Investigative Personnel

Back again, back to this strange, strange "Boundary City."

Not long ago, it had felt like a vast, eerie, and unsettlingly bizarre city to him. Yet now, seeing the familiar streetlights and buildings, the street and sky bathed in the faint morning light, Yu Sheng felt a sense of "nostalgia" that he himself found hard to believe.

The experience of being trapped in that valley shrouded in night had made even returning to "Boundary City" feel like coming home.

But the next second, the daze brought on by the loss of life interrupted Yu Sheng's contemplation. He listlessly lowered his head, seeing bright red blood slowly spreading beneath him.

His body had been pierced. The horrific wound was enough to be fatal in a short time. Even with the remarkable recovery abilities and vitality his current body possessed, he knew he was dying again—he'd become quite accustomed to using the word "again" in this context.

The culprit behind this terrible wound was right beside him. The scaled "tail" severed from the monster had fallen out of the gate with Yu Sheng. It seemed to still possess residual life force, even "consciousness." It was slowly wriggling in the pool of blood, attempting to crawl away from this place.

Yu Sheng even felt like the thing was trying to get away from him... this piece of flesh was afraid of him.

Yu Sheng frowned, struggling to get up from the ground. He glanced at his home, not far away, then casually picked up the slowly wriggling, scaled severed tail lying beside him and staggered forward.

As he walked, he muttered, "Didn't they say protagonists escape from desperate situations and everything is fine afterward? What kind of trash setting is it that injuries are still retained after the map clear... Damn it, it hurts so much..."

The continuous blood loss made his consciousness blur, and the loss of stamina made every step he took shaky and difficult, as if he would collapse the next second. In the final few steps, Yu Sheng was practically moving on instinct. He didn't know why he had to go home—perhaps to say hello to Eileen? Perhaps to avoid being discovered by people going out in the morning as a "corpse"?

Everything before his eyes gradually darkened, the morning light tinged with a dark red. Yu Sheng's mind conjured Huli's golden-red eyes—in the end, those eyes were filled with the bloodlust of hunger, yet still held a sliver of residual humanity, struggling to remain deep within the crimson.

That fox... he wondered how she was doing. She had said she wouldn't die, and he didn't know if it was true...

With these thoughts swirling in his mind, Yu Sheng finally struggled his way to his front door. The door wasn't locked. He fumbled with the handle, pushed the door open, and stepped inside.

He saw the dining room diagonally opposite the entrance. He saw the oil painting still leaning against the wall. Eileen looked up from the painting, her eyes widening in surprise as she looked at the doorway, then slowly opening wider.

Yu Sheng managed a fleeting, deathbed smile. "Eileen, I'm back."

He knew he was severely injured. If not for the astonishing recovery abilities and strength of his current body, he probably would have died outside the house by now.

As soon as this thought crossed his mind, Yu Sheng felt his vision tilt. He slid down the doorframe, and the familiar darkness pressed in from all sides—along with Eileen's terrified scream.

Now he was dead in the house.

With the faint sound of brakes, two electric scooters stopped deep within Wutong Road. Two figures dismounted, looking at the old and quiet alley before them.

One was a middle-aged man who looked steady and reliable, wearing a coffee-colored long coat. He was tall and sturdy, with a slightly dark complexion and short black hair. An irregular scar near his neck added a touch of intimidation to his demeanor. However, the man's tired expression and dark circles under his eyes clashed with his robust physique and menacing scar—his face looked like someone who hadn't had a day off in three months of continuous overtime.

The other was a young man, no older than twenty-two. He also had short black hair, but his build was much slimmer than the middle-aged man beside him. His appearance was ordinary, the kind of ordinary that would make him disappear instantly in any crowd. He wore a black and blue jacket and pants, his expression a little tense, carrying the nervousness of someone who had just started a new job and was being dragged out on an assignment by their superior.

The two rode their bikes to this quiet old district, observing the seemingly unremarkable buildings around them. Occasionally, residents of the area passed by from a distance at the intersection, but very few cast glances their way.

"This place doesn't look weird at all..." the black-haired young man grumbled. "Captain Song, are you sure it's here?"

"There was a boundary alarm just now, and the coordinates are indeed this location," the middle-aged man, addressed as Captain Song, nodded. "Although the signal disappeared in an instant, it can be confirmed as an Otherworld reaction."

"We rushed here but still didn't make it," the young man glanced at the electric scooter beside him and hesitated. "Should we have driven?"

Captain Song glanced at him. "All the bureau's cars are out on assignments. All that's left is Xu Jiali's beat-up seven-year-old car. You drive it? That thing won't go any faster than your electric scooter even with the accelerator floored."

The young man chuckled dryly, awkwardly changing the subject. "Um, that person before... the codename was 'Little Red Riding Hood,' right? From the Fairy Tale Organization. Did she not find anything here either?"

"Yes, she found nothing, which makes it even more certain that something is wrong with this place," Captain Song nodded slowly. "'Little Red Riding Hood' has done a lot of work for the Special Operations Bureau. I know her abilities. Her wolf can sniff out even the weakest, most subtle 'abnormal' traces in the surrounding environment. But she searched this place all night and found nothing."

The young man blinked, seemingly not understanding for a moment.

"Found nothing, didn't you understand?" Captain Song reminded him again. "It's too 'clean,' too 'normal.' There are no areas in the Crossroads this clean! Little Red Riding Hood's wolf can sense abnormalities everywhere in this city, even if the traces are very, very weak. But only here... from a mystical perspective, this entire street is as 'clean' as a vacuum!"

Hearing this, the young man finally understood—the training he'd received in school finally aligned with the current situation.

"Either this place is truly that clean, and a truly 'pure' area has appeared in the Crossroads, parallel to the 'outside world'—that's not impossible, after all, this is the Crossroads, and all places in the world might have connections here," Captain Song waved his hand, looking somewhat tired. "Or, this place hides a... 'big thing.' That thing is constantly changing the environment of the entire area, and Little Red Riding Hood's wolves encountered a boundary vacuum here."

The already tense expression on the young man's face visibly tightened.

"I will not approve your transfer to the logistics department," Captain Song said, raising his eyelids to look at him. "Transferring to another team is also not allowed."

"I didn't say I wanted to run!" the young man quickly waved his hands. "When I joined the team, I was prepared. I will definitely be dedicated, diligent, and fulfill my duties..."

A suddenly ringing phone interrupted their conversation. It was a pleasant melody—a classic tune from a popular new anime.

The young man froze for a moment upon hearing it, looking at his superior with a strange expression. "...You watch that too?"

The middle-aged man, addressed as Captain Song, visibly twitched. He reluctantly took out his phone from his pocket and muttered, "My daughter must have secretly swapped it for me. She's been watching this lately..."

The young man's expression subtly shifted. He struggled to say, "Isn't it a bit inappropriate for a junior high schooler to watch a bunch of girls forming a band..."

Captain Song answered the phone. After listening for a few moments, he said, "Yes, Li Lin and I have arrived at the scene. It's the same as Little Red Riding Hood's previous investigation; this place is eerily 'clean.' Make arrangements. We might need to set up a fixed surveillance point here. I'll decide on the specific personnel after I get back. Also, contact 'Fairy Tale' and see if they can send someone else over. This might be a long-term mission..."

After hanging up, Captain Song let out a long sigh. He turned and saw the young man named Li Lin still looking at him.

He paused and couldn't help but say, "My daughter really swapped it for me. I don't watch anime normally."

Li Lin quickly coughed dryly. "Uh, cough cough, I believe you, I believe you."

The two exchanged an awkward silence, tacitly choosing to skip the topic.

Just then, Li Lin seemed to have discovered something.

He frowned slightly and quickly walked towards a wall corner not far away.

"Captain Song, come look at this!" he said, after examining it closely, then looking up to call out.

Captain Song walked over and looked in the direction Li Lin was pointing.

A patch of dark red marks was visible in the corner of the wall, looking like dried bloodstains. It was small, easily overlooked from a distance, and was now visibly shrinking.

It wasn't seeping into the cement but was rapidly disappearing into thin air.

"Blood?" Captain Song immediately frowned, then quickly reacted. He pulled out a plastic tube and a portable scraper from his long coat pocket. "No, it's not blood. Sample it!"

"Okay," Li Lin agreed, taking the sampling tool and preparing to scrape the residual dark red "bloodstain" on the wall. However, before the scraper in his hand could touch the wall, the last small patch of red let out a sudden hissing sound and then completely vanished.