After pushing through the crowd, they looked at the burning jewelry store and the nine piles of ash near the entrance, their faces filled with confusion. “Didn't they say someone spontaneously combusted? Where's the body?”
“Officer, they've already been burned to ash! This fire was hotter than a crematorium!” a young man nearby exclaimed in shock.
The leader was a young man. Looking at the ashes, he recalled the directives regarding supernatural anomalies that had been handed down from above.
His expression shifted slightly, and he immediately pulled out his phone to report the situation.
A moment later, he lowered his phone and barked at the nine members of his squad, “Disperse the crowd immediately and set up a perimeter! The military and the Security Bureau are on their way!”
Hearing their captain's command, the other inspectors immediately began pushing back the onlookers. “Everyone, move back! Clear the area immediately!”
In the crowd, a young man muttered with regret, “Aw, I wanted to watch. The internet's been saying that seven supernatural items appeared in Yangcheng recently. I bet this spontaneous combustion is connected to that.”
“Is that stuff online actually real? Aren't they just rumors? I saw the national news channel debunking them,” a middle-aged man a few meters away asked, looking puzzled.
At this point, only a minority of people believed the rumors, especially since the authorities had been actively debunking them.
“The government debunked Ningcheng too, but have you seen a single person from Ningcheng come out to clarify things over the past few days? I think it's real,” someone else chimed in as the crowd began to disperse, murmuring among themselves.
Hearing them openly question the government right in front of him, a young inspector snapped angrily, “Stop spreading rumors! If you don't believe the government, who are you going to believe?”
With that, he picked up the pace, even shoving a few people to get them moving. The shoved pedestrians didn't dare complain and simply hurried away.
Unnoticed by the inspectors, six figures were squeezing their way through the dispersing crowd, moving against the flow.
They wore hats and face masks, with dark grey jackets over their clothes. Every single one of them had their hands tucked inside their pockets.
“Hey! What do you think you're doing? Can't you see the inspectors are handling a case here?” the young inspector who had been dispersing the crowd barked as he spotted one of the masked men approaching.
The man stopped in his tracks. He slowly pulled his hand out of his jacket, revealing a submachine gun.
The young inspector's face paled in horror. “Captain—”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gunfire erupted. Within a single second, over a dozen bloody holes were ripped into the young inspector's body.
Around him, the other five gunmen pulled out their own submachine guns and began spraying the remaining inspectors.
Hearing the commotion, the inspector captain instinctively reached for his sidearm and spun around.
Pfft! Pfft!
In the next instant, two small bloody holes appeared in his forehead. A mixture of blood and brain matter splattered out as he collapsed, still holding his half-drawn gun.
The inspectors and the nearby bystanders didn't even have time to react before they were riddled with bullets by the dense submachine gun fire.
“Ahhh!”
“Help!”
“They're killing people!”
“My leg! I've been shot in the leg! Someone help me!”
The six submachine guns emptied their magazines in just five seconds. Dozens of people, including the inspectors, lay dead on the spot, and many other unfortunate souls collapsed, wounded and screaming.
“Hurry, find the ring!” the lead gunman barked, rushing toward the piles of ash on the ground.
Ignoring the residual, blistering heat, they began digging through the ashes with their bare hands.
As they cleared away the piles, the last gunman spotted a golden ring gleaming in the center of the ashes.
His face lit up with joy. “Boss, I found it!”
Hearing this, the leader quickly pulled a palm-sized golden box from his jacket and tossed it over. “Put it inside! We're leaving immediately!”
The gunman caught the box and scooped up the ring along with some of the ash, not daring to touch the artifact directly.
“A sixty-million-dollar bonus is ours!” The gunman looked at the golden box in his hand, his eyes shining with excitement.
They were a combat squad under Tang Yongyun. Tang Yongyun had offered them astronomical bonuses for this mission in the Nanming Kingdom, and even if they died, their families would receive millions in compensation.
As long as he completed this job, he could retire and live a life of leisure back home.
Wooo! Wooo!
Sirens wailed in the distance.
“Let's move,” the lead gunman said. “We can only spend the money if we make it back alive.”
As he spoke, he pulled a remote-detonated C4 charge from his jacket and placed it on the ground.
The six of them quickly sprinted into a nearby alley. Once inside, they swiftly discarded their submachine guns, jackets, masks, and hats.
The lead gunman was an ordinary-looking young man with a black mole on his forehead.
Shi Jian'an took the golden box and looked at his five companions. “Disperse! Remember, only the ones who survive get the bonus!”
With that, he dashed deeper into the alley, and the other gunmen scattered in different directions.
More than ten kilometers away, inside a guesthouse purchased in the suburbs of the East District.
Tang Yongyun leaned back on the sofa, quietly watching the situation near the jewelry store through the eyes of his crows.
“Boss, what's the point of sending them? Why didn't you send me instead?” Buck's voice came from behind him.
Near the doorway, Jiang Nan looked at the two-meter-tall Buck, whose hands were covered in pitch-black scales, and couldn't help but ask, “You? Do you really think you can just wander around outside like that?”
It wasn't just his hands. A short, black horn had also sprouted from his forehead. By consuming massive amounts of food, he had forced his Ghoul Sequence to evolve.
“Hmph. I can just wear a black robe. Why wouldn't I be able to go out?” Buck sneered. “I feel overflowing with power right now. If the Boss hadn't forbidden it, I would have personally wiped out everyone trying to steal the items.”
Hearing Buck's complaints, Tang Yongyun replied in a flat tone, “You'll have plenty of opportunities to show off. Those six are merely bait to test Yangcheng's waters. Once they draw out all the hidden monsters and freaks, that's when you'll strike.”
A sinister grin spread across Buck's face. “As expected of the Boss. You always think of everything. There's no way those fools can outplay you.”
Tang Yongyun remained silent. Thousands of crows were flying over Yangcheng, and every single one of them served as his eyes.
Meanwhile, back on the street where the jewelry store was located.
Just as over a dozen law enforcement vehicles pulled up to the entrance of the jewelry store, the C4 charge planted on the ground suddenly detonated.
Boom!
A massive explosion erupted. The windows of the lead vehicle shattered instantly, and the shockwave ruptured the internal organs of the inspectors inside.
Crash! Crash! Crash!
The windows of nearby buildings and the trailing law enforcement vehicles shattered from the force of the blast.
The street was left in complete ruins.
At the end of the street, several black cars came to a halt.
Xu Qiulan was at the wheel, with Bai Yuwen sitting in the passenger seat.
Bai Yuwen's expression shifted slightly as he watched the explosion ahead. “Are these guys insane? Do they really have no fear of death, pulling a stunt like this on Nanming Kingdom territory?”
“Fear death? They'll do absolutely anything to obtain supernatural power. Never underestimate its allure,” Xu Qiulan sneered.
Zzzt! Zzzt! Zzzt!
The car's radio crackled with static, and then Lu Senyu's voice came through.
“Xu Qiulan, have you arrived at the scene? The supernatural item should be nearby. Have Bai Yuwen pursue them!”
Xu Qiulan picked up the radio and replied, “Chief, we've arrived. Don't worry, we'll definitely retrieve the stolen item!”
With that, she turned to look at Bai Yuwen in the passenger seat. He nodded, reached into his jacket, and pulled out his mask to put it on.
His body rapidly expanded, growing to a height of 1.9 meters and filling out his black clothes.
Opening the car door, Bai Yuwen said calmly, “Don't worry, Chief Xu. They haven't run very far!”
Bang!
The moment his feet touched the ground, the concrete beneath him cracked, and he shot forward like an afterimage.
Rate on N.U.
