Chapter 107: Hero Investigation in Progress
“Huh?”
Hearing the response from the other end of the line, Lu Zheng was quite astonished.
Just a few dozen minutes ago, they didn’t even know the guy’s name—now they’d already found out where he lived?
The speed was so fast it left Lu Zheng in disbelief.
He quickly followed up.
“What about the man himself?”
“We’re not exactly sure about that yet, but I think he’s still in his room.”
“Room?”
“Yes, that guy is currently staying at a budget hotel near the outskirts of the city.”
Budget hotel?
Lu Zheng pulled the phone away from his ear, glanced at it, and wondered if he had misheard.
He found it hard to associate that term with a villain who had infiltrated the core of the Hero Association.
Back when he was still on the front lines, villains who sneaked into cities never blatantly stayed in hotels—especially not on Hero Association-controlled turf.
They would stay at their informants’ homes or in safe houses.
But thinking more carefully, Lu Zheng found it not so hard to understand.
The Freedom Alliance was different from the evil organizations under the Evil Council. They didn’t have the capacity to extend their influence into the Hero Association’s core areas, so naturally, they wouldn’t have informants or safe houses here.
For someone with identification, staying at a budget hotel was quite normal.
And it wouldn’t be easily subject to searches.
And that was indeed the case.
From the time Ye Qin was sent back to the Hero Association until now, their search efforts had been focused on places like urban villages with high floating populations—they hadn’t even considered that Rigil Gai might have ID and would just stay in a hotel.
When Lu Zheng didn’t respond, Miss Qiu Yu continued explaining to him.
“We discovered the guy’s parking spot was right in front of that hotel, so we just sent someone to investigate directly. Luckily, the front desk clerk had a strong impression of him and gave us the relevant information straight away. They also told us he had only gone out once in the morning, and stayed in his room the entire afternoon.”
Went out in the morning…
That was probably the trip to find Yi Ning.
Lu Zheng stroked his chin and asked again.
“Is the front desk’s info reliable? Could he have slipped out the back?”
“Probably not. The investigation report says the hotel only has one main entrance, and there aren’t even any windows on the rest of the first floor. If someone wanted to leave without using the main door, they’d have to jump out of a window or use a spatial-type ability, but we didn’t detect any traces of ability use there, nor did anyone mention anything about someone jumping out a window. Besides, isn’t that guy a Metallization-type ability user? Where would he pull a teleportation power from?”
Hearing Lu Zheng’s concerns, Miss Qiu Yu flipped through the report again to make sure she hadn’t missed anything.
“What about your side? Any more leads or evidence? I’ve already got people monitoring the area around the hotel. If you’re confident, we can start the arrest operation as soon as you arrive.”
“Well…”
Lu Zheng had a complicated expression.
“There’s a rather big problem here.”
“What is it?”
“That guy’s ability seems to be Metallization, not Fusion.”
“You’re thinking the Freedom Alliance has two operatives in D-City?”
Miss Qiu Yu raised an eyebrow but immediately dismissed Lu Zheng’s guess with regret.
“From the intel we’ve gathered so far, the likelihood of there being two people is low. According to the hotel housekeeping staff, there’s only Rigil in the room, and all the signs of life also point to just him.”
Hotel housekeeping staff are that all-knowing?
“Are you sure the intel is solid?”
Lu Zheng frowned.
The staff had to clean so many rooms each day—remembering the number of guests was impressive enough, let alone recalling all signs of life?
“I think it’s pretty solid.”
Seemingly anticipating Lu Zheng’s doubts, Miss Qiu Yu explained.
“It’s not a holiday or anything, so the hotel isn’t that busy.”
“Plus, according to the staff, Rigil acted all high and mighty, as if he was some big shot. He was irritable even during check-in, and when housekeeping went in to clean, he kept nitpicking—he’d throw a fit over anything not cleaned perfectly. So the staff all remember him clearly.”
“Our people also disguised themselves as housekeeping to check—he’s definitely staying alone. Unfortunately, he hasn’t left the room, or we could have planted surveillance or bugs inside.”
After saying that, Miss Qiu Yu gave a couple of helpless laughs.
Did this guy even realize he had snuck in?
But thinking back, he had also been quite arrogant when facing Yi Ning, only behaving properly after getting thoroughly put in her place.
If he was that arrogant even toward a potential collaborator, one could imagine how poorly he treated service staff.
Being remembered because of one’s arrogance—wasn’t that also a kind of sin of pride?
“So there’s no second person…”
Receiving an unexpected answer, Lu Zheng sounded somewhat disheartened.
Could this guy really just be some normal person unrelated to the Freedom Alliance?
But could there really be such a coincidence in this world?
He still harbored some doubts.
Sensing Lu Zheng’s mood, Miss Qiu Yu gently tried to comfort him.
“Don’t be too anxious.”
They were both seasoned heroes with plenty of experience in investigating sneaky villains.
They also knew that investigations were never straightforward.
“It’s only been a short time. What we’ve managed to uncover so far is already quite good. Even the protagonists in mystery anime go through a few loops in movie versions.”
“And he can’t possibly stay in that room forever. Once we get our surveillance and bugs set up, we’ll figure out who he really is.”
Nice!
On the other end of the call, Miss Qiu Yu clenched both fists at her chest, silently cheering for her own splendid performance.
She had actually managed to comfort Lu Zheng!
No sarcasm at all!
Even though she had the boost of being in work mode, being able to do something like this was still quite impressive, right?
If she could continue evolving at this pace, one day her rational side would completely suppress her runaway emotions and confess her love with composure!
Miss Qiu Yu: Evolving daily.
Carried away by this strange burst of pride, Miss Qiu Yu even had the wild idea of riding this momentum and confessing right now to take Lu Zheng in one go.
But fortunately, her heightened rationality in work mode quickly suppressed the overwhelming emotion, stopping her from doing something so untimely.
Miss Qiu Yu placed her fist near her mouth and lightly cleared her throat, preparing to keep it up.
“In any case, we just took a slight detour. No need to rush so much. Didn’t someone say that a detour is the shortest shortcut? And your efforts weren’t all for nothing. That Rigil guy is full of suspicious points. Even if you hadn’t discovered him, we would’ve had to investigate him anyway. At the very least, you’ve confirmed he’s not the one who abducted Ye Qin…”
“This isn’t something to not rush over.”
Lu Zheng sighed slightly and interrupted Miss Qiu Yu.
The one who attacked Ye Qin had the ability to turn people into living bombs just by touching them. If he went on a rampage in a crowded area…
Just imagining it made Lu Zheng anxious.
More importantly, turning people into bombs and detonating them only took a moment—he might not make it in time before casualties occurred.
Also…
“How could something so coincidental really happen in this world?”
Lu Zheng found it hard to accept.