After making his promise to Pandora, Lu Ren immediately got out of bed.
After moving his body a little, he said to Xu Wenxing,
“Let’s go! Let’s get some late-night snacks! My treat!”
“Seriously, Ren bro? It’s not even seven in the evening yet, and you already want late-night snacks?”
Xu Wenxing glanced at his computer’s clock, looking rather surprised.
Even though he understood that Lu Ren was showing his gratitude, he still had to say something.
Isn’t this time supposed to be dinner? Why is Lu Ren talking about late-night snacks?
“Isn’t the meal after dinner called late-night snacks? Enough nonsense, are you coming or not? If not, I’ll eat alone.” Lu Ren waved his hand at Xu Wenxing, signaling him not to mind such trivial things.
“I’m coming, of course I’m coming. Milk tea counts as a late-night snack too.” Xu Wenxing checked the video progress bar. “Wait for me, let me finish this video first.”
“Alright, let me know when you’re done.”
Lu Ren nodded in agreement.
As he turned back to his seat, he suddenly remembered the case Xu Wenxing had just told him about, and asked,
“By the way, where did you learn about that Death Doctor case? Was it on a video site?”
Xu Wenxing, who had his headphones around his neck, paused for a moment after hearing Lu Ren’s question, then slowly responded with a question of his own.
“Uh… Ren bro, do you know the game Black Fairy Tale Soul?”
“Oh, you mean that game with the wild art style?” Lu Ren was a bit shocked. “Your tastes are pretty broad, huh, you even play games like that.”
“Well, it’s a rare, popular, high-quality title. It’d be a pity not to play it.”
Xu Wenxing shrugged with a smile and replied.
Lu Ren nodded thoughtfully, understanding Xu Wenxing’s reasoning.
Pandora, who was sprawled out on the bed, heard the two of them talking, hopped down, and came over to Lu Ren’s lap. She said to him,
“You’re going out later, right? Then turn on the computer and let me watch the news.”
“Mm, what kind of news do you want to watch?” Lu Ren asked as he opened the computer.
“Any normal news is fine, I don’t have any particular preference.”
“Got it…”
Lu Ren opened the browser, then, familiar with the process, went to his browsing history and clicked into City A’s local news page.
But today, instead of showing Pandora some old news from months ago, he chose to play today’s live news.
There had been an explosion at the zoo’s Elephant House today, and he wanted to see how much the Official Department knew about the incident.
“Up next is the following news.”
“It is reported that at 15:35 this afternoon, an explosion occurred at the Elephant House of Xiangsen Changlin Zoo in our city. The explosion killed the elephants inside the Elephant House, while six tourists on the scene lost consciousness and fell into comas.”
Lu Ren’s luck was good—he heard exactly what he wanted as soon as the news started playing.
He focused on the subtitles at the bottom of the screen, not noticing that Pandora, beside him, froze as soon as she saw the image of the zoo explosion, her eyes glued to the screen, afraid to miss a single detail.
“After the explosion, zoo staff arrived at the scene in time and called emergency services.”
“After examination and treatment, all six tourists have recovered and have been discharged from the hospital.”
“According to investigations, before the explosion, notices about the attack had been posted on utility poles in many places in our city. This explosion is suspected to be a premeditated terrorist attack.”
“Our city has sent special personnel to investigate the case, striving to catch the suspects before another explosion occurs.”
“City A Official reminds you: ensure your personal safety and stay away from dangerous areas.”
“Up next is the following news…”
After watching the official report on the explosion, Lu Ren raised his eyebrows and sighed helplessly.
It seems that even the Official Department doesn’t know much about the specifics of this case—they know even less than he does.
If he wants to stop this monster, he’ll have to keep working hard…
“…Night Demon.” Pandora, beside him, muttered the name of her enemy under her breath after watching the news.
Lu Ren looked at Pandora in surprise, not knowing why she suddenly brought up Night Demon.
He clearly hadn’t told her this case was the work of the Night Demon Apostle.
“Blazing Flame, this was a premeditated attack—the attacker was a Shadow Beast controlled by Night Demon.”
Pandora suddenly turned, looked at Lu Ren with determined eyes, and shared her conclusion.
“How do you know? I’m pretty sure I never told you the details of this case.” Lu Ren felt a bit puzzled.
Pandora’s deduction skills were impressive—she could figure out what happened just from the pictures at the scene.
“I’ve seen similar things in other cities, so of course I know what these guys are up to.”
Pandora spoke through gritted teeth, her voice filled with undisguised hatred toward Night Demon and its underlings.
“You saw this kind of thing happen while you were wandering other cities?” Blazing Flame asked curiously.
“Yeah, I wanted to warn the local Magic Girls to beware of the Shadow Beast’s next move, but because of the Curse, I couldn’t communicate with them. In the end, I could only watch tragedy unfold, powerless to stop it.”
Pandora explained simply, but her voice sounded especially mournful.
It seemed that the tragedy back then had left a deep impact on Pandora.
Lu Ren looked at the silent Pandora, reached out and patted her head, comforting her.
“It’s alright. With me, Sapphire, and Meteor in City A, Night Demon’s schemes will never succeed again.”
“…Thank you.”
After receiving Lu Ren’s comfort, Pandora nodded slowly, then jumped onto Lu Ren’s desk, silently walking to the computer screen and looking straight at Lu Ren.
Although he didn’t know what Pandora wanted, Lu Ren didn’t push her away. Instead, he patiently waited for her to speak first.
He believed that Pandora must have her reasons.
Maybe she was considering whether or not to share an important clue with him, caught in an internal struggle.
In this calm atmosphere, person and fox stared at each other for dozens of seconds—neither breaking the silence.
Just as Lu Ren thought Pandora would keep silent, the little fox beast looked at him and began to reveal information she’d never told anyone before.
“This explosion is just the beginning of this case. There will be more places targeted by them soon.”
“You mean this is only the start…”
Lu Ren frowned—he hadn’t expected Pandora to share such information with him.
But then again, if the enemy had such abilities, there’s no way they’d be satisfied with this little destruction.
Every monster he’d encountered so far had an uncontrollable urge to destroy.
Lu Ren was sure this monster harbored the same urge to destroy everything.
“That’s right, it’s only the beginning.” Pandora said calmly, “Now that the explosion has been made public, it’ll definitely continue setting off explosions elsewhere until the goal of this operation is achieved.”
“Goal? What goal? Monsters can have their own goals and plans?” Lu Ren pressed Pandora, hoping she could clear up his confusion.
“I’m not sure about the specific goal. I don’t know why these intelligent Shadow Beasts can suppress their urge to destroy and follow a plan step by step.”
But unfortunately, even Pandora didn’t know the answer to Lu Ren’s question.
Lu Ren sighed, a bit disappointed, but soon perked up again and listened patiently to Pandora’s intelligence he’d never heard before.
“But, I do know what their real target is.” Pandora looked at Lu Ren, offering her precious knowledge to guide him to keep questioning.
“You mean…”
Lu Ren stroked his chin, lowered his head, and tried to recall the patterns in the monsters’ behavior.
Whether it was unintelligent monsters or those with intelligence, he recalled the things they had done.
At first, he thought these monsters were just brainless beasts—special mutated creatures retaining animal instincts.
But now, maybe they all shared a common goal in destroying human cities…
Wait, human cities?!
A flash of inspiration struck Lu Ren’s mind. He stared at Pandora, his eyes burning, and nodded to her.
Seeing Lu Ren’s look, Pandora nodded back, confirming his guess.
“Their real goal is to cause mass panic among humans and fill people with fear.” Pandora said seriously.
Hearing this expected answer, Lu Ren looked up at the white ceiling and let out a slow breath.
As expected, Night Demon had its subordinates wreak havoc in human cities precisely to instill fear in people.
Whether it was the mute monsters he’d encountered, the missing persons case resolved by force a few days ago, or this time’s talking monster—
All these guys had the same goal: to make people afraid.
“Why is Night Demon doing this? What does it gain from it?” Lu Ren asked.
“I don’t know. I only realized this was Night Demon’s goal after witnessing one tragedy after another while wandering different cities.”
Pandora shook her head at Lu Ren, showing she didn’t know the specific reason either.
“I see… If even you don’t know what Night Demon wants, then probably no one does.”
“And I think it’s odd—if Night Demon wants to cause mass panic, why not just destroy an entire city? It should have the ability to do that, right?”
Leaning back in his chair, Lu Ren kept playing out possible developments for this explosion case in his head, but still asked Pandora about what he found strange.
Pandora paused at his question, then shook her head at Lu Ren again and said,
“That’s something I’m curious about, too. But right now, the top priority should be stopping the Shadow Beast that plants bombs.”
“Yeah, you’re right. We should deal with the immediate problem first.” Lu Ren straightened his back and looked at Pandora.
“…Blazing Flame, do you know when the notices were posted?” Pandora thought for a while, then asked what she was most concerned about.
“The notices? They started getting posted yesterday morning, I think. Why?” Lu Ren asked in confusion.
“Posted yesterday morning, then detonated in the afternoon… Based on experience, they’ll cause mass panic on the weekend…” Pandora muttered, then continued, “Blazing Flame, do you know if there’s any major landmark set to be completed on Saturday?”
“Landmark? No, not a single one.” Lu Ren thought back to recent construction projects, but nothing related came to mind.
“The target isn’t a building this time? If not a building, then what…?”
Pandora muttered in confusion, then her body suddenly trembled as if struck by lightning. She asked Lu Ren urgently,
“Blazing Flame! Is there any major event happening in City A this weekend? Or is some famous person coming to your City A?”
After hearing Pandora’s question, Lu Ren focused for a few seconds, then suddenly remembered the ticket he’d bought a few days ago—and instantly realized the seriousness of the situation.
“…A concert! There’s a singer’s concert on Saturday—their target is to bomb the concert!”