Chapter 64: 62. Knowing It Cannot Be Done

62. Knowing It Cannot Be Done

A group of Mysterious Investigators were currently gathered before a crack with strange expressions. Although the crack was narrow and long, it penetrated into the Gymnasium, connecting the concert venue to the temporarily sealed-off second floor of the Gymnasium's perimeter.

"How is it? Can you hear my voice on that side?" Bu Gaojun's voice came from the other end of the crack, which was the concert venue.

"Yes, very clearly." He Jia'an replied, then turned around, shook his head at the group, and remarked with emotion, "That kid is quite the talent. While others bore through walls to steal light, he steals sound."

"We can now confirm that Xin Junmao was hiding here that day to freeload on the concert." He Jia'an turned on a purple flashlight. With the aid of the special light, some kind of unidentified substance left at the scene trailed all the way, leading a pair of size 43 footprints toward the outside. "We can also confirm that Xin Junmao had contact with an Abnormal and was induced by it."

Subsequently, the group followed He Jia'an, guided by the unidentified substance illuminated by the flashlight, and finally stopped in front of a sewer manhole cover about fifty meters from the back door of the Gymnasium.

"Below?" Li Yingqi blinked her eyes and gently tucked back a lock of graying hair. "Underground, subway—is there a connection between the two?"

Initially, they had also discovered a hidden passage in the subway's underground Tunnel, but because unknown dangers were hidden within the passage, ever since the previous wave of Mysterious Investigators from the branch organization acted as "meat buns" to test it and never returned, the Mysterious Investigators had not dared to send anyone into that underground secret passage where humans could not easily tread. They merely sent people to keep watch nearby, waiting for an opportunity to act.

Although they could not confirm what was in the underground secret passage, it was not hard to guess that the underground secret passage definitely led to an unknown realm. That might be the gathering place for the fanatical followers of the Daughter of Gluttony, such as the female killer who slaughtered passengers on the last subway train, the subway driver who was responsible for driving at the time, and other such outlaws; it could also be the hidden place where the Daughter of Gluttony currently resided.

Thinking of this, She Zi'an had a flash of inspiration and asked, "Is the subway line closest to here the Line 3 where the Abnormal incident occurred?"

Bu Gaojun was very proactive. Even before She Zi'an spoke, he had already begun searching for the Cuizhu City subway transit map on his portable tablet. Soon, he held up his discovery and said excitedly, "This place is not only very close to Line 3, but also quite close to a Line 14 that is currently under construction."

The group gathered in a circle around Bu Gaojun, looking down at the electronic map in his hand. Yu Lianyun looked at the map and asked, "Where is the approximate location of the hidden passage on the map?"

"Here." Li Yingqi waved her finger and, with the help of the tablet's electronic pen tool, drew a dot on the map.

Zhao Jing seemed to understand something. Her finger then marked a red dot at their current location. She then connected the red dot drawn by Li Yingqi with the red dot she had drawn herself, and drew a circle using this red line as the diameter. Her eyes suddenly shone with brilliance as she pointed to the area she had marked in red and said, "This means there is a very high probability that the residence of the Daughter of Gluttony and the activity area of her believers are hidden within this circular area."

"Prepare yourselves. We set out in two hours, splitting into two groups." He Jia'an took a deep breath and made the decision without hesitation, then looked at She Zi'an and lifted his chin slightly. "Which route do you want to take?"

Facing He Jia'an's inquiry, She Zi'an pondered in silence for a moment. His palms were covered in cold sweat as he clenched his fists. He pointed one finger at the manhole cover here, his breathing clearly audible, and said, "Our Snake Team will take this way."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Does everyone have any issues?" She Zi'an nodded to himself, then looked at his companions to ask for his teammates' opinions. Zhao Jing and the other members of the Snake Team all echoed their captain, indicating that they would take this route.

He Jia'an nodded slightly and said, "As long as you have considered it clearly. Since the Daughter of Gluttony has appeared on this route before, the probability of her appearing again is higher. Facing that Alien God... never mind, I don't hope you actually meet that Alien God."

Up until now, there were no survival records of any Mysterious Investigator who had escaped from the hands of the Daughter of Gluttony, this Alien God.

"Your side is no better than ours. The people who actively entered that hidden Tunnel have never come out again; two waves of people have already gone missing. This shows that there must be some unknown dangerous factors on that route. You are almost one hundred percent certain to encounter trouble taking that road." She Zi'an said with a solemn expression, "In short, let us all encourage and support one another."

The Mysterious Investigators looked at each other, silently offering each other a Blessing.

"Ugh, my head is so heavy." Xin Junmao climbed up from the ground. He felt the discomfort of someone just recovering from a serious illness; his whole body ached, and his head was dizzy. He climbed onto the bed with difficulty, lay down, and stared at the ceiling. Those fragmented memories gradually pieced themselves together, accompanied by a fear that swallowed his confusion.

He remembered everything he had seen on the night of the concert, and he also recalled the scene where he had "flirted" with an eyeless woman in a qipao and fallen into the darkness together.

"What on earth have I done..." Xin Junmao sat up from the bed, trembling, feeling a chill enveloping him.

He looked at the bloodstone Comb in his hand and felt a gentleness from its cold material. He muttered, "Did you save my life?"

Xin Junmao licked his chapped lips, swallowed his saliva, and showed a wry smile. "Can I change my wish now? Compared to finding a job I want, I want to save my own dog life even more now..."

But when he remembered the warnings and exhortations from the clerk at that small shop, he felt a bit desperate. After making the first wish, he didn't dare to act rashly before the wish was fulfilled, because the clerk had said that if one made other wishes before one wish was achieved, one would have to bear the consequences.

"Maomao, time to eat!" Outside the room, the voice of Xin's mother reached inside. Xin's mother was standing outside the door and even knocked on it.

Xin Junmao rubbed his feverish eyes and replied hoarsely, "I know, I'll be out in a moment."

He sat up from the bed and looked at the mirror reflecting his face. Xin Junmao panted heavily for a while, gritted his teeth, and still raised the Comb to groom his hair. He whispered, "Please protect my whole family from danger."

As soon as he finished speaking, Xin Junmao suddenly felt a chill in his heart. His pupils shrank, he opened his eyes wide, and stared straight at the mirror.

In the mirror reflecting his face, a pair of cold, withered hands appeared. One hand held a string of Buddhist prayer beads, while the other was a bone hand with sharp phalanges. The two hands slowly reached out from behind his head, like a giant crawling spider, and slowly crawled over his eyes. Soon, his field of vision was left with nothing but blackness and the scene within the crack.

A gouge!

"Ah!

!" Amidst the heart-wrenching scream, the sound of a body rolling and falling from a high place was mixed in. Xin's mother outside the door also shuddered all over.