It was past 1 PM the next day, after lunch, when most people felt a bit drowsy.
A group of three, an elderly man with graying hair and two young people, emerged from the side entrance of the Century Time Hotel. They were dressed in well-made but ordinary winter clothes, and red sports scarves were wrapped around their necks—these were the support scarves for the Foggy City Arsenal Sky Team, one of the city's hallmarks.
Such a crowd was truly common on this big day for football fans.
The three walked directly to the taxi stand outside the hotel, waiting for a taxi.
Just then, a young man ran over, opened his outer jacket, revealing the Foggy City Arsenal jersey underneath. He was clearly an avid fan, and from several meters away, he shouted at the three: "Arsenal! Go!"
The three were a bit stunned, but the surrounding pedestrians, including many fans wearing team merchandise, showed knowing expressions.
"Arsenal! Must win! Arsenal is this year's champion!"
"Arsenal is definitely the champion!" Fans and many pedestrians echoed loudly.
The elderly man seemed to realize that it would be too conspicuous not to join the chant, so he also shouted: "Down with the Red Monkeys!"
The other two young people also reacted quickly and joined the chanting: "Down with the Red Monkeys!"
More fans also chanted in unison.
At this moment, the autonomous taxi arrived. The elderly man gave everyone a cheering gesture and shouted: "See you at the stadium, let's show those Red Monkeys what's what!" Then, amidst cheers and jeers, he got into the taxi and quickly departed.
The young man shook hands with other fans and loudly sang an Arsenal team song before leaving. He did not take a car but went into a dark alley nearby, where he brushed past another person also wearing an Arsenal team hoodie.
The young man stood dazed for two seconds, looking around with a confused expression.
"Why am I here? Oh, I'm going to be late!"
He didn't even realize that there were already one hundred dollars in his pocket and ran towards the light rail station at the fastest speed he had ever moved. But before that, the hooded young man who had brushed past him had already boarded the car, squeezing into a crowded spot. Surrounded by a large group of fans, he opened his earphone and hid his personal information terminal in the crowd, quickly operating it.
Yu Lian, under the hood, smiled.
..."Excellent, voiceprint data comparison complete, it is indeed the three of them. Heh, they must be wearing technological items or spiritual energy items that can deflect appearance recognition, right? Why be so cautious? You shouldn't even know of my existence."
However, the more careful you are, doesn't that just prove you have a guilty conscience?
Half an hour later, when Yu Lian exited the light rail station, it was already 2:30 PM. He looked up and saw a bustling street. At the crossroads at the end of the road, filling his vision, was a huge circular arena.
Aside from the quasi-imperial-style street, this massive circular sky stadium, capable of accommodating over three hundred thousand people, was the city's largest and most sci-fi landmark building.
Its name is "Wander Light-Year Stadium," and it is the home stadium of the Foggy City Arsenal, a famous sky team within the galaxy. This team, established only ten years ago, has already entered the top-tier galaxy league and is the pride of Mist Capital, the Three Islands, and even Earthlings. In a sports novel, it would undoubtedly be a dazzling protagonist-template team.
Since this match was so important, fans naturally supported it greatly. Not only from Mist Capital and its surrounding island cities, but also a large number of fans from across the strait came to watch.
Anyway, current basic transportation is quite sci-fi; crossing a strait is actually similar to crossing a small river in one's hometown.
In Yu Lian's understanding, what is called Sky Ball is actually a sport that combines a three-dimensional version of football and basketball. Each side has twenty players, who use special sports gliding equipment to attack both from the sky and the ground, and score the ball into the opponent's goal.
The goal is a ring standing on a 4-meter-high flagpole, with a diameter of about one meter.
In short, if there is confrontation, teamwork, a Balance between skill and strength, and a Wisdom game of offense and defense conversion, then such a sport will definitely be very exciting.
Anyway, Yu Lian enjoyed watching it in both his past and Present lives, and he has always been a fan of the Foggy City Arsenal team. The team has indeed lived up to expectations; although they have been subjected to various underhanded tactics in recent years, they have maintained their competitiveness within the galaxy. By the era Yu Lian returned to, they were already a famous Sky Ball powerhouse in the universe...
If it weren't for Vice Admiral Vincent's matter, Yu Lian might have actually wanted to watch this "ancient era" Sky Ball match. After all, so many years had passed, and he couldn't clearly remember the outcome of this match, which allowed him to maintain sufficient anticipation.
"Damn Vincent, ruining my holiday! Unforgivable!" Yu Lian cursed inwardly and did not head towards the stadium but went directly to a six-story "building" next to it.
Relying on being a spiritual energy user, on his masterful command of Psychokinesis, and on his ability to faintly distort air and vision with the Parmingno Ring, Yu Lian encountered no resistance and quickly arrived at the building's empty rooftop.
He found a secluded spot, opened his box, and took out the hummingbird drone equipped with a military probe. However, the fuselage now bore a GNN logo.
In fact, the primary function of this type of aircraft is aerial photography, and it is widely used in the broadcasting of various sports events. In major matches like the Sky Ball Galaxy Championship knockout rounds, there are thousands of aircraft from various media outlets.
However, in addition to equipping this hummingbird drone with a military reconnaissance probe, Yu Lian also added a very specialized sound data collection device—a device no larger than a coin, possessing super strong adsorption and data collection capabilities, also a professional spy device.
If he hadn't coincidentally met Yahata, even Yu Lian would have had to put in some effort to acquire these devices. He had originally planned to depart from Big Apple earlier and first check out the black market on Wannian Island. Anyway, everything was available there, and people were very friendly, though the prices were not so friendly. But since he met a good, loving classmate, he might as well save a little if he could.
The hummingbird drone glided into the sky, soared over the crowd, and quickly merged into the vast fleet of drones.
At three o'clock, the match began amidst cheers. The Arsenal team, composed of twelve humans and eight members from various sub-human minority groups of the Commonwealth, officially kicked off and charged towards the opposing side.
Their opponents were the Taimier Red Knights. Just by the name, it was clear this was a team (nominally) belonging to Taimier King, one of the Eight Chosen Kings of the Empire. However, its main players were from the Angmang, an imperial minority group. This was a race of slender, quick-reacting, agile beings with reddish-brown fur all over their bodies.
Taimier King commanded a fighter squadron composed entirely of Angmang pilots, called the "Red Knights Squadron," and the team's name probably came from that.
Hmm, slender, agile, and with red fur, no wonder they were cursed as "Red Monkeys."
This is too politically incorrect, truly not good. Yu Lian thought to himself, while maneuvering the aircraft to slowly approach the stands, he opened his earphone and began to search for all the data from the surging sound waves.
A series of ripples, like an electrocardiogram, appeared on Yu Lian's phone. This was the voiceprint of Vice Admiral Vincent, the main target of this trip, whom Yu Lian had just obtained from the old man disguised as a fan.
As we all know, like fingerprints, voices have their uniqueness, and through wave reactions, this becomes what is called a voiceprint. Now, what Yu Lian had to do was to use the professional listening equipment on the hummingbird drone to compare the voiceprints of the fans collected at all times.
Of course, Yu Lian could also use a clumsy method... a "clumsy method" that only spiritual energy user could do: relying on extraordinary perception and hearing, searching for the whispering target among hundreds of thousands of loudly cheering people. However, it was a pity that Yu Lian was only a Second Ring now and did not have this hard strength.
Even if he had it, he wouldn't do it. Isn't it better to have a machine save you some trouble?
Is there any difference between relying on spiritual energy for everything and a barbarian who relies on fists for everything?
The hummingbird drone flew at a low, constant speed less than ten meters from the stands. It occasionally pulled back its lens to hover over the crowd in the stands and occasionally filmed the situation on the field. Even if someone actually noticed this small machine, they would only think it was media equipment used to film audience reactions, either waving, cheering, or applauding because they thought they were on camera, or impatiently waving it away.
At this moment, the Arsenal team had already scored. The young forward, quite famous throughout the galaxy and being sought after by major powerhouses, took his glider and swooped towards the stands. Then, amidst screams, he suddenly braked sharply, striking a hugging pose in front of everyone.
The screams instantly turned into angry curses and insults. The player felt something was off, widened his eyes, and realized he had run in front of the away team's stands, so he quickly scurried away.
However, it wasn't over yet. He had only flown a few steps when he saw a Buckwheat Birdmen referee, who himself had flying ability, had already flown in front of him and, without a word, showed him a yellow card.
"Provoking away fans!" the Buckwheat Birdmen referee said emotionlessly, then flapped his wings and flew away.
The entire process was silent for one second, and then, a monstrous roar rose like a mountain collapsing and a tsunami. This naturally came from the majority of the home fans Present, shaking Yu Lian's drone as if it trembled.
Alright! Now, the synthesis and analysis of the voiceprints would take even more time.
"Don't add more burden on me..." Yu Lian sighed silently.
The drone's camera pointed at the stands, but it only saw large groups of red-faced, thick-necked fans roaring, yelling, and giving the middle finger to the referee who had already flown to the center of the field. If it weren't for the stands blocking them, they seemed like they could turn into Greenskins at any moment and Waaaah away the Buckwheat Birdmen referee in the stadium and all the Red Monkeys on the other side!
"Go to hell! Birdman, grandson!" Yu Lian saw a young girl standing in the crowd in the feedback image, making a very vulgar gesture towards the Buckwheat Birdmen, and then pulling her hand across her neck.
"Whose dirty money did you take?! Last night, were you X-ed by a few little birds sent by the Red Monkeys?! X-ed Birdman!"
Her voice was loud and full of information, immediately drawing cheers from a large group of fans around her.
This girl was truly beautiful, and her figure, wrapped in an Arsenal team jersey, was also very good, though she wasn't very tall. However, standing among a group of thick-necked men, she surprisingly had the presence of a queen proudly standing amidst a thousand soldiers.
Yu Lian shivered and looked at her face carefully again, thinking, isn't this the future celebrity SSR I was going to look for?
But, I remember she wasn't a true noble lady, was she? In later generations, she was synonymous with elegance, beauty, and deadliness! She is currently studying at the equally elegant, noble, and culturally refined Royal Academy of Art!
Uh, an illusion! It must be an illusion! Yu Lian felt that he must have been too preoccupied lately and was experiencing hallucinations, and he definitely needed to find a place for a full relaxation session and a good night's sleep. Besides, now was not the time to care about such things, so he continued to control the drone forward, like a busy little bee, silently collecting voiceprints.
Of course, due to this interlude, the tone of the subsequent match was actually already set.
However, this was no longer something Yu Lian could care about at the Present moment.