Chapter 8: Investigation (Please read! Thanks to the leader who sighs for a hard life)

Maybe there are clues.

But Ji Jue didn't find it.

After taking careful photos of the scene and performing a task that the police had never done before, Ji Jue helplessly discovered that he could only see a few lines of spreading footprints in the dust.

But I can't tell who is who.

I had no idea whether the person coming was a man or a woman, tall or short, or whether he or she had any distinctive features.

It is obviously too late to find a textbook and learn from scratch now, but fortunately, there are other ways.

Ji Jue placed his palm on the old computer.

Tell it:
--【wake up】!
After several attempts, the vague feeling finally reappeared. The invisible hand took control of everything and forcibly started the overloaded power supply. Following Ji Jue's will, the burnt circuit was bypassed. After some degree of repair... the screen lit up again!

He skillfully turned on the store’s surveillance video and adjusted the time.

Two dark shadows appeared on the screen and entered from the back door, as if they had planned it in advance. However, they did not go to the counter or the cash register, but turned and walked to other places in the store.

It's like, looking for something else.

Then, he met Lu Ma who was awakened.

Just like a mad mother bear, the roaring Lu Ma didn't care about any chivalry or boring stuff at all. She swung the wrench and hit one of the men's head, cutting it open on the spot. Blood splattered and landed on her head. Perhaps that was the reason for the abnormal spiritual essence remaining.

If it were an ordinary person, he would probably suffer a concussion if not die.

But...what if the person who comes is not normal?

In the surveillance footage, the person on the ground just twitched twice, then straightened his body as if he had been electrocuted, climbed up in a strange posture, easily grabbed Lu Ma's arm, took the wrench away, and smashed it on her head and face.

The other person who was attacked was also restrained by Lu Ma as if a gentle breeze was blowing on his face, and he suppressed her easily.

Ji Jue watched Lu's mother struggling and resisting again and again in the surveillance video.

Get up and fall down again.

Eventually lost consciousness.

fell to the ground.

He gradually lost his expression, and even his anger had flowed away into a void. Only the old computer's chassis was gasping, howling, and roaring.

The picture suddenly froze.

Lu Ma resisted and pulled off the mask of one of them, revealing the scars on his face, the beard, and the eyes that were different in color from the others. Ji Jue was reminded of the old man who had gone crazy and attacked him.

Scarlet color.

Compared with the two, although their degree of mutation did not seem to be as good as that of the old man, the old man inexplicably gave Ji Jue a feeling of malnutrition. These two people were not driven to the point of madness by hunger, but their physical fitness was better than that of ordinary people.

The scene ended quickly. The two people searched for a long time and found nothing. They smashed things around frantically. Finally, not wanting to make a wasted trip, they struggled to pick up Lu Ma from the ground and dragged her towards the back door.

Ji Jue walked towards the back door, looked at the remaining tracks on the ground, and disappeared outside the door.

The rain washed away all traces of the wheels.

He raised his head and looked at the top of the telephone pole... The camera that had long lost its maintenance was unresponsive, and the data cable extending from the body had completely aged over a long period of time.

It seems that no one has taken care of it for more than ten years. Over the years, Yacheng has replaced many surveillance systems, but unfortunately none of them would be installed in the chaotic construction area in Beishan District.

It has long been forgotten.

"Who said useless surveillance can't find people?"

Ji Jue stared at the electric pole, muttering softly, and after pulling out a ladder from the warehouse, he climbed up the wall. In the light rain, no one noticed the figure in the raincoat who seemed to be repairing the roof.

Then, Ji Jue took out the wire cutters from his pocket.

"Whether you live or die depends on this one."

Ji Jue gritted his teeth and put on the work gloves which were better than nothing. He then identified the cable of the camera and cut it without hesitation: "It's up to you, superpower!"

Snapped!
In an instant, it seemed as if a tiny sound suddenly emerged from the broken cable, and then the sound that was originally almost inaudible gradually appeared.

It’s like arriving next door from thousands of miles away, but it’s still too far!
Ji Jue thought about it, took off his work gloves, pinched it with his hands, and the sound became amplified again, but it was still not enough...until Ji Jue made up his mind, opened his mouth, and bit the data cable into his mouth.

In an instant, it was as if the soul had separated from the body, rushing through the silent cables and disappearing into the empty surveillance camera.

Once again, the extinguished fire was rekindled!
On the camera, a red flash suddenly lit up.

"Broken, repaired, thank you."

A human-like consciousness emerged from the machine, intermittent, vague and weak: "What can I do for you?"

Damn, is it so smart?
From the spiritual essence bestowed by Ji Jue, the camera actually developed self-awareness, although it was slow and vague.

Ji Jue directly transmitted the scene he saw from the surveillance video through his spiritual essence, "There was a home robbery right under your nose. Please help me. I just want to know where these two people went."

The camera is silent.

shock.

As if overloaded, sparks burst out from the gaps, and loud noises like fury burst out from the links of the ectoplasm.

"Fuck! Any evil will be brought to justice!!!"

boom!
A waterfall-like scene roared in from the other end of the cable. In the silent camera, countless chaotic scenes almost burst out and hit Ji Jue's forehead like a sledgehammer.

His eyes suddenly went dark.

What emerges from dullness is ecstasy.

Holy shit, is it really possible?! Not only that, if you can transmit images by holding a data cable in your mouth regardless of accessories, model, data protocol, or any other conditions, then when you want to calculate differential equations of a transmission system in the future, won’t it be enough to just hold two memory sticks in your mouth?

The future is bright!

No more worries about not being able to handle the dynamics model of multiple transmission systems!
No, if it were really possible, I could just wave my hand and let the computer do the calculation for me...

But as his messy thoughts dissipated, Ji Jue was already immersed in the transmitted images. He didn't know how many years the images had been stored inside. They were intermittent and had no focus, but the images suddenly froze at the end.

In the blur, in the night, there is a white van parked on the side of the road. It is an old model from the Coast Automobile Factory. It is weathered and covered with scratches. It is no different from the black taxis that can be seen everywhere in Beishan District. It carries both people and goods, is convenient and reliable, and is cheap and fuel-efficient.

When the car lights came on, in a fleeting moment, the license plate appeared on the screen, but unfortunately, it was blurry.

“Voltage, abnormal, disrepair, abandoned, not captured, number.” The camera seemed frustrated and stuttered: “Sorry, sorry, sorry.”

"No, it's enough." Ji Jue said contentedly, patting his drooping head: "I'll help you with your health care when I get back, monitoring brother."

"You're welcome."

The camera responded for the last time, and as the spiritual essence dissipated, it fell silent again.

Ji Jue, standing on the wall, staring at the direction where the vehicles were going away and the distant traffic lights along the way, slowly exhaled a breath of white air.

No license plate number, no big deal.

Nowadays, when people are committing crimes and engaging in illegal activities, how can they not have a few cars with fake license plates?

With experience, you can avoid trouble.

But who says that you can’t find your car without a license plate?
How can we find a car with a fake license plate among tens of thousands of white vans in Yacheng?

The answer is, just ask.

Ji Jue stood under the street light and looked at the camera. "Brother, I want to ask you something. At five o'clock in the morning yesterday, did a white van pass by your place? It probably looked like this. Yes, yes, yes, thank you."

"It's just a small matter, brother."

The enthusiastic cameraman turned his head, as if waving goodbye: "Come and play again next time!"

"I didn't see it. Why don't you go take a look in front?"

"It went left, but at eight o'clock it went south again."

"There's a dashcam in the car below. Ask it. It will definitely work!"

"He went north."

"...We need to go further. Yes, a little further and turn right."

……

As one of the 19 central cities of the Federation, Yacheng covers an area of ​​7,200 square kilometers and is divided into seven districts. According to statistics, the permanent population is more than 26 million. In fact, if illegal immigrants and stowaways are included, the number may be more than 30 million.

But if we were to ask these 30 million people one by one and look for a car in 7,200 square kilometers, it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Everyone has times when they don't pay attention, don't see, don't remember, and don't intend to cooperate, but machines won't.

If you see it, you see it. If you don’t see it, you don’t see it.

Throughout Beishan District, in addition to official surveillance on the main roads, there are countless cameras in factories, companies, nightclubs, apartments, villas, even convenience stores and morning tea shops, and even dashcams in every car.

A large number of cameras are like stars hidden in the darkness, staring at the land in front of them all the time, faithfully recording all changes into the hard disk for people to retrieve.

If you ask, they answer.

Tell me everything you know, and tell me everything you know.

More loyal than a dog.

In just six hours, Ji Jue had determined the route, approximate location and specific information of the white van.

Even, the final position!
In fact, the whole process took less than twenty minutes.

The rest of the time, except for being on the road, Ji Jue was waiting for his spiritual essence to recover, and munching on all the food he could buy on the roadside.

Six o'clock in the afternoon, Beishan District, Binhai Avenue.

In a street-side restaurant filled with the noisy sounds of people playing cards, Ji Jue leaned against the window, staring at a white van parked on the street, waiting for the owner who had disappeared to somewhere to show up.

By the way, bow your head and show off wildly.

He swept through the siomai, rice rolls and buns like a starving ghost reincarnated.

Hungry, extremely hungry.

As the spiritual essence is consumed and restored, the body craves for supply.

Large amounts of high-calorie food were draining Ji Jue's savings balance at a heartbreaking rate. Even so, he was still dizzy, had tinnitus, and his face was as pale as a ghost.

The sequelae brought about by the lack of spiritual essence made it difficult for the abilities that he had not yet mastered to sustain under such high-frequency use.

The only advantage is that the perceptual resonance that was previously intermittently effective can now be activated with full concentration and has been initially mastered.

However, the more I get started, the more discord and difficulty I feel.

It's like a kid driving a big car.

Although it looks and actually is very exhilarating, it is very exhausting, and if you are not careful you will be drained of your energy by the cart, to the point of overdrawing your spiritual essence.

If Ji Jue hadn't relied on his watch to extract some spiritual energy from Old Deng that morning, he would have died long ago.

"The Chosen One...?"

Recalling the hanging system in the watch, Ji Jue couldn't help but murmur.

(End of this chapter)