Assistant Ge Yi, like Yang Su, had sensed to some degree that something was off about the company.
But for the sake of his high-paying job, Ge Yi pushed up his glasses and looked straight ahead, ignoring the many things that seemed wrong. Wasn't working for a living the same wherever you did it?
As long as the company kept paying him a generous salary, Ge Yi wouldn't leave.
Once Ji Wu had arranged everything and announced the meeting was over, everyone dispersed to get back to work.
"You've indirectly spread word of the Aberration Association's existence. Construction Points +17."
Shen Yu used the system to watch the entire meeting between Ji Wu and the others.
Two people had caught his attention: "Yang Su and Ge Yi."
They seemed like clever people. Those were exactly the kind he needed.
Unlike organizations that had to keep their existence secret, the more people who knew about the Aberration Containment Association, the more Construction Points he could earn.
If not for the need to make things seem plausible, he would have posted the Aberration Containment Association's mission statement online outright. With the internet as developed as it was now, as long as the content was sensational enough, it could spread across the country in less than a day.
On one hand, he had to keep the organization's operations secret to preserve its credibility. On the other, he had to spread the word about its existence as much as possible.
The business card Ji Wu had left Zhang Lin was bait, too.
Everything was ready. Now they just had to wait for someone to come investigating.
After leaving the hospital, Chen Guangji hurried back and reported to his superiors all the information he had obtained from Zhang Lin.
Zhang Lin was the first person to face an anomalous event at close range and survive. Unlike the other victims, he still remembered everything about his encounter with the supernatural.
The attention his superiors paid to him even exceeded Chen Guangji's expectations.
Almost as soon as Chen Guangji had reported the situation, the government dispatched an action team. They flew from the capital to Yeyang City by helicopter.
Chen Guangji went to meet them.
The man at the head of the group exuded a blood-soaked air. His brows were tightly knitted, his eyes bloodshot, and a deep weariness clung to him.
Kong Yubo pinched the bridge of his nose, as if trying to ease his fatigue.
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
"Not at all," Chen Guangji replied. "You've traveled a long way. Would you like to rest first?"
Kong Yubo sighed. "We have things to ask Zhang Lin. Let's go there now."
Chen Guangji naturally deferred to their wishes. He led them to the car and drove straight to the hospital where Zhang Lin was staying.
Soon, the group arrived at the hospital.
Zhang Lin was still in bed, recuperating. Bored, he stared at the ceiling. He'd already been injured, and after Bai Zuo took control of him and made him save Xu Zhou, his injuries had only worsened. At this rate, he wouldn't be discharged for two or three months.
Chen Guangji pushed open the door just then. "Zhang Lin, the people from the higher-ups are here."
The group entered the room. The single-patient room wasn't large, and with so many people inside, it quickly felt crowded.
Kong Yubo walked up to the bed and introduced himself. "I'm Kong Yubo, captain of the Special Dispatch Team. Comrade Zhang Lin, we've come to ask you about the entire course of the Bus 104 Incident."
Zhang Lin nodded and told Kong Yubo everything he knew about what had happened.
"Once we learned about the incident, we immediately sent people to the transportation department to retrieve the footage from inside and around Bus 104."
"But this was the only footage we got."
Kong Yubo took out a tablet, entered the password, opened a file, and played the video.
The footage came from a camera inside the bus.
It showed the passengers boarding and the bus setting off. Then the driver suddenly had an attack, and the vehicle went out of control, heading straight for a tanker truck. Patrol Officer Zhang Lin had tried to save people by forcing the bus aside with his vehicle, only to get hurt in the collision.
The bus then crashed into the guardrail by the road. Its passengers were injured, but none of them died.
"Afterward, we searched for witnesses nearby. Their statements matched the footage."
Kong Yubo closed the tablet and looked at Zhang Lin, who sat stunned. "If not for you, we would have treated this as an ordinary traffic accident."
After all, there had been so many witnesses, and everyone's account matched the surveillance footage. Who would have guessed that the truth behind the accident was completely different from what they'd reported and what the footage showed?
When Kong Yubo had first heard about it, he'd broken out in a cold sweat. He wondered how long they'd been kept in the dark before this.
More than fifty thousand accidents happened in the Xia Kingdom every day. How many were real, and how many had been covered up and fabricated?
"Do you believe what I'm telling you?"
If Zhang Lin hadn't experienced it himself, he probably would have scoffed if someone told him that supernatural beings existed in this world.
Kong Yubo gave a bitter laugh. "I can't afford not to believe you. This was supposed to be a classified mission. No one outside our team was meant to know about it, but you're a witness, and the higher-ups said you could be told."
"You know that Huayuan Ridge was designated a military restricted zone, with every route up the mountain sealed off and no one allowed to enter, right?"
Zhang Lin nodded.
Kong Yubo recalled the battle he'd fought on Huayuan Ridge. Fear of the supernatural showed in his eyes, along with fury at having watched his comrades die before him.
"All the residents of the town at the foot of Huayuan Ridge vanished mysteriously overnight. A report from someone out of town drew our attention. We took our people there, and the entire ridge was already surrounded by white mist."
"Our people went in. Fifty brothers went in; thirteen came back."
"I was one of them."
"I saw countless terrifying, bizarre monsters. They devoured people and tore into one another. We tried to attack them, but our guns were useless. All we could do was run. Even though we gave it everything we had, only thirteen of us made it back alive."
Zhang Lin clenched his fists. Just hearing the story, he could imagine how desperate it must have been.
"And we've discovered eleven anomalous events like this!"
"Huayuan Ridge was the most severe and covered the largest area. The others were more limited in scope, and there were fewer monsters. Although we couldn't kill them, we could keep them confined to one place."
"Even so, dealing with those monsters still meant gambling our lives."
"And you're the first person to come into contact with an organization capable of dealing with them."
After finishing, Kong Yubo stared at Zhang Lin but said nothing more.
The others watched him, too.
Zhang Lin knew what they were thinking. "They did come looking for me afterward, and they left me their contact information. But, Captain Kong, I think you should be even more cautious around people with mysterious powers beyond anything we can imagine."
Kong Yubo had obtained the business card and memorized the contact information on it. "Did they ask you to join them? It seems you've already made your decision."
Chen Guangji stared at Zhang Lin in astonishment.
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