Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei Returns from Japan

Pedestrians came and went, some hurrying past, others turning back to look with curiosity. They seemed drawn by the artist's skill, or perhaps by the strikingly beautiful Chinese man and woman. However, everyone refrained from standing behind the couple, leaving the church in the background fully visible.

Time seems to flow very slowly, yet it also seems to flow very quickly.

The painter picked up the painting tray.

The pen begins to move.

The pen falls.

……

Chapter 225 The Missing Hunter

A little earlier, in Gulegon, at Valentine Estate.

The guest room on the third floor of the villa, Professor Mans Rundschnett's room, was completely dark. The curtains were drawn tightly shut.

Selma, a Latina girl wearing listening headphones, sat in Professor Mans's usual office chair. The professor's laptop lay before her. This computer was connected to Norma's central mainframe system at Kassel College, allowing it to access most of Norma's functions.

On the screen, the image is divided into four equal parts, just like the footage from a surveillance camera.

In the first three images, the blue lines intersect and combine to form a structure resembling a 3D map. And indeed, it is a map. The red dots represent the current locations of the other three members of their team on the map. The rising and falling of the red dots represents their heartbeats, indicating that their vital signs are currently normal.

The first screen shows Mans, the second shows Ye Sheng, and the third shows Aki. The fourth screen shows Selma and the professor's current communication channel.

As a freshman at Kassel College, Selma had zero experience in missions. She was a complete novice. Her bloodline rating was B, which wasn't particularly high or low within the college, belonging to the most common category. The reason she was able to become a student of the Iron-Blooded Professor Mance Lundschnett was due to the unique nature of her Word of Power.

Word of Power: Difference. The name is taken from the Difference Engine, a masterpiece of the steampunk era designed by the 19th-century British scientist Edwin Babbage. Although its sequence on the Word of Power periodic table is not high, it possesses a remarkably practical effect. Activating this Word of Power significantly enhances the user's cognitive processing abilities.

The superior Word of Power of Differentiation is the Word of Power of Evolution, possessed by Carl von Gambet, the legendary figure of the Camarilla and "Gravedigger".

Before awakening her bloodline, Selma dreamed of becoming a dancer. Latin girls are born dancers, with bright, cheerful, and passionate blood flowing in their veins. And Selma was undoubtedly one of the best among them.

She is an excellent lead dancer. During her middle school years, she represented her school in national dance performances as the head of the dance troupe. Standing at the very front of the stage, she would dance barefoot with passionate "Uabango" steps. The difficult tap dance steps appeared light and natural under her feet. When she twirled and turned, the hem of her brightly colored long dress would fly up due to centrifugal force.

At such moments, the audience's attention would invariably be drawn to her firm, tanned thighs beneath her skirt. Then, the exuberant Latina girl on stage would spontaneously cheer to enhance the song and dance.

However, after awakening her dragon bloodline and being admitted to Kassel College, she rarely danced anymore. She only showcased her amazing dancing talent to the public at events such as the annual Christmas party.

She didn't express any regret, because in her view, overseeing everything from the center was also a form of leadership, only the way the dance was presented was different. Someone with the power of words like her was clearly well-suited to be the brain of the team, assisting in the overall strategy.

It was for this reason that Selma was specially selected by Professor Mans to join the mission team to Portugal, where she was put in charge of logistics and scheduling.

The screen suddenly flickered, and Selma tapped two keys on the keyboard, switching to a call channel with Ye Sheng through the listening headset.

Ye Sheng's voice came through the earpiece: "'Snake' is calling 'Dancer,' repeat it, 'Snake' is calling 'Dancer.'"

“Dancer received.”

Selma answered immediately into her headset.

"Snake" is Ye Sheng's code name, chosen because his Word of Power is "Snake." Selma, on the other hand, chose the code name "Dancer."

After confirming each other's identities, Selma muttered to herself, "Seriously, did we have to use such complicated code names? Couldn't we just call each other by our names? Anyway, no one could possibly listen to the communication channel Norma set up."

"It's a habit of me not being able to use the codename 'Knight' when I'm on a mission."

Knight is Professor Mance's code name.

On the other end of the microphone, Ye Sheng shrugged and explained, "'Knight' said that only by establishing good habits in regular missions can we become capable specialists after graduation. So, except for missions such as digging or diving, 'Knight' requires us to use code names during missions."

Selma pouted helplessly, thinking to herself that this kind of communication method, which seemed to be from a Hong Kong police and gangster movie, was just Professor Mance trying to satisfy his own chuunibyou (middle school syndrome).

"Let's not dwell on these things for now—has Norma's new information arrived yet?" Ye Sheng asked.

“It’s been sent. I’ve already sent it to your email. Please check it,” Selma said.

"it is good."

The information Ye Sheng mentioned was the data on the hunters who had accepted their assignments on the hunter website, which he had commissioned Norma to track down. There were thirteen in total. This included, but was not limited to, the hunters' identities, family backgrounds, social relationships, and the last place their cell phone signals disappeared.

He had actually entrusted this task to Norma a few days prior, but the firewall erected by this hunter portal website, whose origins remained unknown, seemed extremely powerful. Even Norma spent a considerable amount of time breaking through its firewall.

However, once the attack was successful, the remaining tasks were quite easy. After identifying the IPs these hunters frequently logged into using the massive data stream, Norma quickly obtained all their identity information.

It must be said that these hunters come from all walks of life, ranging from local government tax inspectors to semiconductor company executives to truck drivers.

After obtaining their identity information, Ye Sheng then had Norma hack into the local Portuguese telecommunications system to find their registered mobile phone numbers through the identity information. Finally, by tracing the mobile phone signals, they confirmed the last place where they disappeared.

Just as Ye Sheng had predicted, these hunters who had lost contact with him had also been missing for many days in reality. Even if one were to assume the best, these hunters were most likely dead.

Since these hunters were mostly strangers to each other, there was no possibility of them being wiped out all at once. Therefore, Ye Sheng guessed that they were most likely discovered by the other party while investigating the 'antimony' incident and getting close to the truth, and then imprisoned.

Therefore, the locations where they disappeared are likely to be the same or similar. By establishing a mathematical model, converting the location where each person disappeared into coordinates, and querying the intersection of these coordinates, it is highly probable that we can determine which target locations they might be heading to or approaching.

This idea was approved by Professor Mans and Selma.

However, after receiving the coordinates of the signal loss points sent by Norma the first time, Ye Sheng was taken aback. The locations where these people's cell phone signals last disappeared were distributed quite irregularly, ranging from across provinces to across towns.

The closest to them were Lisbon and Santarém, while the furthest disappeared in Galicia, on the border between Portugal and Spain.

It seems the other party had anticipated that someone might track the hunters' whereabouts via IP signals, so they consciously chose completely different locations when targeting these hunters.

Only then did Ye Sheng and his team realize why the mission was rated SS difficulty. They were likely facing an unknown and highly experienced hunter.

However, having finally managed to break through the hunter portal's firewall and obtain information about these hunters, Ye Sheng had no intention of giving up on this lead so easily.

Since these hunters may have been discovered while investigating something, it's highly likely that some clues from their investigation might have been left on their home computers in reality.

Although most people have the good habit of clearing their browsing history promptly after going online, Ye Sheng knew that Norma had the ability to recover all the previous data on these computers.

Therefore, Ye Shengcai asked Selma to entrust Norma to send him all the detailed information about these hunters, including their family relationships and addresses.

Ye Sheng logged into his email via his mobile phone. The 2G network speed was slow, and it took him quite a while for the loading progress bar to load before he was finally logged in.

My eyes scanned the dense list of Portuguese names, picking out the few addresses closest to my current location.

"Dancer, could you help me switch to the Knight's communication channel?" Ye Sheng asked into the headset.

“I’m afraid that won’t work,” Selma said. “At this point in time, the ‘Knight’ is probably already at the Solomon Temple branch in Santaren. I can’t just cut into his communication channel.”

Saint Tarren...

Ye Sheng knew that Professor Mans's task today was to negotiate with the Solomon Temple. Of course, he didn't know the specific purpose; presumably, as a sophomore, he didn't have the authority to understand such diplomatic events similar to those in a world of mixed races.

He glanced at the list of addresses closest to Santa Ren's, then asked, "Could you help me connect to 'Senro's' communication channel?"

“Okay,” Selma replied.

With a few deft keystrokes on the keyboard, Jiu Deya's communication channel was established with Ye Sheng via the computer. This elaborate process was necessary because each specialist's communication channel was absolutely independent. Professor Mans was always this cautious when carrying out missions in foreign lands.

"Call received. This is 'Shinra.' What instructions do you have?" After a few seconds, Aki's voice sounded simultaneously in Selma's monitoring headset and Ye Sheng's hidden Bluetooth headset.

"This is 'Snake,' 'Senro,' how's your mission progressing?"

Ye Sheng did not immediately ask Aki for her assistance, but instead inquired about the progress of her mission.

“Yes, there are some problems,” Aki said.

"Problem? What problem?"

"Some things are hard to explain over the phone. I'll give a more detailed report at the meeting when I get back tonight," Aki said.

Ye Sheng nodded: "Do you have time now?"

"Yes. My mission here is now complete."

“Then, ‘Senro,’ please report your current coordinates to me. I might need some assistance on my end,” Ye Sheng said into the headset.

"receive."

After finishing her explanation, Aki checked the GPS location on her watch and immediately told Ye Sheng her current coordinates. Ye Sheng opened his laptop and used the computer map to quickly pinpoint Aki's location.

“We’re in different cities now,” Ye Sheng said. “Can we meet at Santa Reun train station?”

"can."

"That's settled then. I'll buy a ticket for the next train we can take. We'll meet at the entrance of Santa Ron train station after we get off. I'll tell you the specific battle plan after we meet. Contact me anytime through 'Dancer' if you have any questions."

"receive."

The call channel was shut down, and the sound in Selma's listening headset abruptly disappeared. A minute later, the red dot on the computer screen began to move visibly.

……

An hour later, Ye Sheng and Aki met at Santa Rehn train station. The two skillfully circled the streets a few times before finally boarding a nearly empty bus. In the last row, Ye Sheng handed Aki the documents he had printed out beforehand.

"Albrecht Soter. Male, 38 years old, is a tax inspector with the Santa Ron local tax bureau. He is of a fairly high rank, and in fact, he has participated in the investigation of several large-scale tax cases. He is married and has two daughters, one eleven years old and the other nine years old."

Ye Sheng said, his tone as formal as a news anchor, "He was one of the hunters who accepted our mission on the hunter portal website, and he was also the last of these hunters to go missing."

"What are we supposed to do?" Aki took the documents and looked at them carefully.

"After Albrecht Sotter disappeared, his wife immediately reported it to the police. Because of the nature of Sotter's profession, many people went to his house to investigate. In addition to the police, many special agencies also went to his house to investigate. Your job is to assist me, posing as one of the agents investigating Sotter's disappearance, and enter his house to look for relevant clues."

"Disguised as agents?" Aki was taken aback. "The two of us?"

Aki glanced at Ye Sheng, then looked down at herself. With their typical East Asian features, there was simply no way they could convincingly impersonate Portuguese people.

If it were Professor Mans, a German, posing as an investigator, that would be somewhat plausible. Even the little girl from the Valentine family named Su Xiaoqiang has more of a Portuguese flair than them.

Besides, they could barely understand Portuguese.

Ye Sheng explained his plan to Ya Ji: "Because of our distinctive appearances, we probably wouldn't be able to pass the test if we were disguised as ordinary police officers. That's why I chose Albrecht Soter as our first target. I've already had fake identification documents made by the local enforcement agency in Portugal—SIS documents—so that we can communicate with Soter's wife in English without arousing suspicion."

As Ye Sheng spoke, he handed Aki a file folder containing the forged documents he had created for her. Aki opened the SIS agent's badge; the name on it had been changed to a pseudonym.

"Shall we leave now?" Aki asked.

“Okay, now.” Ye Sheng nodded and said, “We’ll go to the local enforcement bureau to change clothes first, and then go straight to Soter’s house.”

……

Chapter 226 Mission, then the explosion.

In front of the apartment, Aki straightened his suit and tie.

As a Japanese girl, Aki had to wear a lot of clothes that were quite awkward to wear from a young age.

For example, the yukata worn during the Obon festival, or the JK uniform where long pants are not allowed even in winter, and only stockings can be worn.

After entering Kassel College, she wore all sorts of diving suits and combat suits. But this was the first time she had worn a women's suit with a tie, and the feeling of the tie pressing against her neck made her a little uncomfortable.

Ye Sheng, who was standing next to her, turned his head and asked, "Are you ready?"