Pitiful and Helpless Little Apple

According to the police investigation, the three young men arranged to meet the victim online, secretly drugged her during dinner, took her to their car, and then attempted to assault her at a secluded spot by the lake.

Just then, Li Jun, a blind girl who was taking a walk nearby, overheard the conversation. According to Li Jun, she heard the conversation inside the car as she passed by and decided to call the police.

But between Li Jun calling the police and the police arriving, something happened that terrified the three people in the car so much that they didn't even dare to run.

Li Jun told the police that after she called the police, she was worried about the victim's condition, so she picked up a stone and tried to throw it at the location of the car based on the sound, hoping to stop them.

But what happened after that is unknown; all that was vaguely heard were the screams of those young men.

Li Jun, a blind girl, said she was very scared.

She was terrified and didn't know what to do, so she stood there motionless.

Fortunately, the police arrived in time.

The three young men were taken to the police station. After they calmed down a bit, they confessed to their crimes and recounted their experiences during that time.

The three people gave slightly different accounts of what happened, but the only thing they agreed on was that a terrifying monster with a huge size, many arms, and many eyes suddenly appeared, lay down in front of their car, and tried to eat them.

Their reactions were also very strange. When they saw the monster rushing at the car, they didn't drive away. One of the two who got out of the car fell to the ground and rolled around, screaming incessantly, after only a few steps. The other also squatted down with his head in his hands and begged for mercy after running a short distance. Meanwhile, the person in the car was also curled up in his seat, trembling and even with tears streaming down his face.

Even without reviewing the dashcam footage, the police were certain that the three men were hallucinating. After all, their descriptions of the multi-armed, multi-eyed monster differed significantly. The man in the car also mentioned that blood was gushing out everywhere, even soaking the car. However, the two who got out of the car presented contradictory accounts: one said that a thick fog had suddenly enveloped the area, making it impossible to see anything, while the other claimed that various flying insects filled the sky.

To be honest, it's normal for them to be hallucinating and seeing different things. It's rather strange that they all see the monster with many arms and many eyes.

However, this is not a point of contention that needs to be investigated in depth. It is plausible that the three suspects may have seen similar objects at the same time, or that the surrounding environment, such as a tree being blown by the wind, caused them to have the same hallucination.

Moreover, the police checked the dashcam footage that was always on in the car, and they were very clear about what happened during that time.

The video captured by the dashcam naturally didn't show any monsters with many arms and eyes, nor any fog, sea of blood, or flying insects. There was only a lonely, helpless, and frightened blind girl standing alone in the high beams.

Moreover, apart from throwing a stone at the beginning, the blind girl did not make any further moves from beginning to end until the police arrived.

After Officer Han, who was the first to arrive at the scene, finished talking with Li Sheng, he returned to his office and found his colleague Xiao Wang frowning in front of her computer, seemingly lost in thought. When he went over to check, he discovered that she was watching the dashcam video from the three suspects' car.

"What are you looking at?" Officer Han asked curiously. They had already looked at these things together before, and there hadn't been any problems.

Xiao Wang rewound the video, paused it, and pointed at the screen, saying, "Look at this bird."

When Officer Han was watching the video, he naturally noticed the bird in the dashcam footage. "Isn't that the little girl's 'guide bird'? It's said to be quite intelligent. I've only ever heard of guide dogs before, this is the first time I've heard of 'guide birds'."

"No, I mean, this bird is acting a bit strange," Xiao Wang said, letting the video continue playing. He continued, "Look, this bird has its beak wide open, as if it's trying to call out, but we can't hear a sound in the recorded video. Its posture is also a bit odd; its belly is heaving, and its feathers seem to be shaking. This should be a canary, right? I've never seen a canary act like this before..."

Officer Han also took a closer look and had to admit that the canary perched on the hood of the car was behaving rather strangely.

"I guess the car's soundproofing is good, so we didn't record its sound, or maybe it just yawned?" Officer Han said, shaking his head. "This has nothing to do with our case, does it?"

Xiao Wang said, "I always felt that the reactions of those three suspects, and their behavior during the separate statements, didn't seem like they had used illegal narcotics. Their behavior in the car was too strange. So I wanted to see if anything unusual happened at the time."

"You mean, it was that bird that drove them crazy and caused them to hallucinate?" Officer Han asked.

"Of course not, I just think this bird... looks a little strange," Xiao Wang said.

"A 'guide bird,' huh? It's normal for it to be strange. How many 'guide birds' have you ever seen?" Officer Han patted his partner on the shoulder. "You should know that this young girl is Li Sheng's niece from the Municipal Public Security Bureau, and she was the one who reported the crime. She also risked her life to throw a stone, stopping the three suspects from their assault, right?"

Xiao Wang quickly said, "Brother Han, I don't suspect the girl at all. I just had a few doubts in my mind and was just thinking about it. I won't bother her with this. The girl who reported the crime is a hero, the girl in the car is the victim, and the three men are suspects. The facts of the case are very clear, there's no doubt about it."

After Officer Han left, Xiao Wang listened to the alarm recording from the command center again. The girl spoke logically and clearly, but of course, one could still hear obvious nervousness in her voice.

Judging from the way the girl described the location when she called the police, she probably doesn't often go for walks there and doesn't know the exact address. It makes sense, considering she's a blind girl, and quite pretty, walking alone at night in such a remote area without streetlights without anyone accompanying her.

He recalled the events of interrogating the three suspects separately.

When asked what happened at that time, the three people appeared genuinely terrified and filled with fear.

That kind of fear can be clearly felt by others through their eyes, facial expressions, the tone of their voice, and various physiological responses.

This cannot be faked; no actor can pull it off.

The three suspects were indeed terrified at the time, so frightened that they dared not move.

Even now, they don't believe what they saw was an illusion; they still believe they really saw the monster and that the phenomenon of the earth changing color really happened.

Furthermore, in the descriptions of the three individuals, it seems they all felt that the monster was related to the little girl who threw stones at the car.

Of course, neither Officer Han, nor the other police officers involved in the interrogation, nor Xiao Wang herself took these words to heart—the girl stood trembling in front of the high beams the whole time and really did nothing.

Xiao Wang felt the girl's behavior was a bit strange, and he was also puzzled by her being there at night, noticing the anomaly in the car and calling the police, rather than thinking it was related to her hallucinations with the three suspects.

Xiao Wang checked the restaurant surveillance video they had just copied, which showed the three suspects dining with the victim. He then wondered if he should go back to the restaurant the next day when he had some free time to see if anything happened while they were eating. Could it be that they were also drugged while they were drugging the girl?

Of course, the specific details will only be known after the blood test results of the three suspects are released.

He picked up his notebook and looked through the multi-armed, multi-eyed monster he had drawn based on the descriptions of the three suspects.

He wasn't a professional forensic artist, nor had he formally studied drawing, so the image was rather rudimentary, merely depicting a monster resembling a humanoid spider. The three suspects gave conflicting accounts of how many arms, legs, and eyes the monster had; he only provided a rough sketch.

Looking at the monster image he had drawn, he suddenly thought of his classmates from police academy who often studied special cases together. So he picked up his phone, found a profile picture, tapped on it, and sent a message:

"Sixth brother, what are you doing?"

A moment later, a reply came back, "On duty, what are you doing?"

"Do you remember those strange cases we saw on the forum back in our sophomore year? I've come across a rather bizarre case today. Take a look at this, can you recognize what it is?" After sending the text message, Xiao Wang also sent the drawing of the multi-armed, multi-eyed monster he had made.

"Old Six" was his roommate and good friend at the police academy. After graduation, he went to Haixi Province and worked in a police station in a certain city.

While at police academy, the two of them often enjoyed getting together to study various bizarre cases, and they often dreamed of becoming "super detectives" who could solve cases in an instant after they started working.

Of course, after putting them into practice, they all realized that solving cases often relies on various forensic methods, criminal investigation techniques, and a lot of tedious investigations, rather than a flash of inspiration or "detective thinking."

However, they still occasionally share some strange things and special cases they encounter at work, provided that they do not violate regulations and discipline.

After finishing the sumptuous meal prepared by Xiang Kun, Xia Libing washed up and went to bed to sleep.

But after sitting in the living room for more than twenty minutes, Xiang Kun could tell from Lao Xia's breathing, heartbeat and other physical information that she was still not asleep.

So Xiang Kun pushed open the closed bedroom door and poked his head in. "Did you eat too much?"

Xia Libing sat up in bed, touched her stomach, frowned and thought for a moment, then nodded. "Possibly."

Ten minutes later, Xia Libing and Xiang Kun, having put their clothes and shoes back on, went out for a walk to digest their food and also to chat about other things, such as the "vampire" patient staying at the Third Hospital.

"Can you tell me about that 'vampire' in your hospital?" Xiang Kun asked.

"She's different from you," Xia Libing said with certainty.

"I know." Xiang Kun thought for a moment, but still decided to be direct. "Last night, after we had a late-night snack, we didn't go back right away. We secretly climbed over the wall into your hospital and used our 'Hyper-Sensory State' to explore your ward. We found the 'vampire' patient you mentioned... That patient is female, right? She should be quite tall?"

Xia Libing nodded, confirming that what Xiang Kun had "detected" was indeed the "vampire patient" she had mentioned before, and then asked, "What is 'Hyper-Sensory State'?"

So Xiang Kun gave a brief explanation and then said, "We'll study the 'Hyper-Sensory State' in more detail later. Let's talk about this 'vampire' patient first. I think her transformation might be related to a real 'Mutated Creature'."

After listening, Xia Libing began to tell Xiang Kun about the "vampire patient" she knew.

"Telling me all this is a violation of the rules, isn't it?" Xiang Kun said with a forced smile after Lao Xia finished speaking.

"Would you tell anyone?" Xia Libing asked in return.

"Of course not," Xiang Kun said.

"Then it's alright."

Xiang Kun was about to ask why nothing was wrong, he suddenly sensed something and stopped in his tracks.

Xia Libing turned around in surprise and looked at Xiang Kun, who was behaving strangely, but did not immediately ask him anything.

After a while, Xiang Kun said to Xia Libing, "It's 'Little Apple,' she's also developed a new ability."

Little Apple had been added to the group by him for some time. Although she was closest to Nana and Zhen'er, she was also quite familiar with Xia Libing. Of course, after telling Xiang Kun about the mutation today, Xia Libing also knew that Little Apple was also a "networked user" and "developer" in his "Super-Sensing Item System".

"What kind of ability?" Xia Libing asked.

"This ability... is a bit strange, hmm, it's hard to describe, and it's not easy to reproduce here either," Xiang Kun said, frowning.

He was naturally aware that Little Apple was using his abilities through her connection with the Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving. However, he usually wouldn't notice such "using" abilities, but today's "using" was clearly very different from usual, indicating that Little Apple had successfully "developed" a new ability, so he would have a very clear feeling about it.

But usually, whether it's Little Apple, Liu Shiling, or Lao Xia, if they "develop" a new ability, he can immediately reproduce it, and even improve it further.

But I can't do that today.

Because he discovered that Little Apple's newly "developed" ability actually required a collaboration with "Gold Glitter".

To be honest, this was really beyond Xiang Kun's expectations. Just yesterday afternoon, during a video call with Little Apple, he confirmed that "Gold Glitter" had been incorporated into his "super-sensory system." He never expected that it would already be part of Little Apple's newly "developed" abilities today.

Xiang Kun immediately sensed the Minion Wooden Carving he had given to Little Apple —he knew that this carving was an item Little Apple used for "Object-Sensing," and that she always carried it with her, so sensing it first was definitely the right thing to do.

Sure enough, through the Minion Wooden Carving, Xiang Kun sensed the emotions emanating from Little Apple.

Excitement, nervousness, agitation, and a touch of trepidation— Little Apple's emotions were intense.