The aftermath of the battle wasn’t too severe. Aside from the holes left by the tentacle monster on the sidewalk outside this building, there was virtually no other damage.
Of course, that was also because Gu Lian had pulled the tentacle monster into an open space from the very beginning.
Otherwise, if they’d fought in the stairwell—setting aside the fact that the narrow terrain would hinder her movements—the shockwaves from fighting the tentacle monster could have at least demolished half the building.
After this incident, Gu Lian felt that this place was no longer safe… extremely unsafe.
That tentacle monster had clearly come for her. She had just encountered a mysterious supernatural event after work today, and tonight the tentacle monster had tracked her down.
This was indeed the first time something like this had happened, but it was obviously not the last. Judging by that splitting head, who knew if this tentacle monster was just one of its split entities?
Thinking back to the passage she had seen last night that kept going deeper, she had a vague feeling that there was definitely something fishy beneath the Linjiao Swimming Base!
Returning to the front of Xiong Daye’s house, Gu Lian retrieved the suitcase she had left under the stairs, then walked upstairs and entered the entranceway.
“Pack up. We’re leaving.”
Walking into the living room, Gu Lian reached out, grabbed her backpack, and swung it over her shoulder. Before she could turn around, she sensed a gaze coming from behind her.
“Sis Lian, are we leaving right now?”
A milky, childish voice sounded. Gu Lian tilted her head and saw Yi Yi looking a bit bewildered. The corner of her mouth twitched involuntarily.
Without a second word, she scooped Yi Yi up under one arm and headed outside. As for the temporary stay she had just arranged with Xiong Daye yesterday, she felt no guilt whatsoever.
She had only said she would stay temporarily—she never said for how many days!
“Sis Lian, if we leave now, will Xiong Daye be in danger?”
Yi Yi grabbed onto Gu Lian’s clothes, feeling very uncomfortable, her little legs flailing randomly behind her. “And… holding Yiyi like this is uncomfortable!”
“I don’t know if he’s in danger, but I do know that if we stay here any longer, it’ll be dangerous for us.”
Leaving aside other factors, first, she couldn’t guarantee whether Xiong Daye was a split entity of that weird thing; second, who knows how many more split entities might show up in the dead of night; and third, heaven knows how many of that weird thing’s split entities were in Linjiao Town.
She wasn’t some protagonist in a TV drama, running headfirst into danger, never dying herself, while her enemies died in all sorts of bizarre ways and conveniently dropped equipment that benefited her.
Leaving Linjiao Town as soon as possible was the right move. She was just a… weird thing trying to live a normal life. Getting entangled by those strange creatures would be a real headache.
“But didn’t he take us in?”
Yi Yi scratched her head, but then drool started to drip from her mouth. “And his cooking is so delicious. Do we really have to leave?”
“…”
Gu Lian stopped walking, set Yi Yi down on the ground, and looked out at the road beyond the corridor for a moment. She reached into her pants pocket, pulled out her smartphone, swiped to unlock it, and tapped her index finger on a contact. She needed to contact someone now.
She hadn’t wanted to ask him for help originally, but given the situation, it shouldn’t be too difficult to have him do her a favor.
She dialed the number. It rang for a long time before the other end picked up. As soon as the call connected, she could hear the Masked Man’s slightly tired voice.
“Haaah~ Isn’t this Lian? What’s up, calling me so late at night?”
On the other end of the line, the Masked Man yawned. After dealing with the original Masked Man, he had temporarily taken over that position, planning to recruit Gu Lian into Eclipse. But during this time, he also had to complete the work that belonged to the original Masked Man.
After finishing his work, he had just lain down in bed for an hour when the phone rang. In the middle of the night, his instinct was to hang up, but when he picked up the phone, he saw the label “Important Contact.”
After seeing who was calling, he was silent for a long time. Finally, he took a deep breath and answered.
“Don’t tell me you don’t know where I am. I was just attacked by a weird creature.”
As she spoke, Gu Lian kicked open the suitcase and pulled out the Desert Eagle, hanging it at her waist.
“Attacked? What type?”
The fatigue in the Masked Man’s voice vanished instantly. From this alone, he must have dealt with this kind of thing often.
“Not sure, but it looked a bit like an octopus with only four pairs of legs. Its tentacles resembled something out of some manga, but its main body was a single eye on its head.”
Unshouldering her backpack, Gu Lian pulled out a file. This was something she had taken from the Masked Man. Originally, she thought Eclipse was some kind of fly-by-night organization, so she had never looked at the file after taking it.
But now that she thought about it, Eclipse had helped her get legitimate documents and was itself the backer of the Black Market. Even the power Eclipse had revealed was already far from simple.
“A biological-type weird creature? What do you need me to do?”
The Masked Man naturally wouldn’t ask the idiotic question of whether the weird creature was dead. If she was still standing there talking to him on the phone after being attacked, the result was obvious.
“Keep an eye on the old man at the place I was staying before. He took care of me for quite a while, but I can’t guarantee he isn’t one of those weird things.”
“Wait, what did you say?!”
The Masked Man keenly caught the two key phrases: “before” and “can’t guarantee he isn’t one of those weird things.”
“Literal meaning. I’m leaving Linjiao Town now. Goodbye.”
“Huh? Wait, Lian, you…”
Click. The call was cut off.
Gu Lian put away her phone, walked over to the stairs, sat down, lowered her head, pulled out a lollipop from her pocket, and put it in her mouth.
There were some things she couldn’t say too clearly. Revealing all her cards in one go was a very dangerous move.
Especially with someone as scheming as the Masked Man. If she wasn’t careful, she’d fall into his trap. If he really was part of the Hunter organization, as he claimed the Agency was, someone would soon come to contact him.
The Masked Man had said—Linjiao Town was Agency territory. She remembered that very clearly.
That meant the Hunters stationed here were basically all from the Agency. Eclipse would also station some, but they would definitely be hidden in the shadows.
Being in the shadows meant the Hunters from Eclipse could be trusted. The chances of them being replaced were very low.
“Sis Lian, were you just…”
Yi Yi was a bit confused. She understood every word Gu Lian had just said, but when she put them together, she couldn’t make sense of it. It felt… strange.
Slap, slap, slap—
Here they come?
Urgent footsteps rang out from the corridor. Gu Lian lifted her head, crunched the candy in her mouth, casually tossed the stick aside, and reached out to ruffle Yi Yi’s hair. “You’re still young… well, you really are still young. There are some things you don’t need to know too much about.”
Yi Yi: “Huh???”
Just then, a graceful figure ran in from the entrance. It was a woman about 1.7 meters tall with arms covered in scars.
Her slender arms were lined with beautiful muscle curves. Wearing a short cropped vest that exposed her midriff, she revealed a six-pack on her abdomen. The scars on her body only added a wild, untamed flavor to her.
Apart from that, Gu Lian was a bit curious about the bandage wrapped around the scarred woman’s head. Why would this woman go out wearing a bandage?
Had she been wrong? Was Eclipse not a big organization at all, so poor that they had to send injured personnel out on missions?
“I know what you’re going to say. First, this bandage on my head is from a few hours ago. Second, don’t look at me like that. I know I’m a bit of an idiot.”
The scarred woman leaned against the left wall, let out a sigh of stale air, looked at Gu Lian, twitched the corner of her mouth, and her eyes showed some helplessness.
“How did you find out?”
“Guessed.”
“Huh?”
The scarred woman’s beautiful eyes widened a bit. She really hadn’t expected that the fact she was nearby could be guessed.
“The phone you gave me—I don’t believe it doesn’t have some tricks installed.”
Gu Lian tossed a small packet of instant drink mix to the scarred woman. Seeing this, Yi Yi’s eyes went straight. Even though she couldn’t read, she felt that “drink” definitely meant something delicious!
“Let’s get to the point. That weird creature… what’s the situation?”
“I’m not entirely sure, but I’m guessing it’s likely distributed across various areas of Linjiao Town.”
Gu Lian pulled out another bottle of instant drink mix. As her index finger hooked onto the pull tab, she felt another gaze on her. Turning her head, she saw Yi Yi staring at the drink with sparkling eyes.
“…”
After a brief silence, Gu Lian tossed the drink. Yi Yi excitedly caught it, pulled the tab, and started chugging.
“Distributed across various areas? Are you saying there are a lot of weird creatures in Linjiao Town right now?”
The scarred woman straightened up, a strange expression on her face. “Then why hasn’t the Agency reacted?”
“What I’m about to say, please don’t be surprised. Of course, these are just my personal guesses. Take them as a joke if you want.”
Gu Lian sat down on the steps, hoisted her backpack, and began to speak. “I suspect that all the Agency members stationed in Linjiao Town have been harmlessly neutralized by the weird creatures.”
PS: New month… could I get a monthly ticket? QAQ Please, I beg you.