Umbrella, The Light of Humanity

In the single room on the east side of the hotel.

Throwing the travel bag on the ground, turning on the central air conditioner, and closing the curtains, Leon turned around, took out the special agent's mobile phone to operate, and searched every corner.

According to the process and professional habits, after ensuring that the space he was in was free from any snooping and monitoring equipment, Leon sat on the bedside to rest.

Looking at the simple decoration, which tends to be like the motel rooms in the 1980s and 1990s, he can't help feeling nostalgic.

But the holographic imaging device on the ceiling tells Leon that it is the 1980s of the 21st century, and he is also on the "Sen Green Star", which is 470 light-years away from the earth.

Take it easy.

Lyon operated the mobile phone, wrote the information he investigated into a report, uploaded it to the company, and shared it with his subordinates scattered on the border of the fortress.

After talking with the driver, and based on decades of investigation experience, the Kirahani are not simply "convulsions."

Although until now, there are still a large number of ghost-faced beasts (Kirahani tribe) who are trying to restore the covenant empire, but they have extreme "PTSD" towards humans, especially the Primarch and Astartes.

Therefore, they only dared to scurry back and forth in the former covenant empire, basically they did not dare to step into the human territory.

Only a very small number of radical guys, in order to "improve life" and revenge, evolved into a pirate organization, and from time to time invaded the border fortress star area on a small scale.

As a result, they were either annihilated or beaten and expelled.

The border fortress star area, just by looking at the name, you can tell that the garrison force is strong but not weak, not to mention John, who has the top combat power in the Primarch, and the Spartan Legion, which is both offensive and defensive, and good at teamwork. .

In addition to the star area, a total of 20% of the reserves from each legion were deployed, which was much higher than other star areas.

From this point of view, the group of ghost-faced beasts half a month ago were purely here to die.

This is a bit weird.

Moreover, the ghost-faced beasts saved a large number of ground troops, carrying supplies and armored vehicles and escaped to Pulton, which is full of rainforests, or colonial planets with complex terrain.

Leon always felt that the ghost-faced beast's actions seemed to be radical suicide revenge, but they were actually attracting the attention of the human military and intelligence department.

Or in the star area, there are things worthy of ghost-faced beasts desperately looking for and digging.

Therefore, in the uploaded report, Lyon deliberately marked his various speculations and opinions.

Immediately afterwards.

Leon put away his mobile phone, unzipped the travel bag, and disarmed the biosensor safety of a plasma grenade.

Re-zipped the zipper, got up and put the travel bag into the closet, and packed up the clothes before leaving the single room.

outside the room.

It is a corridor with the same sense of age. Leon walked to the lobby through the stairs at the end, and nodded with a smile, responding to the boss who sat behind the reception desk and said, "Brother, are you going to go shopping?"

Come outside the hotel.

The city where Lyon is located has ushered in the evening of Poulton. Various lights on the street are lit up, and holographic images emitting various colors also emerge.

On the contrary, this sultry weather has no stars "setting" to make it cooler, and the temperature is still stable at around 38°C.

And the number of pedestrians on the street has not decreased due to the approaching night. On the contrary, this city named Budapen has just begun to enter a "normal" state.

Nightlife is the main theme of Budapene or the whole of Poulton.

Just as the innkeeper said, Leon is indeed planning to take a stroll, after all, information and clues will not come to the door on his own initiative.

Walking along the street to the easternmost side of Budapestini, the closer you get to the intersection of the city and the rainforest, Lyon will find that the crowds are getting more and more complicated.

There are three or five people gathered together, and you can tell they are gang members at a glance.

But this group of people didn't swagger or swagger, but walked normally, and they didn't take the initiative to provoke trouble, so as to avoid attracting the attention of the security officer on patrol.

When Lyon walked around the corner, crossed the alleys, and came to one of the streets that the driver had mentioned, full of pink lights and holographic imaging, he also saw men and women with heavy makeup and beauties standing in various bars, Solicit customers in front of the nightclub entrance.

When the water is clear, there will be no fish.

Leon, who has lived for a century, still understands this truth very well. If he wants to eradicate it, he can only remove the "impurities" in human nature.

Regardless of whether it can be eliminated, if it is really eliminated, whether it can continue to be called "human beings" is a huge question mark.

live long.

Lyon sometimes considers some "philosophical issues", but most of the time he just asks for troubles, so he gradually doesn't bother to worry about them.

At this time.

"Brother~." A woman in a purple skirt and red high-heeled shoes approached Leon and said in a charming voice:

"Come in for a glass of wine~, there is a discount today~."

heard the words.

Leon turned his head to look at the other party, and then looked up at the bar where the woman worked, and saw that the scale was one of the largest on this street.

Then he stopped and said, "Okay, for your sake, I'll spend some money."

"Thank you, guest officer~!"

The woman who received an affirmative answer immediately beamed with joy, and led Leon into the bar until she arrived at the spacious, air-conditioned hall, which was also extremely noisy and dark.

"~!~!" The explosive music came to my ears.

At the front of the hall is a live band, and people sitting nearby follow the rhythm of the music, nodding and shaking their legs unbearably, having a drink with their friends or with the woman's co-workers.

The waiters shuttle between the seats, passing drinks and snacks on the plate.

Moreover, there are bar counters on both sides of the hall, providing services for those who come alone or those who do not want to spend extra money to reserve seats.

Hall entrance.

The woman gently took Leon's left arm, pointed to the empty seat next to the band and said, "Brother, do you want to sit there, or..."

As she said that, she pointed to the private room on the second floor connected to the hall with soundproof floor-to-ceiling windows, and asked in a more charming voice, "Where is it?"

"I'll go there." Leon pointed to the bar on the right, and he had no idea of ​​private seats or private rooms at all.

heard the words.

"..."

The smile on the woman's face froze, obviously she didn't expect Leon to be so straightforward.

After confirming that she would not get more commissions, the woman immediately withdrew her hands holding Leon's left arm, her smile was no longer as "sincere" as before, and she said:

"Then I wish you a good night, brother. I have to continue working, so I'll go first."

After finishing speaking, the woman left here without looking back.

Glancing at the woman's back, Leon shrugged indifferently, walked to the bar and sat down, ordered a low-alcohol cocktail from the bar, and then observed the people who were consuming here.

Beside him, there are two elites who only care about drinking and chatting, while most of the people are normal, there are white-collar workers who relax after get off work, and there are also young people who hang out with their buddies.

There are no traces of corruption in different spaces.

What's more, the vaccine developed by the plague doctor was completed twelve years ago, and the vaccine for the elite and the iron-blooded race was completed nine years ago.

Theoretically, the vaccine can effectively isolate the whispers of demons from different spaces, and only the demons can complete corruption through substantial physical means.

This is also one of the main reasons why elites can live in human society. As for the absence of iron-blooded people, it is because their number of races is too rare.

Observed for a moment.

There was still no noteworthy abnormality, Leon paid the bill to the bartender, and left this normal bar.

And when he walked out of the bar, the woman standing at the door soliciting customers marked him with a "stingy" label in his heart.

Afterwards, Lyon spent another three hours shopping in this pink and red neighborhood.

Although areas where fish and dragons are mixed are often the easiest to obtain underground information about a city or colonized planet, but this time, Leon returned without success.

Finally, at the end of the east side of the block, looking at the starry sky that has completely entered the night, he couldn't help shaking his head slightly.

It seems that this time the luck is slightly worse.

Lyon, who left the block, was going to contact the local intelligence department after tomorrow, preparing to officially start the investigation.

but.

Leon had just left that block, and within a short distance, he encountered a woman wearing short jeans, a white hoodie, and a hoodie walking on the other side of the street, walking in the opposite direction from him.

Wearing a sweater in the heat of 38°C?

Although it is a light and breathable sweater, and there are people who dress similarly to that woman in order to prevent sun protection during the day, but now it is night...

In any case, the other party still attracted Lyon's attention.

His intuition told him that there was something wrong with the woman.

Pretending to take a few steps forward, Leon took the opportunity to turn his head and look back from the corner of his eye, only to find that the woman turned right and disappeared at the intersection.

Seeing this situation, he immediately turned around, walked quickly to the intersection, mixed with a large number of pedestrians and waited for the red light, and also followed the trend to observe the woman's movements.

The green light came on.

Lyon used pedestrians to provide cover, and then walked across the zebra crossing to the other side of the street, keeping a certain distance from the woman.

He followed behind, cautiously followed for about half an hour, until he came to the block that completely intersected with the rainforest.

The building floors here are generally not high, so that trees can easily cover the entire block, and it is more humid and hot here, and even the starry night sky is blocked by lush branches and leaves.

At the same time, due to the proximity to the rainforest, there began to be soldiers equipped with simple power armor, belonging to the elite division of the UNSC Army, patrolling in squads to prevent the ghost-faced beasts wandering in the rainforest from launching surprise attacks.

From time to time, there will be a Warthog equipped with a .50cal pulse machine gun, or a 25mm Gauss machine gun, and a personnel carrier with suspension technology, passing the street and heading deep into the rainforest.

Lyon continued to follow.

Not long after.

The woman turned right again, entered an inconspicuous alley, and briefly disappeared from Leon's view.

But he didn't speed up his pace, but kept his original speed. The moment he passed the alley, he looked into the alley seemingly casually.

I saw the woman who was about to walk out of the alley, and I also saw the other end of the alley, which seemed to be the warehouse area used to store building materials in the early days of this block.

Wait until you pass the alley completely.

Leon counted silently for a few seconds before turning around and entering the empty alley, speeding up his pace and running to the edge of the other end.

Probe a little.

After finding out which warehouse the woman walked into, Leon immediately took out the special agent's mobile phone, shared his location with the local intelligence department, and used the authority of the senior executive to submit a support request.

Lyon's operation is equivalent to gambling with the sixth sense, after all, there is no substantive evidence until now.

But with the experience of dealing with nearly a hundred abnormal phenomena and demonic incidents, he was sure that that woman was definitely tricky.

Moreover, even if his judgment is wrong, it does not conflict with the options for applying for support, and it is all due to contact and cooperate with local colleagues in advance.

be ready.

Leon put away his mobile phone, lifted the tail of his loose shirt, took out the laser pistol from the quick-draw holster, held it in his right hand and closed the safety, then he left the alley and gradually approached the warehouse.

Come to the edge of the warehouse.

Leon leaned against the wall, and with his left hand, he took out an earphone from the tactical bag on his back with his left hand, put it on, and then took out a metal box the size of an eraser.

Then he opened the slide cover with his thumb, put the metal box on the ground, and used his index finger and thumb to pinch out a detection robot less than one centimeter in shape that looked like a black ant.

Close the slide cover tightly and retract the metal box.

Leon took out the phone again, and controlled it with one hand with his left hand, making the "ant" crawl quickly on the ground.

On the screen, the perspective of "ants" is also displayed.

next.

Under Lyon's control, the scout robot began to climb the wall, and entered the interior of the warehouse through exhaust fans and pipes.

Continue to crawl for some distance.

The screen of the mobile phone displayed the picture captured by "Ant", which made Leon observe the woman and a group of companions suspected of the woman again.

I saw a total of six "people" in the middle of the warehouse full of sundries all around.

In terms of dressing, he either wears long hair that can cover the ears, or like that woman, wears a hooded and breathable sweater.

The facial and physical characteristics are very similar to those of human females. They are all about twenty years old in appearance, and only one "female" looks older.

The reason why Leon described the other party as similar to human women was because the "woman" he was following relaxed his vigilance in front of his companions, and took the initiative to lift the hood, revealing slender and special ears.

Its appearance was similar to the human-like elves in the epic and fantasy movies that he went to watch during his vacation.

He has a good face and a slender figure.

However, Leon did not relax his vigilance because of "their" appearance.

Immediately afterwards.

The "ants" who were secretly monitoring and listening, passed the content of the conversation of these elves into Leon's ears through the earphones.

He only heard the youngest woman who was being followed by him speak to a group of elves in a non-human language.

The tone and demeanor seemed to be sharing information. It seemed that the other party was using the similarities in human appearance to secretly sneak into Bulton to inquire.

The lack of inspiration these days finally led to the emergence of an alternative "Spirit Race".