The First Mission

After the onboarding training, Sun Hang and the others were each given a single dorm room with a private bathroom, a smartphone that couldn't access the internet freely, and a thin booklet.

The booklet briefly introduced some currently known information about anomalies, but beneath the intelligence for each anomaly, it was written in bold red font: "All known anomalies are in a constant state of change, this information may be outdated."

"Even so, they should at least tell us how to survive when facing an anomaly," Sun Hang muttered under his breath. He tossed the phone and booklet onto the single bed placed against the wall, intending to check the bathroom. Just then, his new phone suddenly rang.

Sun Hang picked up the phone and saw an email from the Investigation Bureau titled "Mission Notification."

"So soon?" Sun Hang glanced reluctantly at the decent dorm room, sighed, and pulled back the neatly folded comforter on the bed. He lay down, stretched comfortably, and then unhurriedly opened the email.

"Mission Notification: Investigate the abandoned amusement park in the southern part of the city."

"Mission Time: May 8th, 4719, 13:00 (1 hour and 23 minutes until mission start)."

"Mission Difficulty: Tentatively E-Class."

"Participating Members: Temporary Investigators 0398, 0401, 0420."

The numbers of the three temporary investigators were in blue font with an underline. Sun Hang clicked on the other two numbers, and their files immediately popped up.

0398 was the young woman Sun Hang had spoken to earlier, and 0401 was the one who had asked the skinny guy several questions.

"Quite a coincidence," Sun Hang thought to himself.

Of the "colleagues" undergoing onboarding training with him, these two were the only ones he vaguely remembered.

However, besides their photos and numbers, the rest of their files were blank, identical to the information on their investigator IDs.

He closed their files and continued reading.

"Mission Information: In the past month, a total of sixteen people have gone missing in the southern part of Tianfu City. All missing persons were young women between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four. According to the Public Security Bureau's investigation, when the last known locations of the missing persons were marked on a map, all the points were centered around the abandoned amusement park in the southern suburbs.

The abandoned amusement park was built in 4699. The initial operating rights belonged to Tianfu City Leddie Tourism Company, which went bankrupt in 4703 due to poor management. The amusement park changed hands several times and finally ceased operations in 4711.

According to nearby residents, suspicious individuals in brown robes have been seen entering and exiting the abandoned amusement park recently, and there are two eyewitness reports highly suspecting 'mysterious rituals related to anomalies.'

The Public Security Bureau's Southern Branch repeatedly sent officers to investigate the abandoned amusement park, but found nothing. It wasn't until the third operation that intern officer Hu Lijun, participating in the amusement park investigation for the first time, went missing during the operation.

The accompanying officers detected no abnormalities before her disappearance. After she went missing, they conducted a thorough search of the entire amusement park but found no clues.

[Note] Intern Officer Hu Lijun; employed by the Southern Branch of the Tianfu City Public Security Bureau; Gender: Female; Age: Twenty-two.

Mission Requirements: Investigate the entire abandoned amusement park and confirm whether the disappearances are related to anomalies.

If any anomalies are found, report immediately to Investigation Bureau Headquarters. Headquarters will dispatch experts for handling."

"Tsk..." Sun Hang frowned after reading the mission information. "Even the Public Security Bureau couldn't find any clues, and they expect a group of 'temporary investigators' with no professional training to handle it... What makes them qualified?"

Before Sun Hang could finish his complaint, he received a second notification email.

"Temporary Investigator 0398 has abandoned her post and fled. Mission time is temporarily frozen. Other participating members are to remain in place."

Seeing this message, Sun Hang immediately understood.

Whether they had received professional training or not was actually irrelevant. The key to the entire mission was 0398!

Her gender and age perfectly matched the common characteristics of the missing persons... In fact, the others didn't need to do anything; they just had to keep an eye on 0398.

And 0398 had obviously realized she was being used as bait, which was why she chose to run.

However, half an hour later, Sun Hang still saw the escaped 0398 in the Investigation Bureau's lobby.

Her hands were cuffed with silver bracelets, and her slender neck and ankles were fitted with metal rings containing tracking chips. Her once clean face was smeared with dirt from who-knows-where, and her long, curly hair with pink highlights was covered in dust and cobwebs.

A soldier followed closely behind her, repeatedly poking her back with his rifle butt. With each poke, 0398 reluctantly took a few steps forward.

It wasn't until the three of them got into the car that the soldier removed 0398's handcuffs, but the metal rings on her neck and ankles remained.

"You're not the first to try and escape," the driver said, turning to 0398 with a smile. "But you're certainly one of the closest to succeeding."

"Heh," 0398 sneered, not replying.

Seeing this, Sun Hang leaned in a bit closer and asked quietly, "How did you get out?"

Sun Hang had already checked the single dorm room. There were no windows, only a door, and the corridor outside was covered in surveillance cameras. Unless there was a way to hack the Investigation Bureau's surveillance network, escape was impossible.

"I lifted the ceiling panel in the room and crawled out through the ventilation duct," 0398 said with a dejected expression.

"Awesome," 0401, sitting beside them, gave a thumbs-up.

"What's the point? I still got caught," 0398 said irritably.

"It's just an E-Class mission, the difficulty shouldn't be too high," 0401 tried to console her. "If I can complete it, I'll be able to pay off a fifth of my debt... At least I'm luckier than those who get high-difficulty missions right after joining."

An E-Class mission pays off a fifth of his debt? Sun Hang was taken aback. It seemed this guy owed considerably less than he did.

"Tsk, you never know," the driver said, stepping on the gas pedal and speaking animatedly. "I've driven many investigators on E-Class missions. They went in as a group of living people and came back as not even a complete piece of meat... And then the mission rating, who knows what it might become, D-Class or C-Class."

"...Can't you say something more encouraging, driver?" 0401 asked with a grimace.

"Just telling you the truth," the driver shrugged. "Well, I wish the three of you a complete return."

"Driver, your blessing sounds a bit strange?" 0401 forced a smile that was more like a grimace. "You might as well share some experience with me; it might come in handy."

"I'm just a driver, what experience do I have?" the driver said. "Besides, when it comes to dealing with anomalies, experience isn't worth half a cent."