Chapter 1380: Blue Wall
She could not stop running.
Running at high speed, the strong wind blew Lin Sanjiu's long hair, fluttering around her ears. Occasionally, strands of jet-black hair scraped past her eyes, then quickly disappeared. Even though she was running, her hands and feet were still cold. It took great effort for her to resist the urge to reach out and tear off her hair.
Not only were her pupils lighter in color, but her hair color was also somewhat browner than that of the average Asian. During the ten-plus months she spent in the modern world, she kept her hair short, like a boy's. Which meant that the long black hair fluttering in the wind was not her own.
Or rather, her hair had become like this the moment the Blue Wall Watcher had stuck to her back.
What would happen if she was touched by him again?
No matter how fast she ran, the Blue Wall Watcher remained about ten meters behind her. However, the moment she slowed down, the sound of his chair being pulled closer would resound, and he would approach her. She had to keep running at her top speed, avoiding anything colored blue in her field of vision.
"Don't stop running," the grand prize said from the communicator, interrupted intermittently by the wind. "If he catches up, you'll start to turn into a Blue Wall Watcher. Give me a few minutes. There must be some clues in this town. Just a few minutes..."
The Blue Wall Watchers also chased Silvan and Nu Yue, the stronger ones in their respective groups. This clearly was the standard for the Blue Wall Watchers in selecting their targets; they wanted to keep the strongest person occupied, unable to do anything other than run.
The three were forced to maintain their highest speed. When Silvan ran by at high speed, it was like a thunderous lightning rushing across the ground. However, he was still quite comfortable, and while running, he blew up all the blue cars on the road ahead for the two.
The blue wall seemed to refer to any blue background, so anything larger than a person and colored blue could trigger a Blue Wall Watcher.
All attacks, hindrances, and items thrown at the Blue Wall Watchers were as ineffective as a breeze against a rock, fading away silently. The remaining people dared not continue to look for Blue Wall Watchers. They had shifted from fearing not finding them to fearing finding them. Yet time kept passing, and the figures on the town's numerous TV screens were getting closer and closer.
"Do you have any clues yet?" Lin Sanjiu asked, her words almost swallowed by the gust of wind.
"No... not yet," Ji Shanqing said in a tight voice. He seemed to be talking to himself more than answering her. "The countdown is on the screen... there are no people in each household... no people... Where have the residents gone?"
In the whooshing wind, the sound of a chair leg scraping was clear and distinct, once again drawing near.
Gritting her teeth, Lin Sanjiu abruptly leaped towards a two-story building beside her. As she somersaulted onto the roof, she didn't have time to look back. With a push from her feet, she leaped towards the lamppost in mid-air. Her hands tightly gripped the post, and her body flipped in the air, landing her feet on the thin pole. Looking down, the Blue Wall Watcher on the road below had stopped moving, and she could only see a dark head.
'Great, that thing can't get up here.'
Lin Sanjiu quickly bent down to pick up the communicator, saying, "Guys, quickly jump to..."
She stopped mid-sentence. She stared at the communicator in her hand, then at the suit sleeve on her arm, and suddenly forgot what she was going to say.
A back seated on a chair was lightly touching her.
In her mind, it was like a television screen losing its signal; memories, emotions, and thoughts flickered slightly. By the time she reacted, Lin Sanjiu had found herself off-balance and falling to the ground. This sudden shock brought her back to her senses. She quickly twisted her body in the air, managing to land on her feet. Not waiting to catch her breath, Lin Sanjiu desperately dashed forward, tearing off the suit on her body in a few moves.
"Sis, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she squeezed out amidst her labored breathing, "though I almost got assimilated again."
"If a Blue Wall Watcher touches you, you'll transform into one," Silvan said over the communicator, chuckling with a hint of helplessness—even he seemed at a loss for how to handle these indestructible, untouchable Blue Wall Watchers. "It's probably the town's residents chasing us right now."
"I was thinking the same. They're all a bit different from the real target, probably the transformed town residents," the grand prize murmured. "But there couldn't possibly be only three people in the whole town... huh?"
Lin Sanjiu's heart skipped a beat. "Did you think of something?"
"H-how did I no notice earlier?" the grand prize said, his voicing trembled slightly. "Every household's mailbox here is stuffed full of mail."
Come to think of it, she remembered that the first house they entered also had a full mailbox at the entrance. "So?"
"Isn't it strange that mail is still being delivered even though all the town's residents have disappeared?" Ji Shanqing exclaimed.
Lin Sanjiu's blood rushed to her head. During her run, she aimed in a direction. With one punch, she shattered a residential mailbox at a doorway. The white letters exploded in mid-air. As her hand quickly passed through them, they disappeared and transformed into cards.
"The letters are hints," Ji Shanqing said a dozen seconds later, seemingly having received a letter too. "Everyone, go check for yourselves. There are eyewitness reports of Blue Wall Watchers in the mailboxes!"
What he referred to as eyewitness reports were flyers. A new one would be put in the mailbox every day. Lin Sanjiu, while running, glanced at a few and found she had received three to four eyewitness reports.
"8/28 eyewitness report: A Blue Wall Watcher has been spotted on highway I9 outside the town. Please be cautious if traveling and avoid encounters."
"8/29 eyewitness report: A Blue Wall Watcher has been spotted near 79 Bruce Street, Lee's, Duke's, and White's households in the vicinity. Please be cautious and avoid encounters."
"8/30 eyewitness report: A Blue Wall Watcher has been spotted near the town square. Residents of the kindergarten and park, please be cautious and avoid encounters."
In other words, a Blue Wall Watcher would appear in a new place every day, and any resident who encountered it would start to turn into a Blue Wall Watcher. Once a person transformed and disappeared, the rest of the townspeople would still live in fear of the daily eyewitness reports until the whole town disappeared.
Wait... Didn't Silvan see a Blue Wall Watcher in the kindergarten before?
Silvan was one step ahead of her, saying, "The places where Nu Yue and I each encountered a Blue Wall Watcher were mentioned in the eyewitness reports. Everyone, look for a report about 128 Pine Cone Street. If there is one, it means that the townspeople were turned into Blue Wall Watchers at the location of the sightings and still linger. If we approach recklessly, we'll activate them and be relentlessly pursued until we become Blue Wall Watchers. These flyers can be used as trap indicators!"
Unfortunately, they discovered this a step too late.
The remaining posthumans who had not been pursued by the Blue Wall Watcher hurriedly responded over the communicator, apparently all flipping through their flyers, as the rustling sound of papers did not cease for a moment. Lin Sanjiu cast a hurried glance back, and from the corner of her eye, she saw the Blue Wall Watcher lifting an arm. Alarmed, she hurriedly picked up her pace and turned into a side street, asking, "How much time do we have left?"
"Ten minutes," Ji Shanqing replied. "I found another eyewitness report, sis. Pay attention to the street signs. Don't go on Songqing Road!"
From her quick glance earlier, this road seemed to be called 'Mary's.' Lin Sanjiu sped up towards the next street; the street sign at the crossroads ahead was getting larger and clearer—the letters for Songqing Road were marked right above the cross-shaped street diagram, right next to her current location on Mary's Road. If she had been a few seconds later, she would have run straight into Songqing Road.
Lin Sanjiu had just hastily put on the brakes when the sound of dragging chairs abruptly closed in from behind her. Without even a chance to catch her breath, she turned and ran to the left, straight into someone's backyard. Upon her hasty glance just now, she noticed that this family's fence, car, roof, and curtains did not have a hint of blue; without a blue backdrop, there wouldn't be any Blue Wall Watchers. Just passing through should be safe.
Besides, if she didn't charge into this house, she'd end up on Songqing Road.
Lin Sanjiu grabbed the fence with one hand and vaulted over it. Her timing was too tight, and by the time she retracted her hand, strands of hair brushed across the back of her hand.
When she raised her eyes, even though she was standing on brick ground baked hot by the sun, she suddenly felt like she had fallen into an ice cellar.
In the blue swimming pool in the backyard, a back dressed in a suit faced her, with black hair spread out like a spider web.