The Investigation Bureau had not issued them nothing at all—after the onboarding training ended, each of them, including Sun Hang, had been assigned a single dorm room with a private bathroom, a smartphone without unrestricted internet access, and a thin booklet.
The booklet briefly introduced some currently known information about anomalous entities, but beneath the intelligence on every kind of anomalous entity, a conspicuous warning in red read: "All known anomalous entities are in a constantly changing state. This information may already be outdated."
"Even so, they should at least tell us how to stay alive when facing anomalous entities, right?" Sun Hang muttered under his breath. He tossed the phone and booklet onto the single bed against the wall and was about to check out the bathroom when his new phone suddenly rang.
Sun Hang picked it up and saw an email from the Investigation Bureau, titled "Mission Notice."
"That fast?" Sun Hang reluctantly glanced around the fairly decent dorm room, sighed, yanked apart the neatly folded bedding, and lay back on the bed. He stretched luxuriously before leisurely opening the email.
"Mission Notice: Investigate the Abandoned Amusement Park in South City."
"Mission Time: 13:00, May 8, Year 4719 of the Lunar Calendar (1 hour and 23 minutes remaining until the mission begins)."
"Mission Difficulty: Tentatively rated E-rank."
"Participating Members: Temporary Investigators 0398, 0401, and 0420."
The identification numbers of the three Temporary Investigators were displayed in underlined blue text. Sun Hang tapped the other two numbers, and their files immediately popped up.
0398 was the young woman Sun Hang had spoken to earlier, while 0401 was the guy who had asked Skinny Bamboo Pole several questions.
What a coincidence, Sun Hang thought.
Among the group of "colleagues" who had undergone onboarding training with him, those were the only two he even vaguely remembered.
However, aside from their photos and identification numbers, both files were completely blank. The information was exactly the same as what appeared on their Investigator IDs.
He closed their files and continued reading.
"Mission Information: Over the past month, a total of sixteen people have gone missing in South City, Tianfu City. All of the missing persons are young women between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four. After the Public Security Bureau marked the last known locations of the missing persons on a map, it discovered that every marked point surrounded the Abandoned Amusement Park in the southern suburbs.
The Abandoned Amusement Park was built in Year 4699 of the Lunar Calendar. Its initial operating rights belonged to Tianfu City Ledi Tourism Company, which went bankrupt in Year 4703 of the Lunar Calendar due to poor management. The amusement park changed hands several times before finally ceasing operations in Year 4711 of the Lunar Calendar.
According to nearby residents, suspicious individuals wearing brown robes have recently been seen entering and leaving the Abandoned Amusement Park. There have also been two eyewitness reports strongly suggesting 'mysterious rituals related to anomalous entities.'
The South City Branch of the Public Security Bureau dispatched Peacekeepers into the Abandoned Amusement Park several times to conduct on-site investigations, but found nothing. During the third operation, intern Peacekeeper Hu Lijun, who was participating in an amusement park investigation for the first time, unexpectedly disappeared during the operation.
The other Peacekeepers accompanying her had not noticed anything unusual before her disappearance. Afterward, they conducted a thorough search of the entire amusement park but found no clues.
Note: Intern Peacekeeper Hu Lijun; employed by the South City Branch of the Tianfu City Public Security Bureau; gender: female; age: twenty-two.
Mission Requirement: Investigate the entire Abandoned Amusement Park and determine whether the disappearances are related to anomalous entities.
If traces of anomalous entities are discovered, immediately report them to Investigation Bureau headquarters. Headquarters will dispatch specialists to handle the matter."
"Damn..." After reading the mission information, Sun Hang could not help frowning. "Even the Peacekeepers couldn't find any clues. What can a bunch of 'Temporary Investigators' with no professional training possibly do?"
Before Sun Hang could finish complaining, he received a second notification email.
"Temporary Investigator 0398 has abandoned her post and fled. Mission time has been temporarily frozen. All other participating members are to remain in place and await orders."
The moment Sun Hang saw this message, he understood.
Whether this group had received professional training was not important at all. The key to the whole mission was 0398!
Her gender and age perfectly matched the shared characteristics of the missing persons... In fact, the others did not need to do anything at all. They only had to keep watching 0398.
And 0398 had obviously realized that she was being used as bait, which was why she had chosen to run.
Yet half an hour later, Sun Hang still saw the runaway 0398 in the Investigation Bureau lobby.
Her hands were cuffed together in silver bracelets. Metal bands containing tracking chips encircled her slender neck and ankles. Her once fairly clean face was smeared with grime from who knew where, while her long, curled hair with pink highlights was covered in dust and cobwebs.
A soldier followed closely behind her, repeatedly jabbing the butt of his rifle into her back. Each time he jabbed her, 0398 reluctantly took a few steps forward.
Only after the three of them got into the vehicle did the soldier remove the cuffs from 0398's hands, though the metal bands around her neck and ankles remained.
"You're not the first one to run," the driver said with a smile, turning around from the driver's seat to look at 0398. "But you're at least one of the ones who came closest to succeeding."
"Heh." 0398 sneered and did not reply.
Seeing this, Sun Hang leaned a little closer and quietly asked, "Where did you escape from?"
Sun Hang had already checked that single dorm room. There were no windows, only one door, and the hallway outside was covered in surveillance cameras. Unless someone could hack the Investigation Bureau's surveillance network, there was no way to escape.
"I tore open the ceiling and crawled out through the ventilation ducts," 0398 said with a dark expression.
"Badass." 0401, sitting beside them, gave her a thumbs-up.
"What good did it do? I still got caught and dragged back," 0398 said irritably.
"It's only an E-rank mission. It shouldn't be that difficult, right?" 0401 tried to reassure her. "As long as we complete it, I can pay off one-fifth of my debt in one go... At least we're luckier than those people who get assigned high-difficulty missions the moment they join."
One E-rank mission was worth one-fifth of his debt? Sun Hang froze for a moment. It seemed this guy owed far less money than he did.
"Yeah, well, that's hard to say." The driver stepped on the gas and launched into a lively explanation. "I've driven plenty of Investigators taking E-rank missions. They went in as several living, breathing people, and when they came back, there wasn't even a whole piece of flesh left... Then the mission rating would end up changing to D-rank or C-rank, who knew."
"...Sir, can't you say something more encouraging?" 0401 asked with a miserable expression.
"I'm just telling the truth." The driver shrugged. "Still, I hope the three of you go in whole and come back whole."
"Why does that blessing sound so weird?" 0401 forced out a smile uglier than a grimace. "You might as well share some experience with us. It could come in handy."
"I'm just a driver. What experience could I possibly have?" the driver said. "Besides, when it comes to dealing with anomalous entities, experience is completely useless."
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