Enforcer Manual
Chapter 409: Believe in Science!_1

Chapter 409: Chapter 409: Believe in Science!_1

Looking at the electronic dossier sent by Lu Xiang, Song Lan was also stumped.

Over the past decades, merely the number of people who mysteriously departed the small town and then vanished amounted to dozens, not to mention other urban legends. However, because District Seventeen had always been a hotspot for disappearances, and the previous head of the Law Enforcers department ignored these cases, the whereabouts of these missing people became an eternal mystery.

Last night, he subconsciously thought it was another conspiracy by the company, speculating they had tampered with the Sheep Village head to use him to investigate the Void. But considering the numerous dossiers sent by Lu Xiang, things didn’t seem that simple.

Even if the company had supernatural powers, it couldn’t have predicted decades ago that this town would one day become the stronghold of the Void.

Song Lan never imagined that his leisurely trip to start a farm would suddenly intertwine with the town’s eerie tales and dozens of disappearance cases.

He revisited the dossier. The identities of the missing persons varied widely, with no common social factors to pinpoint, the only clue being that they all seemed to have left the town sleepwalking, following the same highway towards the urban area.

Indeed, the Sheep Village head had experienced the same situation as the missing individuals. However, he was intercepted by "The Hunter" halfway, which left him injured all over. Yet, from another perspective, this also saved his life; otherwise, he could very likely have become one of the many missing.

To unravel the doubts in his mind, Song Lan instructed the three of them to stay in their hotel rooms and not wander around. He then dispatched the Infected security robot to guard them on the third floor. Afterward, he arranged for a transport vehicle from the neighboring farm under construction, taking him and Fengling slowly along the highway towards the urban area.

Back in 2020, he was a faithful audience of "Walk Close to Science," always believing that bizarre incidents often had scientifically explainable reasons. Yet, he never expected to get personally involved in such a program one day.

Now, he had to clear up the decades-long mystery of the town’s population disappearances. Otherwise, this strange event would continuously haunt him, disrupting his sleep at night.

For that, he had to overdraw his Psychic Abilities once more, spreading them out and meticulously observing the surroundings. If those missing hadn’t encountered aliens and vanished mid-journey, then they might have left some clues along the way.

But after driving several kilometers and reaching a steep mountain road, the spread-out Psychic Abilities finally detected traces left by the missing under the cliff.

They parked the vehicle by the road, with the Guardian Spirit leading the way. They made their way down the mountain and ultimately located dozens of weathered skeletons scattered about.

Some had journeyed far along the mountain path before falling off the cliff to their death, while others had fallen shortly upon reaching the mountain road.

"Did someone kill them, then toss their bodies here?"

Fengling asked curiously after inspecting the bodies with Song Lan. She knew those scattered here were likely the people who vanished according to the town’s strange tales.

"Doesn’t seem like it," Song Lan shook his head. Having lived with Lu Xiang for so long, he had learned a bit about criminal investigation, "If someone killed them and intentionally dumped the bodies, they shouldn’t be scattered around like this."

When they surveyed the farm location yesterday, they discovered that just by heading east out of the town, one would run into a wasteland. Even if a murderer intended to dump bodies, they should lure them east. This highway was occasionally trafficked, which would more likely expose the perpetrator’s actions.

Therefore, Song Lan came up with a bold conjecture.

These people had wandered here in their sleep and, due to the steep terrain, accidentally fell off the cliff to their deaths. Passing vehicles wouldn’t spread their Psychic Abilities across half the mountain to search for clues like he did. Moreover, since most of the missing left the town at night, no one would have imagined that the townspeople missing for many years were all buried here.

Both of them dug and searched, hastily erecting simple unnamed graves for these unidentified missing persons.

"This also perfectly explains the anecdote of the night bus driver encountering ghosts on the mountain road. What he saw were the sleepwalking missing, but because of the dim light and their erratic walking, he mistook them for ghosts."

With that explanation, Song Lan felt much more at ease.

Although he still didn’t know why these people experienced sleepwalking, he at least ruled out mysterious forces like aliens.

From a scientific standpoint, these people accidentally fell to their deaths while sleepwalking through the treacherous mountain roads.

Then he thought of the only survivor who reported the incident. Unlike the other missing, she had traveled to the urban area by car. After finding a hotel room in the urban area, she slept until awoken.

Possibly that day, she chanced upon an acquaintance driving to the urban area halfway there and was called onto the vehicle in her confusion, sparing her the fate of falling off the cliff.

According to Lu Xiang’s investigation, the incident occurred over twenty years ago. The woman returned to the town and did not experience anything similar afterward, living out her later years in peace.

"Perhaps the purpose of sleepwalking wasn’t to kill, but to have them leave the town for the urban area,"

Song Lan hypothesized after getting back in the vehicle.

But Fengling was filled with doubts, "Why would they do that?"

She increasingly felt that the outside world was too incomprehensible.

Returning from the small town to the urban area posed no danger at all, and taking the bus was but a trivial matter. Yet dozens of people had lost their lives doing just that.

"They might have been trying to evade pursuit,"

"But you said there was no killer, didn’t you?"

"I said the killer didn’t appear in the real world. The vendor mentioned that the missing people looked panicked when they left the town, as if they were fleeing from someone. However, that day he didn’t spot anyone suspicious pursuing the missing people. The village chief of Sheep Village dreamt that he found himself in a place like a prison and remembered being urged to run in his dream."

"Someone caused them to have the same dream,"

Fengling thoughtfully conjectured that it could be a Psychic who might still be in the town.

"There’s no one else in the town but us."

Before they set off, Song Lan had already searched the entire town, and they were the only people left.

They had only resolved one of their questions. As for why these missing people had the same dream, that was the next mystery that their "Walk Close to Science" Bug Swarm team needed to unravel.

Don’t go away, the excitement continues after the ads.

The familiar advertising slogan even popped up in Song Lan’s mind.

Subsequently, he shared his discoveries from the cliff base with Lu Xiang. The criminal investigation expert from District Seventeen once again highly commended him.

He had used science to answer the question of the whereabouts and cause of death of the missing people from the town over the past several decades.

"It’s such a waste for you not to be a detective,"

Lu Xiang once again lamented over the phone, knowing that such strange tales were considered some of the most bizarre cases even within the Law Enforcers, and many Law Enforcers would feel chilled discussing these matters at midnight, "You already possess the most important traits of a detective."

"Are you referring to a clever mind?"

As a tactician, Song Lan decided to graciously accept Lu Xiang’s compliment.

"No, clever minds are common. What you possess is an even more special talent."

"What talent?"

"The talent to be where murder cases happen."

Lu Xiang said seriously.

Throughout history, many people have possessed intelligence, but few have a physique like a Jinx Star, where a simple trip could unravel a decades-old missing persons case. Historical examples are exceptionally rare.

"Is that supposed to be a compliment?"

Song Lan’s mouth twitched; he would rather not have that kind of talent.

"Of course."

Switching gears, Lu Xiang suddenly asked, "Do you remember Captain Kate?"

"I do."

He had heard about Captain Kate from Zhuang Chi more than once. Zhuang Chi said she was a hands-on and capable leader who had not only saved her from peril and recommended her to join the Law Enforcers, but was also always on the frontline combatting crime.

Regrettably, in District Seventeen, good people often don’t get rewarded, and Captain Kate didn’t catch a good break. Before Lu Xiang was transferred to District Seventeen, she went missing while investigating a case.

"I just came across another interesting piece of information. Before Captain Kate went missing, she seemed to be investigating the disappearance cases in the town. The last time she was seen, she was driving alone towards the town."

After that, there were no more signs of Captain Kate.

Vanished without a trace.