After the sun had completely set, Su Kai returned from the small supermarket in town, carrying a plastic bag containing bread, canned food, and a few bottles of water.
He tossed the items onto the old table.
The room was dark, lit only by a faint glimmer reflected from the lake outside the window.
His stomach was full, but the thought in his mind hadn’t faded.
Compound V.
This thing was like a thorn, constantly pricking at his mind.
He sat on the creaky sofa bed, concentrated, and brought up the system panel.
[ Available Star Energy: 2450 ]
The number looked good, but he couldn’t just sit and wait for his resources to run dry.
He needed to open new sources of income.
“Since I can’t get it through official channels, I have no choice but to go through unofficial ones,” Su Kai muttered.
“I remember Vought International isn’t exactly clean.
Aside from using Compound V for their own Superhumans, it seems they also sell it on the side.”
He remembered some information from the original series.
Vought International had often supplied Compound V to certain “partners” or “specific organizations,” artificially creating Superhuman incidents.
Then they would send their own heroes to “solve” them.
It was a back-and-forth that both showcased their military might and raked in plenty of attention and funding.
It was classic hypocrisy.
“Let’s see,” Su Kai thought.
“Summon, Void Jellyfish.”
A spatial rift opened, and the semi-transparent, blue-white jellyfish appeared silently in the room once again.
“No need to scan the surroundings this time,” Su Kai said, looking at it.
“Try to see if you can…
connect to the network.
Radio waves, data signals, anything works.
The priority is to find encrypted communications or data streams from within Vought International, especially those related to transport, storage, or ‘Special Projects’ departments.”
“Keywords: Compound V, transport, delivery, non-public locations.”
He didn’t know if the Void Jellyfish could actually do this; the system only said it could perceive energy and spatial anomalies, and conduct reconnaissance and detection.
But network signals were essentially electromagnetic waves, which were also a type of energy information flow.
What if it worked?
The Void Jellyfish’s core light point began to flicker rapidly, at a much higher frequency than when it had scanned the environment earlier.
Its semi-transparent umbrella cap expanded slightly, and some extremely fine, almost invisible purple light filaments extended from the tips of its tentacles, merging into the surrounding air.
Su Kai could feel a more complex and massive stream of information attempting to surge into his mind, but it was chaotic and filled with noise.
Static, fuzzy radio snippets, intermittent mobile signals…
It was like pressing his ears against dozens of noisy radio stations at once.
“Filter it.
Focus on Vought-related frequency bands and encryption protocols,” Su Kai commanded, enduring the discomfort.
The Void Jellyfish’s light point flickered so fast it almost became a continuous glow.
Those chaotic streams of information began to be stripped away and filtered.
About a minute later.
A relatively clear, stable data stream with specific encoding patterns was captured and parsed, appearing in Su Kai’s consciousness.
[…Batch VX-7743…
Loading confirmed…
Destination: Overseas coordinates A7…
Recipient: “Voice of Freedom”…
Armed escort level: Level 2…
]
[…”Lake District Warehouse” loss report…
Actual loss 0.3%, reported loss 1.2%…
The difference has been transferred to “Shadow Inventory”…
]
[…Latest contact frequency update for local “delivery point” in Ohio…
Backup safe house coordinates…
]
Lines of information flashed by.
Su Kai’s eyes lit up.
It actually worked!
This Void Jellyfish wasn’t just a biological radar; it was a super biological hacker!
Fishing directly from the ubiquitous electromagnetic ocean, it could actually decrypt Vought’s encrypted communications!
“Nice!” Su Kai couldn’t help but praise it.
The Void Jellyfish transmitted a hint of “pride,” its light point flickering even more happily.
Su Kai kept the jellyfish in this “information fishing” state while he quickly sorted through the fragmented intelligence he had gathered.
Vought International definitely had one or even multiple secret routes for transporting Compound V.
Some were shipped overseas to organizations that didn’t sound like good news just from their names, such as that “Voice of Freedom.”
Others circulated domestically, using specialized transit warehouses and playing tricks with book losses to create “Shadow Inventory.”
Among them, one piece of information particularly caught his attention.
The coordinates for a local “delivery point” in Ohio, along with the relevant contact frequency and safe house information.
“Right here in this state?” Su Kai stroked his chin.
“The distance won’t be too far…
It’ll be convenient to act, and it won’t easily attract excessive attention from Vought headquarters.”
“After all, The Deep was just transferred here.
Theoretically, he should be sitting quietly by the lake.
Even if Vought hears news of an incident here, their first reaction won’t be to suspect me.”
He rubbed his chin.
“Besides, since it’s a ‘delivery point,’ there must be stock.
Even if it’s not much, it’ll be enough to quench my thirst and farm some initial Star Energy.”
Low risk, clear rewards, and convenient location.
It was practically a beginner’s gift pack tailored just for him…
No, it was a beginner’s dungeon.
“Let’s do it.” Su Kai made his decision immediately.
He had the Void Jellyfish focus on tracking all signals and records related to this “Ohio delivery point.”
Before long, more details were unearthed.
It was a secret stronghold disguised as an abandoned factory, belonging to a local extremist group called “Steel Faith.”
Vought provided them with small batches of Compound V regularly, and this group was responsible for “testing” and “causing incidents.” Sometimes, they also acted as a white glove for Vought International when handling certain shady matters.
There were about a hundred resident armed personnel at the stronghold.
Were there any Superhumans?
The information wasn’t clear, but it was highly likely, given that they had the drug.
Defense situation: There were simple electronic fences and security cameras around the factory, but the internal structure was unknown.
The last “delivery” record was four days ago.
Based on the previous frequency, there should still be stock in the stronghold.
“That’s the one.” Su Kai finalized his target.
He immediately had the Void Jellyfish transform into a Star Sea Armament, turning into an exceptionally exquisite necklace that he wore around his neck.
This necklace could ensure that Su Kai was not subjected to any mental oppression.
Next was formulating an action plan.
Brute force?
Too reckless.
Although he now had the Scaled Armored Rhino and Nether Mantis armaments, with off-the-charts defense and attack power, he hadn’t actually engaged in real combat yet.
The opponent had the advantage in numbers and had Superhumans stationed there.
His goal was the Compound V; if he just charged in, there would be too many variables.
He had to leverage his advantages.
What were Su Kai’s advantages?
That would, of course, be the star sea beast clan.
Especially…
the Nether Mantis.
Su Kai brought up the Nether Mantis’s profile and carefully looked at the description of its core abilities:
[ Optical/Electromagnetic Stealth, Molecular-level Cutting ]
“Optical stealth…” Su Kai mused.
“If I can activate this trait, wouldn’t that be a god-tier stealth skill?”