Chapter 178: Chapter 178: Swallowing the Leopard

Meanwhile, Melody Summers had driven to the area near The Crestview Hotel.

Unlike the Oceanus Hotel, located in the heart of the city, The Crestview Hotel was in a more remote area.

Melody Summers parked in a hidden alley near the hotel. Seeing no cameras around, she stored the car in her space.

She sized up the hotel by the dim glow of the scattered streetlights. ’This place seems even better suited for illegal activities than the Oceanus Hotel...’ she thought.

With no tall buildings nearby, The Crestview Hotel was completely shrouded in the night. The only thing to break the oppressive silence and darkness was the faint light seeping from its windows.

Melody Summers took a deep breath and walked toward The Crestview Hotel.

As she walked, she recalled her drive over. She had encountered two separate groups of people trying to flag her down, but she hadn’t stopped either time.

Thinking of the recent string of kidnappings, Melody thought, ’If I were a kidnapper, I would absolutely take advantage of a remote hotel like this.’

But on her walk over, she hadn’t encountered any kidnappers or other suspicious characters.

As she reached the entrance of The Crestview Hotel, the bright lights made her squint. She pushed her thoughts aside and walked straight inside.

Just as she entered the lobby, a greeter in a suit approached her. He glanced at Melody Summers’s neat and tidy attire before asking, "Are you here to check in?"

Melody Summers replied, "No, thank you. My cousin arranged to meet me in room 1108."

Upon hearing this, the greeter’s smile stiffened. He gave Melody Summers a strange look and asked, "May I have your last name, please?"

Melody Summers replied, "It’s Summers."

The greeter froze, a flash of surprise on his face, but he quickly composed himself and said politely to Melody, "Please wait a moment. I’ll go inform the guest in 1108."

Then he turned and walked away.

Melody Summers walked over to a sofa in the lobby and sat down, discreetly observing the people coming and going.

So far, nothing about the hotel seemed out of the ordinary.

Suddenly, she saw the doors of an elevator directly across from her sofa slide open.

Inside stood two people: a pot-bellied, middle-aged man with his arm around a slender young woman.

As the doors opened, the pot-bellied man leaned over and planted a kiss on the young woman’s cheek before reluctantly stepping out of the elevator.

The young woman, however, did not follow him out. Instead, she pressed the ’close door’ button, and the elevator doors began to slide shut.

In the last second before the doors closed completely, Melody Summers got a clear look at the young woman’s face. She shot to her feet. That girl—

She looked exactly like Adam Lawson and Noelle Quillan’s daughter—Joelle Lawson!

The scene before her was almost identical to the one Melody had witnessed at the Oceanus Hotel!

The same setting in an elevator, the same girl who was a dead ringer for Joelle Lawson, and the same type of pot-bellied, middle-aged man.

Melody’s brow twitched. She rushed to the elevator, but the doors were already closed, and the car was descending.

Watching the floor indicator above the door, Melody saw the elevator stop at the second basement level.

Meanwhile, the greeter had slipped around a corner and was hurriedly calling Flynn Adler.

Flynn Adler had given prior instructions: if a young woman with the last name Summers asked for room 1108, he was to be notified immediately.

The call connected quickly. On the other end of the line, Flynn Adler was surprised to hear that Melody Summers had actually come.

His men had reported Blondie’s little scheme to him, and he’d thought it was utterly idiotic and riddled with holes.

’In this day and age, how could Melody Summers possibly come all the way out here alone?’

He had anticipated that she might call the police or notify Nina Summers’s parents, and he had already made the necessary arrangements to handle that.

He was even preparing to send people to stake out her house and try a different approach.

But he never expected her to actually take the bait.

Flynn Adler fell silent for a moment, then said, "Let her come up. Be careful. Don’t let her get away."

After hanging up, Flynn Adler patted the woman lying beside him. "You have one minute," he said. "Get dressed and get out."

******

Just as Melody Summers was trying to figure out how to get down to the second basement level, the hotel greeter returned.

He smiled politely at Melody and said, "The party in 1108 invites you to go up."

Melody froze. All she wanted right now was to get to the second basement level.

But the greeter had already called another elevator for her, swiped a keycard, and pressed the button for the 11th floor.

Melody was about to say something, but she noticed the greeter watching her nervously, as if he were afraid she would make a run for it.

Melody could only say to the system in her mind, ’White, I need you to go check out the second basement level. See what’s going on down there. I’ll head up to the 11th floor and wait for you.’

Albus replied, a hint of worry in his voice:

’You have to be careful. If you’re in danger, hide in your space immediately.’

Melody saw a flash of white fur as Albus appeared in a potted plant by the fire stairwell. After watching him deftly scamper toward the basement, she finally stepped into the elevator and pressed the ’close door’ button.

The elevator ascended smoothly to the 11th floor.

The moment Melody stepped out of the elevator, she saw two burly men standing in the hallway. Seeing her, they both shot her menacing glares.

Melody guessed, ’These two must also be Flynn Adler’s goons. They’re probably posted here in case I have second thoughts and try to bolt.’

Melody ignored them completely, walking composedly to the door of room 1108 and knocking softly.

******

Albus prowled around the first basement level and found it was just an ordinary parking garage. Lots of luxury cars were parked there, but otherwise, nothing seemed out of place.

He then headed down to the second basement level.

But the moment he darted out of the stairwell on the second basement level, he froze in his tracks—

A strange, eerie feeling crawled up his spine, and Albus shivered.

There, in front of the stairwell, a massive Leopard was slowly emerging from the darkness.

The Leopard’s magnificent coat of gold and black fur seemed to shimmer like silk even in the dim light. It locked its gaze on the small, white ball of fur on the ground before it, as if targeting prey.

Muscles tensed, the Leopard stalked toward Albus, stopping just a few steps away. It was now close enough that it could, at any moment, tear the little white fluffball to shreds and devour it.

Seeing that Albus seemed to be frozen in fear, standing perfectly still, the Leopard suddenly opened its mouth and let out a low growl that rumbled deep in its throat. Its sharp fangs glinted coldly in the dim light.

As if startled by the growl, Albus glanced around frantically, seemingly looking for a place to hide.

The Leopard looked at the lowly housecat before it, thinking it was already scared so witless it couldn’t even flee. Finding this a bit dull, it prepared to pounce and tear the creature to pieces with a single swipe of its paw.

But just as it crouched to attack, an utterly bizarre scene unfolded before its eyes—

The tiny white cat’s head began to inflate like a balloon, expanding in the blink of an eye from the size of a fist to a sphere two or three meters in diameter.

Then, to the Leopard’s utter shock, Albus opened its massive mouth, leaned down, and with a soft "nom"—

the massive Leopard was swallowed whole.

Then, the giant cat head slowly shrank back to its original, fist-sized form. He lowered his head, licked his paws, and once again became that same weak, helpless little kitten.

As for the majestic and powerful Leopard, it had vanished without a trace.

Albus had already scanned the area and confirmed there were no security cameras or other people around.

So, without lingering, he used the dim light of the wall sconces to guide him as he ran deeper into the second basement level...