Blue Star, Nine Provinces, Demon Capital.
Outside a secluded alley, police cars lined the roadside, their sirens wailing.
"Missing person: Bai Yi, seventeen, a second-year student at Fifth National High School in XX District, Demon Capital. According to our investigation, he hasn't contacted anyone since leaving school three days ago. His parents searched for him without success and reported him missing last night."
"Surveillance footage shows that this was Bai Yi's last recorded location after he left school three days ago. Our investigation found that although this alley is secluded, it's only three hundred meters long and has no branches. Strangely, however, the camera at the other end captured no sign of him."
At the alley entrance, several investigators frowned slightly as they sorted through the clues.
Because recently,
it hadn't just been Demon Capital.
Numerous similar missing-person cases had occurred throughout the Nine Provinces.
Initially, these cases hadn't attracted the attention of the higher-ups. An average of over a million people went missing in the Nine Provinces every year. With such an enormous population, they couldn't possibly treat every case as a top priority.
But things had been different lately.
Many similarly bizarre cases had already occurred.
In fact, the strangest case they had handled involved someone suddenly vanishing from a crowded square in full view of numerous witnesses.
And that person still hadn't been found.
Clearly, the missing-person case they were handling this time had to be directly connected to those recent cases.
"Put it on record."
One investigator closed his notebook and shook his head.
"Tell the student's family that we'll do everything we can to find him, though the chances may be very slim. But if we get even the slightest lead, we'll notify them immediately."
At that, another investigator sighed.
"These strange incidents really are