Song Linwei sighed. "He used to be pretty ordinary, neither successful nor a total failure. He had drive and ambition, just not the ability to match."
After a pause, he added, "But now that he has the flash ability, he's managed to leapfrog the competition. It's extremely useful."
Hao Jingye nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Long Tianyu must have lived in the apocalypse for quite a while. Otherwise, he wouldn't have changed this much."
After thinking it over carefully, he concluded, "He's similar to Li Wanyun."
Sharp minds like theirs could see right through to the core of someone's issues.
Sheng An lightly tapped her fingers against the desk, her tone relaxed.
"Good. His ability is unusual and will have plenty of uses after the apocalypse. Before it, he can help us out and recall which other Superpower People are out there while he's at it. Put him and Li Wanyun to work together, and we'll get even better results."
The two men: "..."
-Great. She had already assigned the work before they had even caught him.
Hao Jingye was about to ask a question when another message arrived, updating the information in the computer folder.
He opened it immediately. Once he had read it, his expression said, Just as expected.
"What is it?" Song Linwei leaned over.
Hao Jingye turned the screen toward Sheng An.
"Sister Sheng, all your guesses were right. He did use his flash ability to enter the warehouse. Between flashes, he must have stood in a surveillance blind spot, diagonally behind one of the workers."
An expert had enhanced the image.
The frame had been captured at the exact instant the supplies disappeared.
At that very instant, the enhanced image showed a blurred figure diagonally behind a worker, in a spot previously hidden by the grain, now exposed as the grain vanished.
The figure was extremely blurry. Without enhancement, there was no way anyone could have made it out in the surveillance footage with the naked eye!
At that instant, he had been using his flash ability to leave.
The figure had been circled, with its estimated outline drawn in.
Song Linwei's pupils contracted.
That wasn't the outline of just one person!
Long Tianyu wasn't that tall or that broad...
Song Linwei drew a deep breath and said slowly, "There are two of them. Long Tianyu is working with a Space Esper. All of Sister Sheng's earlier deductions were right."
Hao Jingye said, "So this is a two-person Aberrant team?"
Sheng An suddenly spoke. "Who said there were two?"
Both men were startled and turned sharply toward her.
Seeing Sheng An's meaningful expression, Song Linwei thought for a moment, then understood.
"I get it. Their team has at least three people. No, there may be exactly three. After all, while there are quite a few Aberrants, they aren't that easy to find." Song Linwei sounded certain.
Even the national apparatus had only found this handful of Aberrants so far. How could Long Tianyu have found many more?
A three-person team was the most likely answer.
A flash Superpower Person, a Space Esper, and an unknown Superpower Person.
Hao Jingye hadn't quite caught on yet. "Why would there be another person? Couldn't the two of them manage?"
Sheng An chuckled. "Because they need someone to cover for them."
She propped her chin on one hand and twirled a pen with the other, her voice calm. "His flash ability can't have unlimited uses or unlimited range. That would be absurdly overpowered."
After a pause, she continued, "If Long Tianyu had an unbeatable, overpowered flash ability, he wouldn't need to hide from the warehouse cameras at all. He could be so brazen that he wouldn't even need a plan."
-The need for planning and a flawless sequence of actions only proved that he wasn't strong enough to act without a care.
Then, following that line of reasoning...
Hao Jingye slapped his forehead. "His ability has limits. He can't simply bypass every camera. Someone must be waiting outside to pick them up. For example-
"Someone could be driving a car, and he could flash straight into it with the Space Esper, getting away from the warehouse and avoiding the cameras!"
Once he understood, Hao Jingye immediately ordered a check of vehicles within ten kilometers of the warehouse.
Sheng An said, "Go ahead. Start with the people Long Tianyu has been in contact with recently, then anyone else connected to him. Find those other two Aberrants."
"Yes!" Hao Jingye and Song Linwei answered in unison.
Less than three hours later.
The complete report was ready. Pervasive surveillance and satellites were enough to uncover everything about the people they had targeted.
Besides, modern people found it hard to get by without their phones.
When Long Tianyu needed to contact the others, he had instinctively used his phone too.
"Confirmed: there are three people-Long Tianyu, Zhang Kun, and Ke Jiaxue. At the time of the incident, Ke Jiaxue was driving toward the warehouse from two kilometers away. When she was one kilometer away, the car turned onto another road and left."
"From this, we infer that Zhang Kun is a Spatial Ability User, while Ke Jiaxue is the Aberrant who picked them up."
"This is the investigation report on Ke Jiaxue. Three days ago, she went to the hospital to check for any abnormalities in her body."
"This is her medical report. Long Tianyu and Ke Jiaxue's first phone call was also three days ago. Ke Jiaxue likely had her body examined because she had already awakened her ability."
"The timing of Zhang Kun's awakening is unknown, but Long Tianyu first exchanged contact details with him two days ago."
"These are Zhang Kun's and Ke Jiaxue's files, and these are the details of their meetings."
"These are their messages over the past three days, along with key excerpts from their recorded calls."
"This is a map of their movements over the past three days."
"At present, Long Tianyu, Zhang Kun, and Ke Jiaxue are all at the same location: an abandoned factory building in southwestern Stone City."
File after file, report after report. In less than three hours, they had uncovered everything about the three of them.
The actions they thought were secret had been laid bare, down to every word they had spoken.
-Before the national apparatus, there was nowhere to hide.
Song Linwei swallowed.
This was his first time using the highest clearance to mobilize state resources to investigate someone, and his first time witnessing such power.
It was terrifying!
How had he ever thought he could keep anything hidden from the state?
In the end, he had underestimated both the national apparatus and Sheng An.
Hao Jingye sounded excited. "Sister Sheng, are we going to arrest them now?"
But Sheng An shook her head. "This guy won't be easy to catch. There's no rush. We'll use a different approach this time."
The two men froze, puzzled.
Sheng An smiled. "They've already stolen the grain from the Stone City Grain Warehouse. They're bold enough to target a National Warehouse, and there are still more than ten days left. Do you think he won't make another move?"
No, they would definitely act again.
Song Linwei murmured, "None of them are well-off, and now they have storage space. They should keep stockpiling."
"Exactly." Sheng An nodded. "They'll keep fleecing the state. Stone City is going to be destroyed, so they feel perfectly justified in stealing from it. They'll definitely strike again."
Both men looked at her.
Sheng An slowly rose, straightening her tall, slender frame, a smile in her voice.
"They've already stocked up on grain. If they follow Li Wanyun's stockpiling priorities, meat will be next."
"Consolidate the meat from the Stone City Slaughterhouse at a transfer point. We'll lure them into the trap."
Before you continue