Chapter 21 Unexpected Incident

“Yes, Agent 325 is the most meticulous person. He personally promised to report the latest situation at nine tonight when he sent the images yesterday. If no information has arrived, there's only one explanation—something has happened to him.”

“That place can't be located,” Nightfall said. “Finding him is like searching for a needle in the ocean.”

“That’s why I want to ask this genius of criminal investigation to try—perhaps he can create a miracle in a place as haunted as Prison Mountain!”

Two pairs of eyes turned to Lin Xiaosu.

Lin Xiaosu frowned deeply...

Agent 88 said, “The main task of this operation is to find Agent 325. If you succeed, you’ll be rewarded with three hundred points. The side task is to uncover the major discovery he mentioned. If you can accomplish it, you’ll receive additional points according to your contribution.”

Lin Xiaosu shook his head. “With a comrade’s life at stake, who cares about points? The real question is... why can information be sent from that place, but it can’t be located?”

Agent 88 explained the reason.

Prison Mountain lies on the border of South Sichuan Province, shrouded in extreme mystery. Its magnetic field is abnormal. Once inside Prison Mountain, all signals are cut off, and locating anyone becomes impossible.

To send a signal out, someone inside must actively seek out areas with satellite signals—such as mountaintops—and transmit information manually.

It’s far harder for those outside to send signals in, because most of the time, those inside are in blind zones, making contact impossible.

“He sent some pictures? Where are they?” Lin Xiaosu asked.

Agent 88 smiled lightly. “Accept the task, and you’ll see the images.”

“Alright, I accept!” Lin Xiaosu agreed without hesitation.

“Let’s go!”

The three of them rose together and stepped out of the library. As they approached their hover car, a large macaque suddenly dropped from the tree—no, it was Crescent.

Crescent bounced up as soon as she landed, grabbing Nightfall’s hand. “Nightfall, let me go too, let me go…”

“You don’t even know what the mission is, and you want to go?” Nightfall said.

“I don’t care what the mission is, as long as it earns points!” Crescent turned to Agent 88. “Respected instructor, will this mission give points?”

She was asking Agent 88.

She was always getting points deducted by Agent 88, so now she’d learned to flatter him with every address.

Agent 88 replied with a stern face, “The points are substantial, but you have to contribute to earn them.”

Crescent leapt eight yards high, landing directly in the hover car. “Fantastic! I’ll climb straight to the top with points, and I’ll trample this guy’s points into the mud—two birds with one stone. Instructor, even if I have to face your coffin-face all the way, I’ll try to imagine it as a celebrity’s…”

Lin Xiaosu, face aching, glanced at her, then at Nightfall and Agent 88. “She’s so obviously targeting me. If we’re out in the wild, will I end up fighting her?”

“Don’t worry. I’ve equipped you with a gun,” Agent 88 replied coldly.

Inside the hover car, looking out, the sky was full of stars.

They were still at Station 101, where no secrets could be leaked, so everything outside was sealed off.

Agent 88 handed Lin Xiaosu and Crescent each a set of gear.

It looked light, but when Lin Xiaosu opened it, he was thrilled.

It was the standard gear of Subdragon.

A suit—tight-fitting, but made of an extremely special material, insect-proof, moisture-proof, and breathable. It couldn’t be torn or ripped, was highly elastic, and though it couldn’t stop machine-gun or submachine-gun fire, it could withstand a couple of pistol shots. It would also protect against thorns and spikes in the forest.

A dagger, its blade gleaming, engraved with a dragon pattern.

A handgun—his most familiar training weapon. But unlike the training version, this was a real gun.

And hundreds of rounds of ammunition. All the equipment was intelligently connected to the suit. Once dressed, Lin Xiaosu felt himself elevated.

Crescent had donned hers as well, puffing up with confidence. She patted Lin Xiaosu’s shoulder. “Lin Xiaose, don’t get too cocky. Sure, you’ve got your favorite gun, but I’ve got the dragon-armor bulletproof vest!”

“Lin Xiaose? What have I done to earn that name?” Lin Xiaosu glared at her.

“When you shoot, you don’t aim anywhere else—you aim at my… chest. Isn’t that lecherous enough?”

Lin Xiaosu was speechless.

Nightfall and Agent 88 seemed used to her shamelessness.

Agent 88 tapped the screen lightly, and several images appeared amid the starry sky—these were the images sent by Agent 325…

A strange orchid.

The plant was unusually tall—height measured at 1.89 meters.

The orchid atop it had eighteen petals, like the tendrils of a flower from the underworld.

Its color was odd—not the vivid hues of ordinary flowers, but a deep green like the leaves. In the sea of green that was the primeval forest, it was impossible to spot from afar; even Agent 325 had only found it up close.

Upon discovering this unknown species, he had used his high-precision camera to photograph it and sent the images back to base for analysis.

Nightfall stared at the flower. “Agent 325’s major discovery—is it really not this mutant flower?”

“It shouldn’t be. He’d already collected a specimen when he mentioned it. If this flower were the discovery, he would have said so directly. He didn’t, which means the discovery was only a clue—he hadn’t truly found it yet.”

Crescent’s eyes flashed. “Nightfall, do you think the flower itself is the major discovery?”

“Yes! Judging by its form, it’s an ordinary orchid, but its size is inexplicably enormous, and its color has evolved into camouflage. Such evolution is rare in animals, and even rarer in plants.”

When it came to botany, Nightfall was second to none.

She was a toxicologist.

Her life’s work was the study of plant genetics.

At Subdragon Botanical Garden, she was a rare authority.

There were few plants she didn’t know.

Most plants bloom—flowers are usually bright and fragrant.

Why?

Plants have no sense of aesthetics; they don’t bloom to admire themselves.

They bloom to carry on their lineage.

Flowers stand out visually or smell sweet or even stink—the purpose is to attract insects that rely on sight or smell. These insects pollinate, ensuring the plant’s survival.

Orchids are no exception.

Small size, vivid flowers, and fragrance are the result of millions of years of natural selection—a trait best suited to orchids’ survival.

But this orchid had betrayed its ancestors…

A plant as tall as a tree.

Flowers blending seamlessly into the environment.

Moreover, according to the monitoring data sent by Agent 325, the flower had no scent—not sweet, not foul.

That was strange…

It had bypassed every key link in the chain of life transmission. It seemed intent on blooming in lonely silence…

Lin Xiaosu examined the images from various angles inside the hover car, his thoughts diverging. Botany wasn’t just Nightfall’s expertise—he was well versed, too. He found it a suspicious clue.

“Agent 325 can’t be located now, but what about the place where he sent these pictures? Can that be located?”

His ability to trace through time could only reach scenes from five days ago.

If he could find any point where Agent 325 had been in the last five days, he could track his trail from there.

How scientific the process appeared was another matter.

The crucial point was, if he could pinpoint that location, completing the task was inevitable.

In principle, his idea was sound.

Agent 325 had sent images last night, and sending images carries location data. With high-tech methods, it should be possible to precisely determine where the signal was sent from.

Yet Agent 88 shook his head. “It seems you don’t understand Prison Mountain’s peculiarity. It’s called Prison Mountain because, in a sense, it’s like a prison between heaven and earth. From its mountaintops, you might occasionally send a signal out, but the location of the transmission can’t be determined.”

If it can’t be located, what then?

Agent 88 laid out the plan he’d prepared.

Agent 325 entered the Prison Mountain inn a month ago, and the mountain itself twenty-nine days ago. If they retraced his route from the entrance, perhaps they could find traces of his passage. After all, Subdragon members were trained with the same curriculum—jungle survival had standard routines.

These routines were instantly recognizable to Subdragon members. For example, where to camp, where to climb—judgments would be similar. If they found his campsite and followed the traces, it might be possible to track him in the primeval forest.

It was a crude method, with unpredictable results. But in a place beyond the reach of high technology, the most primitive method became the only option…

Nightfall and Crescent exchanged bewildered looks.

Indeed, as Subdragon operatives, they were used to high-tech solutions. If you wanted to search for someone, use “Dragon Eye.” If you wanted information, go online. But where Dragon Eye couldn’t reach, where the internet could not penetrate—in the endless wilds, searching for someone who entered a month ago, it was daunting.

Lin Xiaosu exhaled softly. “It seems the primitive method is all we have left. But I don’t recommend your approach. It’s far too uncontrollable.”

Agent 88 frowned. “My method may be uncontrollable, but it’s the only way!”

“No, it’s not the only way,” Lin Xiaosu replied.

Crescent’s eyes widened. “Contradicting the instructor—according to Article 135, Section 1 of the Reserve Regulation, that’s minus twenty points! Instructor, deduct them already…”

Agent 88 shot her a glare and turned back to Lin Xiaosu. “Let’s hear it.”

Lin Xiaosu pointed to the images. “These four pictures contain information.”

Agent 88’s gaze sharpened. “You mean the little river?”

Nightfall’s eyes lit up…

Finding someone in the jungle was hard, but finding a river was much easier. Was Lin Xiaosu suggesting they search for that river?

If they could locate the river, the search area would shrink dramatically.