With the number of Awakened Ones the Eighth Research Institute possesses, it's entirely reasonable for them to create such an exaggerated spectacle for a major transaction... However, this is mainly my personal speculation, based on the fact that the Icefield is the Eighth Research Institute's territory, and any problems should be pushed onto them first... Jiang Baimian, her eyes lowered, looked at Smith and the others again and asked:

"Have you confirmed the situation around the square?"

"For example, are there a lot more vehicle tracks?"

The square is covered in snow, and a team of dozens of vehicles couldn't appear "out of thin air" and disappear "out of thin air." They would definitely leave evidence of tires crushing the snow.

Smith smiled wryly and replied:

"If there were, we wouldn't be standing here doing nothing, not knowing what to do."

"We wander the northern Graylands and have seen Awakened Ones. We even have some ourselves."

What he meant was that there were no traces of other vehicles around the square. The goods escorted by their "Rootless" group seemed to have evaporated.

Shang Jianyao jumped up on the spot, using his military exoskeleton to leap five or six meters high.

Then, during his time in the air, relying on the advantage of being high up, he quickly surveyed the situation around the square.

The snow-covered roads, streets, and abandoned vehicles, turning everything pure white.

On top of the pure white, apart from the route the "Rootless" convoy took to enter this urban ruin, there were absolutely no tire tracks, only a few human footprints.

These were obviously left by Smith and the others searching for clues separately.

And they seemed to have been in this urban ruin for several days, so the original tire tracks had been mostly covered by a snowfall a few days ago.

In other words, there were indeed no newly appearing vehicle tracks in the surrounding area.

Clang! Shang Jianyao landed back on the ground amidst a pair of slightly dazed gazes.

He asked Smith:

"Are you sure the supplies disappeared last night?"

"Could it have been earlier?"

Smith thought for a while and exchanged a few words with the other "Rootless" people, then shook his head and said:

"That's how we remember it."

He wasn't too sure in his answer, because since there was such a thing as large-scale memory deletion, there might also be large-scale memory tampering.

"Even if the supplies were taken on the very day Smith and the others arrived, and the subsequent experiences were all fabricated memories, the vehicles transporting the supplies couldn't have left no trace in the snow." Jiang Baimian refuted Shang Jianyao's speculation.

Shang Jianyao smiled:

"What I mean is that those tire tracks weren't left by Smith and the others, but by the group of people who took the supplies. Smith and the others actually arrived here much earlier, and the corresponding traces have already been completely buried in several heavy snowfalls."

"Although this is indeed a possibility, it's too complicated. It's better to just delete memories on a large scale. It's simpler, more convenient, faster, and less trouble." Jiang Baimian said this, but she still turned on the walkie-talkie that came with the military exoskeleton and instructed her teammates in the distance, "Lao Ge, Xiao Hong, Xiao Bai, go to the intersection ahead and follow the tire tracks in reverse to see where the vehicles went."

What she didn't say was that even if that group of people didn't have the ability to delete memories on a large scale, and only had the conditions to tamper with them, they wouldn't add to the difficulty by forging memories of several days. At most, they would modify the memories of only one or two hours after the "transaction" was completed.

People tend to be lazy. If there is no obvious advantage or disadvantage between the two plans, no one will bother themselves.

Shang Jianyao just said it casually and forgot about it in a moment, happily chatting with Smith and the others about the anomalies they felt might exist.

He even asked the other party which number gasoline they liked to use for perfume and if they had any special dishes.

Finally, Jiang Baimian received a reply from Genaver:

"The vehicle tracks lead south. Should we continue tracking them?"

"Not for now." Jiang Baimian calmly gave the order.

She turned to Smith and the others and said:

"These vehicle tracks should be your own."

"Without a vehicle, how could they have moved so many supplies..." Smith once again showed a confused expression.

Even if the other party used helicopters that didn't rely much on the terrain, they would have to dispatch a lot of them at once. There was no reason why there wouldn't be any traces left.

And in the environment and weather of the Icefield, it would be barely okay to use helicopters to send people for short distances, but transporting supplies over long distances would be asking for death.

"Could it be that the other group's base is nearby?" Jiang Baimian was also thinking in this direction.

Before Smith and the other "Rootless" people could respond, Shang Jianyao smiled:

"The answer is simple. I know what's going on."

"Tell me." Jiang Baimian sighed, with the expectation of hearing a "magical idea."

The so-called "magical idea" was a short for the peculiar thinking of mental patients.

Shang Jianyao casually pointed to the snow on a street near the square:

"If it were me, after the main body of the convoy left, I would drive away while using 'Matter Interference' to manipulate the snow and bury all the traces."

This... On the one hand, Jiang Baimian felt that this had a bit of absurdity, like how the hair of characters in old-world entertainment materials could fly and their poses could be handsome because someone was blowing them with an electric fan next door. On the other hand, after thinking and reasoning, she thought that this was a very likely situation.

Except for the relatively large mental consumption, this was more reliable than the previous guesses.

The only problem was that the ability possessed by the Awakened Ones in the "Endings" domain was "Electromagnetic Interference."

However, the other party was at least an Awakened One who had explored deep into the "Mind Corridor," so it was normal for them to possess both the ability of "Matter Interference."

Thinking of this, Jiang Baimian asked Shang Jianyao:

"How long can you continuously manipulate the snow like this?"

If it could only be maintained for less than an hour, then the "Old Task Force" could completely use this square as the center, draw a large circle outwards, and search for traces of the convoy.

Shang Jianyao looked at the "Rootless" people's trucks and RVs, estimating:

"Two or three hours, probably."

This is difficult... Jiang Baimian frowned slightly.

That Awakened One who seemed to be able to delete memories on a large scale probably had more rooms to explore in the "Mind Corridor" than Shang Jianyao. The time they could persist in manipulating the snow would naturally be longer. After all, since entering the depths of the "Mind Corridor," the latter had been "addicted" to going to "506" room, peeping at "102" and "205," and had not explored any other rooms.

Drawing a circle with the distance a convoy could travel in two or three hours, the area covered would be too vast, and the time and electricity consumed would increase exponentially.

And if the time was prolonged, considering the weather conditions of the Icefield, there might be another heavy snowfall.

Besides, the other side might not have sent only one "Mind Corridor" level Awakened One to "pick up" the supplies.

If it was really the Eighth Research Institute, with their wealth of Awakened Ones, they could totally do this kind of thing.

Jiang Baimian suppressed the urge to use a slow grind to find traces and decided to obtain clues from another direction.

She looked at Smith and the others and said:

"Where did you take on this business?"

Although the client's appearance, name, and image characteristics had been deleted, Jiang Baimian believed that the large settlement where the "Rootless" team departed involved the handling and loading of many supplies and involved many other things. It would be a laborious and difficult task to delete everything, and the person who took action might not be willing to do it.

This wouldn't affect anything.

Smith quickly replied:

"Gsteburg."

This was a large settlement belonging to the "White Knights," near the Icefield area.

"Hmm..." Jiang Baimian silently noted the name, intending to go there later to see if she could find any clues.

At this time, Shang Jianyao comforted his good brothers:

"You don't need to worry either. Anyway, you can't remember the client, so what's the difference between losing the supplies and not losing them?"

"At most, you'll just lose half of the shipping fee. Just think of this trip as a publicly funded trip."

Although Smith didn't quite understand the old-world phrase "publicly funded trip," he still understood the meaning. He nodded and said:

"That's all we can do."

Jiang Baimian thought for a while and took the opportunity to ask:

"Do you know of a human city that only became a ruin a little over a decade ago?"

She roughly described the situation of where Shang Jianyao's father had last appeared.

Smith immediately smiled:

"Yes, I know!

"Before it was destroyed by the 'Heartless Disease,' we often transported supplies there for trade."

Speaking of this, Smith's expression became serious:

"Do you want to go there?"

"Yes!" Shang Jianyao replied without hesitation. "We're not strangers. Tell us the specific location."

Smith frowned:

"I don't recommend you go."

"Why?" Shang Jianyao pressed.

Smith looked at him and Jiang Baimian respectively and said:

"Many relic hunters have tried to go there to find treasure, but few have been able to return alive.

"It is said that the 'Heartless Disease' virus is everywhere there. As long as you enter, you may be infected and very easily infected."