"You really don't trust my deductive skills?" Lu Zhiwei said, hands on her hips.
"I've already experienced them last time," Xiang Beifei replied.
An 11% accuracy rate, truly touching.
Lu Zhiwei rolled her eyes at Xiang Beifei, and then pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to Xiang Beifei, saying, "This guy, nicknamed 'Lai Wuying,' likes to break into houses and steal. He has committed over three hundred crimes here in Liangzhou and is very arrogant."
The paper was an internal document from the law enforcement team, evidently sneaked out and copied by Lu Zhiwei. The wanted notice didn't have a photo, not even a real name, height, weight, or any distinguishing features.
The only characteristic was his habit of leaving the words "Lai Wuying" at the crime scene, seemingly to provoke the law enforcement officers on purpose.
"There are no clues here, how can you be sure he came to our jurisdiction?" Xiang Beifei asked.
"That's an internal secret of our guardians, well, it's not exactly a secret. We have a system Awakener in our team who specializes in finding fugitives. The past few days, he has predicted that 'Lai Wuying' is approaching our area. According to his prophecy, this Awakener will be at Qianda Plaza this afternoon,"
Lu Zhiwei explained.
"A prophetic system Awakener?"
Xiang Beifei learned about prophetic system Awakeners in the subject of Synthesis. These Awakeners with the ability to prophesy were extremely rare, but every single prophetic Awakener was in high demand and never short of work.
Usually, they were pre-booked by the official Jiuzhou alliance, secure jobs indeed, since these people could predict the general direction of events. Having them around before undertaking dangerous operations provided an extra layer of reassurance.
Xiang Beifei asked, "Since he can prophesy, can't he see what Lai Wuying looks like?"
"I don't understand the specifics, but my father mentioned the enigmatic nature of this ability. Prophets can only foresee within a certain range; beyond that, they can't prophesy anymore. Lai Wuying just happened to enter our jurisdiction and got detected by him. And this ability... how should I put it? It has many limitations."
"What kind of limitations?"
"I'm not clear on the details, but all he provided was an oracle, saying that it would happen this afternoon at Qianda Plaza. He didn't specify the exact time or where at Qianda Plaza,"
Lu Zhiwei admitted, only having a partial understanding of such things.
This system seemed quite novel; Xiang Beifei was very intrigued to see it in action.
He then asked, "Uncle Lu seems to take this fugitive very seriously? He looked a bit off that day."
Lu Zhiwei hesitated for a moment before responding, "This matter involves one of my dad's dear friends, Chen Gang, who was the captain of the Eastern Liangzhou City Guard. A while back, when 'Lai Wuying' hit his jurisdiction, he went after the thief and ended up getting killed. My dad can't let go of this and wants to catch Lai Wuying to bring him to justice, so his old friend can rest in peace."
Xiang Beifei nodded thoughtfully.
Lai Wuying really had guts, daring to target law enforcement officers.
The two took a bus to Qianda Plaza. Today was Saturday, and Qianda Plaza was crowded with people out shopping and relaxing after a busy week.
"Alright, now you need to keep your eyes peeled and observe the people around here, help me spot Xu Yang's face. Just give me a signal, and I'll rush over and tackle him!"
Lu Zhiwei cracked her knuckles and went up on her tiptoes, giving her long legs a quick stretch to warm up.
Xiang Beifei wasn't here for Xu Yang; to be honest, given Lu Zhiwei's lamentable deductive skills, if she linked "Lai Wuying" with Xu Yang, it almost guaranteed the two had nothing to do with each other.
"Xiao Wei, why did you bring him here?"
Before they could find a good spot to keep watch, Lu Hong suddenly emerged from the crowd and dragged them to a corner.
"Dad, aren't I here to help you?" Lu Zhiwei said with a giggly smile.
Lu Hong knocked on Lu Zhiwei's head, his voice low as he scolded, "Do you realize how serious this is? We're here on an undercover operation to make an arrest, not for you to fool around!"
"Uncle Lu, hello!"
Xiang Beifei nodded politely in greeting.
Lu Hong's face was stern, "Beifei, it's dangerous here, go home."
Then he knocked on Lu Zhiwei's head again.
Lu Zhiwei touched her head in pain, her eyes teary as she said, "Dad, don't you think this is all too coincidental? Look, the time Xue Mo made his prediction and the day Beifei was attacked were the same. I've analyzed that there must be a connection between them, which is why I brought him along! Besides, Dad, don't you also want to catch Lai Wuying to avenge your old friend? If Lai Wuying is Xu Yang, who attacked Beifei, then surely Beifei would recognize him—you've got to trust my deductive skills for once!"
Xiang Beifei pretended not to hear Lu Zhiwei's words and instead said to Lu Hong, "I can give it a try, I won't cause trouble, there are so many people here, he probably won't do anything to me."
No one knows who Lai Wuying is or what he looks like, which makes the capture all the more difficult.
But Xiang Beifei could see other people's systems, and if the prediction was accurate, he could scan the systems of everyone in the plaza and analyze those that were off.
Lu Hong was silent for a long time.
His old friend's death still weighed heavily on him; he wouldn't pass up any chance, however slight, to catch the murderer.
"If that's the case, then fine. But Beifei, you don't know anything, so don't wander off. Stay close by me with Xiao Wei. If you do see that person, don't yell out, just tell me quietly," Lu Hong stated.
"Okay."
Xiang Beifei nodded.
"Dad, why do you think he comes to Qianda Plaza? Is there anything here worth stealing for him?"
Lu Zhiwei checked her system interface in a secluded corner of the plaza.
She recorded all the clues related to 'Lai Wuying' in the memo of her system interface so that she could search for information with just a thought.
But after looking through it, the conclusions she could draw were limited.
There was too little information left by Lai Wuying.
"We don't know yet. Maybe he's just passing through, or perhaps he's here for a heist. He's been provoking us, the guardians, over and over again, and he's really brazen. This time we must bring him to justice!" Lu Hong clenched his fist.
Xiang Beifei inquired, "The book says that to predict something, you must have something related to the event. So what do you rely on to predict his moves?"
Lu Hong replied, "We rely on the words he leaves behind. After every crime, he carves words into the crime scene, deep into the wood."
Lai Wuying has not left any effective physical description to date. With over three hundred crimes committed, even the gender is unknown. Each time only a line of words was left before leaving arrogantly.
"So, what do you think Lai Wuying's system might be?" Xiang Beifei asked further.
"People from different jurisdictions have been chasing him for a long time. Initially, it's believed that he might have awakened a system like the 'Invisibility System' or the 'Master Thief', potentially possessing wall-penetrating and invisibility abilities," Lu Zhiwei clarified from the side.
These were just speculations; it was hard to say for sure since they couldn't see Lai Wuying's system.