Chapter 456 - Shocking Theft
Chapter 456: Shocking Theft
Since they were burnt scraps, the picture on them had become very faint. Even if Meng Chao used his spirit energy to stimulate his brain cells and activated his calculation abilities to the max, it was still difficult to accurately restore them to their original form in his head.
He used his flashlight to shine on the scraps of paper and examined them for a long time, but he could only tell that it was the blueprint of some building that also had the streets around the building.
Based on the structure of the building, it was a warehouse that stored crystals and monster materials.
Since crystals that had just been mined were really unstable, even the slightest tremor or difference in temperature could turn them into ticking time bombs.
Even if they did not explode, their quality could change easily. They could even release radiation that would harm the human body.
After the crystals were shipped to the densely populated city area, they had to go through unique processing. It was considered as part of the refinement process.
It was the same for plenty of monster materials. They had to be placed in a spot where no one could touch them, go through fermentation, and all sorts of microorganisms processing them to dissolve the acidity and poisonous qualities in them. Then, the humans could bring out their maximum nutrients and energy.
Hence, plenty of the mega corporations, cultivation families, powerful organizations, universities, and all sorts of research centers in Dragon City had their own warehouses. They were specifically used to store all sorts of valuable and highly dangerous materials.
The warehouse blueprint and the map of the streets around it were marked multiple times by a red and blue pen.
There were also a lot of complicated routes, along with a string of numbers marking time.
‘The red lines look like the routes to break into the warehouse from the outside.
‘The blue lines are the four routes that could allow easy retreat.
‘The times by the side should be the shortest and longest time they need to break in and get out, right?
‘As for this, it’s the distribution of guards in the warehouse, along with the distribution of firepower.
‘Unfortunately, more than 70% of the map and information on it has been burnt. I can’t tell just which warehouse it is, but this is enough to tell me what the problem is.’
Once Meng Chao connected all the clues together, there was no way he would not know what Ning Lang intended to do.
After suffering major losses in his pathfinding operation, he decided to take a reckless risk and rob a crystal and monster material warehouse!
It was only by snatching a large number of valuable raw materials that he would be able to clear off his debts and let his family live a carefree life.
Material warehouses like this had a few superhumans guarding them, so normal criminals were unable to covet them.
But Ning Lang had the Deification Capsule. It let normal people obtain supernatural abilities for a short period of time, which would be enough time for him to complete the robbery.
The unlucky debt collectors must have seen Ning Lang plotting his scheme.
Or it could be that Ning Lang and his companions had already taken the Deification Capsules at that time, so their rationality was reduced while their fighting strength had increased by leaps and bounds. They ended up as murderous puppets and killed those bothersome people.
No matter what, Ning Lang had already killed someone, so it was impossible for him to delay things any further.
He and his companions had left the place without hesitation, so they had to be heading to the material warehouse right now to rob it!
Meng Chao remembered the devastating scene he saw in the developing land.
The robbery itself was secondary.
The most crucial thing was that if Ning Lang and his companions ate too many Deification Capsules, their aggressive nature would blow up, and they would turn into killing machines. Before they ended up killing themselves, they would kill a lot of innocent people!
“No, I have to stop Ning Lang!”
Meng Chao blew away the ashes and brought all the scraps back to the surface.
He regained his phone signal.
Even so, he still could not contact Ye Xiaoxing and Lu Siya.
Naturally, Meng Chao had a lot of other powerful fighters’ numbers saved in his contacts.
He knew plenty of powerful people who had great fighting experience, be it his tutor or tutoress, Soul Breaking Saber Luo Wu, the elites in Yan Organization, the Broken Star Club, or Blue Home.
It was not a difficult matter for Meng Chao to make a few calls and summon hundreds of superhumans to his side.
The problem was that he did not know Ning Lang’s precise target.
Crystals and monster materials were the most crucial cultivation resources.
There were more than one thousand material warehouses of varying sizes such in Dragon City.
If the map was still in perfect shape, perhaps he could determine the precise location of the warehouse based on the streets and buildings around it.
But now, there were only scraps of paper left, and he could not even find the correct order to piece them together.
Unless he had a set of very precise data about Dragon City’s buildings, a supercomputer with great computational abilities, and a professional analyst, it would be difficult for him to find the answer in a short amount of time.
He swiftly swiped down his list of contacts.
Suddenly, he saw a name.
Shen Yupeng, an outstanding member of the third generation of Universe Corporation, one of the nine mega corporations in Dragon City.
He worked in the Supernatural Tower as a secret police officer in the adjudicator court and was in charge of superhuman criminal cases.
It was rumored that he was an adjudicator, which meant that he was a super law enforcer who was a police officer, judge, and executioner in one package. He was in charge of investigation, trying a person, and enforcing the law.
Meng Chao got to know Shen Yupeng in the Blessed Paradise murderous pets case.
Even though Universe Corporation and Sky Pillar Corporations were rivals, Shen Yupeng and Lu Siya seemed to have some sort of vague competition between them, and the old and well-established adjudicator court and the newly risen research department fought non stop over the authority to enforce the law and increase their annual budget, this did not stop Meng Chao from being friends with Shen Yupeng in private.
In Meng Chao’s words, the more coattails he could ride, the better.
Lu Siya’s coattails were really comfortable, but he would not give up on the entire forest for just one tree.
Through Shen Yupeng, he could form a good relationship with Universe Corporation and the adjudicator court. When it was necessary, he could use his judgment toward the future to influence and even save more secret police officers and adjudicators.
To Shen Yupeeng, it was also beneficial to befriend Meng Chao, because he was the leader of the Broken Star Club and a committee member of Blue Home. It could help him gain more information when looking for as well as capturing lost people.
Besides, Meng Chao was one of the youngest Heaven Realm superhumans in Dragon City, a superstar who was rising to the sky. There was no reason for him to not pay attention to Meng Chao.
All of them were adults, so it was impossible for something as absurd as “I’m not going to be friends with you because I have a grudge with Lu Siya, and you’re close to her” to happen.
After the conclusion of the Blessed Paradise murderous pets case, Meng Chao had met up a few times to eat with Shen Yupeng and exchanged some information with him.
When Meng Chao moved to the family apartment of the abnormal beast research department, Shen Yupeng sent a congratulatory gift over for his move after he heard of the news, so he could be considered to be very particular about their friendship.
Besides, even if Meng Chao did not look at their relationship and thought about it objectively, it might be more suitable for Shen Yupeng to handle this case.
First of all, Meng Chao currently did not have any proof that the Deification Capsule was related to the abnormal beasts.
If it had nothing to do with abnormal beasts and was just a superhuman criminal case, it should logically be handed to the adjudicator court.
Second, Ning Xing mentioned that some of Ning Lang’s debt collectors came from the lair.
When Meng Chao investigated the Blessed Paradise murderous pets case last time, he went deep into a lair with Lu Siya, but they ended up offending the local gang and had to rely on Shen Yupeng to get out of it unscathed.
This proved that Shen Yupeng had deeper ties with Golden Tooth Lair compared to Lu Siya.
This also meant that he was more likely to find related clues.
With this thought in mind, Meng Chao no longer hesitated. He gave Shen Yupeng a video call.
This time, the call went through really quickly.
But on the other side of the screen, Shen Yupeng’s face was covered in dirt, and his hair was a mess. It caught Meng Chao by surprise.
In his memories, Shen Yupeng was a cold man who loved dressing in a metallic gray trench coat. He had eagle-like eyes and a hooked nose.
In other words, he looked really manly, really secret police-y, really adjudicator-y, and really bold, amazing detective-y.
Even if he did not sleep for three days and three nights while working on a case, once he finished it, he would come out at four or five in the morning to eat some congee. He might look sleepy, be covered in stubble, but he would still look really manly.
Meng Chao had never seen Shen Yupeng look so unkempt and exhausted.
He could not help but be filled with admiration for him. “Big Brother Peng, are you working on a major case? Am I bothering you?”
“No, you aren’t.” On the screen, Shen Yupeng shoved a metal shovel into a trash dump. “I’m doing volunteer work, clearing the underground pipes and trash dumps in the old residential areas in the western part of the city.”
Meng Chao thought that his ears were deceiving him. “Do the secret police have to do this too?”
“The secret police are superhumans and also civil service servants. Of course we need to selflessly help normal citizens. Besides, I’m also part of the Shen family and represent the image of the Shen family and Universe Corporation,” Shen Yupeng explained seriously.
“Over the past half a year, Dragon City has been doing a competition of who can become model superhumans. The main goal is to promote the harmony between superhumans and normal citizens. Many of the superhumans who strive to improve have to think about how to help normal citizens aside from cultivating.
“Your ‘Big Sis Ya’ is very active in this. Through voluntary work, she has left a deep impression on all the citizens, and all of them are praising her right now.
“My determination isn’t as great as that of your ‘Big Sis Ya’, but I can’t fall too far behind her, right?”
“Well…” Meng Chao scratched his head. “Big Brother Peng, I know that the secret police work day and night nonstop. If you spend time doing voluntary work, will it affect your efficiency of capturing lost people?”
“Well, it’s a problem of our abilities if we can’t capture lost people, and it’s a problem of our attitudes if we don’t help normal people. Which do you think is more important, abilities or attitude?” Shen Yupeng stopped talking for a while. “Enough with the chatter. Tell me, what’s going on?”
“It’s like this…” Meng Chao ignored Shen Yupeng’s grumbles and sent the pictures of the scraps. He also gave the briefest description of his discoveries. Then, he said, “That means that I’ve discovered at least three cases on my side. One is an illegal selling of not-yet-approved gene medicine. One is intentional murder, and one is an ongoing robbery. The last might turn into a murder committed during robbery, so it should be under the jurisdiction of the adjudicator court, right?”
Shen Yupeng’s expression became stern.
“Of course it is.” He looked down to check the pictures Meng Chao sent to him and frowned. “But these scraps are too scattered and blurry. Even if we want to find the corresponding buildings’ blueprints through the database and make comparisons, it’ll take a lot of time. We might not be able to locate the building before the robbery. Do you have clues? If you can minimize the area of search, it would save up a lot of time.”