Li Cheng didn’t rush to leave the house but made some arrangements in the room.
Then he pushed open the door and casually plucked a piece of concrete shard from the hallway wall, flicking it with his fingertips, smashing the surveillance camera in the parking lot below.
Li Cheng then signaled everyone to get into the second-hand white Toyota Corolla that Caroline had driven over.
Gray Rain, being too heavy, would crush the car, so she stored part of her body in a three-dimensional storage unit, reducing her height to 1.2 meters.
Li Cheng took the driver’s seat, glanced at the map Caroline handed over, and floored the gas pedal, heading west. He quickly asked, "Did you buy this car recently?"
Caroline nodded and added, "The Avalon Organization taught me some anti-surveillance techniques. Like discarding old phones and using disposable prepaid ones;
getting fake passports and fake driving licenses;
paying in full for a second-hand car and removing the GPS tracker..."
Some loan companies secretly install GPS trackers on cars they finance to prevent owners from defaulting, monitoring the vehicle’s location.
Some used-car dealers even collaborate with car thief rings, fitting cars with trackers, and stealing them back once sold.
Caroline’s caution had at least bought her a few hours of time.
Li Cheng asked, "Can you contact the Avalon Organization?"
Caroline picked up a prepaid phone, dialed the only number saved in the contacts, and after ring tones played a while, no one answered, "Seems like no one is picking up?"
She frowned as she put down the phone, hesitantly asking Li Cheng, "I don’t mean any offense, but may I ask how Vanguard Company knew you were here?"
"You could understand it as there being another Superpower User whose goal is to prevent me from helping you. He’s the one who divulged my presence to Vanguard Company."
Li Cheng gripped the steering wheel and said, "There’s a good chance he is much weaker than me."
Gray Rain, now only 1.2 meters tall, sat on the back seat, eating sour plums, looking naive and carefree.
Li Cheng shrugged, "It’s simple. The bounty was updated too swiftly, proving it was him who snitched to Vanguard Company.
A big corporation like that would hardly believe a stranger and update the bounty straight away, as he said.
It demonstrates that the killing field had set up a credible identity for him the moment we teleported here.
Or at least he was directly teleported into the boardroom of Vanguard Company’s headquarters, enabling him to brainwash and convince the top brass in a short time.
Script Tasks strive for a balanced power between both sides, and if there really is too much disparity, the killing field would manipulate things a bit, favoring the weaker party.
He managed to leverage an entire company’s ’power’, and we can’t even get through to the Avalon Organization, which means in the eyes of the killing field, my personal power is very likely stronger."
The miniature Gray Rain scratched her chin in confusion and said, "Then why don’t we just turn around and head east, go straight to Vanguard Company, and take that person out?"
The killing field’s task completion criteria required delivering Angelica to Angel City, or killing the opposing player.
Completing either one would allow for teleportation away.
"It’s not that simple."
Li Cheng shook his head, "There aren’t many fools among Transcendents of this level, they can also understand such straightforward rules.
He will make sure to stay somewhere safe as soon as he can.
Like surrounding himself with a hundred or so Superpower Users for protection,
or hiding in Vanguard Company’s underground bunker that can withstand a nuclear strike,
or boarding a large passenger plane flying eastwards across the Atlantic. Difficult to find.
Besides, what I said was he’s very likely not as strong as me, not that it’s 100% certain."
The miniature Gray Rain blinked, "What do you mean?"
"He could be a Support System Transcendent, weak on his own but able to assist others.
It’s possible he is a Charming Superhuman, beguiling others to serve as pawns.
Maybe he has sustained serious injuries recently and can’t perform at full strength.
Or perhaps, he’s a hostage held captive in a dungeon by a hostile organization, left with only one or two pieces of equipment, stripped of everything else."
Li Cheng said casually, "There are too many possibilities, it’s more prudent to stick to the original plan rather than drive over to behead him—so long as I keep pushing forward with the mission, they will eventually get restless and show themselves."
The cellphone he brought into the Script Task vibrated, displaying an image of the inside of a motel room.
The glass window was shattered from outside, and a flashbang was thrown in through the broken window.
After the intense flash and noise, the door was violently kicked open, and a squad of fully armed soldiers rushed into the room.
The room was in disarray, the air was thick with the scent of disinfectant, and on the wall, in bold red letters, was written a message.
"Before coming to capture me, be ready to embrace death."
Included was a vivid illustration of a middle finger, laden with provocation.
These soldiers were well-trained; they ignored the graffiti and silently searched under the bed, in the bathroom.
Following them, a middle-aged white man in a suit with a stern expression walked into the room, accompanied by a young man with a timid demeanor.
Caroline, upon seeing the white man on Li Cheng’s cellphone screen, exclaimed with fear, "He’s a former FBI agent who resigned and joined Vanguard Company, taking command of the Alpha Team in the intelligence department, specializing in capturing rogue Superpower Users.
The United States government does not want the public to know about the existence of superpowers, choosing to collaborate with Vanguard Company. They hunt down all Superpower Users to register them.
If any Superpower User violates the law and uses their superpowers to disrupt social order, they will be directly apprehended, imprisoned, or even executed by Vanguard Company."
This was easy to understand. If the United States government itself wanted to set up such an agency, it would have to ask Congress for funding and explain everything about superpowers to the members of Congress, a very troublesome process. Fresh chapters posted on NoveI[F]ire.net
It’s easier to contract out the work to a private firm, under the guise of "funding domestic pharmaceutical companies for new drug research," providing payment, and conveniently deflecting blame should any issues arise.
"Are you sure this is the place?"
Alexander looked at the timid young man beside him, who pulled out a white lab coat, sniffed it deeply, and said with some embarrassment, "Using this coat worn by Caroline, I can only track to here. The smell of disinfectant in the room is too strong."
Alexander frowned slightly, and the young man quickly added, "Apart from Caroline’s and Angelica’s scents, there are three others!
Two males, and... some kind of metal?"
This young man seemed to possess a superpower related to olfaction, capable of sniffing out information from the air, even capturing the scent of a Transformer who had only spent half a minute in the room.
"Additionally, I think I also smell..." The young man sniffed the air hard, his expression turning to one of fear, "the scent of hand grenades! We need to get out of here!"
But it was too late. As he shouted, one of the soldiers noticed that the door of a wooden wardrobe in the corner of the room was not properly closed.
He pulled open the wardrobe door, which was empty except for a chain of hand grenades hanging on the only hanger, with all their pins tied together with string, connected to the inside of the wardrobe doorknob.
In the next instant, all the grenades exploded simultaneously, shredding the soldier to pieces, and setting off alarms on all vehicles in the parking lot below the motel.
The room was left in ruins, the armed personnel in bulletproof vests knocked to the ground, blood everywhere, while only Alexander and the Sniffer were still standing.
Alexander raised his palm, releasing an invisible wave to block all grenade shrapnel, protecting both himself and the Sniffer.
His expression was extremely grim. Stopping his superpower ability, as the grenade shrapnel fell to the ground,
He then stepped on the bed and used the butt of his handgun to break open the skewed air vent cover in the corner ceiling due to the explosion.
Behind the cover, there was a round wireless smart camera.
The red paint was not only smeared on the walls but also splattered on the vent cover, which prevented him from noticing the hidden camera right away.
The explosion did not damage the camera, and Alexander stared at the lens, articulating each word, "Caroline alone couldn’t have set up these traps.
I don’t know who you are, but I will find you, and I will kill you."