Chapter 112: The Gentleman in the Grass

“Get inside and help me break through the access controls. Then keep a close watch on all the surveillance around the Emerald Wall. When he arrives, I need to give him some trouble.”

Yao Lun was an experienced second-tier ability user, likely equipped with various secret techniques. Ji Cheng wasn’t sure if Yao Lun could move quickly surrounded by mutated beasts.

So he didn’t give them an estimated time, instead instructing them to monitor continuously from start to finish.

“You won’t get tired anyway, right?”

“Of course not, Shana’s eager to be used by you endlessly~”

“Ah… wait a moment, don’t come in yet!”

As Shana was about to access the surveillance room’s computer, she quickly stopped An Chan from entering behind her.

“What’s wrong?”

“Twice now…”

Shana’s brows curved slightly as she spoke softly, “Not long ago, the signal from your wristband computer was intercepted once. At the time, I thought it was an illusion, but it happened again just now.”

“Intercepted?” Ji Cheng asked, “What kind of interception? Disappeared into thin air?”

“No, no, it wasn’t really intercepted… or maybe it’s not the right word. The signal was still there, but it felt like something… had ‘touched’ it.”

Touched it. Ji Cheng pursed his lips, deep in thought.

Though Shana, as a data ether entity, might not fully understand yet, her instincts and intuition in the digital realm were highly reliable.

If she felt the signal was touched but not intercepted, what could that mean?

Suddenly, Ji Cheng smiled faintly. “I see. It must have been tracked.”

The reason Shana sensed that was likely because the computer signal was locked onto by a scanning wave.

“Old Yao, hiding pretty deep, huh? Your mechanized suit even has a tracking device, and not even Brother Huang knows about it. If Shana weren’t so sharp, I might have been caught off guard.”

“Alright then.”

“Found it, so what? I’m not really afraid of you.”

Ji Cheng didn’t mind being discovered by Yao Lun.

He knew full well that Yao Lun could never master the proper use of the mechanized suit. Using the tracking device in such a case consumed a tremendous amount of energy!

According to intelligence from Huang Long, Yao Lun’s mechanized suit couldn’t be recharged; the energy was limited and would only deplete.

Since Yao Lun used the tracking device twice already, Ji Cheng wasn’t afraid of him anymore.

“As long as he doesn’t have any long-range lethal weapons, a mechanized suit running out of energy won’t necessarily guarantee victory…”

Ji Cheng looked west with a sly grin.

“Anyway, you two keep monitoring the surveillance. Notify me immediately once he shows up.”

Fifteen kilometers away.

Yao Lun sometimes walked slowly, sometimes leapt, sometimes sprinted for a bit before stopping, moving along the street in an almost incomprehensible rhythm.

Suddenly, he accelerated sharply, crossing a main road over thirty meters wide, and slipped into a supermarket on the other side before the mutated beasts could react.

He reached the second floor, his ruthless eyes gazing expressionlessly through the huge glass windows toward the Emerald Zone.

“Relocate once more.”

He activated his mechanized suit, connected it to his computer, and quickly received the scanning results.

“About fifteen kilometers away, no longer moving,” Yao Lun’s mind stirred. “Resting? Good.”

His biggest fear was Ji Cheng fleeing wildly and constantly changing location. Multiple locates would drain the mechanized suit’s energy.

“Just stay put, wait for me. I’ll make you regret coming to this world.”

Yao Lun muttered to himself, his voice dark and full of murderous intent.

It was as if a mixture of blood and sand clogged his throat.

…

4:37 a.m.

Before dawn, the surveillance room was filled with continuous conversation.

“Why isn’t he here yet? I’m almost falling asleep. You two didn’t let him slip through, did you?”

The modestly sized, cross-shaped surveillance room had narrow corridors on the left and right, lit by elongated lamps that illuminated the metallic floor and its anti-slip textures.

The front and rear ends of the room were shrouded in darkness.

High-level military surveillance rooms often had this design to prevent light reflections and glare on the monitors, which could impair judgment.

“Logically, he should be arriving soon… You two must watch carefully.”

Ji Cheng’s eyes were half-closed, drowsy.

“He’s here!”

“Huh? No way!”

Ji Cheng jolted upright, looking at the large surveillance screens ahead. “Where is he?”

“He’s not on these cameras,” Shana’s gentle voice answered.

“I’m connecting the cameras I can see with your tactical goggles.”

“Good.” He lowered his tactical goggles, and a dim, blurry surveillance image immediately appeared.

In the distance, a tall figure approached steadily—it was Yao Lun.

As he drew closer, the camera focus shifted nearer, and the surrounding scenery became clearer.

It was a lifeless street: toppled bus stops, collapsed shops, dried blood like black mud on steps and roads, and the stench of decomposing corpses was almost palpable through the screen.

The defining characteristic here was devastation, resembling a mining supply point attacked in the news.

“You finally arrived.” Ji Cheng tapped lightly on his chair with one hand while holding the tactical goggles with the other. “Judging by the surrounding buildings, this should be another section of the Emerald Wall about two kilometers away.”

“Hey, after climbing over, he actually turned along the wall.”

“Is he heading toward my current position?”

“Let me check the map… Yeah, he is. Old Yao’s tracking is pretty accurate.”

Yao Lun had no idea all his movements were under Ji Cheng’s control.

“He probably won’t relocate again. Let’s move to another spot.”

Even though he wasn’t afraid to confront Yao Lun head-on anymore, staying put and waiting for someone to come knocking felt unpleasant.

He preferred to keep the initiative.

In a fight, surprise was everything.

Amidst dense greenery.

With precise control, Ji Cheng carefully stepped on a tree branch. He climbed onto a thick, horizontally growing branch at the canopy’s base; the smaller branches trembled slightly but made no sound, let alone snapped.

Beyond the Emerald Wall lay a buffer zone over ten meters wide, too open to hide or ambush anyone.

So he ventured deeper into the greenery, preparing to ambush Yao Lun here.

“Calculating the time, it should be very close.”

Through the gaps in the scaly leaves, Ji Cheng gazed into the deep darkness, holding a slender iron chain in his hand.

“First time being a ‘grass gentleman,’ feeling kind of nervous.”

He began adjusting his breathing to match a natural rhythm, inhaling and exhaling with the earth’s pulse.

Like a wild beast, living, breeding, and hunting freely in the wilderness for generations.

Life resonance—instinct.

“If I take out Old Yao with a stress response method, how much assimilation would that add to me… tsk.”