Free Web NovelChapter 50: Chapter 49 - Tailing(Part 1)
Point-of-View: Neo Cronje
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"Glad you’re back. Are you feeling better?" I inquired with a smile.
"Yeah, I’m okay now. Pretty pathetic, huh? A Meta-Human coming down with the flu and ending up bedridden for nearly three weeks," Came the sheepish reply.
Liling Jin, one of Harmony’s Category 1 Meta-Humans, and the daughter of one of the higher ups, who used to be a Category 0 about twenty years ago.
She had medium-length straight black hair that went down to her neck from the back and a little past her forehead in front, framing her face. She had dyed a couple of locks of hair by each of her ears a dark red, she had dark brown eyes, pale skin, a slender figure, and was about average height, and had on narrow, rectangular glasses with a black frame.
She wore a loose red top that exposed her shoulders and stopped halfway down her midriff over a black sleevless low-back undershirt, along with a lopsided loose black skirt that was longer by her right leg and shorter by her left leg. She also had on dark red tights on her legs and tall black boots.
She was one of the few others who knew about the Meta-Orb project, but she’d fallen ill a couple of days before the orbs got scattered. Light Skill healing techniques don’t work on viruses, so she had to tough it out the old-fashioned way.
Meta-Humans have stronger bodies than normal humans, so we don’t get sick as easily, but that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible for us to get sick. She’d recovered just over a day ago, and the higher ups had already assigned her to the Outlier capture mission.
She’s very amicable and speaks in a really calm tone, and almost always has a pleasant smile on her face...she’s the type whose presence can make you feel relaxed. And she’s also the type that can’t easily say no to people, so the higher ups probably didn’t have much trouble roping her into this. I kinda feel bad for her.
That said, she’s pretty strong, so she’ll be a great help. The only others who’ve been assigned to this mission are Tara Williams and Richard Walsh, both Category 0s, but they’ve both failed so far. Tara messed up in Wales, and Richard was too slow in getting to the Outliers that appeared in New Zealand and Australia.
Of the first six Outliers that appeared, we’ve been able to claim three of them, but so has Eden...and a few hours ago, I got a report that an Outlier might be in Namibia. One of the Harmony Meta-Humans living there spotted someone with a powerful Aura that they didn’t recognize, appearing to be at the level of a Category 0.
It was a woman with long black hair, the Meta-Human that had reported this said that he came across her while crossing the street, she was in a taxi. Even though the Aura was suppressed, he was able to sense it as he walked past the taxi.
Suppressed Aura can be sensed within upto five or six meters, depending on their Aura capacity. Suppressed Aura barely has any pressure to it, so while it can be hard to notice, it’s certainly not impossible. It kinda feels like mild humidity or something, I’d say.
Anyway, after he sensed it, he used the Appraisal technique, the one where you channel Aura into your eyes in order to see a person’s Aura. And this woman’s suppressed Aura looked highly dense, but not at an unprecedented level, so she’s not an Outlier.
And besides, an Outlier couldn’t have mastered Aura control on their own. Well, it’s not impossible, I guess, but it’s highly unlikely.
In other words, the most likely explanation is that the woman who was spotted is a Meta-Human with Eden. Harmony has a hidden base near where she was spotted, and all our Meta-Humans in Namibia report there...and we’ve never gotten reports of unrecognized Meta-Humans in that area before.
As for why I was being roped into investigating this lead, there were multiple reasons. First, I’m three for three so far, while the others assigned to this mission hadn’t succeeded even once yet.
Second, because the Meta-Humans we’ve got in Namibia are mostly Category 2s or below, with a couple of low level Category 1s, and since Eden seems to be involved, they can’t risk assigning anyone who isn’t cut out for this.
And third, with Eden having captured three Outliers themselves, the higher ups wanted to waste no time at all in getting started on this. And with my portals, I’m the only one that can literally start immediately. When they informed me of this assignment, I requested some assistance, since you know, I can’t sense Auras unless I’m at close range.
And to my surprise, they actually agreed...and then assigned someone who’d been bedridden less than two days ago. Normally, I’d be cool with being partnered with Liling, she’s a really nice person, and quite powerful too, but come on, who sends someone out an assignment like this when they’ve barely recovered!?
"You know, you really should start getting used to saying no to people when you don’t want to do something," I advised her with a wry smile.
"Yeah, I suppose I should...but I really don’t mind this, I’ve actually been pretty bored for the last three weeks. Well, when I wasn’t feeling like my body was melting and burning at the same time, anyway," She responded ruefully.
"You have my sympathy, I’ve never gotten sick, but it sounds awful. Anyway, shall we get going? I’ve got the coordinates, so we can go whenever you’re ready," I let her know.
"I’m ready to go anytime, let’s head out right away," She replied affirmatively. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
About ten hours had passed since the alleged Eden woman was spotted, and about eight hours since it was reported to the higher ups. The base in Namibia was about twenty kilometers from where the woman was seen, so it took the witness a while to get to the base from there.
Until the last few kilometers, he was unable to use his powers to speed up, since there were too many people around. After that, it took him a while to get the others in the base to take his report seriously...apparently, excluding the occasional Monster appearance, it was very uneventful over there.
Eventually, he managed to convince them that he was serious, and they sent a report to the higher ups...but they’d been in a meeting, and didn’t see the report till like a couple of hours later. After that, they started panicking in fear of Eden capturing yet another Outlier, and then tried to contact me.
But I’d been asleep at that time, since it was well past midnight where I was, in my place in South Africa, so it took a while before I finally picked up. And at this point, ten hours have passed since the chain of events began. freewebnovel.cσ๓
The higher ups had ordered all of our Meta-Humans in Namibia to scatter and spread out around the area where the woman with the dense Aura was spotted, to hopefully sense the Outlier’s Aura if they’re captured and taken to the airport or whatever...after all, as far as we know, Eden doesn’t have a base in Namibia, so they can’t stash the Outlier anywhere there.
Sneaking someone out of a country is pretty easy, just use one of the various Dark Skill brainwashing techniques to cover your tracks and you’re golden. But they still have to pass through the city to get to the airport, and considering the intensity levels of the Auras of the Outliers we’ve capturing, they should be able to sense them within upto a range of about ten kilometers.
They’ve all been instructed to call me if they sense anything, and so far, there’s been no word. I had just hopped over to China using a portal in order to pick Liling up.
And now, we were in Namibia, in an alleyway near where the woman was spotted. This sucks, I have absolutely no clues to follow, even Inoka’s case wasn’t this hard, at least there were some leads back then.
"So, where do we start?" Liling asked me, as I let out a sigh.
"Hell if I know. Our only real option is to keep jumping around the area with my portals until you sense an Aura, I suppose," I sighed in response, before adding, "Also, use Appraisal to try and spot any Meta-Humans in the crowd. If we find an Eden Meta, we can capture and interrogate them."
"Okay, got it. I get them feeling that we’re in for a long day," She replied with a wistful smile.
"Yeah, that’s for damn sure..."
....
....
"God damn it...how long have we been at this?" I groaned in exasperation.
"Well, it’s almost 12:30 PM here, and we arrived at 6 AM local time, so...six and a half hours," Sighed Liling with a weary smile.
We were currently a couple of kilometers ahead of the area we started at, near a large hotel.
"Looks like this hotel has a restaurant...looks kinda fancy, so it’s probably expensive, but I’m beat, I could use some good food. What do you say?" I suggested, as I felt my stomach rumble.
"Yeah, that sounds good...let’s-...," She began to respond, before trailing off as a faint noise echoed out from above, "Huh? What was that?"
"It sounds like...water splashing? No, that’s not all, there’s something else too...like a sort of sizzling sound? Hard to say...come on, let’s get back to the alley, I want to portal up there and check it out," I remarked, perking up a bit...not sure why, but I’m getting a good feeling about this, this just might be the lead we’re looking for...
"Won’t we be seen? We might be seen, that’ll be problematic if it’s normal humans up there," She responded uncertainly.
"I’ll use my Space Skill: Dimension, we can open a portal to peek out of from in there. We’ll watch from a vantage point high up in the sky, by a cloud to use as cover. We can get closer if we can find an opening," I explained, before opening a portal into my dimension.
"This place kinda gives me the creeps," Said Liling with a wry smile, as we entered my dimension, nothing but endless darkness in sight, despite the fact that we could see each other clearly.
This technique had been insanely hard to master, it had taken me more than three years just to figure out how it works, and even longer to fully master it. But it sure was worth it.
I then opened a portal in the sky above the hotel for us to peer through...the splashing and sizzling sounds were coming from the rooftop of the hotel, that made things easy.
"Oh, my...," Muttered Liling, as we got a look at the Aura below.
A young woman with long black hair, and a highly dense suppressed Aura. Must be a new Eden Category 0 or at least a high ranked Category 1, I don’t recognize her. She seemed to be pissed off, she was blasting fireballs at a pool...
"Yeah, no doubt about it, she’s got Category 0 level Aura capacity," I remarked, as I used Appraisal to see her Aura.
"Look over there, there’s someone passed out on the ground. He seems to be missing a large portion of his legs," She pointed out.
"Woah, you’re right. Wonder what happened to him...guess it doesn’t matter, ignore him for now, focus on the woman."
She then stopped blasting the pool and stomped her foot angrily a couple of times, before flying up and taking off to the north at a rapid speed.
"She’s fast, we can’t follow her-...," Began Liling with a worried look on her face, before trailing off as I began rapidly makeshift-teleporting across the sky using my portals.
"This way, we can kinda fly, you might want to hold on," I remarked, as she responded by grabbing hold of my shoulders.
The young woman was just barely in sight, her flight speed’s impressive. I’ve got this gut feeling that she’s heading to where the Outlier is...we’re not going to get a better lead than this, I’ll be damned if I let this chance slip away...!
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