Chapter 50#
Start Running#
Ning Feng didn’t respond, just standing there bolt upright.
He recognized the man—a adjutant to a Federal general, named Rex. Back when the Empire and Federation engaged in military exchanges, he’d attended events with Yin Beichen and had crossed paths with this Rex before.
This man’s presence here meant “Boss He” had been exposed.
He wasn’t worried about what they might do to the man. In the past, high-level figures from both sides would also enter each other’s territory incognito on non-official business. Based on certain unspoken understandings, he generally turned a blind eye and simply arranged for close surveillance, doing his best to avoid conflict.
Now they were coming in force to make an arrest—what were they planning?
Ning Feng took in his surroundings without changing expression, his gaze landing on the weapons they carried. Though the group in front of him wasn’t large, the building’s perimeter was likely already surrounded.
He sent a brainwave message to the others. The robot’s lens twisted. Seeing the group’s expressions growing increasingly impatient, he stiffly rotated his body, pulled a broom from the corner, and brandished it a couple of times in front of them.
“Garbage detected. Initiating cleaning procedure.”
Then he began making a show of sweeping.
“Hey, I’m talking to you!” One of the subordinates behind reached out to grab him, but Rex quickly stopped him.
“Hold on, don’t act rashly,” Rex said in a low voice.
They had been tracking a brown-haired man and followed the trail all the way to the hotel, where they found this “Boss He.”
But when they cross-checked his identity, they discovered the two faces didn’t match at all. Even stranger, when they reviewed the surveillance footage, they couldn’t find any trace of this “Boss He” in the videos. Either he didn’t live here, or he had extremely strong counter-surveillance instincts.
Right now, they had no evidence and no search warrant. They couldn’t just make an arrest.
The subordinate clicked his tongue and stepped back.
Rex studied the robot, which was now noisily sweeping the tiles near the entrance.
He had seen this robot a few times before. It had previously worn a maid outfit but had now changed into ordinary loungewear. If you ignored its blocky head, it almost looked human from a distance. Judging by the model, it wasn’t the most advanced AI—it could only execute commands one at a time.
But he wasn’t worried. The entire building was already surrounded by his people. Whoever was inside couldn’t escape.
Just as he was thinking this, the robot finished sweeping, and right in front of everyone, slammed the door shut with a bang.
The group: …
Rex rang the bell again, but this time no one answered for a long time. He frowned and made a hand gesture. His subordinate understood immediately and raised his leg to kick the door hard—
Suddenly, the door opened.
And the subordinate’s raised leg was instantly caught firmly in Ning Feng’s grip.
The subordinate stood there awkwardly, struggling silently to pull his leg free, but found he couldn’t match the cleaning robot’s strength. He yanked hard in frustration, but Ning Feng suddenly let go, sending him crashing to the floor.
“Hello, who are you looking for?” Ning Feng’s voice was mechanical and flat.
“I’m looking for Boss He.” Rex stared at him warily.
“Sorry, the master’s surname is not He.”
“Not He? Is your master home?”
“The master is not home.”
Rex narrowed his eyes. “Can you contact him for me?”
Ning Feng’s lens swiveled. He saw the other man’s right hand quietly reach for an object.
He recognized it—an electromagnetic interrupter. With a simple finger movement, the device could release several thousand Tesla of magnetic flux density. It meant nothing to an ordinary person, but for a robot, it was enough to burn its core to ash.
Looks like they were determined to get in.
Ning Feng sneered inwardly. “Certainly. Please wait a moment.”
With that, the robot’s body emitted the whirring sound of programs running, interspersed with the occasional click and clatter, as if it might crash at any moment. Rex stared intently, his patience wearing thin. Just as he was about to lose his temper, the sound of a communication call came from inside the robot.
The hold music rang for a long time before finally connecting. Ning Feng even considerately switched to speaker mode. Suddenly, the background noise of a bustling crowd nearly deafened everyone present.
“Master, someone is looking for you,” Ning Feng said quickly, before the other party could speak.
“Who is it?” Shamu responded just as swiftly.
“And you are?” Ning Feng looked at the adjutant.
Rex’s brow twitched.
That voice didn’t belong to Yin Beichen. But AI robots wouldn’t execute complex commands beyond their programming. Could it be that this “Mr. He” really wasn’t here?
The adjutant forced a smile. “I’ll bother you later, then.”
Ning Feng cut the communication with a snap. Without saying whether that was okay or not, he moved to close the door. Just then, a blocky figure appeared in the distance, wearing a black tie around its neck.
“Excuse me, is Mr. He here? The breakfast you ordered has arrived~”
In an instant, everyone’s eyes fixed on that robot.
Ning Feng: … Tch.
“Mr. He?” Rex was taken aback. Before he could react further, Ning Feng slammed the door shut with a bang.
Rex’s face tightened. “Move out!”
The moment they kicked the door open, the apartment’s security alarm blared. They ignored it entirely and headed straight for the inner rooms. But there was no one inside—only scattered belongings and an open window.
“They’ve escaped!”
Rex rushed to the window and leaned out. There he saw the cleaning robot, steel cables wrapped around it, descending the outer wall straight to the ground, clothes fluttering like a hawk gliding at high speed.
The moment its feet touched the ground, Ning Feng looked back up at the window and blew an enthusiastic kiss.
“Bye~ Mr. Rex.”
Then, with a broad sweep of his arm, he dashed into the crowd without looking back.
A grenade arced into the sky, reflecting a blinding glare in the high air. Rex’s expression changed instantly.
“Take cover!”
But the expected explosion never came. Instead, there was a hiss, and a thick cloud of smoke filled the space. The group was immediately choked, tears and snot streaming down their faces.
Rex cursed under his breath, tapped his holo-comm, and barked orders. “Attention all units! Target has escaped toward the central square. All personnel, move immediately!”
One of his subordinates looked at the dense crowd with concern. “Sir, today is the parade celebration. Making such a big scene…”
Rex’s brows furrowed tightly.
Disturbing the public wasn’t the main issue. What he feared was that the target might resort to a desperate last stand and detonate a bomb in the crowd—the casualties would be catastrophic. He pondered for a moment. “Lock down the starport and all entry-exit points. If you spot the target, don’t raise an alarm. Await my orders.”
“Yes, sir!”
**
After making several twists and turns to shake off the pursuers, Ning Feng pulled up his hood and blended into the crowd of onlookers.
Good thing he’d swapped legs last night. If he had jumped like that with his old ones, he would’ve fallen apart. He opened the map, looked at the blue dot flickering above, and secretly made a call.
“Shamu, what’s your situation?”
“We’re in the mecha parade procession,” Shamu said in a low voice. Behind him, cheers rose and fell.
“What about him?”
“Mr. He is with us.”
“Is it crowded there?”
“Not many guards—only three or four squads.”
Though Yin Beichen hadn’t shared his location with them, as long as he was with them, it should be fine. But these Federation guys, prioritizing catching Yin Beichen over even guarding the war god mecha unit—troublesome bunch, all of them.
Out of the corner of his eye, Ning Feng spotted more soldiers gathering nearby. He quickly lowered his head and quickened his pace.
“Don’t come this way. They’re all converging on me,” he said, swiping across the map. “Here’s the plan: take Boss He to the starport now, and I’ll catch up—”
“The starport is locked down. We need to go to the old docks.”
Suddenly, a cool, clear voice came from behind him.
Ning Feng froze. He spun around and saw Yin Beichen standing there in a plain set of pajamas, hotel slippers on his feet, clutching a burlap sack full of materials tightly to his chest. In the rush of their escape, his short brown hair had become slightly disheveled, but it unexpectedly gave him a bit of a languid air. Even among the crowd, he still stood out.
“You—how… how are you here?” Ning Feng forced his voice down.
“That’s not important.” Yin Beichen’s expression remained indifferent. From somewhere, he produced a few tickets. “If we want to leave now, we’ll have to take a regular cruise. I’ve already bought the tickets.”
Staring at the brand-new tickets, Ning Feng… Ning Feng nearly short-circuited.
Where the hell did he even get these tickets?
“Brother Mu! Boss He is gone!” At that moment, Wen Qianyong’s panicked voice came through on the comm.
“He’s with me,” Ning Feng said wearily.
“Huh? Th-then what do we…”
“The starport is locked down. We’re surrounded over here and can’t get through. You guys figure something out. Meet at the cruise waiting area in half an hour.”
“Figure… something out? What?”
“I don’t know.”
Catching sight of searching figures in the distance, Ning Feng quickly ended the call, grabbed Yin Beichen, and strode forward. But this time, Rex was dead set on catching them. No matter where they went, they saw uniforms.
Getting caught was one thing—but if the mission failed, they’d never see the final payment.
How were they going to pull this off?
Ning Feng racked his brain, his engine whirring softly.
Yin Beichen waved the tickets, showing no signs of nervousness.
“We should get going.”
“With a face like yours that attracts so much attention, where can we go?”
“Right back at you.”
“…”
Ning Feng had a headache.
His and Yin Beichen’s faces were way too recognizable. Even if they pulled on another cap, it wouldn’t help much.
Just then, he heard a cheerful shout from across the street.
He looked up and saw someone in a mascot costume handing out flyers to passersby. But because Yin Beichen’s aura was so overwhelming, even the flyer distributors didn’t dare come near them.
Ning Feng blinked, then stared at Yin Beichen’s face and slowly raised one thick eyebrow.
Yin Beichen: …?
**
On the other side, the three of them were crouched in a small alley, muttering to each other.
“This damn robot is so unreliable! With all these people around, what does he expect us to figure out?” Crazy Rat said irritably.
His specialty was bombs. It wasn’t like he could actually throw landmines into a crowd, right? He didn’t claim to be a good person, but that was just inhuman.
With half an hour already five minutes gone, Wen Qianyong grew even more anxious. He was about to speak when he suddenly heard a strange hissing sound from the corner. In the blink of an eye, a dark figure shot into the shadows.
“What was that?!”
“What ‘what’?” Crazy Rat frowned.
“Didn’t you hear it?”
Crazy Rat listened for a moment, found nothing unusual, and clicked his tongue. “What are you talking about?”
“Xiaoyong, what did you hear?” Shamu asked.
Had he misheard?
Wen Qianyong scratched his head, then immediately switched back to a worried expression. “What do we do now?”
Shamu lowered his eyelids, silent in thought.
Suddenly, loud cheers erupted from the main street. A giant mecha was being towed on a transport truck into view at the end of the road.
This was the Federation’s newest combat mecha, the War God. To boost military morale and strengthen the people’s sense of pride, the high command had deliberately arranged for the mecha to join the parade and celebrate with the public. However, to prevent accidents, all its weapons had been removed.
His fingertip brushed over his lower lip as the corner of Shamu’s mouth curled up slightly.
“Xiaoyong, would you like to try piloting the Federation’s newest War God mecha?”
“…Huh?”