A Scientific Urban Detective

"Where is this place?" After noting down the requester's address, Lin Wuming turned to Huangquan Chuan Aihui and Hu Feng Toumi, who were dozing off beside him.

Because the phone's ringtone had barely stopped all night, the three of them hadn't been able to rest well last night—which was one of the reasons Huangquan Chuan Aihui had warned them about beforehand.

"Eh? Is there finally a proper request?" Hu Feng Toumi instantly perked up, excitedly coming behind Lin Wuming and grabbing the handle of the wheelchair. "I'll take you there."

"Wuming…" Huangquan Chuan Aihui said listlessly, "You need to rest now."

Lin Wuming said with a smile, "The beginning is always the hardest. Our business has just started, so we can't afford to mess up at this time!"

Even if this was just a measure to cover up a lie, Lin Wuming didn't intend to gloss over it.

The most important thing is to be serious about everything. Even if the origin of this matter was a lie, Lin Wuming would turn it into reality through action and effort.

This plan would only end when Shokuhou Misaki escaped from 'Talent Manufacturing' and entered Tokiwadai Middle School as in the original plot.

Guided by Hu Feng Toumi, Lin Wuming smoothly found the park where he was supposed to meet the client.

Of course, along the way, Lin Wuming also noticed that there were guards in plain clothes secretly following not far behind. Obviously, the security forces were not completely at ease with him.

The first client was a female high school student, ordinary in appearance, and didn't seem to have anything special about her.

"Is it her? Doesn't look like a victim of illegal experiments," Hu Feng Toumi commented.

"It's not so easy to encounter illegal experiments," Lin Wuming didn't find it strange. "It should just be a normal request."

Lin Wuming knew very well that the vast majority of those who could call for help were unlikely to be victims of illegal experiments—because they had almost no opportunity to communicate with the outside world. And as Captain Hayate said, if they really had the opportunity to call for help, most of the time they would definitely call the police and security forces first.

When he decided to make his phone number public, Lin Wuming had prepared himself to become a "jack-of-all-trades."

In other words, even if this client girl asked him to find a cat, Lin Wuming wouldn't be surprised.

"Hello," the client girl noticed Lin Wuming and took the initiative to walk over. "Are you Wuming?"

"That's me. Are you Feli, the client for this request?" Lin Wuming asked in return.

"Yes, I am. Thank you very much for coming to help me!" The girl bowed deeply, and then asked, "I don't know how much I need to pay as a reward?"

Obviously, this client girl, who called herself "Feli," also consciously regarded Lin Wuming as some kind of "jack-of-all-trades."

"No need," Lin Wuming shook his head. "I don't need any reward. This is a volunteer activity."

"Eh?" Feli looked over in surprise.

"Tell me about your request first," Lin Wuming asked directly without wasting words.

"Yes!" Feli said quickly, "I want to ask you to help me find my friend. She suddenly disappeared starting last month…"

"Eh?" Lin Wuming was surprised instead. He didn't expect that his first request would be such a serious and solemn type.

A friend's disappearance is very unusual in this era of advanced communication technology. It's too easy to associate it with "illegal experiments."

Lin Wuming immediately became serious and looked at the client earnestly: "Please explain the situation in detail; also, provide me with as much personal information about the missing person as possible!"

Feli was also prepared and immediately took out an envelope from the bag beside her: "The information is all here, please take a look!"

—This girl is serious!

Lin Wuming thought to himself, but at the same time, he couldn't help but complain, since the information is so complete, why not just call the police?

"I will investigate seriously, please rest assured," Lin Wuming said after a brief chat. "If there are any other new clues, please contact me in time."

Because it wasn't something that could be resolved immediately, Lin Wuming decided to say goodbye to the client first and ask Huangquan Chuan Aihui after returning home to investigate with the help of the security forces.

"Please!" Feli bowed deeply again.

After separating from the client, Hu Feng Toumi finally spoke: "How boring, it turned out to be just finding someone…"

"Finding someone is already a very serious request," Lin Wuming said. "A missing person case…"

"You suspect she encountered illegal experiments?" Hu Feng Toumi guessed his thoughts. "But as far as I know, even those illegal experimental institutions choose experimental subjects from the 'refined' groups or juvenile reformatories, and they won't target people who legitimately have student status."

"That's true," Lin Wuming nodded. "But we still need to investigate."

Just as the two were on their way back, a car suddenly caught up from behind, maintaining its speed and moving along with them.

"Wuming, Hu Feng," The guard responsible for tracking and monitoring them was in the car. "You don't have to worry about that request just now."

"Why?" Hu Feng Toumi asked.

"Because we have already found the whereabouts of Feli's friend," the guard said.

A month ago, just as the vacation began, Feli's school was one of the types that had earlier vacations, so her friend had applied for an outing permit early and left Academy City to reunite with her family at home.

"She is currently vacationing in Hawaii," the guard said. "She left her phone at home and didn't bring it, so Feli couldn't contact her, of course."

The real reason was so simple, even laughably so.

The guard suddenly coughed and lowered his voice, saying, "That child probably heard some unreliable rumors and thought that Academy City could track her location through her phone, so she deliberately left her phone at home, right?"

According to regulations, as long as you leave Academy City, you must report to the school in advance and apply for a trip, no matter where you go. In theory, you cannot travel long distances across cities without permission.

And Feli's friend was worried that her Hawaiian vacation would be delayed, so she didn't apply to the school. Then, she took the method of abandoning her mobile phone to avoid tracking by Academy City…

Under a series of coincidences, it actually caused the illusion of "disappearance."

"Is that girl an idiot?" Hu Feng Toumi commented unceremoniously. "Isn't the chip implanted under the skin used for positioning? What's the use of throwing away the phone?"

In order to manage students leaving Academy City, in addition to the strict outing application system, Academy City also requires all students who go out to be injected with implanted positioning chips.

This is not a secret, but it is written in black and white on the outing application documents.

That's why Hu Feng Toumi criticized Feli's friend so unceremoniously.