Chapter 288

"Ah? But..."

"Isn't the case still under investigation... why suddenly..."

"Are we giving up the operation? But not everyone has arrived yet..."

"I think I heard gunfire just now. Did something happen?..."

The officers began to whisper to each other, their words revealing that they did not want to leave. The man in the leather jacket darkened his face and was about to fire a warning shot when he saw Mei Lin's eyes signaling him not to be impulsive.

"Everyone, listen to me."

Mei Lin stepped forward and said kindly, "I have already contacted the County Police Department to approve a special budget. After you return, the allowance for this field mission will still be issued as usual. In addition, you will receive an extra week of full-paid vacation."

As soon as these words were spoken, the officers who had been fidgeting and unwilling to leave just a moment ago suddenly erupted into cheers of "Long live," and whistles rang out one after another.

"Vanessa Fortress needs to be cleared as soon as possible." Mei Lin sighed and said, "Please cooperate with our work, okay?"

The officers smiled and gave Mei Lin an "OK" gesture, then walked toward the castle gate one after another, not asking another word.

"So that's it. They were worried that if the investigation wasn't finished and they got off work early, they wouldn't get their overtime pay." Ning Zhe couldn't help but laugh. So that was the reason they were fidgeting and unwilling to leave just now.

Ning Zhe was hesitating whether he should leave Vanessa Fortress with the main force and then find an opportunity to sneak back in, or simply find an excuse to stay. While hesitating, his peripheral vision suddenly caught the female officer named Suxi, who had spoken to him earlier, not following the main force to leave, but instead walking back against the flow of people.

"Hmm?"

"Why are you still here?" Mei Lin frowned slightly, her eyes looking vigilantly at the female officer walking toward them.

The members of the investigation team scanned Suxi's right hand; her five fingers were intact, and the tense atmosphere finally eased.

Suxi looked at the gun in the hand of the man in the leather jacket and said cautiously, "My younger brother, Su Nake, he is also a field officer for this operation. We had agreed to meet at the open space in front of the clock tower, but when we assembled just now, I didn't see him..."

Mei Lin looked down at the attendance list. Su Nake was one of the 3 missing officers.

The officers dispatched this time were in groups of 3. All 3 members of Su Nake's group were missing.

Chief Ebnick and several other investigation team members were conducting re-inspections of the officers leaving in order at the castle's main gate. Mei Lin put away the list and asked, "When was the last time you saw your brother?"

"Su Nake and I were in different groups. As soon as we entered Vanessa Fortress, we separated to follow our respective team leaders." Suxi said, taking out her phone to open a social app, and showed the chat history on the screen to Mei Lin: "The last message he sent was about half an hour ago, and then he made a phone call."

Mei Lin took the phone and looked. The chat history contained both voice and text messages. The siblings had chatted simply about what to buy to visit their parents at home after work—very mundane content, mixed with a few sentences about work.

After several text messages, her brother Su Nake sent a 2-second voice message. Mei Lin clicked to play it, and the content was: "Oh, the team leader is calling me. Gotta go."

"About 7-8 minutes after he was called away by the team leader, he called again." Suxi clicked on the call log interface and continued: "But after the call connected, there was no sound on the other end. It paused for a while and then hung up, so I'm a bit worried. Did something happen to Su Nake and the others?"

Mei Lin looked back at the chat history. The last few messages at the end were sent by Suxi to Su Nake, asking him what the call just now was about, but she received no reply.

Seeing this, Mei Lin could basically determine that the three members of Su Nake's group were likely in grave danger.

The remaining officers had been evacuated. The investigation team members and Chief Ebnick returned to the front of the clock tower from the city gate. Mei Lin returned the phone to Suxi and said to the man in the leather jacket, "This lady's brother and two other officers are missing."

The man in the leather jacket crossed his arms, his expression looking bad: "It seems the situation is far more severe than we imagined." The Flimmistleth family had only recently noticed the strange movements in Vanessa Fortress. They rushed here, mobilized police forces to seal the scene, and confirmed the situation, yet they were still a step too late.

Now it seems the situation at Vanessa Fortress is far worse than they thought.

"That 'Necromancer' buried deep underground has likely broken free. His power has begun to overflow from the sealed prison and affect the real world." Mei Lin looked back at the towering clock tower: "Even in the worst case... the devil's power has already been successfully harnessed by that uninvited intruder."

The man in the leather jacket understood what she meant: "If that's the case, at least one of us is going to die here."

The Flimmistleth family would not allow an outsider to steal the ghost of their ancestral home.

That outsider who harnessed the "Necromancer" would also never let them go.

For an Ascender, the moment you know his core rule, he is already locked in a life-and-death struggle with you.

The man in the leather jacket took the phone from Suxi. The investigation team members passed it around, quickly browsed the chat history between the siblings, and then returned the phone to Suxi.

The four male investigation team members drew their guns in unison. The man in the leather jacket patted the bewildered female officer Suxi and said, "The last place your brother went missing was in the third-floor area of the clock tower. Come with us; let's go find him together."

"Take me too." Chief Ebnick also drew his gun: "As their chief, I cannot let any more of my officers suffer any mishaps."

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"More people means more strength." The man in the leather jacket did not refuse.

Pulu Meiliya, in a black dress and wearing a large suit jacket, still stood quietly in front of the chessboard table. She didn't express any opinion, just silently walked to the other side of the chessboard and pushed a piece carved with a "Chariot" forward two spaces.

During the time the investigation team was evacuating the officers, she had done nothing but play chess against herself.

Mei Lin stood guard beside her, skillfully opening a pitch-black umbrella, covering both of them under it.

"The safety of Her Highness and us is all entrusted to you, Miss Mei Lin."

The man in the leather jacket left this sentence, led the team across the first-floor gate, and entered the clock tower with guns drawn.

The sun was blazing at 3:00 PM, and the sky was clear and cloudless. The officers leaving by bus did not notice that one person had quietly disappeared from the bus that Miss Mei Lin had specially chartered for them.

Mei Lin, who was guarding beside Her Highness Pulu Meiliya with an umbrella, also did not notice that on both sides of the flower path connecting the laundry room and the lecture hall, roses were blooming, their leaves dripping with green, and a long-tailed tit flew shallowly over the city wall, vanishing in a flash.

Flutter—

Ning Zhe flapped his wings, flew past the window and the terrace, landed in a room on the second floor, turned back into human form, and silently rolled up his sleeve to look at the smartwatch on his wrist:

15:27 PM.

But the time he saw on Suxi's phone just now was clearly:

15:11 PM.

"So that's how it is..."

(End of Chapter)