Chapter 59: Hostage

Chapter 59: Chapter 59: Hostage

Xiang Yi opened the chat app on the terminal and found the friend Pingyu had mentioned.

His friend’s name was Lu Qi, which was probably a fake name.

The chat history was mostly about where to go drinking and have fun, but there was some strange content as well.

Like the photo Pingyu had just mentioned.

The person in the photo was indeed Xiang Yi, and the device was definitely the Mind Pulse Generator.

Xiang Yi scrolled further back through the chat history between Pingyu and this Lu Qi.

He discovered that this wasn’t the first time a photo like this had been sent.

On several previous occasions, Lu Qi had proactively provided photos or other things for Pingyu to keep an eye out for, and almost every time he had mentioned a reward for finding the person in the photo.

Before Xiang Yi could ask, Pingyu spoke up on his own. "My friend seems to have connections with the real local gangs. He sends out messages like this occasionally. They seem to be some kind of covert bounties."

"Why would he send them to you?"

"Probably because I know a lot of people. He asks me to help spread the word sometimes."

"Tell me the specifics about the bounty."

"I don’t know, I really don’t... I just suddenly remembered the photo my friend sent me, so I took a picture when I had the chance. Who knew..."

Pingyu gave a bitter laugh.

It seemed he really was just a small fry, not worth a deeper investigation from Xiang Yi.

’His friend is probably the one who’s really involved. That Lu Qi definitely has connections to the prison.’

Xiang Yi had only crashed yesterday. Only the prison could have put out a bounty on him so quickly.

"Tell me where your friend lives."

"I don’t know, but I know a bar he frequents. I’ll tell you the location..."

「A few minutes later.」

Xiang Yi walked out of the room and had Shi Tie let Du Bingtian down.

Du Bingtian craned his neck, trying to see how Pingyu was doing inside the room, but Xiang Yi suddenly clapped him on the back and said, "Let’s go."

"Go? Where to?"

"To get the card made."

"Oh, right."

Du Bingtian caught on and walked ahead of Xiang Yi, leading him back to the Southwest City District.

After passing through a complex cluster of buildings, they arrived near the few somewhat planned structures Xiang Yi had seen earlier and entered a building that looked a little old and dilapidated.

There was no one in the building right now. Anyone who might have been there was probably at a nearby clinic getting stitches, or lying in a ditch somewhere.

Du Bingtian led Xiang Yi to a machine, took his photo, and began deftly operating the device.

He suddenly turned his head and said, "Um... your name is..."

"Du Bingtian."

"?"

Du Bingtian’s face was a mask of confusion.

"What? Is that not allowed?"

"It is, it is. You’re the boss."

Du Bingtian fiddled with the machine for a bit, then quickly pulled a brand-new ID card from the dispenser slot and handed it to Xiang Yi.

It was printed with Xiang Yi’s photo, Du Bingtian’s name, a little information, a local place of origin, and an ID card number.

It looked perfectly fine, but it would definitely be exposed if anyone investigated it seriously.

Du Bingtian sidled up to Xiang Yi and asked cautiously, "Are we getting the electronic card next?"

Seeing Xiang Yi nod, Du Bingtian once again led the way, taking him to a similar building on the next street over.

He opened the building’s rolling shutter door, revealing a room filled with all sorts of mechanical equipment.

There was no one in the room at the moment, only a rather plain-looking humanoid robot standing at a workbench, operating something.

The robot suddenly turned around and asked Du Bingtian, who had just opened the door, "What’s the situation?"

"A friend came by who needs a card."

"Then come on in."

It seemed someone was controlling it remotely. The robot beckoned with its hand, stopped what it was doing, and walked toward another machine.

Du Bingtian didn’t move, however. He first looked at Xiang Yi, and only after seeing him nod did he step inside.

The robot seemed to notice something but didn’t say anything.

When Xiang Yi and Du Bingtian were both beside it, it asked, "Do you have an old card?"

"I do."

Xiang Yi took out the terminal he had picked up earlier and opened the back cover.

Two cards were inserted inside: a memory card and an electronic ID card.

The robot took the electronic ID card from Xiang Yi and inserted it into the machine in front of it.

"A new card requires you to load some money onto it before you can use it. An old card doesn’t have that restriction."

"But remember, you can’t use this card to do business with government personnel or any government department. It’ll be confiscated. For normal transactions with anyone else, it’s fine."

"By the way, is the card’s owner still alive?"

"Been dead for two days."

"That’s good. No need to worry about the data being migrated."

The robot performed a few operations, then closed the machine’s cover and said, "Have a seat for a bit. It’ll take about ten minutes."

Xiang Yi wasn’t bothered by the room’s clutter. He found a place to sit and plopped down, asking, "Any rumors going around lately?"

The robot unexpectedly initiated conversation. "Actually, there are."

"Do you know about the spaceship crash in the city district these past couple of days?"

"I do." ’Know about it? I was in it.’

"The response to this accident has been extremely slow. It’s also rare that a government spokesperson hasn’t come out to shout some ’inspiring’ slogan. The whole thing is being handled by ministers from a few small, obscure departments, with even civilians helping out."

"It seems like the government is having some problems."

"What kind of problems?"

"Heaven knows. Anyway, the city district’s administration seems to be in chaos right now, just running on inertia."

After those words, the room fell silent.

After a short while, the robot spoke up again. "Bingtian, go next door and get me a wrench."

"For a small thing like that, just have my subordinate help you."

Xiang Yi cut off the robot’s request. He couldn’t let his only hostage just run off like that.

Seeing this, the robot didn’t say anything more. It took the wrench that Shi Tie had picked up from who-knows-where and continued tinkering at the workbench.

Another few minutes of silence passed before the robot asked Xiang Yi again, "Anything else you want to know?"

"What other business do you do here?"

"Sell some tools, sell some equipment, repair equipment too. That’s it."

Xiang Yi pointed to where the robot had just been working. "How much for a set of tools like yours?"

"Just a table and its associated tools would be a little over ten thousand. Everything in this whole room, all together... three hundred thousand."

"With that much money, you could live pretty well in the city, couldn’t you?"

"How do you know I’m not living well?"

Xiang Yi glanced at the robot in front of him, which looked a bit old and simple but was in excellent working condition, and nodded. "Fair enough."

The two fell silent again, but this time the silence was quickly broken.

"Is there a way to get a legal identity?"

"No, can’t be done. The only ones who can issue legal identities are officials from the population department. Coming to me is useless."

"The card’s ready."

Before Xiang Yi could ask another question, the robot turned, opened the machine that had just been running, and handed him an ID card with an embedded electronic card and a separate, insertable electronic card.

At the same time, it took Du Bingtian’s personal terminal, opened the transfer page right in front of him, and transferred all 20,782 Federation Coins from his account to Xiang Yi’s card.

The pained expression on Du Bingtian’s face at that moment was genuine.

Xiang Yi gave a slight nod, pulled Du Bingtian along, and said, "Alright, let’s go."

The robot immediately blocked Xiang Yi’s path. "After all this, you’re still going to take him with you?"

"Is he your friend?"

"He’s a pretty useful subordinate of mine. Aside from not being too bright sometimes, he’s great."

This person seemed to value Du Bingtian quite a bit, but there was no way Xiang Yi was going to let his hostage go in a place like this.

"To be honest, I don’t trust you."

"I don’t trust you either."

Suddenly, a BEEP rang out.

The room’s rolling shutter door slammed down at high speed.

Additional metal plates fixed to it locked the shutter door completely.

The windows were also sealed by metal shutters.