Tracking

(Bai Ziye)

Just as I was drifting off to sleep, I heard the sound of a key being inserted into the lock and turning in the entryway.

My parents are back.

Obviously, a normal person couldn't hear any noise outside from inside the living room. My body has become abnormal, enhanced to an exaggerated degree by the Star Crystal integrated into my body, almost to the level of a magical girl, and I can even use magic with minimal effort...

But physiologically I am still completely male.

What am I now?

"Magical handsome man"?

I can't quite manage a laugh.

"Um, Goldie, are you using me as a mattress?"

Because the Golden Dog was sleeping on me, it was so hot even with the air conditioning on, like being covered with a quilt in an air-conditioned room.

It seemed to be asleep, so I couldn't get up from the sofa for a moment; Ceruno went to greet it first.

"Uncle, Aunt, welcome home!"

Changing the way you address her makes her sound like a newlywed bride. Is this idiot really not saying this on purpose?

"Ceruno? You two are still up so late?"

"Yezi insists on waiting for you to come back."

I then sat up and replied, "How can I sleep if I can't be sure about Heat Haze's safety...?"

You were almost asleep just now.

"Idiot, just shut up."

I looked at my mom and asked, "Mom, do you know where that research institute is?"

"We still don't know. The Association has mobilized all its manpower and resources to turn the entire Skyreach City upside down, even raiding some gangs illegally selling Star Crystal, but they haven't found that organization..."

My mother put down her luggage at the door and shrugged to indicate that she knew nothing about it.

But her confident and composed attitude shows that things are still under her control.

Do you have any ideas?

"Of course! But we don't have time to rest, Old Bai, let's go check it out on site... Ceruno is coming too... As for Xiao Yezi, you can stay home with the puppy and wait for our good news."

No wonder they didn't come inside; were they just back to pick up Ceruno?

I asked, "Mom, is there something I can't do?"

"If you're really worried and can't sleep, you can make breakfast and wait for us to come back... Don't worry, SpiCa can handle the public opinion battle, but punishing these third-party organizations that do bad things is your job as a parent."

"I understand... Good luck to you then."

"Woof!"

Ceruno left with her mother and the others.

As an ordinary person, I can only hope that my mom can find a third-party research institution that the Association can't find even by digging three feet into the ground...

Yeah, right.

"Sorry Goldie, I also have to go out for a bit. I'll have to trouble you to watch the house today. I promise! After this is all sorted out, I'll take you out for a walk."

"Woof!"

A well-behaved response, good dog.

I transformed into Miluno right in front of it, and I don't know if the Doggy didn't understand or didn't care, but it didn't show much surprise, as if it already knew... Even if it's smart, it's still just a dog, it shouldn't be that surprised, right?

I patted the Golden's head, pulled open the living room window, and under the cover of night, jumped from the seventeenth floor.

My dad's white car just drove out of the underground parking garage. I jumped onto the roof of a lower shop building and started following them.

While doing parkour on the rooftop, she contacted Falcon using Miluno's phone number.

"... Miluno? Did you find Heat Haze?"

The call was connected.

Her voice sounded a little hoarse. Had she been shouting in the sky looking for someone since the afternoon? This clumsy way of doing things didn't seem like that of an overly shrewd translator and guide.

"Not yet, but follow my location first, there's a clue."

"Keep it running, we'll be there soon."

The Falcon's maneuverability is probably superior to mine.

Of course, that's an understatement; in terms of speed alone, she's no match for me. However, her flight magic does have an advantage over my Time Acceleration in certain aspects...

For example, aerial view.

A shadow suddenly swept across my head, lifting me, who was chasing the car at three times the speed, into the air.

Can the Falcon keep up with my speed?

"You scared me!"

I said that, but the girl in the denim outfit wasn't joking.

She asked, "Are you tracking that car?"

I replied, "Yes, those are reinforcements that Ceruno brought. Perhaps they can find the location of Heat Haze."

"What's their background?"

"... I have no idea."

How am I supposed to answer that? I can't exactly say it's my parents, can I?

Falcon didn't delve into the details, simply asking, "Where are they going?"

"It should be the air-raid shelter of the city library... Your flight doesn't rely on wings like Sirius's. Can I climb onto your back? Being suspended like this isn't very comfortable."

"You want that? That's so weird."

Even so, she still let go of me, performed a Cobra maneuver, flipped directly underneath me, and then caught me with her back.

Call--

I breathed a sigh of relief.

Since we have to be so close, I might as well be the one touching her. It's flat-chested anyway, so I don't really care...

"Miluno, the mastermind behind this might be Ceruno's father."

"Who told you that?"

"SpiCa and Sirius were arguing, and I overheard the gist of it... He wanted the Star Crystal of the Heat Haze to awaken his wife... That's the conclusion SpiCa came to; they've figured out the principle behind that technology."

"That technology?"

"The technology that forcibly uses the Star Crystal allows one to transform regardless of the Star Crystal's will, provided their mental wavelength matches and they are adaptable... Heat Haze and Ceruno's mother probably possesses a similar mental wavelength."

A very reasonable speculation.

A person in a vegetative state lacks the willpower to attract the Star Crystal, so even though Ceruno's mother found a highly adaptable Crystal, she couldn't gain Crystal approval...

A person in a vegetative state cannot be kept alive indefinitely. It has been more than ten years, and if it continues, there will not be much time left. In order to wake up his wife who has been in a coma for more than ten years, it is not impossible that A-Yao's father, as the chairman of the Association, chose to take a risk and conspired with those third-party organizations.

I replied, "These are just speculations; there's no evidence yet. He hasn't left any clues. Unless we take down that secret research institute and conduct a reverse investigation, we might not be able to find any evidence... What is the Association doing right now?"

"We tried to clean up the public opinion environment and educate the public on how inhumane that technology was... but the effect wasn't very obvious. After all, humans have an inherent tendency to question authority, and they were more inclined to believe that the Association was the villain in this matter."

"No, someone is manipulating public opinion behind the scenes."

Who is it?

"I don't know."

It's most likely A-Yao's dad, right?

If his actions are exposed, he will definitely be held accountable by the Association, so he plans to destroy the Association's grassroots support before that happens...

If all the inferences are true, then A-Yao's father really is a terrible person.

We've arrived.

Falcon carried me on his back and hovered in the sky for a while.

I watched as the white sedan below drove into the parking lot in front of the library.