Live Streaming: Great Adventure in the Wilderness

"Lost them?"

"I assigned you seven cars and more than twenty people taking turns tracking, and now, you’re telling me that they’ve been lost!?"

Inside the police headquarters, the chief clutched the phone, with veins bulging like a grid on his forehead, his voice low and measured as if suppressing the eruption of a volcano.

"Yes, it’s..."

The team leader responsible for tailing was drenched in cold sweat as his subordinates all kept as silent as cicadas in winter.

As expected, they would soon be facing the chief’s tempestuous rage.

Ten minutes later...

The team leader scratched his confused ears, feeling like he was hearing things; it seemed as though the chief’s scolding was still echoing in his mind.

It was only when his subordinate shouted loudly that he snapped back to attention and asked, "Ah, what did you say? Speak up."

"Are we still going after them?"

"Of course we are chasing them, now, this instant, everyone get moving. As long as they are still in Taiji Town, find them all, even if it means digging three feet into the ground!"

Unlike the infuriated chief of the police headquarters, Richard and his people all wore smiles of relief, as days of frustration dissolved, leaving everyone in much better spirits.

"What do we do next?" Mandy asked Bi Fang, excitedly pressing her earpiece.

"Get off the bus as soon as possible, get off at the next stop, and remember, never talk about sensitive information in an unknown environment; contact me after getting off at the next stop," Bi Fang instructed Mandy before falling silent.

Mandy nodded and confirmed this information with the people around her.

Whether it was the train or the bus, fixed routes were in place. With a bit of investigation, one could easily figure out Richard and co.’s itinerary, so it was crucial to leave before the followers could set up at the next stop.

Bi Fang stood atop a hill, looking down at the road below.

This was directly in front of Dolphin Bay. Dolphin Bay was surrounded by mountains on three sides, with sea water spreading across the beach, while a tall wall stood higher up on the shoreline.

Above the tall wall was a wide road, with hills at both ends, so this road served as the access to the tunnels at each end.

Dolphin Bay was low-lying; beside the road, there was a promenade, and next to it, stairs leading down to the beach of Dolphin Bay, reminiscent of ancient city walls.

Bi Fang planned to install a few cameras right above the road. With an unobstructed view from a high vantage point, there was no better observation spot, but there was one problem.

Due to the tunnels, surveillance was set up at both ends. To reach the beach of Dolphin Bay, one would have to pass by the road and thus be exposed to the surveillance cameras.

Nowadays, surveillance cameras are widespread in major city streets and alleys, at traffic stops, ATMs, jewelry stores, and fast food shops. These places all capture footage of passers-by’s faces.

As surveillance equipment is low-cost, those devices can now be found even in the most remote parts of the world.

Japan’s surveillance coverage is not as extensive as Huaxia’s, and although Taiji Town is not a major city, crucial road segments might have surveillance; the likelihood of them being out of service is very slim.

This was no longer a matter of overt versus covert operations; anyone doing this would appear extremely suspicious.

Setting up several high-definition cameras in the most sensitive area of Taiji Town’s residents.

What are you trying to do?

What’s the purpose of installing these, and who’s directing you? What’s your motive, and have you obtained permission from the relevant authorities?

Is Li allowing you to go ahead? Who’s behind you, what are you trying to achieve with these, and what are you trying to overthrow or destroy?

Can’t answer?

Don’t say we’re arresting you for no reason; we have our grounds. Here in Japan, we can detain you for up to 28 days without evidence!

Cough cough...

Bi Fang adjusted his baseball cap, reeling in his thoughts.

Regrettably, these surveillance cameras were indeed troublesome, but for Bi Fang, they weren’t a problem.

To be safe, Bi Fang often assumed he was already within the camera’s range and would use various stealth or interference methods to lessen the chance of being detected.

A baseball cap and a mask were usually enough.

When out and about, one should avoid wearing masks or adopting bizarre disguises.

Hollywood-style disguises can quickly draw the attention of third parties.

The truly clever ones are often the simplest; a hat or a hood is usually enough.

Bi Fang squatted on the hillside, watching the vehicles appear in the tunnel and then quickly enter another passageway.

This place was rarely frequented by people, and soon, Bi Fang found a gap in the traffic. He turned on his flashlight and took advantage of the absence of vehicles to jump off the five-to-six-meter-high hillside. After executing a fall protection maneuver, he quickly brushed the fallen leaves off his body and shone his flashlight on the roadside surveillance.

Many cameras with auto-exposure features automatically contract their apertures under bright light—directing a flashlight or LED light at the lens can effectively reduce the pixel quality of the images.

Bi Fang had already gone through the entire plan on the mountain, calculating the timing of his actions to ensure that whenever he encountered a camera, the sun was always behind him.

Seizing the chance to blur the camera’s view, Bi Fang quickly maneuvered along the edge of the roadway, pulling out an extendable ladder and arriving directly beneath the surveillance camera.

He slipped the razor blade that had been pressed under his tongue, inserting it into the rubber sleeve behind the surveillance device and twisting it left and right, making it penetrate the braided shielding layer to reach the sturdy metal core.

The core signal of surveillance cameras is transmitted by a copper conductor in the middle, which is encased in a protective sleeve woven from metal and rubber.

Contacting a steel blade with the copper conductor can cause a short circuit, momentarily interrupting the video transmission.

Inserting the blade into the rubber sleeve behind the surveillance camera, penetrating the braided shielding layer, and reaching the sturdy metal core, which is the aluminum foil shielding layer, causes static interference in the monitor, interrupting the image transmission.

And restoring normalcy is very simple.

Remove the blade, and the signal will return to normal.

Steel blades are easy to find. If not in the most ordinary of hotel rooms, then just go and buy a box for a few dollars.

Such road surveillance is bound to be monitored, and upon noticing something amiss, someone will definitely come to check.

But Bi Fang wasn’t waiting for them to come and inspect. Once the surveillance broke, it wouldn’t be repaired for days; his goal was to keep the problem unnoticed.

Five minutes.

The time Bi Fang gave himself.

From the surveillance staff noticing the problem to calling and logging the incident, it would be around this much time.

If the staff were negligent, the timeline could be extended, but Bi Fang wouldn’t count on such luck.

As long as he completed his objective within this timeframe, his actions wouldn’t raise any suspicion.

After similarly disrupting another tunnel outlet’s surveillance with static interference, Bi Fang quickly took out a "rock" from his backpack, placing it under the guardrail on the side of the road.

The spot was unassuming.

Facing Dolphin Bay, it offered a perfect vantage point for filming; everything anyone did here would be recorded without omission.

Just then, the sound of a car roaring through the tunnel echoed once more; Bi Fang quickly scrambled over the guardrail, laying on his hands at the edge of the sidewalk, hanging from the high wall supported only by the strength of his fingers.

Waiting for the car to pass and vanish over the road, Bi Fang stepped forward and quickly grabbed the guardrail, flipping back over it and setting up other "stones."

These were small stones, inconspicuous, but because of their size, they couldn’t fit large batteries, thus had limited power.

Just like installing hidden devices, there are terms "hard installs" and "soft installs."

The former relies on the parasitic power from sources like televisions or power sockets to temporarily install equipment.

The latter could be simple, such as placing the device inside a tissue box.

"Hard installs" require a lot of time on target but never need to be serviced again.

But once a device’s battery runs out or its storage space is insufficient, sometimes the person who placed it might need to take a risk to handle the "soft install" device.

Choosing which method depends on weighing the available locations, surveillance duration, achievable audio quality, and various other factors.

Although a usable surveillance device can be fashioned from just a phone and a pair of headphones, if the installation location is terrible, the results will be poor.

Having finished setting up above, Bi Fang jumped onto the beach and quickly dug a hole to bury a "boulder" within it, leaving just a small corner protruding, making it look like a normal, albeit partially exposed, rock.

Bi Fang then spread some dry, fine sand over it to prevent anyone from noticing the spot had been dug.

Time ticked away, second by second.

Bi Fang moved swiftly, pulling out the blade from the second surveillance camera. The five-minute alarm went off right on cue.

In a room, the dizzying array of surveillance screens, which had been filled with static, returned to normal, showing cars passing without any anomalies.

Just as the staff member was about to make a call for repairs, they saw the situation resolve and laid down the phone and logbook, picking up their cellphone again.

All was as usual.

In the forest, Bi Fang clapped his hands and took a deep breath; the toughest part had been dealt with, and the rest would be easy.

But there was a problem.

Bi Fang flipped through his backpack, which was now devoid of "rocks": "I’m out of equipment."

The backpack could only hold so much, accommodating three "boulders," a handful of smaller stones, and a few branches was about the limit; any more would be cumbersome to carry and inconvenient to move around in the forest.

Previously, working with Mandy, Keke, and a group of three, they managed to carry four or five large cases at a time. Making three trips allowed them to bring back a dozen and a half cases, speeding along the work through the night.

However, on his own, Bi Fang could only carry one backpack and couldn’t go back for more equipment.

Climbing walls at the hotel during the day was too conspicuous and would be easily remembered by people. The city had even more surveillance, and it wasn’t possible to jam them all with blades. Bi Fang needed to avoid any public intersections with Richard and his team as much as possible.

"Looks like I’ll have to make some myself."

Bi Fang gripped the map, which had many unvisited places on it.

As he pondered a solution, Mandy’s call came through again.

"We’ve gotten off the car, now what?"

Bi Fang hesitated for a moment, then tentatively suggested, "Play?"

"Are you joking?"

"But that’s all we can do now," Bi Fang said helplessly. He was able to direct Mandy and others to shake off their tail, but he wasn’t a god, unable to turn them invisible under broad daylight.

With such a large group of foreigners, the police could quickly pick up their trail through surveillance and find Richard and the others unless they split up and reduced their movements.

But that conflicted with the original intent of Richard and his team coming out to attract attention, and Bi Fang didn’t have the capacity to guide every individual.

Putting up a show of force once to vent was enough.

"After establishing dominance, they will seek revenge on you. I think you should now make some weapons," Bi Fang calmly suggested.

Dominance was established, but the memory of Richard and his team’s first visit to Japan was still fresh. If the other party got frustrated, they might lash out and beat them up.

"Weapons?"

"You have a lot of cameras around you, right?"

"No shit."

Let’s not forget what they were there for; how could they not have cameras?

"Then you could try modifying the cameras into Tasers."

"Tasers? What’s that?"

"Stun guns."

Speaking to Mandy, a layman, Bi Fang used a simpler term to convey his meaning.

"Camera... stun gun? Are these two words actually homonyms?"

Mandy looked blankly at a camera on a nearby seat, picked it up, and after scrutinizing it for a while, click-clicked a few photos of the train station.

Yep, sharp and pretty.

"How do you modify this?" Richard and Jerret, two older individuals, were even more perplexed, feeling out of their depth handling the camera.

Cameras turned into stun guns.

What kind of black technology was this?

"Don’t worry about the details, just do as I say," Bi Fang waved his hand, moving onto the streets again; he needed to go to a supermarket to buy some things.

Whether for a civilian or a spy, choosing non-lethal means of self-defense is crucial.

However, ready-made Taser guns are not easy to come by, let alone for Richard and the others to buy. Even if they tried, no one would sell to them.

Converting a camera into a Taser gun actually isn’t difficult.

One only needs to rewire the circuit so that the power originally intended for the flash is directed to two protruding screws. This charge is enough to temporarily paralyze an attacker.

The struck opponent is likely to fall to the ground and lose the ability to move for several minutes.

An electrical current between 120-380 volts can penetrate tissues and nerves, creating static electricity within the body and thus disrupting communication between the brain and muscles.

The result is compromised motor function and involuntary muscle contractions, making it an effective form of non-lethal self-defense.

Upon hearing this, Mond’s hand trembled.

Photography and camera work go hand in hand; as a photography assistant, Mond had never imagined the device in his hands could be so hot to handle.

"Now, listen to me. Disassemble the camera’s capacitor, and then remove the battery."

Film SLR cameras are outrageously expensive, but when your life is on the line, everything is worth it.

After all, you only have one life.

Bi Fang began to teach step by step knowledge that laymen could never know.

First step, empty the capacitor.

Before opening the camera, remove the battery, press the flash button, and deplete all the electricity stored in the capacitor to prevent accidental electrocution during assembly.

If the capacitor is not properly discharged, the risk of injury will be very high.

Second step, open up the camera.

Remove the camera’s casing, dismantling the circuit board, flash unit, and film, breaking apart the flash assembly and circuit board.

"Do you have a screwdriver, and wire strippers? Small pliers will do as well."

"Yes!"

The electrical expert opened his toolbox and took out the tools.

With Bi Fang’s guidance, he now knew what to do.

As an electrical expert, he felt that converting a camera into a Taser was a path he had never considered before.

Often, it’s not that people can’t do something, but rather they lack inspiration. Without training that laypeople are unaware of, one would never think of this method.

Following Bi Fang’s advice, the electrical expert quickly grasped the key points and, as instructed by Bi Fang, left behind a small section of film.

He carefully stripped the insulation off both ends of the wires and wrapped the ends around the screw tops. He then screwed the screws into the camera casing from the film canister side.

Next, he wrapped the other end of the wires around the terminals of the capacitor and secured them with electrical tape.

Thus, the camera’s electrical current was diverted from the battery to flow towards the two screws instead; when pierced into an enemy, it would achieve the same effect as a taser gun.

The last step was the reassembly of the camera, restoring the circuit board and stuffing the wires around the edges of the circuit board.

"We also need a safety mechanism."

"I understand."

The electrical expert immediately understood why Bi Fang had asked him to cut off a piece of film. He inserted the cut film between the battery and the capacitor terminals to prevent the modified camera from accidentally discharging.

Finally, he reattached the casing, and to the eye, it looked exactly like before!

But within, it was completely different. Nobody would suspect that the "camera" in a tourist’s hands was actually a Taser gun capable of easily stunning a person!

"Bi Fang! You’re a damn genius!" the electrical expert exclaimed.

"When using it, you can make a stabbing motion to drive the screws into the opponent’s flesh. The collision will produce significant vibrations, triggering a discharge, but even if the device fails to emit a shock, piercing the skin will likely cause enough harm to the attacker for you to escape."

"This device is very dangerous," Bi Fang solemnly warned.

If it weren’t to prevent unexpected incidents for Richard and the others, he would never teach such a thing.

Making a makeshift Taser gun is far more dangerous than it seems; discharging it could cause a severe shock that might incapacitate someone!