“Miss Ling, it is right here.”
“Send people to guard the other places. Be careful. Do not relax your vigilance.”
“Yes!”
Ling and Igris came to Chrisuna’s flower shop.
Most of the flower pots here had been moved away, and the shop also seemed very empty.
Precisely because of this, the large hole in the wall also seemed especially conspicuous.
“So this is the place.” Igris went over and took a look.
The hole could roughly accommodate an adult man going in and out, so Igris and Ling could also enter very easily.
“How about it? Go down and take a look?”
“…You really want to go?”
“I will not cause you trouble. Just give me a weapon.”
Of course Ling would not really let her go down bare-handed.
It was just that she was still hesitating whether to let Igris personally come into contact with danger.
After all, all the intelligence at present was not very clear, and advancing rashly carried great danger.
Even though she indeed needed help very much, ordinary police officers had great limitations and danger when handling anomalous incidents, but the Special Task Force operatives here were only her and Pasa.
The most, most, most unfortunate thing was that Ling was from the intelligence division.
Although she could not be said to have zero combat ability, at least she was not much stronger either.
And Pasa was an operative from the task force division.
If even he could not handle it easily, then this matter would be countless times more dangerous than imagined.
If because of this kind of thing Igris was injured or even died, she would not be able to forgive herself.
But she had probably imagined Igris as too fragile.
“Do not stand there dazed. Give me a weapon.”
Ling still handed a pistol to Igris.
There was only one magazine of bullets, not many, but it would only be useful in extreme situations.
“I will go down first. Remember to follow.”
“Wait!”
Before she could finish speaking, Igris had already jumped down and disappeared into the hole.
“…Sigh.”
At this point, there seemed to be no way to turn back.
…
“So smelly.”
“It is a sewer, after all.”
Ling turned on the flashlight, illuminating the road ahead, as well as the filth and garbage piled everywhere.
“Where exactly was the place they were attacked?”
“I do not know… According to the description of the officer who escaped, they lost their direction inside and were scattered apart, completely unable to find the specific direction. His escape could only be considered good luck.”
“Luck…”
Igris had always disliked gambling on luck, because her luck generally was not especially good.
The word lucky generally had little connection with her either.
Although it was not that she had none at all, she still considered herself not particularly lucky.
“Stay close. Do not get separated.” Igris reminded her, then also turned on the flashlight and slowly advanced forward.
“Wait…”
“?”
Ling stepped forward, came to Igris’s side, and grabbed her wrist.
“This way we will not get separated. The situation below is very complicated. It is uncertain whether there are anomalies that affect cognition. As long as we do not let go, there will be no problem.” Enjoying the story? Read on at NovelPing.
“Oh.”
Igris thought she had suddenly become interested in her, and only after hearing the explanation did she breathe a sigh of relief.
But at the same time, she also clearly understood that if there really was that kind of anomaly, this most basic method would not work.
Even though she did not really like physical contact, at a time like this there was probably no other choice.
“There is a fork ahead.”
The sewer system was intricate and complex.
Without a map, walking inside was almost no different from a maze.
Although Igris very much did not want to admit it, if Pasa had considered this aspect, then he definitely would have left marks.
“Right.”
Igris noticed the brand-new bullet casing dropped there.
If this person Pasa did not have a hobby of specifically collecting bullet casings as markers, then he should have fired his gun.
And there were no corpses nearby, nor bloodstains.
It looked very likely that he had encountered some anomaly.
They had just come down and already encountered an anomaly?
It seemed the place below was far more dangerous than imagined.
“…Do not grip so hard.”
Igris turned her head and mentioned this to Ling, who seemed somewhat nervous.
The latter then somewhat embarrassedly let go.
“Sorry… I keep feeling there is danger nearby…”
“Danger…? I did not feel it.”
“Really…? I feel it quite obviously.”
Igris looked at Ling, who had let go, and was suddenly startled.
She quickly reached for her wrist, but grasped only air.
Ling, who had just been standing in place, had at this moment disappeared from where she stood, leaving only darkness.
“…Isolated and Helpless.”
This was the name of an anomaly.
It generally appeared in environments with relatively poor visibility, possibly night, rainy days, snowy days, and so on.
The specific manifestation was that from unseen places around, malice would continuously emanate, and as much as possible separate you from the people around you.
If there was only one person, then it would even more easily attract malicious people or creatures.
No matter how Igris currently was, she knew that Ling definitely was in danger.
Because she did not feel malice, while Ling did.
This showed that the one targeted by Isolated and Helpless was only her, and did not include Igris.
“Even persimmons pick the soft ones to squeeze…” Igris clicked her tongue lightly, and her footsteps also sped up a bit.
It would not be too far.
She needed to find Ling as quickly as possible to avoid any accident.
It should not be too far…
….
“Igris? Igris?!”
Looking at Igris, who had suddenly disappeared before her, Ling instinctively raised the gun and flashlight in her hand, and at the same time a term also surfaced in her mind.
“Isolated and Helpless… Damn it.”
She also understood that she had probably been targeted, so she very quickly leaned against the wall to avoid a blind spot in her vision.
The flashlight continuously shone forward, while she vigilantly sized up the surroundings.
According to the characteristics of Isolated and Helpless, she would sooner or later encounter danger.
She had to prepare as early as possible and protect herself.
As a Special Task Force operative, even from the intelligence division, she still possessed very rich combat experience and understood that at a time like this she should remain calm. The source of this chapter is g.com.
“Haha…”
A sudden laugh sounded beside her ear.
She quickly turned around and pointed her gun toward the corresponding direction, not daring to relax in the slightest.
But there was nothing.
No figure, no monster.
“…”
“Hahaha.”
The laughter came again, this time appearing to her front-left, but she had been watching that place the whole time.
Clearly there was nothing.
And at this moment, the flashlight in her hand suddenly began to flicker, and the light also rapidly began to grow weak.
“Hahahaha!”
As the laughter became especially wild, the flashlight’s light quickly went out.
Immediately after, hurried footsteps resounded through the dark sewer, echoing endlessly.
…
“Tch… Cannot find her… Could I have gone the wrong way…”
Igris looked somewhat troubledly at the fork that appeared ahead again.
With the idea of checking, she came to the entrance of one fork.
Igris shone the flashlight in her hand over, and the light also illuminated the road ahead.
What appeared before her was a wall.
It was a dead end, a path that could be ruled out.
That was how it should have been, but beside the wall, the door to the sewer pipe management room was slightly open, and the situation inside could not be seen clearly.
No matter what it was, there should not be anyone else here, and this door should not be open.
Igris approached the iron door, looked at the bullet damage marks on it, seemed to understand something, and unhesitatingly walked in.
Only, unlike the imagined scene, it was empty inside.
No person was seen, nor any other traces.
It seemed that person had only destroyed this door and then left, and had not continued to stay here.
“Bad luck… wasting my time.”
Igris sighed, then turned around preparing to leave, but ran headfirst into something.
Behind her should have been the open doorway.
“…”
The flashlight in Igris’s hand slightly lifted, shining on the face of the figure blocking the doorway.
“Are you looking for me?”
It was a black-robed person wearing a strange white-faced mask.
The mask’s expression seemed both smiling and not smiling.
Combined with the pale color, it looked extremely terrifying and eerie, making one shudder.
“…Sorry, wrong room.”
Igris tried to bluff her way past in this manner, but the next time she bumped into him, and he still remained motionless, Igris also knew she probably had no chance to escape.
Helplessly sighing, Igris slightly raised her head and looked with narrowed eyes at the man wearing the strange mask before her.
“I thought you were all in groups… Can I ask you a question?”
“What question?”
Igris was silent for a moment.
Under the seemingly smiling yet not smiling gaze beneath his mask, she slowly pulled out the sidearm from her sleeve and pointed it at his head.
“Guess, between the bullet and you, which is faster?”