Life Game In Other World
Chapter 717: The Invitation of the Believer of God (Super Long - for Monthly Tickets)

Chapter 717: Chapter 717: The Invitation of the Believer of God (Super Long Chapter for Monthly Tickets)

The collapsed and shattered desk, the walls splattered with blood, and the knife marks on the floor and walls.

Wu Lan crouched on the ground, closely examining these remaining traces.

An intense but not too intense battle had once taken place in this office.

The attacker was powerful, but the owner of the office was not without the ability to fight back.

"We haven’t touched the scene here,"

a calm voice arose behind Wu Lan, belonging to Wester, the person in charge of Moonlight in Newland.

"Thank you for your trouble,"

Wu Lan stood up and nodded her head, taking a glance at Wester, "Are you sure you didn’t see anyone leave here?"

She was well aware that Moonlight must have had surveillance arranged at the entrance of the Research Institute’s branch.

"At least, within the range we can see, no,"

Wester replied calmly.

"Hmm,"

Wu Lan nodded lightly, she took a step forward, stopping in front of the shattered desk, "Any leads on your end?"

"None,"

Wester shook his head, "In fact, we are also curious about the ’thing’ or should I say person that attacked this place, how all this was done. Your people might have left something in the files, but as you know, all your computers auto-encrypt without operation, and it’s not like I could just take out your computers’ hard drives to decrypt."

"Okay, let us handle it from here,"

Wu Lan said with a smile, nodding her head, "Thank you for your efforts."

This remark was made to send off the guest.

She didn’t believe for a second that Moonlight hadn’t considered taking these hard drives to decode, especially since this branch stored a lot of the Research Institute’s internal data.

If it wasn’t discovered and responded to quickly by the Research Institute, it’s likely these hard drives would’ve been decrypted, copied, and then replaced back.

Wu Lan didn’t come alone this time; she brought with her Research Institute staff temporarily pulled from their regular duties.

These staff were currently using authority verification devices to unlock the locked computers and access the data within, striving to recover the branch’s operations as quickly as possible in a short amount of time.

This process might involve the restoration of confidential files, and having Moonlight personnel present may not be suitable.

"It’s no problem,"

Wester also said with a smile, waving his hand, "Maintaining the peace in Newland is our duty; contact us anytime if there’s an issue."

The implication of his words was to remind Wu Lan that this was Moonlight territory, and they would not give up surveillance of the area.

Both understood the underlying meaning in the other’s words, smiling as they bid each other goodbye.

Wu Lan saw Wester out the door before returning to the office’s outer hall.

Observing the busy staff in the hall, Wu Lan leaned against the office door, deep in thought.

Did Wester really know nothing?

Not knowing, or unwilling to say? Or unable to say?

Was the force that caused the disappearance of all staff members in the branch truly some kind of ’bizarre phenomenon’?

If not a bizarre phenomenon, and it was human-caused, then why target a Research Institute branch?

Didn’t they know that this would draw the Research Institute’s attention, even the scrutiny of multiple C-levels?

Considering the attacker’s actions, if it indeed was human-caused, it would be some covert force lurking in the shadows, moving within Moonlight’s sphere of influence, daring to provoke another major power.

Were they aiming to muddy the waters to fish in troubled waters?

But with the current state of the Research Institute and Moonlight, a conflict was simply not possible.

Or was there a reason they had no choice but to target the Research Institute branch?

Pondering, Wu Lan walked back into the office.

She looked up at the ceiling.

The lights were broken, and now that night had fallen, the office’s lighting relied on a temporary emergency light source hanging from the ceiling.

The building had good lighting; she had been there in the afternoon, and even without the lights on, the outer office hall had a good visibility during the day.

The ’attack’ they hypothesized happened yesterday morning when everyone was at work.

Why would an attack during the day destroy lights?

Was it accidental damage? Or was it intentional?

Step by step, Wu Lan walked up to the shattered desk. The original drawers of the desk, some already damaged revealing the slit files inside, and the rest that were intact were pulled out.

According to Moonlight, when they came in, the drawers were like this, and they did their best to preserve the scene.

Obviously, these drawers had been rummaged through, but no additional fingerprints were left at the scene.

Wu Lan glanced at the drawers in front of her but did not linger on them; instead, she reached under the side of the desk.

Her fingers searched for a while, found a small hidden button, and then gently applied force to press it.

Click—

A thin secret compartment popped open, inside of which was a not-so-thick investigative file.

The person in charge of the Research Institute’s Newland division was named Xia Ye, a figure cautious by nature yet intrinsically strong-willed.

As an old friend for many years, who had explored ruins, battled monsters, and solved supernatural phenomena together, Wu Lan was well aware of her old friend’s character and habits.

Xia Ye liked using these secret compartments underneath the desk to hide things that couldn’t be stashed in a safe in time.

This file might just be what Xia Ye had hidden away in advance upon sensing that something was amiss.

Wu Lan pondered this as she took out the file.

The content of the file appeared to be an investigative report by the staff of the Research Institute’s division.

Wu Lan briefly looked over it; it was about a possible out-of-control Transcendent phenomenon within the Newland City-State.

This task was indeed within the Research Institute division’s purview: to collect information on Transcendent phenomena and then report it to headquarters comprehensively. Mixed in might be phenomena indicating the opening of ruins, or the existence of some powerful Transcendent object.

In principle, such information collection was not particularly stringent; the division would not get too deeply involved, otherwise, it could draw the hostility of Moonlight.

The report in Wu Lan’s hands roughly followed this principle.

It contained only some basic investigative information; the core conclusion was:

Over the past year, a large number of disappearances had occurred in the Newland City-State, and the closer to the present, the greater the number of missing people, even including the families of some informants of the Research Institute and perhaps the informants themselves among these missing individuals.

In fact, it was the disappearance of these informants that had drawn Xia Ye’s attention to this odd phenomenon.

And geographically speaking, these missing people were not confined to a few fixed areas but were evenly distributed throughout the city-state.

Xia Ye believed that there was most likely a very strong supernatural phenomenon existing in the Newland City-State, and these missing people were being ’preyed upon’ by it.

The report was dated just two days prior; Wu Lan checked the Research Institute’s database and found no record of this report.

That meant the report had not been uploaded yet.

According to Xia Ye’s habits, this indicated she believed the report was not in its final version.

Was she still continuing the investigation? Did she possess some ’extra’ clues?

Did she leave this file here because she thought those attackers had something to do with it?

However, the Research Institute division’s ’mysterious disappearances’ truly seemed very similar to those of the ’missing’ mentioned in the report.

Did the Research Institute division’s investigation lead to an attack by the mastermind behind the scenes?

"Wu Chief,"

While she was pondering, a young man holding a tablet walked in from outside the door, "The surveillance footage has been deciphered."

"Let me see."

Wu Lan turned around and reached out her hand.

The surveillance footage was stored in the Research Institute’s encrypted disk; Moonlight had no ability to decipher it.

The young man passed the tablet computer to Wu Lan.

Wu Lan looked down at the screen, and the first thing that caught her eye was the office hall filled with staff, some coming and going, with the time displayed in the bottom-right corner of the surveillance showing 9:17 AM.

But immediately afterward, in the next second, all the employees in the hall, whether seated at their desks or walking between workstations, vanished from the screen instantly.

It was as if all the frames with people had been directly ’absorbed,’ harshly cut together with empty frames as though no one had been there.

Immediately following this scene, the screen went dark in an instant—the camera had been destroyed.

Wu Lan frowned slightly, dragged the video progress bar forward, and watched the video again; those moving people disappeared from her view once more.

This time, she looked down at the time in the bottom-right corner; it was 9:17:16, the flow of time was smooth, with no signs of editing.

How was this accomplished?

She held the tablet, rubbed her temples, and then looked at the young man beside her, "Go ahead with your tasks, I’ll call you if I need anything."

"Okay."

The young man nodded.

"Wait a moment,"

Just as the young man was about to turn and leave, Wu Lan seemed to remember something and said in a slow voice, "Is the accommodation for tonight taken care of?"

"Following the usual practice, it’s booked at Maple Leaf Hotel,"

The youth replied in a soft voice, "This hotel has a contract with the Research Institute, and can bill directly to the public account."

"Good, thank you for your hard work,"

Wu Lan nodded,

"Of course,"

The youth nodded back, glanced at Wu Lan to make sure she had no further requests, and then turned and left.

Meanwhile, Wu Lan bowed her head, fixated on the tablet in her hand, watching the video that was playing on repeat.

After a while, she looked up and surveyed the room around her.

Why was Xia Ye able to resist? Could that thing which can make people "disappear" not work on stronger Transcendents? Or did Xia Ye discover something?

She took out her phone and accessed the data that originally belonged to this branch. It had just been unlocked by the staff of the Research Institute and shared to the cloud server of the Institute.

She searched through the data, finding many chaotic collections of clues about the "Newland City-State disappearance case," but the comprehensive investigation report on hand was the only copy she had, and there was no specially marked data.

As she was sorting through the data, her phone’s screen flashed, and a call display popped up.

This call was not in her contacts; it was from an unknown caller.

After pondering for a moment, she chose to answer the call.

"Hello,"

The voice on the other end was gentle and clear, "This is Hao Yi."

"Ah?"

Wu Lan was taken aback.

"I have an account with the Research Institute, and I have just sent you a message."

It seemed as if the caller anticipated her confusion and continued speaking calmly.

Wu Lan quickly opened the Research Institute’s app, and indeed saw a message from the unfamiliar friend ’Hao Yi,’ along with a friend request notification.

In the app of the Research Institute, users can send messages to each other directly without being friends, but file transfers and sending large amounts of picture data require friend connections.

At this point, Wu Lan also remembered the rumor that the Institute’s Director had prepared a special access account for Hao Yi during their transaction dealing with the relic slots.

"Hello, can I help you with something?"

Wu Lan wasn’t sure why this mysterious C-level was contacting her, but after a moment of hesitation, she still asked in a low voice. Meanwhile, she added ’Hao Yi’ as a friend.

"I’m wondering if you’d be willing to share the clues you obtained from your investigation today."

The voice on the other end maintained its gentle and composed tone.

Clues?

Wu Lan was stunned again, her mind racing.

Strictly speaking, the clues she had obtained here didn’t touch on the secrets of the Research Institute, and the investigation report she had written was something this big player could access due to their privileges.

Moreover, the Research Institute’s current main objective towards ’Hao Yi’ was to ’attempt to win over’ and ’improve relations.’ The benefits of doing so were obvious.

In fact, if Hao Yi hadn’t shown up today, it wouldn’t have been so easy for her to carry out her investigation.

Even if it were true Research Institute secrets, she believed that if she made a request to the Director, the Director would probably be willing to share them. However, for those kinds of secrets, ’Hao Yi’ would have gone directly to the Director instead.

Even though it was her first real interaction with this ’C-level,’ in just a fleeting moment, she made a decision, "Of course, it would be my honor..."

Then she quickly and concisely recounted her findings.

The person on the other end listened seriously to her narration, interjecting occasionally to show attentiveness.

When she had finished explaining everything, the other party fell into a brief silence, seemingly organizing the content she had shared.

Afterward, she heard the other side ask, "I’d like to hear your analysis."

"I think the disappearance of the Research Institute’s branch is most likely related to the disappearance case that Xia Ye... Xia Ye was investigating,"

Wu Lan gathered her thoughts before continuing,

"Moreover, I think that Xia Ye didn’t actually possess any crucial information, or to put it another way, she had important information but had not yet completely sorted it out.

"Because she’s a particularly cautious person, if she had anticipated danger in advance, she would definitely have prepared sufficient defenses. Even if she were ’ambushed’ by a mysterious ability, it wouldn’t be so easy to deal with her because, based on the evidence of a battle in the office, she might have noticed the ’weak point’ of this ability.

"So all things considered, the ’attack’ on the Research Institute branch was a theoretically too ’premature’ ’ambush.’ The opponent was exceptionally cautious, launching an attack to nip the budding threat in the bud as soon as they detected Xia Ye’s investigation before a clear threat was posed.

"However,"

Wu Lan paused, a hint of confusion in her voice, "What strikes me as odd is that if the other side is so cautious, they couldn’t have failed to consider that the Research Institute would send people to investigate afterward. It seems they are not afraid of ’investigation’?"

"Hmm,"

As she completed her analysis, the person on the phone seemed to ponder as well. After a short pause, the voice suddenly asked, "Are you in the office right now?"

Wu Lan: "Present."

"Are the curtains closed?"

The voice on the other end continued to inquire.

Wu Lan lifted her head and looked ahead; the tightly drawn curtains appeared in her field of view,

"They are closed."

The curtains still bore uniform splatters of blood, proving that they had been drawn at the time of the attack.

"Thank you, your information and analysis are very valuable."

The voice on the phone said slowly.

The two exchanged a few more words, agreed that Wu Lan would share the documents she had found, and then they disconnected the call.

Wu Lan gripped her phone, glancing once more around the bloodstained environment.

The narrative she had just shared with ’Hao Yi’ also allowed her to reorganize all the clues.

She took a deep breath.

Alive, one must see the person; dead, one must see the body.

Even if it were the worst-case scenario, she was determined to bring the person home.

----

Newland City-State·Wenlan Island

He Ao slowly set down his cellphone and looked up at the clear moonlight in the sky.

Disguised as ’Lunke’, he walked out of the small alley he was in.

He walked a few dozen meters forward, passed several street corners, and a seaside courtyard came into view.

This courtyard was the ’residence’ that the red-haired man had told He Ao about, where their boss lived.

"You’re here?"

At that moment, the red-haired man, who had been waiting at the gate for an unknown amount of time, saw He Ao and quickly walked over.

"Nice weather today."

Feeling the breeze on his face, He Ao glanced at the cloudless sky and said casually.

"Nice weather...indeed, indeed it’s not bad at all."

The red-haired man glanced at the dagger He Ao was toying with in his hands and carefully led him towards the courtyard, saying as if to continue the sentiment, "It’s much better than yesterday’s day that you couldn’t tell from night with such overcast skies."

"Is your boss a confidant of the Transcendent Deputy Leader Daybreak?"

He Ao, looking at the open courtyard gate, asked thoughtfully.

"I’m not sure, we... how could we keep up with a Deputy Leader at the B-level, that enigmatic figure whose face we never see,"

the red-haired man said cautiously, "But our boss is a C-level Transcendent, and he can speak his mind by Daybreak’s side. And he’s not just a big shot under Daybreak, he’s also..."

He trailed off there.

"Also what?"

He Ao looked up at him.

The red-haired man hesitated, seemingly speaking of things not his place to say, his face turning red, "You’ll find out soon enough, anyway, following our boss is your good fortune."

"Seems he has a lot of good fortune then."

He Ao smiled and walked into the courtyard gate with the red-haired man.

As soon as he entered, an intense smell of blood hit them.

He Ao looked up, observing the scenery inside the courtyard.

First to catch his eye was a somewhat desolate garden, with a tree by the door that was already withered; the flower bed near the entrance was planted with pure white roses, their not yet fully bloomed buds stained with crimson blood.

"Lunke, you’ve arrived."

At the far end of the garden, on a stone staircase, sat an ordinary-looking middle-aged man. He supported a knife covered in fresh blood with one hand, while his other hand slowly and carefully wiped the bloodstains off with a white cloth.

He was dressed in some gray and white attire, flanked by two others in gray and white on each side.

The bloodied tip of the knife sank into the soft soil of the flower bed; the pure white roses swayed gently in the breeze.

He lifted his head, gazing at He Ao,

"Do you long for chaos?"