Chapter 60: Just Wait, I’m Coming for You

“What’s your take, Brother Wang?” Xiao Yu asked, gazing at Wang Dong in the villa’s hall.

“I’m at a loss too,” Wang Dong replied, his expression eerily calm.

‘If you’re clueless, just say so. Why the proud look?’ Xiao Yu thought, allowing himself a small smile.

The deadline for the system task was barely more than a day away. Failing to capture the main culprit and close the case would indeed be a significant setback.

Xiao Yu twitched his nose, activating the Nose of the King Butterfly.

Luckily, the villa’s doors and windows had been shut for the past two days. The air bore a faint scent of the suspect, Owen.

Following the scent, Xiao Yu ascended to the second floor, approaching a floor-to-ceiling window.

Had the scent vanished?

Not quite. It seemed Owen had opened the window to make his escape.

Did he flee by jumping from the villa?

Given the numerous surveillance cameras within the community, his disappearance without a trace seemed implausible.

Xiao Yu, frowning, pondered the scientific plausibility of such an escape.

Standing on the balcony, he was deep in thought, analyzing all possible scenarios, yet ending up without any viable leads.

“Am I being forced to pull out all the stops?” Xiao Yu’s expression turned icy, his eyes becoming increasingly detached and stern, “You got it!”

Emulating the criminal’s mind. 

“What if… I was Owen.”

“How would I exit the villa, escape this community, leave this city, and flee the country?”

“Standard approaches are nearly impossible.”

“Exiting the villa as if on a normal outing, disguising my departure, would only reveal flaws and prove utterly ineffective!”

“So, how did I vanish? What methods could I possibly use?”

“First method. Taking advantage of strong winds for hang gliding… seems far-fetched!”

“Second method. Hiding in a secret chamber within the villa and seizing the chance to flee… Incorrect!”

“Third method. If neither the sky above nor the land below offers a route, then what remains is… beneath?”

“Only by heading underground can I fully evade the surveillance cameras, right?”

“Drainage pipes? Gas lines? Communication cable ducts… No, that’s not it either. All these conduits are internal to the community, with no direct access to the outside… Wait a moment!”

“Could I use these systems to infiltrate the homes of other residents, thereby evading police detection? If they believe I’ve already escaped the community, they might then lift the lockdown and allow me to slip away unnoticed?”

“That’s not right either. The police aren’t stupid. If I disappeared, wouldn’t they think to search other residents’ homes?”

“The only remaining, most drastic method would be to infiltrate another resident’s home, coerce them, and use their vehicle to escape the community. Given that most villas have private garages, this method seems feasible.”

“Even inside a vehicle, I’d still be visible to the community’s security and surveillance cameras. The trunk? But how could I intimidate someone from inside a trunk?”

“A child. I could leverage a child to coerce an adult to drive, hide with the child in the trunk, and have the adult take me out?”

“Is this how I managed to disappear? But why go through all this trouble?”

“Ah, I see… Was my intention to deliberately divert the police’s focus to the villa to buy time for my escape?!”

The iciness and detachment in his eyes faded, and Xiao Yu reverted to his usual demeanor.

All this deduction took less than two minutes. The reasoning itself wasn’t particularly challenging. It was Xiao Yu’s superior intellect that allowed him to swiftly arrive at and analyze these conclusions.

However…

Wang Dong, somehow, found himself standing right in front of him, looking at him as if he were some kind of monster, completely astonished.

‘Great, getting caught by the boss in my moment of glory.’

Xiao Yu instinctively felt a wave of resistance, a kind of guilt creeping up on him.

“Is that even a human brain?” Coming to his senses, Wang Dong stared at Xiao Yu, “How could you think of that so quickly?”

‘Picking a fight, huh.’ Xiao Yu rolled his eyes, “Is it wrong to be a bit smart?”

In his past life, his colleagues, much like Wang Dong now, treated him like a monster.

In this life, to avoid being seen as a freak, he had forcibly ‘shut down’ his brain. He wouldn’t go full throttle with his intellect unless absolutely necessary.

It was as if you were armed with a Barrett but swinging it around like a walking stick.

Is there really such a fool in the world who laments being too smart?

A genius in denial?

Only Xiao Yu could probably engage in such ridiculous behavior.

“You call this being a bit smart?”

With time pressing, now wasn’t the moment to debate Xiao Yu’s IQ. Wang Dong rolled his eyes exasperatedly, “Let’s move, we’ve no time to waste!”

Assuming Xiao Yu’s deductions were correct, in just over a day, Owen could escape far beyond the city’s limits. But if the getaway was made by vehicle, there would inevitably be a trail, one that could certainly be traced back.

Identifying the specific vehicle would be even easier. The villa district’s small population made it straightforward to figure out which families had children and who had traveled recently.

Half an hour later, Xiao Yu kicked down a villa door and stormed inside. Tied to a bed in the bedroom, he found the male homeowner.

“Please, save my wife and my child!” 

The homeowner cried out as the tape was ripped from his mouth.

“Don’t worry,” Xiao Yu reassured him, patting the man’s shoulder. “They’ll be safe.”

With that, he dashed from the villa, sprinted to the community’s fitness park, and jumped onto a helicopter. The rotor blades thundered to life, and the helicopter lifted into the sky.

“We’ve locked onto the vehicle,” Wang Dong yelled over the noise to Xiao Yu.

Xiao Yu’s eyes snapped shut, his rage reaching its peak. A foreign with the blood of his people daring to come back and wreak havoc?

“Just you wait, I’m coming for you right now!”