“Ding dong – Welcome!”

Lin Qiye pushed open the door of the office and saw Hong Ying sitting upright on the sofa, lost in thought. He waved at her.

“Morning, Sister Hong Ying.”

“Qiye! You finally came!” Hong Ying stood up abruptly when she saw Lin Qiye.

“What’s wrong?”

“Something happened.” Hong Ying spoke seriously and grabbed Lin Qiye’s wrist, leading him downstairs.

This was the first time Lin Qiye had seen such a serious expression on Hong Ying’s face. He furrowed his brows slightly. “A mysterious… presence has arrived?”

“Yes, and it’s quite troublesome.”

The two of them entered the activity room after pushing the door open, and Lin Qiye noticed that all the members of Team 136 were already present.

Chen Muye, leaning against a pillar, walked to the conference table when he saw Lin Qiye arrive and sat down, still expressionless.

“Now that everyone is here, let’s start the meeting.”

After everyone took their seats, Chen Muye tapped his fingers on the table and began speaking slowly.

“Last night, we received news that another suspected mythical creature has appeared. The location is… Cangnan City Second Middle School.”

“Second Middle School?!” Lin Qiye was taken aback.

“Yes, the school you attended.” Chen Muye nodded. “And it seems like the one who reported it is someone you know well.”

Chen Muye shouted towards the back room, “Hey, that kid, are you awake? Come out if you are!”

Everyone turned their heads and soon, the door to the room opened slowly, revealing a young boy with bloodshot eyes walking out.

When Lin Qiye saw him, he exclaimed, “Li Yifei?”

Li Yifei was taken aback and rubbed his eyes when he saw Lin Qiye sitting at the conference table, confirming that it was indeed him.

“Lin Qiye? What are you doing here? Did you also see that monster?”

“No, he’s one of us.” Wu Xiangnan shook his head and said.

“Temporary member,” Chen Muye corrected.

Li Yifei stared at Lin Qiye with wide eyes and only reacted after a while. “Damn! They said you joined the army, but you actually joined here!”

Lin Qiye shrugged. “Some unexpected things happened.”

“We can talk about your matters later. Let’s focus on the case now.” Chen Muye reminded, then he seemed to remember something and added,

“Normally, if there is a suspected case involving the mysterious, we would report it to the police first, and then they would transfer it to us. But this kid experienced the Ghost-Faced Man case last time, had contact with us, and signed a confidentiality agreement. So they called us directly, skipping the middle process.

This is an exception, our normal procedure is not like this.”

Everyone nodded, but Lin Qiye knew clearly that Chen Muye was explaining this to him.

“Go ahead.”

“Alright.” Li Yifei swallowed and began recalling. “Last night, I went back to the school to get my homework book and happened to see…”

Li Yifei explained in detail what he had witnessed last night. The more they listened, the more furrowed the brows of the team members became.

After Li Yifei finished speaking, Wu Xiangnan nodded.

“If what this kid said is true, then there is a 95% chance that this matter is related to the mysterious.” He turned to Li Yifei. “You should know the consequences if you report false information, right?”

“I know, I know. Everything I said before is true, it can’t be more true!” Li Yifei replied sincerely.

“Good.” Chen Muye turned to Wu Xiangnan. “Tell us your thoughts.”

“Based on the information we have so far, this mythical creature has a strong ability to disguise itself. It can transform into others while still being able to communicate normally without revealing any flaws.”

Wen Qimo sighed beside them. “Disguise… another troublesome fellow.”

“In addition, it seems to have the ability to assimilate the creatures it swallows, and that is what we really need to be cautious about.” Wu Xiangnan said.

“Like the zombies in movies? Infinite infection?” Hong Ying asked.

“Although the method of infection is different, the effect is indeed similar.”

“Then can’t we just rush into the school and kill that Liu Xiaoyan?” Hong Ying’s eyes lit up.

“It’s not that simple.” Lin Qiye suddenly spoke from the other end. “Since it can infect others, we can’t be sure if Liu Xiaoyan is its true form… because she might also be infected by someone else.”

“Qiye is right.” Wu Xiangnan nodded. “The biggest difficulty of this mysterious case is that we don’t know where the source of this strange infection is. It’s like going to kill zombies, even if we kill all the other infected zombies, it won’t be useful if we can’t find the mother zombie.”

“And we don’t know how long this mythical creature has existed and how many people it has infected.” Wen Qimo added. “Liu Xiaoyan could be its first victim, or she could be the nth victim.

In fact, we need to be prepared for the worst…”

“The worst?” Hong Ying was puzzled.

“That the entire Second Middle School… has turned into a monster school.” Wu Xiangnan spoke slowly, his eyes filled with seriousness. “And not only the school, but also other places in Cangnan City that have been infected by this creature.”

Upon hearing this, Li Yifei suddenly shivered. “What… what do you mean?”

“Have you ever thought…” Wu Xiangnan stood up slowly, looking directly into Li Yifei’s eyes, and calmly said,

“In this school you are in, besides you, all the other teachers and students… have become monsters?

No, even you, who are standing here right now…

Could have unknowingly become a part of this mystery?”

Li Yifei’s pupils suddenly contracted, feeling a chill rushing from the soles of his feet to his brain, his mind went blank!”Alright, Xiangnan, stop scaring him,” Wen Qimo said with a laugh as he stood up. “If it were really that bad, the ‘Raven of Calamity’ would have already cried out. Since it hasn’t made a sound, it means the situation isn’t that dangerous yet.”

“‘Raven of Calamity’? What is that?” Lin Qiye asked, looking at Hong Ying in confusion.

“It’s a raven, but also a Forbidden Artifact that carries its own Forbidden Ruin,” Hong Ying explained patiently. “When a major disaster is about to strike Cangnan City, it will cry out in advance as a warning. You could consider it a detector of sorts.”

“I see,” Lin Qiye nodded.

“Anyway, now that the mystery has appeared, we must investigate it thoroughly. If we let this creature continue to grow, I’m afraid the future Xiangnan described won’t be far off,” Chen Muye said slowly. “Xiangnan, do you have a plan?”

Wu Xiangnan sat down, adjusted his glasses, and said seriously, “I think our priority should be to locate the mythological creature’s main body and determine how many people it has infected. So, I propose that we split into two teams.

One team will center around the Second Middle School and spread out to look for traces of other infected individuals;

The other team will infiltrate the Second Middle School to find the main body as quickly as possible.”

Chen Muye nodded, his gaze sweeping over everyone,

“Since we’re infiltrating the Second Middle School, we can’t alert it. We need to fit the image of high school students…

Hong Ying, Xiao Nan, and… Qi Ye,

The task of entering the Second Middle School and finding its main body is up to you.”