Chapter 199 Shadow

When Hao Ren finished dealing with the data terminal, Gun was still scratching at the ground. The cat girl, with her fur standing on end, was bravely fighting her own shadow. The dust and smoke billowed, giving the impression that a cat demon of many years had finally achieved enlightenment and was about to ascend to heaven. Hao Ren went over and patted the cat girl's head. "Alright, alright, it's been caught."

Startled by Hao Ren's pat, the cat girl leaped back more than two meters. After confirming that no one was going to hit her, she looked around. Seeing the data terminal trapping a ball of shadow with a blue light, she finally meowed with relief, ran over, and rubbed her head against Hao Ren's arm, purring intermittently. She had been terrified.

"It's okay, it's okay." Hao Ren rubbed the silly cat's head, stuffing her tail back into her shirt. He had to re-evaluate this cat demon. Although she was usually mischievous, disobedient, had a strange temper, and did whatever she wanted, he hadn't expected her to be so brave at a critical moment. After comforting his cat, he went to the data terminal. "So what exactly is this?"

The data terminal was still binding the shadow with a blue light. Its voice sounded somewhat confused. "This terminal has never seen such a life form. It looks like an energy body, which can be controlled by this terminal's strong magnetic field, but its nature is like a shadow. Look, it can only move on the surface of other objects."

As the data terminal spoke, it adjusted the frequency of the binding magnetic field and drove the mist-like shadow around. Hao Ren noticed that no matter how the thing moved, it always stuck to the ground, especially when crossing small stones and potholes. It was completely an image and could not leave the surface of other objects.

"Speaking of which, how is this thing's attack power? Are you hurt?" the data terminal asked casually while chasing the shadow around.

Hao Ren moved his arms and legs. "I wasn't injured, mainly just startled. The nature of this thing is too weird. And it seems to be able to penetrate my rigid shield a little. After being hit by this thing, there is an electric shock-like feeling, but other than that... it doesn't seem to do any real damage."

"Tch, to be messed up so badly by such a weakling," the data terminal said in a particularly annoying tone. "This terminal thought you were about to be killed. I came here with the awareness of applying for a martyr award for you. After fighting for so long, you haven't lost any health?"

Hao Ren smiled sheepishly. "I told you I was just startled. Who told this thing to be so weird? It's the first time I've dealt with this kind of thing, undefeatable and untouchable. And even if you didn't come, I would have a way—I don't believe a psionic pistol can't deal with this thing."

"If you blasted it with one shot, you could solve it, but the sample would be gone," the data terminal muttered while constantly switching the binding magnetic field mode, trying to peel the shadow off the ground. "Luckily you waited for this terminal to come and support you... Yo-ho, this thing is really... How do we get this thing back?"

Hao Ren squatted on the ground and observed for a while. "Still can't get it off?"

"This terminal can only control it on the surface of an object, but there's no way to 'tear' it off," the data terminal's voice was a bit depressed. "Or we could use the beam to bind it while dragging it home, but that would be a little troublesome."

Hao Ren thought about what it would look like and a scene of himself leading a shadow home immediately appeared in his mind. He quickly shook his head. "No, no, no, it can't be explained if people see it. Am I going to tell people I went out to walk the shadow?"

Gun perked up when she heard the word "walk" and immediately shouted, "I'm the one being walked today! I'm the one being walked!"

"None of your business," Hao Ren pressed the silly cat back. He thought to himself that he had come out to walk the cat today, how could he be walking a shadow when he returned? He looked at the black image constantly rotating on the ground and suddenly had an idea. He took out a piece of paper from his dimensional pocket. "Can you drive the shadow onto this paper?"

The data terminal thought for a while. "It's worth a try, but how do we fix it on the paper afterwards—should this terminal keep shining on it like this?"

Hao Ren looked at the terminal curiously. "What are you using to trap it?"

"Psionic binding force field," the data terminal replied. "But once the force field disappears, it will escape. This thing is just trapped, not injured."

Hao Ren said "oh" and began to think about what he had in his dimensional pocket that could trap this weird and inexplicable thing. To be honest, it was really hard to think of. So far, he had used his strange experimental containers to catch all kinds of things. From humanoid creatures to the huge Sons of the Planet had been stuffed into various bottles and jars of all sizes, but he had never caught a shadow! Was this a real-life case of grasping at shadows?

And the cat girl next to him was restlessly circling around, her cat eyes staring straight at the light spot that the data terminal was making on the ground, as if she was ready to pounce at any time.

After thinking for a while, Hao Ren suddenly had a flash of inspiration. "Oh, that's right! I have a treasure!"

As he spoke, he took out his treasure from his dimensional pocket. The data terminal was originally very expectant, but it was stunned after Hao Ren took out the treasure. "...You still have this thing?"

What Hao Ren took out was none other than the small box that had once held the golden apple and caught the wrathful spirit. This apple box was properly stored by Hao Ren in his dimensional pocket. When he took it out at this time, it was still as good as new.

"Of course I kept it," Hao Ren said with a matter-of-fact look. "This thing is a divine artifact. In my mind, it's on the same level as the jade purification bottle and the purple-gold gourd—I don't believe that a mere shadow can be more difficult to deal with than a wrathful spirit."

It would really be difficult for Lord Lao to make a purple-gold gourd that looked like this.

Hao Ren didn't consider the problem of his purple-gold gourd's painting style being wrong. He put the divine artifact small box on the ground, the mouth of the box facing the shadow. "I call you, do you dare to answer? Oh, if you don't answer, I'll take it as your default—Terminal, put it in."

The data terminal was even too lazy to bicker with Hao Ren at this time. It directly swept the beam and drove the shadow into the apple box.

Just as Hao Ren had predicted, this divine artifact box could unconditionally trap all kinds of strange energy bodies. The shadow immediately became docile after being driven into the box. It hibernated at the bottom of the box like a dirty ink stain. If it weren't for the faint mist fluctuations that could still be seen inside it, Hao Ren would have almost thought that this thing was "dead."

This unexpected interlude completely broke Hao Ren's mood for walking the cat—although Gun seemed to be planning to stroll outside for a while, Hao Ren still forcibly dragged this stupid cat home.

As soon as he entered the door, he summoned everyone in the house. However, after summoning them, he found that Izaax and his daughter were not there, so he casually asked, "Where are Lao Wang and Elizabeth?"

"The air conditioner in the small supermarket at the street corner is broken, they went to fix it," Vivian replied, curiously looking at the apple box that Hao Ren was holding. "Did you get your year-end bonus again? It's still early, isn't it?"

"What year-end bonus," Hao Ren put the apple box on the coffee table. "I was attacked!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the living room immediately became lively. Some transformed, some took out their equipment, some ran over to check Hao Ren's injuries, and some were about to run out to prepare to set up positions at the door. It was immediately a scene of chaos. Seeing this situation, Hao Ren quickly explained, "Don't panic, don't panic, it's already settled. The assassin has been arrested—the one inside the box is."

"What, you should have said so earlier, you scared me!" Lily shouted, leaning over to look at the small box on the coffee table, but after looking inside, she found nothing. "Huh? There's nothing there... Did it run away?"

Hao Ren had already known that she would have this reaction. "The black blob at the bottom of the box is it."

"Black?" Lily finally noticed the black thing at the bottom of the box. "I thought you were using this to hold ink... Wow! It's moving!"

Vivian, Nangong Wuyue, Nangong Sanba and others next to her were immediately aroused by curiosity. A group of people swarmed up. "Let me see, let me see!" "Hey, I'll go, this thing really moves!" "Look, that shape just now looks like Izaax's face..."

Hao Ren was left out of the circle. He had a helpless expression. "What... what about my situation?"

In the end, it was Vivian who knew how to care for people. She was the first to look up. "Hao Ren, where did you provoke this thing?"

Hao Ren immediately heard the deep meaning in Vivian's words. "Do you know what this is?"