Chapter 27
Xiao Shengyun received a message from Ye Ting in the evening.
Hua Rui New Residence—a community on the outskirts of the city, the place where An Nan and An Tong were imprisoned, and the place where the Action Department found Yue Ning.
Ye Ting led the team that mission, and when they found Yue Ning, she was already completely corrupted.
The church stronghold was attacked unexpectedly. There were only four or five awakened individuals inside, while the rest were ordinary people. In order to transfer relevant data, they released the imprisoned experimental subjects.
A trained executor becomes stronger than an ordinary person after being corrupted, but Yue Ning lost his mind at the time and not only injured the executor but also killed many church members.
"I never expected to have the chance to be trained by Captain Yue again after so long," the injured member said with a smile after the mission.
They found their colleague and simultaneously destroyed an enemy stronghold, making everyone very happy.
Although Yue Ning's condition is not good, it's still better than finding a corpse.
When discussing how to deal with Yue Ning, Ye Ting suggested placing her in this hospital. He spoke vehemently at the meeting, and his reasons were reasonable. Yue Ning still had a lot of important information that had not been passed on, including the location of the church headquarters and information about its members. Her safety had to be guaranteed.
The captain of the second detachment rolled his eyes on the spot: "This is not twenty years ago. No one here will send a hero to his death. Besides, we manage our own deputy captain. Why are you getting involved?"
The other members of the second team all wore knowing smiles, which made Ye Ting blush deeply.
Besides the mission report, Ye Ting asked about some other things, but he was busy looking for the "fake rose" and didn't have time to come.
"So I'm the only one going to Huarui New Residence this time?" Xiao Shengyun sent a message.
"Don't worry, we have regulations here that require at least three people on a mission. I'll send you your teammates' information later," Ye Ting replied.
Xiao Shengyun opened the file, which contained information on four people: himself, Yue Ning, Huang Yu, and Zhou Zhi.
This team is obviously something Ye Ting hastily put together because the operations department couldn't spare any more people.
The mission was proposed by Yue Ning; she wanted to revisit familiar places in hopes of recovering her memories. Furthermore, due to various reasons, the area hadn't been fully investigated back then, and it was possible to find some information left behind by the church.
Huang Yu is the birdman with yellow feathers, a member of the first team of the action department. Last time, he got into a fight with pollutants during a mission, and the pollution level spiked too high, so his teammates sent him here.
Zhou Zhi was probably invited by Captain Ye using his personal connections. Yue Ning hadn't recovered, and the remaining two were both newcomers. Ye Ting needed to find a patriarch to take care of things.
The Huarui New Area has long been abandoned, and this mission is just an investigation, so not many people were assigned to it.
However, to Xiao Shengyun's surprise, Ye Ting actually made him the captain of this investigation team.
Letting a newcomer who hasn't been with the company long lead the team, what kind of makeshift team is your operations department?
Ye Ting offered a bunch of reasons, and when Xiao Shengyun suggested that Zhou Zhi be the captain, he looked even more disdainful: "This is our internal affair, how can we allow foreign officials to interfere?"
You didn't say that when you asked someone for a favor. You really know how to separate public and private matters. Xiao Shengyun gained a new understanding of this person's shamelessness.
However, not everyone is as unreliable as Ye Ting.
"Is the Operations Department so short-staffed? The Rose Church's mission is A-level, and they actually sent a kid like you, who hasn't even grown his hair yet, to investigate. What has Ye Ting been up to?!"
After regaining his senses, Yue Ning's aura completely changed, and he returned to the decisive and efficient executor he used to be.
She had no objection to the personnel arrangements; this type of investigation had the lowest risk factor, so there was no need to worry about it.
Ultimately, the two decided to travel to Lucheng District three days later.
Unlike the towering buildings in the city center, Lucheng District, as one of the oldest districts in S City, appears extremely dilapidated and desolate.
The streets were wide, but there weren't many vehicles. The shops on both sides were two or three stories high, and many of the shops had their doors tightly closed.
According to information provided by Yue Ning, one of the church's locations is in the underground parking garage of an old residential area.
"I've been in that hospital for so long, and I haven't done anything for half a year. It's really exciting." Huang Yu rubbed his hands together in the car, seemingly eager to make a big splash.
"Be cautious. Do you always rush into missions?" Yue Ning slapped Huang Yu on the back, making the latter wince in pain from the force of the blow.
Yue Ning had been the deputy captain for several years. When going on missions, she would subconsciously take care of the younger ones. Even though they had only known each other for a short time, she subconsciously included Xiao Shengyun and Huang Yu in her protective circle.
As for Zhou Zhi, she had heard of him before, as he had always lived in B City, but she had never met him.
"By the way, didn't you say you didn't participate in the operations department's missions? Why are you an exception this time?"
Xiao Shengyun gripped the steering wheel, glanced at the passenger seat, and couldn't help but tease.
Of course, he still hoped that this person would leave as soon as possible. Zhou Zhi's talent was like a detection radar. If he revealed any flaws in the battle, he might become someone's guinea pig in the next second.
Zhou Zhi adjusted his glasses: "Five days ago, a bus was attacked by pollutants. Only one person survived; the rest died on the spot. The pollutants weren't strong, and the incident was classified as Level E. However, at the scene, the investigators discovered a strange item—a pot of eerie red flowers. These flowers were subsequently sent to a research institute, where, after numerous experiments, it was concluded that the flowers have the ability to attract pollutants. You should know what that means?"
The expressions of the other people in the car instantly turned serious.
Huang Yu gasped, "Holy crap, does that mean wherever those people put a flower, the pollutants will attack that spot?"
“That’s right. If the pollutants are used by malicious individuals, the consequences would be unimaginable. That’s why I need to obtain more samples and information.”
No one spoke in the car. Yue Ning clutched the necklace in her hand, her eyelashes lowered.
This residential area is old; the peeling paint and moss in the cracks of the walls reflect the passage of time. The security windows on the outside are rusty, and there are many clothes that have dried on the windowsill.
"Twenty years ago, a cataclysmic event occurred, and most of the survivors were moved to the main city, while the outskirts were completely abandoned."
The Great Cataclysm—Xiao Shengyun heard this term again. This event seemed to have left a deep mark on every place.
Because this neighborhood was one of the hardest-hit areas in the great catastrophe twenty years ago, it was labeled as an abandoned site by the Bureau of Supernatural Abilities after the disaster, and long metal plates and warning tapes were put up outside.
The group parked the car in an open area and jumped over a low wall.
What came into view was a scene of ruins, with several centimeters of ash on the ground, beneath which were patches of dried brown bloodstains.
Fortunately, the bodies inside had already been cleaned up, otherwise, who knows what a horrific scene it would have been.
"After that disaster, those old men from the Supernatural Abilities Bureau argued for days about the cleanup work." Yue Ning gave a sarcastic smile. "Some people thought cleaning up the corpses was too troublesome. First, there wasn't enough manpower, and second, there were source particles in the environment that were harmful to the people doing the cleanup. So they suggested just sealing off these places, setting them on fire, and that would be the end of it."
"In this world, human life is worthless. A few decades ago, a burial plot could fetch an astronomical price, but now, a hundred or so deaths wouldn't even make it into the Bureau of Supernatural Abilities' files."
The shops at the entrance of the residential area are open, and you can see colorful goods inside, but the place is already deserted.
Following the route Yue Ning remembered, the group headed towards the entrance to the underground parking garage.
Huang Yu was scanning around with the detector, but after the previous accidents, Xiao Shengyun felt that this thing was not as useful as his innate perception ability.
"Can you smell the fragrance in the air?" The aroma was faint and elusive, spreading gently through the air and wafting into the nostrils.
Yue Ning's talent allows her to keenly perceive any subtle changes in the environment, essentially giving her a comprehensive detection radar. Relying on this talent, she has led her teammates to escape death several times in past missions.
“No,” Zhou Zhi shook his head. “Either the concentration of the fragrance is below the human olfactory threshold, or it is a pollutant that we cannot detect.”
"However, it seems we don't need to investigate this anymore."
He looked up and heard a series of hurried footsteps in the distance, accompanied by creaking sounds.
Giant, long-haired monkeys galloped towards us; their hind limbs were muscular, adapted for jumping and running. Soft pads on their feet cushioned their impact during jumps and landings.
The monkey was quite large, with protruding teeth and a long tail swaying behind it.
Mutant!
Huang Yu's pupils contracted, and the flames of the Golden Crow instantly ignited, like a sturdy shield. The temperature in the environment rose rapidly, and the air seemed to be ignited.
"Squeak squeak".
All the security windows in the community were opened instantly, and behind each window was a mutated monkey. There were hundreds of them in this one building alone, a number that was terrifying.
"We're surrounded!"
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