Hu Tao was pulled out of the store by Mao You before she could even react.
"There's no time to explain everything one by one. Let's go to Ling and Zhe's store and talk there!"
Inside the video store, Ling and Zhe were also watching the live news broadcast that Hu Tao had just been watching.
On the television, Mr. Perlman, the Chief Representative of Yuanjing Industry, was smugly giving an interview.
However, when the reporter asked about Yuanjing Company's secret to cutting construction costs, he became evasive and stammered, suggesting there was something unusual going on.
Subsequently, a woman dressed as a secretary standing next to Perlman stepped forward to smooth things over: "Mr. Perlman means that Yuanjing Company absolutely does not have any issues with continuously cutting costs during construction."
"Not only that, but he will also personally visit the demolition site and stay until the very last moment for everyone."
Perlman quickly nodded after hearing this: "Yes, that's right. I will immediately take the train with the technical staff to the monitoring point inside the demolition zone!"
His posture made it seem as if he were the secretary.
Suddenly, the door of the video store was violently slammed open. Mao You rushed in, dragging Hu Tao: "Ah! Don't believe that short, squat uncle! He's lying!"
Seeing how nervous Mao You was, Ling quickly handed her a cup of water: "Drink some water to calm down first. What happened?"
Mao You, who had been running frantically for a long time, took the water and drank it in one gulp, her expression instantly becoming much more relaxed: "Ah, that's much better, thank you."
Zhe stepped forward and asked, "Haven't you been investigating with Nicole and the others? You rushed back so urgently—did something happen to them? Where are they now?"
Hearing Zhe's words, Mao You became tense again: "It's the place the news just mentioned—Yuanjing's demolition zone!"
Then, her expression turned to anger: "That uncle said there was no one inside, but that's not true! There's still a large group of residents in Canvas Alley who haven't been evacuated and know nothing about it!"
The other three's faces instantly changed color upon hearing this: "What? How could this happen!"
Mao You calmed herself down and quickly said, "After parting ways with you, we first searched the Red Fang Gang stronghold near Dead End Hollow, but we didn't find any valuable clues."
"So we decided to enter the Red Fang Gang's most important stronghold inside Dead End Hollow to investigate."
"You all know Dead End Hollow; there is a powerful Remnant inside called the 'Dead End Butcher.' I won't elaborate on that."
"However, during our search, we ran into a little girl being chased by a Remnant!"
"Logically, Yuanjing Company should have evacuated all the residents from Canvas Alley, but we didn't have time to think further then. We could only quickly follow and protect her."
"Finally, when she led us out of the Hollow to a corner of Canvas Alley that had been cut off from New Eridu due to the Hollow, we were shocked to discover a large group of people still stranded there who hadn't evacuated! A rough estimate put the number at over 100 people!"
"What's more terrifying is that these residents had absolutely no idea about the demolition plan currently underway outside!"
"They haven't been able to contact the outside world since a week ago. Yuanjing Company must have deployed signal jamming equipment."
"These people are all elderly, weak, sick, or disabled, and most of them lack Aether Compatibility, so they can't cross the Hollow."
"It now seems that Yuanjing Company needed to cut costs for their bid, so they planned to leave these people in Canvas Alley to be blown to smithereens, thereby saving on relocation and resettlement expenses!"
"Not only that, but Officers were also intercepting residents who tried to go to nearby monitoring points to inquire about the situation. It looks like they planned this long ago!"
"Since the four of us couldn't lead such a large number of residents past the Officers' sight and out of Canvas Alley, I came here to ask for your help."
"Hu Tao, Ling, and Zhe, please help us!"
After hearing Mao You's words, Hu Tao, whose fists were already clenched, immediately said, "Mao You, I'll go with you right now to rescue them! That Yuanjing Company is even more brutal than the Northland Bank!"
Mao You shook her head hastily: "No! The first thing we must do now is intercept the last transport train that is about to enter Dead End Hollow! That train is driverless and remotely detonated. Once it reaches Canvas Alley, everything will be over!"
Hearing this, everyone quickly began to think:
Ling: "How do we stop it? We can't just block the train in broad daylight; we'd be taken away by the Public Security Bureau immediately."
Hu Tao: "Although I have a close working relationship with Conrad, he isn't the boss of Yuanjing Industry after all, and he might not even believe this matter, so there's no way to use him to halt Yuanjing Industry's demolition operation."
Zhe: "Although the safest method is to report it to the authorities, if we do that, Nicole and the others' identities as Tunnel Robbers probably won't remain a secret..."
Just as everyone was racking their brains, Fairy suggested: "We can intercept the train inside the Hollow. I can track the train's real-time location and calculate a safe route to reach the target vehicle."
Mao You clapped her hands: "Good idea! The outside world can't directly detect the situation inside the Hollow, so we don't have to worry about being caught!"
Given the urgency, the four quickly sprang into action. Since this operation was closely linked to Yuanjing Industry, Hu Tao couldn't use her business vehicle as before, so as not to arouse Conrad's suspicion. Therefore, Zhe drove her, Mao You, and IES to the vicinity of Dead End Hollow.
Ling stayed behind in the video store, preparing to connect the HDD.
Along the way, everyone prayed that the train wouldn't depart too early. However, when Zhe's car stopped, the train had already slowly departed and was about to enter the Hollow.
Before the three of them (at this point, Ling had already entered synchronization) entered the Hollow, Zhe briefly reviewed the key action points with them.
Simply put, the plan was to use the Central Control Room in the Hollow's abandoned station to change the train's track, forcing it through a tunnel, and then seize the opportunity to throw "IES" onto the roof, allowing her to proceed to the train's cockpit and shut it down.
After confirming the details, everyone immediately began the operation.
However, accidents always happen unexpectedly. Just as the three were moving rapidly, an abandoned train car suddenly lay across the road ahead at an incredible angle, blocking their path.
"IES" confirmed with Fairy that the route was fine and speculated that the car might have been thrown there by a Remnant.
Just as everyone wondered how they should transport Bambou across, a cute female voice suddenly rang out from the other side of the train car: "Um, excuse me... are you Investigators from the Hollow Investigation Association?"
The three exchanged glances and decided to go along with what the girl said for now. Ling took a step closer and asked, "What's wrong? Can we help you with something?"
The girl on the other side said: "Um... my name is Corinne, and I'm an employee of a housekeeping company. A very dangerous Remnant just passed by, and I got separated from my companions while avoiding him!"
Then, she hesitated and said, "I don't have the [radish] data here. Since you are Investigators, you must know the way out of the Hollow, right? Please, may I ask if you can take me with you?"
Mao You asked, "...What should we do? Should we help her?"
Hu Tao said with a troubled expression, "I really want to help her, but we can only take her if we can break through the train car to the other side."
"Otherwise, we must immediately turn back and choose another route to keep up with our schedule."
At this moment, the girl on the other side spoke again: "Um, excuse me, does that mean if I can get you all to the other side of the train car, I can join the Investigators' operation?"
Ling asked skeptically, "You have a way to get us across?"
The girl on the other side became a little excited: "Almost, almost! Please wait a moment! I'll be ready right away!"
Just as everyone was puzzled, wondering what means she could use to cross over, a burst of grating noise suddenly erupted from the other side of the train car. Ling and Mao You quickly covered their ears: "Ugh! It hurts!"
Hu Tao, meanwhile, dragged the two of them backward: "Watch out!"
After a short while, the noise subsided, and before anyone could react, a huge saw blade suddenly sliced out from the side of the train car!
The saw cut a clean, large opening in the side of the train car, and the falling debris kicked up a cloud of smoke.
When the smoke cleared, a small girl wearing a maid outfit and sporting green twin tails stood before everyone, holding an enormous circular saw: "H-Hello, Investigator! I cut my way through!"