Gong Daoyi hummed a quick and interesting tune with a bright quality like that of flowing spring water, which resonated with his overall image. Though it sounded nice, Lei Ming couldn't help interrupting him and asking, "What if they did something to that woman? She is one of us..."
The humming stopped, and Gong Daoyi waved his hands with a relaxed expression. "Why are you worried? If you were the chief of police, would you think this is a major event?"
Without the slightest interest in hearing what Lei Ming had to say, Gong Daoyi raised his [Girlfriend's Crazy Suspicion] and started scanning the entire room with it. Lei Ming was defeated by his attitude and didn't say anything else. In the end, he followed Gong Daoyi around the room while he considered those words with knitted brows.
If he thought carefully about it, from the perspective of the chief of police, it was just a small incident in which a posthuman came out of her capsule because it was not shut tightly, and nobody escaped. Strictly speaking, the issue with the night security guard willfully neglecting his duty and letting people into the arena was a bigger problem...
"But..." After thinking for a while, Lei Ming felt that if they didn't go back and look, he would continue feeling uneasy. However, before he could phrase his sentence, the item in Gong Daoyi's hand suddenly made a sound that stole his attention.
[Girlfriend's Crazy Suspicion]
Besides every secretive man with suspicious behaviors, there would be something like this! Women naturally become like Sherlock Holmes when things involve their love lives, finding all sorts of almost undetectable clues. The essence of this extraordinary ability has been extracted to create the best tool to search for Special Items within a small range.
PS: Unfortunately, just as its name suggests, this item may be inaccurate sometimes. It can also be deceived by 'sweet talk,' so it is not 100% reliable.
"Ah, this strand of hair isn't mine. My hair is maroon."
Gong Daoyi stopped in front of a wall once he heard that emotional female voice. He looked closer and quickly smiled.
Meanwhile, the chief of police, Aliba, was blissfully unaware that the recent batch of confiscated Special Items would be stolen soon, despite being convinced that he had hidden them extremely well.
Things turned out the way Gong Daoyi predicted. Although Aliba was furious, he didn't think much of the situation, especially after he heard the words from the female posthuman.
"I already declared that I'm joining this tournament on my own volition. I haven't changed my mind. So, I won't run away," Lin Sanjiu yelled as she held her slightly trembling clenched fists by her side. She bent down and hauled the security guard's corpse by its leg and threw it toward the electric net. Then, she yelled out again, "If it weren't for this man, we wouldn't be outside our capsules. Please don't make things difficult for these girls. I will put them back in their capsules, and I will enter my own capsule. That should work for you, right?"
Aliba remained fixated on the woman, his raised brows slightly revealing his slight astonishment. But before he could respond, the female posthuman with short hair took action. She placed each of the women who were now properly clothed back into their respective capsules one by one. Finally, she went back into her own capsule and closed the door.
Subsequently, the clicking sound of the automatic locks on the doors reverberated through the empty arena. Once the doors were secured, it was practically impossible for any of them to force open the capsule from the inside by brute force. The Tournament Committee had already verified this through experiments done with male posthuman subjects. Once he was sure that there were no posthumans in the capsule containment area, he commanded his men emotionlessly, "Go in and retrieve those dead bodies."
After Lin Sanjiu threw the corpse at the net, the security guard's body was now on the conveyor track. A soldier acknowledged his command, and before that man left, Aliba suddenly stopped him, "Aim the sentry guns at Contestant 97's capsule. All of you must wear your full armor."
He had always been a cautious man. He never ever let his guard down, regardless of how weak their opponents looked. However, Aliba exercised more caution than necessary this time. Lin Sanjiu stood in her capsule, watching the soldiers carrying the dead bodies out. He noticed her behavior and decided that they had to be wary of her. He knew that it was improbable for her to be a willing participant. But if she really planned to resist them and escape, this was her best chance, yet she was just letting it slip.
'What is this female mutate thinking?' Just when this thought surfaced in his mind, Aliba's gaze fell on the corpses his men had retrieved from the capsule containment area. They all died by different methods. Some of them had their heads severed, while others had blood pouring out from their entire body. It was as if it wasn't done by a single person. Aliba saw the purple bruise on the security guard's ankle and turned to ask his men, "When is Contestant 97's entering the battle arena?"
The vice chief was wearing a monocle, and after pressing a few buttons on the frame, he replied respectfully, "She will be entering tomorrow morning's first match."
"Arrange for a Grade 2 combatant to join. She must not survive tomorrow. If she has any sponsors, see if we can cancel their requests. I don't care if they want to sensationalize this, but it will save us a lot of unnecessary worries."
The vice chief gave an affirmative response and started recording the details of their case. Suddenly, they heard a faint sound of an explosion. It probably wasn't far, as they quickly felt the tremor it generated. Aliba reached out to support the vice chief, who nearly fell on him. His expression changed as he yelled, "Quick! We need to go back to the Tournament Committee's meeting room!"
Before he finished his sentence, he already pushed away his vice chief and shot out of the door. His speed might even be comparable to some posthumans. The vice chief was so anxious that his skinny face had already turned white. He gathered the men and rushed out. One of the soldiers shouted from behind, "Sir, what do I do with this woman?" But no one heard him.
When he looked up again, his supervisor was nowhere to be seen. At such a critical point, Aliba had already forgotten about Xueqin. The tournament arena and the Tournament Committee's office building were close to each other. When he reached the two-story building, his face had turned green.
Even though it was a two-story building, one would discover that the tournament committee's office was technically only one large room. The ceiling was at least six to seven meters, and many white translucent balls were floating at random in midair. The usually pristine white balls were now covered by a layer of dirt and concrete debris.
Aliba had a stiff expression on his face as he slowly looked upwards. The wall that concealed the metal safe had already been destroyed by the explosion. Aliba could see the cold metallic surface of the safe, which hung from the ceiling. It looked as if something had taken a large bite from it, and it was missing a large portion. The edges of the bite were very smooth. From the hole, he could see that the safe had been emptied, and nothing was left behind.
"This, this..." the vice chief was so stunned that he couldn't even speak properly. The safe contained various Special Items the police department had confiscated over the recent years, and that was no small number. Other than the army, many politicians and men in power were all avid collectors of Special Items. The items also held a lot of research value. Now, they have lost everything.
"Review the footage from the security cameras immediately. You have ten minutes to get the photo of the culprits' faces and information about their whereabouts. Send out five search parties. No, ten. I don't think a normal person can find this safe..." Aliba looked up at the broken safe. He didn't move for a long time, staring at it as his eyes gradually turned bloodshot. "Remember, we need to keep this a secret. Don't report this to management. We can't let anyone else know about this."
The management was one thing, but if the people from the government heard about that, they would make a ruckus. The vice chief knew that this was a serious issue. He nodded solemnly and started creating search groups.
This has been a tumultuous night for all of them. Unfortunately, the two men in the footage from the security camera seemed to have disappeared without a trace, like froth in the big ocean. As the police department had to act discreetly, they quickly withdrew their men before dawn after a few hours of fruitless search. Even though the men returned before the sun rose, after they assembled, were reprimanded, returned their weapons, and returned to their dormitories to change out of their uniforms, it was already around 8 pm.
As Long Ahtao had to deal with the dead bodies from the arena, he had a tougher time than his other colleagues. When he pushed open the door of his room, all he felt were his aching shoulders.
His roommate had been holding a bucket of tidbits and sitting in a chair since he was from another platoon and had been off from work that day. A beam from his headband projected a screen on the wall. Long Ahtao peeked at the screen and saw the opening intro of the Lunar New Year Tournament program. He looked at the time and realized that the morning match was about to start.
"Hey, why don't you take a seat, and we can watch this together?" his roommate shouted, spraying bits of food from his mouth.
Usually, Long Ahtao would respond with a grin and drag his chair over, but last night's operation took a toll on him. He waved his hand tiredly and plopped into his bed. His head felt so heavy that he just wanted to sleep. His roommate looked at his condition and turned back to the screen. As sleep slowly overtook his senses, he heard the faint voice coming from the head projector on his roommate's head, "It is finally time for Contestant 97 to enter the arena. As you all know, she was the first voluntary contestant of the competition in all these years..."
Long Ahtao forced himself to open his eyes and saw the close-up image of the female posthuman he had seen yesterday. He wanted to find out what was up with that woman, but he could not fight off his exhaustion and closed his eyes once again.
Meanwhile, the arena was filled with a screaming audience as Lin Sanjiu stepped out of her capsule expressionlessly.
Out of all the other women around her, she noticed that she had seen one of them the night before. That woman was lucky because Lin Sanjiu managed to save her before one of the men got to her.
Although her face was pale and her muscles were still twitching, her eyes showed that her mind was still clear. She moved toward Lin Sanjiu and said softly, "My name is Li Tao. Thank you for saving me last night. What are you planning next? Why didn't you escape yesterday?"
"I have a plan, but I can't implement it alone," Lin Sanjiu whispered after looking at her for a while.