HLM -Chapter 1266 Cosmic Eye

Soon, someone couldn’t hold back and popped their head out of the water.

Uncle Bing clapped his hands against the young man’s driving license and looked at him with amusement: “Come on, kid, tell me—what the hell was that under the water?”

The young man stubbornly swallowed and said, “Could it… could it be a water ghost?”

Uncle Bing glared at him and roared, “Dare to play dumb with me? Believe it or not, I’ll throw you into the water!”

Startled, the young man raised his hands: “Don’t! I can’t swim! For God’s sake, don’t throw me in the water—I’ll drown!”

“Spit it out. What exactly are you here for?”

“Splash, splash”—one by one, a few more heads emerged from the water.

Wang Bo and the others shone their flashlights at them, shouting, “What are you doing? Get out of the water!”

The bald big guy and four youths climbed out one after another. Sweet Boy whispered, “Boss, how did you know there were people in the water? You’re really skilled.”

Wang Bo pointed at the rocks by the lake: “Because I saw these clothes. If you’re going to take your clothes off by the lake, what else are you going to do besides getting into the water?”

Following the beam of his flashlight, Sweet Boy indeed saw some clothes on the rocks and admired him: “Boss, your eyesight is amazing!”

Blocking the bald guy and the others, Wang Bo asked, “What were you doing here at night?”

The bald guy replied politely, “We came for night fishing. You know, for fishing enthusiasts, night fishing is…”

“Enough. Before you lie, make sure your stories match. The guy watching the shore tells you it’s night swimming, and when he reports to you it suddenly becomes night fishing?” Wang Bo interrupted him with a cold laugh.

The bald guy looked like he had swallowed something nasty and cursed silently at the guy on shore—who the hell goes swimming at night?!

But he quickly changed his story: “Oh, of course, of course. I didn’t finish. Besides night fishing, we also like swimming. At night, with the moonlight, moonbathing is a great experience.”

“Planning to absorb moonlight and become immortal?” Wang Bo sneered again. “I said it casually just now. Your guy actually told me that you passed by here, saw two ownerless boats in the lake, and wanted to check them out.”

Furious, the bald guy kept quiet this time, having learned his lesson.

Uncle Bing, a professional interrogator, didn’t need to use force on these weaklings. With just a mix of intimidation and psychological pressure, the young man on shore had already confessed.

He walked over holding two long-barreled shotguns and a handgun: “Boss, they came to poach the black-necked cranes. These guys are notorious poachers.”

Seeing him carrying the guns hidden in the car, the bald guy and the others sensed danger. After hearing Bing’s words, they immediately realized they were doomed. They bolted, and one even jumped back into the water.

Wang Bo didn’t chase them. He laughed: “Run, run as fast as you can! I wonder how far you can get in just your underwear! Don’t say I didn’t warn you—there are plenty of mosquitoes out here in the wilderness.”

Then he opened the sandbox, grabbed the young man’s ankle in the water, and dragged him back in.

The young man swallowed several mouthfuls of water. When released, he scrambled onto the shore in terror, yelling, “There’s a water ghost! There really is a water ghost! Someone just grabbed my leg in the water!”

Sweet Boy went over, knocked him down, handcuffed him, and dragged him to the police car.

The young man struggled violently: “I swear I’m not lying! There’s a water ghost in the lake!”

Sweet Boy punched him impatiently and scolded, “Shut up, idiot! With all the bad things you’ve done, even a water ghost would want to kill you!”

The remaining four couldn’t escape either. Barefoot on the lakeshore—which was rocky, not sandy—they could only run a short distance before screaming in pain.

Wang Bo and the others casually followed in the car. Once the four couldn’t run anymore, they got out and handcuffed them.

Like waiting for rabbits to appear, they easily captured all four.

The two boats were also dragged to the dock. Uncle Bing and Sweet Boy searched them, then returned carrying the two large guns Wang Bo had seen earlier, which looked like rocket launchers.

“These are net guns, specially designed for capturing large birds. See? There’s a net attached at the back. Pulling the trigger uses air pressure to launch the net,” Sweet Boy explained.

Besides the net guns, they also had tranquilizer guns. Wang Bo flipped through them and was furious—if it weren’t for his own vigilance, he wouldn’t even have realized his black-necked cranes were missing.

He ordered Uncle Bing to interrogate the six and find out who intended to buy his cranes.

Unfortunately, the six had already conspired. They insisted no one was buying the cranes; they just knew these birds were rare in New Zealand and assumed there would be potential buyers, hence the poaching attempt.

New Zealand strictly forbids torture for interrogation, which often leads to unresolved cases. This time, they could only be imprisoned, and that was it.

This incident made Wang Bo more cautious. An innocent man may still be targeted for what he possesses. He now carried a treasure like the He Shi Bi jade, and Sunset Town was full of rare birds and precious items.

Giant wētā, blue ducks, lungfish, takahē, tuataras—they were all protected species, and surely many had their eyes on them.

Moreover, the ranch’s cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, and geese were valuable. The farm also housed expensive horses, dwarf beasts, and emus—all could fetch a fortune if stolen.

He realized Sunset Town’s existing surveillance system wasn’t advanced enough. But relying solely on his own investment to continue installing cameras was pointless—he couldn’t cover every corner.

In this situation, Carter, responsible for the network and electronic platforms, suggested: “You could buy a brand-new monitoring platform and have the whole town use it. Then every household’s cameras and vehicle surveillance could be integrated for our use.”

Wang Bo asked with interest, “What’s the name of this platform and system?”

“Cosmic Eye. It’s a monitoring platform launched by the European Telecom Group, with terminals available in New Zealand.”

Carter explained: Cosmic Eye is a fully broadband-based remote monitoring, transmission, storage, and management platform.

The system connects dispersed and independent image collection points via ubiquitous 4G networks and Wi-Fi, enabling cross-region, large-scale unified monitoring, storage, management, and resource sharing. It provides managers in various industries with a new, intuitive tool to expand visual and auditory perception, improving work efficiency.

In short, once this platform is operational, all systems derived from it can transmit collected information back for centralized management.