Life Game In Other World
Chapter 680: Descending from Heaven (Super-sized - , Seeking Monthly Votes)

Chapter 680: Chapter 680: Descending from Heaven (Super-sized Chapter, Seeking Monthly Votes)

Bang—Bang—

The crisp knocking sounded in the silent and deep corridor.

"Please, come in."

An elderly voice came from behind the door.

YiXiya pushed open the door and looked into the office.

At this moment, the elderly with a head full of silver hair was sitting behind a large sand table, slowly flipping through a yellowed book.

Unlike last time, there was an additional small bookshelf in the innermost corner of the office, which held some books and folders.

YiXiya glanced at the elder and slowly began, "Director, I thought..."

"After the council’s decision, all the files of the Night Hawk case will be sealed, and all items and other documents related to Night Hawk have been destroyed,"

he glanced at the folder in the corner of the sand table in front of him, "Tonight, I will package these documents and send them back to the headquarters of the Pollution Cleaning Department with someone special."

Then he lowered his head and continued to browse through the book, saying slowly, "Theoretically speaking, once the files are sealed, no one can review them unless authorized by the council."

"But..."

YiXiya watched the elderly man.

"Ah~"

The elder looked up, yawned, and then closed the book in his hand, "When you get old, you tend to get sleepy. Before you know it, I’m almost seventy,"

he slowly got up and leisurely reinserted the book into the bookshelf, "And there are fewer old friends who are still alive."

Then he glanced at YiXiya and yawned again,

"Girl, I’m going back to sleep. From now on, this will be your office; you can get acquainted with it. But don’t mess around with the files on my sand table."

Having said that, he brushed past YiXiya and walked out of the door.

Hearing the elder’s words, YiXiya was taken aback, then she looked at his retreating figure in the corridor and smiled.

Immediately, she walked straight to the spot where the old man had just been sitting, looking at the folders on the sand table.

There was a note on the folder, indicating the names of the documents inside.

[’Night Hawk Case’ Investigation File (Collection)]

She reached out and opened the folder.

——

Clack—

The tall SUV came to a stop in the quiet night.

He Ao pushed open the car door, holding a cane, and stepped down from the vehicle.

This place was not West City’s Third Street but an abandoned factory not far from there.

In Saint Joen City, even an abandoned building or factory, as long as it could provide shelter from the wind and rain, would house vagrants.

In West City, the most chaotic district in terms of public security in Saint Joen City, corresponding gangs would naturally emerge among these vagrants.

However, this factory where He Ao was currently standing was an exception.

This was the site of a chemical plant explosion, with the ground littered with toxic chemicals.

The factory had once belonged to the Kajet Group, but due to the high cost of cleaning up these chemicals, it had been temporarily abandoned.

Most of the factory’s original area was now ruins, with just a few corners left barely suitable for shelter from the elements. Since it was filled with toxic chemicals, vagrants would only come here if they had no better choice.

According to the information Eve had found, this factory was the area with the fewest people near West City’s Third Street.

Because it was sparsely populated, it was also one of the densest areas of killing in West City. Many gangs would bring people here for execution who couldn’t be killed openly.

On the ground beneath He Ao’s feet, there were clearly dried bloodstains.

And the use of this place as an ’execution ground’ meant even more vagrants were reluctant to come here, fearing that they might encounter something they shouldn’t.

But He Ao’s reason for being here was simple.

His gaze swept across the dark and dim surroundings.

The direct cause of his son and daughter-in-law’s death was a car accident.

And their bodies showed signs of being repeatedly run over; the car in question was likely not one they simply encountered on the road but one that had maliciously struck them.

So the deaths were probably not a chance accident but a deliberate ’execution.’

He Ao now knew that his son and daughter-in-law’s disappearance was the work of the Evolution Acolytes, and they had been taken to the Evolution Acolytes’ headquarters.

Even though He Ao didn’t know why the final "execution" was a car accident, he knew that the scene where his son and daughter-in-law were discovered wasn’t near West City Third Street, but instead, on West City Twelfth Street, which was half a city away across from West City Third Street.

There were obvious signs that their bodies had been dumped.

Perhaps when their bodies were dumped, they weren’t dead yet, which is why they were able to leave behind that string of social security numbers.

The Evolution Acolytes would unlikely take someone that far for an execution, so He Ao deduced that the crime scene must be near their headquarters. They only disposed of the bodies that far away to conceal the existence of their base.

Initially, they might have intended to just toss the bodies into some distant corner for the municipal corpse collection vehicle to pick up, not expecting that Cito’s son and daughter-in-law were still alive and would leave behind their social security card number.

Using a vehicle to hit them would require some space to drive, and since the Evolution Acolytes wanted to stay hidden, the chosen "execution site" couldn’t be too busy.

He Ao analyzed all the areas near West City Third Street and identified three possible "crime scenes."

This one was the last he visited.

The first two showed no clear signs of a violent and gruesome car accident.

Walking on broken bricks and tiles, He Ao continued to move forward.

This factory area wasn’t very large, so he could finish searching it quickly.

The initial part of the ruins he entered didn’t have anything special: aside from some scattered, long-dried bloodstains and some vehicle tracks, He Ao didn’t find any obvious signs of trouble.

Until he reached the deep interior of the factory ruins.

Here, there was a circular main building of a chemical factory, though now only the outer ring of its wall remained after being blown up.

It looked like an ancient arena from myths and legends.

There were hardly any dried bloodstains here anymore because the spot was filled with all sorts of chemical toxins. Even now, with Martial Arts and Qi to protect him, He Ao could feel mild discomfort in his breaths standing here.

Gang members wouldn’t dare venture this deep.

He Ao walked to the edge of the enclosure, shining the flashlight he had just bought at the roadside.

Around these walls, he found some tire tracks that hadn’t been there for long.

They appeared to be from a few days ago.

Shining his flashlight, He Ao followed these tracks forward.

Soon, he saw an area that resembled an entrance; the tire marks stopped there.

He turned around and entered the ruins of the circular building through the entrance.

The entire central part of the building was blown away, leaving only a flat terrain with some collapsed low walls and columns.

With the light from his flashlight, He Ao quickly found an obvious indent caused by an impact.

The indent was about half a meter deep with a diameter close to two meters, and it didn’t look like it had been made by a human or a machine. It was more akin to that of a fleshy monster.

For instance, a powerful Polluted Monster.

He Ao looked around the indent and then, on some rebar, discovered some dry bloodstains that also seemed recent. They were left there a few days ago.

On one piece of rebar, there was even a bloody handprint left behind.

These were traces left by humans.

In this area, there once had been a giant Polluted Monster chasing after some people.

He Ao followed these impact marks and bloodstains forward.

Although the traces wrapped around the whole factory area a few times, there was still a clear path.

Soon, He Ao arrived at the end of these traces.

It was a narrow passage that only allowed one person to get through.

This passage was blocked by a huge concrete column, leaving only very small gaps.

Through these gaps, He Ao could clearly see the bloodstains on the walls of the passageway and the bloody footprints on the ground.

He Ao climbed over the enclosing wall directly, arriving at the exit of the passage, outside the circular wall.

At this exit, there were two sets of bloody footprints.

From the pattern of the soles and the size of the footprints, they seemed to belong to a man and a woman.

They had just escaped from the ruins of the factory and were standing at the entrance catching their breath.

He Ao looked ahead of these footprints. There were deep tire tracks, and beyond the footprints and tire tracks, on the wall and ground illuminated by the flashlight, there were large splashes of fresh blood.

In a vague moment, He Ao saw the figures of a middle-aged couple appear before him.

They were covered in blood, standing at the entrance, rejoicing that they had escaped with their lives.

Then, in that instant, a large vehicle came speeding towards them, hitting and sending them flying.

Blood splattered on the curved wall and on the ground covered with broken stones.

He Ao bent down, his hand clutching his heart, leaning against the old wall.

The physical pain and mental anguish from the toxic substances in the air compounded, nearly suffocating him.

After a while, he caught his breath, turned around, and walked toward the exit.

He did not take a closer look at the bloodstains again.

He had gotten his answer.

The tall off-road vehicle drove through the ruins, stopping in front of him.

He struggled to reach out his hand, climbed into the off-road vehicle, and sat on the seat.

The vehicle turned around, heading to the next destination.

At that moment, He Ao’s wristband vibrated.

It was a message from YiXiya.

The content of the message was the investigative file for the Night Hawk case.

He Ao took a deep breath, calmed his heartbeat, and after waiting a while, he began to quickly flip through the files.

These files contained an abundance of first-hand data on the Night Hawk case, even including photos of documents that had been destroyed by the Pollution Cleaning Department.

For instance, the file contained photos of the warehouse where Night Hawk "bred" Polluted Monsters, a warehouse that has now been completely demolished by the Pollution Cleaning Department, not only burning everything that could be burned but even dismantling the walls.

The photos essentially restored the scene inside the warehouse, where very weak Polluted Monsters were locked in huge iron cages, and between them appeared to be a large dissection table, with various large blades hanging nearby.

From the content displayed in the photos, it looked less like Night Hawk was "breeding" monsters and more like he was "researching" them.

And in this file, the initial investigation team suspected the same.

However, what Night Hawk was doing also went beyond the rules of the Pollution Cleaning Department, so the investigation team declared they would arrest Night Hawk.

What happened thereafter was mostly known to He Ao.

Night Hawk had hurt the team that came to capture him and then fled.

The files did not specify exactly what happened at the time, only that Night Hawk fought with the investigation team, injured them, and escaped, while the investigation team also left wounds on Night Hawk.

However, the documents recorded the place where Night Hawk initially fought with the investigation team, on Suwaite Street.

He Ao was all too familiar with this district; it was near Moke Street, and Cito used to get off the bus at the Suwaite Street station when visiting his son and walk to Moke Street.

The two streets were virtually adjacent.

Realization dawned on He Ao at this point.

The Evolution Acolytes capturing people on Moke Street were likely trying to find Night Hawk.

They were probably the force that reported Night Hawk to the Pollution Cleaning Department for breeding Polluted Monsters.

But why capture people near Moke Street? Did they have some evidence proving these people had ties with Night Hawk?

He Ao pondered as he continued to browse through the files.

Night Hawk had been missing for a month.

During this month, the Pollution Cleaning Department hardly had any direct confrontations with Night Hawk.

They had received some intelligence on Night Hawk’s sightings, but by the time they arrived, Night Hawk was already gone.

During this process, they found that Night Hawk secretly had an exotic beast "Shadow Hound."

This type of exotic beast was one of the few that could be tamed, though in very limited numbers and with extreme difficulty in taming; ordinary people could hardly gain the recognition of a Shadow Hound, but once they did, it would never betray them.

Although the Shadow Hound’s actual combat power was very weak, its innate talent allowed it to blend into shadows, making it extremely hard to detect, and it could also briefly merge its companions into shadows, a born Sentinel.

And by its abilities, it seemed like a Transcendent creature from the Nightwalker sequence.

According to these documents, Night Hawk managed to escape before the Pollution Cleaning Department arrived every time, thanks to the help of the Shadow Hound.

However, there were ambiguities in these files at this point.

These several "capture operations" against Night Hawk, although all ended in failure, should theoretically have left some records.

But the files glossed over these operations without leaving any detailed data.

Including where Night Hawk appeared, how he disappeared, what damage he caused, none of that was documented, just scant descriptions.

Further flipping through the files revealed the final battle.

The head of the Pollution Cleaning Department came to Saint Joen City, and the original investigation team also received a report from some kind of "anonymous informant," revealing the possible next location of Night Hawk.

This time, they successfully ambushed Night Hawk, but by then, Night Hawk had been completely controlled by pollution and madness.

The file said that the Chief had tried to warn Night Hawk, but Night Hawk had already lost the ability to communicate and even contaminated several workers of the Pollution Cleaning Department, turning them into twisted Polluted Monsters, ultimately leading the Chief to kill him with no other choice.

However, the Pollution Cleaning Department didn’t get Night Hawk’s body in the end.

Because after Night Hawk was killed, his Shadow Hound, which had already been severely injured, broke through the encirclement and took away Night Hawk’s body.

The Pollution Cleaning Department didn’t know where the pollution that eventually drove Night Hawk mad came from, so under the resolutions of the council, they ordered the destruction of all items related to Night Hawk to prevent the spread of pollution.

This resolution may sound absurd, but without knowing the source of the pollution, the logic of destroying things just in case was actually reasonable.

He Ao closed the file and looked forward into the dark night sky.

This file had solved some of his problems, but it also brought forth many more.

The entire file appeared to be logically complete, but all actions seemed to only scratch the surface, giving it a distorted and awkward feeling.

The Pollution Cleaning Department seemed to have killed Night Hawk for the sole purpose of killing him, while Night Hawk didn’t know how to prove himself, fleeing or fighting back upon encountering the Pollution Cleaning Department.

All the documents still didn’t record any ’words’ that Night Hawk might have spoken, nor did they explain the deepest question—why had their relationship deteriorated to this point?

From what was shown in the documents, the Pollution Cleaning Department seemed to have some deeper, entirely irreconcilable contradiction with Night Hawk, to the extent that they had reached a point of no return, unable to communicate.

And this file didn’t actually reveal this contradiction, and there was an obvious sense of stopping short, no further probing into the matter.

Moreover, in this incident, the Pollution Cleaning Department, an organization meant to eradicate Polluted Monsters, seemed to have some kind of ’cooperation’ with the Evolution Acolytes who cultivated them.

At least the final battle location for Night Hawk was most likely provided by the Evolution Acolytes.

That ’anonymous’ Informant was very likely someone from the Evolution Acolytes.

It seems that the Evolution Acolytes, eventually being able to ’find’ Night Hawk, might have a deeper ’understanding’ of him than the Pollution Cleaning Department that ’hinted but didn’t explore’.

So the breakthrough still needed to be on the side of the Evolution Acolytes.

He Ao raised his wristband, first thanking YiXiya, then he opened a webpage, the homepage of which featured a banner ad,

[The experience of soaring the skies, you deserve it.]

----

West City Three Streets · Abandoned Grain Factory

This was the tallest building on West City Three Streets. Standing by the window, one could gaze far across the entire city shrouded in the night.

A tall figure was standing in front of the enormous floor-to-ceiling window at this moment.

"Minister, everything has been almost fully set up,"

A figure walked hurriedly to his side, "Although we have little time and few things we can change, we have prepared enough ’gifts’ for that person,

"If he takes the stairs, from the first floor, every level has plenty of monsters to intercept, and each floor is equipped with laser weapons, and if he takes the elevator...,"

At this, he laughed, "We’ve laid a perfect trap; this time, as long as he dares to come, as long as he’s not a B-level being, he surely won’t make it back alive."

"Mm, continue to strengthen the defenses; we need people on every floor."

The tall figure watched the outside through the window, "The final moment is imminent, and there can be no mistakes allowed according to those above."

"Yes!"

The figure nodded vigorously.

The dazzling lights, across the distance, reflected on the enormous windows.

For some reason, the tall figure felt somewhat uneasy.

----

"Elder, are you alright?"

The young man leaned against the door, looking at He Ao who was packing up at the open door and yelled out loud.

The howling high winds brushed against everyone’s bodies, and the loud noise from the helicopter’s rotors drowned out the man’s shouting.

"If it’s really not viable, let’s head back!"

Leaning on the chopper doorframe, the man shouted again.

This time, He Ao seemed to finally hear the man’s voice, raised his head, gripping his cane, and gave the man a thumbs-up.

Behind him at this moment was the grey night sky; under his feet, the city’s lights were like tiny specks.

He Ao looked at the man’s worried face, flashed a reassuring smile, and the wind swept through his silver hair.

Then, gripping his cane, with his back towards the city and the nighttime sky,

He leapt.