What It's Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 474: Fermo Kun and Watson

At dawn, Alice identified the whereabouts of that GMC motorhome after it left the Brilliant Fortune Building yesterday afternoon, by analyzing and deducing from numerous traffic videos.

The vehicle got on the highway, exited at the Yangcheng exit, and then stopped for a few hours within Yangcheng City. Around 2 am, it got back on the highway and returned to Peng City, to the Brilliant Fortune Building.

As for the specific trajectory and destination of this vehicle in Yangcheng, Alice is using more surveillance and related resources for further confirmation.

Meanwhile, there has been progress in the “detection” of the Brilliant Fortune Building’s network.

Alice easily intruded into the network of the Brilliant Fortune Building, but she discovered that there were no connections to the terminals in the third basement level within the network terminals of the building.

Therefore, using other methods, she found another dedicated line for the basement, but this connection only had one terminal. The content it transmitted was very strange; it was some surveillance footage, but it wasn’t from the third basement level or even scenes from the Brilliant Fortune Building or its surroundings. Instead, it showed the living conditions of a large family.

Looking at the surveillance video clips from Alice showing images of that family, Xiang Kun’s brows furrowed deeply.

Did this family also have a “mutant” among them?

If not, why would the people in the third basement level go to the trouble of monitoring them?

But after carefully analyzing the surveillance footage sent back by Alice, Xiang Kun was unable to identify any of the several individuals shown in the footage as having mutated into “mutants”.

Or could it be that this is the “family” of a “mutant”, and “Divine Technology” is monitoring them in hopes of identifying the “real target”?

Just then, Xiang Kun quickly noticed that among the individuals appearing in the surveillance video, there was a mother, two young children, a “grandfather”, “grandparents”, a nanny, but notably missing was the “male head of the household”.

From the various details of the nicely decorated house in the video clips, Xiang Kun inferred that the “male head of the household” had been absent for a long time, with no traces of his lifestyle or habits to be found.

Xiang Kun couldn’t help but think of the “human-shaped mutated creature” that had recently appeared next to the rabbit woodcarving in the “Super Sensory State”. Could it be the man of the family?

Xiang Kun began to try searching for the location and identity revealed in the few surveillance video clips sent by Alice.

At the dinner table, the three seniors mentioned the names of a vegetable market and a bakery, while the two children referred to a middle school and a shopping mall, all of which could help locate their city and approximate location.

Before Xiang Kun could even figure out how to guide Alice to assist him with the manhunt, Alice had already captured one of the kids’ social media platform accounts through the surveillance video. Then she directly located the family’s position through the network, and even penetrated their network, taking control of all their networked devices, including mobile phones, tablets, computers, and game consoles.

Through the way the surveillance footage was transmitted, she located the device that was transmitting the surveillance footage back to the Brilliant Fortune Building. It was within the same residential area, less than a hundred meters away from the family’s house.

Next, the family’s information was inevitably found by Alice, who, through it, found more key information related to them on the internet.

Then Xiang Kun deduced this family’s situation by inference from this information:

The man of the house, named Xie Hongting, had served in the military when he was younger. Upon retiring, he worked in a high-end security company. After an accident left him paralyzed from the waist down, he was hospitalized for years. Although he was carefully attended to by his family, he still died of complications five years ago.

However, after Xie Hongting’s death, the manager of the already bankrupt security company approached Xie’s family, telling them that a substantial insurance policy had been created for Xie. Now that Xie’s situation met the payout conditions, they helped his family claim a substantial compensation from the insurance company.

Not only that, the head of the security company bounced back, reopening the company, reinstating Xie’s widow as an administrator, and paying her a high salary each month.

So, although this family had lost its main breadwinner and had to shoulder enormous medical expenses for several years, with the elders getting older and the youngsters still young, their living standard had actually risen instead of falling.

Alice kindly investigated the background of the security company for him and found out that the company’s resurrection was indeed related to “Divine Technology”. It was financed by a security company controlled by “Divine Technology”. Moreover, the substantial insurance payment received by the Xie family did not come from an insurance company, but from an institution associated with “Divine Technology”.

This made Xiang Kun slightly puzzled. It didn’t seem like they were monitoring, but rather, taking care of the family?

If Xie Hongting didn’t die and had become a “mutant,” “Divine Technology” should have left his family in poverty to force him to appear if they were adopting the policy of “waiting patiently for success.”

It seemed more likely that if Xie Hongting was a “mutant,” he might be directly working for “Divine Technology,” and the financial compensation for his family was an attempt to appease him, so he would be willing to work?

Was the surveillance a form of coercion to some extent?

Could Xie Hongting… actually be “Mr. Liang”?

However, based on the information he had previously obtained from Mijoe, Dr. Fang, and others, as well as more information related to “Divine Technology” and “Mr. Liang,” “Mr. Liang” had been in charge of the secret department of “Divine Technology” for more than five years, so the identities didn’t match; Xie Hongting couldn’t be “Mr. Liang”.

Now, Alice had made new progress in tracking the GMC camper van in Yangcheng.

Based on the partial surveillance video data gathered, Alice calculated that the vehicle had stayed in the parking lot of a bar in Yangcheng. Thus, she gained control over the parking lot’s surveillance system’s access, found the corresponding time slot’s video, and even filmed the GMC camper van.

Watching the video clip sent by Alice, Xiang Kun couldn’t help but frown when he saw the burly man with a scar-covered face and dressed in a black suit emerging from the driver’s seat. This guy… surely isn’t a “mutant,” right? Otherwise, during his initial mutation, the scars on his face should have healed.

Or perhaps, those scars were just a disguise, just like the duckbill cap he was wearing?

Alice continued sending surveillance videos from inside the bar. Xiang Kun saw the burly man with the scarred face entering the bar, walking straight to the bar, and stopping a foreign man who had just stood up, saying a few words.

From the video, based on the body posture of the man with the scarred face, Xiang Kun judged that he had prepared for combat, his body slightly tensed. However, after he finished speaking, his expression suddenly became a bit dull, his gaze somewhat lost, and his body relaxed, but then his body began to shake violently, as if he was electrocuted, before collapsing to the ground.

From start to finish, the two did not make physical contact, but the foreign man still looked around in panic and quickly left the bar.

After the foreign man left, the burly man with the scarred face shook his head, pulled something out of his pocket and put it in his ear, seemingly a headphone. He didn’t say anything and walked out of the bar with an expressionless face.

Next, Alice continuously sent surveillance videos showing the burly man with the scarred face leaving the bar, returning to the parking lot, driving, as well as some videos of the GMC camper van driving on the roads taken by other shops and street surveillance cameras.

From the videos, it was evident that after leaving the bar, the burly man with the scarred face did not show any panic or anger. He was calm on the road, not rushing or dragging, and seemed to have no clear destination in mind, as if he was just out for a drive.

“Did the door of the camper van never open?” Xiang Kun asked Alice.

“I haven’t found any related footage in the surveillance videos I’ve checked.” Alice replied.

“Try to trace where the foreign man in the bar went after he left.” Xiang Kun said.

Even though Xiang Kun was observing through surveillance, even though the lighting was poor inside the bar, and even though he mostly saw the back of the man’s head and a little of his profile, Xiang Kun still felt an intuitive attention towards this man. He knew this meant his sensory abilities had picked up some clues while watching the video, but he had not yet formed a systematic, clear understanding that his brain could interpret, so he only had a vague “intuition.”

After a while, Alice sent back only two surveillance videos. One showed a figure walking briskly across the street. Although the shot only showed the lower half of the body, it was possible to roughly identify the foreigner from the bar by the trousers and shoes he wore.

In the other clip, also taken on the street, the foreigner was again walking briskly, but at an extremely fast pace. By comparing the speed with nearby objects and the brick patterns on the ground, he was as fast as a normal person running.

“What about the rest? Where did he go? Was it impossible to find videos of him from surveillance cameras or do you not yet have control over them?” Xiang Kun asked.

Alice sent out a map with a region marked in red, explaining: “After entering this region, no cameras had a suitable angle to continue tracking. Until now, we haven’t recorded him leaving.”

“He disappeared?” Xiang Kun frowned slightly, observing the section of the map, “What kind of buildings are located there?”

Alice highlighted all the buildings around the map and sent another video: “Ten minutes after the ‘foreigner’ entered, a ‘van’ also entered the region and left twenty-seven seconds later. Considering the previous contact between the ‘foreigner’ and the ‘scar face’ inside the bar, there is an 87.8% chance that the ‘foreigner’ got into the ‘van’ and they left together.”

“How did you come up with this 87.8% odds?” asked Xiang Kun instinctively, and then immediately changed his question: “Ah… never mind! Estimate the time it took for the van to leave that section of road and get on the expressway. Check if there was any detour.”

“According to the estimate, it directly returned to Peng City.” Alice quickly answered.

The moment they left the parking lot of the bar, they aimlessly wandered until they passed the place where the foreign guy disappeared. They then stopped for around ten minutes, and after that, they directly left Yangcheng for the expressway back to Peng City. This seemed to imply that the main purpose of the GMC van coming out from the Brilliant Fortune Building and going to Yangcheng was to capture this foreigner?

Xiang Kun immediately thought about the “human-shaped mutated creature” that he sensed for the first time near the rabbit woodcarving during his “super sensory state”. It showed a strong sense of fear towards the “mutant” that had taken the rabbit woodcarving.

So, was the “mutant” that had taken the rabbit woodcarving, the scar-faced strong man who was driving?

No, it wasn’t him.

Such a GMC reformed van was mainly serving the interests of the people sitting in the back, not the person driving in the front.

Although Alice did not find any surveillance footage showing the opening of the van door, it doesn’t mean that the person inside didn’t step out. After all, not all roads are covered by surveillance, and Alice doesn’t have access to all surveillance footage.

It’s just like the stretch of road where the foreigner disappeared; they couldn’t see if anyone got out or into the van.

So, was there a real “mutant” sitting inside the car at the time, who abducted the foreigner into the van?

It was already daylight outside. Xiang Kun felt Old Xia woke up behind him and sat up from the bed.

The computer chair creaked as Xiang Kun turned around to show Old Xia the flight booked for them by Alice on his phone: “We’ll fly to Peng City today. We should arrive around noon. Contact Nana and Zhen’er later and invite them for lunch. Let’s meet at a restaurant named ‘Best Fish in the World’ next to Xingcai Square. The fish there is supposed to be quite good.”

Xia Libing looked up at him: “What’s special about that restaurant?”

Obviously, she instantly figured out that the phrase “the fish there is supposed to be quite good” was not the real reason.

“Because from there, we can directly observe the situation at the Brilliant Fortune Building.” Xiang Kun explained, sharing with her what he and Alice had found after she had fallen asleep the night before.

…

The trip to Peng city was incredibly smooth, with the flight departing on time.

Considering the timing, Xiang Kun and Old Xia didn’t ask Nana and Zhen’er to pick them up, but went directly to the agreed-upon restaurant.

Actually, if they kept their visit to Peng City low-key and not inform anyone, it would probably be the best way to investigate the situation at the Brilliant Fortune Building.

However, since Nana and Zhen’er were in Peng City, it was impossible for them to not inform the girls about their arrival.

When Xiang Kun arrived at the “Best Fish in the World”, Tang Baona and Yang Zhen Er had already found a table and were looking at the menu.

“Brother chef Xiang! Zhe Li!” Yang Zhen Er, who was sitting facing the entrance, stood up and waved the moment she saw Xiang Kun’s bald head.

The waiter leading them to their table chuckled, “So you’re a chef too? No wonder you have the same hairstyle as our head chef!”

Xiang Kun could only laugh, “I’m not a chef… my friend just likes to call me that.”

When they reached the table, Tang Baona wondered, “Huh, didn’t you say you were coming with Old Xia? Where is she?”

“Oh, she’s getting something from the convenience store across the street.” Xiang Kun replied.

“Why didn’t you just shop together and then come up?” Yang Zhen Er was puzzled.

“I didn’t want to keep you guys waiting, hence decided to come up first. Don’t worry, your Old Xia is really smart; she won’t get lost.” Xiang Kun answered with a smile.

“It’s not very safe these days. My cousin, who’s as strong as a tower, gets kidnapped, let alone a delicate young lady like Old Xia…” Yang Zhen Er said with pretend concern all over her face.

Tang Baona couldn’t help but laugh, “Oh, come off it! Even if both of us were taken together, we still wouldn’t be able to defeat Old Xia. We are much more ‘delicate’ than Old Xia, okay? Your cousin wasn’t kidnapped here in China; it’s very safe here.”

As Xiang Kun was chatting with the girls, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Xia Libing walking across the street near the Brilliant Fortune Building through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the restaurant.

She seemed to be in a normal state, left hand holding a phone, right hand occasionally reaching into her coat pocket, taking something out and swinging it beside her. But Xiang Kun knew, she was covertly throwing “super-connected objects” – tungsten steel balls into the plant bed near the Brilliant Fortune Building.”

Why didn’t Xiang Kun go there and deploy the “super-connected objects” himself?

Because he knew that the Brilliant Fortune Building and the surrounding area had some infrared thermal imaging mode surveillance cameras, and there might even be cameras specifically designed to detect “mutants.”

Even though Alice had found and controlled some of these cameras, she hadn’t detected all of them.

Although Xiang Kun can accurately locate all electronic devices, find all hidden surveillance, and even determine their field of vision and imaging modes, and make them completely paralysed when necessary, he was not absolutely sure of not being detected as a stranger in an area with high-rise buildings, especially if it was an area owned by “Divine Technology”, an organization known for constantly inventing new black tech products. Nor did he want to create too much commotion as soon as he arrived and alert the enemy.

To be safe, it is better to let Old Xia help him deploy enough “super-connected objects” or even “emotion-infused objects” first, so he could remotely probe the situation.

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