Free Web NovelChapter 7: Tracking Down the Truth
Maybe there were some traces, but Ji Jue did not find any.
After carefully photographing the scene and doing a round of work the police had not bothered to do at all, Ji Jue helplessly discovered that all he could see in the dust were a few overlapping lines of footprints. He could not tell which belonged to whom. He had no way to make out whether the intruders were men or women, tall or short, or whether they had any distinctive features.
Pulling out a textbook and starting from scratch was obviously too late now, but fortunately, there were other methods. Ji Jue placed his palm on the old computer and said, “Wake up.”
After several attempts, that faint, elusive sensation finally surfaced again. An invisible hand took control of everything, forcibly jumpstarting the overloaded power supply. Following Ji Jue’s will, it bypassed the burned-out circuitry and carried out a degree of improvised repair, then the screen lit up once more.
He skillfully opened the shop’s surveillance footage and adjusted the timestamp.
Two dark figures appeared on the screen. It was a clearly premeditated act. They entered through the back door, yet instead of rummaging through the counter or the cash cabinet, they turned and headed deeper into the shop, as if they were looking for something specific.
Then they ran into Mrs. Lu, who had been startled awake. Like a crazed mother bear, Mrs. Lu did not bother with any jianghu code of conduct or other pointless notions. She swung the wrench with a furious roar and smashed it straight into a thief’s head, cracking it open on the spot. Blood splashed out and landed on her head, and that was likely the reason abnormal spirit matter lingered on her.
If the thief had been an ordinary person, that blow would have meant death or at least a severe concussion. But, what if the intruders were not normal?
On the surveillance footage, the person on the ground only twitched a couple of times before snapping upright as if electrocuted, crawling up in a bizarre posture. With ease, he grabbed Mrs. Lu by the arm, snatched the wrench away, and smashed it into her head and face.
Meanwhile, the other attacker was barely fazed, and he restrained Mrs. Lu and subdued her without effort. freēwēbηovel.c૦m
Ji Jue watched as Mrs. Lu struggled on the screen. She kept trying to get up, only to fall back down every time, until she finally lost consciousness and crumpled to the floor.
His face gradually tensed up, and even his anger seemed to drain away into some void, leaving only the old computer case panting and howling in a wild, guttural roar.
The image froze abruptly. During her resistance, Mrs. Lu tore off one of the attackers’ masks, revealing scars on his face, a thick beard, and eyes that differed in hue from normal ones. It made Ji Jue think of the elderly man who had attacked him after falling into madness.
There it was, that crimson color again.
Comparing the two thieves, their degree of mutation did not seem as severe as the old man’s. That old man had inexplicably given Ji Jue the impression of being malnourished, while these two had not been driven to insanity by hunger, and only possessed physiques beyond normal humans.
The footage ended quickly. After searching for a long time and finding nothing, the thieves lashed out in a fit of rage, smashing everything in sight. In the end, unwilling to leave empty-handed, they dragged Mrs. Lu up from the ground with great effort and hauled her toward the back door.
Ji Jue walked over to the back entrance and looked at the remaining marks on the floor, which vanished beyond the doorway. Washed by the rain, there were no tire tracks to be seen.
He raised his head and looked toward the utility pole. The camera mounted on it, long since abandoned, showed no response. The data cable extending from it had completely deteriorated over the years.
It looked like no one had maintained it for over a decade. Cliff City’s surveillance systems had been replaced again and again over the years, but none of them were ever installed in the chaotic, makeshift areas of the North Mount District.
The region had long been forgotten.
Ji Jue stared straight at the utility pole and murmured, “Who says these useless cameras can’t help me identify the attackers?”
He dragged a ladder out of the storage room and climbed onto the wall. In the light drizzle, no one paid attention to the raincoat-clad figure who was seemingly fixing the roof.
Ji Jue pulled a pair of wire cutters out of his pocket.
“This is my last resort.”
Gritting his teeth, he put on the barely helpful work gloves. After carefully identifying the camera cables, he did not hesitate to cut them. “It’s up to you now, superpower.”
Snap.
Tiny vibrations seemed to spring from the broken wires, and what was almost imperceptible at first gradually became more noticeable, as if it had travelled here from a thousand li away. But even then, the vibrations were still too faint, still too distant.
Ji Jue thought for a moment, took off the gloves, and grabbed the cable with his bare hand. The hum grew louder again, but it was still not enough. Finally, he made up his mind, opened his mouth, and seized the data cable between his teeth.
In that split second, it felt as if his soul tore free from his body, surged into the dead cable and rushed into the hollow surveillance camera to reignite an extinguished spark. freewebnøvel.com
The red indicator light on the camera lit up. A human-like consciousness emerged from the machine, speaking in a fragmented, vague, and weak voice. “Repair... completed... Thank you. Is... there... anything I... can... help... with?”
Holy shit, it’s this smart?
Thanks to the spirit matter Ji Jue infused into the camera, it had actually developed self-awareness, though it was slow and dazed.
Ji Jue transmitted what he had seen on the footage through his spirit matter. “Right under your nose, there was a home invasion. Help me out. I just want to know where those two people went.”
The camera fell silent, then it vibrated. As if overloaded, sparks burst from its seams. A roar-like raging fury exploded through the spirit matter’s link.
“Damn it! All evil will be brought to justice!”
Boom!
A torrent of images poured in from the other end of the cables. Inside the camera, countless chaotic scenes burst forth like a flood, smashing into Ji Jue’s mind like a sledgehammer.
His vision went black. All he felt in his dazed state was ecstasy.
Holy shit, this really works?!
And not just that. If biting onto a data cable let him transmit images while ignoring hardware, models, protocols, and every other condition, then wouldn’t that mean that he just needed to hold two RAM sticks in his mouth next time he had to solve differential equations for transmission systems?
The future seemed bright. He no longer needed to fear complex multi-transmission system dynamics models.
Wait, if this really worked, he could just wave his hand and have the computer do the calculations for him...
As the stray thoughts faded, Ji Jue became immersed in the incoming images. Who knew how many years of fragmented and blurry footage were stored inside. At the very end, the image suddenly froze.
In the hazy night, there was a white van parked by the roadside. It was an old model from the Haian Auto Factory, worn with age, covered in scratches, and no different from the countless illegal taxis all over the North Mount District. It could transport both passengers and cargo, so it was convenient and reliable while being cheap and fuel-efficient.
In the fleeting instant when the headlights turned on, the license plate appeared in the frame. Unfortunately, it was too blurry.
The camera seemed dejected as it stammered, “Voltage... abnormal... neglected... abandoned... didn’t capture... numbers. Sorry... sorry... sorry...”
“No, this is already enough.” Ji Jue released the cable, fully satisfied, and patted the drooping camera. “I’ll give you a full tune-up later, Mr. Camera.”
“You’re welcome,” the camera gave its final reply. As the spirit matter faded, it sank back into silence.
Ji Jue stood on the wall, watching the car disappear into the distance and the faint traffic lights along the road, and let out a slow puff of visible breath in the cold air.
He wasn’t too sad about not being able to identify the license plate. These days, anyone running scams or shady businesses usually had a few cloned cars[1] anyway. Once you’ve got experience, you naturally learn how to avoid trouble.
However, who said he couldn't find the car without the license plate?
***
How was he going to find one cloned white van among tens of thousands in Cliff City? The answer was simple: he just needed to ask.
Ji Jue stood under a streetlamp and looked up at the camera. “Hey bro, quick question. Around five in the morning yesterday, did a white van pass by here? It roughly looked like this. Yeah, yeah, that’s it. Thanks.”
“No problem, bro.” The enthusiastic camera twisted its head, like it was waving goodbye. “Come hang out again next time!”
“Didn’t see it. Go check up ahead?”
“It went left, but around eight it headed south again.”
“The cars down there have dashcams. Ask them. That’ll work for sure!”
“It went north.”
“...Still further ahead. Yeah, a bit further. Make a turn right there.”
***
Cliff City, one of the Federation’s nineteen central cities, covered seventy-two hundred square kilometers and was divided into seven districts. Official statistics put the permanent population at over twenty-six million. In reality, counting undocumented residents and smugglers, it was probably north of thirty million.
If you tried to ask all thirty million people and searched seventy-two hundred square kilometers for a single vehicle, it would be like looking for a needle in the haystack. People would miss it, not notice it, not remember it, or simply refuse to cooperate. However, machines were different. If they saw something, they reported it honestly. If they didn’t, they didn’t get confused.
Across the entire North Mount District, aside from the official cameras on the main roads, there were countless others in factories, companies, nightclubs, apartments, villas, even convenience stores and morning tea houses[2]. And on top of that, there were dashcams in every single car.
A massive number of cameras, like stars hidden in the dark, stared endlessly at their tiny patches of ground, faithfully recording every change onto hard drives, ready for retrieval. Ji Jue just needed to ask them a question, and they’d answer. They held nothing back; they were more loyal than any watchdog.
In just six hours, Ji Jue had boxed in the white van’s route, its general direction, specific details, and even its final location. In fact, the entire process, added together, took less than twenty minutes.
Aside from time spent on the road, Ji Jue spent the rest waiting for his spirit matter to recover while aggressively devouring anything edible he could buy on the street.
It was six in the evening in Binhai Avenue in North Mount District. Inside a bustling roadside restaurant filled with the clatter of cards, Ji Jue leaned back into a window seat, his eyes fixed on the white van parked outside. He was waiting for its owner, who had vanished to somewhere unknown, to finally appear. At the same time, he stuffed his face with shumai, rice rolls, and buns, eating like a starving ghost reborn.
He was ravenous. As his spirit matter was consumed and then recovered, his body desperately craved replenishment. Massive amounts of high calorie food were draining Ji Jue’s account balance at a heartbreaking speed. Even so, he was still dizzy, his ears were ringing in waves, and his face was as pale as a ghost’s.
The aftereffects of his spirit matter depletion, combined with using abilities he still had not fully mastered at such a high frequency, made it hard to keep going. The only upside was that the perception resonance which used to work only half the time could now be reliably triggered, as long as he focused fully. He had at least gotten the hang of it.
However, the more familiar it became, the more awkward and exhausting it felt. He was like a kid driving a huge truck. It looked and felt exhilarating, but it burned through his stamina fast. One slip, and the truck would squeeze him dry, leaving his spirit matter overdrawn.
If not for the wristwatch having squeezed out a stash of spirit matter from that old bastard earlier this morning, Ji Jue would have probably been done for already.
Thinking back to that so-called system inside the watch, Ji Jue could not help murmuring to himself, “Chosen One... huh?”
1. A cloned vehicle is a form of vehicle identity theft, and an aged or stolen car is given the identity of a legally-registered vehicle before being sold off by syndicates. The “clone” is identical in terms of its type, make, model, and registration number. ☜
2. A 早茶店 “morning tea house” refers to an eating establishment that mainly serves tea, delicate Chinese dim sum such as shrimp dumplings and siu mai, along with various specialty snacks during the morning hours ☜
