Tracking the Thief

Stepping outside, a nearly new sand-colored off-road vehicle was honking its horn joyfully, shifting from random beeping to the theme song of the 1994 World Cup—Un'estate italiana.

Well, since Brazil won that year, Mrs. Cardenas had put away her Brazilian-style cursing and was now singing along to Luo Fei's rhythm: "Un'estate, un'estate, rock you!"

I have to say, this song is a real earworm; within half a minute, everyone on the street had gathered around and started singing along in unison, making it feel just like the World Cup stadium.

Luo Xia walked over with an expression that suggested he wanted to punch someone, and under the gaze of the crowd, he opened the door of the off-road vehicle.

He first moved down a packed box of military binoculars, then carefully tucked two sapphire-like Energy Activation Devices into the trunk of Luo Fei's car.

It was safer to keep these things here.

Luo Xia slammed the door shut with considerable force, as if the car didn't belong to him at all.

"Commander, I was just trying to build a good relationship with your neighbors," Luo Fei said to Luo Xia through the AllSpark, sounding aggrieved.

"I don't think a driverless off-road vehicle making noise in front of my house helps me build good neighborly relations," Luo Xia responded, quite displeased.

As a transmigrator who didn't really want to attract attention, having an unreliable subordinate like Luo Fei truly made him want to cry. He wondered if he could return him; if not, could he dismantle him to free up a slot for another robot once the quota was full?

Knowing he had caused trouble again, Luo Fei quickly drifted away from Hell's Kitchen and headed toward Stark Tower. Tony was better, after all; that place had the best engine oil, lubricants, and precision gears. After assisting with research for these past few days, Luo Fei even felt like he had gained a little weight.

Luo Xia returned to the basement with a dark face, then took out a military binocular and began inputting AllSpark energy, causing the heavy Tactical Goggles to constantly shift in form.

The AllSpark energy remodeled the material of the binoculars at a nanoscopic level, and the shape slowly began to change, finally... turning into the appearance of a pair of black-rimmed glasses.

Luo Xia was silent for a few seconds, then said, "This isn't a pair of Tactical Goggles, is it? It's an Endless Life Amplifier."

Well, the world of American comics didn't seem to have that legendary existence, so Luo Xia just made a snide remark and put the Tactical Goggles on.

At first, there was no special feeling; Luo Xia felt like he was just wearing a pair of ordinary non-prescription glasses. But the next moment, a dazzling landscape appeared before his eyes.

"Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap!"

Important things must be said three times, and Luo Xia felt that repeating it a hundred times wouldn't express his excitement.

Countless light-shadow numbers emerged before his eyes, as if a brilliant starry sky had suddenly appeared, beautiful enough to be intoxicating.

"Is this that Data Vision? It's too dazzling."

Luo Xia wasn't used to this change; it was even severely affecting his line of sight.

However, soon, following Luo Xia's intent, the display of numbers and colors began to fade, and he started to master the functions of this Data Vision.

Luo Xia took a set of keys out of his pocket; these were the keys to his apartment. Originally just a plain, unremarkable piece of metal, inside the Tactical Goggles, the angle of every tooth on the key was meticulously labeled.

It wasn't just the angles; thickness, material, color difference, surface temperature, visual distance... all kinds of standard attributes were displayed. When Luo Xia focused his gaze on the key, the image automatically zoomed in, magnifying the key dozens of times so that every scratch on it was clearly visible.

Luo Xia blinked, and the image switched to black and white, leaving only the outlined silhouette of the keys—this was the effect of light perspective. He blinked again, and what he saw were various red, green, and blue color blocks—this was the effect of thermal infrared imaging.

"Impressive, this thing is quite useful," Luo Xia praised.

With these Tactical Goggles, both combat and daily life would become much more convenient. The automatic zoom function alone could benefit countless people with nearsightedness or farsightedness. And the light and thermal infrared functions would allow Luo Xia to discover danger in advance, easily spotting traps or weapons on others.

Luo Xia excitedly looked around the basement wearing the Tactical Goggles. While he was having fun, he noticed a few faint marks on the basement floor.

"Are these... footprints?" Luo Xia switched to thermal infrared vision and indeed found a few spots on the ground where the temperature was slightly lower than the surrounding area, and the shapes looked very much like footprints.

"This is from feet that were wet; although the water has dried, a slight temperature influence remains." Luo Xia analyzed the problem through the Tactical Goggles.

These footprints must have been left by the thief who stole his things. Although he didn't know why the thief's feet were wet, Luo Xia wouldn't let this clue go.

Luo Xia was lucky; if it weren't for the Tactical Goggles, he wouldn't have been able to discover the footprints of the evaporated water. And if he had delayed for a few more minutes, the temperature difference of the footprints would have completely vanished, making them invisible even to the Tactical Goggles.

Without further ado, Luo Xia hurried to follow the footprints that were about to disappear.

He chased out through the basement window and followed the footprints that would have been impossible to detect by normal means. Fortunately, after the thief left the basement, he turned directly into a quiet alley; otherwise, if he had reached the main street, the Tactical Goggles wouldn't have been able to distinguish his footprints anymore.

After running quickly for about a hundred meters and rounding several corners, the footprints disappeared completely.

Luo Xia looked up and scanned his surroundings. This seemed to be a community garbage dump, with sewage flowing everywhere and a foul stench. The Tactical Goggles weren't a divine artifact; in such a chaotic and filthy environment, he couldn't find any more traces of the thief.

Switch, light perspective.

The red and blue blocks in front of him vanished, turning into a black-and-white world composed of lines.

Luo Xia used this perspective effect to look around. There was nothing wrong with the garbage pile, and he didn't find any issues with the dilapidated old wooden houses nearby.

But when Luo Xia looked at the location of a sewer manhole cover, he noticed something wrong, because the Tactical Goggles showed that there was actually a lock added underneath the manhole cover.

This was truly strange. Even if one were afraid of people stealing the manhole cover, the lock should be on the surface. Adding a lock underneath the sewer meant that people above couldn't open it, and it could only be opened from the inside?

"This Hell's Kitchen really is full of surprises everywhere," Luo Xia said with a smile.

It was just a pity that the perspective capability of the Tactical Goggles was limited, able to penetrate at most about a meter of wall or ground. Luo Xia could see that the manhole cover was problematic, but he couldn't see what was inside.

Luo Xia reached out his right hand, and layers of silver-gray metal covered his arm, then he hooked his fingers into the hole on the manhole cover. A harsh sound of metal tearing rang out, and Luo Xia pulled the entire cover out; the thumb-thick locking ring was snapped by him directly.

A foul odor wafted out, making Luo Xia feel nauseated.

"Fine, I hope Stark Industries has a reimbursement policy for dry cleaning." After saying this, Luo Xia jumped into the sewer.