Book 4, Chapter 73: Pursuit

The explosion happened suddenly, and even the people far from the street could feel a shockwave and heat coming toward them.

All they could hear was the explosion and the shrill sounds of destruction. The buildings around them trembled from the impact of the explosion. All sorts of shards fell from the sky.

At the epicenter of the explosion, the smoke and dust parted, and Chen Chuan walked out, completely uninjured.

There were pits on his mask, though, and his overcoat was a mess. He removed it and threw his mask on the ground as well.

There was still debris and shards falling from the sky. When some landed on him, they bounced off, causing the color of the ground at his feet to be clearly different from the area around him.

Just then, he heard rustling from his Realm Pass, and the sounds as well as images became blurry.

His Realm Pass must have been affected by the blast.

Realm Passes could recover on their own, and his was special. It could withstand relatively powerful explosions. It might be malfunctioning a bit, but it should recover soon.

Chen Chuan looked down. The larvae shouldn’t just be digging tunnels, but also uncovering the explosives that United Might had buried long ago.

The captain had clearly planned this. Judging by the situation, he was coming after Chen Chuan’s head.

Placing explosives under an entire street may be a massive undertaking, but even powerful martial artists wouldn’t be able to avoid the blast once they entered the area. They would either die or be severely injured.

However, things were different for Chen Chuan. Even without his second self, he could withstand the explosion with his body hardening-type Heartborn Force.

That was exactly what he did.

While the explosion was dangerous, it wasn’t too dangerous, which was why his instincts had warned him a little too late. If he had run into anything that could threaten his life, he would have sensed it before entering the area.

But there were plenty of residents here, and he was pretty sure that none of them had survived the blast.

Still, it was necessary to perform a search and rescue.

Once he walked out of the explosion zone, he took a look at Dawncall, still circling in the sky. Judging by its erratic flight pattern, Dawncall wanted to fly toward him due to the explosion. To reassure it, Chen Chuan gave it a sign.

Dawncall let out a long cry and continued chasing after the captain.

Chen Chuan received a mix of vague and clear images. The captain had wanted to check on the situation in the explosion zone, but after taking a look up, he continued running away.

While he couldn’t see Chen Chuan, he could guess that his enemy was alive based on Dawncall’s actions.

Chen Chuan looked ahead, then dashed forward to give chase.

After a while, the images in his Realm Pass became clearer, and he started getting messages from the rear. His teammates had been caught off guard by the explosion and were anxiously asking him whether he was okay.

“I’m fine,” he replied and asked his teammates to continue with what they were doing. Then, he said to Safe Shield. “Send City Patrol here to clear the rubble. We need to find the survivors to get treated.”

“Understood. But I need to remind you that the residents here are all non-citizens and can’t receive medical care from Central City.”

“Consider them helpers in the operation and add their medical expenses to the operation costs.”

“Understood.”

The captain seemed to be sure that Chen Chuan wasn’t hurt by the blast, since he sped up while fleeing.

He appeared to know the terrain and residential apartments like the back of his hand. As he moved about the alleys, he sometimes just jumped through the windows of the residential apartments and exited through a door or window on the opposite side. This made him disappear from time to time, and Dawncall had a hard time tracking him down.

It didn’t help that this place was filled with passersby, illegally constructed buildings, and other obstacles, which prevented Chen Chuan from speeding up, while the captain didn’t care about that. The only reason why he didn’t manage to shake Chen Chuan off was simply the advantage of Dawncall tracking him in the sky.

If the captain continued lingering in the area, though, Chen Chuan’s teammates would catch up and surround him. Then, the captain would lose his advantage.

Chen Chuan stared at the captain through his Realm Pass. Even though there were quite a lot of obstacles, Chen Chuan had Safe Shield giving him all sorts of analyses and warnings. The active biosentient entity picked the most logical and optimised route, so he started catching up.

If he could just figure out a way to reduce the distance between them to within five hundred meters, he could touch the captain with his mental energy, and his target wouldn’t be able to shake him off again.

Just then, he saw the captain touching a building.

That action seemed to have come out of nowhere. It looked like a signal but also as if he was activating something, and it reminded Chen Chuan of the explosion.

It was likely the captain was just bluffing, but there might really be something there.

If there was a bomb in the area, it would be better for him to avoid the place. He couldn’t figure out the detonation conditions, and he didn’t want it to explode because he came close. Even though it meant that the captain would widen the distance between them, it wouldn’t be difficult for Chen Chuan to catch up.

The captain started touching the buildings around him from time to time. Clearly, he was trying to use this method to get away from Chen Chuan.

Since he was too far away, Chen Chuan couldn’t figure out whether anything was wrong. However, Safe Shield could provide him with some analyses. If there was a high probability that there were bombs planted inside, he would avoid those buildings. If the probability was low, he would ignore them.

When the captain saw that this method no longer acted as a deterrent, he stopped doing it. At that moment, he ran out of the large residential area into the street beyond.

He didn’t stop. Instead, he sped up across the street and shot into the cluster of buildings on the other side.

Chen Chuan observed the buildings. If it were any other place, he would have called on bioweapons and City Patrol to block all possible exits, then set up roadblocks on the street while also using bioweapons as obstacles.

But this was Roaring Victory District, the oldest, worst, and most backward district in terms of safety facilities in Central City. The Resolution Department hadn’t stationed any bioweapons here. Even the City Patrol dragged their legs when it came to work here, because their benefits were the lowest. They had yet to arrive at their positions, so Chen Chuan didn’t put any hope in them.

He could only keep chasing after the captain.

When he reached the street, he noticed something and tilted his head. A bullet shot past him.

He swung his arm and smacked away the subsequent bullets. There was a sniper on a building across the street, and he was a good shot. Every single bullet came for his face.

This meant that the captain had planned his escape route in advance and had even stationed his subordinates on it. Chen Chuan would have to be more careful going forward.

He grabbed a bullet coming toward him and threw it right back.

The sniper was clearly a martial artist who took stimulants, so he could somewhat see Chen Chuan and shoot at him with the help of his good instincts. His long years of service on the battlefield had also helped him sharpen his sense of danger, which was why he wanted to dodge the bullet.

But they were only four hundred meters apart. The bullet came back at a faster speed than when he shot it, and it went straight for his forehead. He fell back, and a hole blasted open at the back of his head. The bullet continued traveling forward and only stopped when it sank into the cement wall behind the sniper. It left behind a shallow pit.

Once Chen Chuan dealt with the sniper, he continued chasing after the captain. After a few hundred meters, he saw the captain turning into another street and disappearing. He was gone.

Three seconds later, Chen Chuan arrived where the captain had been and looked around. Soon, he found an abandoned waterway leading downward.

He stared at it with no intention of following his target inside.

Based on his previous actions, the captain was a man who calculated every single possibility. If Chen Chuan were him, he would have buried explosives in the waterway to make sure he could escape.

If luck favored him, Chen Chuan would end up buried under rubble. If he were unlucky, the path would still be blocked.

This ensured that the captain would make it out whatever the outcome of the explosion.

A map appeared on Chen Chuan’s Realm Pass. It showed the complicated network of underground waterways with a mark where Chen Chuan was right now.

Chen Chuan had Safe Shield on his side, and it could provide him with great support.

Besides, this place was a lot more spacious, so he no longer had to slow down. After a quick glance around, he charged down the route Safe Shield had mapped out for him.

After three seconds, Chen Chuan sensed a powerful biofield.

The owner seemed to have noticed him and immediately retracted it, but while he could do that, he couldn’t get rid of the permanent link formed after their minds came into contact. All he could do now was to run even faster.

No matter where he went, though, Chen Chuan remained above him. He was unable to shake him off.

He stopped for a brief moment before switching routes. In an instant, he widened the distance between them.

Chen Chuan guessed that the captain was heading down, because that was the only thing he could do to widen the distance between them.

Usually, waterways didn’t lead this far down, so the captain had to be heading to the lower city district.

That place, huh?

He tapped on his Realm Pass, and the tunnels of the lower city district showed up on his screen.

Since he had come here before to save Fang Zhixin, he had already inspected the place. The map he saw was an updated one. It had some new forks and manmade paths, details that weren’t there before.

After a few moments of examining it, Chen Chuan came to a decision.

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