Elazaro Tania searched for hours, but she could not find any of them. She tried to call, but there was no answer.
Finally, she gave up looking. She decided to wait in the car for the group to return.
"Arghhhh! They even locked the damn car in the dungeon. I mean, who's going to steal the car in this abandoned place!"
While Elazaro grumbled, Tania jumped onto the roof. She leaned back on the roof and closed her eyes in frustration.
Fortunately, she did not wait long. Ten minutes later she heard an excited voice. She knew the voice. It was the voice of the children following Heero.
She immediately rose from her comfortable position and tried to find out where the voice was coming from. It was not long before she spotted four little girls coming out of the highest building.
Elazaro Tania rubbed her eyes several times. To make sure she was not seeing things. She had checked the building many times, but it was just an empty room.
Now the children were coming out of the building, which meant...
Following the children were Kang Seo-Yeon, Bai Xin Yue, Hong Yu, and Han Ying. They were all smiling and talking to each other. It was as if they came across something funny, as they could not stop laughing.
It was the same for the children, they were also laughing and happy.
"Those uncles are so funny..." Lan Lan laughed.
"And strange too, they have a thick moustache and beard..." Myung-hee rubbed the bottom of her nose and her chin. Apparently, she imagined that she had a thick mustache and beard.
"Unfortunately, we can't take the toy with us..." Miao Miao said regretfully.
Moira was responding to the younger sister's grumbling and comments about what they had just encountered. She tried to be a big sister figure to the three little girls as she was the oldest among them.
"Uncles with thick mustaches and beards? Toy?"
Right after that, she jumped down and flashed into the building. She used her maximum speed to enter the building.
"What was that?" Han Ying and Hong Yu were not used to seeing such a speed. They felt a gust of wind blow past them, but they did not see who caused it.
"Just a crazy redhead..." Kang Seo-Yeon stopped halfway when she realized something.
Elazaro entered the building, but it remained the same. There were no funny uncles with thick moustaches and beards. There were no toys either.
It was just the same empty building she had entered a few hours ago.
"There must be something... There must be something..." Elazaro muttered to Tania as she continued to look around, but to no avail.
After a moment she came out dejected.
There was a car outside the building, while the other one had already left.
Han Ying waited for her outside. She called the pitiful girl.
"Come, we are going back!"
Elazaro Tania let out a frustrated sigh. She did not get what she wanted.
"Outside they flatter me, but here they ignore me..."
"But I want to be friends with you! A real friend who sees me as Elazaro Tania, not as an Emperor Class Hero..."
She longed for such a friendship. People often came to her for some hidden purpose or because of her status as an Emperor Class Hero.
She was tired of it. Now, after a short interaction with Sun Zhou Yi and Musashi Hirata, he later met with Heero's group. Then she realized that they treated each other sincerely, exchanging some light jokes here and there.
She wanted to be part of this circle, so she tried desperately to get closer to them.
"Thank you~, Elazaro Tania thanked Han Ying who was willing to wait for her outside.
Han Ying smiled softly and patted her back, "Come to my noodle shop later, I will treat you to delicious noodles,"
*** ***
After the trip to the abandoned city, Heero's journey was pretty much over. He did not go anywhere, because the other place was just a wilderness.
Beasts were scarce here, but other resources like medicinal herbs and ores from the Purple Mountain were available.
Of course, Heero did not take the resources with him now. He left it as it was for now.
After saying goodbye to Old Man Dazekh, Heero ended his trip with his family.
He took the dead drunk heroes with him and left them in the car.
He stood in front of the dungeon and put his hand on the stone gate. The stone gate slowly shrank to the size of his palm. He put the palm-sized gate in his pocket and went back to the jet.
Meanwhile, as Heero made his way back to Star City, the Hero League was in an uproar.
After the second dungeon, the first dungeon had disappeared.
Bai Xian Ming immediately called the person in charge of guarding the first dungeon.
His face was solemn as he asked the middle-aged man in front of him, "Since when?"
The middle-aged man turned pale, but he managed to answer, "I... right after the Chief Instructor's visit. After I delivered him to the station, I came back to check the dungeon, and the gate had disappeared."
Bai Xian Ming's eyebrows furrowed. His guts told him that the disappearance had something to do with Heero. He wanted to call Heero, but he remembered that the guy was in the third dungeon, having a picnic with his family.
The old man unlocked his smartwatch. He wanted to call the person in charge of the third dungeon. Just as he was about to make the call, his smartwatch vibrated.
Someone called him before he could call the person in charge of the third dungeon. Coincidentally, the person who called him was the person he wanted to call.
Looking at his smartwatch, the old man felt a bad premonition.
He answered the call and heard a panicked voice, "Executive Bai! It's urgent! It's urgent!"
"Is the dungeon gate disappearing as well?" Old Bai immediately asked the person.
"Huh!?" The person on the other side was surprised.
"I know it! It must be him!" Bai Xian Ming ended the call and complained, "Can he tell me first before he does something like this?
The old man stood up and covered his body with the coat. Then he walked out of his office room and called his driver, "Xiao Yun! Get the car ready, we are going to the airport!"
*** ***
A few hours later
Bai Xian Ming looked at the two dungeon gates in astonishment. The two missing dungeon gates were now in the backyard of Heero Academy, right in front of him.
"Would you mind telling me what this is all about?" The old man asked in an annoyed tone.
"I'm moving the gate here so the specters can't take them away from us!" Heero answered casually.
"I know! I already know, but how? And why in the backyard of your academy? Why didn't you move it to the Hero League headquarters?"
"Not now, but one day you will know!" Heero grinned at the old man and casually added, "If you want to move it to the Hero League HQ, you can take it with you!"
Just as the old man was about to scold the young man, his grand-daughter arrived.
She went to Heero, "You have guests, important guests! Park Haneul, Yuan Kang and Mathias Oliver!"
"Oh, they came again. Tsk, they are persistent!" Heero nodded and left. Bai Xin Yue followed him.
The old man actually wanted to join the fun, but he decided to stay because he wanted to try something.
He looked around. When he realized that he was alone in the backyard, he approached the dungeon gate.
Bai Xian Ming put his hand on the gate and pushed it with all his might.
"Arggghhhhh!!!" He pushed one of the gates until his face turned red. Still, the gate did not move an inch.
The old man did not give up easily. He changed his stance. This time, he tried to pull the gate instead of pushing it.
"One... Two... Three... Arghhhhh..."
It was the same, the gate stayed still. No matter how hard he tried, it was simply impossible for him to move the gate.
"That damn shameless Heero! He knew I couldn't move it..."
"Stupid gate!" The old man kicked the stone gate and turned away, leaving the backyard in frustration.