Roadmap to the Boundless Sky-Chapter 195Book 3, : Chase
The address led to Deep End District. Chen Chuan followed the instructions from his Realm Pass and saw Qi Gao’s SUV in a parking lot. Not far away was a private tax collection point.
Qi Gao knew where to park his SUV, alright.
The City Patrol might not be reliable, but one could always trust in the tax collection points’ armed forces. If any gang members came over, the tax collection point was going to know that they had never paid their taxes, and they were going to have their pockets emptied for all the taxes they owed since they were born, regardless of whether they were citizens or not.
Chen Chuan contacted Qi Gao. “I’m here, Mr. Qi.”
“Over here, Chen Chuan,” Qi Gao immediately replied.
The SUV's door swung open, and Qi Gao got out and waved at him.
He drove down the scanning lane in the parking lot and stopped in an empty spot. Since he was an officer of the Resolution Department, he didn’t need to pay parking fees in public parking lots. The bill that popped up on his Realm Pass was immediately canceled.
Once he got out, he went over to Qi Gao. Even though Qi Gao hadn’t shaved for a few days, looked a little older, and had dark eye bags, he didn’t appear hurt.
At the back of the SUV was a girl of around thirteen years old. She was Qi Qi, Qi Gao’s daughter, and had big eyes and two pigtails. When she saw Chen Chuan observe her, she said, “Hello.”
Chen Chuan gave her a nod and returned her greeting with a smile. “Hello.”
Then, he turned to Qi Gao. “What’s the situation now?”
“Once I came here, those people stopped bothering me, but I can’t keep living like this. It has been days since Xiao Qi went to school.” Qi Gao sighed.
“All this to figure out where the ritual materials went?” Chen Chuan asked.
“Seems like it,” Qi Gao said.
This was strange. While procuring ritual materials was quite difficult in the upper city district, they weren’t rare. Was there really a need to spend so much effort on this?
“I was quite puzzled about it myself in the beginning, but as I thought it over, I think my friend got his hands on things that he shouldn’t have, and we got involved too,” Qi Gao added.
That was possible. If that were the case, Qi Gao was just dragged into his friend’s mess. “Are those people staking out your house right now?”
“Yeah. That’s why I’m too scared to go back.”
“Which gang?”
“The one doing the stakeout is a small nearby gang. If that was all, I could have dealt with it myself. Us agents aren’t pushovers, you know that. But when it comes to ritual materials, the suppliers like my friends are all backed by gangs and forces of power in the lower city district. I don’t want to get into trouble, nor do I want to drag anyone else into my mess. That’s why I decided to hide for a while,” Qi Gao said.
Chen Chuan knew that Qi Gao didn’t want to bother him and just hoped that the people would leave after being unable to find him. He could understand that. So, he said, “Let’s go back now, and I’ll deal with it.”
“Alright. Sorry for the trouble, Chen Chuan.” Qi Gao perked up. If Chen Chuan took charge, it wouldn’t be hard for him to solve the problem. It was a little embarrassing, though. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺
“Seriously, sorry for making you come here and deal with my problem, Chen Chuan.”
“Don’t say that, Mr. Qi. I mentioned before that we’re a team. Besides, I’m the one who asked you to buy the ritual materials, so I’m directly connected to this. You shouldn’t face this problem alone,” Chen Chuan comforted him.
They got into their own cars and headed to Qi Gao’s house. He lived in an eighty-story rental apartment in Martial Order District. Most of the people living there were from either middle- or low-income citizens.
Most of the money Qi Gao earned from his missions went to paying the bills and his daughter’s school fees. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been hard for him to rent a place with a better environment.
They parked outside, entered the building, and took the elevator up.
When they arrived at the corridor leading to Qi Gao’s apartment, Chen Chuan saw two people hiding in a corner. They occasionally snuck peeks at them. When they saw Qi Gao, they started fiddling with their secondhand Realm Passes.
“Mr. Qi, bring Xiao Qi inside. Don’t come out for a while,” he instructed.
“Got it.”
Qi Gao knew what was going to happen and unlocked the door with the key, went inside, and shut the door behind himself and Qi Qi.
Chen Chuan ignored the two gang members. Instead, he contacted Wu Bei to ask him to check where their communication signal led to.
Soon, Wu Bei tracked down two signal reception points. One of them was the base of a small gang, and the other was a bar located in Deep End District. There was a tunnel near the bar, as shown on the map.
The second one was clearly the gathering place of some lower city district force of power in the upper city district. The gangs just loved disguising their bases as bars and hotels.
In the past, Chen Chuan didn’t have a clear grasp on the distribution of power in the lower city district. While the Resolution Department had information about it, it was outdated. After all, the world there formed a complex web, which led to rapid changes of power on an almost daily basis.
But now, he had his own information channel. Through Border Fusion’s platform, he contacted Clear Road Transport and sent them the location of the marked tunnel. He wanted to know which gang it belonged to.
After around ten minutes, he got his answer. Apparently, those who were active around the tunnel were mostly people from the Plague Gang. The Clear Road Transport resonators then sent him a description of the gang.
Chen Chuan took a look. The gang wasn’t big, but it was unique. Most of the gang members were technicians. Many of them were originally researchers, implant specialists, and bioengineers of big companies.
Some of the fringe members worshiped an evil god, and they willingly got infected with infectious diseases so they could take some trial medicine and go through treatment. In the gang, this was known as the Screening. They believed that by doing so, they could get closer to their god. They also often captured other people for human experimentation. They were absolutely hated in the lower city district.
If not for the gang’s relatively loose structure and because certain people needed them to continue existing, they would have been destroyed a long time ago.
Chen Chuan shook his head. Many gangs had clear organizational structures and could be reasoned with. Chen Chuan had to be a little wary when dealing with them, but that was all. Gangs that shared characteristics with evil cults, though, not only did extreme, monstrous things, but were also sick in the head. Chen Chuan decided not to bother using conventional methods to take such people down.
While he was reading through the information, Wu Bei sent surveillance footage to him. It had a group of gang members leaving the base in two cars. Clearly, they were coming for Qi Gao.
Chen Chuan didn’t intend to fight them. Instead, he contacted the City Patrol and told them about the situation. Once the City Patrol nearby received his report, they immediately came over.
While the Resolution Department wasn’t the City Patrol’s superior, they worked closely together.
If the City Patrol ran into people with powerful combat-based implants or criminal martial artists, they had to rely on the Resolution Department to solve the problem. The sooner the Resolution Department took action, the fewer casualties they would suffer. Hence, they usually showed respect to the Resolution Department’s officers, especially when it was a request from a Class Two Law Enforcer.
In less than five minutes since the two cars moved out, the City Patrol guards intercepted them.
Before half an hour passed, the City Patrol told Chen Chuan that they had arrested the people and brought them to the base for questioning.
Since these people had criminal records, as long as the City Patrol was willing to look into them, they could put them behind bars for however long they wanted.
Once Chen Chuan got the message, he thanked them. Just then, Wu Bei said, “Chen Chuan, I’ve been looking at their messages from the past few days. Lao Qi’s friend was abducted by people from the bar, but I didn’t notice him being transferred out, so he should still be inside the bar.”
Chen Chuan thanked him. Knowing where the person was made things easier, but the most important thing was figuring out the cause behind all this so that he could get rid of this problem once and for all.
A few days had passed since then, so there was no knowing whether this person was still alive, but he had to go and check.
Chen Chuan asked Wu Bei to keep a lookout on Qi Gao’s house and notify him if anything happened. Then, he got into the car and headed to the bar. After twenty minutes, he arrived at his destination.
The bar was modified from an old house. It looked like any other bar from the outside, though its signboard stood out. It was made of flashy neon lights and had a constantly flickering screen.
Once Chen Chuan parked his car, he went inside. The bar was full of flickering lights as well. The floor was made of glass panels, and he could see blood-red liquid flowing through glass tubes underneath.
Since the sun was still up, there weren’t many customers inside. The moment Chen Chuan stepped inside, his second self started blurring out quite badly. When he looked around, he found that the source was an immovable decorative wall in the middle of the bar.
He looked away and went near the counter. “I have this friend that you abducted a few days ago. Is he still around?”
The bartender wore short sleeves that exposed his toned, tattooed arms. When Chen Chuan stepped in, he had started watching him warily. Once he heard the question, his expression changed, and he denied it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Quickly, he sent a look to the two goons sitting far away. One of them immediately notified the members outside with his Realm Pass.
Chen Chuan pretended not to notice anything. He sat down in front of the bartender and ordered, “Give me something non-alcoholic, then.”
“We only have alcohol here, no non-alcoholic drinks.”
“Water is fine too.” Chen Chuan settled for less.
When the bartender saw that the goon was still talking to whoever it was on the other end, he poured a glass of water for Chen Chuan and even added two ice cubes for him before pushing it over. “Your water, sir.”
Chen Chuan picked it up and started taking slow sips.
Once the few customers inside noticed the situation by the counter, they sensed that something was off and paid their bills. The couple who had wanted to stay and watch the show were politely asked to leave by the goons.
Soon, a group of people came in. The leader was a well-dressed man in his thirties. Even though it wasn’t bright, he didn’t remove his sunglasses.
He turned around and gave an order. The metal shutter slid down, and the door was locked. Then, with weapons and guns in hands, the group walked over.
