"Okay." Xinghe nodded before turning back round to work. She didn't want to waste even a second. They were running out of time; she had to work fast.
Philip was also racing against time. He was going over the combat strategy with Mubai, the first step was of course to save Kelly. After she was saved, everything else would be easy. They wouldn't need to hold back against IV Syndicate anymore. The base could be destroyed with the simplest and most effective way.
"The day after tomorrow will the deadline to name the running candidates. We will have to break into their main base before then," Mubai told Philip. Regarding this, Philip had his own plan.
He explained, "I will figure out a way to drag this until the last minute, I will hand in my candidacy form eventually but I will make them feel like I'm still hesitating. Don't worry, I know what to do."
"Okay, we will try our best to locate the main base before then," Mubai also promised. While Xinghe was following their electronic footprints to trace the main base, Mubai tried his best to shoulder some of her workload.
This was the first time two of them had cooperated but they cooperated very well. Xinghe never had to worry about Mubai making a mistake and vice versa.
They saw each other as an extension of themselves so they could trust each other implicitly. Depending on how one looks at it, Xinghe or Mubai's speed had doubled.
They gelled perfectly on the aspect of technicality and they shared the same outlook, which was to give it their best to not disappoint Kelly and Philip!
Xinghe and Mubai spent the whole day in the computer room, neither touched a morsel of food. Ali carried a tray of food in carefully, intending to advise them to take a bite but she decided otherwise when she witnessed how serious they were.
She set down the tray noiselessly and retreated back out to the living room. Cairn asked her immediately, "Have they eaten?"
Ali shook her head. "No, it's the same, I didn't have the heart to tell them to stop."
Sam was busy playing a shooter game on the computer, he replied without taking his eyes from the screen, "Let them be then. They have gone in too deep like me and this game, I can understand how it is for them."
Ali, Cairn, and Wolf rolled their eyes behind his back.
"Please, your situation is not one bit like theirs," Wolf chided him.
Cairn also added without reservation, "They're doing serious business and you're playing a game. How is that the same?"
The sudden insult made Sam lost focus and he was head-shot in game.
"F*ck, you people just made me lose!" Sam grumbled with dissatisfaction, "Do you know how many levels I've passed in this game? Eighty of a hundred in total, okay? I was so close to the end!"
Ali who sat across him suddenly said, "Now I understand why you're still single."
He asked cautiously and fearfully, "What do you mean by that?"
Wolf and Cairn also leaned in closer. They also wanted to know because that might be the reason why they were single as well…
Ali started at Sam and replied with a devilish grin, "Because Mr. Xi uses the computer to earn money while you use it to waste time. As they say, no money, no sex!"
The three guys looked at each other speechlessly. For various reasons, they felt sorry for each other…