With barely a thought, a massive stream of data rapidly materialized and solidified before him!
A heavy, blue-silver motorcycle, with sharp lines and a futuristic technological feel, appeared out of thin air!
"Holy crap! Duck Duck's motorcycle?! This free gift is awesome!" Koushi couldn't help but complain again, flipping onto the bike.
Just then, several blinding searchlight beams swept over!
More than a dozen AST Unit members were rapidly closing in, led by a white-haired figure whose face was etched with killing intent due to disturbed sleep!
"Tch! Speak of the devil! And it's Origami Master leading the team personally?! Isn't she sleeping?"
Koushi clicked his tongue, his heart pounding, adrenaline surging. Now was not the time to admire a new skin or worry about gender!
Driven purely by survival instinct, a massive stream of data rapidly materialized and solidified before him!
A virtual blue road, full of futuristic technology, appeared out of thin air. He gripped the handlebars tightly, and the engine emitted a deep, powerful hum!
"Target spotted! All units! Engage A-level response protocol, fire at will! Commence suppression!" Tobiichi Origami's cold and decisive voice came through the speaker, without the slightest hesitation.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh—!
Several energy rounds from beam rifles instantly sliced through the night sky. The scorching beams narrowly missed the motorcycle's slipstream, shattering the cement at the edge of the rooftop!
"What the hell! Full firepower right off the bat?!" Koushi flinched, slamming the throttle all the way open!
Boom—!
The massive thruster at the rear of the Truth Motorcycle erupted in a fierce, faint blue light, like a beast escaping its cage, instantly launching him forward with immense G-force.
Skimming past another round of energy fire, he dangerously shot out of the rooftop area!
"Don't think you can escape!" Origami's voice pursued him relentlessly. The thrusters behind her and the AST Unit members engaged at full power.
They transformed into more than a dozen streaks of light, tightly following the conspicuous blue trail ahead as they plunged into the city night sky.
A fierce aerial chase instantly erupted!
Koushi twisted the throttle fully open ahead of them. The speed of the Truth Motorcycle soared to an astonishing level, and the skyscrapers on both sides flashed past like fast-forwarded film.
The fierce wind whipped his newly grown blue hair wildly.
"Left turn! Right turn! Initial D! Yes, yes, yes! This motorcycle is awesome!" While performing all sorts of incredible sharp turns and evasive maneuvers, relying on the calculation ability granted by the The core of reason and his instinctive Understanding of the city structure, he still had the energy to complain wildly in his mind.
"Aha, is this gift reliable?! It's not going to run out of power halfway, is it?!"
Behind him, the AST Unit held fast.
"So fast!" An AST Unit member couldn't help but exclaim. The target's maneuverability far surpassed that of ordinary Spirits, and that strange motorcycle was unbelievably agile.
"Team Three, flank left! Team Two, disrupt the right! Team One, follow me in direct pursuit, maintain fire suppression, don't let her widen the distance!"
Origami calmly issued instructions, her beam rifle continuously firing bursts, precisely blocking the target's potential escape routes.
Streaks of scorching light constantly whizzed past Koushi, or exploded on the buildings ahead, forcing Koushi to continuously execute various high-difficulty evasive maneuvers. At times, he vertically ascended right next to a skyscraper's glass curtain wall, and at others, he suddenly dove into narrow gaps between buildings.
"Are they crazy?! Using this kind of firepower in the city?! What if they cause civilian casualties?!"
Koushi couldn't help but complain, "Master, I'm not your Shido. Why are you chasing so closely? You're making things difficult for me."
A sharp turn took him around the back of a large shopping mall, temporarily breaking free from the enemy's direct line of fire.
However, the AST Unit's tactical proficiency was extremely high, and their coordination was seamless. They quickly flanked him from both sides, and the searchlight beams locked onto him again.
"Origami is still chasing me, damn it!" He cursed under his breath, abruptly shoving the control stick. The motorcycle plunged almost vertically toward the complex interchange area below.
The AST Unit immediately dove to follow, beam rounds raining down like bullets, leaving scorched craters on the highway pavement and bridge pillars.
He piloted the motorcycle through traffic and between bridge columns at an astonishing speed, constantly facing mortal danger. A few times, beams barely missed his hair, the scorching heat making his scalp tingle.
"No good, I have to shake them off!" He hardened his resolve and concentrated his thoughts. He ripped the blue core gem embedded in his chest and shoved it into the slot on the motorcycle's dashboard.
As if by Aha's malice, Koushi seemed to see two extra turbochargers suddenly appear inside his motorcycle, turning two into four.
The light from the motorcycle's main thruster flared up again! The speed instantly jumped another notch!
At the same time, Koushi stopped fleeing in a straight line and began making continuous, erratic direction changes, sometimes zooming up the side of a tall building, sometimes diving into the entrance of an underground passage only to burst out from another exit nearby.
He fully utilized the The core of reason's advantage in "Understanding" terrain, turning the city itself into the perfect cover.
This method of escape—unorthodox yet precise and highly efficient—made it difficult for the AST Unit, accustomed to Spirits either charging directly or holding their ground, to adapt quickly. Their encirclement was repeatedly broken.
"Target attempting to disengage! Lock-on difficult!"
"Too fast! Requesting higher authority support!"
Exasperated voices from other team members came through the communication channel.
Origami frowned, still staring intently at the flickering blue light ahead. She constantly micro-adjusted the aiming of her rifle, but the target always managed to evade with an unbelievable move at the crucial moment.
"Continue pursuit! Analyze his movement pattern! He must have a destination!"
However, the performance of the Truth Motorcycle and Koushi's driving style (or rather, instinct) ultimately prevailed.
After forcing his way through a complex industrial park, using the cover of dense factory buildings and massive pipe structures, he finally succeeded in temporarily disappearing from the AST Unit's radar and sight.
"...Target spirit energy response is rapidly decaying! Fluctuation pattern changing... Is this... 'Lost'?" An AST Unit member reported with uncertainty, looking at the suddenly plummeting data on the detector.
All AST Unit members paused their movements, including Tobiichi Origami. This was a common occurrence when they engaged Spirits.
—When a Spirit is actively or passively exhausted, or simply when their time is up, they vanish into thin air, returning to the so-called "Neighboring World."
Origami hovered in mid-air, her brow deeply furrowed. The behavior pattern of this newly appeared Spirit was too strange, and its method of escape was unprecedented, making her instinctively feel that something was wrong.
Yet, the spirit energy reading on the detector, which quickly dropped to the level of background noise, was the most typical characteristic of "Lost."
"Maintain vigilance! Contract formation, search the surrounding area, and collect residual spirit energy samples!"
Origami did not immediately disengage from combat stance; instead, she calmly issued the command. The formation of black CR-units began to descend.
Like a cast net slowly being pulled in, the searchlight beams meticulously swept over every inch of ground and every corner below. Sensors fully analyzed the gradually dissipating energy particles in the air, attempting to capture any trace of abnormality.
Meanwhile, in a dark corner piled with industrial waste, less than twenty meters from the edge of the AST Unit's search perimeter, our protagonist was pressed tightly against the cold, damp ground, practically merging with the shadows.
The moment Koushi dove into cover, he had a flash of inspiration. The one thing he did by frantically squeezing out the pitiful primary authority of the The core of reason was: Understanding and simulating the unique spirit energy decay fluctuation characteristic of a "Lost Spirit!"
He couldn't truly vanish, but he successfully created a spirit energy disappearance illusion lasting several seconds, one convincing enough to deceive them!
"Now's the time... I'll bet everything!" he screamed internally, yet his body remained motionless like the most cautious gecko, his breathing almost stopping.
He could clearly hear the sound of the AST Unit members' boots crunching on gravel. Searchlight beams swept over his head several times, and scorching energy beams occasionally struck nearby metal, making a terrifying sizzling sound.
He saw Origami's white figure hovering not far away, her cold gaze sweeping over the area like a physical presence. For a moment, he felt Origami's sight linger on the pile of waste where he was hiding for a fraction of a second.
His heart nearly leaped into his throat!
"Don't look back... Please don't look back..." he prayed frantically in his mind, simultaneously lowering his bodily functions to the minimum. Even his thoughts seemed frozen; he didn't even have the energy for his usual complaints, leaving only the most primal instinct for camouflage.
Fortunately, the deadly gaze quickly moved away. Origami's attention seemed to be drawn to an abnormal energy residue at a pipe joint further away.
"A chance!"
The moment Origami turned her head to check the pipe—
Koushi moved!
He neither ran nor flew, but instead used an extremely awkward and undignified posture, moving on all fours, silently crawling like a startled groundhog toward the darker outskirts of the industrial area, opposite the AST Unit.
The makeshift "ghillie suit" he created using branches, leaves, and his own authority provided perfect camouflage, while simultaneously suppressing all signals he might emit to the outside world.
His movements were meticulously careful; every time his hands and feet touched the ground, it was as light as a feather, avoiding any strange noises.
"If only I can reach that corner... If only I can crawl into that abandoned sewer manhole..." Only one thought echoed in his mind like a mantra. Adrenaline was surging, and his muscles ached from tension and maintaining the bizarre posture, but he dared not stop.
Almost there! Just a little more!
However, just as he was about to reach the anticipated manhole—
An AST Unit member responsible for flank vigilance seemed to hear a faint movement and turned his head toward his direction in confusion.
!
Koushi's heart instantly stopped!
In the nick of time, he made an incredibly decisive (and humiliating) choice—he immediately flattened himself on the spot, spreading his limbs, burying his head in the dirt, and using the ghillie suit to perfectly camouflage himself as a pile of inconspicuous industrial waste, playing "dead" completely.
He completely held his breath, as if truly nothing more than a lifeless pile of refuse.
The member looked around suspiciously for a few seconds. The searchlight swept past, found nothing unusual, and assuming it was a rat or the wind, he turned his attention back to the main search direction.
The crisis was temporarily averted.
Koushi dared not move immediately, maintaining that mortifying posture for a full minute. Only after confirming there was no further suspicious attention did he resume his slow and arduous "crawling long march."
"As long as... as long as I can get there..." Feeling the rough ground scraping against his skin (thankfully protected by the basic spirit dress), he slowly edged toward the boundary of freedom.
Finally, he successfully crawled to the perimeter wall of the industrial area, used a broken drain outlet, and arduously dropped inside, completely vanishing from the AST Unit's sight and monitoring range.