While Hank repeatedly punched himself, the others
behaved as if the scene before them was common. When Hank finished beating himself,
the woman in the car spoke again. If that kid has reached out to the FBI, we might not
have much time.
They've been keeping agents here in Bayside the last few weeks. She continued
speaking. We think they've suspected our factory, so tonight's the last meeting.
I don't care what it takes. Bring me the girl. If Aiden resists, do what you must.
But don't hurt Dora, do you understand? The men each nodded and said yes. Go, she
ordered, and the men headed into the woods in search of Aiden and Dora. In the
moonlight, the woman's face reflected in the rearview mirror.
Her face was pale and her eyes cold behind her red-framed glasses. Aiden held Dora in
his arms as he shuttled quickly through the forest. For the first time, the notifications in
Aiden's head did not bring up any sense of security.
The gunfire made Aiden very nervous. Dora held tightly to his neck. She was clearly
frightened, her tiny body shaking in his arms.
She was a smart child and understood the danger of their situation. Don't be afraid of
Dora. I'll get rid of them, Aiden tried to comfort her.
Suddenly, his eyes widened as they came to the edge of a stream flowing down from the
top of the mountain. Aiden did not care which mountain was in front of them. He jumped
over the stream with Dora in his arms and ran directly to the mountain where the forest
became denser, and he could hopefully evade the kidnappers.
Before long, the thugs were at the stream. After surveying the area for a moment, they
accurately determined the direction in which Aiden had headed, but they split up to
approach him from different directions. They were going to force Aiden into a desperate
situation.
As the forest became denser, there was less moonlight to reveal his surroundings. Even
with his enhanced vision, Aiden found it difficult to see. In the dark, he could only move
forward by intuition.
More than once, he almost tripped over tree roots and a few times was stabbed by
branches, causing him to bare his teeth in pain. But he remained quiet. HIT BY
OBSTACLES.
RESISTANCE. PLUS ONE. Aiden did not know how much time had passed or where the
police might be, but did not dare not take out his phone for fear of being seen by the
enemy.
He stopped as he heard a strange sound coming from his southwest. He put his finger to
Dora's lips to keep her quiet as he focused his enhanced hearing. His whole body was at
attention, picking up everything around him.
Finally, he could make out the source of the sound. Let the wild animals have them,
came a voice in the woods. He continued complaining.
I don't know or care what's going on in the factory, and what is so special about this little girl? The murmuring and complaining voice came closer and closer to Aiden's position.
Because Aiden didn't know if the man had a gun,
he didn't dare to attack first.
His mind raced as he stared at the ground, and suddenly he had a plan. In the dense
forest here, almost all the trees were pine trees, and the ground was littered with
pinecones. Aiden remembered that night with the bullies in the alley.
He picked up a pinecone and threw it out in front of him toward the sound of the closest
man. What the? The man yelled as he sensed something flying past him. His response
allowed Aiden to better locate him in the dark.
Aiden threw another pinecone at the man. This one hit. The man didn't know what was
going on and couldn't see Aiden and Dora hiding behind a tree.
The man turned in his place, trying to make out anything around him. When the back of
his head was exposed, Aiden struck out with a decisive hand. Trigger strength level.
Master. Fist power level. Master.
His fist hit the man's head hard. Trigger nerve striking ability. Level beginner.
Apply pain enhancement. After his previous fights in war games, Aiden's fist strength
and combat skills were much improved. Even Ross Doblar and Director Harris were no
match for him in hand-to-hand combat.
And right now, Aiden also had the advantage of attacking the man from behind. Under
the form of Aiden's nerve strike, the man fell to the ground, face first in the dirt. Target
eliminated.
Field combat ability plus one. Aiden left Dora hiding behind the tree and moved forward
to confirm the name was down for good. Aiden found a small penlight strapped to the
man's chest.
He opened one of the man's eyes and focused the light there. This person holds a
flashlight in hand. Aiden takes directly one to open.
He was a middle-aged man with dark eyes that didn't respond to the light. Did I kill him?
Aiden muttered to himself. Aiden was shocked.
This was a human life. But he shook off the worry and refocused on his current situation.
It was his job to protect Dora.
These people almost killed him just now. Aiden knew that they would not have the
slightest sense of guilt for killing him. Aiden was about to check the equipment on the
man when a walkie-talkie clipped to his waist, crackled, and a voice came out.
Martin. Martin. Martin.
Come in. Please reply when you hear me. Aiden was frightened by the rapid voice and
held his breath.
With no response, the voice called through the radio again. Martin. Aiden closed his eyes
and tried to recall this man's voice from his brief muttering earlier.
Voice recall. Scene memory plus one. Automatic trigger.
Scene memory ability level. Beginner. Sound scene reconstruction.
Aiden's abilities not only allowed him to remember events and images, but also sounds.
Host scene construction. Target voice analyzed.
Results sent to the host. Martin's voice features appeared in Aiden's brain. From the
amplitude of sound vibration, vibration frequency, to the way he shaped his lips and
teeth, his accent, and so on.
It was all there. Aiden touched his throat in surprise as he picked up the walkie-talkie
and responded. This is Martin.
I was temporarily running on silent. Have not located the target.
Dora gazed curiously at Aiden from behind the tree. Her eyes showed her
surprise.
Aiden's voice was that of the dead guy. Imitate voices. Imitation ability plus one.
Current progress. One out of ten. Current level.
Beginner. Hank on the other end of the walkie-talkie let out a long breath. Hank then
made Aiden's heart stutter when he said, While Aiden could rely on memory to imitate
Martin's voice, it seemed that there were some flaws in the details.
He gave two dry coughs. I'm good. I just bit my tongue when I came across a bear, so.
This excuse would not only explain his voice issues, but why he had stopped moving for
a bit. Sure enough, Hank bought his story and said, Aiden smiled at Hank's near miss,
but after turning off the walkie-talkie, his eyes grew cold with determination. So, Hank
was the one who fired a shot from the street and nearly killed Aiden.
He took note of the men's names as he searched Martin's body. He found that Martin's
blue work clothes were strange. They seemed to be made of some special fabric.
When he pulled at it, it seemed to be extremely thin but very stretchy. There were
pockets everywhere. Aiden went through the pockets one by one and collected everything he found.
There was a compass, some rope, a Swiss Army knife, flint, a GPS device, and a black
automatic pistol. These didn't seem like the tools of the average kidnapper or even
human trafficker. This guy seemed more like a soldier or mercenary.
Aiden stared at the black pistol. He stroked the cold steel and his brain began
processing. He didn't care if Martin was dead or not.
He tied him up with ropes and stuck one of the man's own socks in his mouth just to be
safe. Then he took the Swiss Army knife, walkie-talkie, GPS, and pistol and left the scene
with Dora. This GPS device worked a lot like a tablet or phone.
On the screen, he could see small light spots moving around. Now he knew where
everyone was. According to the screen, there were five people going up the mountain,
including Martin.
As Martin continued not to move, in addition to Hank, the other three also sent greetings
from the walkie-talkie. All were fooled by Aiden's voice impersonation and unaware of
Martin's true condition where moving towards his body. Aiden's first target was a man
who was more isolated than the others.
He could take this guy out without the others immediately realizing anything was amiss.
He used the GPS to approach the figure quietly. The man was tall and spoke over the
radio with a foreign accent.
Aiden patiently followed him like a hunter pursuing his prey, waiting for the best time to
strike.