Chapter 333: 329 Group Leader

In the bright room, Wei Chengye sat before his desk, recording something with focus. On the desk was a stack of documents, all of which were death reports of Mysterious Investigators who had died recently, but these reports seemed to have undergone some sort of screening and were categorized accordingly.

Wei Chengye recorded in his notes:

Huang Zhengdao, 25 years old, orphan.

Apparent cause of death: Natural death from unknown causes.

Actual cause of death: After chanting the incantation to summon and control Shadow-Devouring Insects in the Different Dimensional Space where they reside, and issuing a suicide command to the Shadow-Devouring Insects, he died subsequently for unknown reasons.

Suspicious points: 1. An unknown tattoo appeared suddenly and vanished after his death. After checking literature, the tattoo pattern was that of the human-faced butterfly, an Abnormal species long extinct and lost.

2. After his consciousness fell into the survival domain of the Shadow-Devouring Insects, he displayed unreasonable rationality and astonishing vitality.

Speculation: Suspected of having received the "Blessing" of some unknown power; the opportunity for acquisition was abrupt and without a clue.

……

Finishing with a period, Wei Chengye sat in his seat, looking blankly at the empty office. The desolate night view outside the window covered half of his face in shadow.

After thinking for a moment, Wei Chengye flipped the notebook back to the first page, which also recorded the information of a deceased person.

Jiang Gu, 46 years old, married and widowed of a child.

Cause of death: Used a Gu Huo Bird Feather, endured the "Blessing" of the feather, and after undergoing Metamorphosis into a Gu Huo Bird, died while fighting against the biological modification weapons of the Huogu.

Suspicious points: The origin of the Gu Huo Bird Feather. According to her husband Li Jiahong, the feather came from a Forest Cabin, but before the feather arrived at the cabin, its source could not be verified.

Speculation: The Gu Huo Bird is an Abnormal species already lost in the Shenzhou Region. It itself should not possess the characteristic of spreading a "Blessing," otherwise, having been passed down since ancient times, this Abnormal species with powerful abilities should not have mysteriously disappeared. It is speculated that the Forest Cabin bestowed the "Blessing" upon the Gu Huo Bird Feather and guided Li Jiahong to give the feather to his wife, causing his wife to undergo Metamorphosis into a Gu Huo Bird, allowing the Gu Huo Bird Feather to spread and become the source of the current "Gu Huo Bird Feather" Curse.

Wei Chengye flipped the notebook again, skipping over a dozen pages.

Yu Lianyun, 31 years old, single.

Cause of death: Unknown, body not recovered.

Suspicious points: 1. Unprecedented high-sensitivity constitution. Yu Lianyun could perceive the "clues" of the world that ordinary people could not sense, which also allowed her to master a kind of precognitive ability.

2. Favored by a Blessing, incomprehensible. Yu Lianyun obtained a videotape filled with a "Blessing," yet she is the only person to date who was not killed by the Blessing of the videotape after watching it, and after experiencing the "outbreak of the Blessing," she has since been deeply entangled by the "Blessing." Those "Blessings" that no one else can see sometimes seem to obey her.

3. Unknown source of Abnormal knowledge. Yu Lianyun could always acquire Abnormal knowledge of unknown origin, and her familiarity with Abnormal things was also the key to her rapid promotion among the Mysterious Investigators.

4. Unknown source of Abnormal items. Same as above; it is claimed that these knowledge and items all originated from the Forest Cabin.

Speculation: The Forest Cabin should be looking for "customers" with special qualities. Yu Lianyun might be one of them, which is why the owner of the Forest Cabin often "generously and selflessly" provides her with "assistance."

……

Wei Chengye let out a deep breath, flipped the notebook back to the page recording the deceased Huang Zhengdao, and added a sentence to the speculation line: his abilities are also suspected to have been obtained from the Forest Cabin.

After writing this sentence, Wei Chengye felt every pore on his scalp vibrating.

"That Forest Cabin... where exactly does it exist?" Wei Chengye leaned against the back of his chair, eyes closed, murmuring.

I do not know since when, but Abnormal events related to the Forest Cabin have appeared frequently. One could glimpse its shadow almost everywhere, yet everyone who has seen the Forest Cabin is tight-lipped about it and has a vague description of everything there. "A cabin in the forest" is probably the clearest description of that place.

Wei Chengye had also tried to establish contact with the Forest Cabin. On one hand, it was out of duty to investigate, and on the other, it was pure curiosity. But he soon discovered it was useless. Before figuring out the criteria by which the owner of the Forest Cabin selects "customers," everything was in vain. To this day, not a single Mysterious Investigator he sent to investigate has been able to catch a glimpse of that place even once.

Wei Chengye wanted to know the stance of the cabin owner, and even more, he wanted to determine what kind of existence could live in such a place and master so many Abnormal items. Could that be a human?

As far as he knew, some powerful Alien Gods could differentiate into Avatars with human appearances, becoming a form of existence that humans could approach and perceive.

Usually, these human Avatars of Alien Gods only create forms that humans can perceive, accept, and like for reasons such as spreading chaos, faith, or offspring.

Assuming the Forest Cabin exists in a Different Dimensional Space, that is, what is commonly referred to as a domain, then the creatures that can live in that place for a long time could absolutely not be human, because humans simply cannot survive for long in a Different Dimensional Space outside the Real World. Those Different Dimensional Spaces all possess powers that can erode human will, the external manifestation of which is causing people to lose their rationality, gradually go mad, and eventually head toward a desperate death.

To this day, this inference has not been overturned and is used almost as a truth-like conclusion. This is also a major reason why Wei Chengye deduces that the cabin owner cannot be human.

Now, Wei Chengye is increasingly eager to make contact with the Forest Cabin. Seeing that people who have had direct contact with the Forest Cabin in recent years have died one after another, and have left behind various known and unknown hidden dangers, he feels more and more uneasy.

The owner of that Forest Cabin seems to be deliberately spreading "Blessings" to this world. The danger of those "Blessings" is self-evident; to date, almost no one has been able to remain unscathed after enduring a "Blessing."

But objectively speaking, humans—at least for now, the most prominent group being humans in the Shenzhou Region—have had their mental endurance stimulated by those spread "Blessings." When humans resist the invasion of Other-dimensional Power, their ability to resist mental corruption has improved significantly.

Simply put, although those "Blessings" have harms, they have also helped people improve their mental quality, and overall, the benefits actually outweigh the disadvantages.

Because of this, Wei Chengye is somewhat unsure of the stance and attitude of the Forest Cabin owner.

Just as Wei Chengye was focusing on his thoughts, the spatial environment of the office suddenly shook. Immediately after, several people dressed as nurses and a doctor walked through the place where the space shook like water ripples and entered Wei Chengye's field of vision.

Seeing them, Wei Chengye's expression remained calm, showing no surprise.

When the nurse who walked to his side tapped the air, the entire surrounding environment changed, becoming a vast expanse of white. The luxuriously decorated office and the office supplies on the desk all disappeared.

The noble and elegant Wei Chengye also disappeared, leaving only a bedridden patient who was thin as a rail. That patient looked exactly like Wei Chengye, only much more haggard, with a body that was extremely twisted and deformed.

"Group Leader Wei, you still need to pay more attention to rest. Your body cannot support your high-intensity work using Holographic Equipment," the doctor said to Wei Chengye with some helplessness. He could no longer remember how many times he had given this advice to this Group Leader of the Xuanmi Group, who appeared majestic in the eyes of outsiders.