April 27 The first day of the survey

“....... He's near the Golden Bay Pier, and this is a recent photo of him, and we don't know if his appearance has changed...... Once you've found him, the two of you can investigate the latest clues from the 'organization's informants'. He should still have a small radio on him, as long as he hasn't destroyed it... That's my money, bastard!"

Recalling the information provided this morning by Xiao Haoying, who was wearing the pirated dress he called "Mao Suit", Troy with the photo was at a loss for a moment.

The photograph is printed in color. The tall, thin man above wears a sophisticated dark blue trench coat, with curly hair floating behind his head, and his sharp gaze is fixed on the left side of the frame, as if that is his next target.

Nice photos.

But who knows how long this photo was shelved...... Based on the dust on the photo, it is conservatively estimated that it has a "lifespan" of about three months...... Troy sat on the cable car into Santrusts, looking at the east where the sun was about to rise, and his heart was helpless. After a while, with the sound of the cable car announcement, Troy stepped off the dark green cable car.

"After getting off the cable car, did you take the maintenance route?" muttered Troy as he walked up the empty cable car station, which had not yet arrived. He knows that the cable car is an extremely important means of transportation for the local population in Santolas. The reason why it's important is because these gondolas aren't just funiculars. Some of the large gondolas, after entering the city, land on the ground and travel along the lines laid over the street that are parallel to the high-voltage power lines. The cable car in Santolas is not only an important facility for travel in the mountains, but also replaces the tram in this medium-sized mountain city.

The cable car for maintenance is not so simple. The paint of these cable cars is an extremely rare mixture of yellow and black. Their windshield is dark black, which makes it impossible to see the inside at all. In addition, there is a high-speed access road for the cable car for maintenance. One of the routes is to the destination of Troy, Golden Bay Pier.

Troy got into the idle maintenance gondola and pressed the "start" button on the cabin console. With the sound of gears turning, the cable car slowly drove out of the platform and whizz through the city's high-altitude lines.

Although the city of Santolas was built in the mountains, it was so large and spanned a distance that even the capital city of Pateros surpassed it. Troy put his hands on the railing, looked out the window at the staggered cable cars, and pulled out the folders in his backpack. Just as Troy tried to tear open the folder, he sensed something unusual.

"The surface of this folder is as hard as [steel], do you really want that person to open this folder......" Troy said.

Before you know it, the sun and the ground have reached a great angle. Troy estimates that at least three or four hours have passed since the last platform. Just as Troy wondered when it would be time to reach the docks, the cable car for maintenance had begun to slow down. Troy looked ahead and finally saw a dilapidated cable car platform.

Five minutes later, Troy stepped off the platform and found himself in the midst of a large number of containers.

"That's what it is...... Golden Bay Wharf......" Troy said with a look of obscurity. He knows that Jinwan Terminal used to be the most important port, and the container throughput once reached a maximum of 4,000 boxes per day, or about 80,000 tons. It used to be the economic lifeblood of the entire country until an accident three years ago......

A military cargo ship carrying 100 strategic* exploded just as it docked. For a time, the scene burst into flames, and the sound of a huge explosion covered the entire eastern city of Santolas. * The huge force of the explosion blew up the entire pier. According to the Intelligence Bureau, all the people present were killed, and none of the bodies were intact.

Since then, the Golden Bay Pier has been abandoned. With the advent of "air freighters", airports have become important places. The original port is rarely used for freighters anymore. Now the wharf has become the largest slum in the entire country. Ragged beggars, gathered in dilapidated shipping containers, lit bonfires and sang vulgar songs every night. And, based on the man's hairstyle in the photo, Troy didn't think there was much chance of finding him. He seemed to have mingled with the beggars.

Troy got up and searched the entire dock. He sensed to start with these poor people and beggars.

"Hello, have you seen this man?" Troy asked, pulling out a coin and turning to the beggar on the side of the road.

"I don't know. The beggar took the coin from his hand and left a very simple answer.

“.......”

"Hello...."

"Have you seen this person in the photo?"

"Wait a minute..."

After being busy for some time, Troy got no more than "I don't know" or "I haven't seen it".

Before you know it, the sun has begun to set overhead. All he found was a bunch of paupers drinking fake wine and playing cards, or beggars looking at him on the side of the road. And one by one, they stared at Troy with strange eyes, as if to say something like "get out". Just as Troy picked up the phone and was about to report to Crowe and his party at the "base", he suddenly noticed a figure flashing in a container next to him. Troy immediately chased after him.

Although the port has been abandoned, the containers inside are still piled up in a mess, forming a series of intertwined and complex paths, as if you are in a labyrinth. Unfortunately, no matter how fast Troy ran, he always saw a beige scarf rubbing against the air around the next corner. Troy pursued forward, and suddenly stopped in an open field.

It is surrounded by shipping containers filled with graffiti and a burned-out bonfire on the ground in the middle. But in any case, the "person" he is tracking now will definitely not have time to climb to the top of the container. Troy walked over to the blackened pile of firewood when he suddenly heard a gust of wind.

Troy subconsciously threw his waist back. Looking sideways, a tall, curly-haired man in a dark blue trench coat was swinging his right fist at him. The whole process took no more than a few microseconds, and Troy was able to dodge the blow with agility through his reflexes. But what he didn't expect was that in an instant, the person in front of him had already lifted the wine bottle in his left hand and swung it at Troy again. This was completely unexpected.

Despite the short time, Troy immediately realized that the person in front of him was the person he was looking for in the photo.

The next scene is extremely dramatic.

The wine bottle in the left hand of the man in blue suddenly exploded from the bottleneck less than thirty centimeters before it swung at Troy. For a moment, green glass slag covered Troy's vision. Troy realized that the situation was not good, and with a jerk of his toes back, he slid backwards two meters away.

It turned out to be exactly as Troy had expected. The man in blue quickly pulled out a small-caliber pistol from the pocket of his trench coat with his right hand. Due to inertia, the man in blue turned sideways to face Troy and pulled the trigger.

"Two meters...... No matter how strong your reflexes are, it's useless!" the man in blue snorted from his mouth. Troy hears a very magnetic voice, but it doesn't seem to have any emotion, and the only effect of this sentence seems to be to make a simple annotation of Troy's "death".

"Swap!" Troy shouted in his heart.

Time seems to stand still. The dead leaves around the campfire are suspected to have been blown by the wind. Suddenly, the dead leaves, which had been blown up by the wind and were no taller than a human boot, suddenly reached the speed of a bullet and rushed towards the bullet. The copper-colored warhead, which had already broken through the air, seemed to have been pressed the "playback" button and poured in the direction of the original dead leaves.

Time accelerates. Troy's face, which was supposed to be "blood-spattered" here, was just blown by the wind on a dead leaf. And where the ground was originally dead, the high-temperature warhead was still smoking.

The man in blue was shocked. When he tried to pull the trigger, he only heard a small pistol strike. He suddenly realized that the last bullet in the pistol had been fired. And just now, the person in front of him swapped the position of the bullet's warhead and the fallen leaf. Now the pistol has completely lost its deterrent power.

Wait, swap?!Is he the newcomer in the team...... The man in blue couldn't help but think.

The man in blue decided that the person in front of him had not yet noticed that there were no bullets in the gun, so he lowered the position of the muzzle of the gun a little. Just as he was about to speak, he heard the man in front of him say:

"There are still a lot of dead leaves used by people in the neighborhood to start fires, I don't care how many bullets you have, as long as you get close to me, don't want to hurt me! Besides, I noticed that you just pulled the trigger, but no bullets were fired, you must have run out of ammunition!"

The man in blue was shocked again: "Who are you?"

"You already know my ability, which is [Exchange]. That's right. I'm a newcomer to the squad. My name is Satellus Troy!"

The words "Troy" flashed through the mind of the man in blue. He learned through the eavesdropping on the radio that a newcomer named "Troy" had recently arrived in the squad, but he never imagined that this rookie would be so strong. Now the choice is in front of him. He could have walked away silently without saying a word and continued to follow the clues in his hands, or he could choose to lay down his weapon and talk to the newcomer in front of him. He never imagined that he would be pushed to such a point.

"Forget it, let's take it as a test for you. If you win against me, we sit down and talk, and if you lose, then I'll have to explain to them, 'You died in an accident.'" The man in blue said as emotionlessly as he had just done.

"Because, it's not over yet!" his eyes suddenly flashed with a strange light, like a bullet coming out of the chamber, and it shocked Troy. Before he could react, the container on the suction cup of the crane above Troy's head smashed down!

to be continue.......