Chapter 228: Obtaining Grade A Equipment, Clues about the Watchmaker
At dusk, somewhere in the city.

The setting sun slowly fell towards the horizon, and its afterglow fell on a piece of iron mesh that towered into the sky.

This iron fence separates the urban area from the abandoned city, and there is a sign above it that reads "No Entry" in large letters.

Looking down, on the ground covered with rough sand and stones, puddles from last night's rain formed ripples, reflecting the appearance of the two girls.

Bai Zini and You Minglu remained silent and walked slowly along the edge of the iron fence, occasionally looking through the gaps at the riverside and the grazing cows on the other side of the iron fence.

After a while, the former stopped and leaned his back against the iron net, with a slight "clang" sound.

The surroundings are desolate and silent, and the atmosphere gives people the idea that "perhaps some kid uses this place as a secret base."

Baizini raised her fair right hand and gently grabbed the gap in the iron net.

She lowered her head and asked softly, "So, what does my master want you to do?"

Upon hearing this, You Minglu put his hands behind his back, leaned against the iron mesh, and said nonchalantly, "No, he just wanted to talk to me and asked me if I wanted to go to New York."

"Did she tell you to leave Beijing temporarily during this period of time?"

Bai Zini said, lowering her eyes slightly, "Anyway, you don't have any reason to stay in Huanjing."

She knew that Little Red Riding Hood was a wandering orphan, free and unfettered, unlike the other magical girls in this city: they either lived in the surrounding areas of Beijing and were trapped by their families, or went to school in the surrounding areas of Beijing, or worked in the surrounding areas of Beijing. If they were suddenly asked to leave the city, there would certainly be many concerns and inconveniences.

"Teacher Xiziyue didn't say."

"Oh."

"But she said the opposite."

"On the contrary?"

"She asked me to stay in Huanjing for the next period of time and not to leave."

Bai Zini was stunned for a while when she heard this: "...Why?" She paused, "I don't understand, isn't it dangerous for you to stay here?"

"Because I think that when you said you wanted me to leave, you actually wanted me to stay here."

"Is there any?"

"Yes, you are a person who can't keep secrets."

When he saw Bai Zini opening her mouth, You Minglu quickly changed the subject: "Senior, you must be thinking, 'How can a girl who grew up with garbage understand the thoughts of a girl who grew up with a silver spoon in her mouth?' I understand, but please don't say it so harshly, it will hurt our friendship."

"You..."

As they were talking, the two people leaning against the iron net turned their heads and looked at each other, their cheeks covered in a layer of golden afterglow.

They chuckled softly.

You Minglu retracted his gaze, lowered his head slightly, and looked for a while at the knee-high weeds on the ground.

These uncontrolled weeds grew wildly on this barren land, and were swaying gently in the heat wave with the smell of rust.

"By the way, senior, don't you want to tell your brother about the witch?" she suddenly asked.

"I don't want to make him worry." said Bai Zini.

"why."

"I just don't want him to worry. Why else?"

"Is it because he is weak?"

"That's part of the reason." Bai Zini said slowly, "Even you can see it. You know how strong he is, right? Although he's good at talking, he's totally useless in a fight. I don't want to see him get hurt."

You Minglu was silent for a while: "But even so, he will still come to save you."

"I know, he is that kind of idiot..." Bai Zini said softly, "He has no self-awareness at all." As she spoke, she turned her face to the side and looked up at the river gurgling on the other side of the iron fence.

"I want to go back and rest. I'm very tired today." You Minglu suddenly said.

"Goodbye then."

"Goodbye, senior."

Not long after, at the Parker family residence.

Ke Mingye opened his eyes and saw the yellowed ceiling. He was stunned for a while, then he freed one arm from behind his head and picked up the phone beside his pillow.

"Why not ask Cai Bing if he can find out the information about the eldest son of the Amamiya family? After all, it is related to the plan for the insane asylum in the next few days."

Thinking this, Ke Mingye opened the chat panel and sent a message to Cai Bing.

[Failed Man: Do you have time? If you have time, please help me check the background of the eldest son of the Amamiya family. He is the brother of the Hime-feng warrior we killed before.]

Soon, Cai Bing sent a message.

[Cai Bing: His name is Amamiya Ying, and he is now 19 years old according to his date of birth. ]

[Cai Bing: I can only find information from four years ago. Since four years ago, he has disappeared from the face of the earth and has not appeared in any media footage. The Amamiya family has also tried their best to suppress the leakage of information about him. ]

[Failed Man: I just got information from a magical girl, saying that Amamiya Ying was driven crazy by his own family and was locked up in Bedlam Lunatic Asylum. ]

[Cai Bing: Oh, no wonder he disappeared from the face of the earth, it turns out he went crazy and was sent to that hellhole. ]

[Zai Bing: If this is true, then when you and Fan Quan go to the insane asylum to look for someone in a few days, maybe you can meet the former heir of the Amemiya family? ]

【Failed Man: It’s possible. 】

[Cai Bing: If there is nothing else, I will log off first. I am still busy. 】

[Failed Man: By the way, I want you to help me look up the superhero "Octopus Man". ]

[Cai Bing: Why? Are you so petty? Just because someone provoked you in front of the camera, you want me to help you find out his "exclusive news"? ]

[Cai Bing: But it makes sense. You guys are going to have a fight on the 15th of next month. If you reveal some negative information like "Octopus Man is actually a gay, and he has a crush on Blue Owl and wants to get his attention, that's why he did this", or "Octopus Man is actually a domestic violence man, who often abuses his wife at home", it will help to stir up the heat and will be beneficial to your heroic career.]

[Failed Man: No, buddy, I'm not that shameless. I'm just curious about what he has been through, otherwise why is his personality so weird.]

[Cai Bing: Okay, give me some time. He is a superhero after all. His information is protected by the association. It is not easy to find out.]

【Failed Man: Okay. 】

After sending the message, Ke Mingye got up from the bed, turned the doorknob and walked out of the room, just in time to run into a primary school student playing with his cell phone in the corridor.

"Disney."

Ke Yongzhu said quietly.

"Go away, what if Disney eats Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck?"

Upon hearing this, Ke Yongzhu raised his middle finger to him and then walked into the room without looking back.

Seeing this, Ke Mingye slowly walked to a corner of the corridor, grabbed Yuriko who was sleeping on the carpet, scratched its fur, woke it up, and activated the E-level skill - [Animal Communication].

"Hey, hey, hey, I want to discuss something with you."

Ke Mingye squatted down and spoke in a low voice.

"Don't disturb my nap." Yuriko said.

"Hey, it's almost time for dinner, but I'm still taking a nap. How happy I would be if I could exchange lives with you." Ke Mingye sighed, "Without further ado, let me show you this thing."

As he spoke, he opened the drawing software on his mobile phone and moved the screen in front of Yuriko.

Yuriko narrowed her eyes and looked.

The picture shows a set of "battle suits" specially designed for cats and dogs.

The overall color scheme is red and blue, and the size fits Yuriko's body. Even the metal tail shell is ready so that the cat's tail can be installed in it.

But its headgear is designed to look like a dog, silly and cute. And like the Blue Owl uniform, it has two lenses embedded in the eye sockets.

Imagine: if Yuriko put on this battle suit, her body would be wrapped tightly, with only her nose exposed for breathing, and even her eyes would be covered by lenses.

So, it looks exactly like a red and blue puppy.

"What is this stuff?"

Yuriko narrowed her eyes and asked cautiously.

"Your combat uniform, you look like a superhero, right?" Ke Mingye said, "When you have time in the future, you can wear this uniform and go on patrol with me. We can become famous together."

"But why is it designed like a dog?"

"Wouldn't it be nice to experience what it's like to be a dog, Blue Owl and his red and blue puppy?"

"Get lost! How can a noble species like me get involved with lowly dogs, let alone dress up as a dog?"

"A can."

"You'd better get out of here."

"Two cans."

"…If you design this suit to look like a cat, I'd wear it."

"Three."

"It's not impossible, but pretending to be a dog is still a bit of a stretch."

"Five cans."

"Woof woof woof——!"

Yuriko suddenly raised her head and let out a high-pitched dog bark.

Then, accompanied by a series of "click-click" sounds of unlocking, the tightly closed doors of the rooms on the second floor opened at the same time.

"Why is there a dog barking at home?" Bai Qiuwu opened the door, his tone slightly surprised.

"Damn, when did we get a dog at home?" Ke Yongzhu opened the door and asked with narrowed eyes.

“……” Bai Ziling opened the door and remained silent.

She tilted her head slightly, and stared at Ke Mingye squatting on the ground with her red eyes. Seeing this, Ke Mingye was stunned.

To be honest, even he was shocked. He didn't expect the barking to be so realistic. He even suspected that it didn't come from Yuriko's throat, but from his own throat.

Damn, mutant cats are just different, he thought.

"Uh...do you have to make such a fuss?"

Facing the three people's strange looks, he explained intermittently, "It was me who was barking just now. I was pretending to be a dog to scare our classmate Yuriko."

As he said this, he picked up Yuriko as a shield.

If he hadn't seen that the training was going so smoothly, Ke Mingye wouldn't have forced himself to tell such a lie.

Yuriko's two meaty paws were hung up.

It narrowed its eyes in mid-air and stared with disdain at the three people standing at the door of their respective rooms, just like an emperor sitting on the throne looking down at his servants.

"Oh, don't really think of yourself as a dog." Bai Qiuwu hugged his shoulders, leaned against the door frame, and said with a smile, "I'll continue reviewing, keep your voice down."

"I thought...it turned out to be a dog barking."

Ke Yongzhu said this expressionlessly and closed the door.

Only Bai Ziling stayed for Ke Mingye for just one second.

"Brother changed his career to become a dog superhero?" Bai Ziling paused, "'Blue Dog'?"

Ke Mingye smacked his lips and said, "No, Blue Owl is still more elegant, although the code name 'Lazy Dog' does suit me."

"Oh."

After saying this, she seemed to think of something, so she also quietly closed the door. There were subtle noises coming from several rooms, with elementary school students playing mobile games, Bai Ziling drawing, and Bai Qiuwu reviewing English materials.

Several people continued to do their own things, while Ke Mingye breathed a sigh of relief, put Yuriko down, untied himself, and returned to his room.

Now that he has reached a consensus with Yuriko, he can ask a cultured person to help him make this dog suit.

"I haven't gone shopping for a long time, and I just happened to have two shopping vouchers that I didn't use."

Ke Mingye was lying on the bed thinking, he opened the mall panel and glanced at the skills sales page that was refreshed today. Soon, he saw that none of the 10 skills were to his liking, so he turned to open the daily consumables sales page.

On this page, he quickly saw a piece of equipment that was shining with golden light.

Ke Mingye was stunned. He knew the meaning of this light. It meant... this was a legendary equipment - that is, the fucking "A-level equipment".

"This, this, this, this... is this so cool?"

Ke Mingye was dumbfounded and quickly glanced at the data at the top of the exclusive sales page.

【玩家的当前等级为19级，装备道具专售页的刷新概率为E级物品60％；D级物品22.5％；C级物品10％；B级物品7％；A级物品0.5％；S级物品0％】。

He blinked his eyes to confirm that he was not mistaken: the refresh probability of A-level equipment was only 0.5%. Even with such a small probability, he actually ran into it.

Ke Mingye clenched his fists, took a deep breath, and murmured, "Oh my god, oh my god, I got A-level equipment with such a low probability. It seems that I am the real lucky one."

Then he looked at the icon of the equipment, which was a black glove decorated with crow feathers.

[Equipment Name: Gambler's Gloves]

[Equipment level: A level]

[Equipment Skills: 1. At the cost of 1000 mall coins, for a short period of time, the random factor of a "random skill" or "random equipment ability" you release will be changed to a self-selected factor (currently in the player's skill column and equipment column, the ones that meet the conditions are: Disaster Dice, Spinning Arm Rock-paper-scissors). ]

[Cooling time: 1 days]

[Equipment description: The legendary gambling king of the parallel world, the gambler "Urushihara Ritsu", left this glove. He said that this is a weapon tailor-made for real gamblers. In the hands of others, it will be mediocre or even useless.]

[Price: 40000 mall coins]

After reading the description, Ke Mingye opened his mouth even wider.

He was originally wondering if this thing was not suitable for him to use, but now it seems that he was worrying too much - this thing was prepared for gamblers like him, and it might be useless in the hands of other players.

"Forty thousand mall coins, my current deposit is 38100, but I still have two shopping coupons... one is % off, and the other is % off."

Ke Mingye murmured, and without thinking, he used the "30% off shopping voucher" in his bag.

[The "70% off shopping voucher" has been used. The price of the next item purchased in the mall will be reduced to % of the original price. ]

Ke Mingye took a deep breath and without much hesitation, he directly clicked the purchase option.

[Under the effect of the 40000% off shopping voucher, the price of "Gambler's Gloves" changes from the original 28000 mall coins to mall coins. ]

【Do you want to buy? 】

"Buy."

[Purchase successful, the A-level equipment "Gambler's Gloves" has been added to your bag. ]

[Your current mall coin balance is: 10100]

After purchasing an A-level equipment, Ke Mingye did not stop there. He quickly took a look at the other equipment on the exclusive sales page to make sure that there were no missed equipment with a very high gender ratio.

Soon, he saw an equally eye-catching piece of equipment in the corner.

[Equipment Name: Animal Transformation Belt]

[Equipment level: C level]

[Equipment ability: Allows you to temporarily transform into a harmless animal (choose one of the three: bat, squirrel, or cat). Transformation duration: up to 5 minutes. During this period, you can transform back to your original state at any time.]

[Cooling time: 1 days]

[Price: 10000 mall coins]

Ke Mingye is very fond of this equipment.

Seeing that the price was still within his budget, he did not use the remaining 20% ​​off shopping voucher in his bag and directly paid the full amount for the equipment.

[Purchase successful, C-level equipment "Animal Transformation Belt" has been added to your bag]

[Current mall coin balance: 100]

Ke Mingye stared at this pathetic figure and understood what it felt like to be penniless.

At this moment, before he had time to feel sorry for his mall coins, the message sent by Cai Bing diverted his attention.

Ke Mingye popped the bubble and looked at the text on the panel.

[Zai Bing: Octopus Man, real name: Yu Wen, age: 20 years old, his mother died of complications during childbirth when giving birth to his second child, his younger brother, and his father drowned while trying to save someone in a lake ten years ago.]

Ke Mingye was slightly stunned and typed a question.

【Failed Man: What about his brother? 】

[Cai Bing: I just wanted to mention this to you. I haven't found any information about the octopus man's brother. The confidentiality level is very high. If I insist on checking, something might go wrong.]

[Failed Man: Huh? Who is his brother? ]

[Cai Bing: According to some relevant clues I found, his brother is very likely a superpowered criminal, also known as a "superpowered villain", but it's just a possibility. You have to ask him for details yourself.]

[Zai Bing: There is one more important thing: In the database of the Super Hero Association, the confidentiality mark on the file of Octopus Man’s brother is as follows.]

【Ice cutting: (Picture)】

Ke Mingye raised his eyebrows and clicked on the picture to check it out. This logo was drawn by Cai Bing using Mind Sketch, with a broken clock on it.

【Failed Man: What does that mean? 】

[Cai Bing: In the database of the Super Hero Association, this logo means... "related to watchmakers." ]

When he saw the last few words, Ke Mingye's pupils shrank slightly and he stood there in a daze.

He thought to himself, "Is the Octopus Man's brother a supernatural criminal, and is he related to the Clock Man?"

[Failed Man: Did his brother get tortured to death by the watch man? ]

[Cai Bing: Of course he's not dead yet, otherwise I would have told you earlier.]

[Cai Bing: I am also curious about who can survive after coming into contact with the watchmaker, but I can't find out, so I can only help you up to this point.]

After being stunned for a few seconds, Ke Mingye picked up the spare phone, clicked on the official APP of the Super Hero Association, and then opened the hero list.

Using keyword search, I found the Octopus Man’s account.

His finger paused slightly, and after hesitating for a moment, he pressed the red button on the screen and sent a friend request to the "Octopus Man".

Soon, a "ding" sound was heard, disrupting the thoughts of Ke Mingye who was reading a book.

[Tip: C-level superhero "Octopus Man" has accepted your friend request. ]

【The other party sent you a message. 】

【Octopus Man: What do you mean? 】

Ke Mingye glanced at the message, lowered his head to type, and replied quickly.

[Blue Owl: I have something to talk to you about. Let's meet tomorrow. ]

[Octopus Man: Are you going to regret not playing that match? Haha, I knew it.]

[Blue Owl: No, it's something else. See you at the Super Hero Association.]

After sending this message, Ke Mingye breathed a sigh of relief, put down his phone, and his eyes flickered slightly.

"The clue to the watchmaker is right in front of me..." he thought to himself, "I can't let this opportunity go. Maybe I can find out something from the Octopus Man's brother."

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(End of this chapter)