The clamor of police sirens rose and fell, with more than a dozen police cars parked in front of an apartment building in the Lower District that had been half demolished.
County Police used bright yellow caution tape to completely barricade the building, and the scene was surprisingly orderly with no bloody clashes or monster attacks; a few potbellied county officers even ate their breakfast by the police cars.
Several trucks from the Spiritual Ability Administration's contamination unit were parked by the roadside, with a group of workers in blue contamination suits carrying disinfectant boxes and spray guns, disinfecting the corridors and rooms.
In those rooms were hundreds of homeless people gathered, and since there was no place to temporarily shelter them, both the Administration Bureau and the County Police chose to ignore them.
Also left in the rooms were numerous corpses that were half toad, half human, dead without a sign, with no wounds or signs of struggle.
The Administration Bureau packed these bodies into black body bags and loaded them onto trucks one by one; they would be transported to the Bureau's mysterious laboratory for autopsy and research.
Diana and Bader stood by the road, watching colleagues from the contamination unit heaving large black body bags onto vehicles, one of which contained the carcass of a giant toad cut in half.
Almost at the same time, both received a notification from the Spiritual Power Gun Management Department that Parker's lost Spiritual Ability Pistol sent out five signals from the basement of this abandoned apartment at around 8:30 am.
Even though the Administration Bureau had dispatched nearby county police to encircle the entire block before the two could get there, the gun thief had managed to escape. However, the Administration Bureau didn't come away empty-handed.
Bader once again arrived at the scene before Diana, but to his disappointment, the gun thief seemed not keen on making a big splash, rather preferring to be an unknown hero.
Near a sewer rupture at the base of the apartment building, he found many civilian imitations of Flame Bullet casings, and on the ground remained some ash from monster limbs not entirely burned.
The medical examiner had already preliminarily confirmed at the scene that the giant toads were ordinary spiritual energy-infected creatures, unrelated to the creatures from the Spirit Explosion Space. In other words, the Spirit Explosion Effect had not occurred here, and killing such infected creatures wouldn't yield Holy Relics diamonds.
Initially, he was quite certain that the thief was a villain who had illegally obtained spiritual energy and was attempting to use the stolen Spiritual Ability Pistol to hunt monsters for Holy Relics.
Since humanity discovered the unimaginable strengthening effects spiritual energy had on the human body, an endless stream of people with the idea of "resisting heaven with force" emerged. They might know some basics about spiritual energy and Holy Relics, but they would never understand the price of such "enhancement."
Bader pondered silently that if the gun thief also had such a naïve thought, it was impossible for him not to know that spiritual energy-infected creatures wouldn't congeal Holy Relics diamonds. After all, he must have illicitly developed the most basic spiritual element in his body; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to use the Spiritual Ability Pistol.
He couldn't believe anyone would risk being chased to the ends of the earth by the Administration Bureau just to steal a Spiritual Ability Pistol for the quiet killing of monsters. If his morals and motives were so noble, why didn't he just join the Administration Bureau directly?
Bader's suspicion about the gun thief's motives began to waver. The only explanation he could accept was that the guy had serious mental issues.
Diana didn't know what Bader was thinking. She had visited Weber Spirit Production early in the morning to find out more about Parker, but things were not as simple as she thought.
"Do you read comics, Diana?" Bader suddenly asked.
"What?" Diana was taken aback.
"Superhero comics. They depict stories of heroes with various nicknames, dressed in colorful uniforms, performing acts of chivalry in their respective cities," Bader explained.
"No, never... I'm not interested in those children's stories, I prefer myths from different countries," Diana said.
"You actually call that a children's story?! You really should search for your name on comic magazine websites; I thought you would be a die-hard fan of superhero comics," Bader said incredulously.
"You could also search for your name on Wikipedia, Bader. Why such a weird question all of a sudden?" Diana was puzzled.
"I can't figure out the motives of this gun thief; all logical deductions have hit a dead end. But if you think of him as a superhero, it suddenly makes sense. Of course, I'm not saying he's a superhero," Bader shrugged.
"After the lab results for this toad creature come out and it's categorized, no matter what hazard level it ultimately receives, we should be thankful that the gun thief killed it before it could cause real trouble. So to me, the guy is actually not so bad," Diana said noncommittally.
"But he's still a criminal; he killed an investigator, stole a gun, and those two charges alone are enough to put him behind bars for life," Bader reminded her.
"... I agree," Diana said thoughtfully, nodding her head without divulging the information she knew to Bader.
Time rewound to earlier.
Diana pushed open the door to the CEO's office of Weber Spirit Production, stating her purpose.
She had assumed that Weber Spirit Production would be implicated in the incident of artificially creating Spirit Explosion Space, that this surprise investigation would throw them into chaos, or that they'd be completely unconnected but pushing to evade severance payments to employees to elude responsibilities.
However, neither scenario she envisaged happened.
Weber Spirit Production's CEO, accompanied by the head of the HR department, had checked the files of all levels of investigators under their jurisdiction, and couldn't find a D-class investigator named Parker.
An investigator's credentials could be forged, but each Spiritual Ability Enterprise's electronic files for their investigators were networked with the Administration Bureau. Not to mention, every gun assigned to an investigator was tagged with the bearer's registration information, making impersonation a difficult feat.
Yet the most bizarre event was still to come.
Diana subsequently went to the Spiritual Power Gun Management Department to retrieve the owner information of the lost firearm, and the result showed that the gun's registration date was in the future, six months later...
Before the County Police and Administration Bureau's vehicles completely surrounded the dilapidated apartment complex, Chen Ke had already left the area. He was covered in dirty water and smelled like a walking piece of shit, fortunately, the triangular bag was waterproof, so his phone, bullets, and the little bit of cash he had were still clean and dry.
He took a taxi to Li Bo's noodle shop. When the driver drove off, he gave Chen Ke the finger.
"Did you get it sorted? You look like you just took a bath in a public toilet!"
In the empty noodle shop, Li Bo and Chen Ke sat in a corner spot. Li Bo, holding his nose, asked in surprise.
"You can check this out. I think the same weird thing won't happen to your noodle shop again if you still plan to keep it open..." Chen Ke pulled out a toad finger from his pocket, which he had specially cut off as proof that he had completed the mission.
"Actually, quite a while after you left, the taste of those noodles disappeared, and all the homeless drifted away. They even threw up a lot... as if they'd just realized how disgusting the stuff they ate was," Li Bo commented.
"It seems so. I encountered a giant toad in the sewer. All the strange events were caused by it. After I killed it, the weirdness associated with it slowly dissipated," Chen Ke analyzed.
"Amazing... You truly are a demon hunter!"
While Li Bo was expressing his admiration, Chen Ke stretched out his right hand, rubbing his thumb and forefinger against his middle finger.
"Oh! How could I forget!" Li Bo slapped his forehead and pulled out a stack of banknotes from the inner pocket of his clothes.
50 brand-new 100-union-coin bills, which Li Bo had specially withdrawn from the bank nearby after Chen Ke left. The stack of bills wasn't thick, but it felt substantial in hand.
Chen Ke threw the money into the triangular bag and stood up to leave.
"Well then, I guess this is goodbye, friend."
"Wait! I don't even know your name!"
Li Bo called after Chen Ke.
"We probably won't meet again in the future, so knowing my name isn't going to be very meaningful," Chen Ke said.
"We are both Fei Huang people, drifting in foreign lands, there is a sense of mutual aid. Look, you can kill monsters, I can run a noodle shop. Today you helped me, and there might come a day when I can help you. If you don't mind, leave a way to contact you!" Li Bo laughed heartily.
"You... still intend to keep this noodle shop running?" Chen Ke asked, puzzled.
Although he had resolved the issue at Li Bo's shop, Chen Ke didn't see Opportunity City's Lower District as a suitable place for business any longer.
"Why not? As long as no monsters or homeless people mess with me, I can get the business back on its feet! I'm still very confident in my own cooking skills," Li Bo said, patting his glasses with an air of certainty.
"Speaking of the homeless..."
Chen Ke crossed his arms, a rush of thoughts swirling through his mind.
This incident couldn't all be chalked up to spiritual contagion. Thanks to the Spiritual Ability Enterprises, finding a large abandoned ruin in the Lower District of Opportunity City was extremely easy, and these man-made wastelands had become breeding grounds for spiritually infected creatures. They were also crowding out the space for traditional businesses to develop, worsening the unemployment situation, and contributing to the decline of the Lower District.
The incident at Li Bo's noodle shop was just a flashpoint resulting from various man-made factors—it couldn't be resolved with just a gun or a stop-gap solution. The actions of the female diner and Chen Ke didn't make much difference from a macro perspective; they simply chose to assist different parties.
He could ask Li Bo to continue providing free noodles to the homeless. These pitiable people of the Lower District hadn't done anything wrong; it was the times that had forced them into their current situation. Alternatively, he could suggest Li Bo offer job opportunities to the homeless. Although a small noodle shop couldn't employ every vagrant, it was at least a good start.
Of course, as an outsider, he could also choose not to worry about it any longer, deal with it, and then depart, keeping his contributions hidden.
"About those homeless, do you have anything to say?" Li Bo asked, looking at the pensive Chen Ke.
"You know, Li Bo, you know what I'm going to say. That's right, my name is Chen Ke..." Chen Ke looked up and smiled.
...
Leaving Li Bo's noodle shop, Chen Ke took a car back to Pihom's gun store.
He showed Pihom the toad's severed finger, and Pihom confirmed through a text message with Li Bo that Chen Ke had solved his problem.
"Your 5,000 union coins, young man, it looks like you've got some skills. Now I think I can talk to you about my little group... but of course, after you've had a shower... Clean yourself up and then let's have a good chat."
Pihom handed over the money to Chen Ke readily and suggested that he take a good bath before they discussed serious business.
Chen Ke's life was still not guaranteed beyond a day, but it was much more secure than when he had just escaped from the building. With ten thousand union coins in hand, it was time for him to straighten himself out!