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July 11th, 11:30 a.m., Li Capital, Gu Yi Mai Residential Area.

The rain had begun to ease, and white mist crawled up the room's floor-to-ceiling window like a lizard.

Ji Minghuan lay on the soft bed with an arm beneath his head, staring absentmindedly out the floor-to-ceiling window.

He gazed blankly at the city veiled by rain for a while, his face expressionless.

Amid the pattering sounds, bean-sized raindrops slid down the window, spinning as they fell toward the billboards lining the street.

The bloodstained trench coat and mask had been casually tossed beside the bed.

As he sorted through the intelligence he had obtained that morning, he used the Restraint Band to return the uniform to the cardboard box at the bottom of the wardrobe, then sealed the box shut with tape.

"The director said: the people who took away my Main Body and Kong Youling had a Hexagram Pattern on their uniforms."

"And that pattern happened to be identical to the one left behind by the crazed Exorcist, 'Red Light,' at his crime scenes. Every time he killed someone, he would write a line of Latin beside the pattern, meaning 'Sodalitas Salvifica.'"

Ji Minghuan closed his eyes and shifted his consciousness to "Xia Pingzhou" in a hotel somewhere in Tokyo.

He brought up the Task Panel and glanced at it.

Main Quest 3: Find clues regarding "your former teammate," the crazed Exorcist—"Red Light."

He smoothly switched back to "Gu Wenyu's" perspective and opened his eyes to stare at the ceiling.

What matters is that Instructor once told me that he doesn't belong to the Esper Association, the Exorcist Association, or the Anecdote Envoys. So... they most likely belong to this organization called Sodalitas Salvifica.

Now that that's confirmed, all I need to do next is find "Red Light." I can use Restraint Band Truth to pry out exactly what kind of organization Sodalitas Salvifica is, what their goal is, and perhaps Red Light might even know where Sodalitas Salvifica's base is located.

Ji Minghuan extended his right hand, lowered his eyes, and silently watched the Restraint Band coiled around his fingertips.

From the looks of it... Sodalitas Salvifica has probably planted informants within the Esper Association. Otherwise, how could they have gotten their information so quickly?

If I help Gu Qiye enter Rainbow Wing and infiltrate the highest ranks of the United Nations, he should be able to help me uncover traces of Sodalitas Salvifica...

Once I find the laboratory's location, things will be easier. I'll gather strength and wait for the right moment. I probably can't do it alone—I need to find a way to use the Esper Association, the White Crow Troupe, the Exorcist Association, and even the criminal forces on Old Man's side. How to guide them will be another problem.

As Ji Minghuan thought, he swiped through the System Panel and suddenly remembered, Oh, right... what was that Event Card I got this morning for?

He selected "Event Card Book," and the first card in the slot was "Bird in a Cage."

Event Card Name: Bird in a Cage

Effect: When you are attacked by any "control-type" ability, you may discard this card to break free from the ability's effects.

Value: Selling this card can be exchanged for "1 Skill Point."

I can sell it for a Skill Point. Forget it... I'll keep it for now. It might come in handy later.

Listening to the faint sound of rain, Ji Minghuan suddenly felt a little sleepy.

He yawned and methodically closed all the miscellaneous panels.

The moment his eyelids shut, three endlessly overlapping perspectives appeared in his mind. Every body was asleep in the darkness, and so every body's senses stirred:

It was raining in Tokyo. It was raining in Li Capital too. Only the Imprisonment Room was silent, like the seabed tens of thousands of miles away.

That month of confinement had taught Ji Minghuan a profound truth: people needed a little noise to sleep soundly.

Before Ji Minghuan awakened his superpower, falling asleep in the Imprisonment Room had been no easy task.

He had brought out every sleep aid he had learned at the Welfare Home—counting sheep, breathing exercises, calculating pi in his head... he had tried everything.

But now, none of that was necessary. The pitter-patter of rain was the best sleep aid.

His thoughts sank into the darkness, as though falling into the deepest cradle of his consciousness. Before long, a voice as cold and hard as iron roused him from sleep.

"Restricted Superhuman, Number 1002—'Ji Minghuan.' Instructor is here. Prepare to receive questioning immediately."

Ji Minghuan's eyes snapped open. Above him was a silver-white ceiling, and the icy surveillance camera faced him directly, like an iron-faced judge silently provoking him.

He turned his head from the pillow and saw the heavy metal door standing open as Instructor slowly walked in.

"What is it this time, Instructor...? I haven't even been asleep for long, and you're already rushing over to ruin my sleep quality. Impressive."

Ji Minghuan complained listlessly. He could not even be bothered to get up, simply placing his arm behind his head and closing his eyes, lying motionless on the bed like a dried corpse.

"Your director is dead," Instructor said as soon as he sat down.

Ji Minghuan visibly froze, then opened his eyes in surprise and slowly turned his head back.

"The old director... is dead?" he asked in disbelief, his voice slightly hoarse.

Instructor nodded. "It happened this morning. According to the investigation by Blue Arc, an Esper Association agent in Li Capital, your director hanged himself in his office at the institution at eight thirty this morning. What he had done was also exposed to the public... Apparently, he imprisoned an orphaned girl in the basement for years and committed many bestial acts against her. The entire Li Capital is discussing it now."

"Hanged himself?" Ji Minghuan muttered blankly, then asked, "What was the name of the girl he locked up?"

"Xu Keyin."

"How did they find out... she was being held in the basement?"

"At the time, Blue Arc received an anonymous call. It was a call from the director himself. By the time Blue Arc arrived at the office, he found that the director had already hanged himself. Before killing himself, the director wrote an unsent confession email on his computer. In it, he told Blue Arc where the girl was."

Upon hearing that, Ji Minghuan was stunned for a moment before he could not help letting out a quiet laugh inwardly.

Big brother, you really know how to make up a story. You tied everything up so nicely for me.

A few hours earlier, Ji Minghuan had indeed asked Gu Qiye to help him stage the murder scene. There was nothing surprising about that—he felt that Gu Qiye was the same kind of person as him, someone who believed the director deserved to die.

But what Ji Minghuan had not expected was that such an upright figure as Gu Qiye could set aside his conscience and do it so well.

To the public, the Esper Blue Arc was practically a superstar of the era. No one would suspect him of fabricating something like this, and the Esper Association would not investigate it too deeply either.

Moreover, at a time like this, most people were caught up in shock and outrage. No one would dwell on exactly how the director had died. All they cared about was the outcome: "the director is dead."

Whether it had been suicide or murder made no essential difference to them.

And no one would ever imagine that... the person who had truly killed the director was the superhuman who had only recently entered the public eye—"Black Cocoon."

If Instructor learned of this, he would probably immediately conclude that Black Cocoon had a concrete connection to Ji Minghuan, then mobilize Sodalitas Salvifica's people to capture Black Cocoon and dissect him in a laboratory.

There will be another chapter tonight. Thank you all for your support—we've already reached the top ten of the new book rankings. Please keep following!