Dude, something's really wrong with your abilities.

Chapter 30 The Chase

Su Xiaohe sat in the accompanying chair, her gaze shifting back and forth between Sun Tiemei and Chen Shi.

As the fifth group, or the only S-rank member in the entire group, Group Leader Sun suffered a backlash from his superpower, and his arms were wrapped in bandages.

Aside from still having a limp, Mr. Chen Shi was completely unharmed.

The first conclusion that came to her mind was that Teacher Chen was definitely hiding his true abilities.

Chen Shi was a little confused by her stare: "Is there something you need, Xiao He?"

"Teacher Chen, do you usually read novels?" The tone was like that of a die-hard fan interviewing their idol.

"What do you mean?"

"It's the kind of novel where a powerful immortal transforms into a novice cultivator in the cultivation world, infiltrates an ordinary sect, and then shouts 'Don't underestimate a young man's potential,' slapping everyone in the face."

"Yeah, I watch it regularly, and it's quite relatable."

Su Xiaohe nodded, with an expression that said, "I knew it."

Just then, Sun Tiemei's phone rang. She answered it, and it was Zhuang Wen's voice on the other end.

"Team Leader Sun, the DNA comparison results are in. Hong Jun's real name is Guo Sen, from Jiangbei City, and he is 45 years old. However, the records show that he died in a car accident 20 years ago. I am still checking the original records of that car accident. I will notify you immediately if there are any developments."

Sun Tiemei said "thank you for your hard work" and hung up the phone.

Chang Biao came in in a wheelchair, his eyes red, clearly having just cried.

The fat man followed behind him, sighed, and said that Group Five had been having a run of bad luck recently, and they would have to go to the temple to pray when the time came.

Su Xiaohe looked at Chang Biao, then at Sun Tiemei, and finally at Chen Shi, and couldn't help but say, "Brother Biao has external injuries, the team leader has internal injuries, and Teacher Chen has minor injuries, and he injured himself. What does this mean?"

The fat man said it was because he ran slowly, and Su Xiaohe didn't refute it; she understood it herself.

Sun Du from the intelligence department also sent a message: they had retrieved the surveillance footage from the alley behind Chen Shi's house. Hong Jun had escaped in a car; it was late at night and there were few cars on the road, so the license plate was clearly visible. Sun Du followed the license plate all the way to the city center, where the car stopped.

But Red Falcon abandoned the car on the side of the road, got out, and walked into an alley.

Sun Du accessed the historical footage from all the surrounding intersection cameras, rewinding frame by frame, and discovered that he was wearing a mask and never looked up at anyone's face.

They specifically chose those narrow old alleys where only one person could pass sideways. When they bent down and crawled under the bridge, a low-angle camera scanned half of their face, but the facial recognition failed to match, as the mask covered their key features.

Sun Du continued the chase, reaching the edge of the old town, where the person disappeared from all the camera's view.

Sun Tiemei propped herself up on the edge of the bed, the bandages on her arm still in place. The fat man took a step forward, as if to say something, but she looked him back down.

"He abandoned his car in the city center because he knew we were tracking his license plate. Taking back streets, wearing a mask, and avoiding surveillance cameras meant he had scouted the area beforehand. With roadblocks all over the city, he couldn't leave, and he didn't intend to leave the city anyway. He knew that once he entered the old city area without surveillance cameras, they wouldn't be able to catch him. But he still needed a place to stay."

Su Xiaohe turned the tablet around; it showed the last frame captured before the falcon disappeared. He only had one arm left, but his steps were still swift as he darted into an alley without streetlights. She zoomed in on the map; the alley extended northward, leading to an old residential area slated for demolition.

"The shantytown in the north of the city. The street surveillance cameras in that area were removed more than half a year ago because of the demolition. Zhao Zhiqiang lived in the north of the city at that time, and the noodle shop owner and the landlady both said that someone had contacted him. If that person is Hong Jun, he is very familiar with the north of the city." Chen Shi analyzed, stroking his chin.

The fat man watched as Sun Tiemei zipped up her jacket to the collar, and finally couldn't hold back. "Boss, you're suffering from a backlash from your powers right now. Director Zheng already said you need to rest..."

"Go drive. I don't want to say it a third time."

The fat man scratched his head and glanced at Chen Shi. Chen Shi had already walked outside.

He didn't say anything more, went downstairs, and drove the car from the garage to the entrance. Su Xiaohe got into the car carrying her tablet, Chen Shi sat in the passenger seat, and Sun Tiemei sat in the back.

As the car turned out of the hospital gate, Chen Shi glanced back and saw Chang Biao waving at them from the window, his hand, which was wrapped in a brace, waving quite high.

On the way, Sun Tiemei called Lao Zheng. Lao Zheng became anxious as soon as he heard her voice and asked her why she wasn't at the hospital.

"I must catch him this time; I have something to ask him."

There was a moment of silence on Lao Zheng's end: "Alright, Zhou Xin has already led Group Six to the north of the city. You guys meet up, don't go charging alone."

"Yes."

It was already daylight when the car turned into the shantytown in the north of the city, and there were a few people riding electric bikes to buy groceries on the road.

The patrol team had already sealed off the perimeter, and police cars were parked at the entrance of the alley, their roof lights still flashing.

Zhou Xin and his team of six were already waiting. Sun Tiemei rolled down the car window. Zhou Xin said that there were still dozens of buildings in this shantytown. The patrol team was checking each building one by one, but the old buildings were next to each other and the basements were connected to each other, so the progress was very slow.

Su Xiaohe closed her eyes and sensed for a moment, then opened them and shook her head.

"There are too many people living inside, many of them elderly. The signal is too dense, and it's impossible to tell which one is Red Falcon when they're all mixed together. His ability fluctuations are stronger than ordinary people, but there are several other residents here who also have slight ability fluctuations, possibly unregistered F-level. He stayed inside all night, surrounded by a lot of noise, and my senses were drowned out by the noise around him."

The fat man parked the car in front of a red brick building and turned off the engine.

He leaned against the steering wheel for a moment, then suddenly turned to look at Chen Shi. Chen Shi was looking down at the signal distribution map on Su Xiaohe's tablet. Noticing the fat man's gaze, the two exchanged a glance.

Chen Shi leaned over and whispered a few words to him. The fat man immediately pulled a megaphone from under his seat, jumped off the bus, raised the megaphone, and shouted loudly at the old buildings in front of them: "Supermarket giving away eggs! First come, first served! Ten eggs each for the first 100 people! Five eggs each for everyone after that!"

Su Xiaohe leaned out of the car window, completely stunned. "Brother Daqiang, aren't you lying? What if the old folks really come?"

"That's exactly what we want—for them to come out. Only Chen Shi could come up with such a dirty trick." Pang Daqiang turned off the megaphone, leaned against the car, and said, "My mother-in-law lives in this kind of old neighborhood. Every time the supermarket gives out eggs, she doesn't even need to shout; she can gather half the neighborhood in five minutes just by relaying the message. Xiao He, you'll stay here. When the elderly folks come this way, be ready to lock onto those going in the opposite direction."

Su Xiaohe suddenly realized, and she looked at Chen Shi with even greater admiration in her eyes.

Sun Tiemei gave Chen Shi an approving look, then called the patrol team's logistics department to have a few boxes of eggs delivered, so the elderly wouldn't make a wasted trip and cause trouble.

The echoes of the loudspeaker still reverberated through the alley, and one by one, the lights in the surrounding buildings came on. Elderly men and women, carrying cloth bags and enamel basins, walked out of the buildings with a nimble gait that seemed incongruous with their age.

A few middle-aged women were walking along, asking each other, "Which supermarket? The one at the north gate or the one at the south gate?"

"I don't know, but there are ten eggs. You can line them up first."

In less than five minutes, dozens of people had gathered in the open space in front of the buildings, making it as lively as an early morning market.

Su Xiaohe suddenly shouted, "There's a red dot running in the opposite direction!"

She pressed her finger on the tablet, pointing to the row of red brick buildings at the very back of the area for everyone to see.

"He's in the innermost row, diving deeper in, and he's running really fast! Everyone else is gathering this way, but he's the only one running in the opposite direction."

The fat man started the car, the steering wheel swerving so hard the wheels screeched against the gravel. Su Xiaohe sent the coordinates in real time to the intelligence department and the patrol team waiting on the perimeter. Sun Tiemei ordered the patrol team to tighten the encirclement from the north, while Zhou Xin led Group Six to bypass the encirclement from the east.

Before the car had even come to a complete stop in front of the row of red brick buildings, Su Xiaohe had already pushed open the door and jumped out.

She ran two steps forward and then stopped abruptly. Not far away at the entrance to the stairwell, a figure leaned against the door frame. He only had one hand, and half of his originally plain-colored clothes had turned brown.

Red Falcon—no, Guo Sen saw the fifth group's car, but this time he didn't run.