Parking Lot

They found the Year Eater and completed the beginner task Spirit Intelligence had assigned. That was Jiang Yue's top priority.

Of course, there was another important reason.

The Year Eater's movements seemed to be bringing it closer and closer to New Moon Bay. For his family's safety, Jiang Yue had to track it down before it entered New Moon Bay.

He didn't want to go home and find his older sister had become his aunt, or his younger cousin had become his uncle.

Just thinking about it sent a chill down his spine.

Officer Han felt awkward at the scene, too. The other departments had no faith in the police station's ability to handle the case. They criticized the police and kept complaining that they'd held things up by failing to report the situation promptly. Now everyone was in a difficult position.

The other departments had a point, but Officer Han shouldn't have had to take the blame. Whether the situation was reported wasn't something he could decide from his position.

"Little Jiang, wait up. I'll go with you."

"Did you bring your weapon?"

"Don't worry." Officer Han patted his waist.

Then he added, "Still, if we can avoid using it, we should."

Jiang Yue nodded. "We'll play it by ear. Judging from the scene, this evil entity is still in its early stages. It's evolving, but it's nowhere near fully evolved."

"What makes you say that?" These days, Officer Han had just one word for Jiang Yue: respect.

He'd already made up his mind to follow Jiang Yue all the way.

"Look at when it strikes. There's generally more than an hour between attacks. That means it needs time to digest the years it steals."

That was a little beyond Officer Han's understanding.

Seeing him look completely lost, Jiang Yue explained, "Think of it as a monster that can steal ordinary people's lifespans. Then it'll make sense."

Officer Han nodded thoughtfully. It was hard to tell whether he really understood or was just being polite.

"Also, whenever it goes out, it instinctively avoids crowded places. And it always sneaks up on people. That means it's wary of humans. At the very least, it's afraid of a direct confrontation."

"Evil creatures are afraid of humans? In the movies, those monsters are all incredibly powerful, aren't they?"

Jiang Yue gave a wry smile. "If they really were, would humanity still have a future? Would there even be any point in you working this case?"

It was a philosophical question, and Officer Han had no answer.

"If it becomes fully evolved, it's hard to say how dangerous it'll be. But for now, it's still evolving. That means we still have a chance."

The difficulty with this monster was that facial recognition couldn't identify it. On top of that, it was elusive and had an instinct for evading investigation.

So tracking it in real time wasn't easy from a technical standpoint.

But Jiang Yue had just sensed the scene, and had surprisingly been able to detect traces of the evil aura left behind. That gave him a great deal of confidence in tracking down the Year Eater.

"Little Jiang, if it leaves some kind of damage wherever it goes, then in theory we should be able to narrow down its location, as long as we have enough people, right?"

"That's hard to say. From what we've gathered, it doesn't seem to leave traces everywhere it goes. Only if it stays somewhere for a long time or attacks there. Like that taxi, that bench, and the flakes of wall plaster at the Soybean Sprout Alley scene..."

"More importantly, I feel like it's getting better at covering its tracks. The traces it left in the taxi even affected my younger cousin. And looking at that bench and the wall plaster in Soybean Sprout Alley, its traces are clearly getting fainter."

That was evolution.

The Year Eater was evolving faster than they'd expected.

It wasn't just its abilities that were evolving, but its intelligence and the instincts of an evil entity, too.

Without the Hundred Evils Immunity Halo, Jiang Yue wouldn't have had the slightest confidence in going after it. He'd be charging straight into a fight with the monster.

Night was a natural shield for monsters and the best cover for evil entities.

The two returned to the car. Officer Han asked, "Where to next?"

He knew that if they kept waiting for something bad to happen before tracking the creature, they'd always be one step behind and would never catch up.

They didn't need to get ahead of it, but they had to at least close the gap.

If they fell behind once, they'd keep falling further behind. In the end, they'd be led around by the nose. If Jiang Yue's guess was right, and this was the work of a monster that was still evolving, the situation could deteriorate in ways Officer Han didn't dare imagine.

Jiang Yue said nothing. He opened the map on his phone and began studying it.

Based on the areas where the previous victims had been active, the distance between one victim and the next was no more than 1.5 kilometers.

And the Year Eater, still short of full evolution, clearly didn't like going anywhere crowded.

Starting from Soybean Sprout Alley, where would it go next?

Jiang Yue circled three places. "Officer Han, let's check these three."

He hadn't picked these places on a whim. He had his reasons for choosing each one.

They all had something in common: they were relatively quiet, especially late at night, when crowds were unlikely to gather.

Judging from what had happened to the previous victims, each one had been alone.

What did that mean?

It meant the Year Eater wasn't confident it could take on several adults at once.

It always relied on sneak attacks, which showed how hard it was trying to avoid risks.

That level of caution was frightening.

Spring in Star City was still a little chilly. In quiet places, insects could no longer hold back their loneliness and had begun to sing softly.

The two of them searched around with police flashlights.

Under bridges, in bushes, around trash cans, and along landscaped strips were their main search areas.

Officer Han had spent years in the field and had tracked down plenty of vicious criminals. He'd never felt such pressure before, never had his back break out in a faint sweat like this.

What made it even more absurd was that he was out here with a teenager.

If word got back to the station, he had no idea how many colleagues would joke about it behind his back. Some might even tease him to his face.

Of course, Officer Han didn't care about any of that.

He wasn't just working the case now. He was trying to prove himself. Only if he solved it could he throw off the blame with a clear conscience.

He checked the time. It was almost eleven.

More than an hour had passed since the last attack.

The two of them felt immense pressure.

Going by the monster's pattern, it usually struck at intervals of just over an hour. While they were searching, it might already be attacking its next target somewhere else.

Every hour they wasted meant one more victim.

This wasn't a murder case, but in terms of how strange and bizarre it was, and the panic it could cause, it might be worse than one or two murders.

Up ahead was a parking lot, the third place Jiang Yue had circled earlier.

If they found nothing there, Jiang Yue would have to reconsider their approach.

It was a public parking lot. During the day, lots of public vehicles parked there. At night, residents in the surrounding area parked there, too.

The parking lot wasn't small. It had two or three hundred spaces. There was a barrier at the entrance and a security booth beside it.

Jiang Yue and Officer Han walked toward the entrance from a distance, sweeping the area with their flashlights.

Before they reached it, a man came walking out from the direction of the entrance, a briefcase tucked under his arm and a phone to his ear.

Officer Han's professional instincts kicked in. He shone his flashlight straight into the man's face.

The man was on the phone. Blinded by the sudden glare, he squinted and swore. "The hell are you doing out here in the middle of the night? Trying to rob me?"

Officer Han was in plain clothes, which didn't lend him much authority. He flashed his badge. "Police! What are you doing wandering around here in the middle of the night?"

The man was about forty, with his hair slicked back like a businessman. Even when he saw the badge, he didn't look intimidated. He sneered. "So what if you're the police? Are you going to stop people from going home? Are you going to stop me from calling my wife?"

On an ordinary day, Officer Han wouldn't have been so polite to someone with such an attitude.

But he had an important task to deal with today, so he let it go.

"You just came out of the parking lot?"

"Yeah. So what? Is parking a car illegal now? Is going home illegal?" The man seemed to have a chip on his shoulder, as if he had something against the police by nature.

"Did you notice anything unusual in the parking lot?"

"What kind of unusual? Does the security guard dozing off on the job count?" The man muttered curses as he walked off.

Jiang Yue and Officer Han exchanged a look, speechless. Relations between the police and the public weren't that tense these days, were they?

"Come on, let's take a look."