Chapter 71 A Citywide Chase for the Invisible Car! This is Really Getting Out of Hand!

Back to the present.

"Let us assume that this car can truly turn invisible!"

When Captain Chen Jianjun said this in an ironclad tone, the entire special investigation command center fell into a silence that lasted for over ten seconds.

Everyone stared at him blankly, their eyes filled with confusion.

In the corner, the young policewoman who had just joined and was responsible for serving tea and water looked at the man with the serious expression and sharp gaze in front of the whiteboard, and couldn't help but whisper to her colleague beside her: "Captain Chen... has he been under too much pressure lately? Is his mental state a bit..."

Before she could finish her sentence, she was sternly stopped by her colleague's gaze.

But her thoughts represented the inner voice of the vast majority of people present.

"Captain Chen, isn't... isn't this too absurd?" An experienced veteran criminal police officer finally couldn't help but speak up. The corners of his mouth twitched, and the expression on his face showed disbelief. "An invisible car? Isn't... isn't this a plot from a sci-fi movie? We are police officers; we have to rely on evidence and science."

"That's right, Captain Chen. If this gets out, and it's said that the Baishui City police started believing in invisible cars just because we couldn't find a child, wouldn't we become the laughingstock of the whole country?" another deputy captain chimed in.

The conference room was abuzz with discussion, and everyone felt that their leader might have gone crazy.

Facing his subordinates' doubts, Chen Jianjun did not get angry. He just slowly turned around, his sharp gaze sweeping over everyone, and said in a deep voice: "Then who can tell me why a tiny children's off-road vehicle can vanish into thin air in an eight-hundred-meter-long tunnel with no side roads or hiding spots?"

He paused, then pointed to the report on the ghost car that had just been sent to the screen.

"And who among you can tell me why a veteran driver with twenty years of experience would be scared to the point of almost overturning on the highway, and incoherently call the police claiming to have seen a ghost?"

"When all conventional possibilities have been ruled out one by one, then what remains, no matter how incredible or unbelievable it sounds, is perhaps... the only truth!"

These resounding words caused the discussions in the conference room to gradually subside. Everyone fell into silence; they had to admit that although it sounded absurd, they couldn't find any more reasonable explanation besides it.

'A children's car that can turn invisible...'

This thought emerged in everyone's mind, and they immediately felt a chill run down their spines.

This case had completely exceeded the scope of their cognition.

Chen Jianjun looked at the group that had quieted down again, knowing that he had initially unified their thinking. He immediately issued a new order: "Since our general direction is determined, let's act immediately! Information team, pull out all the surveillance cameras in the city, especially those at intersections, bridges, and tunnels with high traffic! Starting from the time the target disappeared in the Xinhua Tunnel, do not miss a single second!"

Once the order was issued, the entire special investigation team began to operate at high speed again.

However, new problems soon arose.

One hour, two hours, three hours passed...

The technicians' eyes were almost going blind from watching the surveillance footage over and over again, yet they still found nothing. That damn small black off-road vehicle seemed to have evaporated into thin air, never appearing again in the direct footage of any surveillance camera.

The atmosphere in the command center became heavy and anxious again.

Just as everyone was about to give up and started to doubt whether Chen Jianjun's judgment was really flawed, the young cyber police officer Xiao Wang, who had previously joked about the car being able to turn invisible, suddenly cried out "Ah!" and stood up abruptly from his chair.

"What's wrong?" Chen Jianjun immediately looked over.

Xiao Wang stared fixedly at the screen in front of him, his face filled with unbelievable ecstasy. He pointed to a corner of the screen, his voice trembling: "Captain Chen! Look! Here! I... I think I've found it!"

Everyone immediately gathered around.

Xiao Wang's screen showed the surveillance footage of an intersection on the edge of the city. The picture was normal, with cars and people coming and going.

"Where is it?" The veteran criminal police officer leaned in, but after looking for a long time, he couldn't make heads or tails of it.

Xiao Wang didn't speak, just paused the footage, and then used his mouse to zoom in, and zoom in again, on an inconspicuous spot in the bottom right corner of the screen.

There, it was a patch of grass on the roadside green belt. Because it had rained the day before, there was a small, inconspicuous puddle of water on the edge of the lawn.

When the image was magnified to the limit, everyone gasped.

Right there in that still, mirror-like puddle of water, a blurry, fleeting black car shadow was clearly reflected!

Its speed was extremely fast, appearing in the reflection for less than 0.5 seconds, but everyone recognized the silhouette of that rugged off-road vehicle and its unique body lines!

And in sharp contrast to this fleeting glimpse, in the direct surveillance footage, the road at that location was empty; there was nothing there!

"My God..."

A technical Expert looked at this scene that subverted the common sense of physics, feeling his heart contract sharply. He muttered to himself: "It... it can really deceive cameras... but it cannot deceive the laws of physics! It cannot deceive the reflection of light!"

The moment Chen Jianjun saw the reflection, he instantly understood all the key points!

He slammed the table, and a sharp light burst into his eyes!

"I understand! I understand it all!" He paced excitedly back and forth in the conference room, rapidly explaining his deduction: "This cloaking system must have an AI decision-making mechanism; as long as there is a camera, the AI will activate the optical camouflage function."

"But! It ultimately only changes the propagation path of light; it cannot erase its traces of existence in the physical world! It can deceive cameras, but it cannot deceive mirrors, it cannot deceive puddles, and it cannot deceive the smooth shop windows! When it drives by at high speed, it will still splash water, still kick up dust, and still leave tire marks on smooth ground!"

After hearing this deduction from Chen Jianjun, everyone present felt that their train of thought had been completely opened up.

"That's right! How did we not think of that!"

"So that's it! This is the true tracking method!"

All the previous confusion and frustration were swept away, replaced by an excitement of having found the right path.

Chen Jianjun walked to the whiteboard, picked up a pen, and in an extremely solemn tone, issued the final, and arguably the most bizarre, pursuit order in history to all members of the special investigation team:

"Order! Everyone, change the direction of the investigation immediately!"

"From now on, give up looking for the car itself!"

"We will look for all physical phenomena that defy common sense in the surveillance footage! A sudden splash of water, a cloud of dust appearing out of nowhere, an abnormal reflection flashing in a roadside shop window... Do not miss any detail!"

"Hunt down this invisible car! Move out!"