Dark Light Chaser.

Chapter 36 The Gathered Watchers

My name is Gao Bin, and I am a member of the Asia Union's Bureau of Strange Tales Countermeasures.

I currently work for the Nevada City Criminal Investigation Division. Because I used the armor too frequently, my mental corruption reached the yellow alert line, so I was forced to take leave by my superiors.

Fantastic! I've been waiting for this day for so long. Although my identity as a member of the Strange Countermeasures Bureau means I can only work in a public institution and my so-called vacation is just a transfer away from the front line to work in a different place to recuperate, at least I don't have to face those strange evil thoughts anymore. I can finally slack off to my heart's content!

People often say that ideals and reality are always far apart, and I now understand this deeply.

After fighting against those monsters for so many years, I thought I could finally slack off and do nothing, but as soon as I took office, I encountered a workaholic team leader.

I don’t know if he misunderstood the meaning of the word “take care” from above, but he takes me with him no matter what he does. He takes me around for almost half the day, calling it “exercise”.

Why did it turn out like this? I was clearly transferred away from the front lines, and my superiors had promised me a sinecure. These two happy things coinciding should have brought double the joy, but why did it turn out this way?
I called Dr. Yue and asked him to help me transfer to the technical department.

It turned out that Captain Shi was actually the apprentice of an old acquaintance of Dr. Yue. This damned society based on personal connections! Feeling utterly hopeless, I began a life of intense overtime work.

This is not the life I want!
I have made contributions to the Asian Union!
I have shed blood for the people!

I want to slack off!

One afternoon, I mustered up my courage and went to Captain Shi, intending to tell him about my suffering.

"Gao Bin, go and sort out the files. You can leave work once you're done. Also, I've approved your leave application."

"Roger that!"

Actually, this kind of life is quite nice.

Nevada has a good public security record, and the criminal investigation team rarely has the opportunity to be dispatched. Even though Captain Shi keeps giving me more responsibilities, they are all trivial matters.

Two years have passed in the blink of an eye. Recently, I encountered a nesting doll case and met a cold-faced middle school student.

This case is like a TV drama, with one link leading to another. As the protagonist, he always manages to discover clues and notify the criminal investigation team before the police do.

Even the usually strict captain praised him highly and tried to groom him as his successor.

The case was closed in a flash, and I was happy to have some free time.

How wonderful it would be if he could get involved in every case from now on.

He acts as a famous detective, investigating clues and gaining a reputation, while I arrest people based on the clues and evidence. We both have a bright future.

Just as I was fantasizing about happily paddling along behind the boy, I suddenly received a transfer order.

According to the tests, my mental state has stabilized, and I should return to work at the Bureau of Countermeasures against the Supernatural in a month.

Happy times are always fleeting, and I can only cherish this last month.

To test my mental state, I tried activating the bio-armor embedded in my arm and sensed an unexpected aura. The source of that aura was none other than Xu Zhihai, the central figure in the two murder cases.

He may have come into contact with those monsters or strange objects.

I reported this to my superiors, intending to have someone else take over the investigation, but the task was directly assigned to me while I was still on vacation.
What bad luck.

So-called monsters are just monsters. I'm not a researcher, so I don't understand what these things are. All I know is that their existence is a threat to any living thing.

Their history is not long, only in recent decades, but as time goes by, their numbers are increasing and their appearances are becoming more frequent. In the past, they would only appear once every one or two years in a city, but recently they have appeared more than ten times a year.

Just like in the movies, human weapons have a hard time destroying them. It's like trying to cut a lump of liquid with a knife; you can't cause any effective damage.

Research has shown that only energy weapons, such as positron cannons, can damage them.

However, the technology of positron cannons was not mature enough to be widely used. Just when people were at a loss, Theo, a country that practiced isolationism and semi-capitalist and semi-feudalism, sent a secret document to the other four major political systems.

The contents of this document are chilling. It details experiments that fuse humans and monsters and states that only monsters can fight monsters.

Humans who have fused with monsters will have a lifespan ranging from one month to ten years, depending on the strength of the monster's power and the will of the experimenter.

Various political systems condemned this inhumane experiment, and then secretly began to create fusion warriors.

The Republic of Theo has absolutely no trade relations with the other four major political entities, and its military power is extremely strong.

After they send out the message, they continue to keep their borders tightly shut and ignore you completely; there's nothing you can do about it.

Of course, not everyone who merges with a monster is doomed to die; Apostles can control those monsters without any side effects.

The so-called Apostles are humans who are born with the ability to control strange objects and monsters. If we classify everyone in the Countermeasures Bureau according to the company structure, we can achieve the same level.

Those who use bio-armor and cursed artifacts are the low-level laborers; fusion warriors who forcibly merge with monsters in human form and wield the monster's power are the management; apostles are VIPs passed down through generations of wealthy families, the gods' favorites, a rare species that might not even exist in one in hundreds of thousands.

This title means that the messenger was sent by God to save humanity, representing humanity's hope.

However, I've worked in the Countermeasures Bureau for almost ten years and have never seen an Apostle; I've only heard rumors about them.

Those stories sound like the top ten unbelievable things on campus, barely comparable to urban legends, and are just for fun.

The only person I've met who could possibly be an Apostle is Xu Zhihai. He was tainted by the aura of the strange object but did not suffer any mental corruption, which is one of the most distinctive characteristics of an Apostle.

Each of these special items that protect humanity from corruption is extremely precious and cannot be misused, so he is very likely the legendary apostle.

However, judging from the reactions above, this possibility seems unlikely. Tsk, I was so confident in reporting this to higher authorities, it seems they're stubborn and determined to let me solve the problems in Nevada City by myself.

The topic returned to the mission.

Based on Xu Zhihai's whereabouts, I found the source of the unusual aura. That's right, it was Wang Dafu, the middle-aged man sitting behind the counter of the grocery store across the street.

Xu Zhihai only picked up that scent after buying things from his house.

According to the investigation, he recently smashed up a base of underground intelligence dealers. Looking at the iconic white crying face mask in the surveillance footage, I am 100% certain that he must be one of the masked men under the Thousand Faces.

He was just unlucky; Xu Zhihai happened to buy something at his shop, and I, who was following Xu Zhihai, discovered him.

The Thousand-Faced Man is the code name of an apostle from an organization called the Apostles' Guild, which searches for apostles around the world and invites them to join.

The most widely used method for identifying apostles today originated from there.

Unfortunately, this apostles, which could have been humanity's hope, turned out to be almost entirely composed of madmen. Although they still retained human consciousness, their actions resembled those of monsters with human consciousness. They ignored the rules and acted recklessly, only caring about their own pleasure and showing no regard for the feelings of others.

Humans are no different from animals in their eyes. Unrestrained power has always been a thorn in the side of the order-makers, so the Apostles have always been the target of collective attacks by various political systems.

The Thousand-Faced Man is the most active member of the Apostles' Guild, responsible for recruiting Apostles around the world. His ability is to possess ordinary people through masks he creates, and his consciousness can switch between various puppets, allowing him to hide behind the scenes and control everything like a puppeteer.

Due to their sheer number, the Asian Alliance gave those puppets a separate ethnic code name: 'Masks'.

Wang Dafu, whom I am currently monitoring, is one of the members of the Mask.

Ai Liang was the last person to arrive at Wang Dafu's general store. He hid in a nearby alley and observed the situation.

Across from the grocery store sat several men with fierce expressions in a snack shop. Without exception, they all turned their gazes toward Wang Dafu behind the counter. This must be the debt collection team that Mu Si had hired.

Ai Liang was more concerned about Gao Bin in the car across the street than about the other people.

Why is he here too?

Ai Liang frowned. If they were all from the underworld, it would be fine, but if a detective like Gao Bin had infiltrated, many of his methods would be less convenient to use. He couldn't very well silence him.

Due to Gao Bin's unexpected intervention, Ai Liang had to abandon her plan to kidnap and torture Wang Dafu and temporarily join the team observing him.

The overweight tech geek chuckled to himself as he rapidly typed on his laptop, completely unaware that his every move was being watched.

Half an hour later, Wang Dafu received a phone call, and his previous happiness vanished without a trace.

He closed his laptop, pulled down the roller shutter, started his used car, and left the grocery store.

Gao Bin immediately drove after them, and the five men from the snack shop also got into a van and quietly followed behind. Ai Liang, who had no means of transportation, could only raise her hand and call a taxi.

Fortunately, thanks to the power of telepathy, the person was not lost.

The three groups followed Wang Dafu's car through a maze of twists and turns to the still-under-construction Nevada District 7. Although Nevada City had been promoting the new district vigorously, the actual flow of people had not increased much. Except for the morning and evening rush hours, the new district was like a ghost town.

Wang Dafu parked his car in front of a building materials warehouse, looked around, and entered the warehouse through a side door.

After circling around, Gao Bin parked his car a hundred meters away. The debt collection team that Mu Si had hired was separated from Gao Bin by a high wall.

A small warehouse has brought together four different factions, making a chaotic battle inevitable.

"I am currently located near the building materials warehouse in the new seventh district. Warehouse No. 3 is suspected to be the mask's stronghold." Gao Bin contacted the special operations team of the Countermeasures Bureau while sitting in the car.

The Special Operations Unit is a special armed force directly under the Countermeasures Bureau. No one outside the Countermeasures Bureau can mobilize it. They possess the most advanced weaponry and equipment, and each member is an elite soldier from the local military region.

Its main responsibilities include the evacuation of ordinary people, post-disaster cleanup, and the violent suppression of non-strange forces.

Gao Bin called for backup precisely to have them come and clean up the mess. They were just a bunch of masked people who couldn't cause any trouble. Compared to him, who possessed the Bio-Armor, they were at best just ordinary, physically strong people.

He had done this kind of task countless times in his career, and the process was already second nature to him.

While Gao Bin was still giving his lengthy report, the five-person team next door had already sneaked over.

(End of this chapter)