Chapter 18: The Investigators

Chapter 18: The Investigators

He was back, back in this strange and peculiar Boundary City.

Not long ago, this place had been a vast, eerie, unsettling city of anomalies to him. Yet now, seeing those familiar streetlights and buildings, seeing the streets and sky faintly illuminated by the dawn, a feeling of “nostalgia” welled up in Yu Sheng’s heart, one that even he found hard to believe.

His experience trapped in Nightfall Valley had made returning to Boundary City feel like coming home.

But in the next second, the dazed sensation brought on by life slipping away interrupted Yu Sheng’s emotions. Somewhat sluggishly, he lowered his head and saw bright red blood slowly spreading beneath his body.

His body had been pierced through. The horrific wound was enough to kill within a short time. Even though this body’s recovery ability and vitality were now extremely powerful, he knew he was about to die again. By now, he had become quite practiced at using the word “again” for this sort of thing.

And the culprit behind that terrible wound was right beside him. The scaled “tail” cut from the monster had fallen through the door together with Yu Sheng. It seemed to still possess lingering vitality and even a degree of “thought.” At this moment, it was slowly wriggling through the pool of blood, trying to move away from the area.

Yu Sheng even had the feeling that it was moving away from him...

This chunk of flesh was afraid of him.

Yu Sheng frowned and struggled to get up from the ground. He glanced at the front door of his house not far away, then casually picked up the slowly writhing severed tail and staggered forward.

As he walked, he muttered, “Wasn’t it supposed to be smooth sailing once the protagonist escapes certain death... Why are the injuries still here after the map transition? What kind of garbage game mechanic is this... Damn it, this hurts like hell...”

The continuous blood loss gradually blurred his consciousness. The draining of his physical strength made every step shaky and difficult, as though he would collapse the next moment. During the final few steps, Yu Sheng was practically moving forward on instinct alone. He did not even know why he insisted on getting back inside the house.

Maybe it was to say hello to Irene.

Maybe it was to avoid having people heading out early in the morning discover his “corpse.”

Everything before his eyes gradually darkened. The dawn light took on a layer of dark red. Hu Li’s golden-red eyes appeared in Yu Sheng’s mind.

At the end, those eyes had been filled with blood-red hunger, yet a final trace of humanity had remained, struggling to endure deep beneath the crimson.

That fox...

Who knew how she was doing now? She said she wouldn’t die. Who knew if that was really true...

With all these thoughts filling his mind, Yu Sheng finally struggled to his front door. It was unlocked. He fumbled with the handle and pushed the door open before stepping inside.

He saw the dining room diagonally opposite the entrance. He saw the oil painting still hanging against the wall.

Irene was raising her head from within the painting. She looked toward the doorway in surprise, then slowly widened her eyes.

Yu Sheng forced out a smile like a final flash before death.

“Irene, I’m back.”

He knew his injuries were severe. If not for this body’s astonishing strength and recovery ability, he would probably have already died outside.

The thought had barely surfaced when Yu Sheng felt his vision tilt. Leaning against the doorframe, he slid down to the floor.

The familiar crushing darkness surged toward him from all directions.

Along with it came Irene’s terrified scream.

Now he had died inside the house.

Accompanied by the faint sound of brakes, two electric scooters came to a stop deep within Wutong Road. Two figures got off and looked at the old, quiet streets before them.

One was a middle-aged man who appeared steady and dependable. He wore a brown long coat. Tall and powerfully built, with slightly dark skin and short black hair, he had an irregular scar near his neck that added a somewhat intimidating quality to his presence.

Yet the exhaustion on his face and the dark circles under his eyes seemed completely at odds with his robust physique and fierce-looking scar.

That face looked exactly like someone who had worked overtime continuously for three months without a single day off.

The other was a young man who looked to be barely in his early twenties. He also had short black hair, but he was much smaller and thinner than the middle-aged man beside him. His appearance was utterly ordinary, the kind that would instantly disappear in a crowd if you looked away. He wore a black-and-blue jacket with matching trousers. His expression was somewhat tense, carrying the nervous awkwardness of someone who had only recently started working and had already been dragged out into the field by his supervisor.

The two rode into this quiet old district, observing the completely unremarkable-looking buildings around them. Occasionally, local residents passed by in the distance at intersections, but very few paid them any attention.

“This place doesn’t look strange at all...” the black-haired young man muttered. “Captain Song, are we sure it’s here?”

“There was a boundary alarm earlier. The coordinates were definitely here,” the middle-aged man known as Captain Song nodded. “Even though the signal disappeared instantly, we can confirm it was an Other Domain reaction.”

“The two of us rushed over as fast as we could and still missed it.” The young man glanced at the electric scooter beside him and hesitated. “Maybe we should’ve driven here...”

Captain Song looked at him.

“All the Bureau’s cars were out on assignments. The only one left was Xu Jiali’s seventh-hand wreck. You want to drive that? Even with the accelerator pressed to the floor, it might not be faster than your scooter.”

The young man laughed awkwardly and stiffly changed the subject.

“By the way, that person before... the one with the codename Little Red Riding Hood? The one from Fairy Tale. It sounds like she didn’t find anything here either?”

“Right. She found nothing at all. Which is exactly why we can be even more certain that something is wrong here.” Captain Song slowly nodded. “Little Red Riding Hood has done a lot of work for the Special Operations Bureau. I know her abilities. Her Wolf can detect even the faintest trace of abnormality in the surrounding environment. But she searched this place all night and found absolutely nothing.”

The young man blinked, apparently failing to understand at first.

“Didn’t get it? She found nothing,” Captain Song repeated. “It’s too ‘clean.’ Too ‘normal.’ There is no plot of land in the Boundary Zone this clean! Little Red Riding Hood’s Wolf can smell abnormalities everywhere else in this city, even if the traces are extremely weak. But here...”

“From an occult perspective, this entire street is as ‘clean’ as a vacuum!”

Hearing that, the young man finally understood.

The training he had received at school had finally matched up with a real-world situation.

“Either this place really is that clean, and a patch of land perfectly parallel in Depth to the ‘outside world’ has genuinely appeared within the Boundary Zone. That’s not impossible, considering this is the Boundary Zone and every place in the world could potentially be connected to it.” Captain Song waved a hand and spoke wearily. “Or there’s a... ‘big thing’ hidden here. Something that’s constantly altering the environment of the entire area. Little Red Riding Hood’s wolf pack encountered a boundary vacuum here.”

The already tense expression on the young man’s face visibly tightened further.

“I am not approving your transfer to the logistics department,” Captain Song said, lifting his eyelids to look at him. “And transferring to another team is out of the question too.”

“I never said I wanted to run away!” the young man hurriedly waved his hands. “I was mentally prepared when I joined the team. I’ll definitely remain dedicated to my duties, love my job, faithfully carry out...”

The sudden ringing of a mobile phone interrupted the conversation.

A pleasant melody played, the classic tune from a wildly popular new anime series.

The young man froze the moment he heard it and gave his supervisor an odd look.

“...You watch that too?”

The middle-aged man known as Captain Song visibly twitched.

“Must’ve been my daughter who secretly changed it,” he grumbled while reluctantly pulling out his phone. “She’s been watching that lately...”

The young man’s expression turned strange.

He held it in for a long time but ultimately failed to say, “Is it really appropriate for a middle school girl to watch a bunch of girls forming a band together?”

Captain Song answered the call and listened for a few moments before speaking.

“Yes, Li Lin and I have arrived on site. The situation is the same as what Little Red Riding Hood found earlier. This place is suspiciously clean. Make the arrangements. We may need to establish a permanent monitoring station here. I’ll decide on the specific personnel after I return. Also contact Fairy Tale and see if they can send someone else over. This might become a long-term assignment...”

After hanging up, Captain Song let out a long breath.

Turning his head, he noticed that the young man named Li Lin was still staring at him.

He paused, then could not help saying, “My daughter really did change it. I don’t normally watch cartoons.”

Li Lin quickly coughed.

“Ahem, right, I believe you.”

The two stood awkwardly for a moment before tacitly agreeing to skip over the topic entirely.

Just then, Li Lin suddenly seemed to notice something.

His brows furrowed slightly as he quickly walked toward a nearby corner.

“Captain Song, come take a look at this!” After examining it briefly, he immediately called out.

Captain Song walked over and followed the direction of Li Lin’s finger.

A patch of dark red stains was visible in the corner.

It looked like dried blood.

The area was very small, easy to overlook from a distance, and was currently shrinking at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Not seeping into the concrete.

Disappearing rapidly into thin air.

“Blood?” Captain Song immediately frowned. Then he quickly reacted, pulling a plastic tube and a portable scraper from his coat pocket. “No, not blood. Take a sample!”

“Got it.”

Li Lin accepted the sampling tools and prepared to scrape off the remaining dark red “bloodstain” from the wall.

But before the scraper in his hand could touch the surface, the final tiny patch of red suddenly emitted a faint Hiss...

Then it completely vanished.