Northveil was still covered by a gray-white sky.
Last night's fresh snow had not completely melted yet.
A thin layer of snow covered the rooftops, chimneys, and the edges of billboards.
The city began to wake.
Vehicles gradually increased on the streets.
Lucian stood on the rooftop of a six-story old apartment building.
The cold wind swept across the rooftop.
His coat fluttered lightly.
The binoculars slowly lowered.
The target.
Had appeared.
Across the street.
That utterly ordinary-looking man.
Today, he was wearing a light-gray long coat.
A dark scarf was wrapped around his neck.
He carried an ordinary briefcase.
Just like yesterday.
He looked completely different again.
If Lucian had not been observing him continuously for several days, no one would have connected today's man with the man from yesterday who had been wearing black-rimmed glasses and carrying a shoulder bag.
Lucian raised the binoculars again.
Through the lenses.
The man slowly entered a breakfast shop.
His movements were natural.
There was no sign of caution.
Lucian did not continue watching the inside of the shop.
Instead, he turned around quickly.
And began moving across the rooftop.
...
Northveil's old district.
The buildings were packed tightly together.
In many places, there was less than two meters between buildings.
For ordinary people, crossing those gaps was almost impossible.
But for Lucian.
It was merely a single step.
Azure Sovereignty activated.
He pushed off lightly with his foot.
His body leaped toward the opposite building.
His shoes landed steadily on the rooftop.
Not making any noticeable sound.
He did not get too close.
He maintained a distance of several hundred meters at all times.
Every two or three buildings.
He would raise the binoculars again.
Confirm the target's position.
Then move again.
...
On the other side.
The man continued behaving like an ordinary office worker.
Stopping and walking.
Entering a breakfast shop.
Leaving.
Crossing a pedestrian crossing.
Entering the central bus terminal.
Nothing about the entire process seemed unusual.
But Lucian did not miss a single detail.
Because.
What was truly worth observing.
Was not what the man did.
But when he stopped.
When he continued forward.
When he lowered his head.
When he looked around.
These seemingly meaningless little movements.
Had repeated continuously for several days.
They did not look random.
They looked more like a fixed routine.
...
Half an hour later.
The target entered the commercial district again.
Lucian did not follow him directly.
Instead, he arrived beforehand at the rooftop of another, taller office building.
The view here was much wider.
He could observe three streets at the same time.
A few minutes later.
The man appeared at the intersection Lucian had expected.
Lucian was not surprised.
Yesterday.
He had recorded the man's movements for the entire day.
Today.
He was simply verifying them.
The result.
Was exactly the same.
The margin of error.
Was not even one minute.
Lucian slowly lowered the binoculars.
His gaze gradually became more serious.
This was not a route decided on the spot.
It was a fixed route.
Every day.
It was almost exactly the same.
...
It was now ten in the morning.
The man entered another public building.
Less than three minutes later.
He came back out.
The entire process.
He had not contacted anyone.
He had not stopped.
He had not taken anything.
Lucian still did not act.
He simply watched in silence.
Only after the man left.
Did he move along the rooftop on the opposite side.
He quickly approached the building.
And stopped directly above it.
Then slowly crouched down.
At the edge of the rooftop.
A black device no larger than a button was firmly attached behind a drainage pipe.
It was almost impossible to notice.
This was the communications tracker the technicians had given him last night.
It had not been installed on the target.
Instead.
It had been placed at a location the target was almost certain to pass.
Whenever a wireless signal on a specific frequency appeared nearby.
It would automatically record it.
And save the data.
Yesterday.
It had received nothing.
Today.
The result was different.
Lucian removed the device.
The terminal connected with a soft click.
A record quickly appeared on the screen.
One.
A piece of wireless data lasting only a fraction of a second.
The time.
Corresponded exactly to the period when the man had stopped here.
The signal strength.
Was far stronger than that of every public network in the surrounding area.
And it had originated from extremely close range.
Lucian slowly narrowed his eyes.
Finally.
He had caught it.
What had truly appeared.
Was not the content of the information.
But—
The person who had sent it.
Lucian did not remain there.
The record on the terminal had already been saved.
The button-sized communications tracker was secured back in its original position.
This would not happen only once.
Since the other party passed through here every day.
If they had received one signal today.
They would receive another tomorrow.
And the day after that.
What truly mattered.
Was not this single record.
But continuing the observation.
...
After noon.
The man continued moving along yesterday's route.
The commercial district.
The administrative district.
The edge of the old district.
At every location.
He stayed for an extremely short time.
Sometimes only a dozen seconds.
At most, two or three minutes.
No one contacted him throughout the entire process.
Not even a single person took the initiative to speak to him.
But Lucian gradually noticed something.
After every stop.
The man would unconsciously check his terminal once.
The movement was extremely natural.
He would only glance at it.
Then continue forward.
If Lucian had not known his identity beforehand.
Anyone would have assumed that the man was simply checking the time.
Or seeing whether he had received a new message.
Lucian maintained his distance at all times.
Not once did he enter the man's field of vision.
Most of the time.
He would not even appear on the same street.
Instead, he used the differences in building heights.
Continuously adjusting his observation position.
Every time he raised the binoculars.
The target would reappear in his field of vision.
The entire afternoon.
Was like a patient hunt.
...
A little after 3:40 in the afternoon.
The man entered a small park in the western district.
This was also the final receiving point from yesterday.
Lucian had arrived beforehand on the rooftop of a residential building on the northern side of the park.
The binoculars slowly moved.
And quickly locked onto the target.
The man walked slowly along the artificial lake.
His pace remained unchanged.
Past a bench.
Past a streetlamp.
Past the railing along the lakeside.
Then.
The terminal vibrated for the final time.
Lucian could not hear it naturally.
But almost at the exact same moment.
On the other end of the terminal.
The technician's computer suddenly lit up.
A new record automatically appeared on the desktop.
"We have it."
The technician's voice came through the earpiece, lowered to a whisper.
"Ninth time."
Lucian did not answer.
His eyes remained fixed on the man.
The technician continued analyzing.
Nine records.
The times matched perfectly.
The locations matched perfectly as well.
Beyond that.
There was another, even more obvious common point.
"The frequency is identical."
"Every time, it's the same transmitter."
"It's not a public network."
"Someone has permanently deployed transmitting equipment."
Lucian watched the man slowly leave the park in the distance.
He finally understood.
Those locations.
Had not been chosen at random.
Every single one.
Had a dedicated wireless node installed in advance.
The man's only responsibility was to pass through.
The terminal would automatically complete the reception.
The entire process.
Did not even require any action from him.
...
The sun gradually sank toward the horizon.
The man left the park.
And headed toward the residential district.
This time.
Lucian did not go and retrieve another tracker.
Instead, he continued observing.
Until the man entered an ordinary rental apartment.
The lights in the windows came on.
He did not come out again.
Lucian remained standing on the rooftop across the street.
He did not leave.
Minute by minute.
The residents downstairs gradually returned home.
One window after another lit up.
The entire apartment building quickly blended into the night.
More than forty minutes later.
The technician's voice came through again.
But this time.
His tone had clearly changed.
"We have a response."
Lucian immediately looked toward the illuminated window.
"Just now."
"The terminal detected a data transmission lasting nearly four seconds."
"Not a reception."
"A genuine upload."
On the screen.
Dense streams of data began refreshing rapidly.
A signal left the apartment.
Passed through the first relay.
Then the second.
Then the third.
And quickly disappeared.
The technician's fingers flew across the keyboard.
Continuously recording every jump.
A few seconds later.
A map slowly unfolded.
A red dot.
Eventually stopped in Northveil's eastern district.
The technician fell silent for a moment.
Then slowly said:
"We found it."
"Although this isn't the final server."
"But this is the first hop where the entire route actually begins."
Lucian lowered the binoculars.
And once again looked toward the rental apartment, whose lights were still on.
A full day of observation.
Had finally paid off.
The direction of the investigation they had lost.
Had finally appeared again.