Master of Kaidan
Chapter 173: Military Intelligence Ninth Bureau in Trouble

Chapter 173: Chapter 173: Military Intelligence Ninth Bureau in Trouble

"Did you find out yet? How the hell did that damn phone number spread?!"

In a room disguised as a hospital archive department, Lady Q, who rarely lost her composure, showed a rare burst of anger. In her career spanning over a decade, this was the first time she had ever lost her poise like this.

Because, in all her years on the job, this was the first time she had encountered such a ghost.

The ghosts she had dealt with in the past were either foolish ones that would kill according to a certain pattern or those with a clear purpose; even when they became mutated, most of them had simple and crude Descent rules.

But now, this abnormality called "Libra" had evolved several times in just half a year!

Originally, they had a good summary of the rules of this abnormality and had designed a task commissioned from the best starting point. They fabricated many wrongful cases attempting to bait and trap it, but who knew that this abnormality would keep up with the times and directly "place orders" by phone!

You could say that all their work over the past few weeks–from legal procedures to script arrangements to scene setups–had been almost entirely wasted!

"Lady Q, according to the investigation, the earliest source of the phone number seems to be a post on a forum discussion section," an agent from the intelligence team reported, handing Lady Q a tablet with screenshot after screenshot.

The screenshot showed a very simple question—

"How do I make a commission request to Libra?"

Seeing this topic, Lady Q frowned. Since the spread of the Libra abnormality, such questions had flooded the internet thousands of times a day, the kind that agents couldn’t be bothered to deal with, generally only paying attention if there were any signs of the poster truly being treated unjustly before deciding whether to stake out the place or not.

After all, as one of the ten core covenants of the abnormality, there was a rule that "Executioners must accept a commission to kill," which meant that Libra must have a channel for commissions.

Lady Q’s gaze swept over each screenshot. The content was no different from the usual forum posts, full of guesses like "exclusive information network," "through news and newspapers," "online," "court hearings," and so on. However, when her gaze moved further down, her pupils finally narrowed.

She saw the culprit—

It was a very simple reply:

"Just dial ten zeros at midnight, and you can reach the closest Executioner who is currently idle, but I won’t tell just anyone!"

This reply had no special features and was the kind that needed the least attention. If it were before the rule became a reality, Lady Q would not have thought twice about investigating the reply.

In the end, "dialing a specific number at a particular time to reach a mysterious area" was an ancient legend that had existed ever since the advent of dial-up telephones, with claims of lines to Heaven, Hell or Purgatory, and even mysterious organizations. As an organization dealing directly with the supernatural, Lady Q in her professional career had seen countless such legends.

Even with the advent of computers, this legend evolved into versions involving entering specific URLs.

However, as Lady Q read the message immediately following the reply—undoubtedly someone either successfully contacted Libra or was just boasting online with a "Victoria’s curse word, I actually got through! My years of vengeance have finally been avenged!"—she closed her eyes in resignation.

Based on her experience, she could guess without looking further that there would definitely be a string of imitation posts in the same format and content following that one.

Sure enough, an identical series of replies stretched on, and you could tell just by looking at the screenshots that it must have expanded over at least a dozen pages.

Rubbing her nose bridge, Lady Q suddenly felt very weary; ever since forums became a mode of communication, their workload had increased more than tenfold!

And if you consider social media like MSN, Lady Q really felt the impulse to go back in time and eliminate anyone who even thought of inventing the computer.

Although such repetitious thread-bumping posts would flame out after a day or two, you could never underestimate the capacity for human boredom.

Even if everyone initially just copied and pasted the text and sent it, there would always be those who thought, "Maybe this is real."

So far, the Military Intelligence Ninth Bureau or rather the whole world’s Cognition of the ghosts’ mutation methods is still speculative, with confirmation only that such behavior requires "Fear" and "notoriety."

And the special forum pattern meant that in the section, other viewers could only see it was a hot thread, and when they thought they were clicking into a thread with solid information, they were destined to give that Libra-phone-connection post an extra notch of "notoriety."

The agent watched their superior carefully, seeing that she didn’t shift her gaze for a long time, and continued:

"We’ve seen similar posts on several other forums, such as pressing ten ones at 1 a.m., ten twos at 2 a.m., and so on, but currently, the most widespread is the number with ten zeros. According to the investigation, there are claims that when the legend just started, everyone could get through at midnight, and the voice on the phone would be either male or female, different from the current situation where only people ’who have experienced injustice and truly wish to contact an Executioner’ can get through. We can’t determine whether someone is lying or the abnormality has mutated again."

"Did you investigate the poster and the people who replied to the thread?" Lady Q took a deep breath, feeling that it probably wouldn’t yield any results, but she still asked.

"We’ve located the poster and the key respondents. We’ve already conducted preliminary monitoring and investigations. The poster is a university student from a small town in Columbia County; his post history contains a lot of discussions about ’Libra,’ but compared to his peers and social circle, it’s still within the normal range.

"The key respondent’s IP address is located in Columbia. Our field agents have also found him, a Chinese student living in New Leiburg’s Chinatown. There’s nothing special about his various records, but we’ve found high levels of internet activity relating to Libra in his browsing history around the same time as that reply. Additionally, according to subsequent investigations, he has records of purchasing external injury medicine that day, indicating he might have been attacked or abused, suggesting a high chance of venting online.

"Shall we proceed with a contact investigation?"

"No need..." Lady Q rubbed her temples forcefully and finally shook her head, "The very existence of Coin implies that the opponent can spontaneously obtain the assistance of ordinary people; contacting them rashly would only alert them. Just maintain surveillance, and by the way, investigate their social circles. I suspect there may be an Executioner within their social circle..."