Chapter 1 Looking for the Truth

Looking at the villa, now a scene of devastation and ruin, Li Cheng Yi walked out the door, a sigh in his heart.

This was the real reason he hadn't wanted to change the Titan Sunflower flower scale armor before.

This armor didn't accelerate, didn't have automatic tracking, and was mediocre in other aspects, so the best way to use it was to strike unexpectedly and suddenly explode.

That was exactly how he used it, luring Zhou Yan to a narrow space, then attacking in one fell swoop, grabbing him and smashing him around.

Ultimately securing victory.

*Bang.*

A faint explosion sounded.

Li Cheng Yi's full-body armor automatically shattered, turning into countless sunflower petals that scattered.

Before the petals could land, they quickly changed color into a darker, golden Gladiolus flower scale armor, reforming.

Compared to other flower scale armors, the sunflower's volume was still a bit large.

'I have to find the notebook as soon as possible! I hope I didn't smash it earlier.'

He quickly returned to the place where he had fought the complete forms.

In the suburbs, without the Silent Fortress's restrictions, these modified human complete forms were even more rampant.

So many of them came all at once.

Without time to delay, he quickly stepped forward and began to search around.

*Buzz.*

Suddenly, from the distant sky came a faint buzzing sound, as if some kind of aircraft was rapidly approaching.

Li Cheng Yi raised his eyes and looked in the direction of the sound, seeing a point of blue light rapidly approaching in the distant night sky.

Below the blue light was a black metal drone that looked like a dragonfly.

"It never comes when it should, but now it's here to cause trouble."

His brow furrowed slightly, knowing that the official people were likely arriving, and he immediately sped up.

First, he looked for any possible packages on the ground. After discovering two packages, he quickly approached, vigorously shaking them, spilling everything out.

Several dark metal bottles, a small white booklet that seemed to be a book, some scattered rope-like things, apparently for binding.

There was nothing else.

'How could it not be there?' Li Cheng Yi's brow furrowed tightly.

The notebook he had just taken from the villa was blank inside, obviously temporarily stuffed in as a placeholder.

Since these Utopia people had been inside and were preparing to leave, there was a high probability that the notebook was on them.

A cool breeze blew, and broken leaves swirled on the ground.

Li Cheng Yi stood on this open space, kicking away a tree trunk that had just been chopped down. His gaze carefully swept the entire area.

'If I'm sure I can't find it, then it proves that the notebook I got really is the record book left behind by Zhong Hui. Maybe the ordinary appearance is just how she deliberately disguised it.'

He guessed.

The buzzing sound in the distance was getting closer and closer, apparently the fire at the villa had attracted the drone's attention.

The drone, with its blue light shining, flew straight towards the villa.

Li Cheng Yi became more and more anxious.

He didn't want to run into the authorities. The drone was very fast, and once he was targeted, he might not be able to escape their tracking in the suburbs.

After all, there weren't many obstacles here, nor were there many other people to use as cover, allowing him to blend into the crowd and leave.

Here, even if he took off the flower scale armor and came out alone, it would be extremely conspicuous for a person to suddenly appear in this wilderness and mountains.

'I must leave before the authorities discover this place!'

Li Cheng Yi made up his mind.

After searching one last time, he didn't find anything else resembling a package.

'It seems the notebook is the ordinary-looking notebook I found. Maybe Zhong Hui used some kind of invisible potion to write, which is why it appears blank?'

He guessed.

After confirming that he couldn't find it, Li Cheng Yi finally decided to retreat.

If he didn't leave, the authorities would arrive, and he wouldn't be able to leave even if he wanted to.

Immediately, he turned around and quickly ran towards the depths of the forest.

'Wait!'

Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind.

'If I were a modified human, wouldn't I also carry an extra package specifically to store things? Wouldn't it be easier to simply have a storage space on my body? It would also protect the integrity of the items better.'

This thought flashed through his mind.

He immediately understood where his previous thinking error was.

'It's possible that it's inside these modified human bodies!'

Confirming this thought, Li Cheng Yi quickly turned back, the first one he looked for was the blue machine Xin team.

This guy was the team leader, and the materials used were the best among this group, so the notebook was most likely on her.

As for Zhou Yan, who came from afar later, he arrived later than himself, so it was unlikely that he had the notebook.

After a period of searching, Li Cheng Yi grabbed one of Xin team's thighs and found a cavity hidden on the inside.

*Crack.*

He used his golden sword to cut it open with great effort, taking out a strange notebook from inside with a cover full of dead black ants.

The notebook clearly read: Exploration and Records of the Clock Field.

'Clock Field?'

Li Cheng Yi quickly flipped to the first page, which was covered in dense, small black characters.

'This should be the real Zhong Hui notebook!' His heart lifted, and he put away the notebook, glancing at the drone that had already flown around the burning villa.

Seeing that the thing was about to fly over here.

He let out a long sigh and quickly rushed down the mountain.

This time, the goal was completely achieved. Next was to study the contents of the notebook and find a way to escape the Dead Angle Silent Shop.

Before long, Li Cheng Yi's figure disappeared into the dark forest, becoming farther and farther away, more and more blurred.

Until he was submerged by the mist and the dim moonlight, completely disappearing from sight.

A few minutes later.

The blue light drone discovered the open space after the battle.

Soon, a black goose-shaped aircraft more than three meters long slowly descended from the night sky, landing near this open space.

The strong airflow ejected from the jet engine holes at the bottom of the aircraft blew the leaves and dust on the ground, scattering them around.

*Click.*

A small door on the side of the aircraft opened, and a tall, thin man in a blue short-haired suit jumped out.

He had a cigarette in his mouth, scanning the remains of the modified human complete forms all over the ground.

"So many Blackbirds?"

"The standard cannon fodder model of Utopia. Blackbirds are cheap, have good stealth, imitate Black Hawks for mass production, it's normal." On the other side of the aircraft, a tall young woman got out. The woman's entire head was made of silver-white metal, but the rest of her body was strangely made entirely of flesh and blood, the opposite of ordinary modified humans.

"Have you seen the video data from Ding's side?" the blue-haired man asked. He also walked over, squatted down, and began to examine the remains of the complete forms on the ground.

"I've seen it. There were also Blackbirds inside. It seems the people of Utopia have found a big customer. Their recent actions have been frequent and they have a lot of money," the woman replied in a deep voice.

"Although Blackbirds are the lowest-level complete form replacement, the cost is extremely low, the performance is weak, and they are unstable. But..." The blue-haired man paused.

"But once equipped with weapon modules, they are not something the security department in ordinary cities can handle."

He casually picked up an arm of a black complete form.

"Do you think Utopia will prepare replacement bodies for these Blackbird cannon fodder?"

"How is that possible? They're just cannon fodder. As long as you clone, copy, transmit, a whole set of procedures, and then equip the brain with a cheap neural network, complete the module combination, and you have a qualified cannon fodder. The total cost won't exceed one million," the woman sneered.

"So low?" the blue-haired man asked in surprise. "Isn't it said that the cost of complete forms is very high?"

"Yes, but cannon fodder doesn't need a personality storage device. Use the cheapest materials possible. Anyway, they are either clones or trash people who have reached the end of their ropes. It's good enough if they can live without illness or pain, who cares about these things?" the woman replied.

"That's really cruel," the blue-haired man sighed. He took out his phone and took pictures of the scene for evidence.

"Wait!"

Suddenly, the woman not far away seemed to have discovered something, squatted down, and picked up a piece of blue metal.

"Blue Tree Alloy?" The blue light in her electronic eyes flickered faintly, obviously her emotions were becoming very unstable.

"Isn't this military material?"

"Huh? Military material? This is a controlled item, where did it come from!?" The blue-haired man's expression changed immediately, and he walked over to examine it carefully.

"Not only is it military equipment, but this guy was also smashed to pieces!" the woman replied in a low voice. "This is not a Blackbird, it should be Utopia's standard complete form, the real blue-clothed model, imitating the market-circulating sea, land, and air fish-man modification."

"The complete form made of military materials was smashed to pieces!? The situation is not something we can control. Immediately notify the superiors and send a message to Ding over at Suiyang," the blue-haired man ordered with a solemn expression.

"Okay!"

*

*

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1:32 AM.

At the foot of Linqi Mountain, Linqi Town, Morse Hotel deluxe king room, 705.

*Dong, dong, dong.*

The urgent knocking on the door woke Li Cheng Yi from browsing the notebook. He quickly put away the notebook, got up, and opened the door.

Outside the door was Song Ran with a solemn expression.

"I just got the information that there was a forest fire in a place on the mountain, and the surrounding towns have sent fire trucks to put out the fire.

According to the message I got, the forest fire spread from Zhong Hui's couple's small villa!"

"What does that mean?" Li Cheng Yi showed a shocked expression.

"It means that the place we're going to is now a huge fire. We can't go!" Song Ran concluded.

"What should we do? What about the notebook?" Li Cheng Yi said urgently.

"Our people will arrive in about two hours, but with the current situation, I'm afraid we can't continue the investigation. The notebook may have been buried in the fire, so I came to ask you, do you still want to continue?" Song Ran paused and asked.

This matter was much more dangerous than before from the beginning. So he reported it to the boss as soon as possible.

The boss also mobilized the company's armed forces in the vicinity as soon as possible, but the so-called armed forces were just armed personnel from an ordinary security company.

The weapons and equipment they held were at most guns, bulletproof vests, and bulletproof helmets.

Compared with the situation of this fire, I'm afraid.

Song Ran was silent for a while, and then continued.

"There is also a secret situation. Near the scene of the fire, the remains of modified human complete forms of those terrorist Utopia were found, and even complete forms made of military-grade materials appeared! This is troublesome!"

"Military-grade!? How does it compare to the ones that attacked us at Zhong Hui's house before?" Li Cheng Yi asked in a deep voice.

"It's not the same level. The defense of military-grade materials is very good. Ordinary firearms cannot break the defense, and they are immune to general electromagnetic interference and chemical corrosion. Even ordinary anti-material sniper rifles can't do anything to them. Even if our people arrive, it will be difficult for them to play any role against such an opponent."

Song Ran gave a relatively tactful reminder.

(End of this chapter)