Later that night, Yang Zhi heard of what had happened earlier from the old nanny. His jawed ticked in irritation. He'd tolerated Yang Xue before and that was because the mandron had been useful to him at the time. Now, however, he thought back to how Yang Xue had refused his demands and his irritation flared up even more.
He walked out of his study and was about to stomp down to Yang Xue's room when his bracelet let out a notification sound. Looking down, Yang Zhi's eyes suddenly brightened. He'd finally found a buyer for the drug he'd been searching for on the black market!
"Good!" He whispered joyfully and switched directions again, going back into his office.
Two days later, the day of the engagement party finally arrived.He Yuan got up quite early, had a simple microwaved breakfast and did a couple of exercises. Next he locked his bedroom, rummaged around the storage closet in the garden for a couple of things and snuck out of the Yang mansion with a suitcase before any other person could wake up.
There were no reporters in front of the Yang mansion at this time. After two days of waiting without catching a glimpse of Yang Xue, they all decided it was better to save their energy for their General Ding's engagement party later tonight.
He Yuan booked a hover car and rode over to the Grand hotel where the engagement party was to be held. Staring from across the street, he sighed. The security around the hotel was usually very tight but today, it was ten times as tight even though it was still so early.
The Dings and Jins weren't taking any chances.
"888, I need you to alter the security cameras around this street and the surrounding streets."
[Sure.] The system answered lazily. [6,000 exp points.]
He Yuan tsked inwardly. It was a little expensive but he knew the system had no say in the prices so there was no need to haggle. "Fine."
After a minute, 888's voice came again, [Done. You have three hours.]
He Yuan spent a total of two hours observing the hotel, constantly moving from one direction to the other in order not to arouse suspicion from the buff soldiers littered around.
At exactly 9 am, he finally found a loophole. The Grand hotel was so big with hundreds of patrons on an hourly basis which meant that they had to have a huge back channel for deliveries and workers to come and leave the hotel without disturbing the patrons.
This channel was underground.
He Yuan smiled. He was prepared. He quickly wore the first human skin mask he'd made, making sure to properly shield Yang Xue's pointed ears. Next, he wore black eye contacts and put on a dully styled black wig. To complete his ensemble, he wore a dull grey overall he'd nabbed from the storage closet back at the Yang mansion.
After placing the metal case containing the magnetic energy vial and a syringe in his large pocket, he placed the suitcase in a trash bag he'd also nabbed and directed the hover car to park right next to a manhole two streets away from the hotel.
The number of hover cars zipping past the streets had increased and more people were coming out of their houses by the second. The area around the hotel was especially lively as even more people began to check-in ahead of time.
The manhole was located at the ending of a lonely alley so He Yuan wasn't particularly worried about getting caught. This was an upscale part of the city. Hardly anyone would come to a dark alley this early for no reason.
Still, he made sure to keep his eyes on his surroundings.
The entire city ran an underground drainage system which meant that manholes leading to the sewers could be found on every street. For safety purposes, each manhole cover had a specially designed heavy cylindrical key held by the security department of the various jurisdictions.
In the absence of the 'special key,' He Yuan pulled out a crowbar from the suitcase and his needles from the system panel. Although the drugs in his needles were classified as either poisonous or medicinal, some of the plants he'd used for refinement naturally contained a minuscule amount of phytochemical components which could induce corrosion.
Due to the lack of qi in this realm, it was practically impossible for him to activate the drug essence in the needles and increase the concentration of the phytochemical components so... "888?"
The system shook his head softly with a small smile. [How much do you need?]
He Yuan smiled. "Just enough for me to insert the crowbar at the side." He knew this demand would not affect the system as 888 wasn't applying his energy directly against an inhabitant of the realm and neither was he interfering with the general course of events.
The silver haired man was just concentrating certain components of the drugs that He Yuan had personally refined and activating it.
A few moments later, the drug essence was slowly released from a select few needles in He Yuan's hands and as soon as it dripped onto the metallic hinge of the manhole cover, a faint sizzling sound was heard and the hinge quickly rusted.
He Yuan inserted the crowbar and with a few powerful tugs, the manhole cover creaked open. He put away the crowbar and needles with a victorious smile before shoving the trash bag down the hole and jumping in himself.
ZAP!
"Shit." He Yuan exclaimed as he managed to narrowly escape an exposed electric wire. A quick look around revealed several tunnels spread out in different directions. The surroundings were quite dark as good amount of the high voltage LED lamps were broken and, like the one that had almost roasted him to death, a lot of sizzling wires could be seen lying around.
At the centre of various tunnels, a steady flow of sewage water could be seen flowing down to the drain and the smell was not too appealing.
In all, the underground drainage system looked like something straight out of a zombie horror movie.
888 sighed dramatically. [Ah~ The dark side of human civilization.]
He Yuan laughed softly. "What did you expect an underground drainage system to look like?"
888 remained silent as He Yuan began his journey weaving through the tunnels in the direction of the Grand hotel. Thirty minutes later, he arrived at the spot directly below the hotel's underground delivery park.
Another quick work with the phytochemicals and he was in.
There were rows upon rows of Maglev delivery vehicles with hundreds of workers -majority of which were mandrons- scrambling everywhere as they tried to get their work done. More deliveries came in the same ratio as more deliveries left and the place was quite noisy.
He Yuan had ended up coming up in the cover of a delivery vehicle but he was sure his cover wouldn't last for long. He quickly looked around and when he spotted a row of trolleys containing cleaning supplies on the other end of the delivery park, he held his trash bag tightly and walked out of the cover of the vehicle like he belonged there.
One step, two steps, three steps..... Once he was fifteen meters away from the cleaning supplies,
"Hey, you!"
He Yuan didn't even flinch at the call. He merely turned around with an annoyed glare on his face. The caller was a short human male with dyed blue hair and freckles.
The man saw He Yuan's expression and chuckled. "Oh. I had no idea you were human."
A different person walked over and clapped 'Freckles' on his back. "Leave him alone Bing. Just look at his face, he must be new here and is only just realizing how hard we all have to work for the pitiful amount we earn. Let the man stew in peace."
Freckles laughed loudly and nudged his head at He Yuan. "You must have noticed the amount of mandrons we have working here. They bother me. What if they do something stupid and we all get blamed for it, eh?"
A couple of mandrons nearby walked around the two men, pretending to be deaf. It was clearly not the first time. He Yuan tsked inwardly and directly turned to walk away.
The other man laughed whilst freckles' face twisted in a sneer. Fighting was prohibited on work grounds so with nothing else to do, he placed an open palm next to his mouth and shouted, "RUDE!"
He Yuan played deaf and grabbed one of the trolleys before going in. "Finally," He whispered. And then he smiled. "I'm beginning to doubt if being a tasker is the job for me. I'm clearly a natural born National spy."
888 rolled his eyes with a chuckle. Leave it to his host to praise himself to the high heavens. He remained silent though. Even if he would never said it out loud, times like this made him a little glad that he had He Yuan as his host.
The man was a fast thinker and that was a quality he found endearing.