Master of the Stars

Chapter 54: Metal Bug (Part 2/2)

“Hey hey hey?”

Crag Burst stared blankly at this huge and sturdy crow. It had charged in through the car window and had crashed into the back of the thick leather chair. Then it had fallen head first to drop onto the back row of seats.

The two feathers, which had been scraped off, floated within the breeze at the back of the car. They twirled a bit before being blown back out the window. But the unexpected guest had remained behind in the end.

“Mr…… Luo?”

“Yes. It’s me.” The crow straightened itself and cawed twice with a sound that was sandy and coarse to the ears. It matched quite well with the heavy metal that was blasting in the car.

Of course, real responses would come from the HexaEar.

It was beyond Crag Burst’s expectations. Crag Burst never thought that the one who had arrived would be in this form. He overlooked how the sharp claws of the crow had already scratched through the exterior of the leather seat. His eyes were bulging wide as he sized up the crow up and down.

“The mentally enhanced do have many skills…… Would you be a summoner? Do you share senses with this bird?”

“Yes. Things are more or less like you say.”

Since Crag Burst had spoken this much, Luo Nan took the chance to acknowledge this. He was able to avoid looking for other reasons that may be riddled with holes.

“Oh hey. Looks likes a lot of people are underestimating you. To be able to psychically connect to a living being, share senses… This Soul Splitting is a high-level skill. There are no gifted on that level and even Awakened would find it hard to do it with finesse…… Most instances are quite vulgar.”

Crag Burst frowned. He was a musclehead, so he detested the indirect methods of using separate manifested bodies to do work. Luo Nan still hadn’t awakened though and was seriously skinny like a toothpick. It was already quite decent of Luo Nan to be able to make use of this method. Most praiseworthy of all was Luo Nan's attitude of seeking revenge for even the smallest grievance before the night’s end.

Ink hopped twice atop the leather seats at this time. It spread its wings, seeking to fly again.

Tiger Burst, a military modified jeep, contained a lot of space inside. It had to have been, otherwise, the heavy-weight Crag Burst would never have fit inside. But for Ink, with its length of seventy centimeters and a wingspan of one meter, it was still a bit difficult to flap its wings. Ink flapped twice but was unable to produce sufficient force.

Crag Burst watched with cheerful laughter. He extended his hand over, let Ink grab on tight, and released Ink onto the central console.

“Here. The view here is the best. Do you see them yet? They’re ahead of us by two cars. It’s the blue van.”

Ink’s talons hooked onto the edge of the control console to stand rather quite stably. Its jet black eyes stared fixed at the target vehicle in front. It watched with extreme concentration.

“How about it? Need me to do something?” Crag Burst wanted to have some fun from the very beginning.

“No. Not for now.” Luo Nan replied simply.

Crag Burst was a bit disappointed. Now he couldn’t really scream his song, so he had turned bored. He ended up chatting randomly: “I originally thought that you were going to ask Vice President He to help out and that you were going to ask Zhou Hu for help before you left. So you really didn’t contact them?”

“Why do I need to find Sister He?” Luo Nan was somewhat speechless. Could it be that he gave off the feeling of being the sort of person that came running for help when being bullied?

Whatever. He Yueyin wasn’t his parent. In any case, this military woman was the type to do official business using official principles. She would come to look down upon Luo Nan if he were to ask her for help with personal affairs.

“This is my personal matter. I won’t rely on other people for help. Brother Crag Burst. I thank you very much for tailing them for so long. Leave the rest to me then.”

“What. You’re just going to kick me aside?” Crag Burst was displeased, “It looks like you’re not going to make your move tonight based on your appearance?”

“Yes. This involves a complicated legal case that happened over ten years ago. I want to gain a deep understanding. My primary goal is to investigate……”

Crag Burst was still unwilling to give up: “Are you sure? Your bird spent all its effort to fly its way over here. Can it catch up to their car?”

The flying speed of the Corvus Frugilegus was just ordinary among birds. Even though Ink had been trained by Luo Nan, giving it a better constitution, its speed was only about seventy kilometers per hour.

It was not very likely for Ink to catch up to the car through the smooth and precise flow of traffic if no traffic jams appear.

The thing was that Luo Nan never expected Ink to be able to do such a thing. He let Ink come over to show off in front of Crag Burst’s eyes. He just wanted to find an excuse is all.

His true task of reconnaissance would still be reliant on other methods.

Luo Nan’s soul body had been floating above the flow of traffic while he was chatting with Crag Burst. He avoided doing close distance contact with the Awakened Crag Burst and advanced forward in synch with the flow of cars.

His senses, which exceeded a range of 500 meters, had already enveloped the interior of the target’s blue van. A penetrating scan had already swept across twice.

However, this low-key blue van had an exterior material that seemed to be quite complicated. Everytime Luo Nan tried scanning, interference would always appear, making it hard for Luo Nan to ascertain the number of people and the positions of people inside.

With two attempted instances resulting in failure, Luo Nan’s heart raised in vigilance.

The car was still running very smoothly. It seemed that his reconnaissance had been far too direct.

The warning system within the van had been triggered at this time. It didn’t make a noise but instead illuminated with a dazzling red light. The dark-skinned bodyguard, who sat in the driver’s spot, had his eyes turn thoroughly cold. His gaze swept outside the window.

“Darksider life form?” Yan Yongbo, who had been resting with closed eyes, slowly opened his eyes. But then the warning light suddenly went out at this time.

Yan Yongbo couldn’t help muttering to himself: “Is it possible that we’ve entered the territory of the Human-Faced Arachnid? Or is it that we’ve caught the interest of some powerful out-of-body soul?”

“We’ve been tailed.”

The dark-skinned bodyguard suddenly said these words and activated the projector equipment at this time. The real-time satellite video of the surrounding area appeared. The car’s AI assimilated the relevant video with the van to automatically combine them together. Its high-speed analysis soon displayed a few suspicious targets.

The most probable target was marked by an eye-catching red circle.

It was an eye-catching and domineering military-altered Tiger Burst. Its volume was like a small armored car. It could really speed off in the wilderness with its rough four wheels. It appeared out of harmony within the bustling city.

“This car was always following us ever since we left the restaurant. And the monitoring system shows that someone inside the car had mentioned the words “Blue Van”.

“The military?” This kind of aggressive tailing style really did look like something a proud and dauntless soldier would do.

But then Yan Yongbo squinted his eyes for careful observation. Through the high-definition picture, he was able to capture a large crow beneath the car’s window…… It was clearly not an ornament.

“How interesting. Look deeper into it…… Oh, wait. Right now we’re near the River Wu District?”

“Yes.”

“Then let’s use a different method.”

Yan Yongbo rubbed his fingers slowly, then he pulled outwards. A fine soft needle was pulled inexplicably out through the skin of his fingertips. The scene was uncanny beyond compare.

The soft needle had thick and thin hairs coming out of it, its length was only about 5 centimeters long, and it looked to be a sort of metal material. But in the hands of Yan Yongbo, it was like kneaded flour. He kneaded the soft needle twice, and when he opened his hand up again, the soft needle had turned into a metal beetle the size of a grain of rice as if by magic.

The car’s window opened and with the snap of Yan Yongbo’s fingers, the “Beetle” was ejected out the car.

“Tell Jack that it’s time to upgrade the hardware. If he wants to get a first-rate configuration, then he’ll need to work hard…… Just go search within the trash of that car then.”

The blue van’s speed remained constant, but the Tiger Burst Jeep had inexplicably dropped in speed as seen on the satellite video feed.