Chapter 167

He was incredibly audacious, wanting to find out the reason for the monster's unusual behavior.

His back teeth made an ominous grinding sound. He used all his willpower to lift his head even slightly, and then...

"Um?"

A low, questioning hum suddenly broke into the tense standoff. The giant monster immediately averted its gaze and looked at the speaker. In an instant, Yu Hai felt the invisible pressure enveloping him dissipate. He slumped his shoulders, and exhaustion washed over him.

He glanced cautiously at Monster No. 0, who seemed to have lost interest in him and didn't even spare him another look. The danger seemed to have passed. But this made it difficult to trace the reason for the other party's abnormal behavior.

Yu Hai had mixed feelings.

"This...?"

A questioning voice arose again.

Yu Hai looked over and saw that while he was focusing too much on Monster No. 0, the Healer had already walked up to the skeleton in the shop. She squatted down and picked something up from the skeleton: a card.

A card that felt very familiar to Yu Hai.

Yu Hai sprang to his feet and strode over, momentarily forgetting his fear of the No. 0 monster. He knelt on one knee to examine the thing closely. Yes, this thing was...

"Your work ID from the Ability Control Bureau," Yu Hai said in a deep voice.

It's clear that it's quite old; the work ID is very worn, but it has been preserved intact due to its special material. This card is undoubtedly the work ID of the Ability Control Bureau, and Yu Hai carries it with him.

The skeleton likely belonged to a colleague from the bureau who was left behind for reasons unknown.

Upon hearing this, Ye Jiang looked at the object in her hand. Sure enough, she wasn't mistaken; it belonged to the Ability Control Bureau.

"May I take a look?" Yu Hai asked. Ye Jiang handed him his work ID, which Yu Hai solemnly accepted, carefully examining it.

Name: Song Cen

Affiliation: City A Branch Bureau

Number: TB00010

Upon seeing the contents of the work permit, Yu Hai suddenly stiffened. Ye Jiang noticed his reaction, looked up at him, and asked, "Is there a problem?"

Yu Hai gripped the corner of the work ID tightly and said in a calm voice, "If this work ID comes from this skeleton, then I recognize him."

Ye Jiang's eyes flashed, while Yu Hai stared intently at the document in his hand. In truth, there shouldn't be any "what ifs." The Bureau of the Ability Control Bureau's work ID served no other purpose than personal identification. Its use of a special, highly durable material was precisely for this purpose: if the holder met with misfortune, it would leave behind proof of identity for future generations. Therefore, no one but the holder should be interested in this card; the possibility of it being carried by an alien was highly unlikely.

Yu Hai suddenly began searching the skeleton with his eyes, as if looking for something. Seeing this, Ye Jiang asked him, "Are you looking for something?"

Yu Hai said "hmm" but didn't stop searching; he was very eager.

A bright light caught his eye; between the white bone's fingers, he picked it up and saw his own eyes reflected in the fragment.

This is a shard of a mirror.

How did mirror shards end up here?

Yu Hai looked around and saw a mirror decoration in the shop. The view was dim, so he couldn't tell if the mirror was intact.

It's probably from a shop.

Yu Hai thought to himself, "I was going to throw the fragment away, but after hesitating for a moment, I decided to keep it."

He continued searching, but couldn't find what he was looking for, and slowly he sank down.

"What are you looking for?" Ye Jiang asked curiously what had made the captain so anxious. Her gaze lingered on his pocket for a second, and she saw him put away a shard of mirror.

Yu Hai searched again, unwilling to give up, but still couldn't find it. He finally resigned himself to his fate and sighed, "I'm looking for the detection bead."

"Detection beads?"

"Um."

In the Bureau of the Ability Control Bureau's configuration, the detection bead is a rare item. In addition to detecting the level of the Polluted, it also has a one-time storage message function, making it a very precious item. It can be very useful in times of need. It is difficult to make, which is why it cannot be promoted and purchased with money like the detection bracelet of Part-Time Cat.

Outsiders only know that the testing beads are testing tools, but they don't know these secrets. Yu Hai told Ye Jiang the secrets that only people in the bureau knew.

Oh, and there's another eavesdropper— Monster No. 0.

But this monster had always disdained to know human secrets, so it didn't matter if it heard them.

Ye Jiang was caught off guard when she overheard a secret from the Ability Control Bureau. Her expression froze for a moment. "This Ability Control Bureau really doesn't treat me like an outsider," she thought to herself.

But she realized something, she understood Yu Hai's motive for his actions. He wanted to know if the skeleton had left any important messages or items in the detection bead before its death. Unfortunately, the skeleton hadn't even left the detection bead. She didn't know if it was missing to begin with, or if someone else had picked it up first, or for some other reason.

"You said you know him." Ye Jiang crouched a little closer to the skeleton and casually asked, "Who is he?"

He's clearly a branch office employee, yet Yu Hai from headquarters knows him. Could it be that he's someone special?

Upon hearing this, Yu Hai looked at the skeleton, his expression becoming extremely complex. He remained silent for a long while before speaking, "If I remember correctly, this senior was a hero from three hundred years ago."

Ye Jiang was lazily looking at the skeleton when she heard this and turned around in surprise.

Three hundred... years ago?

Yu Hai stole a glance at the silent young man. Three hundred years ago, perhaps this Monster No. 0 had seen that deceased hero.

Yu Hai dared not look any longer, for fear of offending him.

He lowered his head and explained to Ye Jiang, "Many heroes were born during the Great Disaster Day Battle three hundred years ago, and ' Song Cen ' was one of them."

Even three hundred years later, the suffering of the Disaster Day still sends shivers down humanity's spine. Exposed bones and rivers of blood are the most vivid descriptions of that time. Later, the Blood Moon appeared, and those with supernatural abilities awakened. It was only through their desperate resistance that the Disaster Day was able to pass.

During the Battle of Disaster Day, there was such a hero.

"An A-Rank Polluted attacked a small town. When it was discovered, the town was already deserted, and everyone had abandoned it. A superhuman single-handedly broke in, fought the Polluted, killed Polluted, and searched for several days before finding the last survivor."

"His teammates arrived after hearing the commotion and saw him carrying the girl out from under the rubble. The girl was emaciated, as if she hadn't eaten for a long time, but her eyes were so bright."

"What the girl said to him was unheard by her teammates, who were too far away. They only saw the light in her eyes disappear the next second, silver fragments sprout from her body, and Pollution instantly enveloped her. The sole survivor was corrupted into a Polluted by the ability user who saved her."

Yu Hai recounted the story of a historical hero named Song Cen, his voice deep and resonant. "Song Cen," he said, "His name is on the Hero Register of the Ability Control Bureau. He is called the most regrettable hero."

Ye Jiang remained silent.

Yu Hai continued, "This hero later left behind many achievements, but none were as famous as that one. After that, he disappeared. History once speculated that he sacrificed himself in an unknown Polluted incident. This was the common fate of heroes at that time; it was the most common way to die. Some people didn't even leave their names behind and died silently. In the face of disaster, death has no distinction of high or low status. They..."

Yu Hai didn't want to dwell on past hardships, so he changed the subject and returned to the main point, saying, "I never expected this senior would be here..."

It will be in this place.

Were you sucked in through the door like everyone else in the mall?

The shopping mall has existed for far more than just twenty years; it could potentially last for three hundred years?

Ye Jiang looked at the skeleton, her gaze lingering for a few seconds, before throwing cold water on the question, "How do you know he's the Song Cen you were talking about?"

"It's him." Yu Hai picked up the card and said, "There's a name that matches, but the Bureau of the Ability Control Bureau ' work ID number doesn't match, and there's this..."

Yu Hai pointed out the letters "TB" in the numbering, saying, "The Ability Control Bureau existed before the Disaster Day, when it was called the Special Events Office, and its numbering started with 'TB.' It was renamed the Ability Control Bureau after the Disaster Day war ended, and its numbering started with 'YK.' Apart from that, the unit name was omitted from the 'affiliation' at that time."

He took

He showed Ye Jiang his work ID, confirming that it was indeed as Ye Jiang had said.

Yu Hai sighed inwardly. He had actually met with a hero from three hundred years ago. It was a pity that the hero had not left a single word for them, the later generations. Otherwise, perhaps they could have gained a deeper understanding of the world three hundred years ago.

Yu Hai carefully put away his senior's work ID, intending to hand it over to the bureau after he left. Having put the ID away, he looked again at the hero's body, thinking to himself, "I can't take this person with me now; I'll definitely return after he completes his mission."

Thinking of this, he looked around and belatedly asked, "Where... is this place?"

Ye Jiang was tired of talking to people, so she turned to the silent young man and said, "You go ahead."

She posed the question to the other person.

Yu Hai's heart skipped a beat. Healer, are you out of your mind? Treating Monster No. 0 like this!

Then he heard Monster No. 0 speak, saying, "This place is like a graveyard for toys. The toys in the mall awakened consciousness, but that consciousness can't last long; it will dissipate. This is where toys whose consciousness has dissipated are stored."

Ye Jiang nodded, becoming a mere echoing machine.

Yu Hai... Yu Hai was in a daze.

They actually said it.

Monster No. 0 actually obediently told him.

So obedient.

He never knew this cold-hearted monster could be so patient...

The Healer and Monster No. 0 —are they actually on good terms?

The Healer wasn't coerced by Monster No. 0 as he had feared; in fact, they got along quite well. How did he manage that?!

Healer seem to have a real talent for attracting monsters...

A series of huge waves surged through Yu Hai's mind. Before he could even notice what the young man had said, he was jolted when he realized what he had said.