The blazing sun hung in the sky, and yellow sand swept past.
Barren and deserted, silent as extinction.
In the vast desert, a pickup truck stood with an iron frame mounted on its truck bed.
A man was bound in a "cross" shape to the iron frame, naked and hanging out in the breeze.
"Mm~~"
Hitachi opened his eyes with difficulty, waking up from the frame.
"You're awake?"
Black Cat wore sunglasses and sat on a waterbed, a mini-fridge by his side.
Hearing Hitachi's moan, he stood up.
"Click~"
Right in front of Hitachi's face, he popped open a soda can with a smile.
"Glug~ Ah~"
Black Cat took a large gulp of the iced soda and groaned comfortably, "Refreshing."
And Hitachi finally came to his senses, silently feeling his current posture before giving up the struggle. He asked Black Cat solemnly, "Who are you people?"
"No, no, no, now is not the time for conversation."
Black Cat wagged his finger, ignoring Hitachi's question, and sat right back down on the waterbed. "People of the Bunny family, I get it!
So, we won't chat for now; later~ we'll chat later~"
!!!
Hearing Black Cat's words, Hitachi's eyes widened in shock: Bunny speak!
Just now, Black Cat had spoken in Bunny speak, not bird speak!
Was he from the Bunny family?
"Are you from the Bunny family?
Speak!
Bastard!"
Hitachi shouted loudly toward Black Cat.
Black Cat picked up a cap, pulled it down over his face, and lay back on the waterbed. "Save your energy and saliva; it's only morning, evening is still a long way off!"
"Son of a bitch, if you have the guts, untie me and Grandpa will teach you how to be a human!
Bastard, let me go...
!@#!@%#...!#@￥#%...￥"
"..."
No matter how Hitachi shouted and cursed, Black Cat simply lay quietly on the waterbed, remaining silent.
One hour;
Two hours;
By evening, baked all day by the scorching sun, Hitachi's back gave off the scent of roasted meat, and his entire body hung limply and powerlessly from the frame.
As for Black Cat, he had disappeared before noon.
The only things keeping Hitachi company and showing any sign of life were the desert vultures circling endlessly overhead.
"Boom~"
In a daze, Hitachi heard the roaring sound of a vehicle driving by.
Black Cat sat in a desert off-road vehicle, looking at Hitachi—who was completely dehydrated and in a trance—and chuckled.
Then, Black Cat walked up onto the truck bed, pinched Hitachi's face with one hand to lift it up, and smiled face-to-face. "Don't worry, I'm not in a hurry, we still have time."
Hitachi's eyes were lifeless as he mumbled vaguely to Black Cat, "I~ fuck~ your~ ances—"
"Bang~"
Black Cat wore a smile on his face, seemingly unfazed by Hitachi's words.
However, before Hitachi could finish, he landed a heavy punch right into his abdomen.
"Don't let him die!
And don't let him sleep either!"
Jumping down from the truck bed, Black Cat said indifferently to the people around him.
Immediately after, someone climbed onto the truck bed and crudely injected Hitachi with glucose and other medications.
Then they fed Hitachi a few mouthfuls of saltwater to wake him up.
Shortly after, the people around set up tents nearby.
Clearly, this group intended to sleep right here tonight.
As for Hitachi, he remained hanging on the frame.
Meanwhile, inside the factory.
He Zhijun and Gao Linlin led Elder Zhou and the others, their faces gloomy as they strode into Guo Yi's room.
Then, he roughly shook Guo Yi awake. "Something's happened!"
"What is it?
Can't even let a guy get a proper sleep, has the sky fallen?"
Guo Yi yawned, asking with an unhappy expression.
"The technical personnel supporting Dog Tycoon have gone missing!"
!!!
Guo Yi paused, jolting awake as he came fully to his senses. "No way, aren't they afraid of the border situation?
How dare they pull this stunt!"
"Is there a way for you to track them down?"
He Zhijun paced back and forth, shouting anxiously at Guo Yi.
"Let's go, to the doghouse."
Without even getting dressed, Guo Yi led the group directly to the information hub level. "What on earth is going on?"
"Last night, a group of people at the hotel where Dog Tycoon's troops were staying killed a few guards and vanished with Hitachi..."
"Why are you only telling me now?"
Guo Yi stopped in his tracks, frowning unhappily. "Time is money, why are you only telling me now?"
"We never expected Dog Tycoon to be so useless!"
He Zhijun said with hatred, "Besides, they only notified our side at noon, and then we started looking for clues.
It's just that I couldn't wait, which is why I ran over to ask you."
Guo Yi's face darkened as he understood what they meant: he was merely a researcher, and combat matters had nothing to do with him.
If He Zhijun hadn't been impatient and wanted to ask if he had any solutions, Guo Yi probably wouldn't have known anything happened until the person was rescued.
"Do you have a way or not?"
At the hub level, He Zhijun watched Guo Yi tapping unhurriedly away at Doggie's control console, his mood somewhat frantic as he asked.
You couldn't really blame him for being anxious, because Hitachi was genuinely someone who had walked right out of this factory.
However, he was not a resident here; instead, he was a trainee secretly sent over through covert methods.
He did not know where this place was, nor did he know what it was for.
He had arrived in a deep sleep at a small workshop inside the factory, never stepped outside, quietly studied exoskeleton-related knowledge with a few people in that small workshop, and then was sent away while asleep again.
As for why Hitachi had come here, one could only say: there are always some idiots in this world.
Because of his ignorant words, certain people had to pay a heavy price for them!
For this reason, the biggest household head back home had directly smashed the table in anger, quietly purging a batch of idiots.
Yes, from flesh to soul, letting those idiots return to nature.
Yet these matters could only serve as a lesson now, and they no longer had anything to do with them.
The most critical thing right now was Hitachi; if he spilled everything during interrogation, no matter how much...
Or perhaps they should prepare a Neutron Jammer in advance...
"Slap~"
The sound of Guo Yi slapping the control console roused the others from their deep thoughts, and shortly after, everyone faintly felt the entire floor begin to vibrate slightly.
Then, the lights throughout the factory dimmed, shifting to an amber glow.
Simultaneously, everyone received a notification: the factory has entered energy-saving mode, all personnel must cease work and return to their respective dormitories to await further instructions.
Following that, He Zhijun and the others watched as countless segments of surveillance video flashed rapidly across the projections before them.
Countless faces began flickering into view as well.
"What are you doing?"
"I just whipped up a facial recognition program for Doggie, and then manually authorized Doggie to hack into Dog Tycoon's surveillance feeds using a backdoor I pre-installed in the past.
On top of that, I hacked every satellite that passed over Dog Tycoon from yesterday to today, and through comparative analysis, I've locked onto Hitachi—and consequently, his current location and who dealt the dirty blow."
Everyone nodded without saying anything further.
After all, the top priority right now was finding Hitachi, and they didn't care what method Guo Yi used or whether it was legal and compliant.
Besides, they didn't believe Guo Yi could be exposed from the network so easily.
After a long while, the avatars stopped spinning, and all the projected surveillance footage vanished.
Then, a blurry image appeared before everyone.
A man was bound in a certain patch of desert, with several tents and a few vehicles visible in the distance.
"Hiss~"
Gazing at those avatars, Guo Yi couldn't help drawing a sharp breath of air, and then spoke to the group with a hint of nervousness: "K2...
They're K2!"
"International terrorist organization—K2!"
Thanks to the big boss "Yin Shi Bu Zheng" for three consecutive days of tipping!!!
Thanks to the big boss "Bu Xiu Xin" for the tip!
Thanks to the big boss "Qian Hou Dou You Ren" for the tip!
Thank you all!