Li Cheng put down the Glock and casually took out the Electronic Pet Egg, tapping it on the table.
Gray Rain stretched lazily and appeared out of thin air. She glanced at Caroline wearing a bathrobe and then at the baby lying on the bed. Surprised, she said to Li Cheng, "What year is it now? How come you’ve got a child after I’ve been away for a while?"
"A superpower user with space ability?"
Caroline’s mouth fell open in astonishment; even amongst superpower users, those with space abilities were among the rarest. Moreover, this man seemed to have stored a living person in an electronic container.
Li Cheng was neither a superpower user nor was Gray Rain a real person. He had no intention of correcting Caroline and hurriedly said, "All you need to understand is that we will help you escort this baby to the destination.
Now, you need to tell us how long you’ve been away from that company, where the destination is, and whether someone is meeting you along the way."
Caroline hesitated for a moment; the baby in her arms, Angelica, had the ability to sense people’s hearts. Since Angelica didn’t dislike the two individuals in front of her, perhaps they really were here to help?
"After everyone left work, I executed the plan and escaped from Vanguard Company in Chicago about five hours ago. If we’re lucky, they will find out only by tomorrow.
The final destination is Angel City on the West Coast. There, someone from Avalon will meet us."
Caroline added, "Avalon is a non-governmental organization made up of superpower users, established on an island in the Pacific Ocean, opposing and exposing the persecution of superpower users by the government and major corporations."
It somewhat sounded like the life island of Magnetic King from Marvel Comics, Karakava. However, the NPCs in this script world probably weren’t as terrifyingly powerful as Magnetic King.
Li Cheng thought quickly, "Grab your things. We’re leaving now..."
A muffled knocking sound came from outside the room, followed by a man’s voice, "Hello? Is anyone there? I’m a hotel staff member. The residents downstairs have complained about a leak from this room, could I come in and check?"
The knocking in the dead of night was eerily strange. Caroline’s face turned pale as she hugged Angelica tightly, while Gray Rain was rubbing her hands together, eager to take action.
Li Cheng thought for a moment, asked Caroline and the others to hide under the bed, then lightly cut Caroline’s shoulder with his fingertip and drew some fresh blood.
Triggering his worm gene, Li Cheng transformed into Caroline’s appearance and opened the door.
Standing outside was a man with sparse stubble, dressed in the uniform of the hotel’s front desk and holding a toolbox, looking very normal, "Hello, I came to check the bathroom leak..."
Before he could finish speaking, Li Cheng punched the man in the abdomen, the horrific impact nearly popping his eyes out, knocking him unconscious.
Li Cheng grabbed the man by his collar with one hand, dragged him into the room, and threw him to the floor. Then he peeked out into the corridor to make sure no one was watching before closing the door and opening the fallen toolbox. As expected, he found a Sig Sauer pistol inside with its serial number erased.
The pistol did not have a silencer installed, indicating this person was not a professional.
"It looks like your whereabouts have been discovered."
Li Cheng looked at the pale Caroline. His Information Integration Glasses had clearly shown that this hotel front desk guy was a Second Level superpower user.
Gray Rain swallowed her saliva, not because she was afraid, but because Li Cheng was now wearing a neat suit and glasses and using Caroline’s rather delicate face, she whispered in a low voice, "So, to confuse the pursuers, why don’t you keep this appearance along the way?"
Something is off with you.
With a full head of frustration, Li Cheng lightly thwacked Gray Rain with a fallen remote control, then changed back to his own face and checked the pulse on the hotel front desk man’s neck.
The man wasn’t dead, rather his skin slowly writhed and changed into a sly-looking young man.
Caroline whispered softly, "Able to transform into the appearance of others within a short period."
As doubts multiplied in her heart, the man who claimed to help her had first displayed a space ability and then a transformation ability; could it be he was an extremely rare dual ability user?
Li Cheng had no time to clear Caroline’s confusion; he slapped the sly-looking young man twice, forcibly waking him up.
"Don’t kill me! I’m just a little drug dealer."
The young man pleaded in pain, "I’ve been staying at this hotel for a few days, saw you during the day in the hotel parking lot. Look at my room card!
I saw on the superpower users’ dark web that Vanguard Company issued a wanted order for a [woman with a baby], so I got greedy."
He shakily took out his cell phone, which had a simple webpage displayed on its screen. Clearly hanging on it were pictures of Caroline and Angelica, along with their height, hair color, address last seen, and other detailed information.
The bounty was posted ten minutes ago.
Eight million US dollars in bounty, with the note specifying to capture alive.
Li Cheng raised an eyebrow and tossed the phone to Caroline, then took out a handmade bomb vest from the three-dimensional storage and put it on the young man.
"Wait, what are you doing?!"
The young man struggled violently, but it was completely futile.
"I can spare your life, but you need to do a few things."
Li Cheng took out some tape and tightly bound the bomb vest to the young man, then he slipped a loose hoodie on him to conceal the vest.
"You’re a Transformer, aren’t you?
You need to transform into her appearance, wear sunglasses and a mask, drive north along the highway, and keep driving for ten hours. Keep the video call on your phone active the entire time, I’ll be monitoring you through video." Follow current novᴇls on novel·fire·net
Li Cheng quickly stated: "Just do exactly as I told you, and after ten hours the bomb will deactivate automatically.
Otherwise, if you abandon the car and run, the bomb explodes. If you tamper with the phone, the bomb explodes. If you seek help from passersby, the bomb explodes. If you inform Vanguard Company, the bomb explodes.
The young man felt the heavy weight of the bomb vest on his body and was too terrified to speak, "I-I’m just a Second Level Superpower User, I can only maintain transformation for several seconds each time, I can’t keep it up continuously."
He wasn’t lying; if his transformation ability was a bit stronger and lasted longer, he would have already been a regular employee at Vanguard Company, or at the very least, he could have been a high-class male escort, transforming into celebrities to accompany rich women for drinks and cards.
Why bother staying in this rundown motel, eking out a living through trading illegal drugs?
"It doesn’t matter, didn’t I tell you to wear a mask and sunglasses? You just need to transform briefly every once in a while."
Li Cheng took back the cell phone from Caroline, opened the video call app, and handed it to the young man.
The latter, with a woeful face, climbed up from the ground, and hadn’t walked two steps when the vest under his hoodie began emitting a rapid beeping sound; terrified, he rolled and crawled away, transformed into Caroline’s appearance, and dashed downstairs to get into his beaten-up pickup truck, driving northward.
Caroline watched the young man flee, her mind not quite catching up, she subconsciously turned to Li Cheng and asked, "That bomb vest is fake, right?"
Li Cheng glanced at her and smiled, saying, "Don’t worry, it’s just a carbonhydrate bomb."
?? Aren’t humans made up of carbonhydrates too? So that’s still really a bomb vest, right?
Caroline, with no further comments, hastily changed into her clothes in the bathroom under Li Cheng’s urging, collected the used towels and toothbrushes, and splashed bleach, disinfectant, and odor remover on every spot she touched in the room.
If that Transformer could find Caroline, it’s only a matter of time before other Superpower Users and Vanguard Company employees could find them here.
"The bounty notice has been updated."
Li Cheng glanced at his phone. On the dark web, two more details were added to the bounty for Caroline and Angelica.
[Attention all, there might be a powerful, unknown Fourth Level Superpower User accompanying the targets]
[This Fourth Level Superpower User will also be regarded as a target. No need to capture or kill these three people alive; providing clues alone can also grant a one-million reward from Vanguard Company.]
Li Cheng let out a faint chuckle, knowing that Vanguard Company alone could not have known his whereabouts so quickly.
This could only prove one thing; that unknown opponent player had already borrowed "influence" from Vanguard Company.
At the same moment, Cervantes, a member of the Wild Laughter Troupe, who was located in the Command Center of Vanguard Company’s headquarters in Chicago, Michigan, also let out a light laugh.
Cervantes was well aware; once those two new descriptions went online, that unknown hostile player would also instantly know of his existence.
But no matter, the huge information disparity between the two sides was clear.
This cat-and-mouse chase game would certainly end in his victory.
’Locked up by Special Affairs Bureau for so long, questioned daily, killing field should let me win for once, right?’