"Why are there so many city guards here? Uh, the nearby air lanes are all blocked, we have to take a detour," Wang Zhaoyuan muttered, his voice not too loud nor too soft, just enough for Li Ming to hear.
Li Ming looked out the window, just below was the Surge Bar, already encircled layer upon layer with blockades, isolated from the air and the ground.
A large crowd had gathered together, whispering to each other, bustling with activity.
Over two hundred city guards secured every access point, drones flashing red and blue lights warned the surroundings.
There were too many people in the bar; he couldn’t possibly clear them all out, and it was normal for the body to be discovered so quickly.
After waiting a while, seeing that Li Ming did not invite him to join the commotion, Wang Zhaoyuan silently started the hover car and took a detour.
Back at the lab, a hangover remedy had already been placed on the table at the entrance, presumably notified by Wang Zhaoyuan.
The night had deepened, Li Ming no longer went to exercise but lay in bed and fell into a deep sleep.
At Surge Bar, the scene was anything but calm, a throng of heavily made-up men and women in flashy colors gathered together, some in miniskirts, earrings, tattoos, all puffing out smoke.
"Damn, I was having a good time, what the hell is going on?"
"What happened? This is Surge Bar, getting checked once a year is big news."
"All smart devices have been confiscated, black nets set up around us—must be something big."
City guards with stern faces held smart terminals and questioned individuals one by one, their expressions grave, "Sorry, but please provide your identity code."
"Officer, what exactly has happened? With all this commotion, the Bian family hasn’t collapsed, has it?" someone lazily asked, groggy, with his floral shirt several buttons undone, bearing numerous lipstick marks on his chest.
Before he finished speaking, a fast-moving shadow struck from the sky, sending the man in the floral shirt flying across the crowd, causing screams.
The nearby city guards’ expressions changed, preparing for action, but then they saw the man who had attacked, his expression cold, dressed in a suit, retracting his right foot.
"Watch your mouth," he said coldly, a young city guard approached to scold him but was stopped by a colleague.
"Excuse me, sir, I represent Mr. Bian Heng as his lawyer," a man approached with a smile:
"We will cover all your medical expenses, and if you wish to file a lawsuit, we can exchange contact information for future communication."
The man lying on the ground had his cheek swollen, missing several teeth.
The drunkenness in his eyes faded, replaced by fright; he got up with the help of others, shaking his head repeatedly.
Bian Heng already entered the bar by then; the first floor had been cleared, only the pant-wearing security personnel of the bar were recording a statement, and he went straight up to the third floor, his expression grim.
Various devices were placed in the corners of the room, the dead body on the floor had not yet been covered with a white cloth, and scene logistics were gathering and analyzing various data.
A few middle-aged men in white city guard uniforms furrowed their brows, clearly higher-ups, and seeing Bian Heng arrive, they stopped conversing tacitly, one of them approached and extended a hand:
"Mr. Bian, hello, I am the head of the Jiangzhou district city guard division—Meng Wankui."
Bian Heng coldly glanced at him without offering his hand, looking at Bian Li’s body on the ground, "I am the family of the deceased; I want to know why my brother died here."
"This..." Meng Wankui hesitated, Bian Heng’s lawyer spoke: "According to the ’Blue Star Public Safety Management Regulations’, Article 1324, supplement 6—" >
"The family of the deceased has the right to know the cause of death and details of the case investigation; note: their lawyer has the same rights."
Meng Wankui’s expression soured; he took in a deep breath and said, "We’ve only been here for less than half an hour; the specific reason? We haven’t finished analyzing the scene."
"What about the surveillance?"
"The surveillance disk was destroyed; we only know that someone used a Mimic Mask to impersonate a bar security officer, entered the surveillance room, and then shut down the system."
"What about the external surveillance of the bar?" the lawyer added.
Meng Wankui continued, "We urgently checked, he knew the blind spots in the surveillance; only three street cameras outside captured a dark shadow, moving too fast, far exceeding the normal acquisition rate of surveillance cameras, unidentifiable."
"Exceeding the surveillance cameras’ capture rate? So at least he must be a D-level Life Form?" the lawyer’s brow furrowed.
Meng Wankui was about to speak when scene logistics passed him a file; he looked down, his expression changing slightly.
"No, there’s only less than a 30% probability that he is a D-level Life Form; it’s more likely he’s a C-level Life Form."
"C-level?" Bian Heng’s expression shifted, looking towards the charred body in two pieces, eyes hollow, reduced to two bloody holes.
"This victim was Huo Ming, a D-level Life Form, and according to the cellular activity tested after his death, he didn’t manage an effective counterattack.
"That means from the moment he detected the adversary until his death, it must have been no more than five seconds." Meng Wankui looked down at the intelligence, his face also grim.
"C-level Life Forms within the territory should all be under surveillance," Bian Heng said sternly.
Meng Wankui nodded, taking another document: "Correct, all the C-level Life Forms under monitoring didn’t come near here tonight."
"And those who can control flames, there are only two in the files, both on the other side of the planet."
"Not one, then it’s a stowaway?" Bian Heng scoffed, "It’s just great for the capital of Blue Star to have an unrestrained C-level Life Form."