Book 3, Chapter 8: Abnormality

Book 3, Chapter 8: Abnormality

When Chen Chuan was near the stated location, he found that it was a residential area. The houses here were pretty old, the paint on the guardrails had peeled off, their connecting rods had been stomped so hard that they were bent, and the streetlights had long since broken down. Only a few pedestrians could be seen on the street.

There weren’t too many light effects that could be seen through the Realm Pass either. Most of the people living in the area were unlikely to be citizens, then.

Chen Chuan checked the Realm Pass. According to the location he set, the suspicious activity had occurred behind a building less than two hundred meters away.

Aside from checking missions related to suspicious events, he had also read up on news related to those events. It was said that dead birds often appeared in this area.

This in itself was nothing. It might be because some chemical had leaked, the birds were sick, or because they rammed into windows they couldn’t distinguish.

But whenever a large number of birds died, people also spotted the shadow of a large bird flying over the area.

Some people went to the site to check, and occasionally, they saw a person standing behind their reflection in the window while smiling at them. The problem was that this person had the head of a human and the body of a bird. When they turned around, there was no one standing behind them.

Such events were scary and eye-catching, but most of the citizens just treated it as a strange tale. Few people paid any attention to it.

Even though there were missions requesting help to investigate the case, the ones who posted them weren’t from the area itself. They were just rich people who wanted to satisfy their curiosity.

Soon, Chen Chuan found the place where the birds had died. It was on the roof of a residential apartment. There were loads of dirt- and dust-covered feathers in the corners.

Just then, he noticed organized doodles on the parapet nearby.

Chen Chuan went over and observed them closely, only to realize that this was an array.

So, this isn’t a supernatural being, but a ritual?

Based on his judgment, whoever did this array was a real amateur and was just doing a cheap imitation of a real array.

Not everyone could draw ritual arrays. If they wanted a certain result, they needed to be accurate and put in lots of emotion while drawing. They also had to know what they wanted to do and what they wanted to achieve.

If their emotions were a mess, if they had no clear goal when drawing the array, and if the array was full of disorderly lines, the ritual was most likely just going to... make people nod off. Still, many Central City folk abused medicine. If they used too much before coming here, the ritual’s effects might be amplified, and they could start hallucinating.

Regardless of whether that was really the case, Chen Chuan surveyed the rooftop. His second self showed no signs of blurring out, which meant that this place either didn’t have a supernatural being, or someone had already taken it out.

He wasn’t disappointed because of it. When he left the university, he had been mentally prepared. He did not expect to find a place affected by a supernatural being on the first try. This was also just his first stop of the day. He was going to visit a few more places after. So, he went downstairs and left the residential area.

***

At that moment, at the border of the residential area were dozens of people armed with various tools and weapons. They had spread out under their boss’s orders and hid themselves.

The boss observed the area with a relaxed expression. This wasn’t the first time they did such a thing, and his subordinates were experienced. Nothing would go wrong.

He had figured out Chen Chuan’s level of wealth at first glance. He used a mid-range Realm Pass, so he had some money on him, but not much. He might have come to Central City to rely on some relative for support.

They had seen far too many people like Chen Chuan. They got temporary citizenship through a guarantor, then tried to get a job before it ran out.

After that, even if they were no longer citizens, most employers wouldn’t fire them. They were more than happy continuing to employ them at a lower salary. This way, not only could they exploit them to the fullest, but even if something happened, they wouldn’t need to take responsibility.

This time, the group’s target might have learned some martial arts, but that was fine. It wasn’t the first time they took out a martial artist, anyway.

Young martial artists were great targets. Due to their youth, they weren’t too strong, while due to being martial artists, their organs and mutated tissue were healthy. They sold at an even greater price.

***

On the way back, Chen Chuan noticed that the pedestrians scattered here and there on the street had disappeared. The entire area had become silent. Even so, he continued forward calmly.

A few cans came flying his way from the alleys and corners around him. A pungent smell came out from them once they landed, and large plumes of smoke filled the area. Chen Chuan smelled a faint scent that signalled the smoke contained a paralyzing gas. It was used specifically to take down martial artists.

Then, he heard quick footsteps. Through the smoke, a few people holding steel bats wrapped in black rubber charged at him. Meanwhile, two people on his sides fired at him. Two electrified nets also flew toward him to trap him underneath.

The boss watched calmly from the back. Once the nets landed, the target wouldn’t be able to break free. Then, as the steel bats struck them mercilessly, even martial artists lost their ability to fight. After that, all they needed to do was to transfer their organs to buyers and get a good price for them.

While the boss was thinking about that, Chen Chuan walked out of the thick smoke without a scratch on him.

His gaze was abnormally calm.

The boss’ expression changed a few times before he spat out his cigarette and retreated.

He didn’t make it far before a stone struck the back of his head with a loud smack. He stumbled forward before falling down, motionless. Blood mixed with the interstitial fluid from his implants flowed out.

The smoke dispersed slowly to reveal more than a dozen twisted corpses scattered all over the place. Some hung off the guardrails, while others had their chests caved in while stuck to the walls, as if they were embedded there.

Chen Chuan’s gait never changed. When he passed by the boss, he cast the body a glance for information about him. The boss had a criminal record and seemed to be involved in the selling of organs and mutated tissue.

Judging by the tools the group had used, they were planning to capture him alive and extract his organs to sell them.

All of them had implants. They also moved swiftly and were fully equipped. An average martial artist in his place would have been defeated after making a single mistake, even if they had protective gear on.

Chen Chuan left the place. He had no intention of reporting this to the city patrol. The group’s co-conspirators may do something after discovering their corpses, but that had nothing to do with Chen Chuan.

After leaving the place, he went to check another place, but it was empty too.

It was almost the afternoon at this point, and Chen Chuan couldn’t help thinking that he was wasting his time. It would be better if he asked Qi Gao to search for him. After all, it would be easier for him to get information about these places as an agent. At most, Chen Chuan would just need to pay him a little extra.

So, he brought up his contact list and clicked on Qi Gao’s profile pic. After waiting for a while, Qi Gao’s rather exhausted voice came through. “Chen Chuan? Need any help?”

“I’d like to talk to you about a mission, Mr. Qi,” Chen Chuan stated.

Qi Gao perked up at that. “Sure, just...”

Then, he chuckled wryly. “Sorry, I’m in a little bit of trouble right now and won’t be able to get out of it immediately. Could you wait until I’ve dealt with it?”

“What sort of trouble are you in?”

Qi Gao sighed. “The city patrol has me under detention, and I need to pay a penalty to be released. I’m still in the process of borrowing money for it, so you might have to wait.”

Chen Chuan pondered over this and asked him how much his penalty was. “I can pay for it, but you’ll need to help me do something.”

Qi Gao immediately agreed to it and thanked Chen Chuan profusely.

“Wait for me,” Chen Chuan then said.

One hour later, Chen Chuan brought Qi Gao out of the city patrol’s guard post. They went to a bench by a roadside flowerbed. Qi Gao took huge gulps of water from a bottle before slumping against the back of the bench.

After a while, he said, “They took all the money I earned from my private job, which was the largest sum of money I’ve earned over the past few years. It all went into those bastards’ pockets.

“Those guys stopped me right after I finished my job. I was thinking about why they did that. It’s likely they recorded my car license number after we got away from the border patrol guards that day and were observing me over the past few days to cause me trouble at some point. That’s why they caught me the moment I got out of that place. Damn it!”

“If that’s the case, you’re lucky, Mr. Qi. If you had done something else, you might not have been able to get out of detention as easily as you did today,” Chen Chuan pointed out.

Qi Gao perked up a little at that and looked at Chen Chuan. “True. It’s all thanks to you that I got out today. By the way, I haven’t asked you what exactly you wanted me to do.”

“I need to take up some unique missions, but I don’t want to communicate with any agent companies,” Chen Chuan stated.

Qi Gao immediately understood what he meant. “Got it. You’re saying you want to do the missions while I solve the other problems?”

“That’s about right,” Chen Chuan said with a nod.

Qi Gao felt troubled. “You’re overestimating me here, Chen Chuan. You’re a proper student of Martial Valor University and live in the Arcane Palace. I’m sure that the missions you want to take aren’t any normal missions. I’m—”

Chen Chuan cut him off before he went too far. “These missions won’t involve helping people take revenge or solve personal grudges. They’re just somewhat unusual. You can state the amount you want as payment. I’m not gonna force you to help me.”

Qi Gao’s eyes kept flickering with different emotions. The new semester was about to start. If he couldn’t pay his daughter’s tuition fees, she would be expelled. The school was merciless in that regard.

Anyone who wanted to survive in Central City had to be naturally gifted to become a martial artist or to study hard. But education was expensive. That was why Qi Gao was forced to travel around frequently for work. It was all so that he could get the money to pay for his daughter’s tuition fees.

He gritted his teeth and rubbed his face hard before standing up and saying, “I’ll do it!”

Chen Chuan smiled at that. “You don’t have to act this way, Mr. Qi. I’ve only just arrived at Central City and am doing this to earn some money for my living expenses. But if I go about it alone, I’ll have to take care of a lot of troublesome stuff. That would leave me little time to actually do the missions.”

Qi Gao nodded in understanding. “What do you need me to do?”

Chen Chuan sent Qi Gao the missions related to suspicious events through his Realm Pass. “I want to do missions like these. Could you help me find more details about them?”

“Alright. I’ll do it right now.”

One of Qi Gao’s eyes flashed orange. After a while, he said in surprise, “You’re talking about anomalous-event missions? There’s already a group of specialists taking care of them, though.”