Dark Light Chaser.

Chapter 687 Tracking
"The people in this godforsaken place are so wary. I should have just not worn a mask."

"I wouldn't have dared to come to a place like this before."

Ai Liang muttered to herself after entering the arcade.

Ai Liang was the only one on the entire street wearing a black mask, and most of the security guards would give him a second glance.

Instead of immediately asking around for information about Shoupi, Ai Liang exchanged dozens of game tokens and sat down in front of a slot machine.

This chaotic area is no less chaotic than the Hunter's Bar.

Nobody would pay any attention to a stranger asking for information in a place like this.

Randomly asking people for information will inevitably lead to conflicts with the security guards and waste time.

With someone already scouting ahead, Ai Liang only needed to listen carefully.

The bounty hunter who first discovered Skinny's disappearance is currently talking to Skinny's underlings in the inner room.

"When did he disappear?"

"Brother Pi was playing cards with us in the afternoon, and after dinner..."

"Get to the point! Tell me when was the last time you saw him!"

"Ugh, let go! I'll talk, I'll talk! After dinner, Brother Pi said he was going home to get some things, and then we couldn't contact him anymore! I'm just a handyman, I don't know anything else!"

"Damn it, you've been dragging this out for ages when it could be explained in a single sentence!"

The bounty hunter was cursing and swearing inside, unaware that the people outside, hearing the screams, had already begun heading towards the room with their weapons.

"I'm fucking helping you find someone!"

"Who the hell gave you permission to lay a hand on our people here?!"

Hearing the sounds of fighting coming from inside the house, Ai Liang sighed and stuffed the remaining coins into her pocket.

It seems we can't count on the one inside tonight.

Fortunately, he got the address of the skinny guy's house from the skinny guy, so at least the clues weren't lost.

Just as Ai Liang was about to leave, a strange idea suddenly popped into her head.

Why follow clues given by others step by step to find the whereabouts of the skinny guy?
It's not like you only have one way of searching: following clues.

Thinking of this, Ai Liang turned around and took advantage of the moment when the front desk staff went inside to fight to enter the staff's room.

Based on the skinny guy's memory, we arrived at the lounge and found the locker.

Ai Liang picked up the skinny knitted hat, smelled it, memorized the scent, put the hat back in its place, and left the arcade through the back door.

The skinny man's residence wasn't far from his place.

Once you leave Fish Street, you can take a taxi and arrive in just a few minutes.

Compared to the backwardness of Fish Street, the place where Skinny lived at least resembled a modern society.

Ai Liang didn't go through the main gate, but instead went straight through a corner and climbed over into the community.

The younger brother only knew the neighborhood where Skinny lived, but he didn't know which building, floor, or apartment it was.

The rest of the search will have to be done by Ai Liang herself.

Ai Liang squinted her eyes, twitched her nose, and let go of her olfactory inhibitions.

In an instant, a jumble of smells—sour, sweet, stinky, milky, fishy, ​​smoky—rushed in front of me.

Ai Liang dismissed the irrelevant smells and focused her attention on the scent she had previously detected on the knitted hat.

In a daze, he seemed to see varying shades of gray mist swirling inside the residential area.

It was obvious that this "mist" was the smell left by secretions from various glands such as sweat glands and sebaceous glands on the skinless body. The "mist" was the thickest on the road from Unit 2 to the underground parking lot.

"Building No. 2, huh?"

Following the scent, Ai Liang arrived at the third floor and saw a security door that was slightly ajar.

Not hearing any breathing or heartbeat from inside, Ai Liang confidently pushed the door open and entered.

The lingering smells on sofas, tables, chairs, towels... all kinds of daily necessities and furniture are just like the smell of a skinny person.

Ai Liang didn't rush to look for clues; having never received any relevant training, he didn't know where to begin.

So he simply continued to use his superhuman senses to search for the whereabouts of the skinny guy.

"Other people came to Skinny's house not long ago."

Ai Liang quickly made a new discovery: "Male, with a very abrupt odor. There was no trace of his scent on the sofa or in the bedroom, so he did not live here for a long time and the contact time was very short."

"The skin smells burnt... The skin was burned? No, if it was burned, the residual smell in the air wouldn't be so faint. A stun gun?"

Ai Liang turned her gaze to the bathroom, where the smell of burning was the strongest.

But before that, the light brown footprints on the ground were more noticeable.

"It looks like a shoe print, so the mark is very faint because it was rubbed on the insole."

If this were a crime scene, this footprint would be an extremely important clue, but for Ai Liang, it's completely useless, not even worth mentioning.

"The clothes were wet, and the smell of sweat mixed with tap water for a long time was also the source of the burnt smell."

Ai Liang crossed her arms and stared at the wet floor, lost in thought.

Could it be that someone broke into Skinny's house, hid in the bathroom, used a stun gun to knock him unconscious, and then kidnapped him?
Ai Liang turned around and carefully examined the living room floor; there were no drag marks on it.

Turning around to continue observing the bathroom, I saw water stains concentrated in a small area on the floor, and a toothbrush cup lying in the sink. It looked like someone was trying to wake up Skinny after he was electrocuted.

Ai Liang didn't know if his guess was right or wrong; that was all he could see.

"Whether the skinny guy fainted or not, he must have followed the owner of that unfamiliar scent in the end. All we need to do now is follow the direction where both scents appear, and we should be able to find the real owner."

Ai Liang also marked the stranger's scent as a key point and followed the path where both scents appeared simultaneously.

Soon, he arrived at an empty parking space in the underground parking lot.

"A skinny car like this is going to be difficult. I don't know if it can keep up."

Once the car door is closed, most of the smell is shut out.

With people and cars coming and going on the road, even if the skinny guy had the car window open, the lingering smell would have dissipated.

"Someone saw Skinny at dinner time. He's been missing for less than three hours. Hopefully, there wasn't a strong wind on the way."

Ai Liang muttered something under her breath, and casually noted down the smell inside the skinny car.

Once outside the residential area and onto the street, the smells in the air became even more mixed.

Fortunately, Ai Liang could still smell the scent of the two people and the car.

He walked and stopped along the way, tracking the scents while also marking the sections of the road he had already traversed in his mind to avoid repeating them.

After walking for nearly half an hour, the smell suddenly became stronger as we passed a small hotel.

Ai Liang quickly went forward to check and, sure enough, found the thin car at the entrance.

But here's the question: why go to the trouble of kidnapping a skinny girl and bringing her to a place like this?
Take advantage of the time difference before others react, and use Pan Junyuan's information to earn that 800,000 bounty?
Ai Liang shook her head: "Whatever his purpose is, it has nothing to do with this matter. Considering that he saved my life, even if he can't help me solve the problem, he can at least point me in the right direction."

(End of this chapter)