IMAO Chapter 130.1

That was his promise to his younger brother, and now he must fulfill it.

As he was lost in thought, someone gently placed a hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear, “Lean on me and rest for a while.”

Ji Rong’s eyes were deep, his raven-like eyelashes lowered like two small fans fluttering. It was clear he was worried about Jiang Yuan, who nodded and leaned directly on Ji Rong’s shoulder.

Longluo Star.
Longluo Star Police Station.

“The missing person is named Qiu Jingming, an Omega from the Federation’s Red Star. He came to Longluo Star for travel ten days ago and lost contact three days ago. After the report, we arrived at the location to find only a damaged communicator. The missing person wasn’t found. Based on the scene investigation, there were no signs of violent struggle, and we found no other clues.”

A middle-aged police officer, who was around fifty years old, from Longluo Star briefly described the situation.

“Do you have photos from the scene?” Jiang Tianze frowned at the officer who was clearly looking at them sideways and asked, suppressing his anger.

Officer O’Carl lazily tossed his device in front of the three of them. “See for yourselves. After receiving your report, we immediately launched an investigation, but we really didn’t find anything. Also, from what I understand, the missing person wasn’t in a good mental state when they came to Longluo Star, so we suspect they might have committed suicide by jumping into the sea.”

Jiang Yuan swiped through the scene photos. Indeed, as the officer said, there were no signs of struggle, but this was normal. From that phone call, the people who took Qiu Jingming must have been more than one. Pregnant and untrained, Qiu Jingming would have had difficulty resisting even if he tried.

“Did you check the surveillance cameras in that area?”

Officer O’Carl waved his hand. “There are no cameras in that area. It’s a small path that hardly anyone uses.”

“Please take us there.” After reviewing the materials provided by Longluo police, which were essentially useless, Jiang Yuan realized they only knew the location of disappearance, which could have been found just from the communicator’s positioning.

In other words, in the three days since he reported it until they arrived, the Longluo police hadn’t found any useful leads!

“Damn, I have other cases to handle. I have no time for this,” the man said unpleasantly. “How about this? I’ll send you the location address, you go there yourselves.”

“Fine, send us the hotel address too. We need to check it out.”

O’Carl raised one eyebrow, saying impatiently, “That hotel room has been sealed by us, and we’ve already searched it thoroughly. There are no clues. It’s useless even if you go. I know you’re anxious, but we can only slowly search for leads. Please don’t make trouble.”

Before the officer finished speaking, he saw another middle-aged officer outside making several hand gestures to him, seemingly in code.

O’Carl’s lips curled slightly, giving an OK sign to the person outside. He turned to Jiang Yuan and said, “Sorry, I have business to attend to. I can send you the address, but you can’t enter the room.”

The man put on his police hat and quickly walked out of the office.

Outside the glass window, the two officers met, chatting and laughing. Jiang Yuan rubbed his chin slightly, then followed them out.

“Xiao Yuan?”

Jiang Yuan looked back at his father, making a gesture for silence. After gesturing for Jiang Tianze to stay calm, he followed directly.

He paused briefly outside another office door in the police station, hearing faint whispers inside. Jiang Yuan took out his communicator and activated recording mode.

“O’Carl, were those people just now the missing Omega’s family?”

“Yeah, came in asking this and that, wasting my time. If we could really find him, would we need to wait for them?”

“Forget about finding him. Even if we could, since I’m in charge of this case, I wouldn’t even bother investigating. Federation people expecting us Rick people to help? Hah.”

Jiang Yuan wasn’t too angry. It was expected that the people of Longluo Star wouldn’t be diligent, after all, the war between the Federation and Rick ended less than thirty years ago. Hatred doesn’t disappear so easily.

“So this is your urgent business?”

Jiang Yuan leaned against the door, looking at the police officers gambling in the office, and gave a cold laugh.

“How… how dare you enter without knocking!” O’Carl’s face turned ashen, looking terrible.

“If I knocked, wouldn’t you just hide everything?” Jiang Yuan raised one corner of his mouth. “By the way, I’ve recorded everything. Want me to share it?”

“Damn you-” As soon as Jiang Yuan finished speaking, an officer swung his fist at his face. He caught the fist, slightly sidestepped, then tossed his communicator into his bag. He grabbed the man’s head with both hands, locked it down while raising his knee to press against the man’s throat. The next second, the man collapsed to the ground.

Another person rushed over trying to grab his communicator. Jiang Yuan landed a punch straight into the man’s stomach, sending him flying and crashing into the gambling table.

“Want to continue?”

O’Carl swallowed hard. The handsome man at the door unbuttoned his collar and tilted his neck, bones cracking audibly. His three colleagues were all lying on the ground. He pointed his gun at Jiang Yuan but didn’t dare to shoot.

That’s right, he didn’t dare.

If he shot, he’d be finished!

“Damn… stop! Stop!” O’Carl reluctantly put his gun away and raised both hands. “I guess I’m free now. I’ll take you to the scene and the hotel. Is that okay?”

O’Carl asked cautiously.

Although he looked down on the man before him, Jiang Yuan didn’t want to waste time. He nodded, “Let’s go.”

Jiang Yuan walked straight out of the office. O’Carl shrugged at his colleagues, then followed Jiang Yuan with a bitter smile.

The three who got up from the ground spat at Jiang Yuan’s back, cursing, “Fuck, damn Federation people being so arrogant in our Rick territory. We’ll get that bastard sooner or later!”

“Officer, didn’t you say you had business?” Jiang Tianze saw O’Carl return with Jiang Yuan and asked with a puzzled expression.

“Oh, suddenly… suddenly I’m free,” O’Carl smiled sheepishly. “Well, let’s go. I’ll take you to the scene first.”

“But I have really investigated that place. There are no surveillance cameras, and we’ve interviewed nearby tourists. They all said there was nothing unusual.”

O’Carl explained helplessly. Although he had no good feelings toward Federation people, he had still followed procedure and investigated out of duty, but truly found no useful leads.

Jiang Yuan just gave O’Carl a bland look without speaking. Under O’Carl’s guidance, they quickly arrived at where the communicator was found.

“Did it rain here?”

O’Carl nodded, “There was a heavy rain two days ago. I took photos before the rain, which you saw in the materials earlier.”

“Mm.” Jiang Yuan frowned at this. “Take us to the hotel.”

O’Carl nodded, “Alright.”

At the hotel room, there was a seal on the door and two robot police officers guarding it. As Jiang Yuan’s group approached, the robot officers fixed their laser sights on them, ready to shoot at any suspicious movement.

Only after O’Carl showed his police badge and verified his identity did the two robot officers lower their weapons and move to either side of the door.

Opening the door, glaring sunlight poured through the floor-to-ceiling windows into every corner of the room. The sound of distant waves could be clearly heard.

The room was clean, with few belongings.

The suitcase sat quietly to one side. After a quick look-

Ji Rong said calmly, “No signs of forced entry. No one’s been here.”

“Mm…” Jiang Yuan agreed with Ji Rong’s assessment.

“Yes, after receiving your report, I checked both the scene and his hotel room. There were no signs of entry, nothing was missing. We can confirm no one entered here,” O’Carl quickly chimed in. “I also checked the hotel’s surveillance footage. Nothing unusual.”

Jiang Yuan glanced at the middle-aged officer. He really didn’t trust this man’s words. The group went to the surveillance room to check the footage from the day before Qiu Jingming’s disappearance.

Everything in the footage looked normal. The young man’s eyes were red, but he smiled when greeting people. He looked like he had already adjusted his mood. After greeting someone he knew at the entrance, he quickly put on his hat and left the hotel.

“I told you, I checked the footage, but you still don’t believe me…” O’Carl complained quietly.

Ji Rong glanced at O’Carl and asked a hotel staff member, “Could you help us check the surveillance footage from his first day of check-in?”

“Y-yes, of course!” The staff member nodded. “I’ll… I’ll go look for it.”

Jiang Yuan, Ji Rong, and Jiang Tianze sat together in the surveillance room watching the footage. O’Carl pursed his lips, “What’s there to see? He wasn’t missing those days!”

Jiang Yuan ignored O’Carl and waited a moment. “Stop.”

“This person appeared before.”

“And this one.”

“Mm… this one too.”

Jiang Yuan pointed at three faces in the surveillance footage.

“Oh, I investigated those. Two of them are hotel guests, and one works odd jobs at the hotel,” O’Carl said, raising an eyebrow.

“Seems you did investigate properly.” Jiang Yuan gave O’Carl a suspicious look.

O’Carl clenched his fist and cleared his throat, “Of course I investigated… Did you really think I wouldn’t just because you’re Federation people? Come on, I’m a police officer, okay?”

“However… I haven’t found any useful leads so far.”

O’Carl’s expression turned somewhat unsightly as he secretly glanced at Jiang Yuan and his companions from the corner of his eye. Although he didn’t want to say it, he believed that the missing Omega definitely wouldn’t be found…

For tourist planets like theirs, it was completely normal for a few tourists to go missing. Some might still be found, but others would never be located.

Most families of the missing people eventually gave up searching.

After all, they couldn’t stay on a tourist planet looking for their relatives forever. It required not only a huge amount of money but also time investment, and the chances of finding someone were extremely low.

As a police officer working on a tourist planet, he was quite used to this phenomenon.

Especially on Longluo Star, there was a similar missing person case just half a year ago that ended up unresolved.

To execute something this discreetly, it was clearly the work of professionals.

O’Carl really couldn’t bear to tell his suspicions to the three people searching for their relative in front of him.

Ji Rong seemed to think of something and said, “Come with me.”

“Huh?” Jiang Yuan was pulled along by Ji Rong, quickly leaving the hotel and arriving at a supermarket outside. The store was empty except for robots. Ji Rong turned to O’Carl, “Check the surveillance footage.”

O’Carl was stunned for a moment, but meeting Jiang Yuan’s gaze and remembering the evidence of their negligence of duty in his possession, he immediately used his ID to control the robots and quickly pulled up the supermarket’s surveillance footage.

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