Chapter 78: The Worst Guess

Inside the command vehicle, Qin Zhixia's gaze pierced the surveillance screen, fixed on the shattered remnants of the dummy that had been blown apart.

Su Chang's flippant "Is that it?" gave her no relief at all.

Quite the opposite.

An indescribable chill crawled up from her tailbone, inch by inch.

Something's off.

Way too off.

She clearly recalled that, through the drone's camera, she saw Wang Ni's transformation after that plastic palm touched him.

That wasn't death.

It was… assimilation.

Wang Ni's skin, expression, and the rigidity of his body were all shifting toward that of a dummy.

A terrifying thought wildly sprouted in Qin Zhixia's mind.

The rules of the Smiling Dummy might not be to kill the target at all.

But to turn the target into its own kind.

Proliferation!

If this hypothesis is true…

Qin Zhixia's heart suddenly tightened.

In Dong Lin City during this period, recorded bizarre disappearances have already exceeded thirty!

That means what they face may not be an isolated weirdness.

But a weird cluster composed of more than thirty dummies, still expanding!

Just thinking of such a scene made Qin Zhixia's scalp tingle.

No. They must hand over the existing specimens to the Investigation Bureau for analysis!

She grabbed the communicator, her voice calm enough to betray no ripple.

"Su Chang."

"Bring back all the dummy fragments from the scene, and… the victim Wang Ni, as Highest Priority Order samples!"

"Make sure the on‑site personnel never directly touch them."

Inside the villa.

Su Chang impatiently flicked a plastic dummy leg off with his toe.

Hearing Qin Zhixia's order, he sneered and curled his lip.

"Got it, got it."

He lazily turned back, giving a once‑over to the Wang Ni that had been turned into a complete "sculpture."

On that face, the terrified expression was perfectly replicated, vivid, yet exuding the unique stiffness and eeriness of a plastic product.

"Huh, the death look is rather stylish."

Su Chang muttered something, then waved at the special police behind him.

"Why are you standing there? Get to work! Pack this thing and that pile of trash into boxes for me!"

As the special police began clearing the scene, Qin Zhixia's second command followed immediately.

"Also, Su Chang, the basement. Have the other on‑site personnel rescue the victim imprisoned by Wang Ni."

Su Chang's impatience froze instantly.

He grabbed the communicator, his tone full of outright defiance.

"Team Leader Qin, did you get something wrong?"

"We are the Federal Weird Investigation Bureau, only responsible for handling this dirty stuff!"

"Rescue? That's the police's job! Don't waste our precious time here, okay?"

Inside the command vehicle, the atmosphere dropped to freezing point instantly.

The few local officers accompanying them dared not even breathe.

Qin Zhixia was silent for two seconds.

When she spoke again, her voice was as cold as a Siberian cold front.

"Su Chang, I ask you, what was the original purpose of establishing the Investigation Bureau?"

Su Chang was taken aback by the question and instinctively replied, "Contain the weird, maintain Federation order…"

"Maintain Federation order," Qin Zhixia interrupted him, her voice suddenly rising, bearing undeniable authority!

"What is the foundation of that order? Law statutes? Skyscrapers?"

"No."

"It is people."

"It is every living, flesh‑and‑blood Federation citizen!"

Her voice, transmitted through the communicator, hammered each person's heart like a sledgehammer!

"If you think rescuing two lives being abused and on the brink of death is a waste of time."

"Then you have no right to stand here at all!"

"I'll say it again, this is an order! Go to the basement immediately and rescue the people!"

Su Chang's face instantly flushed to a pork‑liver hue.

He, the proud ace of the Ninth Division, soldier code‑named "Pan Shi," was publicly rebuked without mercy by a newly hired woman in front of all his subordinates!

What a disgrace!

His hand gripping the communicator bulged with blue veins, the joints cracking with a creak.

He wished he could rush back to the command vehicle right now, press that woman who doesn't know the immensity of heaven and earth to the ground, toy with her beautiful, cold face until it shattered, and then kill her!

But in the end, reason still outweighed impulse.

That phrase, "Get out of this operation," calmed him down.

He gritted his teeth and squeezed out two words from between his teeth.

"...... Received."

After hanging up, he kicked the wall hard, making a huge bang that startled the nearby special police into a flinch.

"Damn it!"

Su Chang cursed viciously and casually pointed at the two special police.

"You two, go to the basement and bring the person up! Quick!"

His dissatisfaction and contempt for Qin Zhixia reached its peak at this moment.

Just wait, you bitch.

After this mission ends, I have plenty of ways to make you know who really calls the shots in the Investigation Bureau!

A few minutes later, the two rescued girls were sent onto an ambulance.

And Wang Ni, who had been "dummy-fied," was placed into a specially made metal containment box, carried onto the command vehicle by four special police.

The convoy restarted, drove away from the villa area, and embarked on the return route to the City Bureau.

The command vehicle carrying the "Wang Ni dummy" drove along the city's main thoroughfare in the night.

Inside the vehicle, Su Chang had a dark face, arms crossed, leaning back with eyes closed to rest, his whole body emanating a "don't provoke me" aura.

Qin Zhixia ignored him, staring fixedly at the screen before her, repeatedly reviewing the entire operation just completed.

Too smooth.

Really too smooth.

From locking onto the target, to the target triggering the rules, to their intervention, and finally using bullets to "eliminate" the Weird...

The whole process went so smoothly it was as if they had rehearsed from a script.

Weird, can it really be destroyed so easily by conventional thermal weapons?

Qin Zhixia recalled Sequence 002 "Ghost Wall," recalled the boy Lin Fan who shared Symbiosis with ghosts, and recalled the grim death of Mo Zixuan, the ace of the Ninth Division.

None of those things are easy to deal with.

Could this "Smiling Dummy" be an exception?

Things are absolutely not that simple.

Her fingers unconsciously tapped the tabletop as her thoughts raced.

Just then!

Squeak——!!!

A piercing tire screech shattered the cabin's silence!

The command vehicle made a sudden hard brake!

The huge inertia threw everyone forward, but Qin Zhixia reacted instantly, grabbing the nearby handrail to steady herself.

"What the hell?!" Su Chang snapped his eyes open and roared.

"Ahead! Ahead!"

The driver in the driver's seat let out a terrified scream with a trembling voice.

"On the road...... there's something on the road!"

Qin Zhixia immediately looked forward.

At a single glance, her whole body's blood seemed to freeze in an instant.

Ahead.

On the originally wide, flat six-lane city thoroughfare.

At some point, it was packed shoulder to shoulder with human silhouettes.

No, they weren't human silhouettes!

They were dummies!

Each dressed in different clothing, posed differently—plastic dummies!

Some wore suits and ties, like office white-collar workers.

Some wore work uniforms and hard hats, like construction workers.

Some wore flashy skirts and heavy makeup, like nightclub dancers.

They varied in form, but shared one trait: every face bore the exact same eerie smile!

Their number—at least fifty or sixty!

They just stood there silently, forming a mute, eerie wall that completely blocked the road ahead.

The convoy's harsh headlights lit their pallid faces bright as snow.

Those pairs of hollow, pupil-less eyes all stared in unison at the convoy's direction.

At that moment, the whole world seemed to have been muted.

No howling, no attack.

Only a deathly silence.

And the visual shock of those fifty-plus smiling faces, suffocating!

Qin Zhixia felt her breathing stop.

Her worst suspicion was confirmed.