A call at this hour had to mean something major!
Tang Mo jolted, shaking off her drowsiness as she sat up, now wide awake.
"Hello? What’s wrong?"
Tang Mo’s voice was so calm, she didn’t sound like someone who had just been woken from a deep sleep.
"Are you okay?"
It was Qin Ling on the other end, his voice filled with unconcealed concern.
"Me?"
Tang Mo had thought something had happened to Qin Ling or her family; she hadn’t expected him to be asking about her.
’Does he know I’m trapped in the desert in B City?’
’No, that’s impossible. Not only can no one track my ID Watch’s location unless I enable it, but even if they could, they shouldn’t know my exact circumstances.’
’Unless they’ve planted a tracker on me.’
Tang Mo thought for a few seconds.
"I’m fine. Everything’s great. Why do you ask?"
Tang Mo already had a plan in mind. Her current predicament wasn’t a dead end, and she didn’t want to make Qin Ling worry.
"Have you seen the new icon that appeared next to your name on the rankings page?"
Given his position, Qin Ling had a daily habit of checking the rankings before he went to sleep.
The first thing he did whenever he opened the rankings was look for Tang Mo. He was always relieved to see her rank had fallen, as it meant she wasn’t blindly absorbing Crystal Cores just to climb the leaderboard.
Only then would he check his own rank, followed by the ranks of his acquaintances and others.
But today, when Qin Ling opened the rankings, he panicked the moment he saw a small, golden, indescribably-shaped icon appear next to Tang Mo’s name.
Although the ID Watch was developed by the people at S Base, it ran on an evolving AI system.
With all its updates, many of the watch’s programs were no longer under human control, instead being run autonomously by its advanced AI.
Even someone like Qin Ling had no way of knowing what that golden icon actually represented.
’Is she injured? Poisoned? Or...’
At that moment, Qin Ling’s heart leaped into his throat. Forgetting all about his own rank, he immediately called Tang Mo.
Tang Mo had been sound asleep; she hadn’t had time to look at any rankings.
Besides, her rank was dropping every day. It was just frustrating to look at, so she hadn’t checked it in days.
Hearing Qin Ling’s words, she finally opened the rankings page and found her name.