Chapter 60 Return

Xingyu lowered her gaze. Her fingers creased the document slightly.

Without needing her to speak, someone naturally stepped in to ask the question on her mind.

"One night? Five people?! There was even a veteran operative among them?!" Jing Cheng pressed on, sounding incredulous. "That sounds terrifying! Is that really something this thing is capable of doing?"

"Who knows." Hill spread her hands. "The Council has always been that way, refusing to say a damn thing. Even this piece of news is still being kept from most of the operatives."

Bianyin asked tentatively, "Then, what should we do next?"

"Act like we don't know anything, but make sure you all look out for your own safety," Hill said in an uncompromising tone. "Reschedule the patrols. Pair up, and try your best not to act alone."

"This..." Falan chimed in at this point. "Isn't that making a mountain out of a molehill? Even if something like this is roaming around, it doesn't necessarily mean it's in our district."

"That's how it's going to be. Any extra expenses will be deducted from my share," Hill insisted. "The rating for this mission hasn't come out yet, but I'm guessing it's at least a C-class... maybe even B-class. In any case, you all need to be extra careful lately. Pair up on field assignments and avoid wandering off alone."

Everyone nodded to show they understood.

Tianwu stood on tiptoes excitedly, whispering into Jing Cheng's ear, while Bianyin remained completely silent.

Hill concluded, "Don't be impatient for quick results. This matter is probably not as simple as you think. Xingyu, you—" Her gaze shifted over. "You'll stick with me, just like before."

...

After they left last night, it seemed to have rained in the D-Ring.

When Xingyu had followed the roads here yesterday, it was too late, and she hadn't managed to clearly see the streets of this area.

The buildings throughout the D-Ring were relatively uniform in layout, though the off-white plaster on their outer walls had peeled away extensively, exposing the red bricks underneath. Potholes dotted the ground, filled to the brim with last night's rainwater.

As she stepped closer to the location where she had committed her act of violence the previous night, Xingyu asked, "Why are we coming here?"

"To see if there are any overlooked clues," Hill replied without turning her head, quickening her pace.

"Uh... what are we looking for?" Xingyu asked, feigning ignorance.

"We're here." Hill stopped abruptly, scanning her surroundings with a serious expression.

Indeed, they had arrived.

This was precisely the spot where she had executed the supervisor last night.

However, the pool of blood that had covered the ground last night was entirely gone, replaced only by a few grayish-black footprints mixed with muddy water, clearly left fresh this morning.

Hill carefully scrutinized the surrounding environment. "Right here. I heard that the veteran operative from Nine-Ray died right on this spot. We'll check the other locations in a bit."

Xingyu didn't take up Hill's thread of conversation, instead asking casually, "Since you knew, why didn't you tell the others?"

"I was worried they'd be impatient for results, running around like headless flies and throwing their lives away for nothing." Hill paused, her eyes turning sharp.

"Besides—you are an Awakened. Xingyu, take a close look. Is there anything unusual about this place?"

"Let me check." Xingyu stepped closer, examining the damp walls and ground inch by inch, as if terrified of missing any potential clue.

Yet, this place could only be described as remarkably clean—

Just like Sector 6 after the explosion she had witnessed before, it was abnormally clean.

Although the buildings and roads clearly had some years on them, their surfaces were exceptionally tidy, as though they had just been renovated yesterday.

There were no stains on the ground, not even a single fallen leaf to be seen.

No ants crawled through the cracks in the walls, no spiders wove webs in the corners, and not even a single small insect hid away in the darkness.

She straightened up and reported honestly, "There's nothing at all."

As Hill lit a cigarette, she muttered, "Forget it, I figured as much. This place was obviously scrubbed clean—not a single trace left behind."

"Ah... how unfortunate."

"Still," Hill took a deep drag and slowly blew out a smoke ring, "there's one thing I'm fairly certain of: contamination entities of this sort are inextricably linked to blood."

Xingyu felt a slight surge in her heartbeat, but she forced herself to maintain a calm expression.

Deep within her, an unbidden, uncanny sense of excitement quietly welled up.

Feigning curiosity, she asked, "Blood? What does that mean?"

"To be honest... I don't really know either," Hill frowned, looking somewhat troubled. "Quenna just told me cryptically that this is a contamination related to blood. When I asked for more details, she refused to say anything else. So annoying."

Seeing Xingyu's slightly disappointed expression, Hill shrugged, her tone lightening slightly. "Don't worry. Maybe tomorrow when I take you to see her, we can drag some information out of her in person."

Seizing the opportunity, Xingyu tried to steer the conversation elsewhere. "What kind of place is the Nine-Ray Agency? Perhaps we can approach it from that angle. Since there were no previous records of contamination entities attacking humans, could there be something special about the people from Nine-Ray?"

Hill raised an eyebrow, seeming somewhat surprised by Xingyu's train of thought. "Nine-Ray... they are Chain-Breakers. That means, unlike us, they don't answer to the Council, nor do they report regularly to the Bureau of Affairs."

Flicking away her cigarette ash, she continued, "Those people basically form their own faction and police their own territory. To put it bluntly, their ways are no different from a gang. Still, as long as they don't step too far out of line, the Council probably couldn't care less about them."

"So, they might have come into contact with things we don't know about? Could it be that they stumbled upon something hidden and brought this disaster upon themselves?"

Hill narrowed her eyes, studying Xingyu closely. "Your little brain works pretty fast. Exactly, that's what I've been thinking too. But right now, we simply don't have enough information to draw a definitive conclusion."

"Then what should we do next?" Xingyu asked, a hint of eagerness lacing her tone.

Hill patted Xingyu's shoulder. "Don't rush, take it slow. Observe first and gather more intelligence. Remember, safety comes first. Don't throw your life away just to chase down the truth."

By the time they reached the registered address of the Nine-Ray Agency, Xingyu was still deep in thought.

The building looked thoroughly ordinary.

There were even official seals and warning tape across the entrance, a display of orderly rules that felt glaringly out of place in this chaotic environment.

Acting as though she saw nothing, Hill simply tore right through the seal.

The half-open front door was pushed inward with a harsh, creaking groan.

"Inside... since this place wasn't cleaned up, there should still be some traces left."

Xingyu followed closely behind, her heart racing as she cautiously appraised her surroundings.

The interior was dim with tightly drawn curtains, letting in only a few slanting rays of sunlight through the gaps.

A foul, fishy stench hung heavy in the air.

They navigated a narrow corridor and arrived at the main office.

In the center of the hall, they discovered the first corpse.

It was a middle-aged man whose body was twisted into an unnatural posture, his facial expression locked in agonizing distortion.

His abdomen had been ripped open, and his internal organs spilled across the floor like a blossoming flower of flesh and blood.

Yet, the edges of the wound showed no signs of tearing; instead, it looked as though something had forced its way out from within by sheer, violent strength.

In the corner lay the second corpse.

This operative's skin had taken on an unnatural, translucent crystalline quality, as if she were slowly turning entirely to crystal. The sunlight streaming through the window struck her, casting an unsettling shimmer.

Her hands were tightly clutched around her own throat, her face frozen in supreme terror, as though she had experienced unimaginable horrors before her final breath.

The last corpse was positioned behind a desk.

His body appeared to be melting, his skin and muscles sagging away like wax to expose the bone structure underneath.

In his hand, he still tightly grasped a blood-stained razor, and deep cuts scored his wrists, the blood already dried.

"Strange..." Hill muttered, inspecting the scene closely. "Does this really have anything to do with a contamination entity?"

Suppressing her disgust, Xingyu reached out and pressed her fingertips against the skin beneath the corpses' foreheads.

The skin was ice-cold and devoid of elasticity, leaving a shallow indentation under the lightest pressure.

Just as expected, in subtle places, faint unnatural resistance could be felt.

The skin there refused to sink all the way down, as though a tiny foreign object was embedded underneath.

She withdrew her hand, a flash of realization crossing her eyes.

These three people, naturally, were not killed by her.

She hadn't even had the chance to act yet, nor did she possess some bizarre habit of committing murder in her sleep.

Her original plan had been to scope out their appearances during the day and thoroughly cleanse the entire Nine-Ray Agency by nightfall.

Reality, however, had handed her an unexpected surprise—or rather, a complicated puzzle.

These individuals had all died overnight in incomprehensible ways, shifting all the blame onto some fabricated "contamination entity."

Without a doubt, another faction had intervened here.

If the Council's investigation focused entirely on the "contamination entity," then this incident likely had little to do with her. She would only need to keep a close eye on the progress of their investigation.

If the true focus of the investigation was to find out who had killed the supervisor—in other words, the identity of the Awakened...

Then she wouldn't mind muddying these waters even further.