Acting team leader

"He's my friend."

Gao Ming stepped out from behind Yan Hua, looking a little tired. "Director, you've seen the state of Investigation Team One. We only have one reserve newcomer left, and all our core members are missing. Things are looking pretty grim."

Chen Yuntian nodded slightly. He felt Gao Ming was already laying the groundwork for leaving the Investigation Bureau. After all, watching the people around him disappear and die one after another within forty-eight hours would be too much for even the most easygoing person.

"The support staff came by. They said none of the newcomers wanted to join Team One, and the two new members originally assigned to us were poached by other teams." Gao Ming spread his hands. "In other words, Investigation Team One is now just Zhu Miaomiao and me."

"I didn't foresee this situation. I can understand whatever choice you make, but I hope you'll give it some more careful thought." Chen Yuntian wanted Gao Ming to stay. After Bai Xiao became lost in an anomaly event, Gao Ming had become the investigator he valued most.

"I've already thought it through very carefully." Gao Ming's expression was utterly serious. "The people around me went missing one after another while investigating anomaly events, but not one of them backed down out of fear. This is the Lishan Investigation Office's darkest hour, and I'm willing to shoulder the responsibility of leading Investigation Team One!"

As Chen Yuntian listened, his gloomy eyes gradually brightened. He reached out and patted Gao Ming's arm. "You really do come back stronger after every setback!"

"If nobody wants to join Investigation Team One, I'll personally invite some members. I know them inside out, and we all trust each other." Gao Ming also called over Wan Qiu, who had gotten up early. "Rest assured, Office Director. We won't betray the Investigation Bureau's trust."

"That's good, but..." Chen Yuntian's gaze shifted between Yan Hua and Wan Qiu. The two were practically polar opposites.

"Anomaly events often test humanity and luck rather than physical strength or intelligence. I used to be a psychological counselor at Henshan Maximum-Security Prison. I understand people very well, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with these two." Gao Ming thumped his chest in assurance. "If anything goes wrong, I'll take full responsibility."

"The entry requirements for junior investigators are very low. These two barely qualify. The important thing is that you tell them about the dangers they may face in the future."

"Understood. I'll make sure to train them into the best investigators." Then Gao Ming casually added, "Until the new Team Leader arrives, I'll manage Team One."

After a moment's thought, Chen Yuntian nodded. He really had no reason to refuse. "All right. You'll manage Investigation Team One for now and handle personnel training and night duty. The other investigation teams will continue to handle field assignments."

Less than forty-eight hours after joining the Investigation Bureau, Gao Ming had skipped right over deputy team leader and leaped straight to Team Leader.

Although he was only an acting leader for now, if every member was a "super criminal" he had recruited himself, no one would be able to shake his position.

Pleased to see Gao Ming so motivated, Chen Yuntian had a staff member bring over two spare Black Rings. He gave one to Zhu Miaomiao and left the other in Gao Ming's care.

"If you find an exceptionally promising newcomer, you can give him this Black Ring."

"Thank you for your trust, Office Director."

Not long after seeing Chen Yuntian off, Gao Ming's identity information on his Black Ring was updated. He had officially become the acting Team Leader of Investigation Team One at the Lishan Investigation Office.

"Team One's patrol area covers Minlong Street and Lijing Street, where I live. Once we've dealt with the anomaly event in the East District, we'll start with those two streets." Gao Ming tossed the spare Black Ring straight to Yan Hua. "The Shadow World can invade reality through games. We can use games to invade the shadows, too."

Moving away from Qin Tian's workstation, Gao Ming turned on Bai Xiao's computer. He wanted to learn what authority an investigation team leader had, but while browsing the files, an email from the Old City Police Station caught his attention.

The sender was Li Lin. The email had arrived the previous night, and Bai Xiao had not had time to open it.

Gao Ming clicked on the email and saw several familiar terms. "There are several questionable points in the inmate riot at Henshan Maximum-Security Prison—the tally of missing criminals contains discrepancies, and the disfigured victim was not an inmate, but a doctor. Gao Ming's psychological test results from the past six months show that his mental state changed abruptly on a particular day. That day happened to coincide with the first anomaly event in Xinhu six months ago..."

At the end of the email, Li Lin expressed his hope that the Lishan Investigation Office could have Gao Ming cooperate with the police investigation.

Gao Ming casually deleted the email. He did not think there was anything wrong with his mental state, and he had more important things to do now.

After searching through the files, Gao Ming finally found an account of the East District anomaly event in a hidden folder.

"Investigator No. 01764, the first person to leave the East District anomaly event alive. All four limbs had been severed, yet the wounds did not bleed. Sacred script used in worship was written on the body. The investigator died after being admitted to the hospital. The corpse decomposed at one-third the normal rate..."

"After midnight, the aroma of meat drifts out of the site of this anomaly event. Personnel stationed on the perimeter who have not been caught in the anomaly event can also hear sutras being chanted."

"The anomaly event first appeared at the Sishui Street apartments in Hanhai's East District. A family massacre once took place there, and the anomaly event is suspected to be related to the Family Annihilation Case."

To prepare more thoroughly, Gao Ming also pulled up the Investigation Bureau's internal records.

In the East District, where every inch of land was worth a fortune, the Sishui Street Apartments housed only a handful of families. The massacre several years earlier had shocked Hanhai. Eight people from two families had been killed, with no survivors.

After committing the heinous crime, the killer had taken his own life in the murder house. People said the building was steeped in sinister energy and had been built over a Ghost Gate.

Gao Ming enlarged the photograph and was carefully studying the murder case when Wan Qiu suddenly walked over. He pointed at the computer screen and said blankly, "They're all watching you."

There was clearly no one in the photograph of the murder house, leaving Gao Ming baffled. "What did you see?"

"Those eight people are watching you. There are old people and children. Their lips are covered in blood. They're watching you." With that, Wan Qiu walked away.

Gao Ming returned his gaze to the photograph of the murder house. The back of his neck grew cold, and an inexplicable chill sank deep into him, as though someone really was staring at him.

The aroma of meat? A family massacre? Lips covered in blood? Slower decomposition... Taken together, doesn't that sound like the Flesh-and-Blood Immortal?

The Flesh-and-Blood Immortal was not a game Gao Ming had created, but an old book he had picked up at a street stall. It described a method of worshipping flesh and blood.

The method was so bizarre and disturbing that it had left a deep impression on him.

The so-called Flesh-and-Blood Immortal was merely a pleasant-sounding name. Anything raised by actually following that method would have absolutely nothing to do with an immortal.

Gao Ming knew how to clear the game and how to worship flesh and blood, but even with every advantage on his side, he would never raise that thing.

Some things would latch on forever once you so much as touched them, never letting go until death.

I have to kill whoever is feeding this Strange Tale. Someone like that is far too dangerous. They'll stop at nothing to achieve their goals. There isn't a shred of humanity in them.

A great catastrophe could strike at any moment. As Anomaly Events occurred with increasing frequency, more and more people would come into contact with them.

Some would choose to join the Investigation Bureau after escaping, risking their lives to protect others. But others would willingly kneel in the Shadow World, becoming beings even more vicious than Ghosts.

(End of chapter)