Chapter 119: I See You
Prison recreation time.
"Have you heard? A few ability users from the cell next door recently disappeared for several days, and when they came back, they were completely broken, like invalids."
"I heard. But these dangerous individuals are all held in solitary confinement, so it doesn't really concern small fry like us. It's Scarface Brother, who was sentenced to life, that no one knows where he was transferred to."
"After that prison tyrant Scarface disappeared, the environment here got a lot better."
"Exactly."
"What are you few mumbling about?" A nearby prison guard, seeing them seemingly whispering in a huddle, walked over, swinging his truncheon. "Feeling itchy, are we?"
Seeing this, the few scattered.
Bai Mo, engrossed in his research on Spirit Hubs, naturally wouldn't notice the discussions in the prison. Even if he did, he wouldn't care about such trifles. Over the past month or so, the number of ability users who passed through his hands was no less than three hundred. Even after removing duplicates, the diagrams of Spirit Hubs he privately compiled now contained over a hundred new examples.
"A large portion of the spirit-animated organs don't provide ability users with corresponding abilities. Shouldn't the minority of them that *do* provide abilities be given another name? Like 'Specialized'?" Bai Mo sat in the boss's chair in the laboratory, spinning a pen in his right hand and holding a cup of coffee in his left, typing furiously on the keyboard with his psychokinesis, writing a report he intended to upload to the database. He then slapped his head, having thought of such a term.
"Chen Xi!" After settling on this plan, Bai Mo sent a mental wave into the lounge.
"Mm! Coming." Kicking off her slippers, Chen Xi, who also treated this place like a second home, rushed over, a bag of snacks in her mouth.
"Notify the ability users stationed at the experimental facility to keep a close eye on the people on the first underground level, especially those three. I'll be away for a few days."
"Understood, I'll go now."
After giving his instructions, Bai Mo left the experimental facility, carrying a large suitcase.
Along the way, he saw various supporting facilities continuously being constructed around the experimental facility. A steady stream of supplies was being transported there, and the outline of a super-large scientific research center was already beginning to take shape.
Bai Mo, rarely taking a half-day break from his research, strolled leisurely down the street with a large box, periodically patronizing various roadside snack stalls.
"Had enough following?" He instantly flashed behind a man haggling with a fruit stall owner in a small alley.
"Sir, may I ask who you are..." The man in the plaid shirt, addressed by Bai Mo, said with an innocent expression.
"You, and the woman buying things at the grocery store over there, and the man riding the bicycle up ahead, stop following me."
The man in the plaid shirt walked with Bai Mo to a spot away from the fruit stall and said: "Mr. Bai, this is an order from above... It's very difficult for us if you do this."
"Are you trying to protect me?" he said with a smile. "Tell your superiors, whether you're protecting me or monitoring me, don't let me catch you again. I don't believe in a 'third time's the charm' kind of rule. Next time, someone might just find themselves stripped naked and hung on a memorial archway."
"This..." The man in the plaid shirt thought for a moment, and decided to call his two teammates to retreat first. He certainly didn't want to experience the sensation of being stripped naked and hung on a memorial archway. The person before him was truly a master of arbitrary will.
After scaring the few of them off, Bai Mo continued to leisurely stroll around, scouting for a suitable candidate in his mind. As evening approached, a boy who looked about fourteen or fifteen, walking nearby, stumbled and bumped into him.
"Watch out." He helped the boy up.
"Thanks." Having succeeded, he nodded to Bai Mo, and hurried into a small alley.
Just as the boy frantically departed, his back to Bai Mo, Bai Mo effortlessly reached out with psychokinesis and retrieved the wallet the boy had pilfered and placed in his pocket. He then picked up a few small stones of similar weight from the ground and put them back in its place.
"You're today's target."
"They're still somewhat receptive to advice; they haven't sent anyone to follow me again. However, I always feel as if someone is still prying." Bai Mo swept with his divine sense, but gained nothing. "Perhaps it's some kind of ability? But it doesn't quite seem like it. My intuition tells me the prying comes from the sky."
"The sky... Could it be a military satellite? That would explain it..."
Inside the National Defense Office.
"Leopard, come take a look at the target subject. Why does it feel like he's smiling at us?"
"What kind of joke is this? Can any human really detect the surveillance of this experimental military satellite? This thing utilizes the latest achievements from the Spirit Energy Research Institute, its resolution efficiency reaches the level of a 0.1-centimeter external cheat device!"
"His lips seem to be moving, Leopard, you know lip-reading. Try to see if you can make anything out."
"Let me see what he's doing. I... see... you... all... Is that what it means? Wait! Dammit, he actually found us?!"
On the screen, Bai Mo's figure suddenly transformed into a mass of darkness, and vanished with his suitcase into the twilight alley.
"To think such an ability exists. Finding a mass of darkness in the dead of night, such matters are best left for the higher-ups to worry about." The staff member, codenamed Monkey, picked up the phone to report the situation to his superiors.
After absorbing the surrounding light, and transforming into a mass of darkness, he walked towards the direction of his target.
He navigated through twists and turns into Tianqing's old city district, the dark underbelly left behind by a city that had boomed since being chosen as the capital.
"Quite well hidden," Bai Mo continued, maintaining his form as a black mist, trailing the boy from a distance. The dilapidated streetlights nearby provided him with excellent cover.
The boy walked quickly, knowing the area well, without slowing down despite the lack of light. When he reached the front of a building, he habitually felt his pocket, only to his surprise find that the stolen wallet had vanished, replaced only by a few small stones.
Just as he was stunned, the door of the house in front of him opened, and a burly man stepped out.
"How were today's pickings?" he asked dryly.
"It was there originally! I even felt the wallet; it was heavy. How could it suddenly disappear? Only a few stones are left!" The boy was clearly still bewildered.
"You didn't steal anything and you still dare to lie? Looks like you're quite good at acting!" The burly man pulled out a wooden stick from behind him, and began to chase and beat the boy. "Don't run! If you run, you and your sister won't eat today!"
Upon hearing this, the boy, who had originally intended to dodge, hesitated for a moment. He then stopped his attempt to flee, and chose to cover his head with both hands, allowing the burly man to savagely beat him.
"That's for lying! That's for acting!" he yelled, kicking him forcefully.
After beating him for a while, and with his anger largely dissipated, he placed the wooden stick beside the door, and dragged the boy, who was like a dead dog, into the house.
Bai Mo, who had followed closely, stood a few meters away in the backlight of a half-broken streetlight, watching the scene silently, like a shadow.
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