Kiana and the Captain's Bizarre Adventure

Chapter 349 The Theft Case on 6th Street

"Kiana, even if you are my friend, I will not allow you to slander an honest and diligent sheriff!"

It was obvious that Zhu Yuan was angry. On the other hand, Qingyi somewhat agreed with Kiana's opinion. After all, if one really did not forget their original intention, how could they become disloyal?

"But even if it's because of the connection with TOPS, it's because the Sheriff's Department needs to jointly develop a lot of equipment with TOPS, so dealing with them is unavoidable. Besides, doesn't the commander often say that [there are many things that can't be changed from his current position]? If he can be elected as the Chief Sheriff this time, maybe he can change the public's mind..."

“To offer sacrifices to spirits that are not their own is flattery; to see what is right and not do it is cowardice,” said the man in blue.

"Hmm?" Zhu Yuan looked at Qingyi in confusion.

"What Qingyi meant was: if a person worships spirits that shouldn't be worshipped, it's considered flattery; and if someone stands up when they should, it's considered cowardice," Kiana explained.

"I didn't expect Kiana to know what those words meant. It seems I was judging her by her appearance." Qingyi said with her eyes half-closed.

"Hmph! Of course!" Kiana puffed out her chest proudly, secretly relieved that the knowledge she was forced to learn on the moon hadn't been lost.

"Senior wasn't wrong. Kiana was forced to learn a lot of knowledge during her university years," Zhu Yuan teased.

"Oh? Is that so? It seems my judgment was quite accurate after all."

Upon hearing this, Kiana's expression instantly became somewhat embarrassed. She secretly thought that she should have interfered more with the development of the tree back then, at least she should have removed the persona of herself as an idiot in the early stages before letting it develop freely.

"Let's get back to the topic we were just discussing," said the man in blue. "As law enforcement officers, the most important thing for us is to know what we should and shouldn't do."

Different people may interpret Commander Bollinger's actions differently, but he himself surely knows whether he has acted with a clear conscience. As long as he has a clear conscience, even if he is misunderstood for a time, the misunderstanding will eventually be cleared up.

"Yes, you're right, senior."

It must be said that Qingyi knows how to comfort people. With just a few simple words, she completely improved Zhu Yuan's mood. Of course, it is also possible that Zhu Yuan herself is good at self-regulation.

Just then, the siblings Tetsu and Rin arrived. However, it was clear from their expressions that the three residents did not seem to agree. The next second, Rin apologized, and this guess was officially confirmed.

Zhu Yuan looked somewhat downcast as she took the questionnaire from Ling. After all, even if she had visited all the residents of Sixth Street, including these three questionnaires, she would have been able to do so.

Unfortunately, it was a failed visit. Just as the two were packing up to leave, Mr. Jop suddenly ran over and stopped the two sheriffs.

From Master Qiaopu, everyone learned that a case had just occurred and was currently at a stalemate. Master Qiaopu hoped that Zhu Yuan and the other person could go and take a look.

Upon hearing about the case, Zhu Yuan immediately perked up and, together with Qingyi, prepared to head to the crime scene. Master Qiaopu, who was standing nearby, quickly realized what was happening and led the way.

The remaining three glanced at them and noticed the interest in the case in their eyes, so they followed without saying a word.

Not far away, an anxious driver was arguing with Master Timman at the coffee shop.

"Since you say there's a sheriff nearby, let them come and settle this matter—I want to see what excuses you have for being caught red-handed!"

"Sir driver, I still believe that the statement 'caught red-handed' is unfair. It's like judging a cup of McQueen's coffee just because you see the foam on it."

It was obvious that the two had been arguing for some time, and if they weren't stopped soon, it would probably escalate into a fight. Seeing this, Zhu Yuan quickly stepped forward and stood between the two.

"Gentlemen, please calm down. We are sheriffs. What's going on here?"

"Sheriff, you've finally arrived! Here's what happened—"

Upon seeing Zhu Yuan identify herself, the driver began to recount what had happened.

"My name is Gail, and I'm a driver for Tianma Transportation Company. I happened to be delivering goods in this area today. I just finished my delivery and was on the phone contacting the next recipient when I suddenly heard a loud thud from the truck!"

I was startled and rushed to the truck. There I saw the ducks in the cargo compartment flying around, and a frightened baboon standing beside it—that was it!

As he spoke, the driver named Gale pointed to Bomb, who was anxiously explaining to the side. Kiana recognized Bomb; it was named Change and was one of the employees of Grocery Store 141.

Kiana knew about it because 141 General Store was a chain store in New Elito, located on various streets in New Elito. Its most distinctive feature was that the store's employees were composed of three types of pumas: purchasing, consultation, and change.

The names of the three bums also reveal their general roles: Consultant mainly handles inventory lists and answers customers' questions; Purchasing is responsible for purchasing and selling goods and collecting tinni; and Change is responsible for miscellaneous tasks, such as helping customers give change or moving goods, as the name suggests.

According to Gail's account, it seems that Change opened the carriage door, which caused the expensive new breed of ducks to get lost. However, Change said that he just suddenly felt dizzy and was resting there when the carriage door suddenly opened.

Obviously, Gail's testimony about giving change would only make him angrier, since, according to him, if he lost even one or two of these ducks, he wouldn't be able to afford to pay for them with a month's salary.

In addition, there have been many cases of Bomb committing crimes in the city recently, which led Gail to suspect that it was the changer who did it.

On the other side, Master Tingman couldn't stand it any longer and quickly defended the change. After all, as its neighbor, it knew the change's character and believed that it wouldn't do such a thing. This was the main reason for the argument between the two.

However, Kiana also believed that the person giving change was not the culprit, a view instantly shared by the two beside her. Unlike Kiana, Tetsuya and Rin had dealt with the three baboons at the Six Points Street General Store quite a bit and knew their personalities very well, so they didn't think that this was done by an honest person giving change.

However, at the time of the incident, the change was caught red-handed by the driver, Gail, near the truck. If this matter cannot be explained clearly, it will be difficult to help clear the change of suspicion.

Suddenly the crowd in front dispersed, and Zhe Ling quickly stepped forward to inquire about the situation of Zhu Yuan and the others.

According to Zhu Yuan, the case has not been resolved; she merely analyzed the current situation to calm everyone down a bit.

Zhu Yuan and her team then conducted a preliminary inspection of the area around the truck. Apart from the traces left by the ducks escaping, they found nothing else suspicious.

Since there are no street cameras in the vicinity, the only things that can be investigated at the moment are Bangbu's visual records and the vehicle's anti-theft system.

However, both of these require processing by a specialized technical department, and a conclusion cannot be reached immediately. Furthermore, since Zhu Yuan doesn't want Kiana to help her with backdoors, the approval process will likely take two to three days.

Undoubtedly, both Gail's change-making and his life as a driver will be greatly affected during this period. After weighing the options, Gail chooses to accept the settlement.

After all, what he cares about most right now is whether the goods can be delivered on time today. He will accept the settlement as long as all the lost ducks can be found and the goods can be delivered on time.

So the neighbors on the street immediately set off to look for ducks, which is why the crowd in front dispersed.

Zhe and Ling immediately set off to join the search for the duck after hearing this. Zhu Yuan, who was standing to the side, also chose to stay and help find the duck in order to prevent any possible secondary conflicts and because there were some suspicious points in the case.

Within minutes, Kiana was the only one left at the scene, but it didn't matter. Rather than looking for the duck, Kiana wanted to look for more clues nearby.

Kiana then began investigating the scene. Just as Zhu Yuan had said, there were no other suspicious traces near the truck except for the marks left by the ducks when they escaped.

However, this was only superficially true. Kiana noticed that the truck's cargo door used an electronic lock, and after expanding her investigation, she discovered that the headlights of nearby vehicles were also flashing continuously.

If only one car's headlights are flashing, it's not a big deal, since the driver might have forgotten to turn them off. But if the headlights of a whole area are flashing, that's obviously not normal.

Because Zhu Yuan and her team were only conducting a preliminary investigation and were distracted by the argument between the driver and Master Tingman, they didn't immediately notice that the truck and nearby vehicles' headlights were flashing.

Following this clue, Kiana simply walked around Six Points Street and found that most of the vehicles on Six Points Street, centered around the truck, were experiencing flashing headlights.

After asking a car owner to turn off the headlights and finding that it didn't work, Kiana realized the truth of the matter.

Kiana returned to the scene of the crime with the truth she had deduced. At the same time, Zhu Yuan and the others also returned to the scene with the duck they had found. However, judging from the expressions on their faces, Kiana knew that they had also deduced the truth.

"It seems you all understand what's going on now, right?" Kiana asked.

"Kiana, you know about this too?" Qingyi asked, somewhat surprised.

However, she quickly understood. After all, Kiana was different from them and had been investigating clues nearby. In addition, she had previously discussed with the Anti-Air Section 6 the recent car incidents caused by EMP attacks. It was not surprising that Kiana could quickly deduce the cause of the matter from the abnormalities of the nearby vehicles.

However, all of this still needed to be confirmed, so Zhu Yuan and Qingyi hurriedly found the change and started copying its current data, while also asking Gail if there had been any abnormalities in the phone during the call.

After receiving a positive response, Zhu Yuan and Qingyi left with the newly copied current data.

Just then, Zhe and Ling arrived at the scene. After learning about Zhu Yuan's whereabouts from Zhao Ling and Gale, Zhe immediately understood the connection between them.

"My phone inexplicably shut down, and I felt dizzy when I was given change. It turns out it was an EMP attack."

"The store manager was absolutely right."

The voice of the woman in green came from the side.

"Zhu Yuan, Qingyi, you're back."

"Sir driver, have you ever heard of an EMP transmitter—that is, an electromagnetic pulse transmitter?"

It was clear from the driver Gail's clear eyes that he genuinely didn't know. So Qingyi began to explain the principles of the EMP transmitter and the potential dangers it could cause.

After understanding what Qingyi said, the driver realized that Zhaoling was also a victim, just like him. So he quickly apologized to Zhaoling. Zhaoling didn't make things difficult for him; instead, he happily said that he wouldn't have to be separated from everyone anymore.

At the same time, Zhu Yuan also said that the perpetrator must have used the EMP transmitter more than once today. She has arranged for people to investigate pedestrians who have been near the crime scene and believes that the target will be found soon.

As soon as you speak of the devil, the branch's security officer arrives to inform Zhu Yuan that they have identified a suspicious person and asks if she wants to question him.

Zhu Yuan did not hesitate to order the other party to carry out the order immediately, while she and Qingyi rushed to their destination.

Zhe, who had overheard the entire conversation, glanced at Kiana without leaving a trace. From Zhu Yuan's words, it was not difficult to deduce that the police department had not actually identified a suspect until just now when they found a suspicious person.

In other words, was the information Kiana gave them yesterday not shared with the police department because they hadn't had time to inform them yet?

That shouldn't be the case. Logically speaking, such important intelligence should have been on the other side's desk by the next day, even if there wasn't time to report it on the same day. Unless Kiana's intelligence source wasn't Section 6 of the Anti-Air Force and she didn't intend to share it with the Security Bureau...

While Zhe was still pondering matters related to Kiana, the suspicious person realized he had been exposed and began to flee. Zhu Yuan and Qingyi immediately gave chase.

Unfortunately, after a tense and exciting chase, the other party still managed to escape into the cave. Zhu Yuan reported to the command center while walking into the cave.

They completely disregarded the command center's order to stay put, since their main task today was to visit and promote the cause, and they didn't have any of the latest radishes with them.

The command center ordered them to stay put because delivering radishes takes time, and it's impossible to deliver them inside the cavern, as the cavern is chaotic and disorderly, making it difficult to accurately locate the two people based solely on location data.

After saying goodbye to Tetsuya and Rin who had arrived, the two figures completely disappeared into the void.

"They actually went in without bringing any radishes..."

"Brother, let's go help them!"

"Ok!"

After speaking, the two hurriedly returned to the store and activated H·D·D, ready to provide covert support at any time.

"Oh dear, I seem to have forgotten to tell them that Qingyi is actually a puppet, roughly equivalent to a human-shaped Bangbu. Even without Radish, Qingyi's database still stores the old version of Radish's data."

Kiana, who had been watching the whole thing from the sidelines, pointed at the popsicle she had just bought and muttered to herself.

"But forget it. If we really tell them, we might lose one show to watch. But should we go to the cave to watch the show, or go to Zhe and Ling's place to watch the show?"

Kiana, squinting, began to struggle with her decision.