Chapter 13.2 - Coarse Heart
Six hours had already passed. The signal the three scattered dragonriders sent were the same: they did not find him. They followed the search plan that had been drawn up previously and arrived at the edge of their designated areas. Then, they searched around the perimeter. They first sealed up the surroundings before searching inside bit by bit, eventually searching through the entire area. This type of method was time consuming. Even though these six dragonriders hurried over from Pendulum City, the entire search still used up seven days of time. Meanwhile, Su wasn’t a dead object. He wouldn’t foolishly remain in a certain region and wait to be captured, and could move from an area that hadn’t been searched to one that already had been to continue hiding himself.
What Luthor was waiting for was precisely that moment. The dragonriders were not hoping that this carpeting technique would really allow them to capture traces of such an intelligent hunter. They were only using this method to make the hunter move. As long as Su moved, it was highly likely that Justin would sense something and approximate Su’s location. At that time, the five upper class dragonriders would surround Su, and from there on out, no matter how formidable Su was, he wouldn’t be able to bring about any miracles.
It was just six hours without any results, which was completely within Luthor’s expectations. If Su was this easy to capture, then he wouldn’t be able to kill Laiknar in front of O’Brien’s face. Luthor was quite clear on the fact that O’Brien was only a private first class not because his abilities were lacking, but because his time as a Black Dragonrider was too short. Moreover, he had just reached the Black Dragonriders’ age requirement of eighteen years. Luthor was willing to wait, for he was an extremely patient individual. In the past thirty years of his life, this patience of his has brought him quite a bit of success. Luthor believed that this time would be no exception.
Twenty four hours passed quickly. The three dragonriders in charge of the search began the three hours of rest and reorganization previously planned. Most of the Saratoga residents who were here to witness the commotion had dispersed, and the six corpses outside the cordon were beginning to rot. On Luthor’s tactical screen, the message had remained completely unchanged: did not find him.
48 hours had passed as well. The same message repeated itself more and more on Luthor’s tactical screen. The number of Saratoga residents by the gate increased again.. Sometimes, there would be people softly discussing, chattering about who knows what topic. The six corpses outside the cordon have rotten to an even greater extent, and they began to release a stench. What made Luthor happy was that he finally received a different piece of information, and that was that the sixth dragonrider was about to arrive.
Three days passed.
The newly arrived dragonrider joined the searching ranks. Justin had applied makeup three times, but he couldn’t conceal the dark bags under his eyes. He applied purple lip gloss and pale white makeup on his face like before. This was his way of showing that he was vexed and uneasy. Luthor was still calm and unperturbed, with his hair combed meticulously. Every day, he would sit on the engine covers of the off-road vehicles outside the camp and stare at the tactical map as usual. The residents of Saratoga continued to go about their lives as usual in small groups, at times glancing this way.
Five days later.
The three dragonriders that had set out at first had no choice but to return to the camp to replenish their supplies, replace the batteries of various equipment, and most of all, they needed to take a shower. There was a vehicle modified specifically for bathing among the off-road vehicles. It had a self cleansing system that could recycle its water.
Justin’s complexion was deathly pale. His eyes stared rigidly into the boundless distance, and his lip gloss had been changed to dark black.
Luthor had lost the calm demeanor he had at the beginning as well, and from time to time would place the tactical board under his arms and pace about. This was the first time the refugees by Saratoga’s gate possessed some sort of existence in this experienced dragonrider’s eyes. The fingers of the people who had gathered to see the commotion, as well as the topics of their whispering which he couldn’t discern began to become irritating. Once Justin entered a mad state, his mysterious perception ability would take a huge hit. When that moment came, it would be equivalent to this operation’s defeat unless Luthor was extremely lucky and obtained some sort of news from the search party.
Other than the few inhabited areas and a small area nearby, everything else had been thoroughly investigated, yet there wasn’t any sign of Su. The reason why they left inhabited areas for last was because this was what was normally done during a search. Under normal reasoning, a runaway wouldn’t chose to hide himself within an inhabited area. Luthor felt that Su shouldn’t have hidden himself within an inhabited area. If he truly hid himself inside an inhabited area, then he would undoubtedly be seeking his own destruction, because there were many people who were willing to hand over Su for the slightest benefit. If these benefits weren’t enough to tempt their hearts, then they still had the threat of destroying the entire inhabited area with military force. In this era, when there were enough benefits, there was no longer any trustworthiness to speak of.
Luthor began to feel restless. If Su truly wasn’t within the regions that had been searched, then that meant that he had a special method of hiding beneath the surface that could evade the Black Dragonriders’ search. However, Luthor firmly believed that a hunter that still needed to rob Roxland Company would never have technology more advanced than the Black Dragonriders. The advanced multi-functional searching capabilities were definitely not things that devices bought on the streets could block out.
Luthor suddenly felt a bit of annoyance at Roxland’s incompetence. It should still be a somewhat powerful company in this region, yet not only did a solo hunter named Su infiltrate their division headquarters and steal a large set of equipment, they couldn’t even secretly install a tracking device. If they had installed a tracking device, then Luthor wouldn’t have had to have worked so arduously.
Seven days later.
Justin had already stopped using lip gloss. His lips were as pale as paper, as if they were approaching the color of the makeup covering his face. His eyes were covered in a ring of dark purple eyeshadow, and a vacant look would occasionally surface. It was unknown what he was muttering.
Luthor’s face was pale. He continued to stand perfectly straight, but rage was billowing within his heart. He obviously knew that Justin’s ability had reached its limit, and that every region had been searched, including the inhabited areas. This region had seven large and small inhabited areas. When the dragonriders entered to search through them, it was hard to avoid conflict.
Luthor wasn’t the only one; the remaining four dragonriders were furious as well. As a result, those that dared to shout at them were treated without any mercy. They were used to using bullets to teach those living in the wilderness exactly what gave one the right of speech. As a result, within the inhabited lands, three to five people died on the lower end, while twenty died on the upper. As for the inhabited areas that had the courage to open fire first, they weren’t included in the previously mentioned numbers. Those inhabited lands were all turned into cemeteries by the angry dragonriders.
Luthor began to issue orders towards the four dragon riders outside, telling them to abandon the search and return to the camp. Luthor was ready to admit his defeat. He was different from Laiknar and knew when to give up.
Seven days had passed… This signal sounded within Su’s consciousness. As if he heard an alarm, the various portions of his body began to awake from its slumber. The first was his heartbeat, which gradually sped up from one beat every ten minutes, bringing blood to every corner of his body. Su felt fatigued, and he felt as if there was a huge rock at the pit of his stomach, bringing him an indescribable suffocating feeling. He began to move his body, and as expected, Su’s body began to slowly squirm about and move.
He was moving through the earth!
Several minutes later, an earthen bulge emerged on the surface. The ruined earth continuously scattered, and Su’s head extended out from the ground. He slowly exhaled the old air from his lungs, and then he took a deep breath, filling his body up with oxygen. After repeating this action several times, the outer regions of Su’s body began to release signals back as well. He continued to move outwards and slowly made his way out from the earth.
This was the interior of an abandoned villa. The previous owner had an appreciation for artistic style, and was also quite wealthy. An indoor courtyard was built at the center of the room. Trees and grass were planted inside, and even a pond was dug out. Su had just broken out in this place.
He slowly placed his hand into the loosened earth, and when it reappeared, another pistol appeared. This gun was clearly much more powerful than an ordinary revolver. It was quite similar in style to the modified pistol he used previously, but it was still inherently different. Su’s previous modified pistol originally came from an inhabited area’s weaponsmith and was a handcrafted tool. There was not really any precision or workmanship to talk about and only costed Su 200 yuan. Meanwhile, the gun he had now was the well-known old era .44 Magnum. Its power was roughly the same, while its range and precision far surpassed the other street stall good. It was just like the Barrett; Su had admired this pistol for a long time, but never had enough money to buy it. Since he had the opportunity to rob Roxland Company, he naturally wouldn’t hold back. There was actually one thing Kane said that was wrong. Su wasn’t strongly against using the RF300A. If there weren’t Black Dragonriders chasing after him, Su definitely would have placed that RF300A on his back, as well as an entire set of aiming devices. Even if he didn’t use it, he could exchange it for genetic modification medicines.
However, towards Roxland, no matter how Su tried, he couldn’t make himself feel comfortable about what he gained. All of the items he thought would always be wonderful were shattered to pieces by that gunshot.
Su suddenly shifted his eyes!
A subordinate walked past right outside the gate!
It seemed like this subordinate was also skilled in camouflage and concealment. He didn’t make any sounds when moving, so Su didn’t notice any difference at all. Meanwhile, Su didn’t make any sounds while emerging from the ground either, which was why the subordinate didn’t notice Su. That was why the two, just like that, with no signs to alert the other, both saw each other at the same time.
Su bent his body backwards, raised his wrist, and fired!
The subordinate’s body also bent backwards, raised his wrist, and fired his weapon. His movements seemed to be exactly the same as Su’s and with the same speed. The only difference was that his hand held a new era pistol. It seemed like he possessed more than a single level of ability in simple weapon proficiency, allowing him to aim at Su’s heart in a flash.
The two individuals seemingly pulled their triggers at the same time!
However, the subordinate saw the .44 Magnum in Su’s hand, a weapon that possessed greater power than the new era pistol in his hands. A thought flashed through his head: what if the bulletproof vest couldn’t defend against this gun?