Chapter 496: Layers of Suspicion

A surge of killing intent churned in his heart, and Sun Cheng's fingers tapped unconsciously against the desktop.

After a long while, he ordered in a voice that had already calmed down: "Pull up the recorded information; I want more data on the stalkers! Also, re-evaluate the residential security rating!"

"Yes!"

Revenge's cold electronic voice rang out, and the screen, which had already dimmed, quickly lit up again, though this time what appeared was a video clearly captured by surveillance equipment.

The video was not very clear, and it was obvious that Revenge had edited it beforehand; the total duration was only three minutes and seventeen seconds.

But it was enough. Sun Cheng stared fixedly at the screen. At the beginning of the video, a black Buick sedan drove past the front of the residential complex's main gate at a very slow speed.

Revenge circled it with a large red ring, implying that this black Buick might not be as simple as just passing by.

He remembered that the road in front of the complex's main gate did indeed have a 40 km/h speed limit. Comparing it to the speed of other vehicles passing by, this black Buick's speed should not have exceeded twenty kilometers per hour.

Driving at such a slow speed on the road was indeed suspicious.

The video continued to play. About nineteen seconds later, a figure familiar to Sun Cheng appeared from afar and approached the surveillance camera's field of view; it was Ye Qi.

In the video, Ye Qi was wearing a form-fitting dress, a large sun hat on her head, and a pair of toad-eye sunglasses on her face. To anyone who didn't know her, she would likely just be seen as an ordinary resident living in this high-end apartment complex, perhaps just a bit prettier than most.

Ye Qi carried a sizable shopping bag in each hand. She walked into the shooting area from the blind spot of the surveillance camera at the main gate. She did not stop at all during this time, and it took her only thirty to forty seconds to enter the complex and disappear completely from the surveillance camera's view.

And Sun Cheng understood why Revenge had reported to him that someone was following Ye Qi.

Not long after Ye Qi appeared in the surveillance camera's field of view at the main gate, when the video reached thirty-three seconds, a man who was also wearing sunglasses and dressed in completely unremarkable clothing appeared in the video as well.

At first, this man looked just like a passerby, walking past the street in front of the main gate at an ordinary, steady pace, but Revenge circled him once again.

Through the surveillance camera, Sun Cheng stared at him carefully and soon noticed that although the man's gaze was not fixed on Ye Qi the entire time, in the thirty-nine seconds from when he first appeared in the camera to when he walked out, he had looked in Ye Qi's direction four or five times in total.

Afterward, the man walked out of the camera's shooting range.

When the video reached one minute and thirty-seven seconds, a black Buick sedan with an obscured license plate drove over from the direction where the man had disappeared and stopped at the main gate of the complex.

Revenge circled it again for a few seconds; unsurprisingly, this black Buick was likely the same one that had passed the main gate at an extremely slow speed at the beginning of the video.

Although the residential complex where Sun Cheng and the others currently lived could not be considered top-tier in Nandu, it was still a high-end complex targeting high-income individuals.

Therefore, besides residents and vehicles already registered with the property management, outside visitors and vehicles needed to register at the security office and be confirmed by the person they were visiting before being allowed entry.

This black Buick was ultimately not granted entry. Whether the driver had argued with the security guards was unknown, but about a minute later, when he came out of the security office, two figures wearing security uniforms quickly appeared in the video.

At this moment, Revenge circled the front passenger seat of the black Buick with a red ring again. Inside the red ring, one could vaguely see a person in the passenger seat, though their features were unclear.

However, it quickly processed the video, performed a zoom on the man in the passenger seat, and after clarifying and enlarging the extracted image, placed it in the top right corner of the video.

Although the enlarged image was limited by the surveillance camera's resolution and still appeared somewhat blurry after the clarification process, it was enough.

From the enlarged image, Sun Cheng recognized the man in the passenger seat without much effort; it was exactly the same man who had been following Ye Qi a short while ago.

Although this could just be a coincidence—after all, there were not many clues that could link everything together—this was also the reason why Revenge used the term "suspected stalker" for its assessment.

But since it concerned Ye Qi, and perhaps the other party was even targeting him, Sun Cheng did not want to gamble on it being a coincidence.

"Regardless of whether it's a coincidence, the security systems for the residence and myself should be upgraded!"

With his eyes fixed on the screen, Sun Cheng tapped his fingers against the desk one after another.

If the other party was only targeting him, he wouldn't be worried at all.

Over at Base No. 1, which was being rebuilt in the real world, although only a rough framework had been completed for now, with the increasing number of various robots he had brought back from the 【Transformers Universe】, Sun Cheng could even manufacture some heavy individual weapons now if he needed to.

Not to mention, he had specifically brought along a batch of the latest new-model Combat Robots produced by the Base when he returned this time.

Sun Cheng's only worry was that the other party might make a move against Ye Qi. There were many things he did not intend to, and could not, tell others, even if that person was Ye Qi.

If she stayed in the villa all the time, it would be fine; even if the other party broke into the complex, it wouldn't matter. Revenge had already established a security system throughout the entire complex, and an armed squad of under a hundred people would simply never return.

But Sun Cheng could not keep Ye Qi completely confined at home; she had her own way of life.

"... Atlas and the others still haven't been able to cultivate a satisfactory Humanoid Decepticon... It seems I can only take the initiative..."

His mind raced as Sun Cheng constantly calculated the pros and cons.

It wasn't until a few minutes later that Revenge's cold electronic voice caused him to pause his thinking for a moment.

"... Master, the residential security check is complete; it is confirmed secure!"

"... Intelligence gathering is complete... By hacking into the Nandu traffic system, I have successfully locked onto the target vehicle... Black Buick license plate xxxxxx, buyer information unknown, belongs to a car rental company. Because the car rental company currently does not have a network port connected, the renter's information cannot be determined for the time being..."

"Currently, this car is parked in front of a bar named 【Danube Riverside】 in Ningjiang District... Nearby surveillance equipment shows that there is currently no one inside the car..."

"Additionally, I have discovered that there is something wrong with this bar."

"Explain clearly!"

Sun Cheng's heart stirred, and he asked hurriedly.

"The bar's Control Terminal computer protection system is more cumbersome than the Nandu traffic system's Control Terminal, but apart from the video data captured by the surveillance cameras inside and outside the bar, there is nothing else in the terminal database... Moreover, I cannot find video data from 24 hours ago... From the terminal's system logs, it can be seen that someone periodically copies it and then deletes the source data..."

"Hmm?"

Sun Cheng's fingers, which were tapping on the desk, stopped abruptly. It looked like he had caught a big fish.