Watching the other car leave, Keli got on the bicycle, having given up on the motorcycle for now to avoid being chased by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.
"Hey! Are we really going to chase them? That's a long way!"
"If you don't want to ride, you can wait until I get there, then commit suicide and revive."
"My life is also a life, hey!"
The time had just arrived at dawn.
A cross-city chase and tailing began. They couldn't be too close and reveal themselves, nor too far and lose the target.
Logically, traveling from one city to a certain city in another prefecture would be very long, even with a tight schedule, requiring drivers to rotate and rest.
But in fact, one cannot look at this problem with a habitual perspective.
Because Japan is a country consisting of its main island, Hokkaido, and those scattered small islands, making it only slightly larger than a certain neighboring province famous for its mushroom civilization.
And this cross-city journey, let alone leaving the Kanto Plain, didn't even leave the Tokyo metropolitan area.
The actual distance to Saitama is only 20 kilometers, and then from Saitama to Matsubushi is 30 kilometers. It's basically like driving from the city center to a suburban scenic spot for a day trip, where you can go in the morning, play all day, come back in the evening, play a few games, and then sleep.
The only question was whether the other party would take routes where bicycles were not allowed.
And clearly, they didn't. The other party also seemed to be intentionally avoiding some checkpoints, driving exclusively on small roads, and their speed wasn't very fast, seemingly not wanting the cargo to be too bumpy.
Keli and Kazuma maintained their distance the whole way, sometimes even riding side-by-side and chatting casually.
Keli felt no fatigue at all throughout the journey, attributing it to his strange recovery ability. However, Kazuma couldn't keep up; after riding for a while, he started twisting the modified button on the bicycle handlebars, riding it like an electric bike.
Keli noticed some unmanned vegetable stalls by the roadside earlier and asked Kazuma curiously.
"What was that just now?"
"Those vegetable stalls? Some farmers bring them here to sell, I saw it on a forum before. I also heard that some office workers ride their bikes to these cities on holidays early in the morning for exercise and to buy vegetables."
Kazuma looked like he was used to it.
"But I didn't see anyone?" Keli found it very strange.
"Because they're afraid of being caught red-handed by the agricultural cooperative people, so it's unmanned self-service." Kazuma continued to answer.
Hearing Kazuma say that, Keli recalled that agricultural products in Japan seemed to be very expensive because of the agricultural cooperative. Such associations are ubiquitous in Japan, but it seems that even though the agricultural cooperative's influence has significantly diminished in the past decade, it is still one of the more influential ones.
The agricultural cooperative was established in its early years to better manage production, but later it became a very awkward situation.
That is, if Japan heavily imported foreign grains and fruits without raising prices, and domestically grown grains were sold at the same price, all Japanese farmers would starve.
However, anyone with a bit of understanding of international strategy knows how important food self-sufficiency is.
Although Japan is clearly unable to achieve complete self-sufficiency, having some is always better than having none at all.
So it presents a dilemma: if I import food without raising prices, all farmers will change professions, all rural areas will be abandoned, and everyone will go to big cities to work. If I raise prices, then the prices might be a bit expensive.
However, from the results, looking at the price of watermelons there, you can tell how the Japanese government made its trade-offs. Anyway, their existence allows them to collect more taxes.
Although, to be fair, it's not truly so expensive that working-class people can't afford it, but it's already too much to feed to Black people.
Of course, how much the agricultural cooperative ultimately took, or whether certain rural district councilors needed to secure their votes in the countryside, is unknown.
Anyway, Keli felt that if the agricultural cooperative really did its job well, then no farmer would do that.
After some thought, Keli sighed.
"Then your Tokyoites have pretty good character. People trade normally even without supervision, and they're not afraid of being stolen from."
Kazuma shook his head.
"What do you mean, good character? There are plenty of people who just take things without paying. It's just that even so, as long as one-third of people pay out of conscience, and the money isn't taken, it's still more profitable than selling through the agricultural cooperative."
"…"
Kazuma seemed to vaguely hear Keli whispering something, but he couldn't make it out, only catching a few keywords like "infinitely stronger," "wet market," and "beheading." So, he turned to Keli and asked, "What did you just say?"
"Nothing. Is that Saitama up ahead?"
...One hour later.
Keli and Kazuma stopped their car, standing in front of a crossroads, looking troubled.
Good news: Even though neither of them had any experience tailing someone, the other party was ferociously vigilant and definitely on guard, otherwise there wouldn't be so many yakuza. They weren't discovered all the way to Matsubushi.
Bad news: From a mountain road before entering Matsubushi midway, they were blocked by an uphill section. By the time they climbed up, they had completely lost their target. And because there was a fork in the road ahead, they were in a dilemma.
It was clear that their destination was not Matsubushi City, because the cars ahead had already split up. One sedan drove in the direction of what was clearly the city, while the truck and another sedan drove towards here.
Another reason Keli was sure this wasn't the city was that he could clearly see two small mountains ahead.
They had already passed the route to the city. The other party seemed to be heading somewhere more remote.
"You spin it for me. Wherever it points, that's where we go."
Keli, transforming into Tokyo Sneaky Zero, picked up a stone that was clearly sharper on one side and had Kazuma spin it on the ground.
"I say, isn't that a bit too random? What's the difference between this and us just coming to Matsubushi directly?"
Kazuma grumbled but still picked up the stone and spun it casually.
As the speed slowed, the stone gently stopped, pointing directly at one of the paths.
Keli immediately got on his bike.
"Chase!"
"You're so unreliable, hey!"
The two started cycling again, but this section of the mountain road was exceptionally difficult. The Japanese government wouldn't spend money repairing such roads, and because the number of passengers would certainly be very small, non-profit bus companies hadn't even opened bus routes here.
Twenty minutes later, a village appeared before their eyes.
Kazuma stared dumbfounded at the black sedan parked in front of a small shop at the village entrance.
There was also a truck outside a few houses nearby, but unfortunately, a glance at the model told him it wasn't the one they were chasing.
He checked the last digits of the license plate again. Damn it! This sedan really was it!
Kazuma looked down at his hands. Bro was starting to wonder if he had some superpower beyond immortality.
To prevent the other party from seeing their bicycles and recalling having seen them in the rearview mirror earlier, Kazuma and Keli found a place to park, took off their hoods, and then walked into the village.
Walking to the village entrance, they saw a stone with the place name "New Village" written on it.
Keli looked around. This village was nestled at the confluence of two small mountains, and to the northwest, one could see the kind of rice paddies often appearing in anime, with narrow paths for walking and a considerable area.
As Keli and his companion looked around, the black car in the distance, having restocked cigarettes at the convenience store, started moving.
The owner even waved at them.
"Remember to take my rascal of a son with you more often. After studying for a few years, he doesn't even listen to Jingxin Master's words anymore. It would be great if he could become someone important like you all."
The shop owner, who clearly had a business, spoke to the yakuza, who in these times should have been relatively poor.