Chapter 969: Chapter 969

"How much military strength and equipment is there approximately?"

He Ao watched the projection of Scott in front of him and asked slowly.

"It looks like there’s only one Mercenary Corps, a fully mechanized unit, and so far, no signs of an air force have been spotted."

Scott replied quickly.

He Ao nodded lightly, "Keep a close watch on the movements of this Mercenary Corps, and try to protect the trade caravans entering and leaving through the North Gate. If there is an emergency, temporarily closing the North Gate is also an option. Thank you for your efforts."

"You’re joking, sir. It’s my duty."

Scott gave a military salute, "Yes sir!"

He Ao reached out to hang up the call.

Watching the military figure slowly fade away in front of his eyes, He Ao leaned back in his chair, gently rubbing his forehead.

A mechanized Mercenary Corps had arrived from the north. Although the capabilities of this Mercenary Corps might not be enough to breach the North City Gate directly, they could still tie down the main force of the North City Defense Forces at the North Gate with their advanced equipment.

That meant the South City Defense Army would have to face the Mercenary Corps and air force of the Yiwis Space System outside the South Gate on their own.

A crisp knocking sound came from outside the door.

He Ao reached to press the door opener on his desk.

The office door opened, and standing outside, Tucker looked at He Ao with a hint of confusion, "Mr. Lin En, did you want to see me?"

"There is something,"

He Ao gestured for Tucker to come over, then pulled up the map on his desk, loading a warehouse boss’s personal information connected to the South City Command Center, "This person should be in the Saint Ilan District. Can you find him?"

Tucker glanced at the documents after walking to the side of the desk and nodded gently, "It should be possible."

"This individual is known to collude with gangs, and you can use this as a reason to seek him out,"

He Ao lifted his hand, sending the information to Tucker’s wristband, "I need all the recent transaction data from his warehouse, records of personnel coming in and out, especially those suspected of dealings with the Prisoners’ Gang. In recent years, his business has declined, but his life seems to be getting better. There should be a reason for that."

"Okay, I’ll take care of it immediately."

"As soon as possible, hopefully, you can have an answer for me tonight,"

He Ao rubbed his temples, then casually sent information about a mechanical factory and a chemical plant as well, "Check these two places too, and ask around the Southern District if they know anything about them."

Tucker lifted his wristband, glanced at the incoming information, and nodded gently.

"There’s one more thing,"

He Ao seemed to remember something, looking up at Tucker, "Have you operated in the nearby Wilderness before? Do you know the Wilderness Wanderers around here?"

Linen had traveled through many Wilderness areas in his years, primarily in the central and western regions of the Federation, but he hadn’t frequented the area near his hometown, Yilan City.

"I’m not too familiar with the ones in the south, but I know some to the north,"

"Do you still have contact with them?"

He Ao continued to inquire.

"I’ve been in contact more often lately since it’s become more convenient,"

Tucker smiled, explaining,

"After Dawn City enacted the Wilderness Wanderers Act, most of the Wilderness Wanderers in the vicinity have entered Dawn City and received social security card numbers. They move between the city and the Wilderness, living by selling furs or through armed transport. They all have contacts in the city,

"Before, to find them you had to send a message through the Wilderness, now a phone call is all it takes."

"Get in touch with them, find a few with tight lips and strong capabilities, and find out if there’s been any stir in the Wilderness to the north recently, especially the mines of Kopace Mining in the north,"

He Ao lowered his head to zoom in the map on the desk to the entire map of Yilan City, and then looked up towards the Wilderness north of Yilan City, "From Yilan City to Dawn City, most of the route is plains, and it’s difficult to completely cover any tracks."

Tucker responded softly.

He Ao raised his head to look at Tucker, "among those people you’ve recently recruited for the Southern District, is there anyone who is quite familiar with the Southern District and the area near the South City Command Center?"

Upon hearing He Ao’s question, Tucker was briefly taken aback, then seemed to fall into recollection. Soon after, he began to speak,

"Indeed, there is one. You’ve met him - the kid who was queuing up to see you this morning. I’ve spoken with him. That boy can’t sit still and is quite bold; he likes to wander around and is fairly well-acquainted with the entire layout of the Southern District."

As Tucker recounted, He Ao quickly remembered the youth who had been hiding outside the sign in the Low-rise District.

"Is he still in the Southern District now?"

He Ao looked at Tucker and asked slowly.

"He’s currently inside the police station building behind the White Jasmine Palace,"

Tucker said with a smile, "I thought the kid had potential and was pretty courageous, so I brought him over to train a bit. I’ve even rented an apartment for him near the police station to use as a dorm."

"Good. Are you heading back to the police station building later?"

He Ao glanced down at the map on the desk, then lifted his hand and turned the map off, "Let’s go together."

"What is this about?"

Tucker was slightly startled.

"Some things can’t be resolved from within the White Jasmine Palace."

He Ao shook his head and, at the same time, raised his wrist communicator and dialed a number.

"Mr. Lin En, is there something amiss?"

The blonde Chief of Staff appeared on the wrist communicator’s projection.

"Daisy, starting now, refuse any visitors. If anyone contacts me, forward it to my private wrist communicator."

He Ao looked at the blonde Chief of Staff, "You’re in full charge of matters concerning the White Jasmine Palace for the time being."

The blonde Chief of Staff opened her mouth slightly.

"Just carry out the orders."

He Ao spoke quickly, "Later on, I will leave the White Jasmine Palace in Director Tucker’s car."

The blonde Chief of Staff eventually nodded in understanding.

He Ao disconnected the call, picked up the brass cane next to him, checked the time on his wrist communicator, then turned to Tucker, "Let’s go."

As the day neared its end and the dimming sunlight fell on the narrow, silent streets and old storefronts beside them,

the youth sitting on a roughly welded iron stool with his head bowed was working under the light, illuminating the scattered parts on the table.

The television in the innermost part of the room flickered, still broadcasting repeated news.

The youth carefully soldered a tiny chip onto a delicate, precise motherboard, then lifted the mechanical tweezers in his hand and asked in a slow voice, "Is there something you need?"

At that moment, standing under the rusty shop’s rolling shutter door was a man holding a silver briefcase, wearing sunglasses and dressed in a sleek black suit.

"The top brass sent me to deliver something to you."

The man lifted the briefcase in his hand and spoke briskly.

A subtle glow streamed through the gaps on his cheeks, revealing the mechanical coldness beneath.

"What is it this time that I need to keep safe?"

The youth’s expression was cold as he pushed aside the motherboard on the table, reached into a blue basket on his right side, and pulled out a shattered wrist communicator to swiftly disassemble it.

"One extraordinary item, part of the chips for this negotiation," the man said slowly, "It’s said to be safest in your possession, and if necessary, it could temporarily enhance your strength."

The young man placed the newly repaired motherboard into the disassembled wristband, removed the shattered glass, sealed it with tape, and fitted a new piece of glass. Then, he took out a small polisher from the side and carefully smoothed out the edges.

Hearing the young man’s words, the man hesitated for a moment. Eventually, he carefully set the silver briefcase between a pile of boxes containing electronic components at the very back, gave the young man a slight bow, and slowly left the shop.

After his departure, the young man looked at the wristband casing in his hands, now polished and looking brand new, and lifted it in the light, a smile curling at the corners of his mouth.

City Police Station Building

"Mr. Lin En, are you looking for me?"

The young man, dressed in a brand-new uniform, stood at the entrance of the small conference room, looking somewhat restrained at He Ao and Tucker inside the office.

"I have some questions for you."

He raised his wristband, connected it to the room’s equipment, and projected a three-dimensional map of the Southern District and the nearby area of South City Command Center.

Red lines spread out from marked points on this map, leading to the South City Command Center.

These were paths automatically generated by Eve after analyzing publicly available topographic data online.

He Ao turned to the young man, who had come closer, and quickly asked, "What other paths do you think there are from these points to the South City Command Center?"

"It seems all the roads here are listed quite neatly."

The young man scratched his head, closely examining the three-dimensional map. "But some areas of this map are inaccurate."

He pointed at several buildings, "These buildings have collapsed, and a road was cleared through the rubble."

Then he pointed at several heaps, "The garbage piles on these mounds have been reduced. Valuable steel and wiring have been removed and sold, so this road is actually passable."

As he described, there were changes in the buildings on the map; some buildings transformed into collapsed structures, and the garbage on some mounds naturally parted ways.

Looking at the changes in the map, the young man was somewhat excited, as if he hadn’t seen such advanced algorithmic evolution before. He placed his hand to one side of the map, "And over here, by the Low-rise District, you can take a shortcut across the rooftops. The buildings nearby aren’t tall and are connected with wooden boards and iron frames—a pathway that leads straight to ’Commerce City.’"

He Ao looked up at him; this term wasn’t mentioned in the data collected by Eve.

"That’s just my own term."

The young man scratched his head,

"That place is an abandoned shopping mall, with lots of traders setting up stands there and some thieves and gang members fencing stolen goods. The rooftop path was laid out by the people going to Commerce City; it’s narrow, only letting a few people across at a time, but it’s close.

"Not many people know about that path, and those who use it don’t want to be seen going to Commerce City."

As the young man spoke, He Ao lowered his head and glanced at the area called Commerce City.

Indeed, Eve had marked it as a trading post, but according to the data she collected, the trading volume of that place was probably not large, and the area was not large at all—hardly qualifying as a ’city,’ just a small building.

His gaze moved eastward from the trading post, and the South City Command Center building came into his view.

However, the trading post was now quite close to the South City Command Center.

A new red line followed the young man’s gesture, passing over the rooftops of those small low buildings, reaching the trading post.

The path was almost a straight line, indeed very close.

"Any other questions?"

He Ao looked up at the young man in front of him.

"There are some minor issues as well, I’m not sure if they are relevant."

The young man nodded lightly and then gestured, pointing out many inaccuracies on the map.

Eve’s analytical power was unquestionable, but she couldn’t obtain all the real map information just from the network. The data on the Southern District inside the White Jasmine Palace was also twenty years out of date.

So He Ao indeed needed an experienced ’local’ to fill out a more complete set of data for him.

Soon, as the young man narrated, a more complete and realistic 3D map materialized.

"It should be about right now,"

the young man manipulated the map, constantly checking the details, "I haven’t been to the City Defense Army side, so I don’t know the exact structure there, but the exterior should be ."

"Good, thank you for your trouble."

He Ao nodded, closing the map projection.

He had been to the South City Command Center before, and basically had a good grasp of all the architectural structures there. In addition, he also got a defense map near the command center from Corvey.

"It’s no trouble, no trouble at all,"

the young man quickly waved his hand, poking his head out with a curious tone, "Mr. Lin En, is there something you need? Can I help in some way?"

"You have already been of great help,"

He Ao patted the young man on the shoulder and smiled, "Keep training hard and improving yourself; one day, you too could become a pillar of Yilan City."

The young man suddenly lit up with excitement and gave a crisp military salute.

"Kid, you did a solid job today. Wait for me at the door."

Tucker glanced at He Ao, who was silent now, and hastily spoke to the young man.

The young man grinned, nodded, turned, and attempted to march out, but left the office with his arms and legs moving awkwardly in unison.

"This kid is indeed not bad."

He Ao smiled after glancing at the young man who cautiously closed the door behind him.

"Very smart, just a bit too impulsive."

Tucker also sighed in agreement.

"Can you find that kind of private vehicle for sale around here?"

He Ao shifted his gaze back to Tucker, "I mean the kind of vehicle that at first glance has nothing to do with the officials, not those armored and bulletproof ones."

There were indeed many cars in Lin En’s garage, but Lin En’s cars were probably well known by now. As soon as one of them was driven out, it would be recognized by those with intentions.

Hearing He Ao’s question, Tucker paused briefly, looked at He Ao, and after a brief moment of contemplation, slowly said, "Actually, I do know of one, it’s an old car, about sixty years old."

"The age of the car doesn’t matter as long as it can drive."

He Ao replied slowly.

"All right, I’ll contact the car dealer."

Tucker immediately raised his wristband to speak.

···A few minutes later···

Tucker stepped out of the office, glanced at the excited young man waiting at the door, and waved his hand, "Let’s go, pillar of the city, it’s time to arrest someone."

"Yes! Director Tucker!"

The young man followed with eager excitement.

Meanwhile, outside the City Police Station building on the streets, an elderly man dressed in a gray suit, carrying a dignified presence and silver hair, made his way past the surrounding crowd and into a secluded alley, where he saw the car he had asked the dealer to park by the roadside.

It was an old-fashioned sedan with streamlined silver and blue colors, the car adorned with the emblem of a meteor and lightning from the Federation’s ultra-luxurious car brand Linster.

The car wasn’t expensive, and He Ao made a direct transfer to purchase it.

He walked up to the car, glanced at the oval rear-view mirrors with silver trim and the silver door handles, reached out, pulled the door open, and revealed the extensively polished real wood decor and the soft leather seats inside.

Compared to the current technological style popular within the Federation, this old sedan resembled more of a classical luxury carriage from the records before the great catastrophe.

He Ao placed his brass cane on the passenger seat, sat in the driver’s seat, resting his hands on the round wooden-rimmed steering wheel, and started the car.

He connected his wristband to the car system that was clearly upgraded, and spoke softly,

"Eve, head to the Southern District."