Bolas was an experienced investigator with seasoned methods. His position as a senior official in Blue Hub came not only from the gift of his talent, but from very real achievements.
The sound of a sniper rifle being assembled continued in his ears, yet he calmly folded his hands over his knees.
His mind raced. Evidence carried within the voiceprints built itself into a mental palace, and the perpetrator’s logic gradually became clear.
Ediv had vanished from campus, yet his body was found in a river outside the university.
The distance was so extreme even Blue Hub’s pheromone-tracking hounds found it unbelievable.
The federal government had sent Bolas and Clova specifically to investigate how Ediv had been taken away from campus.
Bolas suspected the perpetrator possessed a teleportation ability.
If that were all, however, the killer could simply have appeared on campus with his face covered, located Ediv, taken him away, killed and dumped the body, then immediately announced the successful assassination online. There would have been no need to fear a later federal investigation.
The two assassination attempts at Gangtan Airport had just confirmed that the culprit did not possess an ability that powerful.
If they feared Bolas and Clova reconstructing the scene and conversation from that night, then they must have left critical evidence behind—such as their appearance.
On the plane, Bolas had carefully studied Xingzhou University’s security network. From his professional perspective, it was genuinely tight.
If the killer could not teleport in and out at will, activating the ability almost certainly required their actual physical presence.
Passing through the university’s defenses without raising suspicion was extremely difficult.
Bolas quickly reached the same conclusion Zhan Pingchuan had.
The killer had completed the mission yet had not fled. That meant they possessed some legitimate identity within the school—one that would be exposed the moment they disappeared.
Perhaps the scope could be narrowed further: for instance, to the large batch of freshmen who had only entered campus over the past two days.
Anyone capable of successfully removing an A-rank Awakener was most likely A-rank or above.
There had been cases of lower-ranked users killing higher-ranked ones, but the probability was low unless the stronger party had a support ability while the weaker party had an offensive one.
Ediv was obviously a highly offensive Awakener, so he did not fit such a case.
Naturally, this was only probability. It could also have been a newly hired teacher, a new campus worker, a company representative visiting to give a presentation, or even someone who had always been inside the school and merely exploited the confusion caused by freshman arrival.
Bolas slowly smiled, amused.
Reaching this conclusion had not taken him much time. In truth, he had simply watched too many detective shows as a child and developed a hobby of analyzing cases.
Unfortunately, his ability always made his self-proclaimed excellent reasoning skills unnecessary. Several bastards in Blue Hub privately mocked him for relying only on his ability. Stupid, narrow-minded fools!
Bolas pressed one hand to his earpiece and ordered Bureau teams to surround the stadium canopy immediately. Then he changed channels and connected to the university president.
“Immediately, right now, confirm the location of every A-rank or higher Awakener on campus. Focus especially on this year’s freshmen!”
In terms of formal position, the president of Xingzhou University greatly outranked Bolas. But Bolas was an instrument of state power.
The president paused, decided to ignore the commanding tone, and replied pleasantly, “A campus-wide check will take time. Have you already extracted the voiceprint?”
“Of course not,” Bolas answered with complete confidence.
“……” The president inhaled deeply and summoned every scrap of personal cultivation. “May I ask why?”
Bolas gave a cryptic sneer, too disdainful to explain. “You’ll know soon enough.”
Without waiting for an answer, he ended the call cleanly.
The scene about to unfold had already formed in his imagination.
Once he captured the killer and compared the reconstructed face with the suspect, the finale would surely resemble the final scene of a brilliant detective drama: Bolas standing wisely at the center, explaining the case with eloquence while thunderous applause surrounded him and the entire audience sighed in admiration.
Then everyone in Blue Hub would understand that Voiceprint Capture was only one among his ocean of virtues.
Thus, the dorm manager, who had suddenly received an assignment, cursed as she paused her television drama, glared with yellow eyes, and set off.
At that exact moment, Zhan Pingchuan was lounging beside the water tank on the rooftop of Teaching Building Six, watching a squad of heavily armed Blue Hub inspectors rush straight toward the stadium.
More than ten people moved in an encircling formation at high speed, leaving almost no route of escape.
Zhan Pingchuan raised a brow in understanding.
He had known the Black Lantern Society’s people were still on campus and would inevitably participate in this assassination attempt.
He had already planned to take the opportunity to drag the culprit out. No matter what, he would tie them up, whip them hard until they behaved, then force them to reveal Ediv’s final words.
Black Lantern Society. White Pharaoh.
Zhan Pingchuan ground his teeth inwardly. In eighteen years of life, this was the first time someone had snatched a target from directly under his nose. Far too arrogant.
Arrogant, yes—but poorly informed. The other side clearly did not know Bolas’s ability.
They had probably chosen the stadium because it seemed like a good sniper position. Unfortunately for them, no sound could escape Bolas’s ears, not even a suppressed rifle.
The inspectors had already taken positions. Their captain signaled. Several whipped climbing lines from their belts. Nano-scale cords as fine as hair shot upward, biting like teeth into the stadium canopy. Then the lines retracted sharply, hauling the officers into the air.
Zhan Pingchuan smiled. This time, the person truly had nowhere to run.
Compared with being tortured by the federal government, imprisoned, and executed, getting whipped by him a few times was obviously the kinder and more humane option, overflowing with the radiant glory of human compassion.
How lucky for them.
Zhan Pingchuan brushed dust from his palms, lifted one long leg onto the railing, and vaulted over without hesitation. His body dropped straight down.
Hot wind tore past his face. Grass and earth expanded rapidly below. Just before he would have smashed into pieces, a pale-blue transparent barrier appeared from nowhere beneath him and caught him steadily.
The moment he touched down, Zhan Pingchuan stamped hard against the barrier and launched himself forward at incredible speed toward the stadium.
In the blink of an eye, he appeared behind the inspectors. He lifted his right hand, fingers spread loosely. Several silver filaments finer than silk shot from his fingertips. Needle-thin and arrow-fast, they scattered as though each had its own eyes.
The inspectors barely sensed the cold danger behind their heads before something tightened around their carotid sinuses. They did not even see Zhan Pingchuan’s shadow before every one of them lost consciousness.
Spatial-type S-rank Awakener, first-stage ability—[Linear Bending]!
Within the reach of his pheromones, he could generate tough threads capable of cutting through anything.
Zhan Pingchuan did not retract them. Stepping over the unconscious inspectors, he flipped onto the canopy at extreme speed.
He had already decided to use those threads to make a cage. Whatever mysterious criminal awaited him—Black Pharaoh, White Pharaoh, he did not care—would first be locked inside and made into an obedient little kitten willing to surrender.
Yet when he truly stood on the canopy, he discovered it was completely empty.
The setting sun hung low. Hot wind blew chaotically. Standing alone on the iron roof, Zhan Pingchuan’s expression sharpened instantly.
Bolas’s ability could not be wrong. Nor could this many inspectors have suddenly gone brain-dead and come here to play basketball.
Did the target possess some kind of instant-transfer ability after all?
His gaze swept around. Soon, his sharp eyes caught an old, battered MP3 player lying on the ground. Such devices had stopped production ages ago and could probably only be found among antique dealers on the black market.
That also meant even if the Bureau found the MP3, tracing the purchase back to the buyer would be almost impossible.
Zhan Pingchuan picked it up and illuminated the screen. Only then did he discover it had been programmed to replay one recording on a timer.
He pressed play and held it to his ear. The sound was strangely familiar—almost exactly like a firearm being assembled.
Zhan Pingchuan lifted his head, bounced the MP3 in his palm, and smiled meaningfully.
Very sly. Very clever.
Whether or not the other person actually knew Bolas’s ability, they had exploited it perfectly.
The MP3 was less a trap than an early-warning device.
The sound of a sniper rifle being assembled would inevitably alert Bolas, and the Bureau would certainly act. The moment movement appeared around the stadium, White Pharaoh could confirm Bolas and Clova had entered the campus.
Once their arrival was confirmed, locating and killing them would become much easier.
Even Zhan Pingchuan had to admit the maneuver had helped him too. Now he also knew Bolas and Clova were already here.
“Fine. When I catch you next time, I’ll whip you twice less.”
Inside his car, Bolas clearly heard every inspector lose consciousness in the same instant.
Cold sweat broke over him. He shouted into his radio, “Team 1501, respond! Respond immediately!”
The inspectors hanging unconscious in midair obviously could not answer. Bolas could hardly believe the enemy had eliminated all of them in an instant.
Fury surged. He slammed a fist into the seatback. Following the footsteps on the canopy above, he abruptly activated his first-stage ability—[Low-Frequency Standing Wave]!
Within five hundred meters, it emitted infrasound below 50Hz. Humans could barely perceive the wave, yet it could cause irreversible damage to the mind and internal organs.
Although the ability covered a wide area, its lethality was low and almost incapable of killing instantly. That was why Bolas had not used it at first.
Naturally, Zhan Pingchuan did not care about that degree of acoustic damage. Nor did he care that the MP3 had drawn the attack toward him.
He stood openly on the rooftop facing the direction of the sound wave, tossing the MP3 from hand to hand while scanning with razor-sharp eyes.
For most people, identifying the direction of an invisible attack might have been difficult. For him, it was effortless.
He therefore had no need to dodge around Bureau personnel or play indirect games.
At that moment, Lance was hiding inside a seventh-floor restroom in Teaching Building Six facing the athletic field, the fully assembled VSSK braced against his shoulder.
He did not actually know Bolas’s ability. Through deduction, however, he had guessed Bolas must possess extraordinary sensitivity to sound, so he set the trap as a test.
Sure enough, when a group of inspectors rushed toward the stadium, he knew Bolas had arrived.
What happened afterward, however, left him full of question marks.
A person wearing a school uniform stepped over the inspectors’ backs and jumped onto the canopy. For some reason those inspectors hung motionless in the air.
The person wandered around as casually as shopping on a street, apparently found Lance’s MP3, and perhaps because he found the antique entertaining, began bouncing it in his palm like an asshole without any intention of leaving.
Was this an inspector disguised by Clova—or some random idiot who had wandered into the scene?
Lance rubbed the rifle trigger and narrowed his eyes.
Mad Clown asked in confusion through the earpiece, “Could that person be one of the targets?”
Lance lowered the barrel and smiled meaningfully. “We’ll know after a look.”
“How?”
Lance did not answer.
His normal eyes naturally could not see through any disguise ability, but he possessed an excellent method.
He took a deep breath, casually removed his glasses, then suddenly adopted a vivid shocked expression and exclaimed, “Huh? The fiancée abandoned her bankrupt boyfriend to marry into wealth, but why is the rich tycoon kissing the boyfriend?”
Almost instantly, another field of vision opened to him. Bolas, hidden inside the car while releasing Low-Frequency Standing Wave, and Clova, disguised as a male teacher chatting with a student, were both completely exposed before his eyes.
As for the man on the stadium roof— He really was an idiot.