Mechanical Alchemist

The moment Su Lun embraced Miss Lena's arm, the murderous intent at his back, sharp as a knife, indeed weakened a lot.

The young lady of the Reiss family had significant influence.

Even the members of the Umbrella organization, intent on pursuing the killer, had to consider the safety of this young lady.

Su Lun didn't dare delay, taking advantage of the fact that not many had surrounded them yet, he had to find that "Sealed Item" quickly.

Since the hostage was cooperative, they smoothly entered the hotel lobby.

Upon entering, seeing the surroundings of the hotel, Su Lun's mind immediately triggered some memories, making him even more certain where the Sealed Item was hidden.

Su Lun wasn't sure about the keys to the hotel rooms, and didn't plan to go directly up. It would be troublesome if he couldn't break in by force.

He went to the reception to check-in and get the key normally.

He had thought he would need to present identification, but unexpectedly, the front desk manager warmly greeted them.

No money was collected, no ID was checked.

A face full of obsequious smiles.

He didn't ask for any luxurious suite, just a regular queen room, Room 505.

Upstairs, it was only then that our hostage Miss whispered weakly that the hotel was owned by her family.

The manager knew her.

Upon further inquiry, half of the properties on this commercial street belonged to her family.

Well, Su Lun almost forgot that she was a filthy rich heiress.

....

On the fifth floor, that scrutinizing gaze that locked onto him had not disappeared.

Su Lun ignored it and opened the room door.

Moonlight Inn was a high-class hotel, its decor not inferior to the five-star hotels from his previous life.

The price of such rooms wasn't cheap. "A-Tong", the grand thief Abek chose this place, not just for enjoyment but more so for safety. The more luxurious the hotel, the less likely are the room checks.

The hotel was backed by the Reiss family, frequented by big shots, with few room inspections and low frequency of regular guests, making it less likely for hidden items to be discovered.

Although Miss Lena didn't mind helping Su Lun, she was also puzzled why he would take her to a hotel room.

But before she could ask, as soon as they entered, Su Lun said, "Close your eyes. Otherwise, you'll have a lot of trouble afterwards."

"Oh."

Although Miss Lena didn't understand what Su Lun was planning to do, just like in the dungeon earlier, she didn't ask further and obediently closed her eyes.

Su Lun indeed didn't want Miss Lena to see what he was about to do, otherwise, she would be in trouble.

The more he spoke, the more he would expose himself.

Upon entering the room, the images in his mind instantly became clear.

Then, his gaze landed on a corner of the ceiling.

The naked eye could see nothing, just a patch of white paint.

He stepped on a stool, then stretched his hand along the edge, as if touching an invisible strip.

"Found it! It really is here!"

Su Lun was delighted.

He didn't know what this Sealed Item was, only that it was attached to that unnoticeable corner.

Now that he held it in his hand, one look with the All-knowing Eye immediately revealed what this transparent object was.

"The Shroud of Oz Ice Man"

Description: It is the covering cloth of the sleeper, the life-taking band for the living;

Curse characteristics: It can seal corpses not higher in legal status than the item itself, preventing any aura from leaking; of course, if you are willing to pay with your lifespan, it can also be used as an 'invisibility cloak' — no one can detect your presence or breath; if you get close enough to the shroud, it will absorb your life tenfold; if you insist on wrapping it around your body, the aura of death will make your life deplete a thousand times faster;

Explanation: This is a shroud peeled from a mysterious ancient corpse at least twenty thousand years ago, having absorbed terrifying curses of necromancy; Can you see it? No, nobody can.

When Su Lun first touched this transparent strip, he had felt a slightly strange sensation.

Now, seeing this explanation, he knew it was the feeling of his life depleting tenfold.

Moreover, with the curse characteristics of this Sealed Item, carrying it around meant a constant tenfold drain on life. Stay connected via empire

Wearing it for one day would consume life a thousand times faster, essentially costing almost three years of life!

However, compared to being caught and dying on the spot, this price was well worth it.

"No wonder Abek felt confident that he could escape from Umbrella's pursuit with this item...this thing is truly an escape artifact!"

The moment Su Lun obtained this item, the dark clouds of death that loomed over him suddenly cleared away significantly.

Gambling with life,

I seemed to have won again.

However, now was not the time to feel sentimental; Su Lun picked up the two-meter-long bandage and started to wrap it around his body. Just as he wondered how such a short piece could wrap around his entire body, the bandage seemed to come alive on its own.

It was like a transparent, greedy little snake that sucked the life force of the living, slithering over Su Lun's body, wrapping him tightly in circle after circle.

At this moment, Su Lun could feel himself being wrapped up like a mummy, tightly secured.

He looked down at his hands, which were still visible.

Yet, bizarrely, when he looked at the mirror in the room, though there should have been two people, he only saw Miss Lena with her eyes closed.

Where Su Lun stood, there was nothing!

"Completely disappeared..."

Seeing his own disappearance in the mirror, Su Lun finally saw a hope for escape.

However, he also discovered a problem.

It was just an optical disappearance; his body was still physically present.

The carpet he was standing on also clearly showed an imprint of his footprint.

Su Lun knew that certain highly perceptive masters could detect this anomaly, so he dared not stay in the room any longer.

Before leaving, he glanced at Miss Lena, who was still standing obediently, and said, "Remember, no matter what happens. If someone asks later, just insist that you were kidnapped by me, threatened with death, and forced upstairs."

Miss Lena obediently nodded, "Oh."

Su Lun thought for a moment and then softly said, "Thank you."

Upon hearing this, Miss Lena didn't open her eyes, a faint smile appearing on her pretty face.

Then, she heard the sound of the door closing with a clank.

For a long time, there was no longer any movement in the room.

Miss Lena guessed something and carefully asked, "Mr. Su Lun, are you still there?"

No one responded.

She asked again, "May I open my eyes now?"

Still, no one responded.

At this moment, Miss Lena still dared not open her eyes because she remembered that Mr. Su Lun had said opening her eyes would invite trouble.

After waiting a bit longer, suddenly there was a noise outside the window.

A person jumped in and asked urgently, "Miss Lena, are you alright?"

Miss Lena then opened her eyes.

By then, there was no longer any sign of Su Lun in the room.

Everything that had just happened seemed like a dream.

....

The kidnapping of the heiress of the Reyes family was quickly reported to the upper management of the Umbrella Organization.

This heinous kidnapping immediately caused severe turmoil in high society.

When top professionals from headquarters were arriving to rescue her, they suddenly heard that the situation had already been resolved.

The hostage had been successfully rescued, but the suspect had disappeared.

Technical personnel from the Umbrella Organization carefully inspected Room 505 at the Moonlight Inn.

An imposing middle-aged man, his face darkened, listened to his subordinates' report in the room.

"So... you, the City Defense, and the Security Team, a total of thirty elite squads, still let the suspect escape right under your noses?"

"Sorry, Brigadier General. We indeed saw him take the Reyes family's heiress into the room. But... we were afraid he might harm the hostage, so we didn't act hastily... but by the time the organization's high-ranking professionals arrived, only Miss Lena was left in the room."

"Heh..."

The middle-aged man suppressed his rage.

The mere task of intercepting the Cross Society's transport team had seemed small.

All personnel were to be taken down and the "contaminants" contained without any ripples.

Yet he hadn't anticipated that a second-tier professional leading a team against a group of outer-city gang "small fry" would end up having several people killed and the perpetrator escaping.

Then, after mobilizing so many resources, it was bad enough not to capture anyone.

Now to have stirred up a city-wide known kidnapping case, and the person escaped again?

If it weren't for the fact that these were his capable subordinates who had already proven their worth, the middle-aged man might actually suspect that all officers in the Umbrella Organization were fools!

Although it was confirmed that the fugitive had the strength of nearly a second-tier professional, it also exposed a major loophole in the organization's internal intelligence system.

Otherwise, how could such a powerful person be a nobody in the Cross Society and completely unknown within the Umbrella Organization?

Thinking this, the high-ranking official from the Umbrella Organization naturally became furious.

"Any clues on the suspect's identity? With such a distinctive cybernetic gear, don't tell me you haven't found anything."

"We have clues. Based on the clues, we accessed the archives and discovered that a few months ago, Shadow Alley's black market did indeed auction an unrecorded 'gold quality' spider cybernetic blueprint. Moreover, from its effects, it also matches..."

"A few months ago? Heh... you mean to say that it's the fugitive, a veteran firearms expert who knows Mystique: Wu Shi, who only became an official professional a few months ago? A beginner of a few months has had your dozens of reorganized squads running in circles?"

"...."

The atmosphere turned awkward.

The subordinate was rebuked thoroughly throughout.

But the truth was just that, according to the clues they found.

Although, they couldn't believe it themselves.

The middle-aged man knew that getting angry now would solve nothing, he asked again, "Have you figured out why the robber came to kidnap the Reyes family's miss? I heard when I came earlier that the two seemed to know each other?"

"Yes. Along with the Reyes family's miss were her bodyguard and Miss Julia from the Cortes family; they all confirmed that the two knew each other. But Miss Lena couldn't provide more intelligence, only saying she was coerced, so we didn't press further."

"What about this room?"

"There are some unusual marks on the corner of the ceiling. After investigation and comparison by our trace experts, it seems that there had been some sort of transparent object adhered there previously. We reviewed related files, guessing this might be the confiscated item — the 'Wrapping Cloth of the Iceman Oz' — that went missing from the Bravo family's vault incident."

"So, you're saying, the loot you had investigated for several years and couldn't find was just taken away by the suspect, and then he used that confiscated item to escape?"

"Yes..."

After hearing his subordinate's report, the middle-aged man reviewed the entire arrest process in the files again, his face reflecting serious contemplation.

"From the beginning, whether it was using the taxi to mislead the pursuers, or later using a counterfeit passphrase to breach checkpoints, the suspect displayed extraordinary calmness... His thinking was clear, showing a very accurate purpose throughout the anti-encirclement process.

He first went to District 4, was blocked, then came to the Moonlight Inn to fetch the confiscated item...so, his goal was always clear, to escape!"

With this thought, the middle-aged man's gaze sharpened.

"Notify everyone, focus on blocking and searching District 4, the suspect's intended destination is still in District 4, especially check the rivers leading to the outer city, the sewer pipes, smuggling channels..."

"Yes!"

After giving the order, the middle-aged man's brows still didn't relax.

"To come up with such prompt responses in the warehouse, it can't be ruled out that he knew beforehand that 'Isaac's Alchemical Notebook' was hidden in this batch of goods, which is strange, Sangbu shouldn't have been exposed yet, how was the message leaked... By the way, any unusual movements from Lady Philo and her backing force?"

"Not yet."

"Keep a close watch on them!"

"Yes!"

"Also, there's a high probability you won't capture that guy now, prepare to intercept him outside the city. Don't you have his bloodied clothes? Notify the Crow Gang's 'Plague Doctor' Sergei to find him. Inform Sangbu to intercept, absolutely can't let the suspect meet with the Cross Society's upper echelon!"

"Yes!"

"One more thing, the Duke's mansion has issued a death order, the notebook must not be compromised! If it gets out and contaminates others, it will cause a huge impact on our Old Lington. Remember, anyone who has touched the notes must be thoroughly dealt with! With such a big fiasco, if the guy still escapes, don't bother coming back!"

"Yes!"