Knock knock knock…
Just as Duya was lost in his thoughts, the door to the office was suddenly knocked on.
The abrupt sound of knocking immediately put Duya on high alert.
However, he quickly realized he was back in reality now; there was no need to be so on edge.
So, he walked over to the office door.
As the door opened, the person standing outside was none other than Ye Xiao.
His female superior was just about to leave.
Seeing Duya open the door, she spoke up.
“I thought you might still be asleep.”
“Just woke up.”
“May I come in? There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Sure.”
Duya stepped aside, allowing Ye Xiao to enter the office.
The woman sat down in the office chair, crossed her legs, leaned back, and closed her eyes.
The usually swift and decisive Ye Xiao now wore an expression of exhaustion.
Duya was used to this, though.
He couldn’t help but ask his superior.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Hearing Duya’s question, Ye Xiao sighed.
“What else? While you were trapped in the game, a very bizarre missing person case occurred. We still haven’t figured out what happened.”
“Tell me more.”
After all, Duya was also a police officer, so he had naturally been involved in his fair share of missing person cases.
Ye Xiao opened her eyes.
She took out a holographic projector, clicking on it as she spoke.
“Well… I actually hoped you could rest properly. But since we’re both idle right now, if I don’t talk to you about this, I’ll feel too pent up.”
After a few taps, Ye Xiao pulled up a holographic image.
“A few days ago, a middle school student named Lin Xiaoxia suddenly vanished after returning home.”
Duya looked at the hologram.
It showed a girl with twin ponytails, wearing a school uniform.
“According to her teacher, she headed home after class. However, she didn’t show up at school the next day, and calls went unanswered.”
Ye Xiao methodically organized her thoughts, slowly dissecting everything she knew for Duya.
“The teacher on duty initially thought she was sick and planned to visit her home to check on her. But…”
Here, Ye Xiao paused, her expression hardening before she continued slowly.
“Her home was completely empty.”
“At that point, the teacher immediately called the police. Officers searched for nearly three days but found nothing.”
Duya looked at the girl in the hologram, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
“What about the surveillance footage?”
In this day and age, surveillance cameras covered all public areas.
Following the footage should have quickly yielded clues.
In response to Duya’s question, Ye Xiao tapped her fingernail lightly on the desk.
“That’s the strange part. The surveillance footage clearly shows her entering her home. But she never came back out. She just… vanished into thin air.”
“Furthermore, we checked every trace in her home. The scene was examined countless times. There was no sign of anyone else entering.”
As she spoke, Ye Xiao slid a photo over.
The photo showed a doorknob coated with something resembling fluorescent powder, making the fingerprints on it faintly visible.
“You understand now, right? With no signs of a break-in, this girl named Lin Xiaoxia simply disappeared into thin air. Even now, there’s not a single trace of her. Wouldn’t that drive anyone up the wall?”
Having said that, Ye Xiao rubbed her temples.
“Talking about it makes me feel a bit better, but we still need to find that missing girl quickly.”
“By the way,” Duya seemed to think of something, “since the missing girl is just a middle schooler, she should have family, right? What about her family?”
“…”
Ye Xiao fell silent for a moment before speaking.
“She has no family. Her grandfather passed away last month.”
Listening to Ye Xiao, Duya felt something was off, a strange sense of déjà vu.
Was it just his imagination?
“Anyway, this has nothing to do with you, Duya. Get some proper rest.”
“Bubble Shadow is staying inside that brain-machine interface and won’t come out. We’ll just contain the entire brain-machine along with the person inside it at the research institute.”
An image of Fuyeli suddenly surfaced in Duya’s mind.
He thought for a moment before asking Ye Xiao.
“Can the system AI inside be extracted?”
“That’s absolutely impossible,” Ye Xiao flatly rejected Duya’s suggestion.
“We don’t dare do too much with this strange brain-machine right now. Containment is the best approach.”
“…Alright.”
Ye Xiao was his superior.
Since it was her order, Duya had no reason to refuse.
Besides, he couldn’t refuse even if he wanted to.
“Alright, your sister is probably waiting for you at home. You should head back.”
With that, Ye Xiao stood up and patted Duya on the shoulder.
“Get some good rest. That’s more important than anything.”
“Right.”
After receiving his instructions, Duya left the research institute.
Looking at the gray, overcast sky outside, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.
Duya began walking home.
Though it was just him and his sister, making it feel a bit lonely, it was undeniably a warm and comforting place.
The sky gradually darkened.
In the twilight, the city’s neon lights flickered on one by one.
The world began to brighten bit by bit, yet many places remained shrouded in deep shadow.
Boom!
A low rumble of thunder sounded, and raindrops the size of beans began to fall.
To avoid getting drenched, Duya decided to take the alleyways home.
He was very familiar with this area.
But he hadn’t walked far when he caught a whiff of a seafood smell.
After smelling it, Duya suddenly felt… incredibly hungry.
Following the scent, he looked ahead and saw two figures cloaked in black robes emerging from an alley.
Though they were covered head to toe, Duya could faintly make out the tentacles growing on their faces and hands…
They actually looked… kind of delicious?
The two also noticed Duya.
They clasped their hands together, speaking in an eerie, cult-like tone.
“Sir, could we have a moment of your time?”
“We wish to tell you about our Heavenly Father…”
Before they could finish, they suddenly stopped, like roosters whose necks had been wrung mid-crow.
“…”
Especially when faced with the man’s murderous, almost “cannibalistic” intent, the two cultists’ octopus heads couldn’t help but break out in a cold sweat.