Chapter 96: Sector 257 |
Shi Rang walked all the way until dawn, finally making it back to the mountain road with great difficulty. The rain had stopped, and the sun had peeked over the horizon. He had only advanced about two kilometers in a straight line, making his destination feel hopelessly out of reach.
He hid in a depression in the mountainside, squeezing between two large boulders to rest while keeping a vigilant watch for any potential enemies.
He thought his hiding spot was fairly concealed, right up until a small delivery truck heading to a nearby farm chugged past, only to reverse and come to a halt right beside him.
A family of five, seated in the cabin and the truck bed, cast him looks filled with sympathy and concern. The owner hurriedly stepped out of the vehicle and approached to check on his condition.
"What happened to you? Do you need a ride to the hospital?"
After his harrowing experiences the previous night, Shi Rang was entirely unwilling to get into a stranger's vehicle, but he simply could not refuse the family's overwhelming kindness. Seeing that they fully intended to drag him to a hospital, he used hitching a ride as an excuse to climb into the truck bed, squeezing in with the owner's two children and a few sheep. He was exhausted, yet he did not dare close his eyes. He constantly scanned his surroundings, ready to jump from a moving vehicle once again at a moment's notice.
Over an hour later, Shi Rang hopped off the truck near the edge of the mountains. He waved goodbye to the family, his arms now clutching a loaf of raisin bread and a large slab of dried meat.
Having endured so many conspiracies and so much mutual deception, he had almost forgotten that good people still existed, even in the Tenth District.
Perhaps the heavens had seen his miserable state and decided to offer a little compensation. But that fleeting sense of luck lingered in his mind for only a moment before he clutched his provisions and dove back into the forest.
There were no discernible trails for him to follow through the mountains, but at least he did not have to worry about accidentally stumbling into a farm controlled by drug dealers.
According to the records from the Terminal Station, the dozens of kilometers surrounding Sector 257 were entirely Bureau land. However, the exact location of the core area was not documented; there was only a vague perimeter.
Trampling over brambles and shrubs, Shi Rang forcefully carved a path through the dense undergrowth.
He pushed his way blindly through the complex woodland. His clothes, already full of tears, were shredded further by the thorny branches, making him look like a stranded traveler lost in the wild. His pants could barely stay on his waist, forcing him to tie several extra knots in his belt just to keep them up.
Without realizing it, the food that was supposed to last him two or three days had all found its way into his stomach.
His Rapid Regeneration seemed to have vastly improved his digestive system—heaven only knew where the food residue ended up.
Defying all logic, that was simply the nature of an Anomalous Effect.
By nine in the morning, he suddenly stumbled upon the edge of a road.
This highway was of excellent quality, meandering secretively through the forested mountains. Several camouflage nets were strung up nearby, rendering the road nearly impossible to spot even from the air.
This was definitely a transport route used by the Bureau.
From that point on, Shi Rang deliberately kept his distance from the asphalt. He moved in fits and starts along its general direction, continuously releasing his Intuition. However, his sensing range was far too narrow, meaning he could easily slip right past the core area.
As he chewed on the bread gifted by the farming family, a sudden stroke of inspiration hit him. Clutching his food, he sat cross-legged on the ground and expanded his Intuition Sphere.
His Intuition Sphere was normally circular, with a radius of about five hundred meters, capturing any anomalies or specialized Bureau equipment within that zone. Now, Shi Rang applied mental pressure to both sides of the sensing circle, flattening it, stretching it, and finally pulling it into a single, fine line. This successfully extended his maximum detection range to tens of kilometers.
Using himself as the anchor point, he swept this line across the forest. A massive influx of abstract, hazy data instantly flooded his consciousness. Shi Rang's body swayed as rising cranial pressure made his eyes bulge, and two streams of crimson blood poured from his nose.
[Rapid Regeneration activated]
He tilted his head back, trying to stem the nosebleed, and activated his ability once more. This time, he slowed his pace and reduced the distance. Like the ticking hands of a clock, he shifted the sensing line tick by tick, doing his utmost to capture the data rather than letting it flash past in a distorted blur.
[Sector 257 Patrol Team Communication Device #59]
Found it!
[Calling Outer Defense Zones C1 to C3.]
[C1 reading you, all clear.]
[C3 reading you, all clear.]
[What about C2? Slacking off again or what?]
Shi Rang disconnected from the communication audio and probed the patrol coordinate map within the device, discovering that someone would be approaching his vicinity very soon.
He hurriedly pushed forward, only stopping when he reached a signal blind spot.
Out of caution, he probed a few more times. Only after confirming that none of the nearby communication devices had patrol missions assigned to his location did he begin his operation.
His body fell backward into a patch of bushes as his consciousness detached and surged forward. Following the trajectory of the signal source, his mind shot straight toward the local information hub. He quickly latched onto a hardwired punch-in device, and surfing along its corresponding intranet, he infiltrated the management center.
[Database access request detected...]
[Class-S clearance verified. Your access logs will not be recorded in the system.]
[Area-257]
[(Click to expand map)]
[Area Director: Doctor Romero, Class-A Personnel.]
[Main Zones: Facility 257 (158 staff on duty), Town (containing 10,259 CVA-B-257-1 entities), Experimental Medical Institute (currently 25 staff and 10 test subjects), Staff Residential Area, Detention Zone...]
[Primary Containment Object: CVA-B-257 - "Water of Life" (formerly CVA-D-257)... : (Click to expand remaining 175
Containment Object records)]
[Stationed Mobile Task Force: Epsilon-3 "Old Farmers" (On Standby)]
[Nuclear Warhead: 1 (On Standby)]
[Searching "Directory of Detained Personnel from 1662 to Present", filtering for "Fan Yingshang".....
.
[1 result found.]
A vehicle bearing the emblem of the Pan-Continent Alliance rumbled by with a heavy "thump-thump". In the bright sunlight, two figures pulled open the doors and collapsed into the driver and passenger seats with highly synchronized exhaustion.
"I really thought we had it in the bag, but we came up totally empty-handed..." Agent Angie adjusted her seat back, rolling her eyes to stare blankly out the window. "Doesn't that mean we just wasted the entire night? Now we have to keep working overtime to search those hundred-plus anomalous water usage spots."
Her Field Agent partner spoke up from the driver's seat. "You Heart Language Department folks have it so easy. It's obvious you've never pulled an all-nighter before."
"Then maybe you shouldn't be slumping in your seat either, my reliable senior agent."
Angie considered herself a fairly polite person, but she rarely stayed up late, let alone pulled all-nighters. Fueled by caffeine—exhausted, drained, yet completely unable to sleep—she had cast aside all basic courtesy, turning into a powder keg ready to blow at the slightest spark.
Since the operation began yesterday, the five special task forces dispatched by the Alliance had already dismantled over a dozen criminal dens, dragging the entire city's police force out of bed to work overtime alongside them.
This sudden sweep had completely engulfed the underworld of Yunling City.
Before the gang syndicates could even receive a warning from their inside men in the government, a swarm of heavily armed Alliance soldiers had already blown the doors right off their hideouts.
Mountains of stolen money and illicit goods were seized, along with enough narcotics to build a brick house. Numerous adult entertainment venues were sealed shut, and the detention centers were so overstuffed that a local stadium had to be requisitioned just to hold all the suspects. Yet, despite all this, they still hadn't caught a single glimpse of the hostile organization they were actually hunting.
"It's not like we don't have any leads..."
"Let's hear them, then."
"Remember last night when I said I had a theory?"
Angie finally turned her head, ready to hear what brilliant insight he had to offer.
"I'm even more certain now. This hostile group isn't a local faction from the Tenth District—we're likely looking for one of their outposts, a bridgehead. They might not exhibit obvious anomalies in their water or electricity usage, but I agree with your earlier analysis. Their stronghold is most likely situated in a sparsely populated area, and it isn't very large. So..."
"If you keep keeping me in suspense, you can go run the field checks yourself."
"Don't be like that, I still really need a local guide." The agent gave her an exhausted, placating smile. "Have you ever heard of the 'Ascendance Society'?"
"I saw him tumble down with my own eyes, I swear it. Falling from a cliff that high, there's absolutely no way he survived." The unlicensed taxi driver emphasized to the petty gang leader standing beside him. "I reported it the very first second I could, but unfortunately, I just couldn't stop him in time."
"You'll get your pay, but the higher-ups ordered me to bring him in—dead or alive. They want to make an example out of him to frighten the rest."
Deep furrows etched across the gang leader's forehead. His gaze followed the crushed foliage down the sheer face of the cliff, though the bottom was completely obscured from where they stood.
A few of his lackeys had tried climbing down earlier, only to nearly fall to their deaths. They had no choice but to give up and wait for their accomplices from the city to bring some professional gear. And so, they had simply guarded the spot for the rest of the night.
"This is going to be a real headache. The guy's a loner. Even if we wanted to grab his family for leverage, there's no one around to snatch."
"If he doesn't have one, just invent one."
"Easier said than done... weird. The boss hasn't replied to my texts. Where the hell did everyone in the city disappear to? It's already daylight and they still haven't brought the ropes." The petty leader snapped his flip phone shut in annoyance, kicking the black suitcase resting between them. "Are you absolutely sure the luggage he left in your car only contained this piece of junk?"
"Yeah, I was confused too. A suitcase packed inside another suitcase, and when I popped it open, it was totally empty."
The gang leader finished his cigarette and casually flicked the butt away. The unlicensed taxi driver immediately offered him another, leaning in while shielding the flame of a lighter.
Only after lighting the cigarette did the gang leader's expression relax slightly. "You got anyone you can't stand?"
The unlicensed taxi driver chuckled slyly. Before he could answer, a sudden screech of brakes echoed through the air as an unmarked off-road vehicle skidded to a halt on the mountain road.
Before the nearby thugs could step up and start throwing their weight around, the passenger window rolled down. A man pushed his sunglasses down the bridge of his nose and asked with a radiant smile, "What are you boys looking for?"
The petty gang leader shot his subordinates a sharp look. One of the lackeys instantly stepped forward, deliberately patting the gun tucked into his waistband.
"None of your damn business. Don't go looking where you shouldn't, now beat it."
That morning, their inside man on the police force had cryptically warned them that "something major was happening in the city."
Although they had no idea what was actually going down, it was the first time they had encountered such a situation. It was best to avoid making a scene.
"Whoa there, I didn't mean to offend. I just wanted to ask if you guys had seen a certain someone around here." The man maintained his beaming smile, even extending a few bills out the window. "Care to jog your memories for me, boys?"
"Oho, alright then. Who exactly are you looking for?"
"A young Asian man with distinct Second District features. In his twenties, likely carrying a suitcase—"
As the man spoke, his eyes locked onto the case resting at the gang leader's feet.
"Oh, so there you are."