Inside the locker room of the Miami Police Department, Axel Vance finished buttoning up a brand-new police uniform and looked at himself in the mirror. Only a few days earlier, he had been wearing prison clothes while fighting murderers and supernatural monsters inside the ruins of a collapsed correctional facility. Now he was standing inside a police station again, and the sudden change left him wondering for a moment whether he had truly transmigrated or was trapped inside an unusually vivid nightmare.
"Hey, rookie. You’ve got a package." A rough voice interrupted Axel’s thoughts, and he turned to see a burly officer leaning against the doorway with a small box in one hand. The package was barely larger than his palm, but when Axel took it, the unexpected weight immediately caught his attention.
Axel frowned because there was almost nobody who should have been sending him anything. The original Axel’s parents were already gone, and he had few close friends in Miami, leaving him practically alone in the city. He turned the box over in his hands and casually asked, "Delivery service working overtime in the middle of the day?"
The officer grinned and shook his head. "Wasn’t a delivery driver. Some gentleman brought it in personally." He thought for a moment before adding, "Expensive clothes, perfect manners, and he talked slowly like some college professor giving a lecture."
Axel’s expression immediately changed.
Elegant.
Controlled.
Professor-like.
The image of Hannibal Lecter appeared in Axel’s mind almost instantly. Hannibal had survived the prison collapse, and somehow he not only knew that Axel was alive but also knew his real identity as a police officer and exactly where to find him. That was far more disturbing than simply discovering that the cannibal had escaped.
Axel’s thoughts quickly began sorting through the possibilities. Hannibal was extraordinarily intelligent and had moved comfortably around psychiatrists, investigators, and law-enforcement circles before his imprisonment, so obtaining information was hardly beyond him. Even so, knowing Axel’s undercover identity this quickly suggested Hannibal either had help or access to someone unusually well informed.
Axel refused to immediately blame everything he could not explain on supernatural powers. Hannibal Lecter was dangerous precisely because he did not need magic to manipulate people or uncover secrets. Until evidence proved otherwise, Axel would assume Hannibal had contacts, associates, or some kind of intelligence network working outside the prison.
He carefully placed the package on one of the locker-room benches. Under the curious gazes of several officers, Axel squeezed each corner, inspected the seams, and held the box close enough to listen for anything unusual inside. He even gave it a gentle shake before deciding there was no obvious mechanical device hidden within.
One officer laughed. "Come on, Vance. You really think somebody mailed you a bomb inside the police station?" Axel ignored him and slowly broke the seal, because after witnessing corpses climb off autopsy tables, he no longer considered excessive caution particularly embarrassing.
Inside the box was a beautifully bound Bible.
One of the officers leaned closer and whistled. "That’s not something from the motel nightstand. You know somebody important at a church?" Axel did not answer, because the book itself was less interesting than the neatly folded letter resting just inside the cover.
Across the front, written in elegant handwriting, were the words:
To Officer Axel Vance.
Axel calmly removed the letter and slipped it into his pocket before placing the Bible inside his locker. He made a casual excuse about needing the restroom and left before his coworkers could ask more questions. A few minutes later, he entered an empty stall, locked the door, and unfolded the paper.
The handwriting inside was just as elegant as the address.
Officer Vance, please allow me the liberty of addressing you properly. Your survival after such an extraordinary disaster was impressive, although I confess I expected no less.
You may naturally have questions regarding my involvement. To spare us both unnecessary speculation, I will tell you directly that what happened beneath the prison was not my work.
The prison was merely another stage for the activities of a mysterious cult. If you wish to understand what happened, I suspect useful clues may still be found among the inmates who occupied the maximum-security wing.
I sincerely hope circumstances allow us to cooperate in the future.
Hannibal Lecter
Axel read the letter twice before lowering it.
Things had become considerably more complicated.
Hannibal was already dangerous enough by himself, yet now there was apparently an unidentified cult connected to the chanting and the prison disaster. Axel had no idea what the organization wanted, why it had created the underground cavity, or what connection it had to the inmates, but at least Hannibal had given him a direction to investigate.
Of course, whether Hannibal was telling the truth was another question entirely.
Axel folded the letter and returned it to his pocket before leaving the restroom. Once he reached the locker room again, he retrieved the Bible and began examining it more carefully. If Hannibal had hidden one message inside, there was no reason to assume there could not be another.
Axel slowly flipped through the book page by page. Nothing unusual appeared between the passages, and there were no handwritten notes, hidden photographs, or coded markings. He had almost reached the end when the system suddenly reacted.
[Blessed Bible detected.]
[New Specialization Activated: Holy Reading]
[Holy Reading Lv. 1 — 0/1000]
[Effect: Psionic Power +0.1]
[Psionic effect activated.]
Holy Reading: Reading or reciting passages from the Bible can continuously inflict damage on unholy entities.
A cool sensation suddenly spread through Axel’s mind. The exhaustion and mental heaviness accumulated over the previous several days seemed to disappear, leaving him unusually refreshed. Even his thoughts felt clearer than before.
Axel stared at the system display in disbelief before a smile slowly appeared on his face.
Finally.
He had a genuine method for dealing with supernatural enemies.
When Ed Gein had continued moving after being shot through the head, Axel had realized ordinary weapons might not always be enough in this world. If he eventually encountered ghosts, demons, possessed creatures, or something even worse, brute strength and bullets might prove completely useless.
Holy Reading changed that.
It might only be Level 1, but it directly affected unholy entities. More importantly, its existence proved that the system could grant specializations designed specifically for supernatural threats. Axel carefully closed the Bible and placed it among his belongings with considerably more respect than before.
Later that afternoon, Axel returned to the ruins of the prison.
A large crowd of curious civilians was still gathered outside the perimeter despite multiple police barricades. Several patrol cars blocked the most accessible routes, while one exhausted officer stood behind the line with a megaphone trying unsuccessfully to send everyone home.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is an active recovery site," the officer announced in a tired voice. "There is nothing valuable inside. The inmates who lived here didn’t own anything worth stealing, so please stop trying to get closer and go home."
Almost nobody moved.
Axel could only shake his head. Apparently, the destruction of an entire prison had become free afternoon entertainment for half of Miami.
He looked around until he spotted Clarice Starling waiting near one of the police vehicles. She already had several documents in hand and appeared completely prepared for the investigation. Axel walked over and said, "Sorry. Have you been waiting long?"
Clarice shook her head. "Not really. Training at Quantico teaches you pretty quickly that arriving early is better than making everyone else wait." Her focused expression remained exactly as serious as Axel remembered from the character in his previous life.
Axel nodded but felt a trace of uneasiness.
So far, Clarice still resembled the dedicated young trainee he remembered. Axel hoped that continued, because the more familiar characters deviated from their expected paths, the less useful his knowledge of horror movies and thrillers would become. If everything eventually turned into some chaotic supernatural war involving every fictional monster he remembered, his current strength would be nowhere near enough.
"Come on," Axel said. "I’ll show you where the underground wing used to be."
He led Clarice through the police perimeter and into the central ruins. Construction and recovery crews had already brought in excavators, cutting equipment, and temporary supports so they could safely remove the debris. Every so often another body was uncovered, placed into a body bag, and carried toward a designated recovery area.
Clarice’s expression softened whenever another body appeared. Axel noticed it but said nothing, privately remembering that she was still inexperienced compared with the hardened agents she would eventually work beside. Being intelligent and professionally trained did not automatically make someone immune to seeing death up close.
Axel eventually approached several workers near the main excavation. "Who’s running the site? I’m with the Miami Police Department." After checking Axel’s newly issued identification, one worker used a radio to contact the person supervising the excavation.
A few minutes later, a capable-looking middle-aged man wearing a hard hat walked toward them. Axel introduced himself and Clarice before getting directly to the point. "You’ve been digging through this place since the collapse. What do you think happened?"
The supervisor looked toward the enormous pit with a puzzled expression. "That’s what we’re trying to figure out. We’ve already found something that doesn’t match the original geological records." He motioned for Axel and Clarice to follow him toward the edge of the excavation.
"I pulled the old geological survey maps from when this facility was built," the supervisor continued. "According to those records, the ground beneath the prison was stable. No major caverns, sinkholes, or natural underground voids were documented beneath this section."
Axel frowned. "Then how did half the prison drop into a hole that size?"
"Exactly."
The supervisor stopped at a safe point overlooking the exposed wall of the crater. He pointed toward a broad section of soil and rock where the excavation had created a clear cross-section. "Look right there."
Axel followed his finger and quickly noticed something unusual.
A distinct horizontal line separated the upper layer of earth from the material beneath it. The difference was obvious even without geological training. Clarice noticed it at almost the same moment.
"Why are the two layers so different?" she asked.
The supervisor nodded. "That’s the problem. The material below that line is much softer than the undisturbed ground above it, and we’ve found repeated signs that it was moved and packed back into place."
Axel’s expression slowly hardened.
"So this isn’t a natural cavity."
"No."
The supervisor looked down into the enormous crater.
"Someone disturbed the ground beneath this prison long before it collapsed."
Axel stared at the exposed earth as the implication settled into his mind.
The chanting.
The cult.
The underground maximum-security wing.
And now this.
His heart sank.
"In other words..."
Axel looked toward the massive hole beneath the ruined prison.
"Someone dug this place out on purpose."
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