Live Streaming: Great Adventure in the Wilderness-Chapter 746 - 743: On the Run (Two in One)

Chapter 746: Chapter 743: On the Run (Two in One)

In the corridor, a burly man stopped in front of a room, accompanied by several companions. Looking up, the man saw a green light above the door indicating that the room had been cleaned, and his brow furrowed.

“Is this the place?”

“Yes… yes, sir, is there a problem?”

The cleaning staff following behind him looked nervous. The lobby manager knew what was happening, but these ordinary employees were in the dark.

These sturdy men had a brawny air about them, resembling the elite from some professional agency like the military. They had suddenly obtained room cards from the manager; could there be an issue here?

Had the person who stayed here before committed a crime?

The thought that she had just cleaned the room and might have destroyed evidence filled the cleaning staff with worry.

“Don’t be nervous, we’re just filming a show,” said Ryan Lee Phi Philips, the leading man, who had immediately noticed the cleaner’s unease and smiled, pointing to the camera behind him.

The cleaner was taken aback: “A show?”

Philips swiped the room key and pushed open the door, entering. A field team member behind him explained: “Have you heard of ‘Stealth Track’? It’s a reality show that simulates capturing criminals. Our pursuit team is out now, and the team in the room just now were the fugitives.”

“I know ‘Stealth Track’!” the cleaner’s eyes lit up.

Philips looked around the neatly tidied room and felt a bit of a challenge, but maintaining professionalism, he and the others still searched the entire room. As expected, they found no left-behind items, not even trash; it had all been bagged up and cleaned thoroughly.

Finding more clues would likely require a search at the hotel’s exclusive waste disposal site, which was no easy task.

“The second season’s premiere will air next Thursday at eight in the evening. We welcome you to watch it then.”

“When did you start cleaning the room?” Philips cut off the conversation between the field team member and the cleaner, taking out a notepad to record.

“Around twelve-thirty.”

It hadn’t been long, and the cleaner remembered clearly.

“And when did the light requesting cleaning come on?”

“About twelve-ten, no more than half an hour for sure. We always try to fulfill the requests as fast as we can.”

After a while, Philips shifted his territory and went to the bank behind the ATM, showing his identity and access rights, then reviewed the surveillance and noted the withdrawal times.

Afterward, it was a supermarket…..

Logically, Philips, as the operation director, should have stayed at the base for remote command, but given the fugitives’ impressive records, he had decided to take the field himself.

“The suspect is quite composed.”

On his notepad, Philips meticulously recorded the movements and actions of Bi Fang and Yao Jun since the start of the capture.

At twelve, the game officially began; the two men went upstairs to organize their clothes and then turned on the cleaning light, indicating a request for cleaning.

Then they went downstairs, withdrew one hundred “ugly cents” from the nearest ATM, and found a convenience store. They didn’t keep the receipt, but surveillance showed they bought some bread and food. After checking the computer’s records, it was revealed they spent a total of twenty-six dollars.

At one o’clock, the Hunter Team set out. At one-twenty, Philips’s field team arrived at the hotel. At one-thirty, they gained access to the room.

It’s now one-thirty-five.

But until 12:40, Bi Fang and Yao Jun showed no intention of avoiding the cameras; they remained calmly exposed to the surveillance.

If it had been some clueless young man, Philips would not have believed it, but he absolutely refused to believe that someone who ranked in the top ten in the history of Hunter Academy would be oblivious to the most basic rule: avoid the cameras.

The only explanation was that the other party was very confident and didn’t mind being exposed to the cameras for an extended period.

As long as you withdraw money, even if you wear a hat or a wig, the cameras beside the ATM will record you, and there are powerful facial recognition software systems that can identify you.

In any case, that credit card has already been tied to the Hunter’s monitoring system; the moment it is used, an alarm will be triggered, and various gas stations, bus stops, and coach stations have cameras that will capture your image.

Moreover, the person in question did not carry their mobile phone with them.

Philips looked at the two mobile phones inside the plastic bag, along with a laptop.

The contents inside definitely needed to be investigated, but Philips had little hope that they would contain any useful information.

This was also common detective knowledge.

If you carry your own phone, you’re practically serving yourself up on a platter—most fugitives don’t bring their phones; instead, they try every means to acquire someone else’s phone or buy a disposable one.

However, the capturers would monitor the phones of all the fugitive’s social contacts, family, and friends; any calls from infrequent contacts would raise suspicion and be followed and recorded.

One could even find the number of a disposable phone on a purchased receipt from a store, enabling tracking through cell towers.

Philips reported the situation truthfully.

Robert nodded, “Take everything back, let the data specialists check the browsing history and see if we can find some clues.”

For two foreigners who were strangers in Los Angeles, the most effective way to escape was to search the internet for relevant information, such as metro lines and rental car company addresses, all of which required data.

As a non-native, Bi Fang needed to go online to get many pieces of information, but once discovered, those pieces would surely serve as guides to his escape route.

“Isn’t that very risky?” Yao Jun whispered with some unease.

“I’ve already deleted all the browser records, deep cleaned them even.” Bi Fang extended his hand outside the car, carefree.

This action wasn’t safe nor wise, but feeling the wind slip through his fingers as he drove toward the horizon on the highway gave him a thrilling sense of pursuit of freedom.

Only, the car was rented and didn’t have much gas.

Fortunately, there was a gas station not far from the rental agency, and Bi Fang seriously suspected that the gas station and the rental company were in cahoots.

He turned the car into it, signaling to the gas station attendant.

“Are you joking with me? I’m not an idiot!” Yao Jun nearly choked, “Can you really get rid of it just by deleting the records? The type of data recovery that can be done by the programmers in my company!”

It is said that unless hardware is completely shattered, data can always be recovered.

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That’s why Yao Jun had been wary these past days of visiting any inappropriate websites, to avoid embarrassment.

“That’s true, but data recovery takes time, and when I searched for information online, I cast a wide net. Even if they recover it, they still have to determine our real escape destination from it, which could buy us some time. I never expect to solve everything once and for all, but to throw a smoke bomb is already good enough.”

Bi Fang had some understanding of the caliber of the Hunter Team; they were all elites.

Hence, Bi Fang was not confident enough to believe he could cover his tracks at every step.

Even the cleverest schemes have their flaws, and a single person’s brain can’t match the combined intellect of more than thirty people, but Bi Fang was confident that each trail he left behind would require substantial time for them to discern its authenticity.

“Relax, just cling to my legs, and smile for the camera, make it a big grin.”

Bi Fang closed the window and flashed an exaggerated smile at a particular camera at the gas station, causing the photographer in the backseat to shiver and immediately focus his lens on the scene, capturing every detail.

Although the photographer didn’t understand why Bi Fang was smiling at the camera, he found the scene rather appealing in an inexplicable way!

“Well, yeah.”

Leaning back in his seat, Yao Jun thought it over and had to admit it was true.

If Bi Fang couldn’t escape, then he was just an extra. It would be better to stick close and take it easy, enjoying the thrill of being on the run.

Hearing the latter part of Bi Fang’s statement, Yao Jun glanced at the camera in the upper right corner of the gas station but didn’t feel like smiling: “Is this a provocation?”

“Sort of, but not really.”

After filling up with cheap gasoline, Bi Fang used his last bit of change to pay the gas station attendant, rolled up the window, and finally relaxed his facial muscles before driving back onto the road.

“Forged identification documents can provide a crucial layer of cover for a ‘fugitive,’ but if the foreign government already views them as a potential security threat, their photos may already be in databases at border checkpoints or at other high-security controls.”

“Existing facial recognition software is primarily image-based, which is relatively easy to evade in reality and is not as formidable as depicted in the movies.”

“This technology uses algorithms to compare specific anchor points—such as nose, the distance between eyes, the size of each eye, cheekbones, chin, and ear shapes—in a given image database, focusing on those bone structures that are not easy to alter and have distinctive features.”

“But if those anchor points are obscured or blurred, the software becomes useless.”

Pointing to his own features, Bi Fang emphasized several key areas.

This professional explanation finally gave Yao Jun a sense of immersion.

This was the thing, that sense of déjà vu from crime capers!

“Such a fuss!”

“Oversized sunglasses and long bangs can cover the forehead, browbones, and some of the cheekbones. Lowering the brim of a hat and tilting your head down can hide your face in shadows.”

“A smile can change the shape of your eyes and push muscles above the cheekbones, which is why many countries require a neutral facial expression for passport photos.”

Yao Jun was surprised: “Is it that simple?”

Bi Fang shook his head: “It’s not that simple.”

“Casinos in Las Vegas frequently use facial recognition technology to prevent cheaters from intercepting hundreds of thousands of ‘ugly cents.’ There, this technology is a constantly evolving science.”

“Social media platforms have also begun to use facial recognition to tag and categorize images, so with the drive of interests, the technology will only become more complex.”

“Today’s most advanced facial recognition has already been combined with vein recognition technology to form a seamless mechanism.”

“Vein recognition captures a thermal image of the face, using the positions of facial veins and arteries as identification markers. With this type of recognition, there are far fewer tricks to play, but anyway… ”

Yao Jun’s nerves tensed again: “But anyway, what?”

Bi Fang shrugged: “That stuff hasn’t been widely adopted, so we don’t need to worry about it.”

Seeing Bi Fang’s insight, Yao Jun was thrilled: “I thought you were just playing around, not caring about winning or losing.”

“Even if it’s a game, I don’t want to lose,” Bi Fang said as he dug into his pockets, only to take out some loose coins, “Now we have left, let’s see, oh, forty-five ‘ugly cents.’ Money really does burn a hole in your pocket.”

Yao Jun was rather astonished, not at how little money they had left, but at the fact there was anything left at all?

After all, from leaving the hotel to buying some food and tools at the supermarket they had spent twenty-six dollars. Then there was the car rental and just now gas. After all that spending, they still had some left?

Is the ‘ugly gold’ that stable?

“What do you think, my lord?”

“One Hundred Ugly Gold in New York can get you 12 movie tickets, 20 in the Midwest, or it can feed a person 20 times at McDonald’s. Buy a Gameboy plus a game cartridge. Enough for two people to eat at a fancy French restaurant. Enough for good quality 30 to 40 gallons of gasoline, oh, and one gallon is just under four liters.”

“It can even buy you two of the latest high-end smartphones, of course, provided you sign up with a service provider. Even a plain car can be rented for two hundred dollars for a whole week, and we just need this crappy car for two days. Besides, I didn’t fill the tank up.”

Obviously, you only add as much gas as you use.

What if it’s not all used up, because you have to abandon the plan early? That would be a loss!

A hundred dollars is that valuable?

Hearing Bi Fang reel off prices, Yao Jun was astounded.

Inside Hunter Academy’s office, Robert choreographed everything, handing over the phones and computers sent by the field teams to the tech department for data retrieval.

“Daniel, keep recovering data.”

“Philips, any new discoveries?”

“Found their rental car agency, I’m making inquiries,” Philips responded, pulling out his notepad and querying the car rental owner.

Initially, the car rental owner was also panicked, the visitors’ demeanor suggested they were in deep trouble; could he have rented the car to the wrong kind of person?

The thought alone made the owner break out in a cold sweat.

This is Ugly Li Jian, after all. If some extremely dangerous criminal had rented the car, was there any hope of getting it back?

When Philips asked if two Asians had come here to rent a car, the proprietor nodded eagerly, spilling everything he knew like beans from a split sack.

“Ah, there’s no need to be nervous or worry about any losses.” Seeing the owner in such a state, Philips smiled, signaled the field agent to re-explain, and the owner finally eased up.

“So, they rented one car, didn’t they? What’s the license number? What model is it?”

“It is…”

Philips wrote down the car model and license plate, then stepped out of the rental agency.

In theory, knowing the “fugitive’s” getaway car model and license plate should be a significant breakthrough.

But somehow, Philips had a hunch that it wasn’t that simple.

Would the other party leave such an obvious loophole?