manynovel Chapter 397 Safe House
Chapter 397 Safe House
Chapter 397 Safe House
Led by Xiao Xiao, Tang Zijun soon arrived at a relatively secluded place. Well, it wasn't exactly secluded, as it was far from the city center. The surrounding environment was quite nice. The car crossed a wide road and soon turned into a scenic residential area.
This community is not an apartment building, but rather a collection of villas. The villas are spaced apart from each other, and there are lawns and yards downstairs. Tang Zijun even saw that one of the villas had a swimming pool outside.
"This is the safe house your second brother found?" Tang Zijun blinked.
In his mind, a safe house should be hidden in an apartment or a dilapidated prison. Given the scale of the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, he wouldn't be surprised if they built an air-raid shelter.
Tang Zijun didn't expect that the other party would take her directly to a villa area, and a very luxurious one at that.
"This is my home." Xiao Xiao slowly stopped the car in front of a villa, then unbuckled her seatbelt and turned around. "This place is quite remote because it hasn't been developed much, so there are usually not many people around, and the negative energy index is consistently very low."
Yes, everyone who lives here is rich, so there's no negative energy here.
The two got out of the car one after the other. As Xiao Xiao greeted Tang Zijun and invited her in, she casually said, "By the way, my name is Xiao Xiao, code name Xilan, and this is Nuomi."
"Baron! Baron!" the ferret cried out angrily.
However, Xiao Xiao ignored him and continued to smile, "You know my second brother and are willing to help me, so we're friends. There's no need to hide your name from a friend, right?"
"Okay, you can call me Tang Zijun."
"Brother Tang." Xiao Xiao smiled, turned around and opened the door to invite Tang Zijun in.
However, just as Tang Zijun was about to lift her foot, Xiao Xiao suddenly seemed to remember something and slammed the door shut again.
Seeing this, Tang Zijun raised an eyebrow, unsure whether to put her raised foot down or what to do, and could only maintain the one-legged stance.
"W-what's wrong?"
"Um, um..." Xiao Xiao blushed and bit her lower lip as she whispered, "Brother Tang, could you please wait for me for a moment? Just a moment, please!"
After saying that, she opened the door and slipped into the room. Without saying another word, she closed the door, leaving Tang Zijun and Nuomi staring at each other outside.
"What is she doing...?"
Tang Zijun looked puzzled, but Nuomi immediately understood.
Little Black Eyes rolled around, and he quickly climbed onto Tang Zijun's shoulder, coiling up like a scarf.
"You don't know this, do you? Since we moved here, you're the first guest to visit, besides Xiao Xiao's second brother."
"Girls, especially someone like Xiao Xiao who's always so busy, it's not surprising that her house is usually a mess. Plus, she has a lot of clothes, so she's probably a little embarrassed."
"Is Xiao Xiao usually very busy?" Tang Zijun asked curiously.
"Busy," Nuomi replied. "Xiao Xiao is really short of money. She used to be a voice actress, but because it was difficult to take time off while working part-time as a magical girl, she switched to being a self-media creator. When she has free time, she does all sorts of live streams."
Hearing Nuomi's words, Tang Zijun's doubts deepened.
Living in a place like this is definitely not something that can be done with just a little money. Although the Magic Bureau provides a lot of subsidies for magical girls now, it's not enough for her to be so extravagant. The only possibility is that her family is wealthy.
With a family background like that, even if she lived alone, she wouldn't be short of money at all, unless Xiao Xiao is the type to spend money extravagantly.
Judging from her clothes and the car she was driving, Xiao Xiao didn't seem like the type of person who pursued designer brands. Even if she was doing cosplay, her clothes wouldn't be that expensive.
However, Tang Zijun was only curious. After all, he had just met the other party and there was no need to pry so much. So he did not ask any further questions but waited quietly.
A short while later, the door opened again, revealing Xiao Xiao's apologetic smile. "Sorry to have kept you waiting."
"It's alright," Tang Zijun waved her hand. "Let's get down to business."
"Oh right, come in quickly, I'll show you that thing." Xiao Xiao opened the door and turned around to get Tang Zijun a pair of slippers. "These are my second brother's shoes, you can make do with them, or you can go without them."
After changing his shoes, Tang Zijun followed Xiao Xiao into the house. Only then did he realize how big the house was. Stepping into the hall, Tang Zijun subconsciously thought he had entered the conference hall of the Demon Supervision Bureau.
Noticing Tang Zijun's somewhat longing gaze, Xiao Xiao simply smiled. Then she walked to the entrance hallway next to the living room, gently pressed a button on the wall, and the wall suddenly split open, revealing a small room.
"Your building even has an elevator?" Tang Zijun couldn't help but widen her eyes.
"This is standard equipment, you don't usually need it. It only became useful later because my second brother started putting things here," Xiao Xiao explained. "Besides, it's nothing special. Aren't there a lot of bloggers on short video platforms who renovate their houses?"
Despite Xiao Xiao's prior warning, Tang Zijun was still shocked by what he saw when he took the elevator to the basement. The basement was nearly 100 square meters, filled with various exquisite creations and devices, as well as a computer with six screens. The whole place didn't feel like a basement; it was more like a secret base.
"I'm going to... the Bat Cave."
Tang Zijun walked curiously to a platform covered by a glass dome, inside which was placed a mechanical head.
"It's not that high-class." Xiao Xiao came to Tang Zijun's side. "Oh, this is the Demonic Path of the Preview Machine that I defeated before. My second brother was in charge of the cleanup operation. After this kind of mechanical Demonic Path is killed, its body is not completely diluted, so my second brother brought it back as a trophy."
Tang Zijun listened and nodded thoughtfully.
He also enjoys collecting loot, but greedy people usually leave nothing behind except the mirror core after they die, so Tang Zijun can only take a picture to remember the occasion.
Looking around through the glass enclosure, Tang Zijun saw that there were quite a few such spoils of war in this place. In a display case against the wall, Tang Zijun saw more monster remains, as well as a photo of the brother and sister.
Looking at the smiling brother and sister in the photo, Tang Zijun felt a mix of emotions.
What if Tang Cao had awakened earlier, given that they were siblings? If Tang Cao had fought alongside him back then, would he have also built such a secret base and left behind these meaningful photos?
However, upon thinking of this, Tang Zijun couldn't help but chuckle.
He was ten years older than Tang Cao. Even if Tang Cao had obtained the Rainbow Crystal Flower back then, how could he possibly agree to let his six-year-old sister fight alongside him?
Moreover, if the enemy is a greedy person, Tang Zijun really doesn't want Tang Cao to face such an enemy.
"Brother Tang, what's wrong?" Seeing Tang Zijun staring blankly at the photo, Xiao Xiao couldn't help but ask after a moment of silence.
"Oh, it's nothing." Tang Zijun was slightly taken aback and came back to his senses. Then he turned around and threw away the messy thoughts in his head.
"Xiao Xiao, where is that robotic arm now?"
"Over here."
Xiao Xiao led Tang Zijun to a rectangular black box in the far corner of the room. Next to the black box was a small device with an antenna.
Before Tang Zijun could ask any questions, Xiao Xiao explained, "This is a signal jammer. Before this arm was placed here, the computers here were all connected to the Magic Supervision Bureau's control center. However, my second brother prepared this thing because he was worried that this arm might cause some trouble. But now, the computers and everything else are unusable."
"Then what about your live stream?"
Tang Zijun asked the question without thinking, but he regretted it as soon as he asked and continued instead.
"A signal jammer? Do you think this thing can block the signal coming from this arm?"
"...I don't know, let's give it a try." Xiao Xiao turned and winked at Nuomi. She knew right away that this girl was the one who gave herself away. After a pause, she continued, "But since the arm was sent here, it has indeed been much quieter than before."
As she spoke, Xiao Xiao finished decoding the box, flipped her hand to open the lid, and revealed the mechanical arm inside.
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