Extra (Free): A Few Things About Insurance Companies

They've been bombarding us with information these past few days.

Regarding the plot design, many readers believe that the main storyline doesn't resemble the first time around. This is both true and false. Personally, I dislike parallel worlds, especially time paradoxes and loops. Although such stories can be very interesting, I always feel there's a slight logical flaw.

Furthermore, the powerful settings of time and multiple worlds seem to lend themselves to the story through divine intervention—the above is purely a narrow viewpoint based on personal aesthetic preferences, please don't criticize.

In short, for purely personal reasons, there is only one world in the Bone Dragon story, and time flows in one direction. Although there are indeed side storylines outside the main storyline, there are some differences in their settings.

Thank you so much for the generous donation from the Silver Alliance Leader, Master Lawyer! This is the second time, thank you for your support!

A free bonus chapter will be released in a few days as a thank you!

This chapter is a holiday bonus. Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

Record 1: "The Arrogant Sniper"

"I hit it! I'm sure I hit it!" Cheng Huan followed behind the captain, her voice urgent.

At the time, the suspect being pursued ignored his teammates' warning shots and attempted to escape on a motorcycle. He could only decisively pull the trigger and fire in the last second before losing his field of vision.

The distance wasn't far; he could see clearly that his small-caliber bullet had struck the slender woman in the right shoulder. This was intentional, to leave her alive as much as possible. A suspect with a shoulder blade injury would have significantly reduced threat, whether she tried to escape or resist with a gun, knife, or other weapons.

But something strange happened: the other party continued to flee as if nothing had happened, riding his motorcycle through twists and turns, disappearing into the alleyways.

Even more bizarrely, the teammate found the bullet on the ground, with no blood on it.

The captain turned around and patted Cheng Huan on the shoulder, "Don't dwell on your first mistake."

"But I really hit it!" Cheng Huan hurriedly protested. "You know my eyesight, I saw it perfectly clearly!"

There was video footage at the scene, and everyone was wearing body cameras, but the lighting was chaotic, and at first glance, nothing seemed amiss.

"The documents have been submitted to the forensic department," the captain said. "Alright, we'll talk about this later, we're busy right now!"

He looked up and saw the bureau chief coming out of the conference room. He hurriedly went up to him. "Why are you telling us to stop?" he asked, puzzled. "This is nothing! We'll have the suspect arrested in less than a day!"

In this operation, the task force did indeed have weaknesses in the deployment of the encirclement network.

The target was not found to be in possession of controlled weapons, so the task force consisted of only about a dozen people. Two teams were lying in ambush on the road outside the supermarket, one team was hiding inside the supermarket, and there was also a sniper team on the perimeter.

Furthermore, the suspect's use of a Taobao account to order a model ship at this time is completely illogical, indicating that the other party has a very weak counter-surveillance awareness.

Initially, upon hearing "3D printing," everyone's first reaction was: the suspect was trying to use this method to print parts and assemble some kind of controlled weapon to resist subsequent arrest.

However, after repeated verification by the technical department, it was confirmed that it was just an ordinary ship model order - except for the detailed structure which used a professional ship design studio, the appearance was just a common Type 056 corvette model.

These ship models can be bought online for a few hundred dollars, and are extremely exquisite. They not only come with etched metal sheets for detailing, but also with dust covers and wooden trays.

The suspect spent tens of thousands of yuan on 3D printing, only to end up with a lump of rough, unrefined steel.

"We've hidden tracking devices inside our model ship," the captain continued. "One on the outside, and another one hidden inside the core—the kind that's shatterproof and shockproof—Chief, let's keep chasing; we're sure to find the target's trail!"

"You don't need to go anymore, the tracking equipment is no longer working." A cold female voice suddenly interrupted their conversation.

The group turned their heads and saw a woman in a black trench coat walking out of the forensic department, holding the memory card containing the mission video they had recently submitted, as well as the bullet they had found on the ground, which was now in a transparent evidence bag.

The woman simply nodded slightly to the bureau chief and left without saying anything more.

The captain was dumbfounded, his voice full of confusion. "What does she mean by this?"

The bureau chief replied, "This case has already been taken over by the security department. We don't need to investigate further; we just need to fully cooperate with their work."

Seeing that the captain was about to speak up, the bureau chief suddenly raised his voice, "This is an order!"

The captain could only straighten his back and reply, "Yes, sir!"

The bureau chief glanced at the disgruntled captain and Cheng Huan behind him. This usually arrogant sniper was now clenching his fists tightly, his whole body trembling slightly. Clearly, Cheng Huan had blamed himself entirely for the "failure" of this operation: it was his "mistake" that allowed the suspect to escape.

The director sighed softly, knowing that if he didn't reveal some details, it would likely severely damage the confidence and morale of these frontline staff, affecting their future work.

He looked around to make sure no one was nearby before lowering his voice and saying, "Cheng Huan, you did hit someone. We found a few rib fragments on the ground."

Cheng Huan was initially confused, but after a few seconds of stunned silence, she realized what was happening and her face was filled with shock. "The bullet broke one of the target's ribs, went right through his body, and then he just ran away as if nothing had happened?"

The captain was also startled. "Chief, you're not joking, are you?"

"This matter is top secret and must not be leaked!" The director's face darkened as he gave a stern order.

"Yes!" the two replied immediately.

The captain turned and glanced at the departing figure of the security personnel, gradually realizing that this suspect was no ordinary fugitive.

A few days later, while resting, the team leader accidentally came across a short video online titled "A New Era of High-Speed Rail Guerrilla Team Appears in a Certain Place." In the video, an incredibly thin human figure leaped seven or eight meters high to reach an overpass, and then climbed onto the roof of a high-speed train traveling at 350 kilometers per hour with his bare hands.

The captain, seeing the familiar figure in the video, broke out in a cold sweat.

The video didn't generate much buzz; the comments section was mostly filled with criticisms like "The AI synthesis is terrible" and "Who made this? The technology is so rough."

Not long after, the video disappeared from the internet.

"This isn't about stealing credit; this is about saving our lives," the captain murmured.

Record 2: The Accident

The scene of the natural gas vehicle accident and explosion on the XXX Expressway, early the next morning.

A helicopter slowly landed on an open area near the site. Sangzi and her team jumped out of the helicopter, and the waiting surveyors immediately came to greet them.

They had to walk out of the propeller noise range before the surveyor began to explain the situation.

"Team Leader Sang, based on the nearby surveillance data and on-site traces, there were a total of six large trucks at the scene when the explosion occurred, all traveling in the same direction." He unfolded the folder. "Preliminary assessment indicates that truck number one and truck number two were involved in a serious accident for unknown reasons."

Then, vehicle number three was unable to brake in time and crashed into the rear of vehicle number one. Vehicle number four then rear-ended vehicle number three. The liquefied natural gas tank carried by vehicle number four leaked due to the violent impact, ultimately causing a massive explosion that affected the two trucks behind it.

As they walked, talking, they soon passed the wreckage of a severely damaged truck. The truck body was burned black and deformed, the frame twisted and broken, and the dozen or so new energy vehicles it was carrying were reduced to charred skeletons.

"Team Leader Sang, this is vehicle number two in the accident. It's a modified, overloaded truck, loaded with new energy vehicles," the investigator explained.

"What's the problem?" Sangzi asked. It's not like they would be dispatched as researchers just because a vehicle is overloaded.

In investigating car accident scenes, a hundred of hers couldn't compare to one traffic policeman.

"We can't find any wreckage now." The surveyor's face showed an indescribable expression. "Vehicle number one has completely disappeared."

"Disappeared?" Sangzi was taken aback, clearly not understanding the statement. "What do you mean by 'completely disappeared'? Does it mean the explosion didn't affect it at all, and the driver just drove away?"

The surveyor shook his head and pointed to two dark tire tracks on the ground. "Team Leader Sang, these are the tire tracks of vehicle number one."

The two continued forward, the tire tracks extending along the way, before abruptly stopping after passing a severely damaged section of road.

There was only the rear bumper of a truck on the ground, with its license plate still attached.

"This bumper belongs to vehicle number one in the accident, and the driver's body was also found at the scene. Apart from that, no other debris belonging to vehicle number one can be found." The investigator pointed ahead, "There's a surveillance camera 500 meters ahead; the footage doesn't show this vehicle leaving at all!"

Sangzi's gaze swept over the surrounding road surface and guardrails. This section of the road surface was not damaged, and the surrounding guardrails were also intact.

She bent down and squatted down, and found that the crack on the bumper was extremely smooth and clean, without any cutting or impact burrs, as if it had been neatly cut off in an instant by some invisible force!

Sangzi's brows furrowed deeply.

There were some broken white stakes on the ground, thick and cylindrical in shape, with irregular textures on their surfaces. She put on gloves, picked up a fragment, and asked, puzzled, "This is... a bone?"

"That's right, preliminary tests show these are all bones." The investigator nodded, his expression even more helpless. "The shape of these bones is unmatched by any other creature on Earth."

On the open ground at the scene, workers in protective suits were carefully collecting the fragments.

Sangzi clapped her hands lightly, then turned and walked towards the wreckage of the black No. 2 accident vehicle.

"Team Leader Sang, the situation is so strange, aren't you going to take samples for testing and conduct research?" The surveyor caught up with him, his tone full of doubt.

"What can we study?" Sangzi said irritably. "The scene is so bizarre, what do you think we can find out through testing?"

She approached the black car frames on the second accident vehicle and recognized them as a very high-end model on the market. Sangzi began to ponder.

"Team Leader Sang, there's another strange thing about vehicle number two," the surveyor reported. "Two of these cars are missing, and we haven't found any wreckage."

Sangzi instructed her team members behind her, "Write down all the VIN numbers of these new energy vehicles, then check the surveillance footage."

The team members stepped forward and crawled into the deformed and twisted frames to find and record the chassis numbers of each vehicle.

"Find the surveillance footage?" The investigator's tone was full of helplessness. "Team Leader Sang, this section of the highway has no surveillance cameras; there are none. We've also checked all the vehicles that passed before and after the incident, but none of them had dashcams that captured any meaningful footage."

"I'm looking for the surveillance cameras on these new energy vehicles," Sangzi explained. "When vehicle number two crashed, it would definitely activate its sentry mode, recording the surrounding scenery."

"Of course I know that," the surveyor said with a wry smile, "But they're completely burned."

Even if these vehicles had their cameras on at the time of the incident to record images of the surrounding area, their memory cards have now been destroyed in the fire caused by the explosion.

However, one of the team members reported to Sangzi that the contact had been completed and the manufacturer had already retrieved the data.

"The violent impact also activates the crash mode of these vehicles," Sangzi said. "So they will immediately upload all the data to the manufacturer's server, and the company will even delete the data on the vehicle—isn't that an open secret?"

"Oh, right!" The surveyor slapped his forehead, then added worriedly, "But the accident happened so fast, only about two thousand seconds from the crash to the explosion. Will the data we need be uploaded to the cloud in time?"

"Then we can only pray for good luck," Sangzi replied.

After a while, the factory sent a data package. The team members opened it and found it contained scattered video files and sensor data, mostly incomplete clips, only a few seconds long.

The team members checked the files one by one and quickly found a video recording. The camera was pointing forward and captured a black sphere that suddenly appeared in the middle of the road, followed by a figure leaping out of it eerily.

The image then suddenly shook violently, and the camera angle changed accordingly, revealing numerous flashes of light.

Sangzi's eyes sharpened instantly, filled with seriousness and shock.

She quickly dialed a number, her voice urgent and serious, "Old Jin, something terrible has happened here! We've discovered something unusual at the highway accident scene. I'll send you the relevant video data right away, get involved immediately!"

"Understood!" came the reply over the phone.

Record 3: The Time Traveler

In the surveillance footage, a lazy figure is seen lying on the roof of a warehouse in an e-commerce industrial park, wearing a large black hoodie with the hood covering most of his face, revealing only a pale chin.

He took his phone and placed a purchase order on the platform.

The team intercepted the deliveryman immediately and had special agents take his place.

"Follow their instructions!" Ling Wen said.

The special agents nodded and began heading to the designated women's clothing store according to the text message sent by Little Spiky Head.

"Do you think this skeleton is really being controlled by someone from another world?" one of the team members couldn't help but ask.

Not only him, but the other members of the group also showed similar expressions, with a hint of confusion in their eyes.

Even though a large amount of unconventional evidence has been clearly recorded and photographed over the past few days, everyone still finds it unbelievable.

That feeling was like walking on cotton, so unsteady and superficial.

As the investigation deepened, more videos of the "car accident" scene were found and restored, clearly demonstrating that a two-way "wormhole travel" occurred at the time.

An unknown "person" arrived at the scene through a wormhole, and the missing accident vehicle, along with its escort, Su Ming, was swallowed up by the wormhole. No matter how they searched and monitored globally, the GPS tracking device on the vehicle failed to detect any signal. Ling Wen stared at the monitor screen. The "Little Spiky Head's" various behaviors—whether it was skillfully using a mobile phone, surfing the internet, shopping, or hitching rides—all indicated that he possessed ample knowledge of Earth—which didn't fit the characteristics of an outsider.

"This is the possibility we've speculated about," one analyst said. "The Little Spiky Head ' has obtained Su Ming's memories and is attempting to impersonate him."

The devoured Su Ming left no trace of his remains, and his personal information and knowledge were also stolen, clearly indicating that he was dead.

In another surveillance video, the special agents, following the instructions of the "Little Spiky Head," purchased items such as a beige suit skirt and white stockings.

Looking at the selected outfits, the analysts felt their own sense of aesthetics was being warped. "Is this combination even wearable?"

"This is definitely not something a human could do," Ling Wen said helplessly. "Fine, I believe this skeleton is being controlled by someone from another world."