Chapter 554: The Smart Robot Kidnapper_1

Little Q's fight with Old Qin and the other two didn't involve any fancy maneuvers, just simple bumping, throwing, and shoving.

Their movements, however, were forceful, making loud thuds as they slammed against the metal walls.

Gradually, Little Q began struggling to parry, cornered by a man and a woman who had descended from the hovercraft.

Seizing the opportunity, Old Qin grabbed Jiang Que, pulling her onto the hovercraft and threatening Little Q, "Stop resisting, or I will kill her!"

Little Q had no choice but to cease fighting back, and the man and woman who had pinned him down quickly retreated to the hovercraft. Old Qin and his companions left on the hovercraft, making themselves scarce.

Before the hovercraft took off, Little Q secretly launched a tiny tracking device at it and immediately reported everything that had happened here to Number Three and Qin Hai.

Qin Hai also arrived shortly after the kidnappers had left. Seeing the signs of the struggle in the steel corridor and the damage on Little Q's shell, his heart sank.

...

Old Qin and Jiang Que sat in the front row. He pointed at the young man in the back and introduced, "Xiao Wu."

Then he pointed at the young woman and continued, "Xiao Zheng."

Next, he questioned Xiao Wu, "How did you gather the intelligence? How could there be such a combat-capable robot by her side?"

Xiao Wu replied with a bitter smile, "That big-headed robot didn't look like anything but a domestic robot; who knew it would be equipped with plasma weapons?"

Old Qin let out a sigh of relief, to be honest, he hadn't expected Little Q to be so fierce either.

Jiang Que remained composed, "Who sent you?"

None of the three respondents from Old Qin's party.

Jiang Que pressed on, "Then who is trying to stage a coup?"

She suspected that someone was plotting a coup, planning to use her to blackmail her father.

Old Qin shook his head, "It's not like what you imagine. Currently, no one can shake the Wallfacer's position."

Jiang Que ventured a guess, "Let me guess, you must be people who just acquired citizenship of the Solar System State, from the Former Solar System Federation, right?"

Old Qin laughed, "You could guess that?"

"Because if you were from the Solar System State, you'd know that no criminal can ever escape."

Old Qin said, "That's not necessarily the case."

As they were talking, the hovercraft came to a stop between two towering steel buildings. The road here was very narrow, and the tops of the two steel buildings were connected.

To approach the hovercraft, one could only pass through the narrow paths at the front and back.

Xiao Zheng then placed an oval-shaped device on the roof of the vehicle. Old Qin smiled and said, "Alright, now their thermal imaging systems won't work either."

But Jiang Que shook her head, "The police will find you soon. All resistance is futile."

Old Qin just smiled and said nothing.

Just as Jiang Que had said, in a mere two or three minutes, the area was surrounded by a multitude of police hovercraft.

Police robots also immediately cordoned off the scene on the ground.

The police's response wasn't slow; upon receiving Qin Hai's alarm, the intelligent security kiosk's police robots were dispatched at once.

However, Old Qin and his group's kidnapping had taken no more than a minute or two, and at first, it was not clear that a kidnapping had occurred, since such incidents had become rare.

After Jiang Que had been taken, the case was quickly escalated. Nearby police robots began intercepting immediately, and a designated human police supervisor took charge of the case.

As Number Three intervened, even the armed robots were deployed.

Just as the invited psychologists were preparing to negotiate with the kidnappers, Old Qin took the initiative to contact them, "Our demands are not high, give us a small curvature spaceship, or we will immediately kill the hostages."

The psychologist immediately agreed, "Okay, we won't stop you from leaving, but please release the hostages before boarding the ship."

Old Qin laughed, "Sorry, we have no intention of releasing the hostages."

"We provide you with a spaceship..."

Old Qin interrupted him, "Please understand, this is not a transaction, this is our demand.

"You can refuse, but before we are captured, we will kill the hostages!"

After that, Old Qin ended the conversation.

It was only then that Jiang Que realized, "You kidnapped me to get a curvature spaceship?"

In the Solar System State, even the smallest curvature spaceship was under strict control, and curvature engines were simply not available on the market.

If one wanted to use a curvature spaceship, they had to submit an application to the Governing Council, and only after approval could they rent a curvature spaceship from the council.

Since it was an intelligent system review, the application process was quick, and if the requested model was available in the hangar, it would generally take just about a dozen minutes to complete the formalities.

However, everything about the trip was decided by the intelligent pilot. Passengers had no say over where to enter curvature space or where to exit; these were decisions made by the pilot.

The ship would deliver the passengers to their destination as swiftly as possible. If passengers proposed a new itinerary, the ship would not obey the commands. Passengers had to reapply, and the system would review their new destination.

This management model was for the purpose of preventing the malevolent leaving of traces that could reveal the existence of the star system.

Additionally, it was to control the usage of curvature ships. The Starship Earth had experienced a rebellion of curvature spaceship formations. It was said that they intended to ride the curvature ships to the edge of the universe to see the end of cosmic time.

Their dreams were realized, but the newly established curvature spaceship formation of Starship Earth suffered a huge blow, severely affecting its development and causing it great economic loss.

That's why the Eastern Continuation proposed purchasing the retired Star Accelerators from the Solar System State.

Jiang Que laughed, "Wouldn't it be better to just steal a ship? With your strength, stealing a ship shouldn't be too difficult."

Old Qin replied, "Kidnapping you was our primary mission. Wanting a ship was merely to make full use of your value."

"Who exactly sent you?" Jiang Que glanced at the wound on Old Qin's arm and asked again, "You are highly intelligent robots, aren't you?"

Old Qin generously admitted, "Yes."

Jiang Que wasn't too surprised by this, as many robots from the Science Academy behaved no different from normal people, lacking only a human appearance.

Old Qin added, "Once we embark on the interstellar journey, I will tell you whom we are serving."

"It's not hard to guess," Jiang Que said. "Given that you secretly violate the constitution to disguise yourselves with human-like appearances and send yourselves to the Blue Maiden Star, it must be a powerful person or organization.

"Is it a Governor of some province? No, they are all very loyal to the Solar System State.

"I know, it must be a Federal Star System that wants independence, so they sent you to kidnap me!"

The more Jiang Que thought about it, the more it seemed to be the case. His father's visit had dealt a heavy blow to the independence movement within the Federal Star Systems, and lately, there had been no disturbance from them for half a century.

It stands to reason that one of those star systems might have resorted to such a devious trick.

However, Old Qin shook his head and said, "If we know about one of the Federal Star Systems, it will expose one."

After a pause of a second or two, Jiang Que suddenly thought, "The cosmic broadcast from the Enbo Star System, was it you who sent it out?"

Old Qin did not deny it, "We obtained the exact location of the Enbo Star System; it was our world that broadcasted to them in the cosmos!"