Enforcer Manual
Chapter 678: Tree of Sin_1

Chapter 678: Chapter 678: Tree of Sin_1

Within a single day, two vicious incidents occurred in The First Region.

It all began with a malfunctioning air conditioning unit in a certain company, where the entire repair team was attacked and killed. Soon after, an explosion happened beneath a certain stretch of road, leading to a significant car crash resulting in three deaths and one injury.

Outside the window, the sky had completely darkened. Song Lan moved a chair to the window and sat down, bird-watching the unique night scene of The First Region, while the television behind him broadcasted local news.

The workers in the building opposite were still working overtime, day and night, as if everything happening outside their company had nothing to do with them.

He felt he had been deceived.

Everyone had told him that The First Region was one of the safest areas, with more than two Six Stars rescuers stationed at all times throughout the year, so that even the craziest criminals didn’t dare cause trouble here. But he had only arrived in The First Region not long ago, and already so many people had died.

Now Song Lan seriously suspected that among them, someone had the "Conan physique," where death followed wherever he went.

"Knock, knock, knock—knock, knock, knock—"

The sudden knocking at the door seemed hurried, and before Song Lan could respond, the knocker already identified herself, saying, "Mr. Lucky, I am Natalie from Military Intelligence Section Seven. We just received important intelligence, please open the door!"

Years of being a couch potato had given Song Lan a hunch that Military Intelligence Section Seven seeking him out meant no good.

He stretched lazily and opened the door somewhat reluctantly.

"Mr. Lucky, we have just learned that a reserve member has gone missing! This is his identification information."

The photo on the electronic business card was all too familiar, resembling the blond youth from NTR works who was facing the camera, his right hand making a victory sign and smiling.

"The ’Yaku Barrier,’ you should have met him earlier. He was last sighted at the scene where the air conditioning repair team disappeared. The captain of the Law Enforcers said he went alone to the sewers."

They had ample reason to suspect that the subsequent explosion was the aftermath of a battle between the "Yaku Barrier" and the attackers.

But as the investigation deepened, they gradually discovered the strangeness of the whole affair.

The "Yaku Barrier’s" own company seemed completely unaware of the event, which was more like his personal action. Yet, the details of the scene described by the captain of the Law Enforcers contradicted what the company had provided—he saw the "Yaku Barrier" carefully photographing the scene with a mobile phone before entering the sewer, sending it to someone.

They speculated that the person he was in contact with must have been the liaison officer connected with his company.

"We investigated everyone related to the ’Yaku Barrier’ within the company, but when we got to the liaison officer, he suddenly jumped from a building. Before he did, he destroyed all his personal data, and we have already dispatched our best hackers to try to recover those damaged data."

Despite the bizarre and tragic process, Song Lan always felt there was nothing strange about it.

He had seldom seen anyone who could keep cannon fodder lines on their lips like Yaku.

"Tell me, what do you need me to do?"

"This is the site of the explosion, which may be the last place where the ’Yaku Barrier’ was seen. Our investigation team found no useful information, so we want to invite you, the expert, to take a look at the scene."

"I understand."

Song Lan whistled, and Yeying, who had been rolling around on the bed out of boredom, finally lit up, happily flying to his shoulder.

"Thank you, Mr. Lucky!"

...

The site of the explosion was not hard to find. It seemed that in order to protect the scene, The First Region’s Law Enforcers had sealed off the entire stretch of road and had not called for a repair team, since the incident involved the disappearance of a Six Stars reserve member. What they hadn’t expected was that the first to provide this news wasn’t the "Yaku Barrier’s" company but these grassroots personnel.

"Captain, captain, someone’s coming."

Someone patted the captain, who was organizing case information. She looked up to see Song Lan strolling leisurely to the scene of the accident with an odd-looking vulture on his shoulder.

The higher-ups had already informed them that they would send an expert over.

She immediately arranged and packed up all the information she could think of regarding the case, which included not only the clues found at the scene but also the relevant information of each victim. They had investigated the interpersonal relationships of the casualties of the repair team during the afternoon but had come up empty-handed.

The victims were all very ordinary workers, and no one hated them enough to want to kill them.

"I believe this is not a premeditated murder, but random killing," the captain said as she approached and handed Song Lan the data chip with the case details, "This is the case information I’ve organized, please review it."

"I didn’t bring a laptop."

Song Lan waved his hand, a response that left the captain in silence.

She had to look at Song Lan with a puzzled gaze.

Laptop?

To ensure effective communication for cases, every one of them had to receive cybernetic implant surgery before joining the job, installing a uniform chipset slot and data reading system. This was to facilitate more efficient communication of cases and to record all the details about the criminals.

This was standard even in higher authority areas like the Abnormal Case Investigation Bureau, Military Intelligence Section Seven, or the Counter-Intelligence Department.

Working in The First Region for so many years, she had never encountered an expert who couldn’t interface with data.

"Then wait a moment, I’ll have them bring a laptop from the bureau..."

"No need, I’ll just go down and take a look."

"But..."

The captain was about to say more when she saw Song Lan walk straight to the huge pit created by the explosion and leap down.

A bad premonition rose in her heart.

This was the second time she had seen a similar scenario in one day.

The last person to jump into the sewer like this had become a missing person.

She didn’t understand why the experts sent down by the higher-ups lately were all so individualistic. After a few complaints in her mind, the captain gathered the people on site and moved the searchlights there so that the expert could see the situation in the sewer more clearly.

And the moment he landed, the familiar feeling surged, and Song Lan immediately thought of the time he was in The Second Region, where he had also smelt this odour.

The explosion site was riddled with a large amount of Spiritual Energy residue, mixed with what seemed to be human tissue crushed into powder.

Could it be, our good friend Classmate Yaku has already...

But then, Song Lan dismissed the idea.

Because in addition to the remnants of Spiritual Energy, he sensed another type of Spiritual Energy residue. What was even stranger was that the source of this Spiritual Energy seemed to be emanating from the wall on his left hand side.

He tapped on the wall with his finger; it was solid inside, and nothing about it seemed particularly eye-catching.

"What’s behind this wall?"

He looked up and asked the Law Enforcers above.

Of course, to them, this seemed like a nonsensical question.

What could be behind the walls of a sewer pipe...

But walls, of course. Could The First Region’s underground be hiding some Great Treasure?

But given that the expert had asked this for a reason, the captain said, "Please wait a moment, I’ll see if we can get some digging equipment."

"That won’t be necessary."

Song Lan shook his head and, under the puzzled gaze of the Law Enforcer officers, he raised his right foot and tapped it against the obstructing wall.

There was no thunderous noise, nor did the earth shake, but the solid wall crumbled into dust under their watchful eyes. Song Lan turned on his phone’s flashlight, and followed the path he had opened downward until he reached the place where the Spiritual Energy traces were the strongest.

Still nothing.

To be more precise, now there was nothing, but he was certain that Classmate Yaku had been here before, and a fight had even taken place.

But what was going on?

Was Yaku simply unlucky, did he hit a bug when he jumped into the sewer and glitched through the game map?

This, of course, couldn’t happen in the real world.

The only reasonable explanation was that the person who fought with him had abilities related to space. Either he had pulled Yaku into the wall while he was not attentive, or he had used his abilities to create a space that didn’t exist in reality.

Song Lan carefully sensed the changes in the Spiritual Energy traces, simulating Yaku’s movement trajectory, and eventually returned to the vicinity of the drop point.

"When he finally escaped from the strange space, he encountered a bomb attack..."

He looked at the still-flowing sewage and the faint traces that seemed to have been scattered by the water.

A person couldn’t possibly have two completely different abilities.

"The attacker, there were two of them."

One of them was the one referred to as "Dominate" in The Second Region; it had also escaped the castle through some unknown means, as though it had relocated through space.

The Law Enforcers above were baffled, breaking their heads over how Song Lan had come to his conclusions.

Is this what an expert is supposed to be?

"...Is the rescuer still alive?"

The captain asked anxiously, even though her first impression of Yaku had not been great, she definitely didn’t want anything bad to happen to him, especially while he was on a mission to solve a case and search for possible survivors.

"He should be alive."

Though it was weak, Song Lan indeed sensed the presence of Spiritual Energy traces in the sewage.

His ability kept him from dying in the explosion; it seemed he had fallen into the sewage at last, and the water had carried him off to an unknown location.

He truly had a stroke of luck.

"Stay here and don’t move; I’ll go find him."

............

Meanwhile, at a certain point in the sewer.

Yaku sat on a ragged mattress, staring blankly at the floor. Before long, a pair of legs wrapped in black thigh-high stockings blocked his view.

"Here, a nutritional injection."

He dully looked up to see a girl with short white hair in front of him. She looked to be in her early twenties and her skin was pale, almost frighteningly so, possibly from a lack of sun exposure.

Yaku didn’t know where he was but observed that the room was covered in dense, numerous markings.

"Your injuries are quite peculiar; I can’t help you with them. Once you have the strength to move on your own, I suggest you go to the hospital for treatment as soon as possible."

At her words, he lowered his head again.

The real torment wasn’t the ubiquitous pain in his body, but the image of the air conditioning repair technician that kept emerging in his mind.

Her eyes, filled with terror, also held a longing for life as she sent a signal for help to him, an aspirant of the Six Stars.

But at that moment, all he could do was isolate her on the other side with a barrier.

Time seemed to crawl to a stop as he watched in lucid horror as her body exploded from the inside and shattered.

Because of the aftermath of the explosion, he had fallen into the sewage, and by the time he regained consciousness, he was already here.

The girl caught sight of Yaku’s despondent state and frowned, her tone growing firmer, "You need to pull yourself together. I can’t take care of you for too long. If it comes after us, I’ll have to leave you behind and save myself."

"Are there others living here?"

Yaku finally regained some focus in his eyes and couldn’t help but ask.

He hadn’t managed to save the survivors, and now, the only thing he could probably do was to continue the investigation and find those responsible for the attack.

"Not people."

The girl shook her head, "It’s a tree of sin that has taken root here."