life copy game

Chapter 1629 Friendship (Long Chapter, Requesting Monthly Tickets)

"Loren, when did you learn all this stuff!" Finn, who was being carried on Heo's shoulder, was unexpectedly excited. "You took down those school janitors in no time!"

"I learned it outside," He Ao said casually.

"You've been exposed to so many things outside?" Finn asked excitedly.

"Shh," Heo whispered, "she's coming after us."

"Who?" Finn was taken aback.

Faintly, slow footsteps could be heard behind the two.

“A ghost.” He looked up and glanced ahead.

A few noisy sounds came from ahead, and not far in front of him was the classroom that the security guards who were searching had just entered.

Behind him, faint, extremely subtle footsteps could be heard coming from the porch.

He lifted his foot and quickly moved towards that direction.

"Loren, there's a sound over there, like a security guard!" Finn said quickly.

“I know.” He Ao nodded gently.

He arrived at the classroom door quickly.

Three security guards made of ashes are walking out of the classroom.

They looked up and were slightly taken aback when they saw He Ao standing in front of the door.

Immediately, the security guard in the middle stepped forward, looked at He Ao, and said quickly, "Kid, you've broken the rules!"

The next instant, He Ao felt a huge and powerful force act on him, and it took effect instantly before he could react.

The next instant, he and Finn both vanished from their spot.

"We finally caught these troublemakers," the security guard in the middle breathed a sigh of relief as the two disappeared. "Let's go back."

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

The security guards were slightly taken aback when they saw the figure in the white dress.

The next instant, raging flames erupted from their bodies, engulfing them and burning them to ashes in the blink of an eye.

The girl in the white dress raised her head, her gaze sweeping across the empty classroom through the ashes on the ground.

After a brief pause, she slowly walked backward through the corridor to the small door she had just entered through, and then walked out through it.

After she left, the three clumps of ash on the ground slowly wriggled, like clay figures crawling up from the ground, struggling to rise up and transforming back into ash humanoid forms.

Two bright sparks lit up where the eyes should have been, and blue security uniforms crawled out of the ashes and draped over them.

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

······
On the other side of the porch, He Ao, who was hanging on the wall, watched the little girl in the white dress disappear and breathed a long sigh of relief.

He didn't even have time to react when the 'rules' took effect just a moment ago. This was indeed pure rule-based power, and it had far exceeded the scope of angels.

After a brief wait to make sure there were no issues, he manipulated the folding knife in his pocket to fly up, bumped it against the button on the buckle, and lowered himself down.

This was his first time being arrested, so he was simply hung up.

Overall, he was lucky to be hung in the opposite spot where Reed had been hung before; it was a secluded corner that was not easy to find.

Otherwise, he would have to be prepared to release himself the moment he was suspended to escape the 'ghost's' pursuit.

This kind of rule-based power is too unreasonable.

call--

He breathed a sigh of relief, picked up the folding knife that had fallen to the ground, and put it in his pocket.

He had a feeling that, as time went by, the ghost outside the door seemed to be increasing in aggression and initiative.

Whatever the reason, this is not good news.

He stood up and touched the keys in his pocket.

Fortunately, this anomaly will not cause the item to "explode" after being detected.

He quickly got up, walked through the corridor and stairwell, and went up to the second floor.

He knew exactly where the solitary confinement room was.

The original orphanage was located in this place. Loren got into a fight with the school bully and was locked up there for half a day.

Soon, at the end of the corridor on the second floor, He Ao found four small doors in a row.

This place was originally a small classroom, but it has been converted into four solitary confinement cells.

At this moment, the two middle cells of the four solitary confinement cells are closed, while the small doors on the left and right sides are open.

He picked up the keys and tried them one by one, opening one of the doors first.

As the small door opened, Reed, who was squatting in the solitary confinement cell, looked up and stared blankly at Heo.

After a brief pause, he said with slight surprise, "How do you have the key to the solitary confinement cell?"

“I’m a local, so of course I know where the key is,” He Ao shrugged and laughed.

Then he tried and opened another door.

Finn, bound tightly and looking dejected, came into view.

Before Finn could speak this time, Heo raised his spear and cut the charred ropes binding him.

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

He Ao put away his spear.

Finn looked at Heo, slightly taken aback, seemingly not understanding how Heo had opened the door.

Then he looked at the key in He Ao's hand, as if he remembered something, "Is it the gatekeeper's key?"

“Yes.” He Ao nodded gently.

Loren did steal the keys, but in the real orphanage, the gatekeeper had far more keys; the keys to all the doors that could be opened in the entire orphanage were with the gatekeeper.

Each key had a label pointing to the door it could open, and Loren looked at most of the keys in order to find the key to the main gate.

This includes the keys to the solitary confinement cell, which are four in a row and smaller than the other keys, making them very easy to identify.

When He Ao saw the four keys, he knew they were for opening the solitary confinement cell.

This is also why he dared to go directly to the security guards to escape the ghost's 'pursuit'.

Putting away the keys, Heo looked at Reed as he came out and asked, "How did you get caught?"

According to his understanding, Reed shouldn't be so easy to catch.

“He was a school janitor.” Reed didn’t hide anything and told him what had happened.

Then he looked at He Ao and Finn's somewhat strange expressions, "You two also encountered the school janitor?"

“Yes.” He Ao nodded and quickly recounted his recent experience.

“You actually managed to use security guards to evade the ghosts’ pursuit?” Reed looked at Heo and quickly understood Heo’s previous arrangement. He laughed and said, “You are really talented. In such a short time of contact with anomalies, you have learned to use the rules of anomalies to evade another rule.”

"Thank you for the compliment, but there was still a bit of luck involved," He Ao shrugged.

The power of rules is so overpowered that even a small mistake can lead to a dead end.

“Luck is also a kind of strength,” Reed shook his head and smiled, changing the subject. “Those ‘school janitors’ seem to be acting on some kind of ‘order’.”

“It should be an anomalous cult,” He Ao nodded slightly. “They must have used some method to ‘control’ these school workers. It seems they are indeed hiding in this anomalous space.”

He turned to Finn, who was listening with a somewhat bewildered expression, and said slowly, "Are those fragments still with you?"

“Yes,” Finn nodded. “Are you going into that ‘inner space’?”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a stack of black fragments. "Twenty-six in total. There are twenty-nine children in our compound."

He looked at Heo, "Do you still have the fragments of Cato and the child who got caught playing hide-and-seek?"

“Here,” Heo reached into his pocket and pulled out three fragments, “one of a child playing hide-and-seek, one of Cato, and one of a ghost.”

"Ghosts too?" Finn's eyes widened. He looked at Heo, thought for a moment, and said, "That makes a total of thirty children, and we have twenty-nine here."

He handed the fragments in his hand to He Ao, smiling as he looked at him, "Yours is the only one missing."

Upon hearing this question, Reed paused slightly.

He Ao was silent for a moment, then said slowly, "I didn't."

Upon hearing this, Finn paused, staring wide-eyed at Heo, and murmured, "You don't have one?"

Reed, watching all this, reached for his waist, his muscles instantly tensing beneath his wide clothes.

Meanwhile, Heo quietly lowered his head and gazed at Finn.

I gazed at that face with a few freckles and baby fat, and those clear, azure eyes.

Finn also watched Heo quietly.

Then, he slowly handed over the fragment in his hand, a faint smile playing on his lips. "That's good."

He Ao was slightly taken aback, then took the fragment from his hand.

“If you don’t have them, then you still have twenty-nine fragments in total,” Finn laughed. “You’ve got them all!”

At this moment, as all the fragments came together, a faint, flame-like glow began to emanate from them.

He untied the rubber bands wrapped around the fragments and mixed the stacked fragments with the ones in his hand.

Finn used two rubber bands to tightly secure the entire fragment, and it took Heo some time to untie it.

call--

At that very moment, a burst of flame erupted from all the fragments, enveloping them together and carrying them into the sky.

Amidst the intense flames, a complete 'six-inch' photograph slowly emerged from the flames and coalesced in the air.

As the flames dissipated, the photograph slowly drifted down.

He Ao reached out and took the photo.

The photo was covered by a layer of black color, making it impossible to see the specific content inside.

Only faintly, one could see streaks of flame flashing within.

"Are you going to that 'inner space' next?" Finn looked up at Howe and Reed.

"Hmm." He Ao put away the photo and nodded slightly.

“I promised them I’d go to the orientation room to prepare the welcome items,” Finn smiled, “so I won’t be going with you guys.”

He looked up at the empty corridor and laughed, “You don’t need to worry about me. The security guards have arrested a child who made a mistake once. As long as the child doesn’t make the mistake a second time, they won’t arrest him again. Besides, I can call the security guards anytime I’m in the classroom, and the school janitors won’t dare to come in.”

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

“Okay.” Finn nodded.

The three of them went down the stairs to the first floor, walked through the corridor, and arrived at the welcome classroom.

He looked up and could see many children busy inside.

As soon as Finn reached the door, many children greeted him and asked him to come in and help.

"Then I'll go in?" Finn stood at the classroom door and pointed inside.

As he spoke, he prepared to turn around and enter the classroom.

"Finn." At that moment, Heo suddenly spoke up and called out to him.

"What's wrong?" Finn turned around, looked at Heo, and asked in confusion.

He looked at him, paused for a moment, and then slowly asked, "Are we friends?"

Finn paused for a moment, then looked up, his drooping eyelids lifting to reveal his signature bright smile. "Of course, we've always been friends."

After saying that, he waved to He Ao, "I'm going in to help. Loren, good luck!"

"Okay!" He Ao nodded with a smile.

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

Finn looked at the rubber bands, paused slightly, then walked over, took one of them, put it on his hand, and waved to Heo, "Bye-bye."

After saying that, he turned around and walked into the classroom.

The rain outside was falling softly, like the flowing years stretching out in one's field of vision.

"What's wrong?" Reed asked slowly from the side.

"I just remembered something." He Ao chuckled casually, putting the remaining rubber band on his hand.

He suddenly understood why he had run into Finn when he came in.

Perhaps on the day Loren left, Finn was the only one who discovered Loren was missing and came out to look for him.

"He was a genuinely good person."

Reed watched Finn walk into the classroom and sighed.

Even before he came in, he had been on guard against Finn. Although he hadn't completely let down his guard, much of it had been dispelled.

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

Reed paused slightly and fell silent.

Everything that happened here is just a reflection of what happened six years ago.

The real Finn died in the fire six years ago.

"Let's go."

He Ao withdrew his gaze, looked down the corridor, and headed towards the back door.

Reed quickly caught up with him.

The two quickly crossed the corridor, and as Finn had said, the security guards would not search for them again after they were 'arrested'.

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

Heo and Reed exchanged a glance, watched the security guard leave, and then fully opened the door.

He Ao took out the photo from his pocket, held it in his hand, and reached out to look at its reflection in the water curtain.

Soon, the photo disappeared into the reflection, along with He Ao's finger.

At that very moment, a tremendous suction force came from the water.

He immediately reached out and grabbed Reed, who was standing nearby.

The two figures seemed to have fallen into a giant whirlpool, plunging into the water.

The security guard not far away turned around, glanced at the open door, and seemed to fall into a brief moment of thought, but soon he gave up and turned back to continue his patrol.

The rapid raindrops fell on the reflections on the water's surface, creating ripples.

Two figures appeared in the reflection at that moment.