Book 3, Chapter 63: Reward

As Chen Chuan stared at the pattern on the card, he couldn’t help but remember Tan Wang. He had been a Secret Python Cult member. Later on, he confessed that Wei Jun had hired him to kill Chen Chuan.

Was this person the same?

It was highly likely.

Who wanted him dead, then?

He set aside the permits and started flipping through the notebook, but every page was written in code. Without knowing the way to decode it, he wouldn’t know what the notebook contained.

Still, Chen Chuan noticed that there were dates once every few pages.

The earliest date was two years ago. He then flipped to the last date.

Twentieth of March.

Hmm?

A flicker of surprise showed up in his eyes. He remembered that this was the date he took his second assessment. Were the two things related?

He couldn’t tell right now.

After giving it some thought, he set the notebook aside with the decision to take it back later and see whether the Resolution Department could help him decode it.

Then, he opened the second drawer. It had two backup Realm Passes. One was a new model, while the other was an old one that had been used before. They might hold some information.

In the third drawer, there was some anti-mutation medicine for daily use, along with an old cult book.

Chen Chuan’s eyes zeroed in on it, and he opened it up, but its contents were written words, symbols, and runes. Some of the symbols were replaced with standard runes that could be used in ritual arrays. Even Chen Chuan, who had read up on rituals before, found it hard to understand. This book was going to be impossible to understand to an average person.

But that was fine. Even if Chen Chuan didn’t understand, someone else would.

He would bring it back and take pictures to send back home. He was sure that Lei Guangcheng wouldn’t have a hard time understanding the contents.

After checking the bedside table, Chen Chuan opened the closet and found a lot of clothes. There was also a hidden compartment at the back. Once he removed it, he found guns and rifles inside, along with fully loaded ammunition boxes for both types of guns, making it obvious that the owner had never used them before.

After finding everything of value, Chen Chuan went to the last room. The moment he opened the door, he noticed two shut closets lined up against the wall. One of them was taller than the other.

Upon seeing this, a theory formed in Chen Chuan’s mind, and he returned to the room to pick up the keys from the drawer. Once he was back, he tested some keys on the shorter closet before finding the right one. Inside it was medicine for martial arts training. It should all be for Third Limit martial artists.

Some of the medicine was quite unique and sealed in glass tubes. It was a fluorescent liquid, and Chen Chuan wondered what it was.

He shut the door and went to the taller closet across the room. Once again, he did some trial and error with the keys before eventually opening the door. Behind it were rows of calorie and nutrient-dense cans that filled up almost the entire wall.

Chen Chuan had thought of the possibility that Phantom Form would have some calorie and nutrient-dense shots here, since he used a resonator nest, but he hadn’t expected this many. But he didn’t have an understanding of that lifeform, so he couldn’t tell just how long these cans would last.

He shut the closet and locked it before exiting the room. Since he had checked the second floor, he walked up the stairs to the third floor.

The stairs and walls here had clearly been fortified. There was no partition, and the floor was taken up by an algae fuel generator, along with two cars.

Chen Chuan went over to take a look and found that one of the cars still had its keys inserted. The hood was turned to the back of the room. There was a spring-loaded door leading to a ramp. Judging by the structure, anyone could drive out the moment they hopped into the car. This had to have been prepared for Phantom Form to flee at a moment’s notice.

After checking the Realm Pass, Chen Chuan found that this was a normal car built by Jiade, though Phantom Form must have modified it, because it had armor platings outside.

The other car was covered by a cloth. Chen Chuan lifted it and found that it was a shimmering silver Lightning Flash made by Baorui. It had large headlights, and the smooth, dynamic curves of the car’s body screamed aerodynamics. Chen Chuan could already imagine it moving like lightning once it started running.

Just then, Wu Bei’s excited voice came through. “I’m here, Chen Chuan!”

So soon?

Chen Chuan marveled.

“Got it. Wait a moment. I’ll be there soon,” Chen Chuan replied.

Once he was downstairs, he looked outside. While the rain hadn’t stopped, it had lightened. Since he had torn off his jacket, he found an umbrella in the storage box under the canopy and walked down the hill.

At the foot, he saw a fortified, medium-sized truck. Its lights were still on, shining so brightly on the puddle in front of it that Chen Chuan could even see the ripples. Wu Bei opened the car door and waved at him. His voice, too, came through the Realm Pass. “Over here, Chen Chuan.”

The moment Chen Chuan reached the truck, Wu Bei hurriedly got out and opened an umbrella that was only somewhat able to cover his body. Then, he hurried over while gasping for breath.

“Calm down, Wu Bei. Catch your breath. Did you bring any water with you?” Chen Chuan asked with a smile.

“I did.” Wu Bei took out a thermos from his attached pocket and took a few gulps from it, which made him feel much better. Then, he took out a handkerchief to wipe off his sweat.

Chen Chuan waited for his breathing to become even before turning around. “Come with me. The path up to the house is slippery, and there are quite a number of traps along the way. Be careful and stay close behind me.”

“Will do!”

Chen Chuan brought Wu Bei to the house on the hillside. Once they were inside, Wu Bei ignored the bones and skull on the floor. His sparkling eyes were immediately glued to the resonator nest. He ran over to it and started circling it as he said, “It really is Heavenly Gate’s mobile Green Island-Type resonator nest! It has a thirty-year lifespan and can increase a resonator’s abilities up to 170%.

“Oh? And it’s a special model that is energy efficient. A new resonator nest would cost more than 1,200,000 devs, and even secondhand resonator nests cost a minimum of 500,000 devs. The better ones cost 700,000. I don’t think that it has been in use for even a year. It hasn’t achieved perfect domain synchronization with its owner yet. It’s really good stuff…”

He rubbed his hands excitedly, as if he was about to hug it.

Chen Chuan laughed and said, “I’ll leave it to you, Wu Bei. Bring it back and take your time exploring it.”

“Okay!” Wu Bei bobbed his head up and down, making his double chin jiggle. He was so happy that there were no words that could describe his joy. If left alone, he would have probably started worshiping the resonator nest.

Chen Chuan brought out the Realm Pass and handed it to Wu Bei. “Could you extract any useful information from this?”

Immediately, Wu Bei snapped into work mode. He took the Realm Pass and put a hand on his neck. After staring at it for a while, he sighed in relief. “Thank goodness the Realm Pass hasn’t charred.”

“Charred?”

Wu Bei then explained that charring occurred when people added biogenerator organs to their Realm Passes, along with biofeedback systems. Some of the passive models would be activated once the owners died and their biofields disappeared, leading to the Realm Pass being burned, and no records being left behind.

It wasn’t impossible to restore the records, but it was expensive, and no one could guarantee how much information could be retrieved.

“This Realm Pass was connected to a biogenerator organ, but it’s an active model. He didn’t use it in the end. It might be because you took him down too quickly, so he wasn’t able to react on time and activate it.”

Chen Chuan thought about it. Third Limit martial artists were really tenacious. Even after their heads were removed, they wouldn’t die immediately. If Phantom Form had really wanted to destroy the Realm Pass, he might have been able to do so.

But he didn’t. Chen Chuan wondered whether it was because of the supernatural being or because he simply didn’t want to.

After some checking, Wu Bei transferred the easier to manage biofield records to his Realm Pass. The very first thing he retrieved was the people he frequently contacted.

At the very top was biofield exchange information within the past three days, so he restored the conversations Phantom Form had had in that timeframe.

Wu Bei worked on it for a moment.

A mechanical voice echoed in their Realm Pass. “Phantom Form, your client is asking when you can kill your target.”

It was followed by a hoarse voice. “Tell him that I’ll be done soon.” (3.59)

Wu Bei figured out that the hoarse voice belonged to the person whose severed head lay on the floor.

So, his name was Phantom Form? That’s obviously a codename. They were talking about a client, which means that someone had hired him to kill me, Chen Chuan thought.

He remembered the advertisement on Secret Python Cult’s page and the services they offered. Everything made sense now.

He asked, “Can you find the source of the first voice?”

“I think the message was made using a passive biosentient entity. It’ll be hard to trace,” Wu Bei answered after some thinking.

Chen Chuan sank into his own thoughts before asking, “But we have his Realm Pass now. If someone contacts him, could we find clues through that?”

“That’ll depend on whether he has linked up to the passive biosentient entity supporting him. He could be linked to it for things like his platform bank account. If someone hires him, then, once in a while, he will have to connect with his client’s account. If the wait is short, it’ll only take from ten to thirty minutes. But if the wait is long, it may take anywhere from half a day up to half a month.

“There’s also no telling whether he had arranged for his account to be frozen after he died, so no connections could be made anymore. If he did, then whoever hired him might have already received word of his death.

“Even if he hasn’t and contacts me, the client may have a voice frequency analyzer, and I’d have a hard time imitating his voice 100%, even if I have a sample of his voice.”

Chen Chuan nodded at that and turned to the resonator nest. “Didn’t you say that the resonator nest may have some traces? Could you check it?”

Wu Bei immediately perked up. He rubbed his hands and went to the resonator nest. “Alright. Let me first adjust the domain frequency. This won’t take much time. Once I’m done, I’ll have it working for me.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep