Mother Woke Up? Looks Like Someone's Asking to Be Burned

Listening to the steward, Milluki stared blankly at Bai Zhu, seeming to ask whether he had misheard.

Bai Zhu stood beside the table without saying a word.

The sound of a cabinet being pulled open came through from the steward's end, followed by several brief exchanges.

"There were no signs of a struggle in the room. The door lock was intact, and the windows hadn't been pried open. Their identification documents, clothes, and medicine were all there."

Milluki's expression grew worse and worse.

"Where are they?"

"They vanished."

The steward swallowed.

"The survivors in the same area are all gone too. It wasn't just Ella. There were twelve people on the list. Not a single one remained."

The tent fell silent.

Milluki suppressed his anger.

"Explain this to me. How did twelve perfectly fine people just vanish?"

"They should have gone out on their own."

The steward said those words with great difficulty.

"The surveillance storage we left behind was pulled out."

Bai Zhu lowered his head and looked at the gold-edged badge on the table.

The badge lay quietly beside the testing station, its candle-flame pattern gleaming under the screen's light.

Milluki gritted his teeth.

"What about anomalous traces?"

"There are some."

The steward's voice dropped even lower.

"There was pale golden powder in the door cracks, on the windowsills, and beside the beds. There wasn't much. I've already had it sealed as a sample."

Milluki immediately replied.

"Seal it. Triple-layer it. Don't use ordinary plastic bags—use lead boxes or metal cases, and attach isolation talismans. Get everyone out of the scene first."

"Understood. There's one more thing."

"Say it."

"The local coordination point has also gone offline."

Milluki cursed.

The steward continued.

"The last record only had four words."

Bai Zhu finally looked up.

The steward paused for