The Resurgence Management Office buzzed with agitation.
After Wang Dong suddenly shouted, a crowd quickly surged in.
Ma Xiaofeng had just gone to fetch the technician and was a bit dumbfounded when he returned.
“What happened?”
Wang Dong’s lips were dry, his gaze flickering. “We hooked the real one.”
“Then why do you all look like this?” Ma Xiaofeng was stunned for a moment, somewhat surprised.
If they had hooked the real one, didn’t that mean Third Squad’s plan had succeeded halfway?
Why did everyone look so strange?
He looked toward the captain, only to see the captain’s rugged face even more weathered as he turned around with a complicated tone.
“This guy wants to buy a map.”
No one had expected that after using the bizarre incident as bait to lure the other party, it would take the hook so boldly.
Not only did it appear, but it even dared to continue shopping—and what it wanted to buy was a “Mengjia City full city map”…
No one knew whether to call the other side arrogant or fearless.
“What the hell does it want to do?”
Yin Liao couldn’t help staring at the screen as he asked.
Through the specially set internal channel, they could clearly see the other party’s browsing records and search history, but anything beyond that was unknown.
As for why the other party wanted to buy a “Mengjia City map”?
And what it planned to do after buying it?
They had no clue at all.
Lu Jingshan gave a bitter laugh, realizing he had thought too simply. The mindset of bizarre entities wasn’t so easy to fathom.
Even if they realized the other side was devouring its own kind, that bit of information was still too scant.
The Resurgence Management Office fell quiet. After a good while, Ma Xiaofeng lightly coughed.
“So… we just let it pick out the map like this?”
Lu Jingshan glanced at him. “What else can we do?”
“Can you control its searches over there?”
This was just a synchronized viewing platform; they couldn’t remotely manipulate it. And who knew if sudden interference would anger the other side?
The atmosphere in the air grew heavy.
A few minutes later, Bo Ting searched for Mengjia City maps on the Mangmang Shopping Platform and found quite a few available.
There were even children’s illustrated versions and colored drawing editions.
But… tsk.
They were pretty expensive.
Staring at the numbers on the app, Bo Ting hesitated again.
Well… maybe wait until the neighbors woke up and crowdfund it?
Everyone probably needed a map of this transmigrated city, right?
He had waited all afternoon, and the elderly folks who had stayed up all night finally woke up unhurriedly.
Perhaps because they had discussed it all night, everyone accepted things much faster the next morning after waking.
Even Bo Ting was a bit surprised at how quickly Aunt Qian next door accepted it.
“Sigh, transmigrated? Fine, transmigrated it is.”
“This old bag of bones didn’t expect to catch a trend like this.”
Aunt Qian sighed, then dove back into lively chatting in the group.
Bo Ting was impressed, thinking the elderly had the best mindset. He had panicked for a few minutes when he first found out, but they adjusted so quickly.
“Since we’ve transmigrated to an unfamiliar place, we need to stick together even more and not panic.”
Elder Wen, showing strong leadership, boosted morale.
Bo Ting couldn’t help but give a thumbs-up.
“Well said, Uncle Wen.”
“Uncle Wen’s got it!”
Likes popped up one after another in the group, and Elder Wen grew a bit embarrassed.
“You’re too kind, too kind.”
“This old man is just speaking the truth.”
“After all, we’ve been neighbors for so many years, left and right. Now we’ve transmigrated together.”
“We should look out for each other more.”
“Right,” Elder Wen suddenly remembered something.
“Since we’ve all transmigrated, doesn’t that mean our previous report on that illegal building was a mistake?”
The group fell silent abruptly.
Bo Ting: …
Damn, he had almost forgotten—that report email was one he had sent.
Had he already ended up on a blacklist?
Bo Ting kind of wanted to go back to a week ago and stop his past self from sending that email.
But at this point, regretting it was useless. He let out a heavy breath.
“Ours was such a messy report; probably no one even looked at it, right?”
Noticing Bo Ting’s awkwardness, Sister Han stepped in.
“Maybe it didn’t even send successfully.”
“Don’t overthink it, Little Bo. It’s been so long; definitely fine.”
Once reminded, everyone gradually recalled the previous absurd incident, their moods a bit complicated.
In the end, Sister Han changed the subject.
“Since we’ve transmigrated, what do we do now?”
Unsure of the outside situation, everyone acted cautiously. Even Building 4, full of rowdy kids, didn’t clamor to go out.
Bo Ting relaxed. “I searched online; the shopping platform sells maps of this city. Should we buy one?”
“To study it properly.”
As the first in the group to discover the transmigration truth, Bo Ting’s words immediately got a strong response.
“Buy a map?”
“Good idea.”
“Perfect, us old folks can understand it too.”
Elder Wen was the first to support, and the other residents didn’t object, clearly thinking it was a solid plan.
Bo Ting nodded in satisfaction. “Then I’ll place the order?”
Since it was for everyone, the group quickly crowdfunded the map fee.
After clicking to receive it, Bo Ting thought of Mr. Xu.
Wonder if Mr. Xu was done with his work?
Did he have time to help buy something else?
Tch, no ID was such a hassle; he couldn’t even receive deliveries now.
Bo Ting pursed his lips, glad he had met such a friendly and kind online friend like Mr. Xu beforehand. Otherwise, he’d be totally lost now.
A few minutes later, Bo Ting tentatively sent a “Hi.”
Xu Qinglai had just finished a call from the Resurgence Management Office when he saw the timid orange cat emoji.
“Mr. Xu, I might need to trouble you again this afternoon.”
“Could you help me buy something else?”
Though he didn’t know why other deliveries couldn’t enter the neighborhood but Mr. Xu’s previous purchase could, Bo Ting didn’t dwell on it. He simply poked Mr. Xu’s avatar.
“I can pay half the proxy fee!”
The savvy Bo Ting added, feeling a bit embarrassed.
His requests did seem a bit too many.
Once the ID issue was solved, he’d definitely treat Mr. Xu to a proper meal!
Xu Qinglai paused, feeling a subtle shift. He didn’t look at the red envelope Bo Ting sent.
Instead, he recalled the recent call from the Resurgence Management Office.
“What do you want to buy?”
“I can just buy it for you directly.”
It seemed the Resurgence Management Office’s contact with Bo Ting’s side wasn’t going smoothly?
He thought thoughtfully.
Bo Ting lightly coughed, not expecting Mr. Xu to be so good-tempered without any impatience. He couldn’t help explaining.
“Just a map.”
“Thing is, my account’s having issues; might not be able to shop online for a bit.”
Xu Qinglai nodded. “No problem.”
“If you need anything, just let me know in time.”
He smiled and clicked the link, buying the map for Bo Ting just like last time. But after paying, his doubts grew.
Last time, the dog food could be for that bone dog. But this time?
What did Bo Ting need a map for?
Various guesses flashed through his mind, but Xu Qinglai kept a natural expression on the surface.
He was just more curious about the Resurgence Management Office’s updates.
On the other side, Bo Ting happily saw Mr. Xu place the order. No longer anxious, he leaned back on the sofa relaxedly.
Same-city express delivery should arrive by tomorrow morning, right?
Resurgence Management Office:
After waiting a whole afternoon, the bizarre entity that had browsed the shopping page searched for “Mengjia City map” and then went still again.
No, not still.
Not dormant. After searching around on the Mangmang Shopping Platform for a while, the account exited and switched to another major shopping platform.
Fortunately, that platform had also been set with an encrypted page.
The technician had just breathed a sigh of relief.
But a few minutes later, under everyone’s watchful eyes, the browsing account switched back again?
Technician: …
Cough, what was this?
Toying with their mentality?!
Everyone’s expressions turned odd. Just as Third Squad braced for the bizarre entity to buy the Mengjia City map and pull off something big…
The account finally stayed on the original Mangmang Shopping Platform. One minute, two minutes, three minutes later… it suddenly went gray.
Wang Dong: ???
“Wait, it logged off?”
His voice was incredulous, as if he had no idea what had happened.
Not just him—the Ability Users in the entire office were dumbfounded.
Seriously? It fiddled around back and forth, searching maps, checking versions, wasting all this time… just to log off?
What was with all that deliberate clicking earlier?
Yin Liao twitched his mouth. “Maybe it changed its mind and didn’t want to buy today.”
“Of course, there’s another possibility…”
He paused slightly, his expression turning serious.
“That it saw through our fishing attempt from the start and was deliberately scaring us just now.”
“Scaring us?”
Wang Dong subconsciously echoed.
Lu Jingshan sighed. “Maybe think of it as a show of force?”
“Messing with our heads so we don’t pull any more tricks?”
Unable to communicate with the bizarre entity, they couldn’t pinpoint the true intent behind its series of actions. They could only say…
“Good thing it didn’t actually buy the map, right?”
“That’s one piece of good news at least.”
The office atmosphere gradually eased. Lu Jingshan rubbed his brow.
“And it does prove that, out of our sight, it continues browsing various pages.”
“Even as we speculated, very interested in its own kind.”
The data showed this account lingered longest on the “Golden Summit Night Crying Woman” incident.
Seemed… most interested in that one?
Lu Jingshan stared at the computer screen. Beyond the initial “warning,” his mind started buzzing with activity again.
…
The next morning, Bo Ting was a bit dazed.
Was he unlocking his phone wrong?
Otherwise, why did the screen pop up with that familiar ad from yesterday as soon as he opened it?
Fine, the “Golden Summit Night Crying Woman” on shopping apps was one thing, but now even his text messages had it?
This ad was everywhere?
He frowned and dragged it to the trash in one minute.
Bo Ting set down his phone to wash up, but as he turned his head, it vibrated again with another ad.
Bo Ting: …
The exact same spam text repeated, making him almost think he’d been pranked with some harassment package.
And the harassment was about bizarre incidents, no less.
In his inbox, eerie photos appeared one after another.
Caught off guard, it nearly stopped Bo Ting’s breath, but his naturally stoic face kept him from cursing out loud.
What the hell was this?
Yesterday it was at least a forest view in the mountains; today the photo had a crying silhouette?
Bo Ting frowned deeply, recalling those trash eerie chain photos from high school rumors.
You know, “forward this photo to a hundred people or bad luck will strike.”
He suspected he’d been mass-spammed by some unlucky group.
Damn.
Who was this malicious?
He stared at the eye-searing silhouette in the photo for two seconds, then expressionlessly looked away, feeling extremely unlucky first thing in the morning.
“Doudou, come here.”
“Woof woo?”
What for?
Doudou tilted its head curiously, let out an “awoo,” and trotted over, thinking the human was about to feed it dog food, tail wagging.
Seeing Bo Ting raise his hand, it eagerly pushed its dog head forward.
The next second—it got a hand landing on its head and rubbing it vigorously.
“Alright.”
“Misfortune transferred.”
Bo Ting’s face only darkened for an instant before he felt a bit smug again. “Its curse has been broken now!”
Doudou: …?
Gouzi looked completely baffled. Bo Ting cleared his throat lightly. When Doudou’s scarlet eyes turned to look at him, he soothingly pinched the dog’s ears.
“It’s fine. I was just joking with you.”
“By the way, I’m rewarding you with a can of pet food today.”
Pet food?
Doudou, who had never tried this brand of canned food before, quickly had its attention diverted and stopped dwelling on what had just happened.
It pawed at Bo Ting with its two front legs and leaped up excitedly.
Bo Ting was knocked backward by Gouzi and nearly fell onto the sofa.
“Stop, stop, stop.”
“If you jump again, no food for you.”
With that one sentence, the massive Gouzi quieted down and began whimpering like a small dog.
Bo Ting twitched the corner of his mouth. He turned to watch Doudou to prevent it from charging over, then went to the cabinet to fetch the canned food.
That said, speaking of canned food…
His map should have arrived by now, right?
Bo Ting pulled out his phone and checked. Sure enough, he saw the messages in the group chat.
“Little Bo’s purchase arrived pretty fast.”
“I saw it in the security booth during my morning exercise.”
“Is this the delivery box?”
Elder Wen sent a photo.
Bo Ting opened it to verify the address and recipient, then replied in the group chat.
“Yes, that’s the one, Uncle Wen.”
“You can open it right there and share it in the group for everyone to see.”
After all, it was something they had crowdfunded, practically the neighborhood’s communal property.
“Got it, Little Bo.”
Elder Wen replied and opened the package right there in the neighborhood garden.
The deluxe edition map soon appeared before his eyes.
Elder Wen took out his phone, studied it, snapped several photos, and sent them to the chat group.
“This map looks pretty legit.”
A few minutes later, the Upstart Bro big brother from Building 1 popped up.
Unable to understand it, he could only offer some pretentious commentary.
It was early morning, so not many people were online, and only a few noticed in the group.
Bo Ting watched as Gouzi turned to eat its canned food. He rubbed his shoulders, freshly squeezed himself a glass of orange juice and some toasted bread for breakfast, then sat on the balcony eating while looking at the photos.
That said, he had been curious about this map for a long time.
Especially after learning about the transmigration, he was even more eager to explore the layout of the outside city.
However, at a glance, Mengjia City’s map… was indeed different from their own city.
Bo Ting opened it and immediately spotted Anya Street, which Mr. Xu had mentioned last time. It was right in the most central area of Mengjia City, very prominent.
There was also “Rong’an Building.”
Was that where Mr. Xu worked?
It looked impressive!
Twelve districts of various sizes were distributed across the map.
After glancing at Mr. Xu’s district, Bo Ting grew curious about which district they had transmigrated to.
After all, it concerned their future lives.
But the text on the map was too dense, making his eyes ache after staring for a while.
Fortunately, after zooming in and searching along the landmarks for a long time, Bo Ting finally found the location of “Yunhe Convenience Store.”
“Wenhua District, huh.”
Not bad.
Bo Ting nodded slightly. As he looked at this obscure suburban spot that wasn’t easy to notice, a smile just crept onto his face. The next second, he turned his head and saw the pristine natural landscape near their neighborhood…”Jinding Peak.”
Wait—Bo Ting’s eyes suddenly widened:
—Their neighborhood was now near that Jinding Peak with the eerie incident?!
