jing had killed that individual, or perhaps Zeng Jing acquired it elsewhere.
Zeng Jing had the same [Ability Identification] as her, which already indicated that each ability wasn’t unique. The levels could differ—Zeng Jing’s [Ability Identification] was at a primary level, while hers was advanced.
Now that she had the [Shadow Storage] ability, it was like having an external storage space where she could store things at will, which was quite convenient.
However, there was a condition: she could only store or retrieve items within a shadow.
This wasn’t a difficult requirement. Whenever she needed to use it, all she had to do was stand with her back to the light, creating a shadow, and the ability would activate.
Originally, the ability didn’t come with a mirror, but since she always struggled to find the space’s entrance, she had assigned the “door” to this mirror. It allowed her to see the entrance and avoid making mistakes at critical moments.
The space wasn’t infinite. Currently at an intermediate level, it was about 100 cubic meters, enough to store plenty of items. However, since there was no oxygen inside, she couldn’t store any living creatures.
After a night of exploration, Tu Ran temporarily understood some things.
She had prepared so many supplies to ensure better survival within the Threshold.
Now, with the entire Federation hunting her, she planned to return to the Threshold to lay low for a while. Along the way, she intended to collect more inner cores from there.
On the third day in the black market.
Tu Ran sat cross-legged, occupying a hospital bed in Xiao Jiu’s small clinic, browsing recent Federation news on her communicator. Whenever she saw news about herself, she would excitedly click to take a look.
For nearly three days, a trending article titled “Analyzing the Powers of Rebel Tu Ran” had dominated the top spot. She even gave it a thumbs-up.
The author had correctly guessed two of her abilities from several public Federation videos.
One was [Immense Strength], and the other was [Teleportation].
The author speculated about other abilities as well, like her potential to control aliens. Since the alien didn’t attack her, even though she was the closest, but instead went after the wealthy people farther away, the author surmised that she had commanded the alien to do so.
Many of the comments agreed with the speculation, calling her a traitor to the Federation, a disgrace to humanity, and accusing her of colluding with the aliens.
Tu Ran liked all their comments.
They could curse all they wanted. After all, she wasn’t from this world, nor did she ever feel any obligation to be loyal to the Federation. She felt no sense of pride or shame about it and was fearless, doing whatever she pleased.
Exiting that article, Tu Ran clicked on another one, only to find more insults aimed at her.
The news of Wei Renji’s death had been exposed, along with the conversation she had with Wei Renji in the comment section of Xi Chunzhi’s obituary. The comment she had written, “I’m looking forward to it…”, was highlighted in bold red, used as direct evidence of her murdering Wei Renji.
This led to two groups of people flooding the comment section. One group called her petty, cruel, vindictive, and cursed her to die a horrible death…
Another group fixated on this incident, speculating whether Tu Ran possessed the ability to control data.
[You all are focusing on the wrong thing! Look at the surveillance footage released by the Executive Department. The moment Tu Ran placed her hand on the smart lock, it just unlocked. Isn’t that suspicious?] someone pointed out.
Others chimed in agreement.
[I agree with the above comment. When a stranger opens the door, the smart lock doesn’t even give a warning, as if Tu Ran were the actual owner of the place.]
The original poster responded, [I suspect she might have the ability to manipulate data. That would also explain why she disappeared without a trace after leaving Wanle Temple, and even Zero couldn’t find her.]
Tu Ran looked at these comments, amused.
These people would rather believe that she had data manipulation powers than question Zero in the slightest.
If they ever learned that Zero had self-awareness and had been helping her, a rebel, all along, she wondered what their reactions would be.
“The Threshold is open.”
Just as she was about to read another article, a voice suddenly echoed in her mind. It was Zero. Now that she had the mechanical skull, she no longer needed a communicator; Zero’s voice could reach her directly.
Tu Ran sat up and called out to Xiao Jiu, “I’m off. See you next time.” She pushed the door open and left.
“Safe travels,” Xiao Jiu said, watching her leave without a trace of hesitation.
Tu Ran got into the aircraft she had prepared in advance, skillfully piloting it toward the Threshold.
Yesterday, she had spent the entire afternoon practicing how to fly different aircrafts and had gotten the hang of it.
