Embers Ad Infinitum
chapter-851

“You have results?” Jiang Baimian momentarily doubted her ears. “Results on the sniper’s whereabouts?”

Ever since she had the biological cochlear implant transplant, such things rarely happened.

Gitis retracted her smile and raised her eyebrows slightly. “You don’t believe me?”

“I do!” Shang Jianyao said sincerely from the bottom of his heart.

Long Yuehong and Bai Chen didn’t say a word and buried their suspicions deep down. It has only been half a day, but Gitis has already learned of the sniper’s whereabouts? It doesn’t make sense!

Even if they abandoned all their inhibitions and did their best, they still had to rely on luck to find the sniper in a few hours. Furthermore, it was most likely not something that could be completed in a day or two.

Gitis took out another piece of paper, picked up a fountain pen, lowered her head, and began scribbling on the back.

Jiang Baimian observed for a few seconds and determined that she wasn’t writing but drawing.

At some point in time, Shang Jianyao had already leaned over, stretched his neck, and sized it up. “What a nice drawing! Did you learn to draw before?”

Perhaps not expecting that this was what the other party was paying attention to, Gitis replied sullenly after a while, “No.”

“Then, you’re very talented!” Shang Jianyao said sincerely. “You have to learn when you have the opportunity. Don’t waste your talent.”

At this moment, Jiang Baimian and the others also surrounded the front desk and saw Gitis sketching a person.

The honest Genava retorted Shang Jianyao, “No matter how well you can draw, it’s meaningless. You can’t feed yourself with it.”

Gitis couldn’t help but look up, her gaze moving back and forth between Genava and Shang Jianyao a few times. She seemed to have never seen a smart bot argue with their owner over such trivial matters.

“Old Ge, have you forgotten? First City’s nobles enjoy music artists and painting artists,” Shang Jianyao argued.

Genava corrected himself. “I mean that it’s meaningless in the White Knights. The general belief here advocates simplicity.”

“Look at Aester’s house. How is it simple?” Shang Jianyao scoffed.

The conversation topic between the two deviated until Gitis finished sketching the portrait.

Jiang Baimian reached out to take it and saw a man in a knee-length coat.

He carried a rectangular wooden box diagonally across his back. His hair was very short, and his nose was a little deformed but not too exaggerated.

Overall, this man didn’t exhibit any memorable characteristics at a glance. It was very difficult to outline his exact appearance if one wanted to describe him with words.

“His hair is brown, and his eyes are slightly yellow,” Gitis added.

“Is that the sniper?” Long Yuehong asked in disbelief.

Gitis nodded and spread her right palm. “Two Grand Knight gold coins. When you find and confirm the information, make payment for the remaining eight.”

“You made a mistake,” Shang Jianyao corrected. “We still have ten Knight silver coins deposited with you. It needs to be deducted.”

Gitis was momentarily speechless, and she looked a little dazed.

Although Jiang Baimian still found this matter rather magical, she still took out the only two Grand Knight gold coins she had and handed them to her. She then asked, “Can you determine which direction the sniper went?”

Gitis got the portrait back. She lowered her head again and began drawing.

A simple map soon appeared before the Old Task Force’s eyes.

“It’s probably such a route. He ended up circling into the block where Mor lives.” Gitis stopped moving her fountain pen.

She acts as if she had seen the sniper’s escape with her own eyes… Jiang Baimian suddenly had this feeling.

She couldn’t help but wonder if Gitis or one of her important informants could read memories on a large scale. Otherwise, how could she accomplish such a feat?

Of course, there was definitely more than one ability that could achieve such an effect—Memory Reading.

Coupled with the fact that Gitis was at work today and couldn’t head out to determine matters, it was more likely for her collaborators to find the sniper’s whereabouts. After all, abilities were limited by distance. The Fire & Iron Hotel was about a kilometer away from the United Mining Association. Even Shang Jianyao—who had explored the Mind Corridor’s depths—couldn’t sit here and influence the humans there, much less others.

That was unless Gitis was a powerhouse of the New World or had a Kalendaria’s divine grace.

“He actually circled back to the block where Mor lives? We actually didn’t encounter him!” Shang Jianyao immediately sighed.

Jiang Baimian looked at Gitis and asked solemnly, “Any other clues?”

Gitis seemed to have entered her world again. She trembled and returned to her senses. “No, but I believe the information I provide is definitely worth ten Grand Knight gold coins.”

“If it’s true.” Jiang Baimian nodded.

After bidding the mysterious and powerful intelligence peddler farewell, the five Old Task Force members held the portrait of the figure, left the lobby, and got into the jeep.

After the car started, Long Yuehong—who was in the backseat—looked back at the Fire & Iron Hotel and couldn’t hide his surprise. “Where did she get the information? It’s like most of Gesterbourg’s residents are her informants…”

Bai Chen—who was beside him—pursed her lips and said, “Her ability to obtain information is indeed the strongest I’ve seen.”

“What if most of Gesterbourg’s residents are really her informants? For example, she has Heavenly Eyes. She has been monitoring all kinds of things in Gesterbourg through the eyes of a large number of people and has grasped a lot of information in real time. Yes, that’s definitely the case. It’s precisely because she has been watching the surveillance formed by hundreds or thousands of ‘screens’ that she often gets distracted and likes to be in a daze!” Shang Jianyao first had an idea before becoming more and more confident. “Everything works out!”

If not for the fact that he was driving, he would’ve applauded himself.

If not for his public decency, he would definitely clap with the horn instead.

The honest Genava reminded him, “There’s also a limit to Heavenly Eyes. The straight-line distance between the Fire & Iron Hotel and the United Mining Association is 973 meters. Gitis has never left her post today.”

“That means her informant has Heavenly Eyes. No…” Shang Jianyao stroked his chin and fell into deep thought.

It was impossible for the informant to cause Gitis to be distracted from time to time.

Jiang Baimian cleared her throat and said, “Now isn’t the time to discuss this. Let’s focus on the sniper.”

“He should indeed live near Mor’s house. He can observe him from afar during the day and snipe once any problem crops up. What’s the solution at night? Get Mor to sleep on the windowsill?” Bai Chen recalled and said, “We checked the bedroom back then and didn’t discover a bed by the window.”

Long Yuehong considered it from his perspective. “Also, if the sniper were alone and monitored Mor day and night, he definitely would’ve broken down long ago, be it physically or mentally. It’s impossible for him to last until now. I suspect that at least two or more Eighth Research Institute personnel were involved in this, perhaps even more. They then took turns monitoring him.”

“Not bad. Everyone’s analysis makes sense,” Jiang Baimian praised sincerely. “Even if we didn’t get any information from Gitis, we would’ve slowly focused our investigation on Mor’s apartment and the surrounding buildings in a day or two.”

“What a loss! We lost ten Grand Knight gold coins!” Shang Jianyao felt the pinch.

Jiang Baimian shook her head. “If it can shorten our investigation time and directly produce the sniper’s portrait, those ten Grand Knight gold coins are worth it! Yes, you have to be careful when asking around Mor’s house. There might be Eighth Research Institute spies everywhere. Hey, you can directly ‘make friends’ with them when the time comes and ask them after making friends.”

“Alright!” Shang Jianyao was already burning with impatience.

Long Yuehong exhaled and asked, “Why did the Eighth Research Institute make the matter so complicated? Why send two to three people to monitor Mor instead of erasing his memories?”

“Maybe it’s not easy to find such a useful tool like Mor. It’s also very troublesome to ‘recruit’ him again every time. Uh, frequently having his memories deleted might leave behind some aftereffects that seriously affect his intelligence or thinking abilities,” Jiang Baimian guessed. “Besides, normally speaking, it shouldn’t be possible to go beyond Aester during an investigation. Who knew that this person could still confirm the client’s identity in a certain way even though his memories had been deleted?

“To be honest, the Eighth Research Institute has also set up a firewall around Mor. They’re really, really careful. Maybe they are worried that the information will be leaked through other means?”

As they conversed, the Old Task Force’s jeep arrived at the block where Mor lived amidst the after-work crowd.

Shang Jianyao and Jiang Baimian alighted from the car. They held the portrait and chose the shops around the target apartment to carry out their questioning.

Under Thought Implantation, nobody suspected them. Nobody felt that they needed to be vigilant about this matter, so they seriously answered their questions.

After asking around three places, a middle-aged woman—who ran a provision shop—pointed at the apartment where Mor lived and said, “Yes, he lives opposite us. He comes to buy tissues every once in a while.”