Tracking

Perhaps there were traces to follow.

But Ji Jue found none.

After carefully photographing the scene and carrying out work the police had never done, Ji Jue helplessly discovered that all he could see in the dust were several trailing lines of footprints.

Yet he could not tell who was who.

Whether they were men or women, tall or short, whether they had any distinctive features—he could not make heads or tails of it.

It was obviously too late to dig out a textbook and start learning from scratch, but fortunately, there were other methods.

Ji Jue placed his palm on the old computer.

He told it:

—[Wake up]!

After several attempts, that faint, elusive sensation finally surfaced again. The Formless Hand took control of everything, forcibly activating the overloaded power supply. Following Ji Jue's will, it bypassed the burned-out circuits and made a certain degree of repair... and the screen lit up again!

He skillfully opened the store's surveillance footage and adjusted the timestamp.

Two black shadows appeared on the screen. They entered through the back door, clearly premeditated, yet instead of searching the counter and where the cash was kept, they turned toward other parts of the store.

As if they were looking for something else.

Then they encountered Lu Ma, who had been startled awake.

Like a crazed mother bear, roaring Lu Ma did not bother with any Code of Brotherhood or other pointless nonsense. She swung a wrench straight into one man's skull, splitting his head open on the spot. Blood spattered out and landed on her head; perhaps that was why abnormal Spiritual Substance remained there.

If he had been an ordinary person, that blow would have killed him or at least left him with a concussion.

But... what if the intruders were not normal?

In the surveillance footage, the person on the ground merely twitched twice before straightening as if electrocuted. He rose in an eerie posture, effortlessly seized Lu Ma's arm, snatched away the wrench, and smashed it into her head and face.

The other person who had been attacked seemed as unaffected as a breeze brushing his face. He restrained Lu Ma and easily subdued her.

Ji Jue watched Lu Ma struggle and resist again and again on the monitor.

She got back up, then fell again.

In the end, she lost consciousness.

She collapsed to the ground.

His expression gradually vanished. Even his anger seemed to have flowed away through some hollow void. Only the old computer's traces remained, panting, howling, roaring.

The image abruptly froze.

Lu Ma's resistance tore off one man's mask, revealing a scar on his face, a full beard, and eyes of an abnormal color, unlike any ordinary shade. It reminded Ji Jue of the old man who had gone mad and attacked him.

A scarlet color.

Compared to that old man, their mutations did not seem as severe, but the old man had somehow given Ji Jue a malnourished feeling. These two had not been driven mad by hunger either; their physiques merely surpassed those of ordinary people.

The footage ended quickly. After searching for a long time and finding nothing, the two men smashed things up in a frenzy. Finally, unwilling to make the trip for nothing, they laboriously hauled Lu Ma up from the ground and dragged her toward the back door.

Ji Jue walked to the back door and watched the remaining tracks on the ground disappear beyond it.

The rain had washed away any trace of tire tracks.

He raised his head and looked at the Surveillance Camera mounted on the utility pole... It had long since fallen into disrepair and gave no response. The data cable extending from its body had completely deteriorated over the long years.

It looked as though no one had maintained it for Over Ten Years. Over the years, Yacheng's surveillance systems had been replaced again and again, but unfortunately, none had ever been installed in North Mountain District's chaotic makeshift neighborhoods.

It had long been forgotten.

"Who said you can't find someone without surveillance footage?"

Ji Jue stared fixedly at the utility pole and murmured softly. After dragging a ladder out of the storeroom, he climbed onto the wall. In the light rain, no one noticed the raincoat-clad figure who appeared to be repairing the roof.

Then Ji Jue took out a pair of wire cutters from his pocket.

"Whether this works or not depends on this one shot."

Ji Jue gritted his teeth, put on a pair of barely useful work gloves, identified the camera cable, and cut it Without hesitation. "It's up to you now, Superpower!"

Snap!

In an instant, it was as though a faint, fragmented hum suddenly emerged from the severed cable. Then that nearly imperceptible hum gradually became clearer.

It was as though it had come from a thousand miles away to right next door, but it was still too far!

Ji Jue thought for a moment, took off his work gloves, and gripped it with his bare hand. The hum amplified again, but it was still not enough... until Ji Jue made up his mind, Opened his mouth, and bit the data cable between his teeth.

In that instant, it felt as though his soul had left his body, racing through the dead-silent cable and plunging into the empty Surveillance Camera.

Once more, it ignited the extinguished spark!

The camera's red indicator light abruptly Lit up.

"Damaged. Repairs. Thank you."

A humanlike consciousness emerged from within the machine, halting, blurry, and weak. "What... can I... do for you?"

Holy shit, it was this smart?

The Spiritual Substance Ji Jue had given it had actually caused the camera to develop self-awareness, even if it was sluggish and indistinct.

Ji Jue directly transmitted the Scenes he had seen in the footage through Spiritual Substance. "Right under your nose, a home invasion took place. Help me out. I just want to know where these two went."

The camera fell silent.

It vibrated.

As if it had Overloaded, electric sparks burst from its seams. A Loud explosion, like furious rage itself, erupted through the Spiritual Substance link.

"Fuck! All... evil... shall be brought to justice!!!!"

Boom!

A waterfall of images howled in from the other end of the cable. From within the dormant camera, countless chaotic Scenes nearly burst forth, smashing into Ji Jue's forehead like a sledgehammer.

Everything Before his eyes went black.

What emerged from the haze was wild delight.

Holy shit, it really worked?!

And not only that—if holding a data cable in his mouth could transmit images while ignoring accessories, models, data protocols, and every other condition, then when he had to calculate differential equations for transmission systems in the future, would he only need to hold two RAM sticks in his mouth?

The future was boundless!

He would never again fear being unable to handle the dynamics models of multiple transmission systems!

No, if it really worked, then with a wave of his hand, he could make a computer calculate for him...

But as the chaotic thoughts faded, Ji Jue had already immersed himself in the transmitted images. He had no idea how many years of footage were stored within. It was fragmented and without focus, but at the end, the image suddenly froze.

Through the blur, beneath the night sky, a white Minivan sat parked by the roadside. An old model from Coast Automobile Factory, weathered by time and covered in scratches, it was no different from the black cabs found everywhere in North Mountain District—mixed passenger and cargo transport, convenient, reliable, cheap, and fuel-efficient.

In the fleeting instant when its headlights Lit up, the license plate appeared in the image, but unfortunately, it was completely blurred.

"Abnormal voltage. Poor maintenance. Abandoned. Did not capture... number." The camera seemed dejected, stammering, "Sorry. Sorry. Sorry."

"No, this is already enough." Ji Jue released the cable from his mouth with satisfaction and patted its drooping big head. "I'll give you a full maintenance job later, Brother Monitor."

"You're welcome."

The camera gave its final response, then fell silent again as the Spiritual Substance dissipated.

Ji Jue stood atop the wall, gazing in the direction the vehicle had gone, as well as the distant traffic lights along its route, and slowly exhaled a breath of white mist.

No license plate number—nothing to regret there.

These days, when people went out to commit crimes or run shady businesses, how could they not have a few cars with fake plates?

The experienced naturally knew how to avoid trouble.

But who said that without a license plate, you could not find the car?

How could he find one car with fake plates among Yacheng's tens of thousands of white minibuses?

The answer was to simply ask.

Ji Jue stood beneath a streetlamp and looked at the camera. "Brother, let me ask you something. At five in the morning yesterday, did a white minibus pass by here? It looked roughly like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thanks."

"Small matter, brother."

The enthusiastic camera twisted its head, as though it had Waved goodbye. "Come play again next time!"

"Didn't see it. Go take a look farther ahead?"

"It went left, but around eight o'clock, it drove south again."

"The car below has a dashcam. Ask it—it'll definitely work!"

"It went north."

"...You need to go farther ahead. Yes, a little farther ahead, then turn right."

As one of the Federation's nineteen Central Cities, Yacheng covered seven thousand two hundred square kilometers and was divided into seven districts. According to statistics, it had a permanent population of over twenty-six million. In reality, with unregistered residents and illegal immigrants included, it likely exceeded thirty million.

But if he had to question those thirty million people one by one while searching seven thousand two hundred square kilometers for one car, it would be like looking for a needle in the sea. Anyone could have failed to notice, failed to see, failed to remember, or simply refused to cooperate. Machines would not.

If they had seen it, they had seen it. If they had not, they had not.

Across all of North Mountain District, beyond the official surveillance on the main roads, there were countless cameras—in factories, companies, Nightclubs, apartments, villas, even convenience stores and breakfast shops, not to mention the dashcams in every vehicle.

The vast number of cameras were like stars hidden in darkness, ceaselessly watching their own little patch of ground. Faithfully recording every change onto their hard drives for people to retrieve.

As long as you asked, they answered.

They knew all and spoke all, withholding nothing.

More faithful than a Faithful Hound.

In only six hours, Ji Jue had narrowed down the white minivan's route, approximate whereabouts, and exact information.

Even its final location!

In fact, the entire process had taken less than twenty minutes.

Apart from traveling, Ji Jue spent all the remaining time waiting for his Spiritual Substance to recover, while ravenously devouring every food he could buy from the roadside.

Six in the afternoon, North Mountain District, Coastal Avenue.

Inside a street-front restaurant filled with the noisy clatter of card games, Ji Jue sat hunched by the window, staring at the white minivan parked by the street as he waited for its owner, who had gone who knew where, to show himself.

Meanwhile, he kept his head down and stuffed himself.

He swept through Shao Mai, Rice Noodle Rolls, and buns like a starving ghost reborn.

Hunger. Extreme hunger.

As Spiritual Substance was depleted and replenished, his body also craved sustenance.

A massive amount of high-calorie food was draining Ji Jue's account balance at a Making people heartbroken pace. Even so, he remained dizzy and disoriented, his ears ringing in Waves, his face pale as a ghost.

The aftereffects Brought about by Spiritual Substance depletion—his still-unmastered ability could not endure such high-frequency use.

The only upside was that Perception Resonance, which had previously worked only intermittently, could now be guaranteed to activate as long as he concentrated fully. He had gained an initial grasp of it.

Yet the more he got the hang of it, the more Discord and strain he felt.

Like a child driving a big truck.

Though it looked—and actually was—exhilarating, it consumed a great deal of stamina. One careless moment and the big truck would drain him dry, leaving his Spiritual Substance overdrawn.

If not for the Spiritual Substance reserves he had squeezed out of that Old Bastard with the Wristwatch this morning, Ji Jue might have been completely done for already.

"Chosen One... is it?"

Remembering the bullshit system's words from within the Wristwatch, Ji Jue Couldn't help but murmur aloud.