Chapter 441: Chapter 263: Rainbow Wings’ Two Urgent Missions
Xia Pingzhou and Ayase Origami had come here before. At that time, a card event occurred on the mountain, and he sat on the rooftop of a café, enjoying the breeze when Ayase Origami came up to find him.
She summoned a paper dragon, carried him in front of the shrine, and effortlessly slew the Asura demon and Yaksha demon. It was almost as easy and leisurely as thrashing Su Zimai at the auction.
The chirping of birds and the rustling of leaves enveloped the vast world, with verdant green everywhere the eye could see. They walked for a while in the mountain forest, and found a spacious area in front of a cliff, with a jade green lake at the bottom of the mountain.
"Let’s do it here," Xia Pingzhou said. "Logically, such a deep mountain forest shouldn’t draw much attention. I’ll keep watch near the Queen’s statue, and you can give it a try."
Ayase Origami nodded silently, taking out a gray and white book from her sleeve.
A bright ray of sunlight brushed down from the mountaintop, and the gray on the cover of the book faded away, appearing nearly pure white. The endless copybook flipped open automatically without wind, and under the control of the kimono-clad girl, the pages tore open one by one.
Soon, a wild storm came, thousands of trees rustling, birds and beasts cried out in the mountain forest, and waves surged on the lake surface, the whole world enveloped in this enormous commotion.
Xia Pingzhou raised his head, his black hair lifted by the wind. He gazed at the unbelievable spectacle atop the mountain, eyes slightly widened, a hint of astonishment appearing on his face.
...
...
A dozen hours later, at noon on August 6th United States time, in the underground second floor of the Empire State Building.
In an empty parking lot, You Ruirui opened the door of a Maybach, sat in the driver’s seat, and inserted the key.
Gu Qiye followed into the car, sat in the passenger seat, casually closed the door, then silently looked out of the window, his mind recalling the ten Rainbow Wings members he saw at the meeting earlier.
"What are we doing now?" he asked.
"Let’s go eat first," You Ruirui said, "then assign tasks."
"Tasks?"
The ice-sculpted white-haired girl nodded, silently took out a tablet, and glanced at the document list on it.
Gu Qiye cast a glance, seeing familiar faces on the document list, his expression slightly changed, as it was the members of the brigade he saw at the Tokyo Auction: a girl in an ochre kimono, and a young man in a black trench coat with deep eyes...
"White Crow Travel Brigade", the name of this robber organization instantly appeared in his mind.
Gu Qiye recalled the events that occurred half a month ago at the Tokyo Auction. He still remembered the feeling of despair when surrounded by brigade members in the mirror world and the black silhouette that blocked in front of him at the brink of death, the man wearing a metal breathing mask.
The silhouette of Ghost Bell flashed through his mind, and he was silent for a moment, taking a deep breath, his eyes appearing clouded with a shadow of gloom.
"We have two urgent tasks on hand, and five of Rainbow Wings members are on vacation, so we must properly allocate personnel among the remaining seven to complete these two tasks," You Ruirui said as she browsed the documents.
"What are the two tasks?"
"The first task is to capture the White Crow Travel Brigade. They are directly involved in the plundering and destruction of the Whale Terrarium, so their wanted level has significantly increased. Originally, they were not within our scope, but with the development of the Terrarium destruction incident on August 1st, the higher-ups decided to send us to capture them in the short term."
"White Crow Travel Brigade..." Gu Qiye said expressionlessly, "But how are we supposed to find them? They have been wandering across nations without a fixed activity range."
"Based on information from witnesses in the Japanese underworld, one member of theirs was recently spotted in Japan. This photo was sent over a dozen hours ago," You Ruirui said and opened the photo on the document list.
Gu Qiye turned to look, and from the photo’s perspective, it was taken from the pedestrian path on Tokyo Bay Rainbow Bridge.
The lens crossed over the radiant Tokyo Bay in the sunlight, capturing bizarre scenes on a distant mountain: gray and white paper pages swirling in the sky, forming a formidable tornado, and even the sea above Tokyo Bay subtly surged upward.
Paper pages? Tornado? Gu Qiye was stunned, suddenly recalling the kimono girl he saw at the auction. She crossed the wooden door into the Mirror Auction, the paper butterflies fluttering behind her as if it were a sea of white flowers.
"What is this?" he asked silently.
"Control of paper pages, a member of White Crow Travel Brigade: Ayase Origami’s ability." You Ruirui said expressionlessly, "She was once the eldest daughter of the Ayase Clan’s patriarch in the Japanese underworld but fled from the Ayase Clan three years ago and joined the White Crow Travel Brigade with the steward ’Oda Takashige’. This paper storm in the photo is most likely generated by her ability."
Gu Qiye thought for a moment: "As far as I know, they have a Power User who could open doors connecting different places, leading to the brigade being elusive, making it hard for us to confront them directly."
"Several years ago, the Japanese government managed to capture a member of White Crow Travel Brigade," You Ruirui said. "That member’s name is ’Ryukawa Chiba’, and he is currently held in the Superpower User prison ’New Leaf Village’ in Hokkaido."
She paused: "According to prisoners in New Leaf Village, Ryukawa Chiba claims members of White Crow Travel Brigade will bust him out soon, so we believe the brigade’s action target by coming to Japan this time might be a prison break to take Ryukawa Chiba away."
"Does the prisoner’s self-exposure information hold any significance? Could it be a decoy?" Gu Qiye shook his head. "But the White Crow Travel Brigade members are a bunch of mad people; nothing they do would be surprising."
"Regardless, finding them indeed is a difficult matter, so for now, let’s assume their target is a prison break, and we lie in wait at the Superpower User prison ’New Leaf Village’ when the time comes," You Ruirui said. "If we can’t catch them, then continue searching for their whereabouts. Anyway, we’ll be staying in Japan for a while."
"And what about the second urgent task?" Gu Qiye asked after a moment of silence.
Since there are two urgent tasks waiting for allocation, it means they don’t necessarily have to go to Japan to capture White Crow Travel Brigade. He’s more curious about the contents of the second task and what urgent situation can be compared to the group of villains in the brigade.
"The second urgent task is to investigate the missing Superpower Users in Osaka, Japan. It’s reported that a kind of strange humanoid creatures have infiltrated the city, hunting Superpower Users dwelling in the city as food to bring back to their territory," You Ruirui said.
"Humanoid creatures?"
"Yes, originally this situation’s severity was moderate and typically would not fall under our jurisdiction, but because one of the hunted had a close relationship with Japan’s royal family, the task appeared before us by necessity."
"What race are they?"
"Bee Race," You Ruirui nodded, "but they possess a form closely resembling humans."
As she spoke, she opened the photo in the document list, handing the tablet to Gu Qiye.
Gu Qiye looked at the tablet and frowned slightly when he saw the photo displayed on the screen.
It was a moonlit night, and a human male corpse was embedded within an advertising sign, specifically his head was smashed inside, tangled wires sparked, illuminating a golden humanoid monster hovering in midair with transparent bee wings.
Its body was larger than that of a regular adult, possessing a bee’s head, bee wings, and tail, but its body structure was similar to a human, with large limbs, and muscles covered with a metallic-like golden protective membrane.
The half-man, half-bee creature was slightly bowing in midair, gnawing at the man embedded in advertising sign. It turned its head, showing half its face to the lens, the corners of its mouth stained by blood and organs, sinister and ferocious.
Gu Qiye frowned deeply as he stared at the photograph of this extremely bizarre creature, unable to help but murmur:
"What is this?"
You Ruirui exited the photo interface, flipping through documents as she introduced:
"A few days ago, because of the destruction of the Whale Terrarium, a large number of Terrarium islanders appeared in the seas near Bergen, and based on communication between professionals and Terrarium islanders, these creatures were exiled decades ago from Whale Terrarium, and they’ve been named..."
She paused for a while, looking up: "’Light-Eating Bee’."