Blind Spot

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Thud.

Following a muffled impact, Meng Dongdong was flung to the ground by a female instructor with an effortless shoulder throw onto the cushioned indoor wrestling mat.

She breathed heavily, trying to force the excess carbon dioxide from her overexerted body, but the massive consumption of her physical strength made it impossible.

Lack of oxygen, discomfort, the urge to vomit.

All sorts of negative sensations surged within her.

"I... can't go on..." Meng Dongdong lay on the ground and struggled to speak.

"In close combat, what you need is burst strength and the key moment and angle to exert force," the female instructor said soothingly, "With such little time, you can't learn many techniques, so according to your father's request, we will only train one technique. Master it thoroughly until it's second nature, make it practical, and it can play a huge role at a critical moment."

"I understand..." Meng Dongdong nodded.

"Get up, I've heard the opponent you're going to face is also a novice, so as long as you keep practicing this move, you should be able to easily handle them," the instructor said with a smile.

Meng Dongdong gritted her teeth; she knew that if she wanted to survive, she had to give her all in training during this period.

She had also started practicing with firearms at the designated shooting range; this time, she decided that as soon as she got into a blind spot, she would seize the opportunity to draw her gun and kill the other person.

After all, there was a clear difference in physical strength between men and women from birth, so she had to compensate for this disparity as much as possible.

"Good that you understand. Let's go again," the female instructor said, seeing Meng Dongdong stand up. She immediately stepped back two paces to simulate an appropriate distance.

Outside the room, through the glass window, a slightly overweight, middle-aged man with graying hair watched Meng Dongdong train inside with a gentle gaze.

"Boss," a bald man approached him from the side and came up behind him.

"What is it?" The middle-aged man was Meng Dongdong's father, Meng Mingcheng.

"The people we hired made a mistake. We tracked down one of them, but the files of the other have been redacted, and our access to the records is also blocked. Our people were even warned by a stronger hacker," the bald man explained in a low voice.

Meng Mingcheng fell silent for a moment.

"It seems that the waters run deep here."

"So Boss, what do we do now?" the bald man asked, frowning.

"In the short term, we can't find a stronger hacker. Since we can't get the information, let's secure other things first. Bulletproof vests, helmets, rapid physical strength supplements," Meng Mingcheng instructed.

"They're already being arranged. Also, do we need the Flying Yi?" the bald man tentatively asked.

"Flying Yi is powerful, but Dongdong can't use it. When the distance is too close, focusing on guns and combat is better," Meng Mingcheng said with clarity.

"Understood."

"Go on, you have worked hard. After this matter is settled, I'll give you a 10% share in the club," he said.

"Thank you, Boss!" The bald man's face lit up and he quickly responded.

"Do well, you're the person I trust the most, and I won't let you down!" Meng Mingcheng turned around and patted his shoulder.

The issue with the hacker made it clear to him that the other side might also have powerful backing, and thus... they might have bulletproof vests too.

In that case, ordinary firearms might not be of use, and they must switch to something with greater power...

He wasn't worried that the opponent would switch to stronger bulletproof vests. In an era where weapons far exceeded protection, the best bulletproof vests that an average person could bear were only strong enough to barely block the weakest pistol bullets.

Even so, the bullets could still break bones through the vest.

As for gear that could block Magnum Pistol rounds, the weight was not something an average person could bear.

*

*

*

Qingrun Flora Base.

Inside the greenhouse, rows of rectangular shelves hung densely with white Wisteria flowers.

The greenhouse was divided into three vertical lines.

The one on the far right was filled entirely with White Wisteria.

Between the three vertical lines were pathways for people to walk through.

At that moment, a little girl in a yellow T-shirt and jeans with twin ponytails slowly walked down the right pathway leading a young man with ordinary black hair into the interior.

They were steadily approaching the White Wisteria.

"Boss, how much are you planning to buy all at once? You mentioned you wanted to use them to build a private garden, right? To be honest, if you buy too few White Wisteria, you won't get the scope effect, and it won't be impressive enough.

If the boss could purchase more than a hundred saplings at once, distribute them in one area, and when they bloom, the impact would be completely different. One of our customers bought five hundred ten-year saplings at once, and after planting and blooming, that place became a hot spot for internet celebrities," the little girl kept on advocating the benefits of buying more.

Li Chengyi, meanwhile, approached these White Wisteria, moving forward and reaching out to touch a cluster of flowers hanging down.

Hiss.

A cool sensation quickly enveloped the back of his hand.

'Floral Dress Evolution Progress: 2%'

'3%'

'5%'

'7%'

A series of notifications flowed into his mind. On a plane visible only to Li Chengyi himself, the back of his right hand began glowing with a faint purple light.

While managing the little girl's pitch, he continued to switch flowers, absorbing the essence of the flowers.

The evolution progress steadily increased, soon reaching double digits.

That cool stream of essence kept pouring into his hand, occasionally coursing through his entire body just as it had at the beginning.

But as the essence continued to flow into him, the purple glow on his hand grew brighter and more dazzling.

Soon, the evolution progress reached 20%, but the little girl was beginning to grow impatient. She had been talking for so long that her mouth was almost dry, yet the man in front of her still seemed unconvinced and showed no sign of wanting to buy.

"If you're worried about the survival rate being too low, you can buy older saplings. We have eight-year-old and ten-year-old White Wisteria here, and even twenty-year-olds, though they are a bit more expensive..."

"I'd like to take an overall look first and then decide," Li Chengyi said earnestly, nodding, "I'm curious, can these blooming vines be directly transplanted and taken away?"

"Of course that won't do, but with the use of grafting technology, it's actually the same as transplanting the whole tree. Although survival rates are affected, the latest automatic care devices now allow even the most inexperienced person to easily keep a plant alive. If the boss buys in bulk now, you can get a 20% discount for ten sets or more...."

Li Chengyi kept asking questions, then continually touched strands of White Wisteria, sensing a rapid evolutionary improvement, his anticipation grew even more.

'51%'

'55%'

'58%'

By this time, the data had risen to the fifties, and to Li Chengyi's delight, the White Wisteria blossoms in the back provided much more evolution than those in the front.

"These White Wisteria flowers are different from the ones in the front, right?" he asked softly.

"Yes, these are all over fifteen years old, so of course, the price is higher." The young girl answered.

"I see." Li Chengyi kept reaching out to touch, unable to reach some that were too high, but most were within reach.

The speed of evolutionary improvement grew faster and faster.

He pondered thoughtfully.

Maintaining and evolving the Floral Dress by himself was too slow. After realizing that the abundance of Flowers was related to their age, he understood that his best option was to take over an existing floral base.

Money, it always comes down to money.

Time slipped by, and the young girl led Li Chengyi all around until they had touched all the White Wisteria flowers, and the evolution finally reached 100%.

Li Chengyi left reluctantly.

At this point, the Evil Flower had completed the basic evolution of the Floral Dress, and what followed was Evil Thoughts.

'The way to absorb Evil Thoughts is to make those harboring them against me change their minds until the Evil Thoughts completely disappear. So, how do I determine if someone has Evil Thoughts towards me?'

With that question in mind, Li Chengyi refused the young girl's suggestion to buy some flowers, and left in the face of her nearly collapsing gaze, shamelessly waving goodbye and turning to leave.

After more than two hours, he hadn't bought a single seedling....

Li Chengyi knew he was being somewhat unreasonable, so he didn't look back, hastened his pace, and quickly hailed a cab back to the city center.

Although the salary from Xindela was settled daily, it was only a little over six hundred a day, hardly enough to save much money, not to mention he had no place to plant even if he bought any.

Now that the evolution was complete, he was just an Evil Thought away from fully upgrading the Floral Dress.

But it was with this one Evil Thought that Li Chengyi, upon returning, continued to train, observe, search, and try.

Aside from occasionally experiencing a rise in Evil Thoughts for no reason while walking home on the street, there was no other change.

Days went by.

He gradually adapted to the training at Hongjin Company.

Endurance, sprinting, firearms use and evasion, and basic combat all showed significant progress.

Of course, he was still far from what the instructor deemed qualified, but at least he had some basic skills.

Especially in being able to identify the models of firearms used by opponents, whether they were automatic, the number of bullets, etc., this was very meaningful.

Memorizing hard and with the instructor's detailed explanation of the characteristics of various handguns, Li Chengyi had a reasonable amount of confidence.

Over a month had passed.

Finally, some news came from Xindela concerning the Blind Spot he had described; they had found the real location with the highest match.

Finding the real-world counterpart was a key step to discovering a way to completely leave.

Having learned a lot about the Blind Spot through the company, the moment he heard the news, Li Chengyi immediately rushed to the company.

Thud thud thud.

In the office with floor-to-ceiling windows, Xindela held a cup of green tea; its steaming mist rising and blurring his vision.

Hearing the knock at the door, he shifted slightly, looking towards the door's direction.

"Come in."

Click, a crisp sound.

Dressed in black sportswear, Li Chengyi entered. His outfit wasn't made of cotton but of a reflective, finely-woven tech fabric. There was a gold logo resembling a serpent on the left chest, the material was thin, with a zipper halfway down the middle.

"Boss, are you sure about the information?"

As soon as he entered, he couldn't wait to ask.

After all, it related to whether he could truly escape the Blind Spot; he couldn't help but treat it seriously.

"After using my connections and spending quite a bit of money, scouring through various urban areas, we finally found a clue," said Xindela softly.

He turned around, took out that small flashlight-like object from last time, and aimed it at the wall.

With a snap, the image projected.

An old color photograph was cast onto the wall.

It was a slanted photo of an underground parking garage.

The pale light, the long strip lights, and transverse lights split the entire garage in half, forming two distinct areas.

The black reflective floor faintly showed the blurred white parking lines.

The ceiling was also black.

On the side walls, red maintenance doors could be seen at intervals, one every so often.

"It's this one!!" The instant Li Chengyi saw the photograph, a tingling sensation surged to his heart, causing his entire facial skin to go numb.

"Exactly the same! Just like the underground garage I entered, the very same!"

"The parking lines on the ground, the color of the ceiling, the two different styles of lights, and the small doors on the side walls, the load-bearing round stone pillars...."

"Then it's correct!" Xindela's spirit also lifted. "This underground parking garage is called the Grecius Parking Garage."

"Grecius..."

"Yes, our people only found this piece of information and haven't located the actual garage," said Xindela as he took a sip of his tea.

"Why not?" Li Chengyi inquired curiously. "Now that the name is known, with the level of technology and information flow in this era, it seems impossible not to find the location, right?"

"Because," Xindela paused, "this underground garage, more than eighty years ago, was completely buried due to an earthquake."