Moving through the roadside greenery, Zhou Tianming rubbed his elbow - his arms had been slightly injured from gripping the underside of the vehicle earlier.
Fortunately, being an Ultimate Coordinator combined with recent recuperation had significantly strengthened his muscles and bones compared to when he first awoke.
Swinging his arms to ease the strained, aching muscles, Zhou Tianming slipped one hand into his black jacket pocket.
The moment he touched his phone, the sensation made him freeze with dread.
Pulling it out confirmed his fears - the phone casing was shattered, the screen completely fragmented.
"This was brand new," he sighed, attempting to power it on with no response.
Surveying his surroundings, the area was well-landscaped with abundant shrubs and trees.
In the distance, the square white roof of a house peeked above the treetops.
Tucking the broken phone away, Zhou Tianming headed toward the building.
His small stature - barely over one meter tall - made traversing the dense shrubbery an arduous challenge.
Forced to push through branches while shielding his face, he emerged before the house covered in leaves, his clothes snagged with several new tears.
The three-story white villa stood before him, encircled by chest-high brown wooden fencing.
While brushing off leaves and dust, Zhou Tianming circled the perimeter, finding no signs of occupancy.
Vaulting over the fence, he landed in the yard where an empty swimming pool sat bone-dry.
Approaching the glass patio doors, he easily spotted a telephone beside the living room sofa.
Two tugs confirmed the doors were securely locked.
"Necessity knows no law... my apologies," he murmured.
Dragging a folded wooden lounge chair from poolside, he positioned himself, spun twice for momentum, and smashed it through the glass.
The door shattered spectacularly.
Carefully navigating the shards, he kicked out remaining jagged edges before entering.
On the wall, a small white square device's indicator light switched from green to red.
Zhou Tianming lifted the receiver, first dialing Ogsha's number only to get no signal - likely aboard a shuttle.
Next came Siegel's number.
The line rang repeatedly before a pleasant female voice responded: "The number you have dialed is an Aprilius One exchange from April. Please hold while we connect your call..."
While waiting, Zhou Tianming's gaze fell upon a reversible whiteboard near the sofa, densely covered with chemical equations in red and blue markers.
With nothing else to do, Zhou Tianming looked around curiously.
Just then, the sound of police sirens approached from outside the villa, followed shortly by the screech of brakes.
Zhou Tianming frowned. "Why are they here so fast?"
The call still hadn't connected.
After a moment of hesitation, Zhou Tianming decided against meeting with the police.
The Garrison from Mendel Satellite had set a bad precedent, making him distrustful of these security personnel. Moreover, the identity of the kidnappers was unclear, making it hard to tell if they had any special connections.
For safety's sake, he wouldn't face any public officials until he could contact Siegel.
Hanging up, Zhou Tianming quickly crossed the villa's living room and left through the opposite side from the sirens.
About ten seconds after Zhou Tianming left, two uniformed officers arrived in the yard littered with broken glass.
They entered the house one after the other, searching but finding nothing.
"You stay here and keep watch. I'll go find someone to seal the glass door for now."
"Huh? We have to handle this too?"
"Normally, no. But the owner of this villa is Apton-Lenny. Who knows what's inside? Better be careful."
"Apton-Lenny?" One officer repeated the name and shuddered. "Not the one from the Upton Genetic Engineering Vaccine Research Center, right?"
"Who else? So keep a close eye out. Don't let any living thing in—or out."
The officer grimaced. "Am I gonna catch some weird virus?"
The other shrugged helplessly.
...
Fibularius City Information Control Center.
The large room, spanning over a hundred square meters, featured a massive screen at the front, divided into sections displaying surveillance feeds from different locations.
Facing the screen were rows of long desks, where uniformed staff worked at their computers.
At one station, three people in civilian clothes gathered around a monitor.
A handsome blond man in his thirties smiled politely and said, "We've received intel that someone is using Lord Siegel's private number for espionage. I'd like you to help track them down."
He recited the number to the male staff member seated there.
The staff member nodded, fingers flying over the keyboard. Soon, he found the target. "Someone dialed this number not long ago but hung up before the call could be transferred."
"Location?"
The staff checked and immediately found that the villa had triggered an intrusion alarm, prompting a police response.
"According to the officers on-site, no intruder was found."
The handsome man exchanged a glance with the tall, muscular man with a black buzz cut beside him.
Then, the third member of the group—a woman with red twin tails, heavy colorful makeup, a sexy white crop top, and denim hot pants—grinned. "Ever played with an AI Voice Changer?"
The staff member froze, unsure where to look, his face reddening as he nodded.
The woman hooked an arm around his neck, pressing the side of his face against her ample chest. "Do me a favor, little brother. If someone calls Lord Siegel's private number again, route it through the AI Voice Changer for me."
"O-okay."
The handsome man gave her a thumbs-up.
...
After leaving the villa, Zhou Tianming hid in the nearby greenery, planning to exploit the time gap after the police left to go back inside and make a call.
Unexpectedly, the two officers were so diligent that they waited until someone arrived to reseal the door.
Frustrated, Zhou Tianming had no choice but to leave.
Worried the kidnapper driver might search for him along the road, he avoided the street and instead cut through the greenery.
By the time he emerged on the other side, Zhou Tianming looked even more disheveled. Deciding to use this to his advantage, he pretended to be separated from his parents and borrowed a phone from a passerby.
This time, there were no surprises. After a brief wait, the call connected, and Siegel's voice came through: "Tianming? What's the matter at this hour?"
"I've been kidnapped."
The passerby standing nearby spat out the water he'd just sipped: "What?!"
Siegel sounded startled: "Where are you? Who was that just now?"
Zhou Tianming covered the phone's microphone and said to the passerby, "I'm just joking with my uncle. I wasn't kidnapped."
The passerby dumbly nodded twice.
Only then did Zhou Tianming continue into the phone: "Uncle, let's meet somewhere. I borrowed this phone from a kind stranger and need to return it soon."
"Alright, I'll send someone to pick you up."
After agreeing on a location, Zhou Tianming prudently set up a code phrase as well.
Once the call ended, he returned the phone and asked the passerby for directions to the meeting spot.
With everything settled, Zhou Tianming felt slightly more at ease.
On his way to the rendezvous point, he carefully considered who might have kidnapped him.
People from GARMR&D Corporation?
Unlikely—they were still tangled up with the lawyers Siegel had helped hire.
After receiving the settlement money, he'd even given those lawyers bonuses to keep up the pressure.
But if not GARMR&D Corporation, Zhou Tianming couldn't think of anyone else in PLANT who'd want to kidnap him.
Aside from his identity as an Ultimate Coordinator, all he had was wealth.
Could it be because I'm rich?
Zhou Tianming fell into thought, a strange sense of novelty momentarily washing over him.