"Who are you people?"
This time, it was Stana who shouted.
Her tall figure stepped into the dead professor's office as she glared furiously at the extra figures inside.
Intruders!
Unless they were blind, anyone could tell that the people rummaging through the professor's office were definitely not police officers, nor did they look like university staff.
This was the scene of a serial murder case. Stana immediately pulled out her internal radio and began calling for backup without giving them any time to react.
The group all stopped moving and tried to stop the Police Chief, only to be intimidated by the pitch-black police pistol in her hand. They remained where they were, not daring to move, while only the young man who appeared to be their leader kept calling for Stana to calm down.
They were here to help.
At that moment, Tang Qi finally had the leisure to get a good look at them.
There were six of them in total: four men and two women.
The blonde young man at the head of the group was tall, with rugged yet handsome features, a crisp crew cut, and cowboy attire.
The other three men were a messy-haired, messy-bearded old man, a burly young man, and a bookish man built like Skinny Bamboo Pole.
The two women looked more normal. One was a busty woman, while the other was a sweet-looking Brown-Haired Girl who seemed to come from a well-off family.
A fairly sizable team!
Tang Qi looked at the somewhat disheveled office and silently thought to himself.
These people were clearly not police officers, yet they were all armed. Judging by their bulging waists, each of them had a pistol. The old man even had a large-caliber hunting rifle slung over him, while the busty woman carried a shotgun.
If they had not lacked that fierce, hardened aura, Tang Qi might have thought they were preparing to rob a bank.
That was probably why Stana was so nervous. After all, she only had a police pistol in her hand.
Fortunately, these people did not seem inclined to clash with the police. Even with Stana pointing a gun at them, they merely kept explaining themselves.
Soon, the other officers at the school rushed over, and the spacious office immediately became crowded.
Amid the chaos, Tang Qi "got his wish" and met the Director of the Messer Police Department.
Ordinary cases naturally would not warrant the personal appearance of a Director.
Even during the "skinning case" at St. Thorn High School, the Director had not appeared.
But this serial murder case at Messer University was clearly different in nature. For the sake of the position beneath her, the shrewd-looking Black Female Chief, the Director of the Messer Police Department, had appeared in person.
She naturally took over command from Stana and confiscated the group's weapons.
Just as it seemed she was about to escort them back to the station for questioning, the cowboy-clad young man finally could not hold back any longer and shouted at the Black Female Chief, "Don't misunderstand! We're not the killers. We're just a team of bounty hunters."
"We came here to collect the reward, and I already know what the killer is."
The cowboy young man's words drew mixed reactions.
"A reward?"
That was the Black Female Chief.
"A thing?"
That was Stana and Tang Qi.
"What do you mean, reward? Where did this reward come from?"
Seizing the opening, the cowboy young man quickly began explaining.
Their group was actually a team of bounty hunters. They had come to investigate only after seeing a reward jointly posted by several trustees of Messer University.
Although she was deeply displeased by the matter of the reward, since it clearly showed that those so-called trustees did not trust the police department's abilities.
As the Director of the police department, the Black Female Chief still forcibly suppressed the urge to throw these so-called bounty hunters into prison and sternly asked, "You said just now that you know who the killer is?"
As soon as the Director finished speaking, the cowboy young man immediately corrected her. "Not who. The killer should be a kind of... monster."
"Hiss—"
The moment the cowboy young man finished speaking, the room fell silent.
Most of the officers looked at the cowboy young man and his group as though they were a bunch of lunatics.
But several people, including the Black Female Chief, suddenly changed expression.
The Spirit Tide had returned, the Mystic Side was reviving, and along with all kinds of Supernatural Power came strange entities from the Mystic Realm.
However, ordinary people at the bottom of society could not see the other world at this point unless they encountered a special opportunity—or had the misfortune to stumble into one.
Most of the officers in the room belonged to that category.
But Stana and the Black Female Chief did not.
Stana had been both lucky and unlucky. By accident—or rather, deliberately—Tang Qi had pulled her into the Mysterious World.
As for the Black Female Chief, her particular position had earned her certain hints from above.
Both women had some understanding of the Mystic Side.
However, this situation would not last for long. Ordinary people would soon begin to sense the existence of the Mystic Side, because the number of supernatural individuals was actually far smaller than the number of strange entities. Once the Spirit Tide reached its peak, those entities would no longer be concealable.
When that happened, the world would undergo enormous changes.
Of course, all that was still far away. What needed to be solved now was an incredibly thorny murder case.
The Black Female Chief waved for the officers to release the group, then had most of the officers withdraw. The office became spacious again.
The Black Female Chief's normally approachable face was now incomparably serious as she stared at the so-called bounty hunter team before her, particularly the cowboy young man at their head, clearly waiting for an explanation.
Behind her, Stana saw the sudden turn of events and seemed to want to step forward and say something. But Tang Qi pulled her back, shook his head, and signaled that she should not bring him into this yet. They should hear the cowboy young man out first.
Given the chance to explain, the cowboy young man did not disappoint. He also knew that people of sufficiently high status were already aware of certain things about the Mystic Side.
So he spoke without hesitation, quickly pulling a thick, battered illustrated book from his backpack.
He held it in one hand and rapidly flipped through it with the other.
At the same time, his mouth never stopped moving, and he spoke at an extremely fast pace.
"We're bounty hunters, but our team only accepts rewards related to the Mystic Realm, like this one. At first, we didn't know what had happened here, so naturally we couldn't be sure it was something we could handle."
"Not until I saw one of the crime scene photos. The way the victim died, that condition—it perfectly matched the traits of the kind of monster I know."
"Rustle—smack!"
As he spoke, the cowboy young man abruptly slapped his palm onto a page in the book.
Everyone looked over at once and saw an unbelievably ugly, savage-looking monster on the page.
It was a spider monster covered in black fur, with a bloated abdomen and an upper body resembling that of a human. It possessed obvious female characteristics, a gaping bloody mouth, a sunken nose above it, and no fewer than three ruby-like eyeballs.
As everyone stared in mild shock, the cowboy young man's explanation followed.
"A Demon Spider Banshee. It's a vicious and unusual monster. It enjoys the taste of human flesh, but it does not eat everything. Instead, after swallowing a human, it regurgitates the body in the middle of the night, exposing the half-eaten corpse to spread fear. They can smell fear, and they love that scent more than anything."
"One of my ancestors once killed a Banshee, so I know how to deal with one. That reward is mine."
The handsome, charming Blonde Young Man—the leader of the bounty hunter team—pointed at the spider Banshee in the illustrated book and declared it with absolute certainty.
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