pertwk Chapter 143 The Continued Pursuit
Chapter 143 The Continued Pursuit
Chapter 143 The Continued Pursuit
"Luo Shuo, do you know that in our sequence line, there are also concepts like high position, middle position, and low position?"
Sitting in the official car, Li Jiuhe asked Luo Shuo in a low voice.
Luo Shuo said, "I only know that there are similar types of sequencers, but I haven't seen any detailed information about this."
"How did you know that?" Li Jiuhe asked curiously.
"Back then, I traveled all over the country (stealing information from various places) and summarized it myself. At the same time, I also heard people mention that there seemed to be differences in sequence ability, but most people only had this understanding and could not say any specific information," Luo Shuo said honestly.
"So everyone came up with their own conclusions."
Li Jiuhe muttered to himself, then continued, "I've also noticed this, but no one mentioned it when we were at headquarters, including Shao Gang and Tong Cheng."
"Yes." Luo Shuo was also puzzled after Li Jiuhe reminded him.
He had only vaguely understood this before, and had never studied it seriously, which is why he wasn't as sensitive as Li Jiuhe.
"Have you ever heard anyone say that sequence lines are divided into gold lines or something like that?" Li Jiuhe asked again.
Luo Shuo shook his head again: "I'm sorry, Brother Li, I was so focused on making money before that I didn't investigate this aspect properly. Now I'm starting to pay attention and see how many secrets the sequence lines are hiding."
It seems that this is the only option now, unless they can capture the murderer You Hong alive.
However, it seems that it will be very difficult for Li Jiuhe to capture You Hong alive. This guy's rank is only one level lower than his own, and he doesn't even know the order of these ranks.
It seems that the Yuanmeng City Investigation Bureau's speculation about You Hong was correct; this guy gradually improved his abilities by killing people.
If his sequence ability advances, he might be able to directly perceive the scope of his mission, and even jump out of his mission.
By then, You Hong will be a formidable rival to Li Jiuhe.
However, this guy's methods of enhancing his sequence abilities are cruel and cannot be tolerated by the Tian Shu Kingdom.
Su Qin was a very good driver, and the official car quickly arrived at a point three kilometers away from the hotel.
"Pull over to the side of the road," Luo Shuo suddenly said.
He squinted, enhancing his tracking ability.
Su Qin immediately applied the brakes gently and slowly pulled over to the right side of the road to stop.
Although parking is not allowed in this area, their license plates are for official vehicles, so even if traffic police see them on the roadside, they won't come over to ask questions.
"Where is he?" Li Jiuhe asked.
Luo Shuo turned his head to look at the parallel view outside the car window, where there was a high-end clothing store on the street.
The store is currently open for business, and several rows of women's coats are displayed outside, suggesting it is a specialty store of a women's clothing brand.
"It's inside," Luo Shuo said cautiously.
Li Jiuhe instructed, "You get off the car with me now. That guy knows more about the secrets of the sequence lines. Let's see if we can take this opportunity to learn more."
Luo Shuo was surprised: "Aren't we going to arrest him?"
In his opinion, the most important thing right now is to capture or kill this murderer. As for the secret of the sequence line, he can find out about it at any time.
Of course, this was under the premise that Luo Shuo had no idea that Li Jiuhe could reset the mission.
Li Jiuhe nodded: "Of course we have to catch him, but I'll deal with him. You just need to try to find the secret of the sequence lines on the killer's body."
"Uh, okay!" Luo Shuo nodded and didn't ask any more questions.
The two got out of the car one after the other and approached the clothing store with its glass doors closed.
Li Jiuhe quickly pushed open the door and entered, whispering to Luo Shuo behind him, "Stay at the door and don't come in."
Luo Shuo's sequence ability is not an offensive ability, so he would likely die a horrible death when facing You Hong.
He walked into the clothing store and peeked inside, but didn't see anyone.
This clothing store has too many clothes on display, with hangers lying haphazardly, completely blocking the view of the cash register.
Li Jiuhe didn't say anything and quickly walked inside. After seeing the cash register, he still didn't see any staff.
Looking down, one could see a pool of blood spreading outwards on the floor behind the cashier.
He immediately rushed over and looked down, and saw the bodies of two female shop assistants piled on top of each other. The body on the bottom was curled up in a ball, while the body on top looked like it had obviously fought with the murderer.
Li Jiuhe immediately recognized that the corpse on it should be a Sequencer user. All ten of its manicured nails were broken, and there was still some flesh and blood in the nails, indicating that it had most likely scratched the murderer before it died.
However, her sequence ability was suppressed by You Hong's ability, which is why she was killed so quickly.
As for the corpse below, it has obvious ligature marks on its neck, so it was most likely strangled to death, and was probably an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire.
Li Jiuhe quickly got up and went to the back of the shop, only to find that there were only four fitting rooms and no back door.
He was slightly startled and turned his head sharply to look in the direction of the doorway he had just entered from. He saw that the glass door suddenly opened and then closed.
"Luo Shuo, get out of the way!" Li Jiuhe shouted and took off after him.
Luo Shuo was standing at the door when he suddenly saw the glass door of the clothing store being pushed open from the inside.
He thought it was Li Jiuhe who came out, but when he looked up, he found a man wearing a mask.
Luo Shuo was startled and instinctively reached for the silver-plated dagger at his waist. Then he heard Li Jiuhe shout.
The masked man in front of him suddenly bent down and bumped him on the right shoulder.
With a thud, Luo Shuo was sent flying, his silver dagger falling to the ground. He crashed into a heavy "GG" sign on the roadside, landing on the ground in a daze, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
The man in the hood glanced at Luo Shuo meaningfully, as if he had already realized that Luo Shuo was also a Sequencer.
However, he did not continue to chase Luo Shuo, but instead sped up and ran along the street.
Li Jiuhe burst through the door and saw Luo Shuo lying on the ground not far away. He asked, "Are you alright?"
Luo Shuo shook his head: "Go after them quickly, don't worry about me!"
Li Jiuhe immediately took off after You Hong's retreating figure.
puff!
Luo Shuo spat out the broken tooth in his mouth, then looked down at the silver-plated dagger.
The tip of the dagger was stained with blood; it belonged to You Hong.
Although You Hong knocked him away, Luo Shuo reacted quickly enough that the tip of his knife grazed You Hong's arm, though it did little to cause him any real harm.
"This amount of blood should be enough."
Luo Shuo muttered to himself, remembering Li Jiuhe's instructions. He then reached out and touched the blood on the tip of the knife, narrowing his eyes slightly.
Ma Li also got out of the car and rushed to Luo Shuo's side.
Seeing that Luo Shuo was alright and had even closed his eyes to begin searching, she did not disturb him.
Turning around, he saw Su Qin suddenly turn the official car around quickly and speed off in the direction Li Jiuhe was chasing the murderer.
Ma Li blinked her big eyes, staring in surprise at the taillights: "This little girl, I didn't expect her to be so fierce! You're not a Sequencer, what can you do even if you catch up?"
Li Jiuhe ran faster and faster, but he always kept a distance from You Hong.
At this moment, he suddenly realized that You Hong's strength seemed to be different from before the mission was reset, and he had obviously become stronger.
"So this guy changed his original plan and went to the clothing store to kill the Sequencers there because he sensed a crisis at the hotel?"
He muttered to himself, vaguely sensing that You Hong's threat to him had intensified once again.
You Hong, who was ahead, realized that he could not shake off Li Jiuhe, who had been chasing him. At this moment, he also realized that the palpitation he had just felt was most likely related to this person.
This person was clearly within the range of his "power weakening," yet he seemed unaffected, still moving with lightning speed, clearly indicating that he was being enhanced by a sequence ability.
So after quickly turning into an alley, You Hong swiftly turned around, took out a triangular dagger, and stabbed Li Jiuhe, who had chased into the alley, with a single, vicious thrust.
Li Jiuhe was prepared and dodged to the side, while simultaneously launching a counterattack with the silver-plated dagger in his hand against You Hong.
While attacking, he feigned surprise and said, "I didn't expect you to be a gold thread expert too?"
This time, he spoke the other person's lines first, which made You Hong slightly surprised.
After several unsuccessful stabs, he quickly retreated a few steps and spat hard on the ground.
"Bah! A mere gold thread can't hold me back! I'm definitely a purple-gold thread!"
"So there's a purple-gold thread above the gold thread," Li Jiuhe realized.
Trying to extract more information, You Hong turned and ran away.
The lingering palpitations from before made him feel a strange sense of impending death whenever he faced Li Jiuhe.
You Hong didn't like this feeling, so he preferred to run away rather than get entangled with Li Jiuhe anymore.
His ability upgrades require him to kill specific target Sequencers or several specific ordinary people every so often to bring his upgraded abilities to a stable state.
If the current stage's goal has been achieved, even if he kills more powerful Sequencers or more ordinary people on the same day, his abilities will not be improved.
Today's targets are two: one is the clerk from the clothing store we just met, and the other is the target he located in the hotel where Li Jiuhe is staying.
So, after dismissing the shop assistant, his abilities improved to some extent.
Unless he eliminates the target from the hotel again, You Hong's abilities will not be further enhanced.
There's absolutely no need to get entangled with Li Jiuhe here; even if he could kill Li Jiuhe, it wouldn't help improve his own abilities at all.
The two resumed their chase, one in front of the other, always maintaining a distance. However, even if Li Jiuhe caught up with him, he couldn't seriously injure You Hong in a short time.
After passing through several alleys and arriving at the street, You Hong's anger grew stronger and stronger. He stopped abruptly, preparing to get rid of Li Jiuhe first.
Just as he was about to turn around, he was suddenly attracted by something and looked towards the street. He saw the official vehicle of the Yuanmeng City Investigation Bureau speeding towards him.
Su Qin, sitting in the driver's seat, leaned out of the car window, along with a newly made special pistol with complete runes.
Bang bang bang————
Several gunshots rang out in succession, and pedestrians on the street were thrown into chaos, running in all directions.
Su Qin's action of firing a gun in front of so many pedestrians left Li Jiuhe stunned.
Two of the rune bullets hit You Hong, and two passersby were hit by stray bullets. One fell to the ground and groaned, while the other lay motionless on the ground, his fate unknown.
You Hong was shot in the abdomen and thigh, but instead of falling, he was enraged and charged at the stopped official vehicle with a roar.
Li Jiuhe caught up from behind and swung his knife, but missed.
You Hong rushed to the driver's side door, sprang up with both legs, smashed through the window, and struck Su Qin hard on the head with either his knee or elbow.
The sound of bones cracking rang out, and Su Qin immediately lost consciousness.
You Hong flipped over and sat up in the passenger seat, stabbing the three-edged dagger into Su Qin's chin from bottom to top, through her head, and out from the top of her head. The scene was extremely terrifying.
At the same time, the guy grinned and laughed, shouting, "I didn't expect it to come so easily! I didn't go looking for you, but you came looking for me!"
Li Jiuhe was suddenly stunned, staring at the scene in astonishment.
Based on his experience before the mission reset, he suddenly realized that You Hong's main target at the hotel was not the Sequencer Ma Li at all, but Su Qin, an ordinary person and a logistics staff member from the Investigation Bureau!
Su Qin's actions just now were too unbelievable. It seemed that she didn't care about sacrificing the lives of other ordinary people in order to kill You Hong.
By this moment, both of You Hong's targets for the day had been killed.
Pulling out the triangular dagger, You Hong stopped running away. Instead, he opened the car door, clutching the rune pistol he had snatched from Su Qin, and pointed it at Li Jiuhe.
"Come on, keep chasing me. Let's see how many bullets it will take to incapacitate this bastard!" You Hong grinned.
His smile froze on his face as he saw that Li Jiuhe was also holding a rune pistol, its dark muzzle pointed at him.
A moment later, You Hong's expression turned ferocious: "You had a gun, why didn't you shoot it? Why did you keep chasing me?"
"Because there are still some things that haven't been figured out yet," Li Jiuhe said slowly.
His satchel contained not only a runic pistol, but also a modified runic badge, a runic scimitar, and other items.
He was used to using the Silver Erosion Dagger in close combat, so he didn't take out any other weapons.
This time, because he wanted to uncover more of Yu Hong's secrets by advancing the plot, he did not use a gun for the time being.
Of course, these weapons with rune patterns may be very effective against ordinary Sequencers, but they are still limited in their effectiveness against Sequencers with powerful Sequence abilities, and can only serve as an auxiliary weapon.
For example, using a rune pistol against Guan Jikun or even Guan Chuandao would only provoke them and hasten one's own death, with negligible effect.
Even the General Administration gave clear instructions on the use of these rune weapons when they were issued, namely that rune weapons are suitable for capturing ordinary sequence individuals, not special sequence individuals.
In terms of the scope of harm, these so-called special sequencers refer to a small number of powerful regional sequencers, as well as all sequencers at the city-destroying level and above.
In terms of rank, it refers to those in higher ranks.
As for judging based on the sequence level of the sequence holder, Li Jiuhe guessed that those at least above the gold level would most likely be unable to be dealt with using rune weapons.
Seeing that Li Jiuhe had also taken out a rune pistol, You Hong, despite his increased strength, still had the urge to retreat.
For some reason, he always felt very passive when fighting Li Jiuhe, and he had a vague sense of unease.
Besides, he had already completed his hunt for the day, so there was no need to get entangled with Li Jiuhe, which made him subconsciously want to escape.
Just then, Li Jiuhe's phone vibrated. He held the gun in one hand and took out his phone with the other, seeing that it was Luo Shuo calling.
With his eyes fixed on You Hong, he answered the phone and held it to his ear.
"Brother Li, I've tracked down the serial killer's latest hiding place, and I have more information about him—"
The fresh blood that You Hong had just left behind allowed Luo Shuo to maximize his tracking ability. He even vaguely learned about You Hong's method of enhancing his sequence ability through this blood.
"I've discovered that his sequence rank must be quite high, because he can seize some of the abilities of the sequencers he kills. This is somewhat similar to how Si Mingyu seized the abilities of other order modifiers. However, Si Mingyu stripped away the abilities of sequencers of the same type as him, while the serial killer kills specific sequencers and then seizes some of their abilities, even if the sequencer is not on the same sequence line as him."
As Luo Shuo was explaining quickly, You Hong, seeing that Li Jiuhe was distracted, immediately took two steps back, hid his body behind the Investigation Bureau's official car parked on the side of the road, and then turned and ran.
Li Jiuhe had been keeping an eye on him. When she saw him hiding behind the car, she took off after him while keeping her phone connected.
You Hong cursed loudly, but what he said was inaudible. He ran away very fast, constantly shooting at Li Jiuhe with his rune pistol.
Li Jiuhe slowed down, dodged the gunshots, and chased after You Hong from a distance.
Luo Shuo's voice came from beside him: "The golden thread you just mentioned should be related to his ability. This so-called golden thread sequencer's ability level is obviously higher than ours, even though my ability is already considered special."
Because he was distracted by the phone call, and because You Hong's strength had increased since then, Li Jiuhe quickly lost track of the guy.
He stopped the chase and, panting, answered Luo Shuo's call before resetting the mission.
Now, by joining forces with Luo Shuo, Li Jiuhe has a general understanding of the details of You Hong's ability improvement.
This guy isn't killing indiscriminately; he's killing with a purpose to seize the abilities of his victims. He might even need to kill a few ordinary people intermittently to stabilize this ability enhancement.
Furthermore, the mission statement mentioned that You Hong possessed a death pass.
His motives for killing may not have been solely to enhance his abilities; it may also have something to do with the death pass.
However, so far, Li Jiuhe has not yet found out where this guy's death pass is located, nor what the purpose of this pass is.
After the mission was reset, I returned to my hotel room.
As before, Li Jiuhe first told Ma Li and Su Qin not to go out, then asked Su Qin for the car keys and told them to wait in the room and be careful to guard against attacks.
Li Jiuhe then instructed Luo Shuo to stay on the phone with him at all times before heading straight to the hotel parking lot.
When Li Jiuhe asked Su Qin for the key, he paid close attention to the logistics staff member.
Su Qin's behavior at this moment was not unusual, but why did she dare to chase You Hong alone just now, and even fire a gun in the street, completely disregarding the lives of pedestrians?
And she's just an ordinary person. One of You Hong's targets today is her. Could it be that Su Qin is the ordinary person who can stabilize You Hong's sequence ability?
Li Jiuhe did not tell anyone else about the questions in his mind for the time being.
He went to the parking lot, found the official car, and quickly drove out of the hotel.
Because the plot development was different after the last mission reset, he couldn't be sure whether You Hong would change his actions again this time.
If You Hong had two choices, one was the hotel, and the other was the clothing store, then at this moment, he would probably not choose either path after realizing that both were dangerous.
"Brother Li, the killer's location is still in that square 500 meters away, it doesn't seem to have moved." Luo Shuo's voice came through the earpiece.
Sure enough, the guy hesitated visibly.
Li Jiuhe stepped on the gas and sped off towards the square.