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Yu Hai forced himself to calm down. He had been through many battles and his mental fortitude was not bad. He quickly calmed down using a secret technique and began to think of solutions. It wasn't time to despair yet. If it really was a monster blocking the second floor, he wouldn't be able to get up. Healer's initial deployment floor was upstairs, and she could cross the second floor to get up. If he could find other members of the exploration team, the mission could still continue, but he...

Yu Hai pondered how to get upstairs, but before he could come up with a solution, he noticed Ye Jiang's gaze and turned his head to look at his shoulder.

"Oh, that toy has already left." Yu Hai immediately understood what the Healer was thinking and explained, "I just finished the toy quest on the first floor. The toy that gave the quest was that wind-up pigeon on your shoulder."

At this point, his expression changed slightly, a change that Ye Jiang noticed. She remembered that when she arrived, the exploration team leader had looked deep in thought, and she became curious, asking him what had happened. Yu Hai paused for two seconds before recounting the process of the mission he had undertaken.

After separating from Ye Jiang Yu Hai actively tried to contact the toys to trigger missions, but he found that missions weren't as easy to encounter as he had expected. Wu Si's intelligence mentioned that toys in shopping malls could suddenly give out missions, and there was a very important keyword in this—

"Sudden".

There were many toys in the building, but he searched all the floors and didn't find a single one that would give him a task. Just as he was in a dilemma, the pigeon on his shoulder moved and gave him a task.

"That was a game quest," Yu Hai said.

He was pulled into a fantasy world and played house with a pigeon toy. The game was called "A Day in the Life of a Parent and Child." He had to play the role of a father, and the pigeon toy played the role of his child. They simulated a day in their life together, starting from when he made breakfast and woke the child up at dawn, and ending when he told the child fairy tales to lull the child to sleep at night. The fantasy world was sped up, but he didn't feel it. He just felt that he had really lived a full day.

The game wasn't dangerous. Before entering the illusion, Yu Hai had mentally prepared himself for all sorts of terrifying accidents. He had imagined that when he woke up the toy, it would suddenly become grumpy and attack, leading to a bloody fight; when the blocks collapsed during the game, he had imagined the toy would get angry and attack; and when the food wasn't to his liking, he had imagined the toy would overturn the table and cause an accident...

But none of these were available.

The whole process went very smoothly.

The pigeon toy does have morning grumpiness, but it just sulks while hugging its blanket. When the building blocks collapse, the pigeon toy does throw a tantrum, but it only throws the blocks away and then picks them up itself. When the food isn't to its liking, the pigeon toy gets upset but only asks him to coax it. The violence Yu Hai imagines seems to exist only in common tropes of some video horror games, while he...

He felt as if he were truly spending a day with a child—not dangerous, but rather heartwarming, with the toys' antics limited to the level of a human child's.

This, however, made Yu Hai feel uncomfortable. "Healer, I think the toys in this building are a bit too..."

Humanoid.

It's as if their behavior is conscious.

Yu Hai wanted to say that, but then felt that he had made his judgment too quickly and without rigor. He had only been in the building for a short time and hadn't even left the first floor of the mall yet.

Thinking of this, he kept his conclusion to himself, keeping his doubts to himself, and refrained from influencing the Healer's thoughts.

Yu Hai was unaware that Ye Jiang had also had similar doubts, and he watched her fall silent.

"What's wrong with the toys in the building?" Ye Jiang waited for his next words, but only received silence, her eyes flashing slightly. At this moment, a noise suddenly came from outside the shop. They looked over alertly and were slightly stunned. In their eyes, a young man and a young woman were chasing after a wind-up toy... demanding a mission.

"Big brother, how about you give us a mission? Give it to us! Give it to us!"

"Don't be so aloof, give us a task to see how it goes!"

Your skin is so beautiful!

Ye Jiang and Yu Hai: "..."

This is?

Normally, everyone in the building avoids the toys, they're terrified of them. Why are they suddenly approaching them and asking for tasks?

Two young people were coaxing a toy into giving them a task, which was too strange. Ye Jiang Yu Hai walked over; they wanted to see what was going on. Over there, the wind-up toy, despite being bombarded with sweet talk, still hadn't given them a task. The man and woman looked disappointed. They stopped and searched their surroundings, seemingly looking for another toy!

Yu Hai interjected at the opportune moment, asking them, "What are you doing?"

The two young men, searching for toys, didn't look at them, but did answer, saying, "Finding toys is a task!"

"Why suddenly..." Yu Hai, puzzled.

"Huh?" The two young men finally looked at him after hearing what he said. "Hey, you haven't heard? Well, that's right, this place is too remote and soundproof, it's normal that you didn't hear it! Listen, the Pollution on the second floor is gone! The Pollution that was preventing us from going home has disappeared! Your news isn't very good either, this news has spread like wildfire!"

Those who remained on the first floor kept avoiding the toys because they knew they would return.

With no hope of home, the toy missions offered them only risk and no reward.

But things are different now. The path to the second floor has been cleared, and hope has returned. Therefore, completing the task and climbing the stairs home has become their priority.

They want to go home; humans are emotional beings, and there are things they long for outside the door.

"How did the Pollution disappear?" Yu Hai exclaimed in surprise.

The young man shrugged. "I don't know. Apparently, a pale, thin, and dejected girl brought the news from upstairs. People who had completed the toy task and weren't supposed to go upstairs have all gone now. The news is guaranteed to be true; the Pollution has indeed disappeared. We don't know exactly what happened. The Pollution disappeared after the girl came down from the second floor. Some people are even speculating whether she did something..."

The word "me" remained unspoken. He noticed the girl standing next to Yu Hai. She was young, looking to be in her early twenties, and quite beautiful, but her droopy eyelids gave her a listless air. She was thin and pale...

Hey, isn't this the legendary woman?

A man and a woman blinked and stared at Ye Jiang, their gazes gradually becoming intense.

Ye Jiang: "."

She recognized that look. It was the same look people gave her when rumors were flying around City A that she had torn apart S-Rank Invisible Man. She had experienced it before; that look meant being watched and getting into trouble.

She turned and left before the two young men's eyes lit up. The two young men only said "Hey!" before Ye Jiang disappeared from their sight, nowhere to be found. Only Yu Hai, A-Rank ability user, chased after her.

Ye Jiang stopped in an empty shop. This place was much more secluded than the one she had just come from. She could see all kinds of toys walking around in the mall, and... men and women following the toys around asking for tasks.

The mall was no longer quiet; it came alive. Although the people following the toys were still wary of them, their eyes suppressing a deep fear of the toys, another kind of energy flowed more clearly through them: hope, a longing to go home.

Ye Jiang.

Yu Hai found her and, upon entering the shop, anxiously asked her what had happened on the second floor. He had previously taken it for granted that the Healer had been forced downstairs by the Pollution, never imagining that it was a misunderstanding!

Has the Pollution on the second floor disappeared?

How did it disappear?

What's going on on the second floor?

Yu Hai restrained himself, yet he wanted to know everything.

Ye Jiang was looking outside when Yu Hai's anxious question brought her attention back, which had been drifting far away. Realizing she hadn't yet told the team leader about the situation on the second floor, she paused for a moment. She sized up the exploration team leader and asked, "Do you know anything about monsters?"

Yu Hai knew about the monster. The monster was a top secret of the Ability Control Bureau, but Yu Hai was an elite member of the Ability Control Bureau and also held a position in the headquarters' Operations Team, so he knew about this secret.

"Pollution on the second floor coming from a monster?" Yu Hai asked.

Ye Jiang nodded.

Yu Hai took a deep breath. Sure enough, the Pollution came from the monster. No wonder no one in the building dared to go to the second floor. Captain Xiao Pei from the General Bureau described in the monster mission report in City S that the monster's Pollution was a shredder, completely unstoppable by human will, and countless times stronger than S-Rank Polluted!

It's a monster.

Although he had a premonition, when he actually heard it, Yu Hai still felt as if his heart had been struck a heavy blow.

He composed himself and was about to ask Healer Healer how she had escaped the monsters' Pollution when she slowly uttered another number, "Three monsters."

"Three monsters?" Yu Hai almost couldn't keep his voice down. What did three monsters even mean?!

Yu Hai dared not think about it; his expression was momentarily dazed.

Ye Jiang had no idea that the mental world of the elite team from the Bureau of the Ability Control Bureau was already on the verge of collapse. She said to herself, "But they're quite easy to talk to; they went to find someone for me."

"... Huh?" Yu Hai was taken aback. "Wait, you mean... the monsters... helped you find people?"

Was he confused or did he mishear?

Why would I hear something so outrageous?

A monster... helping a human find someone?

What a strange development!

How come he didn't know that monsters were so... helpful?

He stared intently at Ye Jiang, trying to determine if he had misheard, while Ye Jiang nodded slightly at him.

Wow, he didn't mishear!

Yu Hai gasped again.

He licked his dry lips, his worldview wavering. He tried to calm himself and said, "Healer, could you recount your experience on the second floor from beginning to end?"

He needs to sort this out properly.

Ye Jiang glanced at him, slightly dissatisfied with his comprehension, but still explained briefly. She didn't even consider that even the well-informed captain of the Ability Control Bureau would be confused by such an outrageous statement.