Chapter 98: The Mantis Stalks the Cicada, Unaware of the Oriole Behind |
The sheer force from the man who suddenly appeared was so immense that it nearly buried Shi Rang straight into the ground.
He tried to breathe, but only ended up inhaling a mouthful of dirt and dead leaves, managing nothing more than a desperate, muffled cry. The crushing pressure on his neck finally eased just enough to let him turn his head and gasp for air.
The spots of light and double vision caused by the intense pressure gradually stabilized. Following the heavy boot planted next to his face upward, he saw tightly bound trouser legs and a bulky Tactical Belt. On the side of the Tactical Belt rested an emblem—a circular pattern enclosing three small, inward-pointing triangles—the Agency logo.
His wildly pounding heart skipped a beat.
It was a Bureau Field Agent!
Relying on the precise tracking of the Special Communicator, Shi Rang usually navigated his operations against the Bureau with fish-in-water ease. Their personnel deployments were completely transparent to him.
But he had overlooked the human factor.
People make mistakes. Even in an era where equipping Bureau employees with a Special Communicator was written into the strict regulations, someone could always accidentally forget to carry theirs, turning them into an invisible phantom completely absent from his Sensing.
It made perfect sense. Amidst the mountains swarming with patrol posts, how could there possibly be a glaring blind spot that an ordinary person like him could approach so effortlessly?
The Field Agent misinterpreted his shock and calculation as defiance. The hand pressing down on him tightened its grip, sending a sharp, agonizing flare of pain through Shi Rang's right shoulder, feeling as though it might snap. He heard the rattle of chains, his arms were wrenched back with a sharp crack, and cold, tight metal snapped securely around his wrists.
"State your identity! I will not ask a third time!"
Cold sweat rolled down Shi Rang's forehead. His vision darkened, and it took several seconds before he could squeeze a strained voice from his throat. "I..."
"I got lost..."
"I asked for your identity. Who are you?"
"I am a reporter, a former reporter, I..."
Terrified that his arm was genuinely about to be broken, Shi Rang desperately spun a web of lies, tasting the salty tang of sweat in his mouth. In this moment of crisis, he recalled his contingency plan. Gritting his teeth, he entirely shifted his tone. "Are you Class-B Personnel?"
"What?" The Field Agent thought he had misheard.
"Are you Class-B Personnel? Do you have Level 2 authorization?" Shi Rang raised his voice, trying to sound as authoritative and credible as possible. Lying was difficult at the start, but the subsequent words flowed out smoothly. "Who is your superior? Who is currently in charge of coordinating with Director Romero?"
The Field Agent loosened his grip on the man's arm and hauled Shi Rang up from the dirt. Although he did not unfasten the handcuffs, a note of wariness and newfound respect seeped into his voice. "Who exactly are you? Explain your identity clearly."
Shi Rang blinked away the haze clouding his vision and stiffly propped himself up on trembling legs.
A cold breeze swept through the woods, which appeared dim even in the broad daylight, stripping away his body heat.
The current situation had far exceeded the bounds of his Plan A, but he had no luxury of time to think. He rapidly plucked out a suitable title. "I am from the Ethics Committee."
What gripped him tighter than pain and tension was sheer terror. It felt as though he had been safely orchestrating moves from behind a screen against digital enemies, only for an enemy soldier to abruptly reach straight out of the monitor and slam a hand onto his face.
Regardless of whether he could bluff his way out of this, the situation had become a massive headache.
He was exposed beyond the curtain.
"Sorry, the number you have dialed is powered off..."
Agent Angie hung up the phone and cast a glance toward the city center, an inexplicable sense of unease settling over her.
Shi Rang was an absolute shut-in who rarely ever left the house at night. It seemed he had been lying last night.
But she had already asked a friend from her old unit to run a background check, and it was true that he had resigned from the Newspaper Office.
Could this guy be addicted to reporting? Had he pivoted to becoming an undercover investigative journalist to dig into something dangerous?
Without the intel she provided, could Shi Rang actually uncover anything real?
She knew exactly how abysmal Shi Rang's investigative skills were. He had only secured his reporter job through an acquaintance's recommendation, and he stammered whenever speaking to strangers. What could he possibly find out?
Or had his neurotic tendencies taken over, pushing him to actively seek trouble with Blue Signal?
"Did the call go through?" came an inquiry from inside the car.
"No answer. He might be sleeping." Agent Angie had no interest in sharing too many details with her temporary partner. She just prayed that Shi Rang had not gotten himself dragged into any serious trouble. She disliked the man, but she had always treated Ying Shang like a younger sister, so she could not be entirely heartless toward her brother-in-law. "Let's go. Next location."
"No need to search any more locations. One of the teams found it."
"They found it?"
"Unless there is a second organization out here planting hidden sentries on the perimeter, it is definitely them." Her temporary partner shifted back into the professional demeanor he had strived to maintain when they first met. "The location is deep in a suburban forest, practically overlapping the borders of the next city. It is registered under the guise of an 'Outdoors Club'."
"They certainly know how to pick a spot."
Agent Angie buckled her seatbelt as her partner slammed the accelerator, driving straight toward the winding mountain road.
"There is another interesting detail."
"Please, spare me the suspense."
"Less than thirty miles away lies a massive plot of land owned by the Bureau. One of our teams was intercepted at their checkpoint and is currently caught in a standoff. If I am not mistaken, there should be a containment facility hidden inside. Considering the vast expanse of uninhabited wasteland between them, they are basically living right next door as neighbors."
"Our operation will not end up drawing the Bureau's attention, will it?"
"Let us see if they dare to get involved." The partner slightly increased their speed. "The higher-ups have already begun mobilizing personnel. We can head over, seize the high ground, and grab front-row seats for the show. I actually have a bit of history with their Commander. By the way, are you still single?"
"Being out on a mission is hardly the right time to hit on someone."
"Then... after the mission ends?"
Agent Angie turned her head to conceal the faint smile tugging at the corner of her lips. "Just focus on your driving, Mr. Spirit Vision Department Elite."
Thirty miles away from their destination, deep in the mountain forest, Shi Rang stood frozen in place with his hands bound, locked in a tense standoff with the Field Agent.
The Ethics Committee was a brilliant excuse. An Ethics Commissioner was responsible for supervising the other departments of the Bureau, wielding absolute Power Over Life and Death. To lower-level personnel, they were an incredibly terrifying existence.
However, this Field Agent was waiting for Shi Rang to explain why he was wandering through a restricted mountain forest looking so wretched and disheveled.
Shi Rang needed to find a plausible justification and craft a flawless backstory for himself before any cross-departmental verification could take place.
But the worst part was that he could not use his mental connection right now. He could not afford to lose focus, as doing so would immediately expose his anomaly.
If he claimed to be Dump Truck's subordinate, would it draw the attention of a Council Member? Would it ultimately lead to his exposure?
He could not use an identity from the Alliance as an excuse, either. An exposed Spy was completely worthless, and the Alliance would instantly see through the fact that there was no such thing as the New World Society backing him.
Idiot. What a colossal idiot. He should have just copied the Records and retreated to a safe zone to read them, instead of activating his abilities in such a highly dangerous zone. Even the slightest manipulation of his powers caused time to slip away at a terrifying speed. He had really started to think of himself as an invincible Data Ghost.
On the internal network, he might be the almighty "Dump Truck" who stirred up massive storms, but out here in reality, he was nothing more than an ordinary human being.
If he could not pass this hurdle, he would never see Ying Shang again, nor would he be able to exact revenge against the third party. Even the Mini-Humans would—
For some reason, the Field Agent had also fallen into silence, anxiously scrutinizing the strange man claiming to be an Ethics Commissioner, as if waiting for something. The agent then cast a bewildered gaze through the dense forest, peering deep into the dappled shadows of the trees as if trying to locate someone.
"C2 calling, I have encountered a..."
The Field Agent pressed down on the flattened pouch at his waist meant for his Communication Device, suddenly realizing the problem.
"Forgot to bring it again. No wonder they haven't pinged me. Forget it... You, just come with me for now. I cannot verify your identity out here."
The moment Shi Rang took a step, his legs nearly gave out, causing the Field Agent to frown at him.
However, taking note of his deathly pale complexion, deeply bloodshot eyes, and torn, ragged clothes, the Field Agent's firm conviction that he was a trespasser and a Spy began to waver. Perhaps this man had truly encountered a life-threatening emergency that forced him to stumble into the restricted area?
Since he was able to name Director Romero directly, it proved the man was well aware of the internal situation in this sector.
The Field Agent quickly stepped forward and supported Shi Rang by his left shoulder to help him steady his footing. Compared to his earlier rough handling, this gesture was remarkably gentle.
"We have an entire hospital on-site. You are going to be fine."
Shi Rang smelled a faint trace of hope. Perhaps he could finish masking his digital trail on the way to their facility. "Let's go, then. First, take me to your—"
Mid-sentence, his eyes suddenly widened, his face twisting into a mask of pure horror.
"There is an Anomaly behind you!"
The Field Agent's right hand was still gripping his Gun. He quickly shot a vigilant glance over his shoulder and instantly hardened his expression. "What the hell are you—"
A deafening gunshot rang out, and warm liquid splattered violently across Shi Rang's face.
The body with its head split open swayed unsteadily. The hand gripping Shi Rang's left arm slipped away as the man's knees buckled. His upper body folded sideways, collapsing onto the forest floor, motionless.
Blood dripped slowly from Shi Rang's jaw, pattering onto the dirt below.
His eyes remained locked wide open, staring straight ahead. The Field Agent's face was still burned into his retinas, instantly overwritten by the horrific moment of the skull bursting apart.
Two silhouettes emerged from the gloomy depths of the woods. The figure leading the way jogged over to the fresh corpse and crouched down.
"You blew his head off?" the person trailing behind demanded. "I told you to knock him out!"
"Forget about that, we struck gold. This guy did not bring his Communication Device."
"Then we just dragged ourselves into a massive mess."
"Stop being a backseat driver. If this guy had brought his radio, and we could not answer the check-in call, we would have pulled a whole swarm of Field Agents right down on top of us. What then?"
The crouching man stood up, a wide grin blooming across his slightly chubby, round face. Under normal circumstances, it would have been a friendly, neighborly smile. But juxtaposed against the fresh corpse lying at his feet, the expression instantly felt deeply sinister and murderous.
"You have quite the luck, 'Shi Rang'."
"Tell me—where are the contents of the Suitcase?"