Chapter 54: New Goal

Chapter 54: Chapter 54: New Goal

Xiang Yi pinned the map to the wall beside him so he could check it at any time.

It also served as a constant reminder that he wasn’t out of danger yet.

He picked up his terminal again and searched the news sites for anything about what had happened the night before.

He wanted to see whether the authorities had any record of last night’s Abnormality incident, and whether anything had been reported that could come back to bite him.

Following up on something the reporter had mentioned during the broadcast, Xiang Yi tracked down the "Abnormality Incident Response Division" on the local government’s public-facing website.

The site itself wasn’t badly put together, but beyond a handful of administrative reports, there were really only two pages worth looking at.

One was labeled "Common Abnormalities," the other "Abnormality Incident Records."

The first was meant to give ordinary citizens a basic heads-up about Abnormalities. The second was what Xiang Yi actually came for.

Still, out of curiosity, he took a quick glance at the Common Abnormalities page first.

It listed exactly eight types of Abnormalities.

Dead Spirit Dust, Shuffling Monster, Pioneer Tree, Flesh Beast A Type, Flesh Beast B Type, Flesh Beast C Type, Hidden Monster, and Giant Thorn.

There was no mention of Corpse Ghost or Blood Crystal, and the entries were nowhere near as detailed as the three documents Ning Ye had given him — just basic descriptions covering name, appearance, and known phenomena.

Even so, Xiang Yi committed all of it to memory. You never knew when it might come in handy.

The Abnormality Incident Records page had a bit more to it.

The entire page was taken up by a map of the city.

The city itself was mostly empty aside from the standard map features, but outside the city limits there were clusters of red and black dots in various sizes.

Every red dot marked a location where an Abnormality had been spotted. Every black dot marked a location where a full Abnormality incident had occurred, and the size of each black dot indicated how wide an area the incident had covered.

Next to each red or black dot was one of three status tags: Unresolved, Resolved, or Concluded.

Above the map was a date selector organized by month.

It was only mid-month, and the map was already packed with red dots. The black dots were fewer, but still there.

Sure enough, the abandoned district where Xiang Yi had been the night before was covered by one of the larger black dots.

He tapped the screen of his terminal and zoomed in on the dot’s details.

It corresponded exactly to the Abnormality incident from last night — and it was tagged as Concluded.

That was it. There was no further information about the incident itself, nothing about what type of Abnormality had caused it.

Then again, that made sense. This was a public-facing website. Publishing too much detail about Abnormality incidents would only cause panic.

Either way, Xiang Yi had gotten what he needed.

The fact that the dot was marked Concluded rather than Resolved meant the local government hadn’t sent anyone into the abandoned district.

Whatever traces he’d left behind in the city weren’t going to be found anytime soon. For the moment, he wasn’t at risk of being exposed.

But what about everything else?

Xiang Yi searched the news sites for the latest local coverage.

The most up-to-date piece was the live field report from the reporter he’d just watched on the news channel.

Everything else about the ship crash was either rehashed old news or coverage of the vessel conflict that had taken place in orbit above the planet.

And just like the Abnormality Incident Response Division, the local patrol department had issued no statement and made no visible move.

The main government bodies didn’t seem particularly invested in the situation either. The actual rescue work was being handled by the local fire department and a handful of civilian relief organizations.

Online, people were already calling out government officials for doing absolutely nothing.

Nearly all the public discussion was focused on the ship, the patrol forces, the building, the rescue effort, and the government’s response.

There was barely any talk about Abnormalities, and absolutely nothing about Xiang Yi — the person who had set everything in motion.

The local police department’s website had no wanted posting for him either.

It seemed the prison hadn’t shared any information about his escape with the local authorities.

Xiang Yi took a moment to look into the prison’s situation as well.

The facility he’d been held in was almost certainly the Liuyun-5 Satellite Prison, a subsidiary of Iron Shell Security Management Company.

Searching for it online turned up some results — and they were recent.

According to the reports, a riot had broken out at the prison and had since been successfully suppressed. The prison’s external affairs spokesperson had given an interview to a media outlet, stating that the incident had been triggered by a high-risk Abnormality, that they had comprehensive protocols in place, and that there was no reason to have any doubts about the facility’s security.

The whole piece was utterly bland — clearly a PR statement the prison had pushed out themselves. Nothing unusual in it at all.

So Xiang Yi had a rough picture now. In the short term, he was probably safe.

But in the long run, the prison wasn’t going to quietly drop the investigation.

Those people posing as the patrol force had risked getting blown out of the sky just to destroy the ship he was on in open space, just to make sure he was dead. That was way over the top for a simple prison escapee.

Xiang Yi had never heard of anyone taking out two innocent pilots and sinking a cargo freighter just to deal with one escaped convict.

It wasn’t worth it. Not even close.

So what reason could the prison possibly have to go that far?

As far as Xiang Yi could see, there was only one answer: the charges against him.

He had been convicted of a crime. A crime he knew he hadn’t committed.

Which meant, as far as he was concerned, someone had made him their scapegoat.

Pin charges of crimes against humanity on someone like him — a nobody — and it was a death sentence, plain and simple.

Pin those same charges on someone with real power and standing, though, and it would mean a whole string of death sentences. Enough to make some very dangerous people take very desperate measures to keep him quiet.

That reasoning neatly explained everything the prison had done. It also meant that until they had confirmed Xiang Yi was dead beyond any doubt, they weren’t going to stop.

That said, the prison almost certainly wouldn’t collaborate with the local government. If too much information about him and his charges came to light, things would go sideways fast.

Whether that would be worse for Xiang Yi or for Iron Shell Company was another question entirely.

Putting it all together, Xiang Yi was reasonably confident he didn’t need to worry about the prison in the short term — but he couldn’t afford to let his guard down either.

For now, that left only the local government to think about.

They would inevitably investigate the root cause of the ship crash.

There was almost certainly a black box or something equivalent on board. It was only a matter of time before they discovered there had been a third person on that ship.

On top of that, there was no way to erase the evidence he’d left behind in the abandoned district. Sooner or later, the local government was going to learn something about him — just not as much as the prison already knew.

That meant he might actually have a window to engage with the local government on his own terms.

He needed to be in a position to handle their investigation, to tell the truth and actually have someone believe him.

He needed to prepare for that. Sitting around and waiting wasn’t an option.

He knew he had to find a way to get a legal identity.

But how, exactly?

With Ning Ye no longer an option, he was completely out of his depth here. He didn’t know the area, didn’t know anyone, didn’t know where to begin — which meant he couldn’t do a damn thing.

Xiang Yi thought it over carefully.

Maybe the place to start was by learning more about where he actually was. That might turn up some kind of lead.