After remembering where 13 Market Avenue was, Lumian's first reaction was that Gardner Martin wanted to harm him.
This is an abnormal place that even the official extraordinary people can't solve. What do you mean by asking me to stay there for one night
Lumian still remembered that once when he put on his spy glasses, he saw a dark, gloomy, burnt building, and behind a glass window of the building, he saw a vague face with unusually empty eyes.
At that time, he instinctively felt uneasy, thinking that it was the dangerous place that Osta Tetrull had mentioned. However, he had no intention of exploring it at all and lacked the spirit of adventure, so he could not possibly trigger any abnormalities there. Therefore, he immediately put the matter behind him.
In a flash of thought, Lumi arranged for the possibility that Gardner Martin wanted to use the burnt building to set a trap and murder him. As a member of the secret organization Iron Cross, and as a powerful Beyonder of at least Sequence 6 and suspected to be Sequence 5, if the boss of the Savoy Party really wanted to get rid of a subordinate with ulterior motives, there were many ways to do it, and there was no need to be so roundabout and complicated.
At the same time, Lumian recalled what you had seen and heard during this period. The burnt building was close to White Coat Street. He would pass by it every time he went from Breeze Ballroom to his safe house or went to Franca. He often saw homeless people sleeping in it to avoid the rain. He had never seen any official Beyonders or patrolling police drive them away, nor had he heard of anyone dying there.
He thought the burnt building was very dangerous for three main reasons: first, it was inspired by Osta Trull; second, it had never been demolished, as if there was a mysterious force preventing such things from happening; and third, his own intuitive feeling after putting on the secret glasses.
Combining all these manifestations, Lumian believed that there was indeed a problem there, and it was a big problem, but under normal circumstances, the anomaly was unlikely to be triggered and specific conditions had to be met.
"But if the problem won't break out, why did Gardner Martin arrange for me to go there and stay for a night? It's a test of my courage, which is the most meaningless." Lumian muttered silently.
He believed that the most profound impression he left on Gardner Martin and others was his courage.
After a brief thought, Lumian looked at Gardner Martin and said without hiding his concern and suspicion: "13 Market Avenue, I heard something is wrong there."
"If there are no problems, what's the point of sending you there for one night?" Gardner Martin responded with a smile.
"As long as there is no problem with your response, I believe you can come out intact."
This is a test for me. How can I deal with sudden abnormal events without knowing the situation? Lumian nodded with understanding at first, but then he had more doubts.
"If that was the purpose, why did Gardner Martin come here so late at night and ask me to go to 13 Market Avenue right away? Couldn't he wait until daytime to do this? That way he could test my intelligence gathering ability and see who I would contact."
"The biggest impact of this is that I don't have the opportunity to summon the magician's messenger to seek her advice and possible help, and I don't have to face the danger lurking in the charred building alone."
"But Gardner Martin didn't know that I could summon a demigod's messenger. He probably wasn't on guard against that. If he suspected that there was another force behind me, he wouldn't have given me the chance to squeeze into the core layer, that is, the Iron Cross. He would have found a way to make me disappear completely."
"Well, if he really doubted it, he would give me enough time to see where I would go and who I would contact, so as to make sure there was no problem."
"He must have other purposes in making things so urgent."
"When you prepare for me, it means that I might change my mind and not go to 13 Market Avenue. Instead, I might sell the information about the burnt building being suspected to be related to the Iron Cross to the authorities."
"But the problem is, even if I succeed in staying there, I can still regret it when the sun rises, and I can still betray them, pick them up on the spot, and sign a contract."
After much thought, Lumian still couldn't figure out Gardner Martin's true intention. The test should be one of the aspects, but there must be hidden purposes.
The only thing Lumian could be sure of was that Gardner Martin had no intention of killing him for the time being. There was a possibility that this mission would be life-threatening, but it would not be too great, and the risks were hidden elsewhere.
After various thoughts kept coming up and settling down, Lumian finally made a decision. "Okay, I'll go now."
Gardner Martin laughed and said, "Very good. If you agree to it very readily, I will not be satisfied."
"The most important quality for people who can join the core layer is to have a brain and be able to think. Otherwise, wouldn't it be better for me to find a way to buy a few new steam robots from the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery?"
"You mean Franka has brains, but not much, and can think but not comprehensively." Lumian couldn't help but complain in his mind.
Of course, he also knew the reason why the boss didn't allow Franka to join the core layer, and it was definitely not this.
After complaining in his heart, Lumian responded to Gardner Martin with a smile: "I am looking forward to the core layer you described, boss." As he said this, he turned around and prepared to go downstairs to 13 Market Avenue.
Gardner Martin stopped him and said casually, "Don't tell this to anyone, including those who sleep next to your pillow, such as Janna singing below."
"Okay." Lumian said this, but he didn't agree in his heart. This matter must be shared with Franka and Janna.
However, these two guys have been busy investigating something recently, the disappearance of the caretaker of Deep Valley Monastery.
He was not very attentive to the affairs of the Savoy Party. After leaving the Breeze Ballroom, Lumian raised his hand and touched his left chest. Then, he drew a triangle, as if praying to the god of steam and machinery for good luck.
There was still water on the ground after the rain. Lumian walked along the iron-black lampposts and arrived at the intersection near White Coat Street at a moderate pace.
Diagonally in front of it stood a six-story building that had been burned black, with most of its walls falling off, as if the house had grown a pair of empty, dark eyes.
At this time, there were two or three homeless people sleeping on the first floor, which had no doors or window frames, and was filled with blackened bricks and charred wood.
Lumian stood on the side of the road, looked up and observed for a while, but didn't find any strange faces pasted on the window. He had to wear peeping glasses to see it, so Lumian no longer hesitated.
After passing through the dirty doorway and entering the target building, he felt no abnormality in his body or soul.
Walking around the homeless people, Lumian found what seemed to be a living room. There was a small room inside. The wooden door was shaky from the burns but not completely damaged. Outside the broken glass window was the alley behind the market avenue. Lumian walked in.
He closed the wooden door carefully, then sat on the floor by the window, ready to escape from this unusual building at any time.
In the inevitable state of torment, time passed by minute by minute, the night was getting darker and darker, and Lumian never noticed any problems. It was so quiet here that only the occasional cough of the homeless could be heard.
Suddenly, he straightened his back. He heard slow footsteps getting closer and closer. The footsteps knocked on the tattered wooden door that could not be locked at all, and the quiet night was instantly filled with an uneasy atmosphere.
At this moment, Lumian heard Thermiporos’s majestic voice in his mind: “Don’t respond.”
Don't respond. Lumian's hair stood on end instantly. Although he couldn't completely believe in the angel of fate, considering the current situation, after weighing the pros and cons for a few seconds, he chose to remain silent, looking at the door without saying a word.
Dong! Dong! Dong! The knocks on the door continued, with long intervals between them, slow and heavy. Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong! The person outside knocked for a while and finally spoke: "Help me, I'm the one sleeping outside, help me, help me, a murderer rushed in here."
This is too outrageous.
Lumian used his own amusement to calm his tense nerves. He never responded, as if no one existed in this small room.
The noise outside was becoming more and more intense, but the speed of speech was slowing down a bit, and there were unnoticeable, strange pauses.
"He's coming, he's coming, I'm going to be killed, the next one will be you."
As soon as he finished speaking, the person knocking on the door let out a scream, and Lumian immediately heard a dull thump, and it seemed that someone had fallen to the ground.
Then, the heavy object outside the door was slowly dragged away. Not long after, a teeth-grinding cutting sound came into the room, interspersed with gnawing and loud chewing sounds.
A picture suddenly emerged in Lumian's mind. A dark shadow was squatting on the ground, using an axe and other objects to cut up a human corpse. From time to time, it would pick up an arm and take a few bites. After a while, similar movements disappeared.
Dong! Dong! Dong! There was another knock on the door of Lumian's room. "If you don't open the door, I'll come in myself."
The person who spoke was still the one who asked for help just now. Lumian looked at the crumbling wooden door and had some ideas in his mind.
"As long as I don't respond, the anomaly outside won't be able to open this door and truly threaten me."
"The door had no lock and had been damaged by fire, so it was very fragile. It couldn't be opened."
"It does not have the ability to open any door. The person behind the door must respond and establish a mystical connection."
As thoughts flashed through his mind, Lumian gained a better understanding of the current situation and felt more confident.
Dong! Dong! Dong, there was a knock on the door, and the man outside said intermittently: "I didn't lie to you, I really can open the door by myself, come in, I'll give you ten seconds."
Lumian sneered, and became more confident in his heart. He wanted to mock the other party in his heart, let it go, open it if you have the guts.
But I was afraid that this would also be considered a response, so I suppressed those thoughts.
Dong! Dong! Dong, three knocks at a long interval. Suddenly, Lumian heard a barely audible creaking sound. He then saw the shaky, shabby wooden door slowly move back, opening a dark crack. It was opening.