Chapter 620 Untraceable
Shortly after Li Lin contacted the Secret Service, several black luxury cars arrived at the nearby intersection, clearly having driven directly from the nearest "shortcut."
After the car door opened, the first person to appear was Song Cheng, the captain of the second brigade. The figure that got out of the second car surprised Yu Sheng a bit: a white suit, a white ponytail, aloof and cold, and trying hard to keep a straight expression even though she was very sleepy—it was Baili Qing.
She actually came in person.
Seeing the director come over in person, Li Lin became extremely nervous, while Zheng Zhi next to him seemed quite calm—he had a clear-headed look as if he had been out on fieldwork for several months before his internship was over and didn't recognize his superior at all. He was still grinning foolishly as he watched Baili Qing walk over, and it took him several seconds to belatedly realize that he was nervous.
However, the director obviously didn't care about the two rookie agents' nervous appearance. She just nodded to Li Lin and Zheng Zhi, lingering on the latter for two or three seconds before turning to look at Yu Sheng.
Yu Sheng spoke first: "You actually came in person."
“…There’s an artificial saintess acting strangely in the city, making it hard for me to stay in the office,” Baili Qing said calmly, the cold wind in the alley blowing through her hair, and her eyes seemed to twitch slightly. “So, what exactly happened?”
Yu Sheng immediately explained the current situation to the other party, including Zheng Zhi's experience and the "memory illusion" he had seen in the dark alley.
“Our initial guess is that the artificial saintess broke through the control of the Secret Order, but it’s hard to say exactly how it went out of control. It could be a malfunction, it could be the intervention of a third party—or it could even be a trap,” Yu Sheng said with a serious expression. “The main problem is that Luna has never seen anything like this before, so it’s very difficult to deal with.”
Baili Qing frowned slightly, and the next second, Yu Sheng saw a pair of illusory eyes appear in the air behind her—Baili Xue's eyes quickly rose into the sky, and the invisible gaze began to scan the entire city, seemingly tracking clues.
"Before you arrived, Hu Li and Luna had already searched the area using their own methods, but neither their divine sense nor radar could find any trace of her," Yu Sheng quickly said upon seeing this. "The artificial saintess has the ability to teleport, and she's very fast. She might have already run out of the city by now."
Baili Qing didn't say anything, but her gaze fell on Zheng Zhi again.
"She gave you something before she left?"
"Oh, right, she gave me one of these," Zheng Zhi suddenly realized, nodding as he pulled out the pile of game coins again, "She seems to be using these like money..."
Baili Qing silently took a game coin from Zheng Zhi's hand and examined it closely in the sunlight.
A faint light, barely perceptible to others, appeared in her eyes. The next second, Yu Sheng noticed that the surface of the coin suddenly seemed somewhat illusory, as if... it was being "disintegrated" by some force.
Baili Qing stood there motionless, using her own power to trace back the "information" related to the coin. At this moment, Eileen, who was nestled in Hu Li's arms, finally couldn't help but lean over and whisper to Yu Sheng, "Hey, hey, Yu Sheng, why do I feel like she's a bit metal fatigued today?"
Even Yu Sheng sometimes struggles to grasp the little thing's train of thought, and this time he didn't even understand: "What metal fatigue?"
Eileen said seriously, "Isn't she supposed to be expressionless? Today she's so sleepy her double eyelids are showing, isn't that just metal fatigue?"
Yu Sheng was immediately amazed by the little thing's way of thinking—he even felt that he had wasted so many years of his writing career.
The next second, he heard Baili Qing, still activating her ability, squeeze out a few words through gritted teeth: "I'm not a steel-faced idiot..."
Eileen exclaimed in surprise: "Wow—!"
Baili Qing sighed, the glimmer in her eyes fading. She first glanced at the little doll indifferently before handing the game coin to Song Cheng, who was standing next to her.
"This information comes from the shopping mall next to Suncity Plaza, which is currently undergoing renovations and is temporarily closed. The target briefly stayed there, but the specific details are hard to recall... There are too few effective information links. Let's send someone there to take a look first."
"Yes, Chief!"
"In addition, send more people to focus on searching the old alleys and empty houses along the line from the old city to the eastern district... I suspect that the target's activities have a certain 'tendency,' and there is a high probability that she will stay in similar locations. Also, notify the information security department to pay attention to all possible sighting reports on the Internet related to the 'artificial saint.' If the target is confused, she may come into contact with ordinary people without any defenses, and sooner or later there will be similar sighting reports."
Song Cheng immediately accepted the order and began to arrange the tasks assigned by the bureau chief. At the same time, Baili Xue's illusory eyes gradually descended from the sky and stopped behind Baili Qing.
Those eyes, visible only to Yu Sheng and Baili Qing, blinked a few times and muttered in a low voice, "The wind is so strong up there..."
"Did you find anything?" Baili Qing asked softly.
“We only found a few fading shadowy ‘tracks,’ but we couldn’t track them anymore,” Baili Xue replied. “But overall, she seems to be avoiding people… Maybe she’s realized she’s different from ‘normal’ people? That’s my guess… After all, I don’t know what it feels like to be interfered with by a ‘cognitive mask.’ Sigh, those bastards from the Secret Order…”
Yu Sheng looked up and saw Luna standing quietly to the side. She was completely covered up except for her eyes, which were exposed to the wind. Noticing the gaze on her, she turned her head slightly and spoke softly under her mask: "She is probably very scared—waking up will be the biggest nightmare."
"...It's alright, the Secret Service has already taken action, they'll definitely find her."
"Okay, sure."
...
The Secret Service spent the entire day searching the city for the artificial saintess who might have gone out of control, but the search yielded almost no results.
The target seemed to have vanished from the vast city; apart from finding some signs of destruction in an old, closed shopping mall, the operators found nothing.
However, considering that the target is a special unit that can teleport, leave no biological traces or aura, and can move stealthily at high speed, this situation seems to be expected.
Unless the target reappears on her own initiative, finding her in this enormous and astonishing city seems impossible simply by searching.
Night was falling.
The faint sound of howling wind could be heard outside the window; the weather forecast said there would be another significant drop in temperature within 24 hours.
Yu Sheng sat on the sofa, casually brushing the fur on Hu Li's tail. Eileen sat cross-legged on the coffee table, clicking away on the remote control. Luna was on standby at the bottom of the stairs. As for Hu Li, she sat cross-legged on the floor, her upper body resting on the sofa, emitting even, soft purring sounds.
A moment later, Eileen suddenly threw the remote control she was holding onto the coffee table—and Yu Sheng almost simultaneously threw the comb he was holding onto the sofa. The two of them said in unison, "Let's go out and look for it too!"
The fox, who was dozing off, was suddenly startled awake (or perhaps it was awakened by the pain of its tail being pulled), and instantly jumped onto the sofa with a whimper, looking around as if facing a formidable enemy.
Another Eileen emerged from under a table not far away and glanced at Hu Li: "...Were you having a hungry dream?"
Hu Li was still confused: "No, I suddenly heard a 'smack' next to me..."
“Oh, that was the sound of me throwing the remote control,” Eileen stood up from the coffee table. “Yu Sheng and I both think we should go out and look for them—we don’t really think the Secret Service is very reliable, and we don’t know how long we’ll have to wait for news from them.”
"Looking for...? Oh, I know, looking for that artificial saintess, right?" Hu Li finally came to her senses, but after frowning and thinking for a moment, she tilted her head in confusion, "But where do we even begin to look? We don't have a single clue."
Yu Sheng clicked his tongue as he listened: "That's true, we can't just wander around the streets like headless flies—even if we only include the old city and the eastern district, the area is huge enough to be frightening. We need to define a range first."
An Irene climbed onto the back of the sofa and sat cross-legged. A harbinger of doom circled above her head, then suddenly stopped in mid-air. The little doll's eyes lit up: "Hey, let's take our nephew out..."
Yu Sheng initially thought the little one had some brilliant idea, but he never expected that she would come up with these ideas after thinking for so long. His eyes immediately became somewhat subtle: "...Is this even a solution?"
The little doll said confidently, "How can it not count? It's a waste if you don't use your Spirit Vision to explore the map, nephew. In the game, it would be a top-tier account with doubled hidden drop rates. Besides, didn't that artificial saintess spawn in front of him twice before? I suspect they're destined for each other..."
Well, although Yu Sheng initially criticized Eileen's idea, he actually felt that she made a good point, and he was convinced in an instant.
Putting everything else aside, taking my nephew out is a sure way to run into something weird. Even if we don't find that artificial saintess, bumping into something else is still a worthwhile adventure, so it's not a bad deal either way.
Thinking this, Yu Sheng took out his phone from his pocket, but hesitated before dialing: "It's so late, they might be asleep."
Eileen's eyes widened suddenly: "...You weren't this polite when you were on the phone with that emotionless guy! He was practically suffering from metal fatigue and you were still sending him messages at midnight!"
Yu Sheng thought about it and agreed, so he dialed Zheng Zhi's mobile phone number.
The phone rang only once before being answered quickly on the other end.
It seems that the daily routines of young humans are different from those of hibernating dragons.
Yu Sheng picked up the phone and, without waiting for the other end to speak, said directly, "We've decided to go out and look..."
Before he could finish speaking, Zheng Zhi replied crisply, "Okay, I'll change my clothes right away."
Yu Sheng hung up the phone and looked up at Hu Li and the little doll.
Eileen crossed her arms and nodded: "You know what, this map-opening tool is actually quite proactive..."
(End of this chapter)
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