Chapter 749: Chapter 726: Missing Again
The old second-hand car drove into a secluded muddy road, with the breeze kicked up causing spiderwebs to sway, and dew silently seeping into the earth.
Bi Fang turned the key and switched off the engine.
The forest fell silent, and after a mont, faint sounds started to erge again as startled animals tentatively poked their heads out.
Bi Fang opened the car door and gestured to Yao Jun, “You get out, walk into the forest, find a place to hide, and be careful not to be discovered by them. Wait for here.”
Even though they had switched cars three tis, it was hard to guarantee that the Hunter Team wouldn’t find them.
It was not safe for Yao Jun to stay in the car alone; they needed to avoid being isolated as much as possible to prevent the possibility of being captured.
After Yao Jun took a portable cara and left on his own, Bi Fang quickly camouflaged the area, erasing their footprints and trampling around to create multiple sets of misleading tracks before backtracking to his original spot. Only then did he set off toward his destination, with the cautious photographer following behind.
Yao Jun hid in a place where there wasn’t much to film, and it was obvious who was being tracked and fild.
During the day, many tourists visit this area, so naturally, there’s a greater police presence.
Hearing this, the photographer felt sowhat relieved, and then he watched as Bi Fang took off his coat and clothes, leaving only a pair of shorts. He stuffed all his clothes into his coat and rolled it into a ball.
Then, he made his way to the lake and sank into the water course.
The cold morning water caused goosebumps all over Bi Fang’s body, and he couldn’t help but shiver.
Under the stimulation of the cold, his body went through a brief period of adaptation; his blood flowed faster, and after a while, when he had recovered enough, Bi Fang started swimming towards the opposite shore of the river.
The lake was exceptionally wide, and conservatively estimated to be over six hundred ters. The photographer wasn’t good at swimming, but watching Bi Fang swim in such cold water with one hand holding his belongings was still shocking.
Twenty minutes later, Bi Fang carefully ca ashore, avoiding everyone’s gaze, then shook off the water from his body, wiped his hair dry with the lining, and after standing for a while until completely dry, put on his coat.
All the bank cards provided by the covert tracking team were set up with a preset alarm system, which would send an alert to a specified location as soon as they were used with a magnetic reader.
By now, the importance of disguising his face had diminished. Whether he covered his face or not, the other party would know it was him.
Therefore, Bi Fang straightened his clothes and went directly to withdraw money.
In front of the ATM there was an asphalt road; normal people would never think that Bi Fang would swim from the opposite shore of the lake five hundred ters away to withdraw money.
It was another example of breaking habitual thinking.
Three hours later, when the Hunter Team drove to the scene, they were once again greeted by emptiness.
After surveying the surroundings, apart from the long straight road in front of the ATM that cut through the entire park, the nearest highway was also over two kiloters away from this location.
It was highly possible that the other party drove through this road, an important clue!
Robert imdiately ordered, “Investigate all the surveillance on this entire road, track the vehicles, I want to know where they went!”
“FUCK!”
Near Los Angeles, there were many national forests, with their periters resembling parks, bustling with campers, adjacent highways, and a variety of shops.
Bi Fang had observed the area for a long ti and discovered two ATM machines next to a shop.
“Ugly Country is different from Huaxia. In Huaxia, you can generally only find ATM machines at bank entrances, but here they are everywhere, mainly due to systemic reasons.”
“In Huaxia, an ATM is a technical reserve, sort of like opening several more service windows, and it has little to do with systemic innovation. But in Ugly Country, ATMs play a much bigger role—they’re equivalent to bank branches.”
“For a long ti, many states in Ugly Country stipulated that banks could only operate as stand-alone banks, aning a bank could only have one operating location and was not allowed to open branches elsewhere, much like the feudal lords in dieval Europe with one lord per castle.”
Stand-alone banks were naturally very unfavorable for risk managent, and they were not user-friendly for depositors, who had their options limited to local banks only.
The reasons for this model’s existence were complex, but at the core of it was money.
Then, the ATM erged, bypassing these regulations; in Ugly Country, it was more than just a service window; it was a separate branch.”
“That’s why even in the remote areas of a park, or hidden nooks and crannies, you can find ATMs. Of course, there’s no longer a restriction on stand-alone banks now, but people have gotten used to using ATMs for their convenience, which is why there are even more of them now.”
Changing habits is very hard, just like why Internet paynts haven’t taken off in Ugly Country. One main reason is the highly developed credit card system here, which has blocked the developnt of new things.”
The photographer recorded everything in ticulous detail.
Even he, an Ugly Country person, didn’t know about this—the events happened back in the 1980s, before he was even born!
The photographer felt that, in the end, the video cuts edited by Bi Fang would definitely have a very fast pace and perhaps even longer duration, simply because of the dense information.
The other teams did not have Bi Fang’s extensive knowledge or unheard-of escape techniques.
In front of the two machines was a shady path, and beyond that, a large lake.
This was an excellent opportunity.
It was early morning, and there were not many tourists around, just one of Los Angeles’ unique features—holess people.
The scruffy holess rummaged through trash cans, trying to find so leftover food scraps from the tourists.
After a while, the police will co to drive them away when they start their shift.
These people couldn’t afford internet access, let alone have the opportunity to et Bi Fang, making it a quite favorable mont.
“Be careful,” Bi Fang cautioned the photographer, pointing at the large lake in front of them, “I’m going to swim across by myself in a bit and then withdraw money from the machine on the other side. If you want to film, you can only take a detour there by yourself, so you must be very careful.”
The photographer looked around nervously.
In Los Angeles, 16% of the holess population have physical disabilities, and 25% suffer from severe ntal illness, and many even abuse drugs.
There have been tens of thousands of cris registered at the police stations within a year, and it is said that even more are unreported, as the victims choose to suffer in silence.
Having Bi Fang by his side was reassuring, but now, hearing that he had to go alone…
“You don’t need to be that afraid. If you encounter danger, just scream loudly, and I will try to get to you as fast as I can. Plus, it’s dayti now, and the police will be here soon; they will be sowhat restrained.”
Andrew Stumpf, the number two person in the action team replacing Philips, cursed loudly upon seeing the empty road surveillance footage.
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