Chapter 1419
I offered a 1 yuan bounty, and you want me to disguise myself and run away?
Videos and articles questioning the legitimacy of Luo Fei's arrest warrant are surviving for increasingly shorter periods. One content creator on Bilibili posted an analysis video, which was taken down just three hours after being uploaded, citing "information inaccuracies."
A self-media editor who published a long article on WeChat questioning procedural justice had his article blocked less than two hours after it was published, and his account was also banned for three days.
Some influential Weibo users who shared videos of Luo Fei's ex-girlfriends have also received "content violation" warnings from the platform.
These actions were swift and decisive, the deletions quick and precise, clearly not the platform's spontaneous management. The official stance is clear: Luo Fei is a spy, no evidence, no procedure, no discussion is needed.
Anyone who questions this conclusion is considered to be spreading rumors.
At the same time, voices supporting Luo Fei are being gradually drowned out by the wave of condemnation.
In the comment sections of major official media outlets, paid trolls and genuine netizens mingled, spamming comments like "traitor," "national disgrace," and "get out of China." Those who tried to speak up for Luo Fei quickly had their accounts flooded with criticism, reported, and banned.
The entire cyberspace is like a giant net, tightening little by little, choking all dissenting voices within its mesh.
Meanwhile, Luo Fei was squatting in an abandoned, dilapidated house hundreds of kilometers away from Kyoto.
It's unclear when this house was built; most of the white plaster on the walls has peeled off, revealing the dark gray bricks underneath.
The windows were long gone, leaving only a few rusty steel frames. Moonlight streamed in through the windows, casting a silvery-white glow on the ground.
The room was empty, the floor was covered with a thick layer of dust, a few old spider webs hung in the corner, and the air was filled with a damp and musty smell.
In front of him lay an old newspaper he'd salvaged from a garbage dump, its pages bearing his wanted poster, the photograph remarkably clear. He touched his face in the photo with his finger, then looked up at the plastic mirror he'd bought from a small commodities market.
The mirror reflected a face he had seen for over twenty years—a face with sharp features, slightly upturned eyes, a high nose bridge, and thin lips.
This face once helped him win over thirty-two ex-girlfriends and made him the subject of constant camera filming during a special police competition, but now it has become his biggest burden.
A reward of ten million is offered.
The highest bounty offered since the founding of the Great Xia Dynasty.
In the past, Luo Fei might have thought this number was quite impressive. After all, the highest bounty he had ever offered for a wanted criminal was only one million. Now, he had increased it tenfold, which, in a sense, was a "record-breaking" achievement.
But he wasn't in the mood for jokes at the moment.
He opened the system panel and looked at the displayed values. The sin value column had only a little over two thousand left.
The two thousand sin points were accumulated when he helped Chen Xuanran deal with a few thugs who came to cause trouble. The process was simple: those thugs were causing trouble at the entrance of Xuanran Foundation, and he went over and slapped them all down with one slap each. The system then awarded him two hundred sin points.
Including the bits and pieces I had saved up before, it totaled a little over two thousand.
Two thousand sin points are not a large number at this stage.
It takes 2,000 points to upgrade Super Speed from beginner to intermediate, and 3,000 points to upgrade Genius Eye to intermediate. The advanced skills in the system shop that can truly improve combat power start at 5,000 or 8,000 points.
If you spend those two thousand points to buy offensive skills or combat equipment, it wouldn't even be enough to fill a tooth gap in front of a superhuman like Tianyu Shencang.
What he needs is something that will allow him to survive temporarily on this land.
Disguise.
Luo Fei browsed through the system shop and found a skill called "Super Disguise".
The skill description is simple: "Changes facial bone structure and skin texture. Each disguise lasts for 24 hours, with a 4-hour cooldown. It consumes 100 sin points per use."
Below is a small note: "The disguise effect is a physical change, not an illusion-type disguise, and can circumvent all conventional image recognition and facial comparison systems."
This line of small print made Luo Fei's eyes light up.
The Dali Division's pursuit system has a core module called "Sky Eye," which can access tens of millions of surveillance cameras across the country and use facial recognition algorithms to lock onto a target's movement trajectory within minutes.
His photo has been entered into the highest level of the Sky Eye system for comparison. As long as his face appears in the field of view of any networked camera, the Dali Division's command center can send the location information to the nearest arresting unit within three minutes.
However, if "super disguise" can circumvent the facial recognition system, then the Heavenly Eye will be useless to him.
He clicked on the purchase page. The basic version of the Super Disguise skill cost exactly two thousand points.
Two thousand sin points, all spent.
The system popped up a confirmation box, and Luo Fei pressed the confirmation button without hesitation.
A strange sensation spread across his skin, as if something was wriggling on his face. He looked down at the mirror in his hand and saw his facial contours undergoing extremely subtle but noticeable changes at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The cheekbones are shifting downwards, the chin is widening, the bridge of the nose is slightly decreasing in height, and the corners of the eyes are adjusting upwards.
The whole process lasted less than a minute.
Once everything had settled down, Luo Fei almost didn't recognize the face he saw in the mirror.
The man in the mirror was probably in his thirties. His face was wider than before, his chin had changed from sharp to square, the height of his nose had been lowered, and the curve of his eyes had been adjusted. His whole demeanor was completely different.
If his face used to give off a cold, sharp feeling, like a drawn sword, then now his face gives off an ordinary, plain, and unremarkable feeling, like the kind of person you could grab anywhere on the street.
He pulled an arrest warrant from his pocket and compared it to the photo in the newspaper and his reflection in the mirror.
Let alone facial recognition systems, even if you put this photo next to his reflection in the mirror and let the naked eye compare them, it would take at least ten minutes to see any connection between them.
Luo Fei nodded in satisfaction.
He stood up, put the plastic mirror away, and casually tossed it into the system space.
Speaking of the system space, this was his biggest unexpected gain during his escape. After the system upgrade, he unlocked a personal storage space that was two meters by two meters in size and two meters in height, which adds up to a volume of four cubic meters.
The space wasn't large, but it was practical enough for him.
He stuffed all the makeup products he'd smuggled from the cosmetics store into the box—two foundations, one highlighter, one contouring powder, several makeup brushes, a bottle of makeup remover, and a folding mirror. He also went to the supermarket and grabbed some food and drinks, a few bottles of mineral water, several packs of compressed biscuits, and several bags of beef jerky.
I also managed to get a folding tent, a sleeping bag, a set of toiletries, two towels, a bundle of rope, a lighter, and a multi-tool knife from an outdoor equipment store.
He stuffed all these things into the system space, and he didn't feel any weight on his body at all.
Luo Fei tried to move his body a bit, and then tried to do two somersaults in a row. His movements were light and smooth, and he couldn't feel at all that the backpack on his back was full of things.
The most convenient thing about this portable space is that the objects stored inside seem to be unaffected by external gravity, and taking them out and storing them only requires a thought, making it almost unrealistically convenient.
But he knew very well that these things were merely basic necessities for his survival. His true goal was not the Great Xia.
In the land of cherry blossoms.
His next plan was simple—to smuggle himself to Japan, the land of cherry blossoms.
But this is easier said than done. He is now a Class A fugitive wanted throughout the Great Xia Dynasty, and all legitimate exit channels have been completely blocked.
Airports, ports, and land border crossings all have facial recognition systems at every entrance and exit. Combined with manual document verification, even if someone changes their face, they won't be able to leave the country through legitimate channels without valid documents.
He needs an informal channel.
Luo Fei leaned against the wall of the dilapidated house, his mind racing through various possible scenarios like a movie. There were only a few routes for smuggling people out—going south by sea and boarding a black ship from a port on the coast.
He could take the land route north, crossing the border and then heading to Japan. Or he could take the air route, using private planes or cargo planes. Each route carried its own risks, and after much deliberation, he finally identified a key figure.
Jiang Qinqin.
A core member of the Heavenly Secrets Group, his former subordinate, and one of the people he trusted.
Jiang Qinqin was seriously injured in the battle in Jiangcheng and spent some time in the hospital. However, her awakened superpower seems to have a strengthening effect on her body, and her recovery speed is much faster than that of ordinary people. She should have fully recovered by now.
The question is, where is she now?
After Luo Fei was arrested and imprisoned by the Dali Division, all contact with the Tianji Group was completely severed. He didn't know Jiang Qinqin's current situation, the status of the Tianji Group, or how Zhou Xiaobei, Yuan Bingyan, and Su Muchen of the Special Case Team were doing.
Regarding the current status of the Tianji Group and the Special Case Group, Luo Fei was able to deduce some of the information.
After being hospitalized due to her injuries, Jiang Qinqin recovered much faster than the doctors had anticipated. Her physical abilities, enhanced by her supernatural powers, far surpassed those of ordinary people; injuries that would normally require half a month of bed rest were resolved in less than a week, allowing her to walk again.
But before she could be discharged from the hospital, Luo Fei was arrested by the Dali Division.
When news of Luo Fei's arrest reached the Tianji Group, the entire group was in an uproar. Jiang Qinqin sat up abruptly from her hospital bed, trying to rush out, but was stopped by the base security personnel guarding the door.
An order was quickly issued from above—all members of the Tianji Group were not allowed to leave the training center during the investigation of Luo Fei's case.
This order, euphemistically called "centralized management," was essentially a form of "house arrest." Each member's communication devices were centrally stored, all external communications were cut off, and their every move was monitored by security personnel.
Jiang Qinqin was taken back to the training center from the hospital and placed in a new training base.
The new training base, called the "Kyushu Special Training Center," is located deep in a dense forest, far from cities and populated areas. The site selection criteria were clear—secrecy, security, and low risk of being discovered by the outside world.
The base is surrounded by layers of primeval forest, with tall and dense canopies blocking out the sun, allowing sunlight to filter through the gaps in the branches and leaves, casting dappled shadows.
The entire base is connected to the outside world by only one dirt road, but this road is built very well hidden and cannot be seen from the air. Supplies are transported by helicopter on a regular basis.
Each delivery of supplies takes place within a fixed timeframe. The helicopter takes off immediately ten minutes after landing, and ground security personnel quickly move the supplies into the warehouse. The whole process is quiet and efficient.
Jiang Qinqin was assigned to a corner dormitory room on the third floor of the main building. The room wasn't big, but it was much more comfortable than her hospital ward; at least it had a private bathroom and a proper bed.
The window faces the training center's playground, with an endless black forest in the distance, its canopy swaying gently in the night breeze, making a rustling sound.
Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival.
She stood by the window, looking at the dark forest in the distance and the bright full moon in the sky, feeling so distressed that she could hardly breathe.
She lacked love growing up. The family had a deep-rooted preference for sons over daughters. She had two younger brothers, and all the good food and clothes were given to them. She had to be subservient to others even for a hot meal.
She had long been used to not being favored, used to bearing everything alone and moving forward. But that oppressive feeling, as if her whole body was wrapped in bandages, had never truly left her body.
Then I met that person.
Luo Fei.
She didn't know when it started, but her feelings for Luo Fei had changed.
Perhaps it's seeing him break through his limits time and time again on the training field, perhaps it's seeing him stand alone at the forefront on the battlefield, or perhaps it's seeing him casually leaning back in a chair and resting with his eyes closed in the lounge.
These images, pieced together, rubbed against her heart like a grinding wheel, creating a spark that then quietly ignited.
But she knew it was impossible.
Luo Fei already has a wife. His wife, Chen Xuanran, is pregnant with his child.
Jiang Qinqin was, at best, his subordinate and comrade-in-arms. From childhood to adulthood, she had never had the opportunities to pursue what she desired. This time, however, she deserved it.
On Mid-Autumn Festival, she stood alone by the window, gazing at the bright, full moon. A faint silver halo shimmered around its edge, like a painting suspended against the black sky.
The moonlight stretched her shadow long, casting it across the floor like a lonely silhouette.
She stared at the full moon, her mind churning with all sorts of chaotic thoughts, when suddenly her pupils contracted sharply.
In the very center of that full moon, there was a dark figure. (End of Chapter)