Embers Ad Infinitum

Jiang Baimian was speechless and could only point to the front:

"continue."

She drove the rented car to the bottom of the alley, and then found someone there for Shang Jianyao to ask.

It was confirmed that the man wearing sunglasses had been in this alley in recent days, always turning right at the bottom.

When Shang Jianyao returned to the car, Jiang Baimian turned the steering wheel to the right.

But after the vehicle entered another street, she did not rush to pursue it. Instead, she slowed down until she found a place to park.

After waiting for a while, Jiang Baimian picked up the walkie-talkie:

"Hey, what happened to the two people I asked about before?"

"No." Long Yuehong's voice came through the intercom, "They are all normal and doing their own thing. No one is trying to pass on information to others."

"Very good." Jiang Baimian praised, "Don't we still have some cameras? Find a place to install them and monitor these two targets on your behalf."

After putting down the walkie-talkie, she restarted the car and followed it down the street.

On the way, Shang Jianyao got out of the car many times to ask people for questioning. Although most of the time they were in vain, but relying only on a few useful "eyewitnesses", they were able to pinpoint the whereabouts of the man in black sunglasses.

On the other side, the team composed of Long Yuehong, Bai Chen and Gnawa secretly observed the people in this area, including but not limited to those who were questioned by Shang Jianyao and could hear conversations and see scenes around them.

Almost an hour later, the car rented by the "Old Adjustment Team" parked near a six-story old building.

Jiang Baimian, who was sitting in the driving position, looked there and recalled whether he had misjudged the direction along the way.

After confirming that it was correct, she pointed to the dilapidated building that was common in the Green Olive District and said:

“Based on current intelligence, the target lives here.

"The specific floor and room remain to be investigated further."

Shang Jianyao thought for a while and said:

"You are indeed not lost."

Jiang Baimian wanted to refute, but couldn't find strong enough words.

Shang Jianyao turned his attention to the side window and put forward his own suggestion:

"I'll ask when someone comes out."

Jiang Baimian did not answer immediately, and said after a while:

"There's no rush yet."

She turned her head and looked at Shang Jianyao:

"Don't you think it's too easy to find it?"

Before today's action, she had always thought that this time she could only gain something and find some clues. Who knew that she would directly lock in the place where the target lived.

The honest Shang Jianyao smiled and said:

"Maybe he didn't know that Odik would repeat the scenes he saw in his nightmares even when he was crazy, and he didn't know that Lao Ge could directly notice that his eyes were bigger and smaller on one side through his sunglasses.

“Without these two prerequisites, even if he appeared directly in front of us, we would not think there was anything wrong with him.

"In this case, who would be so tired and do so many things to cover up their whereabouts?"

I can do it... Jiang Baimian replied in his heart and said helplessly:

"Basic anti-tracking still needs to be done."

"You have to tell him this." Shang Jianyao spread his hands.

Jiang Baimian glanced at this guy:

“Anyway, you can’t go up there so recklessly.

"Well... let's do some peripheral observation for a while."

She picked up the walkie-talkie again:

“Lao Ge, install the remaining cameras around the target building to monitor the situation here.

"Xiaohong and Xiaobai, you are three hundred meters away and within the signal reception range, find another rental house.

"The initial time limit for this monitoring is three days."

After giving the order, Jiang Baimian looked at Shang Jianyao again:

"Why don't you object?"

Shang Jianyao raised his hand to rub his chin and said with a smile:

“This is the most reasonable and prudent process, why should I object?

"The one I just proposed has been subdued by the other me."

Is the reckless one under control? Jiang Baimian was both happy and felt that Shang Jianyao's way of getting along with each other was amazing.

After the covert work of Gnawa and others, the "Old Adjustment Team" used high-tech products to arrange surveillance of the target building.

They then retreated to a rental house 900 meters away in a straight line.

——Within this range, Gnawa can serve as a temporary base station, using wireless transmission to access surveillance video in a timely manner.

"How are you now?" After settling down, Jiang Baimian asked Gnawa.

Gnawa answered like a machine:

"The signal transmission is normal, and there is no picture worthy of attention so far."

"It's just a little power-consuming." Honest Shang Jianyao added helpfully.

"Yes." Gnawa put the previously used high-performance battery into the charger.

Long Yuehong watched him do this and said hesitantly:

“Want to monitor for three whole days?

"Isn't this too, too cautious?"

Jiang Baimian shook his head and smiled:

"When faced with a 'nightmare', you can never be too cautious."

She then looked around, suppressed her smile and said:

"Do you still remember the two questions I asked Lauris when we went to Odik's house?"

"Ask if that is her and Odik's home, and ask if Odik went crazy there..." Bai Chen suddenly fell silent as he spoke, as if he had thought of something.

Jiang Baimian nodded to her and said:

“Odik’s home is in the Red Giant Wolf District, and it’s not adjacent to the Green Olive District.

“The straight-line distance from there to the rental house where we had the ‘nightmare’ was more than five kilometers.

"This shows what?

"It means that the 'nightmare' invaded us and caused Boss Ugo to die. At the same time, it also affected Odik five kilometers away or even further, causing him to go crazy.

“This shows that the coverage area of ​​‘Nightmare’ is at least five kilometers!”

What a terrifying influence this is!

Long Yuehong didn't think about this problem at all before. After being touched by Jiang Baimian, she took a breath and spent more than ten seconds to digest the situation.

He said worriedly:

"The company really thinks we can give it a try?"

Shang Jianyao, the strongest member of the group, currently has an influence range of less than two hundred meters!

A smile appeared on Jiang Baimian's face again:

"No, you should think this way:

"Such a terrifying 'nightmare' actually requires a person to go to the place where we rented before to search for clues on the spot, instead of using a more covert method a few kilometers away. This shows that 'it' is likely to be subject to considerable restrictions."

"That's right..." Long Yuehong woke up.

This also shows that the "Old Tune Team" is more likely to fight against the minions of "Nightmare" rather than "it" itself.

Bang bang bang, Shang Jianyao clapped his hands.

Bai Chen raised another question:

"Since the 'nightmare' can drive Odik crazy in the Red Giant Wolf District, why are only the residents of the Green Olive District experiencing collective dreams, excluding the people near here in the Red Giant Wolf District?"

Jiang Baimian said in a guessing tone:

“Perhaps the dream defense line of ‘Dawn Morning Star’ is over there?

"This can be confirmed with them later."

"Yeah." Long Yuehong felt that this was indeed the most reasonable explanation.

Jiang Baimian turned his wrist and looked at the electronic watch, looked around and said:

"While we are free now, let's make some plans."

"Okay." Bai Chen and Long Yuehong responded quickly.

This is the routine process of the "old tune team"'s daily operations. As long as there is time and opportunity, they will make some plans for various developments of the matter.

Of course, limited by energy, manpower, resources, and the contradictions between different plans, they can only select the largest possible ones to prepare, and they cannot be perfect or exhaustive.

Shang Jianyao took out the pen he carried with him, used it as a pipe and took a puff.

He looked at Jiang Baimian and asked thoughtfully:

"Even if we treat the currently discovered target residence as a trap and make a targeted plan, we still lack enough intelligence to refine it."

Yes, yes... Long Yuehong agreed in her heart.

Jiang Baimian smiled slightly:

“We’ll discuss this later.

"Let's assume for now that the minion of 'Nightmare', the man wearing black sunglasses, is a very powerful awakener himself, at least at the 'Soul Corridor' level."

"There is no need to assume this, I think it is." Long Yuehong expressed her opinion.

He believed that since the other party could become a minion of the "nightmare" and appeared in the dream, his level must not be too low.

"The probability is more than 90%." Gnawa found the mathematical model and gave the calculation results.

Jiang Baimian smiled and asked the question:

"So, what field will he be in?"

Seeing Bai Chen and others' thoughtful expressions, Jiang Baimian shook his head and said:

"It's difficult to make a valid guess because we have little intelligence to back it up.

"How about this, everyone works harder, uses the exhaustive method, analyzes the other party's behavior, and selects the speculation that is most consistent with the current situation or the most likely to threaten us to formulate a plan.

"For example, if he were an awakened person at the 'Soul Corridor' level in the 'Bodhi' field in January, how would he deal with the task given by the 'Nightmare', how would he find out our whereabouts, and where might the price be shown?"

Shang Jianyao stroked his chin with a pen and said:

"On similar matters, the choices made by 'Destiny Tong', 'Heaven Eye Tong', 'Tian Ear Tong' and 'Other Heart Tong' are different."

Long Yuehong nodded and echoed:

“If that person possesses ‘Fate Communication’, he is equivalent to an awakened person from the ‘Last Man’ realm who can read memories. These two situations can be handled together.

"If I had a similar ability, when I wanted to track down the whereabouts of certain people, I would definitely not let go of the surrounding residents. I would definitely directly access the memory and look for the corresponding 'images'.

“At that time, the camouflage we made was different from what we do now, but the Jeep was not repainted later, so we cannot rule out that someone has seen us coming out of the Jeep.

"As for tracing the memory of this Jeep, well, we didn't deliberately go around deserted streets along the way, so, then..."

Having said this, Long Yuehong paused and shouted in a slightly horrified voice:

“He should be able to find the room we re-rented in the Red Giant Wolf area!

"After that, I will follow the clues and keep persisting. There is still a good chance that I will track it here!"

here!

As soon as Long Yuehong finished speaking, she suddenly felt that it was terribly quiet outside the room.

The streets in the afternoon sun seemed deserted.