Time went back to five hours ago.
At the ground floor of an apartment on the edge of Jinling’s Second Ring Road.
Standing in front of the building where the cordon was pulled, Wang Peng looked up at the sky, then at the guard room next to him. He walked over and knocked on the window.
“Excuse me, is anyone there?”
The window opened.
A person poked his head out, glanced at Wang Peng, and asked, “Renting a house?”
“Looking for someone.” Wang Peng pointed to the unit building with the cordon next to him and asked, “Excuse me, what happened here? Why can’t I go up?”
“Go up? Are you kidding me? The neighbor building residents almost all moved away, let alone this building. As for the cordon, it was taped up by the police. You should have heard. It was the explosion that caused a sensation in the entire Yangtze River Delta city group some time ago. Don’t tell me you didn’t watch the news.”
“Explosion?” Wang Peng was shocked and asked immediately, “May I ask if the 10012 resident—”
“10012? That number sounds familiar.” The security guard touched his chin. Suddenly, a trace of realization appeared in his eyes. He knocked on the table and said, “I remember, it was the one where the bombing happened some time ago… That tenant is your friend?”
“Where is he? How is he doing?!” Wang Peng asked anxiously with his hands on the window.
“He is fine… I heard that he asked the robot to pick up the package. Fortunately, it was the robot who went to answer the door. Apparently, the entire living room was blown up by the package. Anyway, I read the news. It didn’t say that there were casualties. He is either secretly being protected by the police or he has moved elsewhere.”
People in this era rarely bought houses, especially high-density houses in urban areas.
The real estate of most apartment buildings was publicly owned and operated by the local government and entrusted to relevant rental companies to be leased to individual residents.
If something went wrong in life, for people in this era, moving house was easier than buying a computer.
Especially in this era of residential buildings with one or two hundred stories, the average vacancy rate in the city center could reach 10%, so there was no problem of finding a house.
“I see. Thank you.”
The guard said with a hearty gesture, “You’re welcome. I can’t help you here. You’d better ask your friend himself or go to the police station for consultation.”
Wang Peng thanked the guard again. He dragged his suitcase, left the complex, and returned to the street. He wandered aimlessly in the street for a while.
When he got off the train at Jinling Maglev Station, he tried to contact Captain Xing, but no one answered the call. He thought Captain Xing was on a business trip and couldn’t answer the phone.
As for the rest of the Security Bureau…
He was a newcomer who had just joined, so he didn’t have their contact information.
Maybe Xing Bian didn’t expect that he would graduate from the training base in just one month, so he didn’t even think about this happening.
“A bit tricky…”
If only he could contact the Security Bureau… They must know Lu Zhou’s place of residence.
But the trouble now was that he couldn’t get in touch with either Lu Zhou or Captain Xing.
“Forget it… Let’s ask Old Li.”
Maybe he knows something.
Wang Peng pointed his index finger on the bracelet and looked at the pop-up holographic screen. He was about to open the address book to find Director Li’s name.
However, at this moment, a black magnetic levitation car slowly descended from the air and stopped on the side of the road, attracting his attention.
Not because of any special symbol on the car.
It was because the four people who got out of the car carried a dangerous aura.
Wang Peng immediately thought of the previous bombing case that happened in this area. His eyes then narrowed slightly.
Although his index finger that was operating the holographic panel did not stop, his attention had already inadvertently drifted to the four men in black.
Without realizing that they had been spotted, the four men in black followed a lady who was holding a little girl into an automated supermarket.
Realizing that something bad might happen, Wang Peng followed without any hesitation.
The moment he left the training base, he became an agent of the Security Bureau.
Although he had not formally been enrolled, his previous self would never allow crime to happen under his nose.
There was no other reason. He was a soldier, and this was China soil.
It was not about identity; it was about responsibility.
Sure enough, the moment he stepped into the supermarket, he saw one of the men in black taking out a black pistol.
Seeing the man lift the muzzle and point it at the young woman, Wang Peng no longer hesitated. He strode forward and knocked the man out sideways. At the same time, he snatched the gun in his hand.
The shelves fell backward with a bang, collapsing like a row of dominoes.
When Wang Peng felt the sturdy body of the man, he paused for a second. A flash of intuition told him that the assailant might not be a human being.
Although he didn’t know what the ALPHA virus was since he came from 100 years ago, he didn’t believe that “robots will never commit crimes”. Therefore, he wasn’t stunned that the opponent might not be a human.
There was no screaming or running around. After seeing the assailant with the gun being knocked down, the young woman hugged the little girl next to her. She calmly pulled her and hid behind the counter before covering the little girl’s eyes with her hands.
At the same time, the other three men in black reacted quickly after seeing their colleague being knocked out. They took out black pistols from their pockets.
Obviously, these were not EMP weapons. These were real guns!
Having expected such a thing to happen, Wang Peng didn’t give them a chance to aim at him. He rolled forward and flew behind the shelf.
The shelf shielding Wang Peng was pierced through by the bullets, but the bullets did not hit him. Instead, some hit the floor while others hit the wall, leaving behind bullet marks.
Hiding behind the shelf, Wang Peng grinned, but when he was about to fight back with the EMP pistol in his hand, a piercing alarm suddenly sounded in the supermarket.
Obviously, the woman hiding behind the counter had pressed the manual alarm.
In less than half a minute, two police drones had flown to the front of the supermarket window. They pointed their cameras at the three men in black and released a warning broadcast.
“Citizen, you have been surrounded! Please lay down your weapons immediately. Your behavior has violated Article… of the Criminal Law. If you continue to resist, you will be punished by the law.”
For some reason, after hearing this warning, the three men in black suddenly stopped.
They didn’t run away. Instead, they looked at each other before putting their hands down.
When Wang Peng saw their actions, his pupils suddenly shrank slightly as a horrible premonition climbed into his heart.
Almost subconsciously, he raised the EMP pistol in his hand and fired a shot at the chest of the robot on the ground, and at the same time, he shouted loudly at the two ladies behind the counter.
“Lie on the ground! Hold your head down and hide!”
His warning was abruptly cut off by a loud explosion.
The impact of the heatwave hit the shelves, pushing him and the fully-stocked shelves of mineral water into a corner.
Thick billowing smoke floated from the shattered shop window.
A few pedestrians on the street ran away.
Amid the harsh alarm bells, the swiftly dispatched police rushed to the scene as soon as possible.
Firemen with their heavy equipment arrived at the same time and rushed into the messy supermarket.
Fortunately, the only two living people were not seriously injured in this explosion…