As soon as the words were out, an ominous feeling settled over Guan En.
She had introduced herself like that and even volunteered to show her ID.
Could the real suspect, the real Zhu Yan, really go that far?
Or could Zhu Yan even transform into something like an ID card?
Could that ability... really be so heaven-defying?
While Guan En hesitated, his colleague smartly stepped forward and pulled an ID card from the attendant's pocket.
"Take a look." He held the card up in front of Guan En.
The card was clearly genuine, with the right thickness and gloss and a color-changing anti-counterfeiting feature. The name "Zhang Li" was printed neatly in the middle.
Guan En's heart skipped a beat.
He snatched the ID card and examined it from every angle. It felt right, too. Everything about it was right!
Fuck.
Fuck!
In an instant, Guan En's expression turned ugly.
He quickly ran through the details in his head, and the more he thought, the worse things seemed.
The Zhang Li in car seven had shown him a player badge, but not an [Ability Card].
Zhu Yan might indeed have melted down his own player badge and [Ability Card].
But Guan En clearly remembered the information he had read the night before.
Zhu Yan had taken his aunt's [Ability Card] and badge too!
The other Zhang Li probably hadn't shown him an [Ability Card] because it listed his aunt's ability.
Guan En's heart sank. He could only curse himself for being careless.
An East Asian, lost and desperate for help, who happened to find a police officer as his lifeline would have been most suspicious if he hadn't told him everything!
Fortunately, Zhu Yan was still on the train.
Guan En gritted his teeth and turned to his colleague.
"Bring Zhang Li and come with me, now! We're going straight to the surveillance room!"
Seeing Guan En's attitude change so quickly, his colleague's expression changed too.
As Guan En strode toward the carriages ahead, his colleague hurried after him, bringing a pale-faced Zhang Li along.
"What's wrong, Little Guan?" His colleague knew something had happened, and his expression turned grave. "What do we do?"
Meanwhile.
In the underground passage, Zhu Yan was running harder than he ever had in a thousand-meter fitness test.
He had no idea why the exit had suddenly become so far away. He was nearly exhausted, yet he was still about twenty meters from the ticket gates.
Zhu Yan had run so hard that every breath sent a stabbing pain through his right ribs.
No, he still had a long way to go.
His task wasn't simply to "pass through the ticket gates and exit." He had to leave the entire North Station!
Who knew how much farther the distance from the ticket gates to the North Station's main entrance had been extended!
He had to keep going.
At a moment like this, he absolutely couldn't stop!
Zhu Yan watched the ticket gates draw closer. Pain and exhaustion left him gasping for breath, and his legs felt as heavy as lead.
The billboards around him flickered at the edges of his vision, trailing a haze of static.
The task really was no joke. It was clearly trying to give the Pseudo-human its fill.
For all he knew, the passage would return to its normal length when it was the Pseudo-human's turn to use it.
Zhu Yan dropped down and crawled through the deserted ticket gates.
The floor was cold. Zhu Yan forced himself back up and switched from running to a brisk walk.
Stopping so abruptly had left him weak, but at least he had finally made it through the underground passage.
Gasping for breath, Zhu Yan kept walking and looked around.
Everything at the train station was normal. The liquor advertisements were still lit, and the concourse was clean.
The exit was brightly lit. Zhu Yan narrowed his eyes and saw pedestrians coming and going in the sunlight outside.
It was a stark contrast to the empty station!
A small flame kindled in his heart.
He had come this far. He couldn't give up!
Zhu Yan strode toward the main entrance.
Once his heartbeat had eased a little, he broke into a jog again.
Guan En alternated between walking and running toward the front of the train. The more he thought about it, the more worried he became.
"We need to check the surveillance footage," he said coldly. "He might have tampered with it, then waited until we were tired or let our guard down before leaving."
Judging by his aunt's agitated testimony the night before, Zhu Yan's ability was highly deceptive but had little offensive power.
And judging by his earlier behavior, he probably wasn't confident enough to attack a police officer directly and then leave.
Guan En wiped away his cold sweat and laid out all his concerns.
"Zhu Yan is cunning. He's already seen too many of us."
"Me, my superior, and those colleagues standing outside."
The night before, his aunt had been agitated and repeatedly insisted that Zhu Yan had "sacrificed" his younger brother to the Pseudo-human in exchange for his own safety.
There was no guarantee he wouldn't pull the same trick again, sacrificing another innocent person to the Pseudo-human to buy himself time to act!
"Once he successfully blends in with the passengers, and we have no surveillance footage, he'll be free to take the form of any one of us."
"Then we'll really be in trouble!"
His colleague's expression changed drastically at those words.
"Little Guan." Still holding Zhang Li, he turned to look at Guan En. "In that case, do you think he might have already disguised himself as one of us and left?"
Guan En had reached car five.
He turned to glance at the door. The colleague on guard showed no sign of anything unusual and was still diligently keeping watch.
"What reason would he have to go out?" Guan En frowned and kept going.
"It's possible, but we ordered everyone to stay in the carriages. There's food, water, and a toilet on the train. What reason could he have to go out?"
His colleague thought for a moment but couldn't come up with an answer either.
"...True. Then don't get too anxious, Little Guan. As long as he's still on the train, we can deal with it one way or another."
Of course Guan En was anxious.
The facts were right in front of him now: Zhu Yan had played him.
Every word the fake Zhang Li had said could have been a lie, yet Zhu Yan had used those lies to successfully draw his instance task out of him and get him over to car fifteen, buying himself time.
If he didn't catch Zhu Yan in time, his task might fail, and he would very likely lose his life!
Zhu Yan!
Guan En gritted his teeth and, distracted for a moment, ran straight into the Pseudo-human coming out of the toilet.
"You..."
The collision sent Guan En staggering.
Under the warm yellow light, the Pseudo-human stared at him without moving, intense hunger emanating from its dark, hollow eyes.
It had been carefully counting the time.
The moment five minutes were up, it had come straight out to find the food it had been longing for.
The Pseudo-human looked at Guan En and drew the corners of its mouth upward with a slight stiffness, revealing a smile.
That high-level Pseudo-human had really kept its word and hadn't touched its delicious-smelling food.
How delightful!
Guan En paid no attention to the Pseudo-human's expression. His ability was enough to protect himself.
He was more concerned about his task and Zhu Yan's whereabouts.
Guan En grabbed the Pseudo-human's arm and asked, "Zhu... where's the female attendant who was with you?"
The Pseudo-human immediately remembered Zhu Yan's instructions.
The high-level Pseudo-human meant that it could take Guan En to the surveillance room and enjoy its feast!
The Pseudo-human licked its lips and said, "She's in the surveillance room watching the footage. I came out early..."
Guan En's heart sank.
Just as I thought!
The surveillance footage!
He had no time to investigate whether the Pseudo-human had eaten anyone, and without regard for his colleague or Zhang Li, he took off running toward the front of the train!
The Pseudo-human watched him run off, delivering himself right to its door, and licked its lips again.
It took a couple of steps, only to hear a puzzled voice from outside the door.
"Huh, boss?"
The officer on guard looked the Pseudo-human over, then looked at the colleague passing by.
"You're back? When did you come back?"
"Boss, didn't you say Director Liu was coming? Where is he?"