Holmes Kun and Watson

As dawn broke, Alice analyzed and deduced from numerous traffic videos, eventually finding the GMC RV's whereabouts after leaving Guarding Prosperity Building the previous afternoon.

The car got on the highway, exited at Yang City, and then stopped in Yangcheng City for several hours until around 2 a. m. before getting back on the highway to return to Peng City and then to Guarding Prosperity Building.

As for the vehicle's specific trajectory and destination in Yang City, Alice is working to confirm this by acquiring more surveillance footage and relevant resources.

On the other hand, progress has also been made in the network "detection" of Guarding Prosperity Building.

Alice easily infiltrated the network of Guarding Prosperity Building, but she discovered that the network terminals in Guarding Prosperity Building did not connect to the terminals on the third basement floor.

So she found another dedicated line in the basement through other means, but this line only connected to one terminal and the content transmitted was very strange. It was some surveillance footage, but it was not the surveillance footage of the third basement level, or even the footage of Guarding Prosperity Building or the surrounding area. Instead, it was footage of a large family's life.

Looking at the footage of the family in the surveillance video clips Alice sent back, Xiang Kun couldn't help but frown deeply.

Could there be a "Mutated Creature" in this family as well?

Otherwise, why would the people on the third basement level go to the trouble of monitoring them?

However, after carefully analyzing the surveillance footage sent back by Alice, Xiang Kun could not identify which of the people in the footage had mutated and become "Mutated Creature".

Or perhaps this is a "family" of some "Mutated Creature," and "Shenxing Technology" is monitoring them, waiting for the "real thing" to appear?

Upon reflection, Xiang Kun immediately realized that the surveillance video showed his mother, two young children, a "grandfather," "maternal grandparents," and a nanny, but notably absent was the "male head of the household."

Xiang Kun judged that the "male homeowner" must have left a long time ago, as there were almost no traces of his life.

Xiang Kun couldn't help but think of the "humanoid Mutated Creature" he had sensed next to the Rabbit Woodcarving while in "Hyper-Sensory State." Could that be the male head of the household?

Xiang Kun began searching for the location and identity of the people in the surveillance video clips Alice sent back, based on the information revealed in those clips.

At the dinner table, the three elderly people mentioned the names of a farmers market and a bakery, while the two children mentioned the names of a middle school and a shopping mall. These details could help pinpoint their city and approximate location.

However, before Xiang Kun could figure out the search rules to guide Alice in helping him find the person, Alice had already captured the account one of the children used to access a social media platform through surveillance video. She then directly located the family's location online and even infiltrated their network, controlling all network terminals, including mobile phones, tablets, computers, and game consoles.

They then located the device transmitting the surveillance video back to Guarding Prosperity Building, which was less than 100 meters away from the family's home and was located in the same residential complex.

Next, Alice naturally found information about this family, and through this information, she found more related key information on the internet.

From this information, Xiang Kun roughly deduced the family's situation:

The male homeowner, Xie Hongting, served in the military in his early years. After being discharged, he worked for a high-end security company. Later, he was paralyzed from the waist down in an accident and was hospitalized for several years. Despite the family's careful care, he still died five years ago due to complications.

However, after Xie Hongting passed away, the head of the security company that had gone bankrupt approached Xie's family again, telling them that they had actually provided Xie with a huge insurance policy, and that Xie's situation now met the compensation conditions. So they helped them apply for that huge compensation from the insurance company.

Not only that, the head of the security company made a comeback, reopened the company, and brought Xie's widow back to work as an administrator, paying her a high salary every month.

So, although the family lost their main breadwinner and had to bear huge medical expenses for several years, with the elderly and the young still struggling, their standard of living actually improved instead of declining.

Alice "thoughtfully" investigated the background of the security company for him and found that the company's ability to "come back to life" was indeed related to "Shenxing Technology" in terms of funding, specifically from a security company controlled by "Shenxing Technology". Moreover, the huge insurance premium received by the Xie family did not come from an insurance company, but also from an organization related to "Shenxing Technology".

This made Xiang Kun a little puzzled. It didn't look like surveillance, but rather like taking care of someone.

If Xie Hongting hadn't died but had become a "Mutated Creature," then "Shenxing Technology" should have simply allowed his family to live in poverty instead of waiting for him to appear, which would have made it easier to force him to surface.

It seems more likely that if Xie Hongting is indeed a "Mutated Creature," he is directly working for "Shenxing Technology." The financial compensation given to his family is probably just to appease him and get him to work without worry.

Is the related surveillance, in effect, a form of coercion?

Could it be... that Xie Hongting is actually "Mr. Liang"?

However, based on the information he obtained from Mi Qiao, Dr. Fang, and others, as well as more information related to "Shenxing Technology" and "Mr. Liang," it can be inferred that "Mr. Liang" was in charge of the secret department of "Shenxing Technology" for more than five years. Therefore, these two identities do not match, and Xie Hongting cannot be "Mr. Liang."

At this time, Alice made new progress in her search for the GMC RV in Yang City.

Based on the partial surveillance video information already obtained, Alice deduced that the car had lingered in the parking lot of a bar in Yang City. She then gained control of the parking lot's surveillance system, found the video for the corresponding time period, and captured the GMC RV.

Watching the video clip Alice sent him, in which a burly man in a black suit with a face full of scars got out of the driver's seat, Xiang Kun couldn't help but frown. This guy... shouldn't be a "Mutated Creature," right? Otherwise, the scars on his face should have healed during his first mutation.

Or perhaps those scars are just a disguise, like the baseball cap he wears?

Alice continued to send the bar's surveillance video. Xiang Kun saw the scarred, burly man enter the bar, walk straight to the bar counter, stop a foreign man who had just stood up, and say a few words to him.

Judging from the scarred, muscular man's posture in the video, Xiang Kun judged that he was ready for a fight. His body was slightly tense. After he finished speaking, his expression suddenly became blank, his eyes were somewhat vacant, and his body relaxed. But then his body trembled violently, as if he had been electrocuted, and he collapsed to the ground.

The two did not have any physical contact throughout, but the foreign man still looked around in alarm before quickly leaving the bar.

After the foreign man left, the scarred, burly man shook his head, got up, took something out of his pocket and put it in his ear—it seemed to be an earphone—and then walked out of the bar without saying a word, his face expressionless.

Alice then kept sending surveillance videos, showing the scarred, muscular man leaving the bar and returning to the parking lot to drive his car, as well as videos of GMC RVs driving on the road captured by surveillance cameras in other shops and on the streets.

It's clear that the scarred, muscular man showed no signs of panic or anger after leaving the bar. Later, he drove at a leisurely pace, seemingly without a specific destination, as if he were just taking a leisurely drive.

"Weren't the carriage doors opened?" Xiang Kun asked Alice.

"I didn't find any relevant footage in the surveillance videos I checked," Alice replied.

"Try to track down where the foreigners in that bar went after they left," Xiang Kun said.

Although it was through surveillance footage, and although the lighting in the bar was poor, and although most of the time he could only see the back of the head or at most a side profile, Xiang Kun had an intuitive feeling about this person. He knew that this meant his senses had caught some clues while watching the video, but they hadn't yet formed a systematic, clear, and comprehensible feedback that his brain could process, so he could only have a vague "intuition".

After a while, Alice sent back only two surveillance videos. One video showed a figure walking quickly across the street. Although only the lower half of the body could be seen, the trousers and leather shoes were enough to confirm that it was a foreigner from the bar.

Another segment also shows a foreigner walking briskly on the street, but from a different angle. You can see that although the foreigner is walking quickly, his speed is extremely fast. Using the objects next to him and the bricks on the ground as references, he is as fast as an ordinary person running.

"What happened next? Where did he go? Is it impossible to find any surveillance footage of him, or is the relevant surveillance footage still under control?" Xiang Kun asked.

Alice posted a map with a section marked in red. Alice explained, "After the target entered this area, there were no cameras at suitable angles to continue tracking him. Until just now, there was no footage of him leaving."

"Disappeared?" Xiang Kun frowned slightly, examining the section of the map. "What buildings are there around this area?"

Alice immediately marked all the buildings around the map, and then sent a video. "Ten minutes after the target 'foreigner' entered, the target 'RV' also entered that section of road, and left ten minutes and twenty-seven seconds later. Judging from the previous contact between the target 'Scarface' and the target 'foreigner' in the bar, there is an 87.8% chance that the target 'foreigner' got into the target 'RV' and left together."

"How was that 87.8% probability calculated?" Xiang Kun asked instinctively, then immediately corrected himself, "Hey... no need to answer! Just determine the time the RV left that section of road and the time it entered the highway, and see if it went anywhere else along the way."

"Based on our calculations, we're heading straight back to Peng City," Alice quickly said.

After leaving the bar parking lot, I wandered around aimlessly, but after passing the section of road where the foreigner disappeared, I stopped for about ten minutes, then left Yang City with a clear purpose and got on the highway back.

So, it seems the main purpose of that GMC RV leaving Guarding Prosperity Building and heading to Yang City was to catch this foreigner?

Xiang Kun immediately thought of the "humanoid Mutated Creature" that had appeared next to the Rabbit Woodcarving that he had sensed while in his "Hyper-Sensory State." He felt a strong sense of fear towards the "Mutated Creature" that had taken the Rabbit Woodcarving earlier.

So, the "Mutated Creature" that took the Rabbit Woodcarving was the scarred, muscular man driving the car?

No, it wasn't him.

This type of GMC converted motorhome primarily serves the passengers in the back, not the driver in the front.

Although Alice couldn't find CCTV footage of the RV's cargo bed opening after it stopped, it doesn't mean that no one got out of the cargo bed—after all, the entire journey wasn't under surveillance, and Alice didn't obtain all the CCTV footage.

It's like the section of road where the foreigners disappeared; they couldn't see if anyone got off or got on the bus.

So, there was a real "Mutated Creature" sitting in that car at the time, and he was the one who dragged the foreigner into the car?

It was already bright outside. Xiang Kun felt that Lao Xia behind him had woken up and sat up from the bed.

The computer chair creaked and turned Xiang Kun around. He showed Lao Xia the flight information Alice had booked for him on his phone. "We're flying to Peng City today. We'll arrive around noon. Contact Nana and Zhen'er later and we'll have lunch together. We'll meet at a restaurant called 'The World's Best Fish' near Xingcai Plaza. I heard their fish is really good."

Xia Libing looked up at him and asked, "What's so special about that shop?"

Clearly, she immediately realized that Xiang Kun's statement, "I heard that restaurant makes very good fish," wasn't the real reason.

"Because from there you can directly observe the situation at Guarding Prosperity Building," Xiang Kun said, telling her the information he and Alice had discovered while she was asleep the night before.

The trip to Peng City went very smoothly, and the flight was on time.

Considering the time constraints, Xiang Kun and Lao Xia didn't have Nana and the other woman pick them up; instead, they went directly to the agreed-upon restaurant.

In fact, from the perspective of convenience, it would have been best for the two of them to secretly go to Peng City without notifying anyone, and first investigate the situation of Guarding Prosperity Building.

But Nana and Zhen'er are in Peng City at the moment, and it's absolutely impossible for them to go there without informing them first.

When Xiang Kun arrived at "The World's Best Fish," Tang Baona and Yang Zhen'er had already found a table and were looking through the menu.

"Chef Xiang! Zhe Li!" Yang Zhen'er faced the entrance and immediately stood up and stretched out her hand to call out as soon as she saw Xiang Kun's bald head.

The waiter who was leading Xiang Kun inside chuckled softly, "So you're a chef too? No wonder your hairstyle is the same as our head chef's!"

Xiang Kun could only laugh and say, "I'm not a chef... my friend just called me that."

Upon arriving at their location, Tang Baona asked curiously, "Hey, didn't you say you came with Lao Xia? Where's Lao Xia?"

"Oh, she went to the convenience store across the street to buy something," Xiang Kun said.

"Why didn't you buy it with her before coming up?" Yang Zhen'er asked, puzzled.

"I was just worried you'd get impatient, so I came up first. Don't worry, your Lao Xia is very clever; he won't get lost," Xiang Kun said with a smile.

"Things aren't safe these days. Even my cousin, with his towering physique, got kidnapped. What about a delicate young girl like Lao Xia ..." Yang Zhen'er said with a worried expression.

Tang Baona couldn't help but laugh, "Come on, even if the two of us were tied together, we couldn't beat Lao Xia alone. We're much more 'delicate' than Lao Xia, okay? Your cousin wasn't kidnapped in China; it's perfectly safe in China."

While chatting with the two of them, Xiang Kun had already caught a glimpse of Xia Libing walking on the side of the road across the street through the restaurant's floor-to-ceiling windows.

To her right is the Guarding Prosperity Building.

She appeared perfectly normal at the time, holding her phone in her left hand and occasionally reaching into her coat pocket with her right, then taking it out and swaying it gently at her side. But Xiang Kun knew that she was actually secretly throwing "Super-Linked Object" tungsten steel balls into the green belt next to Guarding Prosperity Building.

Why didn't Xiang Kun go and set up the "Super-Linked Object" himself?

Because he knew that there were some surveillance cameras with infrared thermal imaging capabilities in and around the Guarding Prosperity Building, and that there might even be cameras specifically designed to detect "Mutated Creature".

Alice discovered and controlled some of the cameras, but not all of them.

Although Xiang Kun could accurately detect the presence of all electronic products, locate all hidden surveillance cameras, and even reverse-engineer their field of view and imaging modes, and even disable them completely when necessary, he wasn't entirely confident that he could remain undetected in an unfamiliar, previously unexplored area filled with tall buildings and not in a large area, especially since it was a company Xiang Kun "Shenxing Technology" that frequently produced various cutting-edge technological products. He also didn't want to make too much of a commotion upon arrival and alert the enemy.

Just to be on the safe side, let Lao Xia set up enough "Super-Linked Object" or even "Emotion-Infused Object" for him to scout out the situation from a distance.