The corpses of the dead man and woman started to change immediately, their skin turning pale and swollen with dense horizontal stripes surfacing, like worms crawling beneath.
Gasping for air, Li Cheng somewhat steadied his breathing, walked into the kitchen, turned on the tap, and washed off the mucus and bloodstains on the Mantis Arm Bone Blade.
Then he picked up a palm-sized plastic bag from the ground, emptied it of the nuts inside, and placed six pieces of Blood Amber into it.
After completing these tasks, he scanned the scene to make sure he hadn't left anything behind, pocketed the plastic bag, and turned towards the balcony—
With all the commotion here, the neighbors might have already called the police. When the police arrive, they would naturally report the situation in the room to the Special Affairs Administration, who would then clean up the aftermath.
Therefore, Li Cheng did not knock on the master bedroom door or alert the two siblings inside that it was safe outside.
For them, hiding away and not witnessing the death of their "parents" was perhaps for the better.
In a flash—
Just as the sore Li Cheng was preparing to jump out of the window, a breeze blew by, and a figure appeared out of thin air on the balcony.
It was a short-haired girl with delicate features, looking only a few years older than Li Cheng, dressed in a brown wool coat, wearing a gray fisherman's hat, and accompanied by a naive-looking gray and white chinchilla floating by her side.
Their eyes met in silence.
Behind the cover of sunglasses and a head mask, Li Cheng's expression tensed, ready to either spring the Mantis Arm Bone Blade for another fight or turn around and flee through the door.
Unexpectedly.
"Clap clap clap."
The short-haired girl glanced over the messy living room and started clapping abruptly, nodding as she spoke: "Under the bed in the adjacent bedroom, there are heartbeats of two children, and on the living room floor, there are two corpses dressed in human clothes, escaped test subjects.
Judging from the family photo on the TV cabinet, they were a family.
Let me guess, it was you who took down the two impostors disguised as humans, protecting the children."
"..."
Unclear if the other was friend or foe, Li Cheng did not respond, cautiously adjusting his stance, his hand already on the doorknob behind him.
"Did you design this outfit yourself?"
The short-haired girl tilted her head, her voice magnetic, "Wearing gloves to prevent fingerprints.
The bottom of your shoes wrapped in cloth, stuck with tape, to leave no footprints and prevent the police from deducing the shoes you wore, as well as your height, weight, gender, or even profession through the shoe prints.
Wearing a head cover to prevent hair from falling out during a fight.
Wearing sunglasses to avoid being captured by surveillance and preventing the police from using image enhancement software or the like to recognize your iris and find your identity.
Additionally, you sprayed Odor Remover on yourself to prevent the police from using scent extractors to collect human scent molecules from the scene."
Her tone was wistful, her gaze full of admiration, "Considering you haven't asked for help from the Special Affairs Bureau, you must be a novice without their contact information? Did you figure all this out yourself?
Also, you didn't call the police, possibly fearing the officers wouldn't be able to handle the escaped test subjects and would only increase casualties?
A novice who has brains, courage, ability, and a rare conscience.
Tsk tsk tsk, in this day and age, that's quite a rare species."
"Why rare."
Li Cheng asked, his voice particularly hoarse and deep due to damage to his laryngeal cartilage.
"It's already the fifth year after the inception of the killing field games, with national Supernatural Countermeasure Organizations, the Global Supernatural Alliance, and civil guilds all well-established. They operate with a set of rules and regulations."
The short-haired girl continued, "New Summoners like you are very rarely as untainted."
Li Cheng felt a stir within, as the other seemed to mistake him for a group referred to as "Summoners," talking about what would be common knowledge in that world.
"According to regulations, newly discovered wild Summoners should be reported to the Special Affairs Bureau. However, I used to live in this neighborhood, so by rough estimation, you also saved my neighbors, and thus I won't report you to the Special Affairs Bureau."
The short-haired girl took out a gray plastic card from her pocket and tossed it over nonchalantly.
Li Cheng didn't reach out to catch it but picked up a metal tong from the coffee table to clamp the card in mid-air and glanced at it.
On the front of the card, there were six lines of text,
[Zhangsun Yao]
[World Nuclear House General Manager]
[Address: Room 408, Building 2, Saige Ta Technology Industrial Park, Yunjin Road, Puluo District, Yin City]
Below that were phone numbers, an email address, and a website.
On the back of the card, there was a round atomic bomb design and a business description.
```
[World Nuclear House services: Intelligence trading, security services, arms brokering, personnel training, equipment maintenance, project contracting]
Below that were two lines of small print advertising slogans.
[Exquisite standards, stable and punctual, efficient and loyal]
[Honor integrity, value reputation, seek mutual development]
```
```
Zhangsun Yao noticed Li Cheng's cautious movements but didn't pay much attention and said indifferently, "The World Nuclear House that I run is not far from here. Feel free to visit when you have time; we might be able to do some business.
Given that you are a complete newbie, I suggest you visit the corporate webpage on the business card. There is a Super Link at the bottom, which will take you to the Slaughter Field Game forum.
The newbie guide posts in the forum can effectively answer your doubts."
She paused, looking out the window, as the sound of police sirens started coming from downstairs.
"The neighbors downstairs have already called the police. The police will arrive soon, and the Special Affairs Bureau will also come. You'd better make a run for it."
"..."
```
```
Upon hearing this, Li Cheng slowly put down the business card, nodded toward her, and turned to jump out of the window.
Just like when he came, he grasped the brick joints and drainpipes on the exterior wall, descending rapidly, landing on the first floor.
The fixed surveillance cameras in the neighborhood had already been knocked askew by the small stones he threw earlier, creating a route that the cameras couldn't capture. Li Cheng quickly escaped the neighborhood, vanishing into the darkness.
Two minutes later, a group of Yin City police rushed up the building, smashing the security door open with a battering ram.
The leading policeman, holding a pistol, charged into the room only to see a messy room, two oddly shaped corpses on the ground, and Zhangsun Yao standing amidst them, looking as calm as usual.
```
```
The senior policeman immediately backed out of the room, preventing his colleagues from entering, and then took out his phone to make a call.
Before long, Tang Wenwei, the captain of the first squadron of the fifth mobile task force from the Yin City Special Affairs Bureau, entered the room.
The group of men in black suits following her skillfully secured the scene, took photographs, and scanned the artificial human bodies on the ground before putting them into body bags.
Two men in black suits pried open the lock to the bedroom and found two siblings cowering under the bed. They covered the children's eyes, carried them out of the bedroom, and took them downstairs.
One of the men in black suits glanced at the reading on the scanning device and reported, "Anomaly fluctuation index 68. Yellow alert level.
"These two bodies were originally human, two worm specimens infected by the Master of Insects, parasitizing and replacing them, causing this tragedy.
"However, no Divine Calamity Fragment was found in their bodies..."
```
```
Hearing this, Tang Wenwei turned her gaze to Zhangsun Yao, who looked back without fear, "The item is not with me. It was already like this when I arrived."
Tang Wenwei knew this; Zhangsun Yao's combat style would not have caused such severe damage to the living room. If she had taken action, these two low-level specimens wouldn't have lasted a second.
Someone else had taken the Divine Calamity Fragment.
What bothered her was that Zhangsun Yao had arrived so early, yet neither notified the Mobile Task Force nor activated the Shadow Realm on her own initiative to help track down the Summoner who arrived earlier.
```
```
"Divine Calamity Fragments pose a serious threat to social order as an unstable factor. Just this month, more than twenty yellow alert level or higher incidents related to the Master of Insects' fragments have been reported nationwide."
Tang Wenwei spoke gravely, "Miss Zhangsun, assisting the Special Affairs Bureau in maintaining public order is the responsibility of every civilian organization, closely related to everyone."
"Hmph. Suppose I do as you wish and activate the Shadow Realm to chase after the Summoner who arrived first. What should I do if he attacks me? If I protect social order, who will protect me? Should I wait for you to come and collect my corpse?"
Zhangsun Yao laughed dismissively at this and nonchalantly flipped her hair before walking straight to the balcony, disappearing with the wind.
"..."
```
```
Watching the place where she left, Tang Wenwei pursed her lips slightly.
The words spoken by Zhangsun Yao, if uttered by someone else, would undoubtedly be seen as being deliberately contrary and disruptive, with a potential accusation of hypocrisy in their behavior.
Without the Special Affairs Bureau maintaining order, society would have long descended into chaos.
But for her to say those words... Tang Wenwei could not rebut.
The Zhangsun family, like the Xue, Lu, Wang, and Shao families, had all signed contracts with the Special Affairs Bureau to help the nation establish a foothold in the Slaughter Field Game. In return, the state also provided them with many conveniences, including favorable business policies and personal safety protection, etc.
Two years ago, the Zhangsun family suffered a tragedy, and the entire family perished, leaving only Zhangsun Yao.
The safety protection provided by the Special Affairs Bureau was utterly useless, and even afterwards, they could not clearly investigate the true cause behind the Zhangsun family's demise.
So, she truly had no grounds to argue.
Forget it, let her be.
```
```
Tang Wenwei turned her head towards her subordinates and ordered: "The Summoner has just left not long ago. Collect evidence from the scene: fingerprints, footprints, blood stains, hair, bodily fluids, skin flakes, prints. Also, check the community surveillance, and ask those two kids what they saw or heard."
Do good deeds anonymously?
Heh, if it truly was solely for the sake of doing good deeds, why take away the infinitely harmful Divine Calamity Fragment?
"Keep a close watch on the Divine Calamity Fragments circulating in the black market; we must find that Summoner."
```