"Ding-dong—welcome!"
Lin Qiye pushed open the agency's door and saw Hong Ying sitting ramrod straight on the sofa, staring blankly into space. He waved at her.
"Morning, Sister Hong Ying."
"Qiye! You're finally here!" The moment Hong Ying saw Lin Qiye, she sprang up from the sofa.
"What happened?"
"Something happened." Hong Ying spoke gravely, stepped forward, grabbed Lin Qiye's wrist, and quickly headed downstairs.
It was Lin Qiye's first time seeing such a serious expression on Hong Ying's face. He frowned slightly. "A Mystery... descended?"
"Yeah, and it's a tough one."
The two pushed open the door and entered the activity room. Only then did Lin Qiye realize that everyone from Team 136 had already arrived.
When Chen Muye, who had been leaning against a pillar, saw Lin Qiye arrive, he walked to the conference table and sat down, his expression as blank as ever.
"Everyone's here. Let's begin the meeting."
After everyone took their seats, Chen Muye tapped the tabletop with his knuckles and slowly spoke:
"Last night, we received word that another suspected Mythical Creature has appeared.
The location is... Cangnan City Second High School."
"Second High School?!" Lin Qiye froze.
"That's right, the school you attended." Chen Muye nodded. "And the person who reported it seems to be an old acquaintance of yours."
Chen Muye called toward the room behind them, "Kid, are you awake? If you are, get out here!"
Everyone looked over. Before long, the room's door slowly opened, and a young man with bloodshot eyes walked out.
When Lin Qiye saw him, he cried out in surprise, "Li Yifei?"
Li Yifei froze. Seeing Lin Qiye sitting beside the conference table, he rubbed his eyes and confirmed that it really was him.
"Lin Qiye? Why are you here too? Did you see that monster as well?"
"No, he's one of us." Wu Xiangnan shook his head.
"Temporary member," Chen Muye corrected.
Li Yifei stared at Lin Qiye with his mouth wide open. After a long while, he finally reacted. "Holy shit! They said you joined the military, but you actually joined this place!"
Lin Qiye shrugged. "Some unexpected things happened."
"You can catch up later. Let's talk about the case first." Chen Muye reminded them. Then, as if recalling something, he added,
"Normally, when a case suspected of involving a Mystery occurs, it is first reported to the police, who then transfer it to us. But this kid went through the Ghost-faced Man case last time, had contact with us, and signed a confidentiality agreement, so he called us directly and skipped the middle steps.
This is an exception. Our usual case-handling process isn't like this."
Everyone nodded, but Lin Qiye knew very well that Chen Muye was explaining this specifically for him.
"Go on."
"Okay." Li Yifei swallowed and began recalling the events. "Last night, I went back to school to pick up my homework notebook, and I happened to see..."
Li Yifei recounted everything he had seen the previous day, detail by detail. The further they listened, the more tightly the team members frowned.
After Li Yifei finished, Wu Xiangnan nodded.
"If everything this kid said is true, then there's a ninety-five percent chance this matter involves a Mystery." As he spoke, he turned to Li Yifei. "You know what the consequences will be if you make a false report, right?"
"I know, I know. Everything I said before is true—truer than true!" Li Yifei answered earnestly.
"Fine." Chen Muye turned to Wu Xiangnan. "Tell us what you think."
"Based on the information we have so far, this Mythical Creature possesses extremely strong disguise abilities. While transforming into someone else, it can still communicate normally with others without revealing any flaws."
Wen Qimo, seated nearby, sighed. "Disguise... another troublesome one."
"Besides that, it also seems to possess the ability to assimilate the living beings it swallows. That's what we truly need to be wary of," Wu Xiangnan said.
"Like zombies in movies? Endless infection?" Hong Ying asked.
"Although the method of infection is different, the results are indeed similar."
"Then can't we just charge into the school and chop up that Liu Xiaoyan?" Hong Ying's eyes lit up.
"It's not that simple." Lin Qiye, seated at the other end, suddenly spoke. "Since it can infect others, we can't be sure whether Liu Xiaoyan is its original body... because she might have been infected by someone else."
"Qiye is right." Wu Xiangnan nodded. "The biggest difficulty of this Mystery incident is that we don't know where the source of this bizarre infection lies. It's like cutting down zombies—if we can't find the zombie mother, then even if we kill all the other zombie offspring, it'll be useless."
"And we don't know how long this Mythical Creature has existed or how many people it has infected," Wen Qimo added. "Liu Xiaoyan may have been the first person it infected, or she may be who-knows-which infected person.
We even need to prepare for the worst..."
"The worst?" Hong Ying asked in confusion.
"That the entire Second High School... has become a school of monsters." Wu Xiangnan spoke slowly, his eyes filled with gravity. "It may even have infected not only the school, but other places in Cangnan City as well."
Hearing this, Li Yifei suddenly shuddered. "What... what do you mean?"
"Have you ever considered..." Wu Xiangnan slowly rose to his feet, looked directly into Li Yifei's eyes, and calmly said,
"That in your school, aside from you, all the other teachers and students... are monsters in disguise?
No—even you, standing here now...
might have unknowingly become a part of the Mystery?"
Li Yifei's pupils suddenly contracted. He only felt a chill shoot from the soles of his feet straight into his brain, leaving his mind completely blank!
"Alright, Xiangnan, stop scaring him." Wen Qimo stood with a smile. "If that were really the case, the Calamity Raven would have cried out long ago. Since it hasn't made a sound, it means the situation hasn't reached such a dangerous point yet."
"Calamity Raven? What is that?" Lin Qiye looked at Hong Ying in confusion.
"It's a crow, and also a forbidden artifact with its own Forbidden Ruin," Hong Ying patiently explained. "Whenever a major disaster is about to occur in Cangnan City, it screeches in warning beforehand. You can think of it as a detector."
"Oh." Lin Qiye nodded.
"In any case, since a Mystery has appeared, we must investigate it to the end. If we let this monster continue developing, I'm afraid the future Xiangnan described won't be far off." Chen Muye spoke slowly. "Xiangnan, do you have a plan?"
Wu Xiangnan sat down, adjusted his glasses, and said seriously, "I think our top priority is to find the Mythical Creature's original body and determine exactly how many people it has infected. Therefore, I propose that we divide into two groups this time.
One group will use Second High School as the center and spread outward, searching for signs of other infected people.
The other group will infiltrate Second High School, follow the clues, and locate the original body as quickly as possible."
Chen Muye nodded, his gaze sweeping across everyone one by one.
"Since we're infiltrating Second High School, we can't alert it. We need to fit the image of high school students...
Hong Ying, Xiao Nan, and... Qiye,
the task of entering Second High School and finding its original body will be entrusted to you."
Before you continue