Chapter 68: Target Designation (Please Keep Reading)

Damn, Los Angeles isn’t supposed to have such formidable guys like that!

Ao Xi immediately responded to the call for backup, sped over in his car, only to find that there were already more than a dozen officers on the scene, with more arriving by the minute. No matter—if he could just blend in and collect his pay, that was fine too.

He stood behind the other officers, listening as the sergeant laid out the plan.

“The suspect, Payman McReynolds, is believed to be one of the shooters from the previous warehouse concert incident. We attempted to apprehend him half an hour ago, but he was highly alert, spotted the ambush in advance, fired on the officers, and fled by car. According to our trackers, he’s now holed up in a house within this neighborhood.

The mission now is search and arrest. Find him and take him into custody. Be advised: the suspect is armed and extremely dangerous. Report any sightings immediately and watch your own safety.

Move out.”

“Yes, sir!”

The officers responded in unison, then scattered, searching for the suspect house by house. In reality, they only entered yards, not the houses themselves. If someone was home, all they had to do was assure the officers they weren’t under threat, and the officers wouldn’t insist on checking inside.

Even so, under normal circumstances they’d be refused entry or even get complaints. But tonight, the residents were surprisingly cooperative.

There were just too many officers.

Better to lay low for now.

Ao Xi wandered along behind the others for a good while and came up empty-handed.

This wouldn’t do—the neighborhood was quite large. Without knowing exactly where the suspect was hiding, searching every corner would take ages.

Worse, there was no guarantee the guy wouldn’t make another run for it. Given his natural gifts, and with the police unable to seal off every possible escape route, a resourceful suspect would always find a gap.

And even if the suspect was fool enough to stay put, waiting to be caught, it wouldn't be easy; the search teams were spread out, and who knew which group would stumble upon him first? If another team found him, Ao Xi wouldn’t even get a shot off.

Even if he rushed ahead of the others, he’d still have to search yard by yard like everyone else, just putting himself in the line of fire for nothing.

His Danger Sense wasn’t much use in this kind of close-quarters search. The distances were too short; even if he sensed danger, there was barely time to react. Maybe after a few upgrades, the warning would come sooner, but for now, it was lacking.

His Sin Mark skill was also of limited use—he had to actually see the person before it would show up. And if he could already see them, the mark didn’t really matter anymore.

While the other officers searched with tense focus, Ao Xi was the only one letting his mind drift.

It occurred to him suddenly—why couldn’t the Sin Mark show through walls? Or maybe add a target indicator, something that would signal when he was near the suspect? There were no rules against it. He realized he’d been limiting himself, misled by his own assumptions! He still had one request left to make of the system.

He was glad he hadn’t wasted it earlier exchanging for something trivial like herbal tonic.

He quickly contacted the system and relayed his idea.

After a moment, the system replied: [As per host’s request, generating skill: Target Indicator lv1. Once the host determines a target in their mind, they will be able to faintly sense the presence of the Sin Mark above the target. Upon approaching the target, a slight tremor will alert the host.]

Perfect! This skill wouldn’t just help tonight, but would make catching criminals much easier in the future—possibly even more useful than sharpshooting.

“I want to find the suspect,” he thought.

No response. Ao Xi realized his mistake: there were too many suspects in Los Angeles. The system didn’t know which one he meant.

“Find Payman McReynolds.”

Instantly, he felt a subtle pull in his mind, guiding him to move left. Without hesitation, Ao Xi broke away from the search team, following the sensation forward.

As he left, he patted a nearby officer on the shoulder. “Follow me.”

It was pitch black—the neighborhood had almost no streetlights. The residents knew the police were hunting an armed suspect, so they kept their lights off; some didn’t even come home, afraid of being caught in the crossfire.

His flashlight barely pierced the darkness.

Still, there was another reason for this approach: to clear himself of any suspicion. If he went off alone, then returned later claiming to have killed the suspect, people might talk.

But if the suspect was found with a group, there would be no questions.

With a rough sense of direction, searching became much faster. If the feeling wasn’t strong yet, he’d just check a place and move on.

The officers following him found it odd, but said nothing. After all, there was no sign of the suspect, and none of them wanted to take the lead anyway.

After passing through several properties, Ao Xi entered a yard and suddenly felt a jolt in his chest.

He was close.

He immediately raised his gun in both hands, occasionally flicking his flashlight on and off to avoid giving away his position.

After clearing the front yard, he led his team toward the back. The sensation in his chest grew stronger.

This was it.

Ao Xi stepped forward with his gun at the ready, flashlight sweeping across the darkness. For a split second, a shadow darted among a pile of debris.

Danger!

He instinctively crouched low, ducking his head in line with his gut feeling.

Bang! Bang! Two bursts of gunfire flashed, accompanied by the sound of shots.

The bastard was trying to ambush them!

Ao Xi fired back at the position indicated by the Sin Mark—bang, bang, bang!

The suspect was hiding in the pile, so accuracy was uncertain. Ao Xi emptied his magazine just to be sure.

The officers with him also fired at the source of the gunfire.

A cacophony of gunshots filled the air.

[Host has eliminated the target. Current progress: 2/10]

He reloaded before shouting, “Cease fire!”

When the others were safely behind cover, he flicked his flashlight on and off quickly, spotting a body slumped over in the debris. It had to be the suspect, Payman McReynolds.

“Cover me!”

The others didn’t know the suspect was already dead, so Ao Xi had to keep up the act, approaching cautiously. Then he called out, “Clear. Target is down.”

Other search teams, hearing the gunfire, quickly converged. The backyard was soon crowded with officers, multiple flashlights illuminating the corpse. The lead sergeant approached and compared the face with a photo. “That’s him—the man we were after.”

He turned to the group, ready to collect the guns from those who had fired, including Ao Xi. He couldn’t decide about putting them on administrative leave, but it was standard to disarm officers after a shooting, as emotions would be running high.

Before he could speak, their radios all crackled at once: “Officer down! Officer down! Shots fired on officers at the Siesta Motel, corner of Garvey Avenue and Central Avenue in El Monte! Officers are down—any available units respond immediately!”

Ao Xi sprinted to his car, slammed the accelerator, and sped toward the Siesta Motel.

The sergeant watched the departing patrol car and said helplessly, “A few of you head to the Siesta Motel for backup. Leave a few behind for forensics. The rest come with me—we’re going after the remaining suspects!”