Enforcer Manual
Chapter 413: Don’t Pick Up Things You Haven’t Seen Before_1

Chapter 413: Chapter 413: Don’t Pick Up Things You Haven’t Seen Before_1

Under the guidance of the village chief of Sheep Village, the group returned down the road and took out an aluminum box from one of the drawers at the inn’s counter. Song Lan opened the box to find that it contained identical "brooches," each with a different serial number on the back.

"I found this box while searching the inn, and I thought the decorations inside were quite special, so I carried one with me."

The village chief of Sheep Village said truthfully.

He hadn’t expected that such an inconspicuous brooch would nearly cost him his life, "I originally planned to give it as a souvenir to someone."

Song Lan looked at the box. The innkeeper had placed it here, probably intending to use these "brooches" as gifts.

In front of everyone, he once again opened the brooch and took out the chip inside.

Such a technologically infused design didn’t seem like it was used for casting curses or completing some kind of evil ceremony, he explained to the others, "The reason you all experienced symptoms of dreamwalking is because of the influence of the chip. Its virus invades your cybernetic bodies and controls your actions while you sleep."

"...Were we hacked?"

"You could say that, and the solution is quite simple. As long as you don’t carry these things on you, you won’t experience any more symptoms of dreamwalking."

The experiences of the three people once again proved a life philosophy - don’t pick up unfamiliar things.

It could not only be a nameplate of a victim from a past era but also possibly cobalt-60. Song Lan remembered watching a medical drama before, where someone, driven by excessive curiosity, picked up a radioactive object and even wore it as an amulet every day.

Perhaps this is a true reflection of the adage that art imitates life, only the happenings in the town are much more chilling upon closer inspection.

Those who fell off cliffs during their sleepwalks, it’s unknown whether their misfortune was due to receiving these souvenirs.

On the other hand, he still had to thank the three for their reckless actions. If they hadn’t turned everything upside down to find these "brooches," who knows when they would have learned of the incidents that took place in this inn.

After being enlightened by scientific thinking, Fengling curiously picked up a "brooch" and asked, "Does this really contain a virus installed by a hacker?"

If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she would probably never believe that the artifice behind the town’s decade’s long cases of artificial disappearances were these inconspicuous ornaments.

"I don’t know."

"Huh?"

"I just made it all up."

Fengling was astonished by Song Lan’s confident tone and demeanor. Just minutes before, this man had been preaching about science to the three, and now he claimed that everything he had confidently stated was made up?

"There’s no doubt that this thing can cause sleepwalking, but I haven’t figured out the exact principle yet."

He was momentarily puzzled as to why a consciousness from decades past would attach to these items. However, these suspected victim identity tags provided him with a new direction.

Maybe Captain Kate, too, had followed these items, carriers of the consciousness of people from a past era, to eventually find the lair of the Dream Thief, as mentioned on her last Post-it note.

To get closer to science, one must first step out of scientific thinking and go back to the town legends themselves.

And with that step backward, it was as if several decades had passed.

That took us back to when the hotel had just been renovated, quite a few decades ago. Song Lan had found a collection of strange tales from the town’s history, which included a bizarre story about the hotel, located in the records Lu Xiang had searched through.

After the hotel opened, there were frequent reports of hauntings. Some guests claimed they heard terrifying noises in their sleep, some awoke to find themselves under their beds, and others alleged that someone crept into their rooms in the middle of the night.

The rumors of the hotel being haunted caused an uproar, filling the residents of the town with fear. They believed the hotel had attracted something unclean.

Out of desperation, the hotel owner spent a considerable sum to hire an expert.

This expert, who did not wish to reveal their identity, drove everyone out of the hotel and stayed there alone for three days and three nights. After that, the haunting incidents ceased, allowing the hotel to remain in business until now.

Even the owner did not know what method the expert had used, but some vaguely heard banging and tapping sounds coming from the hotel’s basement every midnight.

In the multitude of "Walk Close to Science" episodes or bizarre events that Song Lan had seen, there were always one or several unnamed experts. He just never expected that in the twenty-second century, this profession would still exist.

Heeding the clue from the strange tale, he headed to the hotel’s basement, which was cluttered with discarded furniture and old appliances. It seemed the owner had shifted all the outdated and unwanted items from the hotel here. Song Lan searched the basement for quite some time before finally finding a sealed entrance with the help of the "Dream Thief."

At first glance, the wall seemed no different from the rest, and had it not been for the "Dream Thief’s" reminder, he might have searched all night without finding it.

Breaking through the sealed entrance and heading downward, Song Lan thought he might see some bloody and horrifying scenes, but unexpectedly, the space below was akin to a storage room, where various daily necessities were haphazardly strewn about, including some "brooches" on the floor.

The place appeared to have been abandoned for a long time; a layer of dust covered the floor and the musty smell in the air was choking, as if no one had entered for many years.

He ventured deeper and finally found several rooms deep within the storage space.

One of them seemed to be a discarded surveillance room containing equipment that had been obsolete for decades, and beside it was a room reminiscent of an interrogation chamber.

The moment he opened the door, a foul odor invaded his nostrils.

A dessicated skeleton lay across the doorway, its clothing so tattered it was impossible to discern its original form. However, the pistol lying next to the skeleton immediately made Song Lan think of the person’s identity.

In his mind, he even pictured Captain Kate finding her way here, walking into the room cautiously with her gun raised.

Her body lay sprawled on the ground, and from its position, she seemed to have suffered an attack from behind.

But since only bones remained, Song Lan could not immediately discern whether she had been shot or struck with a blunt weapon.

Just as he was about to examine the body more closely, a deep voice suddenly came from inside the room.

"You’ve arrived."

Song Lan’s heart tightened. Was there someone hiding inside?

Yet before he had entered, both he and the "Dream Thief" detected no signs of life in the lower levels.

The voice seemed to mistake him for someone else and continued to ask, "How is the task I entrusted to you progressing?"