Bustling crowds of people walk through the noisy streets.

It has been four days since the lockdown on Lochran Street.

As early as the third day of the blockade, this street was completely unblocked, and pedestrians were coming and going on the prosperous street.

"Sir, your coffee."

The waiter cautiously placed a cup of coffee next to the gentle-looking man.

"Just leave it there, thank you."

Li Cheng raised his head, glanced at the waiter, and said thank you in Tia Empire language.

"Should I add some sugar for you?"

The waiter carefully placed the coffee on the table, added sugar, and asked casually, "Sir, you have been here for the past two days. Are you waiting for someone?"

"Waiting for a friend."

Li Cheng smiled gently, "Two yuan is enough, thank you."

"Didn't your friend agree on a specific time with you?"

The waiter stopped and asked with some confusion.

"He came back from a very far away place, and the exact time of arrival cannot be determined."

Li Cheng still maintained a gentle smile and picked up the coffee on the table, "Sorry to trouble you."

"It's okay, it should be used. Please use it slowly."

The waiter put away the tray and left slowly.

Li Cheng took a gentle sip of coffee, and the steam of steam brushed his cheeks.

While drinking coffee, he glanced at the street. The crowd was as dense as before. There was no sudden appearance of an extra person or anything unusual.

People still walked calmly on the streets.

Everything is business as usual.

He withdrew his gaze and looked at the computer in front of him.

On the computer is a summary report of the people who survived and returned from the ruins this time.

The report mentioned that the ruins this time are very different from those in the past.

First of all, the scope of the safe area after arriving at the ruins has become smaller. Basically, you will encounter powerful strange beasts not far outside.

Secondly, the strength of the alien beasts near the safe area has also become significantly stronger.

In the past, when D-class explorers entered the ruins, as long as they did not go too far, most of the encounters were E-class monsters and very few D-class monsters. But this time, they encountered a large number of D-class monsters, even

I met a lot of C-level strange beasts.

Many explorers came back with obvious injuries. Even Ye Yun, the strongest C-level transcendent, was seriously injured.

In contrast, the chances of explorers discovering or finding powerful extraordinary items in ruins have also increased.

It looks like a certain kind of "novice protection period" has ended, and the "strength" of the ruins has received a major upgrade.

Of course, these changes are not actually the most eye-catching changes to the ruins this time.

The biggest change in the ruins this time is that the time flow rate between the ruins and the main world has changed from 12:1 to 6:1, so explorers who originally could return in 6 hours now need 12 hours to return.

In fact, the explorers stayed in the ruins for three days.

Although none of the major organizations knew what this change in time flow meant, almost everyone realized that some kind of mutation had occurred in the ruins.

Some researchers have put forward a speculation that the difference in time flow rate is related to the distance between the ruins and the real world in a sense.

This difference decreases, which means that the ruins are approaching the main world.

No one can prove that this guess is correct, and no one can prove that this guess is wrong.

No one knows what it means for the ruins to be close to the main world.

Because of this incident, researchers within major organizations basically started to quarrel.

At this moment, Li Cheng was carefully reading the various speculations put forward by these researchers about this incident.

At this moment, the lower right corner of his computer screen flashed, and a chat avatar lit up.

He clicked on the profile picture, and it was a message from Liu Zhengyun.

Liu Zhengyun: [At present, Moonlight and World Tree have announced that the extraordinary people who have not yet returned will be included in the death list and have begun to arrange pensions.]

Liu Zhengyun: [We should also enter the process. The logistics department has urged us several times. There are still several research projects here that need you to come back and preside over.]

Liu Zhengyun: [Normally, there is no return from the ruins...]

Liu Zhengyun: [Even if that Hao Yi is really the person in the ruins and can really rush there, but it has been four days and he hasn't come back yet. Maybe by the time he gets there...]

Liu Zhengyun: [Alas]

Li Cheng stared at these messages. He fell into a brief silence. Then he put his hand on the keyboard and slowly typed out the reply.

[hold on]

Liu Zhengyun's avatar flashed for a moment, and a line of words appeared next to the avatar, showing [the other party is typing], then the line disappeared, then showed [the other party is typing] again, and then disappeared.

After doing this several times, he finally didn't reply.

Li Cheng stared at the chat box quietly. After a short wait, he was about to close the chat box. At this time, a new message popped up,

Wu Lan: [Dean, haven’t you come back yet?]

Li Cheng looked up at the message Wu Lan had sent before.

The last one was at 2:30 this morning, [Dean, Yang is drunk. He said he was going to come over to persuade you, but I stopped him.]

The previous one was about this time yesterday, and the content was, [Dean, haven’t you come back yet?]

Almost every day, there would be the same message, and Li Cheng would give the same answer.

He slowly raised his hand, preparing to reply to Wu Lan, and typed a reply in the input box.

Card--

But before he could send the message, there was a slight sound of a chair moving next to him, followed by a slightly smiling question, "How does this coffee taste?"

Li Cheng raised his head, looked at the seat in front of him, and looked at the young man who didn't pay attention to etiquette at all and sat down directly opposite him. He paused, took a sip of coffee, and said with a smile,

"It's okay, but not as good as your cappuccino."

"You have to trust my taste in coffee selection."

The young man shrugged.

"so······"

Li Cheng looked at the young man and asked tentatively.

"Dean."

At this time, a figure walked out from behind the young man and looked at Li Cheng in front of him with a smile.

"came back?"

Li Cheng looked at He Ao, who still maintained a calm and gentle smile on his face, "It'll be good when he comes back."

"Eh!"

He Ao quickly reached out and grabbed the coffee cup that had fallen from the air. A few drops of coffee liquid scattered on the computer keyboard.

Li Cheng lowered his head and glanced.

The coffee cup with a handle in his hand now only has the handle.

The place where the cup handle connected with the coffee cup was accidentally crushed by him.

"Seeing as it's here, I have to pay for a coffee cup before I leave."

Li Cheng smiled, his tone rising.

He Ao put the coffee cup on the table, and at this time Zhang Yusi and Yuan Guo also walked out from behind him.

"Everyone is back?"

Li Cheng glanced behind He Ao, then at He Ao who was wearing a big coat to cover the blood stains, and gave a thumbs up, "Good job, good boy."

"Dean Li, let's continue talking about the previous 'deal'?"

At this time, ‘Hao Yi’ stood up.

"Wait a mininute,"

Li Cheng nodded. He closed the computer, picked up his cell phone and sent a message. He looked at He Ao and others and smiled, "I called Li Le and he will come over right away. Take a rest and go home."

"good."

Several people nodded at the same time.

"By the way, He Ao,"

At this time, Li Cheng suddenly remembered something and looked at He Ao, "Go and contact your Yang department. This old boy hasn't had a good sleep in a few days."

"good."

He Ao nodded slightly.

Li Cheng discussed it with the cafe, paid for the cup, and then left with 'Hao Yi'.
To be continued...