Overprotected By My Tsundere CEO

Chapter 988 - 673: Loulanel Village [09] The Moving Maze Village

"This box, only I can open it," Annabelle Pinto said, "If you want to take the box, you must take me with you."

Stella Durant hesitated for a moment, then quickly made a decision.

She crouched down, came to Annabelle’s side, grabbed one of her arms, and placed it over her own shoulder, then helped Annabelle stand up by holding her shoulder.

She casually picked up the suitcase beside them.

She hurried toward the exit.

However—

As soon as she reached the door, Stella Durant felt a sharp pain shoot through her palm, and then up her arm, causing her to let go as if she’d been electrocuted. With a thud, the suitcase fell to the ground.

Ignoring her own arm’s condition, Stella Durant looked down at the suitcase and was shocked to find that the handle she had been holding was already deformed, the outer shell loosened, revealing a densely packed, 360-degree array of needles, leaving no dead angle.

"Damn it!"

Furious, Stella Durant kicked the suitcase.

As soon as she withdrew her foot, something suddenly popped open in the area she kicked, and two silver needles shot out with great force, embedding themselves halfway into Stella Durant’s calf, causing her to break out in a cold sweat from the pain.

She was nearly out of strength to support Annabelle Pinto.

Annabelle Pinto took a breath, leaned on her shoulder, and asked, "Are your people outside?"

"Why?" Stella Durant gritted her teeth.

"Get them inside quickly; these needles are poisoned!" Annabelle Pinto said, "They can make you lose consciousness!"

"..."

With Annabelle’s reminder, Stella Durant realized that both her arm and leg were losing sensation and becoming useless.

Nora Scott is too vicious!

She cursed and whistled to call the lookout inside.

The poison spread rapidly. By the time the two who were on guard outside entered, Stella Durant had completely lost consciousness, and she fell stiffly with Annabelle Pinto. The two subordinates reacted quickly and rushed up, each catching one of them.

One of them supported Stella Durant, caught sight of the suitcase, and instinctively bent down to pick it up. Stella Durant’s throat tightened as she squeezed out a "No," but before she could finish, the subordinate touched the suitcase.

A mechanism in the suitcase triggered, and a silver needle pierced the subordinate’s palm.

Stella Durant: "..."

#$%@^... Nora Scott, go to hell!

...

Out of four people, three were down.

In the end, one of the subordinates carefully carried the three of them out.

As for the suitcase full of traps, no one dared to touch it again, even a glance was avoided quickly.

*

In the afternoon, Nora Scott and April Thomason returned to Maze Village.

But they did not go directly to their residence.

They headed to Baja’s house.

However, after walking a short distance, they realized something was wrong.

April was the first to stop, looking at Nora with suspicion, "Did I remember wrong or is the map incorrect—" April pointed at the walled-off path ahead and turned back, puzzled, "Was there a wall here?"

Nora answered without hesitation, "No."

"...Is it alive?" April blinked.

Nora pondered for two seconds, then gently shook her head, "I don’t know."

April asked, "What do we do now?"

"Go back first," Nora quickly decided, then said, "Let’s use a drone to check."

"Do you remember the way back?"

Looking back, Nora said, "There shouldn’t be any problem." She paused and added, "Even if it is alive, it shouldn’t move very fast, we won’t be off by much."

...

It was indeed strange.

How could it differ from the original map?

Could it really be as April said: Maze Village is alive?

Leading the way, Nora was lost in thought.

April waved a hand in front of Nora’s face and asked, "What are you thinking about?"

Jolted by April’s voice, Nora snapped back to reality, "Do you know Leonard Zhuge’s Eight Trigrams Array?"

"I’ve heard of it," April admitted her ignorance, "but I don’t understand it."

"It’s a kind of formation," Nora said, "It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand. However, in Biel Hall’s headquarters, there’s an Eight Trigrams Array that hides Biel Hall from the world, impenetrable like a fortress. This Eight Trigrams Array was created by my grandfather."

April listened, bewildered, "Does it have anything to do with this?"

"Creating a Maze Village isn’t difficult. You draw up plans in advance and build according to them," Nora said, lightly furrowing her brows, then relaxing them, "But if you want to build a moving Maze Village, not to mention farther back, just in the past hundred years, only my grandfather could have done it."

"What about you?"

"No way."

Nora Scott confessed candidly.

"You even managed to create a mechanism factory..."

With a laugh, Nora glanced at her and explained, "It’s not even on the same level."

"..."

April Thomason didn’t understand but could sense the awesomeness.

She paused, then suddenly realized, "Are you saying the Maze Village was your grandfather’s responsibility?"

"It’s possible." Nora nodded, "The timing matches."

"Damn." April couldn’t help but swear, "Grandpa is awesome!"

"..."

"But why would Grandpa go through so much trouble to create a moving Maze Village?" April was puzzled, "Just one Maze Village alone seems unnecessary."

Nora didn’t bother correcting her every mention of "Grandpa." She raised an eyebrow and casually said, "What if, as Baja guessed, this is the entrance to Mechanism City?"

"But—"

"Of course, it could also be a diversion." Nora added, "He always liked to dig holes and create confusing things."

"..."

April blinked, thinking this grandpa suited her taste quite well.

Unfortunately, she left too late and never met Grandpa before he was gone.

After pondering for a while, April asked, "Why didn’t the village chief say anything last night?"

"No idea." Nora had too many things on her mind to analyze, she simply said, "We’ll ask tonight."

...

Nora and April smoothly reached their residence.

Actually, April found that halfway back, the route changed, but Nora led the way without hesitation, as if she was familiar with the altered terrain.

As for Nora, she didn’t know why she felt familiar because once she walked onto that path, the road ahead naturally appeared in her mind, so marvelously she doubted whether she was missing a part of her memory.

"You’re back!"

Jared Oliveira was waiting for them at the door.

Looking at him curiously, April asked, "Why are you standing here?"

"Heard a lot of people got lost, I was worried you two would lose your way." Jared explained.

April calmly patted him on the shoulder, "Thanks, buddy."

"No problem, no problem."

Jared’s shoulder sank, hurting, but he still managed his expression well.

Walking into the yard, April asked, "Did anyone come in?"

"Frank Ford, Stella Durant, Annabelle Pinto dropped by." Jared enthusiastically followed in, "When I wasn’t around, I heard Annabelle Pinto and Stella Durant came. For the rest, I don’t know."

"Where did you go?"

"I went for a walk with Frank, even had a meal at the village chief’s house..." Jared smiled and then marveled, "Drones are really useful, never worry about losing my way."

April + Nora: "..."

Immediately, Nora took the drone from Jared, whose face showed reluctance but still handed it over.

Standing at the door, Nora glanced at Jared and said, "Come in."

"Is it alright?"

Standing there, Jared rubbed his hands hesitantly, fearing he’d be mixed up in a duo beating if he went inside.

"Are you sure?" Nora chuckled lightly.

"..."

Jared quickly walked over, limbs moving simultaneously.

"No worries," April patted his shoulder, "Just asking if you learned anything from the village chief—What the heck?! What’s going on!"

Before April finished speaking, pushing the door open, she was shocked by the luggage that had been tampered with and the dried blood scattered on the floor.

"Obviously," Nora slowly pulled down the long rope from the ceiling, "We’ve been robbed."

"In broad daylight, with the sun shining bright, they sure have guts." April kicked a stone aside, leisurely strolled in, "The suitcase wasn’t pried open or taken away... What’s with all the stuff on it?"

"Mechanisms." Nora approached, "Mostly traps that shoot poison needles at the slightest touch, and some are quite brutal..." She examined the suitcase with a hint of regret, "They were lucky not to trigger them."

"Shoot at the slightest touch?" April wondered, "I touched it yesterday too."

Nora didn’t hide it, directly explained, "There’s a master switch. Without turning it on, it’s just a normal suitcase."

Once opened, it’s a deadly weapon.

"..."

Listening to them chat casually, Jared froze in place, subconsciously swallowed hard.