Chapter 39: Chapter 32: Identity Exposure

Yan Fei continued to control the Drone as it glided stealthily under the sea. While familiarizing himself with the Drone’s underwater navigation capabilities, he also recorded various data from it and simultaneously mapped out the seabed’s terrain.

Compared to flying in the sky, the Drone’s underwater travel consumed a great deal more Energy Points. After all, it had to withstand the sea water’s pressure and break through the water’s resistance to achieve a higher speed. According to the Auxiliary Brain’s comparison of the Drone’s Energy Point consumption at various stages, a full charge of Energy Points could allow the Drone to fly for 5-10 hours in the air, but could only sustain underwater travel for 2.5-5 hours.

In contrast, the energy consumption of underwater travel was double that of flight in the air. As for the Quantum Radar, although its maximum scanning distance was reduced, its consumption of Energy Points did not decrease at all.

Yan Fei calculated the Drone’s position, the remaining Energy Points, and the current time, and chose not to have the Drone return but instead continued to navigate it eastward. By midnight, the Drone’s Energy Points were not abundant, but it coincided with the Drone data refresh, and the Energy Points were restored to full, supporting the Drone’s continued advance.

The Drone kept heading east, and it was not until sunlight began to appear on the sea surface that Yan Fei finally stopped. He realized he had spent more than 8 hours traveling under the sea, and at that moment, the Drone was located in the High Seas, 600 km east of Shanghai.

The Drone was in a flat seabed area, with sea sand covering the bottom. The deepest part was only 450 meters, ideal for the Drone to take a temporary rest there. Silently hidden at the bottom of the sea, 450 meters deep, there was no one who could detect its existence.

So, Yan Fei found a relatively flat area on the seabed and settled the Drone there. Without underwater currents or large marine creatures, the Drone would be very safe. With 5,000 points of Energy remaining, if the Drone did not make any significant movements and simply stayed put at the bottom of the sea, it would only use a small amount of energy to resist the pressure of the seawater, thus it was fully capable of lasting until the 12:00 AM energy refresh.

After dealing with the Drone’s parking, Yan Fei’s consciousness returned to his body. After a night of undersea adventure, he was utterly exhausted. As soon as his consciousness returned to his body, he fell asleep immediately and didn’t wake up until three in the afternoon.

In the next two days, Yan Fei continued to control the Drone every night, exploring the secrets of the vast and boundless ocean. Eventually, the Drone had traveled 1,500 km to the east. Along the way, the Auxiliary Brain had completed the terrain mapping of the passed terrains; with this map, he would never get lost in this area again.

Moreover, the Drone’s maximum Control Distance had reached an astounding 5,000 km, so even if the Drone was 1,500 km away from Yan Fei’s body, it didn’t affect his control over the Drone at all.

During the exploration, the Drone’s Quantum Radar identified numerous sunken ships on the seabed, including warships sunk during battles and merchant ships from several hundred years ago. Although Yan Fei knew that there must be a huge amount of Wealth within these sunken ships, he was unable to salvage them. After all, the Drone had no hands or feet to lift the treasures, so he could only remember their locations regretfully, waiting for a future opportunity to salvage them.

In his undersea exploration, not only did Yan Fei discover sunken ships but he also witnessed many oceanic wonders and even many marine creatures unheard of before, all of which broadened his horizons. His understanding of the Underwater World now surpassed that of many Ocean Experts.

That night, Yan Fei was still controlling the Drone, navigating eastward under the sea. Suddenly, the noise from outside the house awakened his body. Yan Fei was startled and his consciousness immediately returned to his body, just in time to discover that someone had opened his window from the outside and was climbing into the room.

Yan Fei didn’t move, pretending to be sound asleep while he slightly opened his eyes to watch the situation at the window.

A Man in black, wearing dark clothes from head to toe, his head covered in black cloth, with only his eyes and hands visible, silently climbed in through the window. Upon entering, the intruder rolled on the ground and stealthily infiltrated the room with agile movements.

Yan Fei remained still. After the Man in black had entered and checked on Yan Fei lying on the bed, he tiptoed closer, holding a piece of white cloth. After hesitating a few times, he was about to cover Yan Fei’s face with the cloth when Yan Fei suddenly opened his eyes and threw a punch, hitting the Man in black right in the stomach.

With his immense strength, Yan Fei’s simple punch sent the Man in black flying, crashing heavily into the wall behind before collapsing to the ground, unable to move.

Yan Fei sat up, turned on the light, strode over to the wall, grabbed the Man in black, and yanked the cloth from his face, only to find that the intruder was a skinny young man with blond hair, grinning in pain. It seemed Yan Fei’s punch had not been gentle. If Yan Fei had put his full strength into the punch, it likely would have been lethal.

Yan Fei lifted the young man, stared into his eyes, and demanded fiercely, “Who are you? Why are you in my room in the middle of the night?”

The blond-haired Man in black kept bending over and coughing, and it took him a while to recover before he said, “I’ll be honest, I’m a thief, I wanted to steal something from here.”

Yan Fei pointed to the white cloth on the ground and asked, “What is that?”

Huang Mao, the man in black, confessed honestly, “That was ether I had stolen from the hospital. I was planning to use it to knock you out.”

Yan Fei picked up the white cloth and, indeed, smelled the scent of ether on it. He threw the cloth far away and then opened the window, pulled up a chair to sit, and looked at Huang Mao kneeling on the ground. “What were you trying to steal from my place?” he asked.

Huang Mao, the man in black, hesitated before speaking, “I noticed that most of the houses in this area have been demolished, and the residents have mostly left. I wanted to sneak in to steal some things to sell—who knew you hadn’t moved out yet.”

Yan Fei saw that Huang Mao, the man in black, had a flicker in his eyes when he answered, which immediately raised Yan Fei’s suspicions. He thought the man looked familiar, but couldn’t place where he had seen him before. Then he suddenly remembered the Drone Avatar and opened the database in the Auxiliary Brain to search its contents. With the help of the Intelligent Brain, he quickly found the figure of Huang Mao, the man in black, in the database.

Previously, the surveillance video from the drone was stored on a storage card. After the Drone Upgrade, the data on the storage card was transferred to the database of the Auxiliary Brain. With a search by the Intelligent Brain, he found footage that showed Huang Mao, the man in black, appearing twice: once with a thug outside the house surveilling him, and another time on the night he attacked the Marquis’s subordinates.

That night, Yan Fei, controlling the drone, had carried out an attack using steel balls on the Marquis’s men. This man in black, Huang Mao, was among those injured. He was rather lucky; a steel ball had gone right through the muscles of his calf, causing no major harm, which is why he was able to recover so quickly.

Having discovered these two pieces of footage, Yan Fei immediately knew who Huang Mao, the man in black, was—he was one of the Marquis’s men. Given the Marquis had turned into a Traitor, Yan Fei was certainly not going to let him go, so sooner or later, he was going to trouble the Marquis again. Only, the Marquis and Zhang Baocheng had gone into hiding and couldn’t be found at the moment. Yan Fei hadn’t even made his move yet when the Marquis’s man showed up in front of him again.

Yet Yan Fei still had doubts and didn’t understand why Huang Mao, the man in black, would appear before him like this. He began to intimidate him, hoping to get some useful intelligence out of him.

Yan Fei let out a cold laugh and said, “Trying to fool me? You think I don’t know who you are? Half a month ago, you and a man with spots on his face were watching me from downstairs. Do you think I wasn’t aware? You’re one of the Marquis’s men.”

Huang Mao, the man in black, shook his head repeatedly, saying, “I don’t know you, and you don’t know me. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Yan Fei slammed his hand onto the table, which surprisingly shattered the table, and he sneered, “Since you’re unwilling to confess, I’m going to stop being nice to you.”

Huang Mao, the man in black, seeing Yan Fei casually shattering the table and gesturing repeatedly toward his own head, was immediately terrified out of his wits and begged, “Don’t kill me, don’t kill me, please.”

Yan Fei originally wanted to scare Huang Mao, the man in black, who unexpectedly thought Yan Fei was going to kill him. Yan Fei’s heart stirred, and he said, “You think I’m going to kill you?”

Huang Mao, the man in black, trembled as he spoke, “I know you have a drone behind you, the one that crippled the Marquis’s men. You’re definitely going to kill me.”

Yan Fei was startled and quickly asked, “How do you know about the drone?”

Huang Mao, the man in black, replied, “I was injured by your drone before, but fortunately, the wounds were not severe, so I wasn’t hospitalized. Today I went to ask the Marquis for ‘nutritional fees’ and while waiting in the hallway, I overheard them saying you’re the one who killed Xiao Long, that you’re also the one who used a drone to cripple the Marquis’s men.”

Yan Fei was truly shocked and immediately asked, “What exactly did you overhear?”

Huang Mao, the man in black, hesitated, but upon seeing Yan Fei’s fierce eyes, he quickly confessed, “When I went to see the Marquis, I heard him discussing matters with Brother Cheng in the room so I waited outside. Little did I know, they were speaking about you, so I eavesdropped. The Marquis had previously sent his men to find the drone, but they had no luck. Unexpectedly, today a peripheral thug claimed he saw the drone under a big bridge.”

Huang Mao, the man in black, sneaked a glance at Yan Fei and, noting Yan Fei’s pensive look, quickly continued, “Once the Marquis got this information, he sent people to search around the big bridge, and they found at a nearby store’s entrance a monitor that was always on. They indeed saw the drone in the monitor’s footage, as well as discovered that the drone was being flown under the bridge. The vehicle from which you launched the drone, was driven by yourself. More than ten minutes later, the drone flew back and entered through the window of your car. They analyzed this time frame and concluded it was when the loanshark Company was attacked by a drone. So, they confirmed that you were the mastermind behind the drone, that you were the one opposing us.”

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Thank you to book friends: Ding w Ding, Difangguanwang, and 1021173645 for their rewards and also to other book friends for their support and suggestions, thank you all!