Chapter 24: Restlessness

Five field agents from Schwager entered the shop alongside Shakuya. The police had already marked various points of interest throughout the premises. There were three victims at the scene, two of whom were store clerks.

"Old K, what do you make of this?" Agent J, who had brought Shakuya along, looked at the chaotic scene and sighed, feeling at a loss as to where to even begin the investigation.

"J, let’s clear the scene first. Miss Shakuya, let’s take a look at the clues provided by the police." The senior agent known as K gestured to Shakuya.

"Understood."

The police had previously provided security footage from inside the shop. The agents on-site gathered around to watch it with Shakuya using their handheld devices. In the video, a strange man entered the store with an awkward, unnatural gait. He stood still, behaving in an unsettling manner. The two clerks greeted him, but the man didn't respond. A customer inside also came over to see what was happening.

Finding the man’s behavior odd, the two clerks stepped forward and patted his body. To their shock, the moment they made contact, their hands were sucked onto him, leaving them unable to pull away! Almost instantly, it was as if they were being swallowed by the stranger; they sank deeper and deeper into his body, letting out blood-curdling screams. A panicked customer tried to pull the clerks out, but by then, half of their bodies had already been absorbed into the stranger. The quiet little shop instantly transformed into a living hell. With the customer’s desperate, forceful tugging, the two clerks were finally pulled free, but... they had permanently lost the parts of their bodies that had been absorbed. They died on the spot.

The terrified customer tried to bolt for the door, but the stranger blocked his path. It appeared to be nothing more than a light collision, yet the part of the customer's body that made contact simply vanished. The stranger lingered in the shop for a few dozen seconds, surrounded by silence, before slowly walking out with that same strange, rhythmic gait. The chilling scene left everyone stunned.

"What on earth is going on here!?" Shakuya felt as though she had gotten herself into something massive.

"Miss Shakuya, let's organize the scene now," the young male agent who had brought her reminded her.

There were specialized agents tasked with removing the mangled remains. Shakuya’s responsibility was to record photos of the scene and log spatial detection data to compile for Shion.

"Sigh..." Shakuya breathed a sigh of relief, privately grateful she didn't have to handle the gruesome corpses. She used the instrument the agents had given her to scan the shop. She never expected to find herself in a scenario like something out of a science fiction film, though she hardly had the right to say that—not when she had already piloted a giant robot to fight mysterious monsters.

Perhaps from that moment on, it would be better to abandon the common sense associated with the persona of "Qin Yun," as that was merely an identity the Director had crafted for her after she lost her memories.

"Um... I've finished operating this device as you instructed." Shakuya handed the stopwatch-like instrument back to a female agent.

"Very well, Miss Shakuya. Thank you for your hard work." The agent put the device away.

Shakuya followed the agents outside. At the shop entrance, the team responsible for body recovery had finished their task. The missing, mangled remains of the clerks and the customer were now secured in body bags.

"So, what’s next?" Shakuya still felt shaken. What kind of monster was that?

"We can head back now. We’ll notify the police to handle the aftermath," the senior agent in charge replied.

"Uh, come to think of it... I don't even know your names? And you're all wearing sunglasses..." Shakuya had been busy helping them since she arrived and felt it would be rude to only ask now.

"It’s fine. We field agents don't actually know each other's real names; we go by codenames," the lead agent said, shaking Shakuya’s hand.

"But we all know who you are, Miss Shakuya," added Agent J, the young man who had brought her.

"You can call me Agent H," said the female agent who had handled the instrument.

"Agent F."

"Agent C."

The two crew-cut agents handling the bodies replied.

"And you can call me Agent K," the team leader smiled.

"Oh..."

This was the first time Shakuya had interacted with the field agents of the Schwager organization. Usually, she dealt primarily with Shion, the Director, and the technical staff.

"Please take care of me. We might be working together again in the future."

The agents' vehicle was parked at a secret exit in the alleyway. They loaded the remains into the car and then entered the underground passages of Neo-Chunqiu City, speeding toward the Schwager base. However, just as they were leaving, Shakuya thought she heard the sound of a trash can being knocked over in the alley. Was it a rat? Never mind, it was probably just an illusion born from her own tension.

Shakuya was now more interested in the results of Schwager's analysis of the data.

A few days later, when Longsheng revisited the game shop, he found it had closed down. He also saw news reports on television and the internet about the homicide that had occurred there. The media warned citizens that with the recent outflow of the population, security incidents were becoming more frequent, urging everyone to be mindful of their personal and property safety.

"Hmph... looks like the security in this city is starting to deteriorate," Bruce muttered, taking a sip of his cola as he spoke to Longsheng, who sat across from him. They had gone out together; it was a rare break from school, and Bruce had been feeling restless at home, so he had invited his friend out to clear his head. However, he couldn't help but feel that Longsheng had been distracted for the past few days.

"Hey, Longsheng, what’s up with you lately?"

Longsheng seemed to react only then. "Oh! Were you calling me, Bruce? Hahaha..."

Bruce looked at him skeptically. "I'm saying, you’ve looked like you’ve lost your soul these past few days. What exactly happened?"

"Nothing, nothing at all. I just think that since security is getting worse, we should spend less time wandering around outside..." Longsheng wanted to discuss it with Bruce, but he had no idea how to describe what had happened in the alleyway.

Could the murder at the shop have any connection to Qin Yun and her group? Who exactly were those men in black suits and sunglasses who had been with her? Could they have been the ones who committed the crime? But that seemed unlikely; they were carrying transparent bags to collect evidence from the scene, which made them look more like investigators. So, they must have been police-related... Qin Yun was supposedly from a military family, so it wasn't impossible for her to have ties to the police... Did Qin Yun have some kind of hidden identity?

No, his head was spinning. Longsheng realized he couldn't stop thinking about it.

"Hey, why don't we head back early today?" Seeing that Longsheng wasn't himself, Bruce didn't want to push his friend. "Do you need me to walk you back?"

Faced with his friend's concern, Longsheng finally flashed a smile. "Oh, no need, no need! I’m not a kid anymore. Look at you..."

Since that was the case, Bruce didn't insist; he knew when to stop worrying about others. He decided to head to the gym later, so he walked Longsheng to the subway station.

"Stay safe," they encouraged each other as they parted ways.