Chapter 194: Dark Boundless Realm 49
Kui Xin was originally sitting, but she suddenly stood up, startling the cosmetic surgeon.
He raised his hands above his head in fright and said, “What do you want to do?”
“I suddenly remembered something important that I need to take care of,” Kui Xin said calmly. “You all continue; I’ll be leaving first.”
She pushed open the door and disappeared into the dark corridor.
“You scared me! I thought I encountered another crazy customer. The probability of meeting someone with issues while working here is particularly high; they could explode and start killing at any moment,” the cosmetic surgeon said.
“Come on, doctor,” He Kangshi’s voice was muffled, “You’ve only peeled away half of my facial skin, and this anesthetic is quite potent…”
Kui Xin stood on the street covered by darkness, taking a deep breath.
The temperature dropped at night, and there were fewer pedestrians on the street; white mist emanated from her mouth and nose, and her hands felt a little stiff from the cold. But the sudden news jolted her dormant blood, coursing through her from her toes to her fingertips and then to her face, making her feel no longer cold.
“Too fast… too fast,” she said to herself.
She was not fully prepared; the Resistance Army arrived too quickly.
She had just escaped from the Investigation Bureau last week, and The Shadowless had just begun. She hadn’t even recruited suitable subordinates yet. Just yesterday, she had responded to the Popov Clan’s provocations, igniting public opinion. She was already pressed for time, measuring every minute and second for sleep, rest, and meals.
Kui Xin calculated the time; she had faked her death on August 18, and today was August 25… just a week, and in only a week, the Resistance Army had come knocking.
Their actions were indeed efficient, showing a strong determination to eliminate traitors. The reason they could locate her so quickly was likely due to the mental coordinates in her brain.
“Should we keep hiding?” Augus asked. “It’s still time to leave White Whale City. With your Spatial Vortex, no one can catch you if you want to hide.”
Kui Xin said, “No hiding.”
“I knew you wouldn’t hide,” Augus said. “Have you thought about how to kill your enemies yet?”
Kui Xin focused her mind and sorted out a clear plan: “First, confirm the things that need confirmation.”
First, their purpose for coming.
They arrived, but Kui Xin couldn’t read minds; she couldn’t be 100% sure if they came because of her or simply to handle some matters in White Whale City. Understanding their purpose was crucial; once she figured that out, she could formulate her next action strategy.
Second, confirm if the Resistance Army has a clear method for sensing mental coordinates.
Assuming they did have a method of perception, then Kui Xin needed to confirm a third thing—understanding their range of perception.
Fourth, the composition of the Resistance Army’s personnel.
These matters were crucial for Kui Xin. She feared her mental coordinates could become a locator; if she lingered at a certain spot for too long, the Resistance Army would swarm in like hounds smelling blood.
After listing out what needed confirmation, Kui Xin quickly thought of a method to confirm, though it required taking a bit of a risk.
She hurried to a concealed location and opened a Spatial Vortex to enter.
The place she went to was an alley near Yefim’s casino. Surrounded by darkness in the alley, she looked up and could see the brightly lit buildings not far away.
Kui Xin entered the state of Shadow Transition, black mist coiling in the corners of the alley.
She stayed alert and began to wait.
The only bait she could use was herself, and the only test subject was also herself. Therefore, she could only risk getting close to the current location of the Resistance Army members to determine if they would sense the mental coordinates in her mind at close range.
While hiding in the alley, Kui Xin was also using Data Manipulation to connect to surveillance equipment in the office, observing the situation of the two Resistance Army members in real time.
She recognized one of them as her old acquaintance, Ambereye, while the other person’s face was unfamiliar.
“Has the facial recognition result come out?” Kui Xin asked. “Who is the person next to Ambereye?”
“A vagrant from the Midnight District, once imprisoned for three months for vandalism,” Augus said. “An unremarkable person, but anyone who can be alongside Resistance Army members is unlikely to be a minor character; the vagrant’s appearance might just be a disguise.”
Kui Xin immediately made a judgment, “That’s Ghost; it’s highly likely to be him.”
“Ghost?” Augus asked.
“He was the one who recruited Annie Schalit. His abilities seem to be related to possession, which is why he’s called Ghost; he can possess others,” Kui Xin explained.
Augus said, “Looks like a tricky adversary. Aren’t you concerned about Ambereye sensing your mental fluctuations? Mental abilities are always hard to guard against.”
“I’ve seen the data on Ambereye at Mechanized Dawn; while his extraordinary abilities have a degree of versatility and great potential, they mainly work on individuals rather than area effects,” Kui Xin considered, “unless he has significantly improved his abilities in just two weeks.”
In the Yefim’s office, Valeri lay unconscious on the floor, while Yefim’s former assistant also lay on the ground.
Ghost asked, “How? Can you break his mental control?”
“No, the extraordinary ability user controlling these two must be at a level higher than mine,” Ambereye replied.
“Ha, this is a bit troublesome,” Ghost said. “At least an A-level mental ability user, and they have locked onto the same target as us?”
Why would an A-level mental ability user do this? Who is behind this ability user?
Ambereye circled around the room and checked the adjacent lounge, spending a long time checking there. Eventually, he discovered a barely noticeable bloodstain underneath the coffee table. He extracted the blood and scanned it, and soon the result came out: “The blood belongs to Yefim; the droplet is splattered, indicating a considerable amount of bleeding, and the blood is fresh, likely less than eighteen hours since leaving the body.”
“Now the problem arises; the ‘Yefim’ lying at our feet has no injuries,” Ghost pondered. “Yefim has a younger brother, a fraternal twin.”
Ambereye crouched down and scanned Valeri’s iris; the result showed up, and his eyebrows twitched slightly: “He is Valeri, not Yefim.”
“The situation just got more complicated,” Ghost said. “Where did Yefim go? Was he kidnapped?”
He attempted to activate the office’s smart brain, but the result popped up: “Non-owner cannot operate.”
Ghost slowly turned around, focusing on the window frame behind him for a moment before suddenly smiling.
He stepped forward and dug out a thin, long pinhole camera from the screw hole of the window frame.
“Pretty concealed; almost blended in with the screws,” Ghost crushed the pinhole camera. “Let’s search again; there can’t be just one in this room.”
They rummaged around the office, scanning with various instruments, and finally discovered another invisible camera in the spine of a book. They opened the alarm button underneath the desk to find a hidden listening device, and even the automatic fire extinguisher on the ceiling contained a pinhole camera.
Ghost casually picked up a vintage pen from the pen holder, removed the cap, and tapped it on the table. A listening device the size of a mung bean rolled out from the cap.
He fell silent.
Ghost opened each pen cap one by one, crushing the pen barrel until he found that all three pens in the holder contained listening devices. Upon inspecting the antique bronze pen holder inlaid with emeralds and prying out the gemstone, he discovered it was also camouflaged as a camera! Some of the cameras and listening devices even used high-tech equipment to evade instrument scanning!
Ghost was rarely shocked.
He thought they had entered an office but realized they had entered a live broadcasting room; every time they dismantled one camera and microphone, another appeared. This wasn’t just a room filled with several listening devices; it was a room composed entirely of a listening device and cameras!
How cautious must the person installing these devices have been to set up one after another like this?
“Since we entered this room, our actions and conversations have been completely exposed,” Ambereye said gravely. “The person who kidnapped Yefim may be watching us through the cameras. We need to relocate immediately; the enemy is in the shadows, and we are not safe.”
“There are still things to investigate. Let’s go, Ambereye.” Ghost surveyed the office and turned to leave.
When they encountered the bodyguards in the corridor, Ghost commanded Ambereye to invade the minds of these bodyguards to find out what happened yesterday. He couldn’t control the office’s smart brain; otherwise, checking the surveillance would have been a more convenient approach.
Ambereye quickly extracted the relevant memories from these ordinary people’s minds.
“Their memories show that Valeri came and left yesterday, and he came alone,” Ambereye reported.
“Then the change likely happened yesterday; a mental ability user silently entered this casino, stealthily controlled the casino’s owner, and had his brother replace him,” Ghost stroked his chin. “That mental ability user controlled Valeri instead of Yefim because he discovered that Yefim’s brain had a protective barrier, while Valeri did not… Now we need to confirm who that ability user is and if there are any accomplices around him.”
Ambereye hesitated for a moment and said, “Could it be Mechanized Dawn? They have the capability to do this. And the style of that office filled with cameras and listening devices closely resembles Mechanized Dawn; their methods for controlling others and brainwashing people also seem characteristic of Mechanized Dawn.”
“That possibility cannot be ruled out,” Ghost said quietly.
They arrived outside the casino, and Ghost pulled a cigar from the tattered pockets of a vagrant and lit it. “Haven’t smoked in a long time; I’ve forgotten what cigarettes taste like.”
“We need to find Yefim,” Ambereye thought. “The mental coordinates…”
“As I said, here we can only know the general direction of the mental coordinates holder. To determine further, we have to get close enough to the other party…”
As Ghost uttered that last word, his fingers holding the cigar suddenly froze.
His expression first stiffened for two seconds, then slowly blossomed into a joyful smile, and his pupils slightly dilated, giving him an eerie yet excited demeanor.
“Ambereye…” Ghost smiled, “It seems like an old acquaintance is nearby.”
