Chapter 477: Some People Are Dead, Yet Still Alive

Rainwater accumulated on the asphalt road was crushed by a speeding truck, turbid splashes scattering in all directions, and the flying water droplets happened to reflect the inverted image of a white cold chain truck.

The painted characters "Frozen Fish Express" on the truck body were already mottled and peeling, looking exceptionally old.

Inside the cargo hold, however, was an entirely different scene.

Nine fully armed combat team members sat cross-legged in meditation posture on the shock-absorbing floor, their breathing synchronized like precision instruments.

With their deep exhalations and inhalations, the livid corpse spots on their faces flickered in and out of existence, as if some ancient curse were crawling beneath their skin.

The night vision devices on their helmets glowed with an eerie green light, reflecting the coffin-like metal cabinet in the center — its surface covered in honeycomb heat dissipation vents, currently exhaling cold white mist.

"Beep—"

With an electronic tone, the display screen on the cabinet door suddenly lit up with blue light: 【Memory Backup Download Completion Rate 100%】.

As the characters jumped, the buzzer emitted a special frequency of three short and one long, and the team members simultaneously opened their eyes.

The sound of the hydraulic rods slowly activating was like the sigh of a giant beast.

As the cabinet doors slid open to both sides, the surging low-temperature mist condensed into frost on the ground.

A pale hand suddenly reached out, five fingers spreading then clenching, knuckles emitting a crisp cracking sound like popping beans.

"Welcome back, Mentor!"

Zhao Jingyi lowered her head and knelt beside the metal cabinet, trembling hands holding a white lab coat emanating the smell of formalin.

Her forehead pressed against the cold floor, not daring to look directly at the awakening figure.

Where the mist dissipated, Zuo Bai slowly sat up.

Newborn skin presented an infant-like pinkish-white, chest and back smooth as before, as if that fatal strike had never occurred.

"What time is it?" Zuo Bai's voice still carried the metallic quality of the freezing chamber.

Zhao Jingyi turned on the tablet and replied:

"Memory synchronized to 18:29:34 this afternoon, 0.7 seconds before you were crushed to death by 【Mask】."

Zuo Bai glanced at the tablet, and a strange smile suddenly surfaced on his cold face:

"Interesting, the taste of failure is actually quite memorable."

Zhao Jingyi's Adam's apple rolled once, yet she didn't dare respond.

She bit her lower lip hard until she tasted blood before letting go.

"Only you came back?" Zuo Bai's voice was light, as if talking to himself.

Zhao Jingyi held her breath:

"The Arrest Bureau people arrived; the Senior Sisters who stayed on Campus are all dead."

Her voice grew quieter and quieter: "At the time I followed the Underground Shaft and climbed out from another Manhole Cover."

Zuo Bai's indifferent gaze lingered on Zhao Jingyi for a moment.

He did not doubt this student's loyalty — he was very clear on his own methods of training students; no one dared lie to him.

He simply disliked students who failed.

However this time, even he himself had tasted the flavor of failure.

Zuo Bai indifferently withdrew his gaze and instead asked:

"Why did the performance start early?"

Zhao Jingyi's finger slid across the tablet, zooming in on the image on the tablet.

The image showed a corner of the Campus, peaceful and serene, a man crouching on the curb, a Manhole Cover under his feet.

The next second, the Manhole Cover exploded with a boom, several twisted black shadows rising violently from underground, tearing apart the tranquil scene.

"This is surveillance from 5 seconds before the incident."

Zhao Jingyi's voice was somewhat tight; she quickly brought up the audio analysis interface, precisely extracting a segment of special frequency from the chaotic sound waves.

"The Senior Sisters' Internal Crystal Cores all recorded this sound."

Humans cannot hear this sound, but Zhao Jingyi performed a "translation" process on the audio frequency.

A wave of eerie sound waves spread through the cabin.

It was not a sound humans could produce, more like the hum of some ancient instrument, or the resonance of countless insects vibrating their wings.

The sound waves produced a hair-raising resonance at a specific frequency.

Zhao Jingyi replied apprehensively:

"Mentor, it was this sound that stimulated the Senior Sisters into madness."

She zoomed in on the man's profile in the image, "And the one emitting this sound is him."

Zuo Bai completed memory retrieval in one second; his memory did not contain this face.

He slightly narrowed his eyes, expression cold and stern, voice low and calm, faintly spitting out two words: "Identity?"

Zhao Jingyi lowered her voice: "Sorry, Mentor, I'm still investigating."

Dead silence spread through the cabin.

Three seconds of silence like three centuries long, until Zuo Bai spoke again: "What is our current position?"

Zhao Jingyi hurriedly slid the screen, fingertips slipping twice on the touchpad before bringing up the map.

A holographic projection unfolded in midair, a blue triangle symbol slowly moving on grid lines, while in the northeast direction a glaring red dot kept flickering.

"【Mask】 has also vanished without a trace, however, the Nano Crystal Core implanted inside Feng Yuhuai precisely located her position, 7.4 kilometers from us, estimated arrival in 11 minutes."

Zhao Jingyi raised her head, trembling as she replied:

"I felt that after Mentor awakened, you would want to see Feng Yuhuai at the first moment, please forgive me for acting on my own initiative."

Zuo Bai slowly closed his eyes, the corner of his mouth finally curving into an arc:

"Considerably clever; from now on, you'll stay by my side and learn."

"March 18th?!"

Feng Mu's eyes widened sharply, staring at Feng Ju in disbelief:

"That day was indeed the day I left school, but Father, you say Zheng Hang turned into a 【Mask】 on that day — what exactly does that mean?"

Feng Ju did not answer directly, but countered with a meaningful question:

"Do you still remember what special thing happened at the school that day?"

Feng Mu frowned tightly, sinking into memory:

"That day. a homicide case occurred at the abandoned warehouse behind the school, a girl was murdered, and the Patrol Bureau even sent people specifically to investigate."

Speaking to this point, his pupil suddenly shrank, as if he had suddenly recalled some key information:

"Wait! The name Zheng Hang — I remember it now! At the time, the whole campus was spreading like crazy that the murderer who killed that girl was Zheng Hang!"

Feng Mu's voice unconsciously rose a few degrees:

"Right, Zheng Hang is the son of the Green Wolf Gang's leader. Those few days when I went to work at the Incineration Plant, I was even entangled by Green Wolf Gang members.

Heard the Green Wolf Gang leader absolutely didn't believe his son would kill anyone, determined his son was also murdered, and was hunting the real culprit all over the city."

Speaking here, Feng Mu suddenly paused, a flash of realization crossing his eyes:

"So the truth actually is?"

Feng Mu's performance was flawless; to this day, this initial Origin Case has finally surfaced again.

But this time, Feng Mu doesn't need to bury it anymore.

Because, no matter how many doubts and loopholes this case holds, the "Zheng Hang" who appeared on TV today equals a perfect patch for that case.

By the same logic, this homicide case will also become the strongest footnote for the 【Mask】's birth.

The 【Mask】 lives, Zheng Hang also lives;

The 【Mask】 is Zheng Hang, Zheng Hang is the 【Mask】, locked dead!

(End of Chapter)