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Chapter 45 Too Late

……

"The source of the intrusion is in the room," Wang Baihu said softly, glancing at the indicator on his wrist. "Be careful."

Honglian nodded, grabbed her gun with both hands, and slammed the door open, the muzzle sweeping across the empty room.

"Hey, what's going on?"

Seeing that there was no movement for a long time, Wang Baihu, who was hiding in the corridor, couldn't help but ask.

"She's dead."

"Dead? Who?" He paused for a moment, then followed them into the house.

A withered woman lay sprawled on the floor, her eyes wide open, one hand reaching towards the point of intrusion, as if trying to escape back to another world.

Honglian knelt down beside her, her right hand pressed against her neck. "She still has a little body temperature; she couldn't have been dead for more than two hours. Xiaojiu, can you confirm her identity?"

"Wait a moment, I'll be right there." The person who was called came running up from downstairs, unloaded the equipment from his backpack, and began scanning the deceased.

"Could this be the Wanderer we're looking for?" Wang Baihu frowned. "How did he die?"

"I don't know," Honglian said, examining her body. "There are no obvious external injuries, but there are marks on her face from being hit, though not enough to be fatal." She then glanced around. "There must have been a fight here, though it wasn't very intense. Considering both of these points..."

“It was someone who was killed by his abilities,” Wang Baihu added.

"We've compared the bone, blood, and pupil data, but there's no record of her." At this moment, Xiaojiu also finished her scan. "She's not from this world."

“Then she is most likely a Wanderer.” Wang Baihu’s expression turned serious. “This intrusion point is quite well hidden. The intelligence team only recently included it in the range of suspicious fluctuations. I didn’t expect someone to act faster than us.”

"Was it another wanderer who killed her?" Little Dove asked timidly.

"Hard to say." He shook his head. The so-called Wanderers were just a special type of person who had gained abilities. Any degree of intrusion would disrupt the stability of the world, manifested in some people awakening strange and unusual powers. He and Honglian belonged to this category. There were many others in the city whose fates were similar, and a considerable number of them were not counted by the Dimensional Authority. These people were not considered Wanderers, but that didn't mean they couldn't use their abilities to kill.

“If it weren’t for the mirage incident last time, the intelligence team might have been able to find out who did it, but that’s definitely not going to work now.” Wang Baihu sighed. “Even dogs are affected. I can’t imagine how many ability users have appeared in the city since that day. This job is simply impossible to do.”

Although they are not responsible for the aftermath, everyone works in the same place. If the execution team does a bad job or things get out of hand, the complaints from the logistics team will reach the office.

"So what do we do now? Contact the logistics team to clean up the scene?" Xiaojiu asked.

“This is the only way for now,” he agreed. “Although the mission has gone wrong, it might not be a bad thing for you. Who knows what kind of abilities the Wanderers have… If we end up fighting, it could be a matter of life and death.”

At this point, he couldn't help but complain, "Who knows what the higher-ups are thinking? You've only been in the organization for a short time and haven't had any real combat experience yet, and they just shoved you into the execution team. They simply don't care about the lives of newcomers."

"Hehe, no... The organization is short-staffed right now, and I'd be happy to join the execution team." Xiaojiu smiled mischievously. "Although I'm not very good at it, I'll definitely try my best not to hold you back!"

"Wait, don't call for help yet," Honglian suddenly stopped them.

"what happened?"

Her gaze remained fixed on the deceased's hand. Wang Baihu turned his head to look and saw a clear bruise on the woman's wrist, with a pistol lying nearby.

Even if a Wanderer doesn't belong to this world, it's not uncommon for them to get a gun. Or rather, this is precisely the Wanderer's advantage; because they frequently travel between multiple worlds, they are more likely to acquire unknown weapons and abilities, and these people are often more difficult to deal with than ordinary ability users.

“The murderer was initially standing at the entrance of the private room.” Honglian looked along the footprints on the ground. “But after just one glance, he switched places with the victim and blocked the point of entry. This process didn’t seem unintentional; rather, it was quite decisive. The victim was dragged out before he could react.”

"You mean... this woman wasn't reaching for the door to the breach point, but for her enemy?"

“Not only that, she fired during the switch,” she pointed to two inconspicuous holes in the wall, “but unfortunately, not a single shot hit.”

"Maybe she's not good with guns?" Wang Baihu shrugged, not understanding what his colleague was struggling with.

"But according to Sister Honglian, the two of them were probably very close, almost like shooting at each other's faces," Xiaojiu muttered.

“Cutting off the victim’s escape route from the start means the killer knew that door was the concrete form of the intrusion point. This wasn’t an accidental encounter; it was premeditated—the killer discovered this unusual intrusion point even before the Dimensional Mechanism.” Honglian closed her eyes as she spoke, a figure appearing in her mind. It was also a close-quarters exchange of fire, but that person possessed extremely keen eyesight, able to clearly see even the trajectory of a bullet…

The deceased drew her gun immediately, but if the enemy knew in advance when she would pull the trigger, even from an arm's length away, it wouldn't have been so easy to hit her.

Next came a punch to the face, instead of those translucent blades floating in the air.

why?
Is it because you don't want to leave a conspicuous wound from a sharp blade?
Because he knew someone would come knocking on his door soon.

Honglian felt a chill run down her spine. Yes, this was what had bothered her ever since she entered: why hadn't the murderer disposed of the body? Since he already knew that another world lay behind the bathroom door, throwing the victim inside wouldn't have taken more than a few minutes. Yet he did nothing, leaving the scene exactly as it was… This wasn't a show of force against law enforcement; it was a deliberate trap!
If there really is a group of people in the world who are secretly dealing with the anomalies caused by people with special abilities, how can we determine their identities?

The answer is simple: see for yourself who they are.

"Don't move! Stay alert!" Honglian suddenly stood up and ran towards a window. "What? Where are you going?" Wang Baihu hadn't even reacted when he saw his colleague climb out of the window.

She stepped onto the wall, leaped up, grabbed the eaves, and darted onto the roof like a cat.

Where could that person be hiding?
On the mountain behind the clubhouse, in a house near the farmland, or on the overpass not far away?

Honglian scanned the area, her gaze finally settling on the ring road in front of the clubhouse—the only road connecting the clubhouse to the city center. The bridge was teeming with traffic, every vehicle looking incredibly suspicious. The murderer might be sitting in the driver's seat, peering through the tinted glass.

"Hey, did you find anything?" Wang Baihu's voice came through the earpiece.

“…No, maybe I’m overthinking it.” Honglian shook her head, but a dark cloud lingered in her heart, as if someone was watching her from the shadows.

……

……

Chen Xuan did not return to Tianlu Community immediately, but instead had the driver drive around the city twice.

He sat in the back seat, seemingly resting with his eyes closed, but actually trying to calm the effects of the coin toss—besides the abilities he'd gained from Fei Wu Niang, he'd also received several fragments of her past life. Those memories drifted vaguely through his mind like clouds, as if they were a series of dreams.

Fei Wuniang is not her real name. She has lived in a brothel since she was a child. She could see the bustling streets below from the window of the second-floor room.

It was an ancient town similar to Zhangwei.

As she grew up, she became increasingly popular and made many patrons from all over the world, including the exotic man who liked to guess coins.

The man taught her the art of sexual intercourse, and then died in her bed.

At the moment of his death, the man's face showed no fear, only the relief of liberation. His body dissolved into a pool of black water, staining the embroidered bedsheets. Fei Wuniang clutched the empty clothes and wailed, as if he were her most beloved lover.

After that, she became unstoppable on her path to acquiring abilities, and her appearance became increasingly charming and alluring.

As for how she found the intrusion point and what she did in this world, there was no mention of it in her memory.

For several moments, Chen Xuan had the illusion that he was Fei Wuniang, as if he had suddenly gained a new life.

It took him a long time to get rid of this influence.

Why is there no mention of the side effects of this ability in the intelligence from the Vision Agency?

Could it be that they didn't obtain all the information about Fei Wu Niang by guessing a coin?

For the vast majority of ordinary people, they are unaware of whether they possess abilities. For example, before Chen Xuan became the store manager, he had no idea that eating well and sleeping soundly were also abilities.

In other words, the relevant authorities should have other means of detection capabilities.

If the arrested person is willing to obey the orders of the authorities, that's fine. But if they resolutely refuse to cooperate with the authorities, are there any other ways for the authorities to deprive them of these abilities?
Chen Xuan kept this question to himself for the time being.

Although there were some unexpected side effects, the trip was indeed very fruitful. He gained as many as six abilities from Fei Wuniang, all of which were put into his inventory. The only drawback was that they did not increase his performance points.

You can see this clearly by opening the Capability Manager APP; they are:
"Dance Prodigy" LV2.

—“The artist who controlled the body until the advent of neural takeover technology.”

"Born with a seductive charm" LV3.

—"The moment you greet them, they've already thought of the child's name."

"Immune to all poisons" LV5.

—"You rarely get sick and are not harmed by toxins. One of the components of longevity."

"Hehuan Technique" LV5.

"One of the biggest obstacles on the path of life's propagation is that pleasure outweighs responsibility. It goes even further, not only indulging in ultimate pleasure but also absorbing the essence of the other to nourish oneself. The question is... is that truly yours?"

"Robbery" LV1.

—"If you can't buy it, you steal it. This is an inferior ability and should be permanently banned. Warning: Any ability obtained through non-trading means constitutes serious infringement."

"Coin Guessing" LV1.

— "Taboo +5".

(End of this chapter)