I, the Guide to the Omniverse, Usher in Blue Star's Great Ascension! - chapter 22

Chapter 22

“How could they have disappeared?”

“They clearly entered the elevator-we all saw it!”

He Weiguang kept replaying the surveillance footage inside the elevator over and over.

Still, he couldn’t spot anything unusual.

They had searched every floor, upstairs and downstairs, but there was still no trace of those eleven people.

They had simply vanished mysteriously, as if into thin air, from this building.

Tang Mengmeng was also looking for them. After the police arrived, they found that she had been following those eleven people the whole time, as if she knew something.

So they brought her in and asked if she knew anyone among them.

In the mall’s employee break room, a makeshift location, Tang Mengmeng stammered as she recounted what had happened that day.

“She said she just wanted to see if they were scammers. Who knew that after they went downstairs, they would just disappear? I searched several times but couldn’t find them.”

The police found it hard to believe. “You’re saying she called you back and said she’d return in three hours?”

Tang Mengmeng nodded.

The police checked the time. “If that’s the case, it’s almost time now.”

But the whole thing was just too bizarre.

The officer in charge of this area happened to be He Weiguang’s colleague. After checking the information on this Travel Agency, he said to He Weiguang, “Weiguang, this Travel Agency was started by your neighbor’s little niece, right?”

The He and Sheng families had lived in the same alley since childhood. He Weiguang had watched Sheng Ai grow up and was very close with her parents.

He and Sheng Ai’s father were like brothers, so Sheng Ai naturally counted as his niece.

Besides, when something happened to the Sheng family five years ago, He Weiguang’s colleagues had been responsible for the investigation, so they all knew Sheng Ai.

He Weiguang nodded, his expression grave. “I never asked her about this. My mom only told me about it over the phone yesterday. I thought she just ran one of those farm-stay Travel Agencies.”

So at the time, he hadn’t given it much thought. He even felt it was nice that Aunt He and He Zhou were supporting Sheng Ai’s business.

“What kind of Journey to the West Route is this?” A young policeman named Xiao Qin felt a headache coming on. “It’s such an obvious scam, and yet there are actually tourists who bought tickets…”

Now the people were missing, so the Travel Agency was probably a scam.

The worst fear was that the people had really been moved elsewhere. If they hadn’t left the city, it would be fine, but if they’d been transferred out of the city, or even out of the country, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Tang Mengmeng was so affected by the tense atmosphere that she was about to cry. “Exactly, we all thought it was a scam at the time. I figured since it was still inside the mall, I’d just take the elevator down and see them. Who would’ve thought…”

Maybe the scammers had taken advantage of this mindset.

However, while the police were still discussing, the mall manager suddenly burst in, panting and wild with joy, as if he’d survived a disaster. “They’re back! Those eleven people are back!”

When the elevator doors opened, Aunt He and the others were still chatting and laughing.

Pei Qiu leaned on Sheng Ai’s shoulder, trying to use her best-friend status to secure a spot on the next early trip.

Sheng Ai sneered, “Hmph, that’s not what you said yesterday. Now it’s too late.”

Pei Qiu tried to act cute and get away with it, but just then, the elevator doors opened.

Outside the elevator, a huge crowd had gathered, discussing something.

When the eleven of them stepped out of the elevator, almost everyone on the first floor of the mall was stunned.

Before Sheng Ai and the others could react, the police had already come forward and taken them away.
Because there were so many people and the whole situation was just too strange, they didn’t bring everyone back to the police station for now. Instead, they set up a simple inquiry for Sheng Ai and the others in the mall’s rest area to ask where exactly they had been.

They were even split into several rest areas, letting Sheng Ai, Aunt He, and the others who knew each other give their statements first.

“I’m being wronged here! I just went on a three-hour trip-why did you even call the police!”

Sheng Ai was dumbfounded. “That’s not illegal, is it? I brought everyone back without losing a single person!”

She spotted a familiar face in the police team, and immediately burst into tears, wailing, “Uncle, you have to believe me! Don’t you know my moral character since I was a child? I can’t even bear to step on an ant!!”

At the same time, she was frantically arguing with the System in her mind: “System, what do I do now? Didn’t you say you had a solution?”

[Don’t panic.] The System’s mechanical voice was as calm as ever. [I’ve just checked all the laws of Huaxia and confirmed there’s not a single crime you’re involved with. They won’t take you back to the police station-at most, they’ll ask you a couple of questions, and if there’s no evidence, they’ll let you go.]

Sheng Ai: “…”

So your so-called solution is just to look up Huaxia’s laws, huh?

You’re a system, does it even make sense for you to talk about the law?

He Weiguang also had a headache.

Because Aunt He was scolding him.

Aunt He found these people baffling. “Oh, what are you all making such a fuss about? Wasn’t it just three days… three hours of travel? Nobody even went missing, so why report it to the police? Didn’t I tell you before I left? I definitely said something. And look, Xiao Ai grew up right under your nose. Do you really think she’d sell us off or something?”

He Weiguang looked at his mother’s bulging backpack, paused for two seconds, and said, “Who comes back from a trip after just three hours?”

Aunt He was at a loss for words.

Was she supposed to say it was three hours here, but three days over there?

Honestly, she really had such a good time these three days that she didn’t even want to come back.

But He Zhou was the calmest. She glanced at Sheng Ai, then said to He Weiguang, “Dad, I know you probably won’t believe it if I say this, but we really did go to another world for three days. We even brought back a lot of local specialties-flowers, leaves, and soil. If you don’t believe us, I can hand some over to the authorities for testing. Some of the materials are definitely different from those in our world.”

As soon as she finished, Xiao Qin, the young police officer, who had just raised his cup for a drink, instantly spat out his water.

He Weiguang was even more stunned.

Sheng Ai gave He Zhou a thumbs-up. “That’s why they say high school students are at the peak of their intelligence. Young brains really do work better.”

He Zhou smiled at Sheng Ai. “Sister Ai, didn’t you say we could talk about it? The more people who believe it, the easier it’ll be for you to find tourists next time.”

He Zhou was pretty smart. She could sense that this so-called Omniverse Corporation mentioned by Xiaomi Mountain probably had some communication channel with Sheng Ai.

Sheng Ai patted her own head. “That’s true.”

Anyway, ever since the System showed up-and turned out to be one that recruited people for travel-she’d known her life was about to go through earth-shattering changes.

Let the tourists say whatever they want.

Seeing both He Zhou and Sheng Ai speak up, Aunt He waved her hand too. “Oh, I know you don’t believe us. I took plenty of photos these last few days. Take your time and have a look.”

With that, she handed over her phone, pulled up the videos, and showed them directly to He Weiguang and the others.