125: Chapter 125 New Survival Techniques and Ghosts That Aren't Quite Dead

Jinghai City Public Security Bureau, the corridor outside the special care interrogation room.

Jiang Feng sat on a bench against the wall, holding a cup of steaming coffee in his hand.

The warmth from the paper cup dissipated much of the chill he had picked up in the rainy night.

Jiang Feng took a sip of coffee, his eyes fixed on the white wall in front of him.

He didn't care at all about the tug-of-war going on in the interrogation room next door.

His mind was entirely on the system panel.

[Compulsory Defense Mission completed.]

[Settling rewards.]

[Brain cancer cell activity reduced by 10%. Remaining lifespan increased by 60 days.]

[Received a cash reward of 5 million yuan.]

Jiang Feng looked at the string of numbers.

He switched the paper cup to his other hand.

Adding to his previous accumulation, his normal lifespan was back to over four hundred days, not counting the one hundred and fifty days of origin lifespan in a locked state.

The cash in his card had long since surpassed one hundred million.

Now, he was not only not short on life but also not short on money.

What he looked forward to most was the last line of the prompt, flashing with golden light.

[Congratulations to the host for obtaining the active skill: Aura Assimilation.]

[Skill Description: In specific environments, the host can fine-tune their aura to blend into the surroundings or groups, greatly reducing presence and hostile targeting.]

[Note: An essential divine skill for travel and survival eavesdropping, but please be mindful of consumption.]

Seeing the words "survival eavesdropping," Jiang Feng grinned.

As a fortune-teller, what did he fear most?

He feared being held in a grudge and getting shot in the dark.

With this, as long as he didn't actively jump out and cause trouble, the average person wouldn't notice him at all.

This was truly a divine skill.

He leaned back against the bench, adjusting himself into a comfortable position.

As soon as he leaned back, he found that his breathing frequency, along with the heat his body radiated, was becoming consistent with the cold wooden bench.

The iron door in the corridor clanged.

Lu Cheng pushed open the door of the special care interrogation room and walked out.

She had changed out of her soaked black clothes and was wearing a large white shirt provided by the police station.

She was holding a paper report in her hand.

Zhao Yi followed her out.

Zhao Yi rubbed his face, heavy dark circles hanging under his eyes.

“Useless.” Lu Cheng stopped, her voice flat. “Their memory centers have been physically severed.”

Zhao Yi leaned against the doorframe.

“Physically severed?” he asked back.

Lu Cheng nodded.

“Before the mission, someone performed surgical-level damage on their brains.”

“In the short term, there were only mission instructions; information about the base location or the mastermind behind the scenes was never stored in their hippocampi.”

“That's why they aren't afraid of death and won't confess.”

“Lie detectors and psychological warfare have zero effect on people with no memory.”

Hearing this, Zhao Yi raised his fist and slammed it against the wall beside him.

“Those lunatics!” Zhao Yi cursed. “An armed group with this kind of execution capability is lurking in the Location, and we can't even find where their nest is!”

Lu Cheng looked at the report in her hand.

“Fiend's Eden Project didn't end with her death.” Lu Cheng spoke quickly. “On the contrary, it has been upgraded.”

Lu Cheng paused.

“They've established a brand new Swarm Network, and the new head controlling this network is code-named Prophet.”

Zhao Yi gritted his teeth.

“Prophet?” Zhao Yi snorted coldly. “Quite the arrogant name.”

Lu Cheng didn't respond.

She turned her head, her gaze sweeping across the empty corridor.

She walked toward the row of benches.

She came to a halt less than half a meter in front of Jiang Feng, her eyes fixed on a police station propaganda poster on the wall.

She didn't notice a living person sitting there at all.

Jiang Feng remained in his seat.

He looked at Lu Cheng's profile, which was right in front of him, clutching his coffee cup.

The effect of the new skill was surprisingly good.

Even someone like Lu Cheng, with top-tier observation skills and a high-functioning sociopathic personality, hadn't seen through this disguise.

Jiang Feng felt he'd had enough fun and cleared his throat.

“Ahem.”

Lu Cheng turned her head.

Her gaze fell on Jiang Feng, her pupils dilating briefly, and she took half a step back.

This was the second time she had been startled tonight.

“When did you sit here?” Lu Cheng asked.

“I've been sitting here the whole time.” Jiang Feng placed the coffee cup on the empty seat next to him. “You two were just too engrossed in your conversation to notice me.”

Lu Cheng looked at him, her brain working rapidly.

She didn't believe a person could erase their presence to such an extent.

It violated the common sense of biological heat and scent emission.

But she didn't have the spare energy to look into it further right now.

She handed the report in her hand to Zhao Yi.

“I just analyzed the residual data in their communication terminals.”

Lu Cheng looked at Jiang Feng, her expression serious.

“Prophet is not a person.”

“To be precise, Prophet is a massive and extremely complex big-data deduction algorithm model.”

“This algorithm collects all the capturable data in the Location, deduces probabilities, and formulates optimal action plans.”

Jiang Feng patted his trouser legs.

“What does that have to do with me?”

Jiang Feng stood up and stretched.

“You've caught the people and figured out their background. This is police work. I'm only responsible for fortune-telling; once I'm done, I'm off the clock.”

He picked up the canvas bag at his feet.

Lu Cheng stared at him.

“You can't leave.” Lu Cheng bluntly threw a bucket of cold water on Jiang Feng's plans.

Jiang Feng stopped in his tracks.

“In Prophet's algorithm, you have already been listed as a top-priority anomalous variable that must be eliminated.”

Lu Cheng pointed toward the interrogation room. “Just now at the teahouse, you caused his entire action squad to be wiped out.”

“This kind of extremely low-probability event directly caused a break in his logic chain.”

“A computing machine dedicated to controlling the overall situation will absolutely not allow a variable like you, who isn't constrained by physical rules, to exist.”

Lu Cheng took a step forward.

“You've been completely pulled into the game, Jiang Feng. He will use every resource to kill you.”

Jiang Feng listened to these words.

He didn't feel a hint of fear.

He only found it absurd.

Jiang Feng turned around.

“A coward hiding behind a crappy program calculating probabilities thinks he's worthy of being called Prophet?” Jiang Feng cursed. “Who the hell does he think he is?”

Jiang Feng slung the canvas bag back over his shoulder.

“I'm the grandmaster of fortune-telling! If he could really calculate, he should have calculated that he'd fail tonight! And he wants to eliminate me?” Jiang Feng laughed out loud. “Let him try.”

Just as Jiang Feng was venting his anger.

The phone in Zhao Yi's pocket rang.

Zhao Yi listened for a few seconds, and most of the color drained from his face.

“Something's happened.” Zhao Yi looked at Jiang Feng and Lu Cheng, his throat dry.

“Several high-voltage substations on the outskirts of the Location exploded simultaneously!” Zhao Yi spoke rapidly. “News from the local police station!”

“They blew up the power lines and cut off the surveillance networks in North Location and the East District.”

Zhao Yi looked out at the pitch-black night sky.

“These guys have created a massive physical information blind spot in the Location!”