Battle Royale?

"..."

"..."

"Won't there be any special changes after the mission is completed? Like a white light descending from the sky to heal my wounds? Honestly, I'm a bit hungry; can I be made not hungry?"

The silence lasted for ten seconds.

Chu Chongtian was the one who had to break it, sounding somewhat awkward.

"You'll know when the time comes; now is not the moment to discuss this," Zhou Zhenguo said. "It seems the Ripper is not this person."

"How can that be? He went missing and then reappeared; he fits the profile in every way," Chu Chongtian argued. "Could it be that our mission includes the hidden condition of catching him? Why is the mission so vague!"

He was already becoming agitated, unable to suppress the indignation in his heart.

Zhou Zhenguo remained calm: "Missions are always rather broad and generalized; you'll get used to it later."

"The address, the address."

Chu Chongtian looked down and found the home address of this Green Bray.

"Let's go, we're going to catch him!" Chu Chongtian looked up at Zhou Zhenguo and Tang Luo.

"Calm down."

Zhou Zhenguo said, "I don't think it's necessarily this person."

"Why?" Chu Chongtian took a sharp breath.

"It's simple," Zhou Zhenguo said. "Do you think someone who was captured and subjected to cruel human experimentation, and who luckily survived, would swagger back into a small town?"

"This..."

Chu Chongtian realized the oversight.

If it were him, having been kidnapped and experimented on in a place, and having luckily survived...

Even if he chose to take revenge, he certainly wouldn't appear in the open.

Isn't that just asking to die faster?

"It is more likely that the Ripper is among these people."

Zhou Zhenguo pointed to the dozen or so people who were still missing and said, "Master, what do you think?"

Tang Luo shook his head: "Amitabha, this poor monk has not been thinking about these things."

"Ah?"

Both Zhou Zhenguo and Chu Chongtian were stunned.

What is going on!

Master, please don't give up on thinking!

You are our most important combat power—uh, although it seems you can afford to stop thinking.

"This poor monk is simply waiting for the Ripper to appear so I can beat him to death. As for how to proceed, you two donors decide; this poor monk will accompany you," Tang Luo said.

"It's just like the second night."

Chu Chongtian muttered to himself.

What happened on the second night?

He dressed in women's clothing as bait to lure Hodge and Jack the Ripper.

The current situation seemed much the same.

The few of them were wandering around.

They were the prey, but also the hunters.

Thinking about it this way, all their overthinking didn't seem to have much effect, did it?

No wonder Master Xuanzang simply stopped thinking—no, he was just too lazy to bother.

"Wait a minute."

Chu Chongtian suddenly thought of something. "Jack the Ripper's possession ability must have a range, right! It can't possibly cover the entire small town, can it?"

"You mean!"

Zhou Zhenguo also realized something. "The map!"

The two grabbed the documents and headed downstairs together.

In an ordinary small town, it was, of course, impossible to have mass-produced maps for sale.

But as the law enforcement department, Scotland Yard required its agents to be very clear about addresses and locations when they went out on "patrols."

Because in the lobby downstairs, there hung a hand-drawn map of the small town.

It was there so that when agents came and went, they could see it and have a mental impression.

It prevented the embarrassing situation of getting lost while on a case.

The map was not very new, likely several years old, and not particularly detailed either.

But for Zhou Zhenguo and his team, it was enough.

"Church, inn, Hodge..."

Several locations where Jack the Ripper had been encountered were marked out.

Next were the addresses of those who had remained missing over the years.

And the locations of cases that occurred before the massacres.

Even if the Ripper had been tailing Tang Luo and the others since they appeared.

He couldn't have been tailing them before that, could he?

A person returning to their "homeland" who wants to hide, no matter what, would at least linger near their home, right?

Killing, to some extent, also has a range.

For Scotland Yard, this range was too vast to determine.

But adding the addresses of the missing persons made all the difference.

"Slums, yes. This kind of place is best for hiding; if there's one more vagrant, how many people would notice? These five people!"

The two identified the five individuals most likely to be Jack the Ripper.

There were also their former home addresses.

"Are we going to their homes?" Chu Chongtian asked. "The Ripper might not necessarily be hiding at home, right?"

"No, we are going to look for evidence," Zhou Zhenguo said.

"Would he leave any decisive evidence at home?" Chu Chongtian asked.

"Perhaps there will be."

Zhou Zhenguo said, "Even if there isn't, we must go to those places and destroy them."

"Hmm?" Chu Chongtian was puzzled.

Now was not the time to vent frustration on these people's residences.

Seeing Chu Chongtian's confusion, Zhou Zhenguo explained: "The Ripper is watching us, right? So... if he sees us destroying his house, what will he do?"

"This way we can lure him out? No, that's not it." Chu Chongtian's eyes lit up, then he lowered his voice, "If we destroy that house and are ambushed by him, it proves which house is his, and we can confirm who the Ripper is."

Zhou Zhenguo nodded, then added: "But it's also possible that we'll be attacked the whole way, making it impossible to distinguish."

"Then how do we confirm it?" Chu Chongtian asked.

"No need to confirm. We follow Master Xuanzang's idea and let the Ripper appear before us of his own accord," Zhou Zhenguo said. "Everyone has a temper, don't you think?"

As they spoke, the three of them had already walked out of Scotland Yard.

The weather outside was colder than when they had entered.

One could see the puffs of white mist exhaled with every word.

It caused Chu Chongtian's glasses to fog up, though they quickly cleared again.

"We destroy his home and kill the target he is possessing," Zhou Zhenguo said with a resolute tone. "Lure him out and fight to the death."

"Isn't it enough to just confirm who he is?"

"No, I have completely figured it out now."

Zhou Zhenguo combined his past experiences, "This mission should have two ways to complete it. First, during Jack the Ripper's hiding phase, we find his true identity, and the mission is complete."

"Second, the current second phase, is to drag it out until the Ripper becomes powerful enough to cover the sky with one hand. At this point, he won't necessarily continue to hide. In that case, the way to complete the mission will mostly require us to kill the Ripper."

"The true core of the mission is not immutable."

"So that's how it is." Chu Chongtian suddenly realized, "But in that case, doesn't that mean we can't just lay low?"

In this mission, the longer it drags on, the more powerful the Ripper becomes.

In the end, how are we supposed to fight?

The small city is a dead end; if we just lay low until the end, there is only one path: death.

Or it becomes a "Battle Royale mode," where we survive under the Ripper's pursuit for several months, half a year, or even a year.

But that would already count as a mission failure.

"Originally, 'laying low' was a low-probability event," Zhou Zhenguo said. "Excluding this time, I have experienced five missions in total."

He spoke openly.

They were living and dying together, and Chu Chongtian was not some sinister villain, so there was no need to hide this information.

"Two successes, two failures, and one that was neither a success nor a failure."

"But that time, it was only because there happened to be a powerhouse like Master Xuanzang who completed the mission, so it wasn't considered a failure."

"In this situation, how many times do you think you can encounter that?"

The middle-aged man, who had been struggling in society for many years, possessed a smooth, seamless, and untraceable art of flattery.

It left Chu Chongtian marveling.

"Indeed, a paragon of ultimate virtue like Master Xuanzang is surely a rare existence indeed." Chu Chongtian felt he had much more to learn.

"Ahem."

Zhou Zhenguo coughed, signaling for him to quit while he was ahead. "So, prepare yourself for a brutal battle."

"Understood."

Chu Chongtian nodded and patted his body twice.

He confirmed that all his weapons, including his ammunition pouches, were still there.

"Master, should we gather the residents of this small town and go find Jack the Ripper together? We could even lure him out!"

After continuing forward for a while, Chu Chongtian suddenly spoke up.

Up until now, they had been fighting alone.

Now that a fierce battle was highly likely, why not make use of external forces?

To hell with the idea that more effort equals better rewards!

Surviving the mission was the only thing that mattered.

"We can try, but this poor monk believes the chances are slim," Tang Luo said.

"Let's try it!"

Chu Chongtian ran to a nearby door and pounded on it frantically, shouting, "Open up! We are detectives hired by Scotland Yard, and we have found Jack the Ripper! Come with us now to capture him! We have all the documents! You can see for yourselves!"

He even took out the documents provided by Scotland Yard, shaking them until they rattled.

He had even considered the possibility of them saying, "I don't believe you, put it in writing."

His voice drifted through the silent night sky.

Afterward, the surroundings remained deathly still.

Not a single darkened window lit up, nor were there any sounds of footsteps, shouting, windows opening, or doors unlatching.

None of the reactions Chu Chongtian had expected occurred.

No, it would be more accurate to say there was absolutely no response at all.

Even a stone cast into the sea would at least create a ripple.

But now, aside from the soft rustle of snowflakes hitting the ground, it was so silent that it felt like an empty city inhabited only by the three of them.

"Amitabha, Benefactor Chu, there is no need to shout anymore. There should be no one left in this vicinity."

Tang Luo stopped Chu Chongtian from continuing his calls.

"No one?"

"Benefactor Zhou said this is a race against the Ripper," Tang Luo said. "This poor monk is deeply convinced of this. The Ripper is also running; while we are searching for him, he is also killing, becoming stronger with every moment."

The implication was that this area, and perhaps an even larger radius, had already become a dead zone.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Chu Chongtian was far from as composed as Tang Luo, who could still smile serenely upon learning that their enemy was growing stronger by the second.

Treading through the snow, he began to run.

He suddenly felt that this "detective mission" had, by now, turned into a battle royale, a quest for survival.

At least for him, that was exactly what it was.