Rabid dog attacks

It was Friday. Since his homeroom teacher had given him an extra day off, Xia Xu wouldn't have to attend class today or over the weekend, and it wasn't even four thirty yet.

After leaving Zhang Jianmin, he realized he had nowhere to go for the moment.

Little White Flower was still at school, Yang Bowen was continuing to tail Zhang Jianmin, and there was really no reason to visit the consulting company.

After all, he hadn't set it up to run an actual detective consulting business. It was merely a name and an organizational structure he could use to recruit highly rated talents like Yang Bowen. He would open the office on weekends because Tang Youxin came over, but he had no interest whatsoever in sitting there alone.

"Maybe I should use the free time to find someone to register the companies..."

After a moment's thought, Xia Xu quickly settled on his plans for the afternoon.

Anyone sixteen or older could register a company. Now that he had money on hand, he might as well register two first. He couldn't keep hanging up a fake sign and running a company that existed only on paper. When operating legally was an option, he preferred to follow the law.

Handling the registration process himself would be a hassle, but plenty of companies specialized in doing it for clients. That made things simple: he just needed to pay one of them to handle it.

This time, he mainly wanted to register two companies. The first was Nine Suns Comprehensive Consulting, with registered capital of one hundred thousand, making his paper company official.

The second was Star Sea Venture Capital.

He had originally planned to call it Elite Investment, taking the name from the idea of gathering outstanding talent. After all, his dream was to hire a whole crowd of geniuses to work for him so he could do nothing and wait for the money to roll in. With his ability to view attributes, that was entirely achievable. Even if he couldn't recruit nothing but five-star talents, finding a batch of three- and four-star geniuses would be no problem.

Unfortunately, Elite Venture Capital apparently had already been registered. He had settled on Gathering Stars as his second choice, but then decided he might as well make it sound even grander. If stars represented geniuses, why not call it Star Sea and bring an ocean of talent under his command?

Of course, his main reason for registering Star Sea Venture Capital was still to make money.

With his ability to view attribute panels, his best option was naturally to recruit highly rated talents, build a team, and run a company himself.

But both recruitment and turning a profit would take a considerable amount of time. In the early stages, he would only be pouring money in. A million might not even make a splash.

With his own life still hanging in the balance, he wasn't in the mood for that. At the very least, he had to get through the Hunter plot first. Ideally, he would wait until after the college entrance exams, when he would have enough time and energy.

For now, he would simply register a venture capital company and make a few small investments when opportunities arose, rather than leave his money sitting idle and losing value.

Using his ability to view attribute panels, he could assess a startup's underlying strength by examining its founding team. Combined with factors such as the founder's fate potential, that would let him roughly gauge the company's prospects. It was practically perfect for venture capital.

By the time he finished settling the relevant details and left the registration agency, it was almost dark. Xia Xu prudently decided not to keep wandering outside and headed straight back to the residential complex where he had rented his new place.

The light was on in the room of the elite soldier across from him. It looked like he was home. Perfect.

After washing up, Xia Xu went to bed with peace of mind.

But beneath the cover of night, things were far from peaceful.

"In the early hours of last night, another fatal animal attack occurred in our city. This was reportedly the third such incident, and forensic examinations have attributed all three deaths to bites from canine animals.

"Experts suspect a possible outbreak of rabies. Residents are advised to avoid going out at night and to stay away from stray dogs. Please keep pet dogs on a leash when taking them outside..."

A good day began with a good morning. By the same token, a bad day began with a bad morning.

Having gone to bed early and risen early, Xia Xu saw the news notification on his phone, and his face darkened.

Another fatal animal attack. There was no way he could stop himself from connecting it to the Hunter plot.

And yesterday's death hadn't even been the second incident, but the third. Three people in a row had been bitten to death by dogs? Rabies?

Unless they were large, vicious dogs or trained military dogs, ordinary dogs-especially Xia Kingdom Rural Dogs, the most common breed in the Xia Kingdom-simply weren't capable of killing people.

Even if an adult couldn't beat one in a fight, they could endure a few bites and escape. With a few other people or a sharp weapon, they could easily kill the dog instead. They shouldn't be bitten to death, much less killed without a sound.

To kill someone without anyone noticing, leaving them unable to flee or call for help, would require either a fatal surprise attack or enough size and strength to completely overpower an adult. A stray dog infected with rabies couldn't manage that.

Could a whole pack of stray dogs have attacked together?

If that were the case, they would have made a tremendous racket. Even a remote part of the city wasn't necessarily deserted; someone would have heard it. Besides, a larger number would make them easier to find. There was no way the police couldn't even catch the stray dogs scattered around the area.

"The three killings weren't even in the same area. That's the worst part..."

Xia Xu followed up on the news with a browser search, and his sense of unease deepened.

Of the three fatal "rabid dog" attacks, one victim was naturally Tang Hao. The other two had occurred in entirely different areas.

That meant the "Fierce Beast" in Hunter was roaming from place to place to kill. All of Star City was its hunting ground.

Or... there was more than one "Fierce Beast."

"Last time, they said it was a wild animal attack. Now they've specifically identified it as a canine. So what exactly is this monster? A mutant dog?"

Xia Xu rubbed the space between his brows.

The situation with the Hunter plot was genuinely thorny. He couldn't find any other supporting characters, nor had he seen the protagonist, so he had no way to predict the plot. Even now, he couldn't be completely certain what kind of "movie" it was.

Was it really about a hunter hunting a beast, as he had guessed? Was there even a hunter?

And what kind of living creature was this "Fierce Beast"? Was it really a crazed animal infected with a virus like rabies?

Or was it a mutant? A dangerous test subject that had escaped from a laboratory working on technology beyond current science? Or perhaps even a supernatural creature, a possibility he had already ruled out?

All of these were unanswered questions, and human fear often stemmed from the unknown. An enemy he could actually see and understand might put him under less pressure.

Of course, actually encountering another supporting character in the plot probably wouldn't be a good thing either.

After all, Tang Hao, the one known supporting character, had already died in the beast's jaws. He couldn't confirm whether the other two victims were characters in the plot, but they had likewise met their end after encountering the "Fierce Beast."

If he encountered any other supporting characters from Hunter, it might mean his own death was imminent. Given the choice, he would rather that day never came-or at least waited until he had won Luo Hongyun over.

"Ugh, time to get up. I'll exercise and work on winning the elite soldier's favor while I'm at it."