Chapter 12

The corpses of the dead men and women immediately changed: their skin turned pale and swollen, covered with dense horizontal stripes, like worms.

Li Cheng, still panting heavily, calmed his breathing slightly, walked into the kitchen, and turned on the faucet to rinse the slime and blood from the mantis-arm bone blade.

He then picked up a plastic bag the size of a palm, emptied the nuts inside, and put in the six blood amber stones.

After finishing, he scanned the scene, confirmed he had left nothing behind, tucked the plastic bag away, and turned toward the balcony—

The commotion here was too loud; neighbors might have already called the police. When the police arrived, they would naturally report the room's condition to the Special Affairs Bureau, who would then clean up the mess.

Therefore, Li Cheng did not knock on the master bedroom door to warn the two brothers inside that the outside was now safe.

For them, it was better to hide and not see the corpses of their "parents."

Shhh—

Just as Li Cheng, his whole body aching, prepared to leap out the window, a gentle breeze swept past, and a figure appeared out of thin air on the balcony.

It was a short-haired girl with delicate features, barely older than Li Cheng, wearing a brown wool coat and a gray fisherman's hat, with a plump, adorable gray-and-white chinchilla floating beside her.

Their eyes met. Silence.

Beneath his sunglasses and hood, Li Cheng's expression tightened as he prepared to snap out the mantis-arm bone blade again—or turn and flee through the door.

Unexpectedly—

"Clap, clap, clap."

The short-haired girl glanced at the messy living room and suddenly began clapping, nodding as she said: "There are two children's heartbeats under the bed in the adjacent bedroom, and on the floor lie two corpses dressed in human clothing—escaped experimental subjects."

And from the family photo on the TV cabinet, they were a family.

Let me guess—you intervened and protected the children from these two experimental subjects disguised as humans."

"."

Uncertain whether she was friend or foe, Li Cheng gave no reply, carefully shifting his stance, his hand already resting on the doorknob behind his back.

"Did you design this outfit yourself?"

The short-haired girl tilted her head, her voice rich and resonant. "Gloves to prevent leaving fingerprints."

The soles wrapped in cloth and taped down to avoid leaving shoe prints, so the police can't deduce your shoe size, height, weight, gender, or even occupation from them."

The hood to prevent stray hairs from falling during combat."

The sunglasses to prevent possible surveillance footage from capturing your irises, which police could enhance and use to identify your identity."

And you sprayed deodorant on yourself to prevent police from using odor-collection devices to extract human scent molecules from the scene."

Her tone was admiring, her gaze appreciative. "Since you didn't seek help from the Special Affairs Bureau, you must be a newcomer—no contact info for them? Did you figure all this out on your own?"

And you didn't call the police either—perhaps because you feared they couldn't handle these two escaped experimental subjects and would only add more casualties?"

A newcomer with brains, courage, ability, and—rarely—conscience."

Hmm, hmm, hmm—in this day and age, you're a rare species."

"Why rare?"

Li Cheng spoke, his voice hoarse and low from damaged laryngeal cartilage.

"It's already the fifth year since the Killing Ground opened. National supernatural response organizations, the Global Supernatural Alliance, and civilian guilds are all well-established—they all have their own rules and procedures."

The short-haired girl said: "Newly chosen ones rarely come as pure as blank paper."

Li Cheng's heart stirred—she clearly regarded him as part of some group called "Chosen Ones," speaking entirely of that world's common knowledge.

"By regulation, newly discovered wild Chosen Ones must be reported to the Special Affairs Bureau. But I used to live in this neighborhood—rounding up and down, you've saved my neighbor. So I won't report you."

The short-haired girl pulled out a gray plastic business card from her pocket and tossed it casually.

Li Cheng didn't reach for it; instead, he picked up the metal nutcracker from the coffee table and caught the card midair, glancing at it.

The front bore six lines of text:

【Chang Sun Yao】

【General Manager of World Nuclear Peace House】

【Address: Room 408, Building 2, Seg Tower Tech Industrial Park, Yunjin Road, Pulu District, Yin City】

Below were phone, email, and website.

The back showed a round, plump nuclear bomb graphic, with service details.

【World Nuclear Peace House Services: Intelligence Trading, Security Services, Arms Procurement, Personnel Training, Equipment Repair, Engineering Contracts】

At the bottom were two lines of small-print slogans.

【Precise, Standardized, Reliable, Punctual, Efficient, Loyal】

【Uphold Integrity, Value Reputation, Pursue Mutual Growth】

Chang Sun Yao noticed Li Cheng's cautious movements but paid little mind, speaking coolly: "My World Nuclear Peace House isn't far from here. Drop by sometime—might make a deal."

Since you're a pure newcomer, I suggest you log onto the company website on the card—there's a hyperlink to the Killing Ground forum."

The forum's newbie guides will answer your questions effectively."

She paused, gazing out the window—below, police sirens had already sounded.

"Your neighbors downstairs have called the police. Officers will arrive soon, and Special Affairs Bureau personnel too. You'd better run now."

"."

Li Cheng slowly set down the card, nodded to her, and leapt out the window.

As he had come, he gripped the gaps between wall tiles and the drainpipe, descending rapidly to the first floor.

The fixed surveillance cameras in the compound had earlier been knocked askew by pebbles he'd thrown, clearing a route invisible to their lenses. Li Cheng fled swiftly from the compound, vanishing into darkness.

Two minutes later, a squad of Yin City police rushed up the stairs and smashed open the security door with a battering ram.

The team leader, pistol raised, burst into the room and saw the chaotic interior, two grotesquely deformed corpses sprawled on the floor, and Chang Sun Yao standing calmly among them.

The senior officer immediately backed out, ordered his men not to enter, then pulled out his phone and dialed.

Soon after, Tang Wenwei, captain of the First Squad, Fifth Mobile Task Force of the Yin City Special Affairs Bureau, stepped into the room.

The black suits trailing behind her moved with practiced efficiency—securing the scene, photographing it, scanning the pseudo-human corpses on the floor, and zipping them into body bags.

Two of the black suits picked the lock to the bedroom, found the brother and sister huddled under the bed, covered their eyes, carried them out of the bedroom, and brought them downstairs.

One black suit glanced at the reading on the scanner and reported, "Anomaly fluctuation index 68. Yellow alert level."

These two corpses were originally human—two worm experiment subjects infected by the Worm Lord, which parasitized and replaced them. That is what caused this tragedy.

However, no Shards of the Abomination were found inside their bodies."

Hearing this, Tang Wenwei shifted her gaze to Changsun Yao. The latter met her eyes without flinching. "The thing isn't with me. By the time I arrived, the scene was already like this."

This much Tang Wenwei knew—Changsun Yao's fighting style would not have wrecked the living room this badly. If she had struck, these two low-level experiment subjects wouldn't have survived a single second.

Whoever took the Shards of the Abomination was someone else entirely.

What nagged at her was that Changsun Yao had arrived so early, yet had neither notified the Mobile Task Force nor proactively opened the Shadow Realm to help track down that earlier Summoner.

"Shards of the Abomination are unstable factors that seriously threaten public safety. Just this month alone, over twenty anomaly incidents at Yellow alert level or above nationwide have been reported in connection with Worm Lord shards."

Tang Wenwei said in a low voice, "Young Lady Changsun, assisting the Bureau of Special Affairs in maintaining public order is the duty of every civilian organization—it concerns everyone."

"Pfft. Suppose I humor you and open the Shadow Realm to track down that earlier Summoner, and he attacks me—what then? I protect public safety, but who protects me? Wait for you lot to come collect the corpse?"

Changsun Yao laughed at this, flicked her hair dismissively, walked straight to the balcony, and vanished into the wind.

"."

Staring at the spot where she had left, Tang Wenwei pressed her lips together slightly.

If anyone else had said what Changsun Yao just said, it would undoubtedly be a contrarian picking a fight, talking nonsense—suspiciously like eating from the bowl only to curse the one who filled it.

Without the Bureau of Special Affairs maintaining public order, the whole society would long since have fallen into who-knows-what chaos.

But when she said it... Tang Wenwei could not refute it.

The Changsun clan, like the Xue, Lu, Wang, and Shao clans, had once signed contracts with the Bureau of Special Affairs, helping the nation hold its footing in the Killing Fields. In return, the state granted them many conveniences, including favorable business policies and personal safety guarantees.

Two years ago, the Changsun clan suddenly suffered a great catastrophe—the entire family was wiped out, leaving only Changsun Yao alive.

The safety guarantees provided by the Bureau of Special Affairs had been utterly useless, and even afterward they had failed to uncover the truth behind the Changsun clan's annihilation.

So she really had no ground to argue back.

Forget it, never mind her.

Tang Wenwei turned to her subordinates and instructed, "That Summoner left not long ago. Collect trace physical evidence at the scene—handprints, footprints, bloodstains, hair, bodily fluids, skin flakes, fingerprints. Also pull the neighborhood surveillance and question those two children about what they saw or heard."

Do good deeds without leaving a name?

Heh, if it really were purely about doing good, why bother taking the catastrophically dangerous Shards of the Abomination?

"Keep close watch on the Shards of the Abomination circulating on the black market. We must find that Summoner."

(End of chapter)