Please be my partner.

Melen nodded slightly. According to the prophecy of the Fortune Teller, if this matter was really ignored, the entire Kro Kingdom might be finished in the end.

This isn't some third-rate novel that begins with "Arcane." How could it be possible that after the world is struck by a crisis, all hope is suddenly and inexplicably placed on a newbie who's only been exposed to the supernatural for a few months?!

Oh, it’s just a test with someone to back you up, so it’s okay.

After waiting for a while, Salim seemed to have received a call, so he took Mellen to the gathering.

Soon, the five groups gathered at a teahouse on Seventh Avenue.

It is worth mentioning that the original meeting place was planned to be a tavern, but because of the presence of students like Mellen, it was finally decided to be a teahouse.

The five members of the Special Affairs Bureau were obviously familiar with each other. However, the five temporary investigators including Mellen, although all of them were college students, had only met each other once.

Several people summarized the information they collected one by one.

All five children died in the bathroom or washroom. If this was the work of some supernatural object, this location might be the trigger.

Their time of death was concentrated after 10 o'clock and before 11 o'clock, but this is not of much reference value, because usually children aged or go to bed around this time. The key should still be the location issue mentioned in the previous point.

The two things they have in common are the wooden knife and the tragic death.

Assuming that those wooden knives were originally toothbrushes in the children's hands, it would explain why they died in that way under some kind of bewitchment.

Perhaps those children thought they were just brushing their teeth until they died.

Just when they were at their wit's end, one of the groups shared a different clue...

"The one I visited was a little girl who died. When she was washing in the bathroom, her mother was there too. Although it was too late when the mother found her daughter's face covered in blood, she seemed to see something different..."

"She said that the image she saw reflected in the mirror above the sink was not her daughter herself, but a puppet that looked very similar."

"But the mother also said that maybe it was just an illusion because she was too frightened at the time."

"Puppet?!" Salim pondered for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Were there mirrors where the other children died?"

The other groups nodded.

Just then, Salim noticed that one of them had his head down, his brows furrowed, and was muttering to himself.

He asked, "Courtney, have you come up with anything?"

Courtney scratched her hair and said, "Puppet, mirror, washing up, I always feel like these are connected together, as if I have heard them somewhere before. It seems very familiar, but I can't remember where it is at the moment."

Salim's voice softened as he said, "Don't worry, take your time."

Although he was very anxious, he also knew that the more anxious he was, the harder it would be to get results, so he could only wait and see.

After a few minutes, Courtney's eyes suddenly lit up, but then she became confused and hesitant.

One of the Special Affairs Bureau members had long been impatient and stood up at this moment, shouting, "Courtney, what on earth did you think of? Tell me now!"

Courtney smiled bitterly and said, "I did think of something related to puppets, mirrors, and washing, but this..."

"There's a fairy tale in our area, the kind used to coax children. It roughly means... if a child takes too long to wash up at night, a puppet or something will appear in the mirror."

"This shouldn't be related, right? After all, it's just a fairy tale from my hometown, Cardo City. Cardo City is hundreds of kilometers away from Roland City, and the fairy tale itself isn't that bloody, right?!"

Melen nodded slightly. Fairy tales mostly come from folk tales...

For example, if a child takes too long to wash, the adults will make up a fairy tale about a mirror puppet. If a child doesn't want to go to bed at night, the adults will make up a fairy tale about monsters and ghosts that will take away the child who doesn't sleep.

Of course, since we are dealing with children, scaring them is the limit, and this is only a minority. Most fairy tales should be kind and beautiful, and they will never be as cruel and bloody as what happened last night.

I thought it was a clue, but it turned out to be just some fairy tales.

Mellen's mind moved, and after thinking for a while, he suggested: "Since we don't have any more clues now, why not try to dig up this line?"

This attracted the attention of several other people, but they did not laugh at him. They just thought that Mellen was a little naive.

Salim asked, "Tell me, what do you think?"

Mellen said, "Mr. Courtney, could you explain the fairy tale about the mirror puppet in detail, explain its triggering conditions, and how to circumvent it?"

Courtney scratched her head and said, "What I just said is the whole story. The triggering condition is probably taking too long to wash up. If you want to avoid it, just finish washing up faster."

Mellen looked at Courtney speechlessly, feeling that he was just talking nonsense. So he said directly, "Could you please contact your family and see if you can find more complete information about the fairy tale of the mirror puppet? And see if there are any more direct and proactive methods to exorcise it?"

Salim said, "Courtney, go and do this as soon as possible. Make sure you find out all the information about the Mirror Puppet Fairy Tale."

Courtney shrugged, indicating that she understood, and quickly left with her temporary investigator partner.

Mellen thought for a moment and said, "Perhaps we can learn more about the children who died and see if they had any bad habits of procrastinating when washing up."

Salim nodded and said, "It's a clue after all. Please help me."

The others nodded and left quickly.

Mellen and Salim were no exception. They returned to little Willen's home and asked his parents this question.

His father said that little Willen did have a habit of procrastinating when washing up and liked to play with water at the sink.

His mother talked to him many times, but it was of no use. In the end, she just let it go, thinking that the child was still young and would naturally change when he grew up.

The two looked at each other, and both felt that they had grasped some key.

When the members of the Special Affairs Bureau gathered again, they found that the children who had died actually had the bad habit of procrastinating on their daily washing.

They could never have imagined that so many scattered clues would be connected together because of an urban fairy tale hundreds of miles away!

Now, we just have to wait for news from Courtney.

Chapter 84 Capture

Everyone drank tea in the teahouse and occasionally chatted in low voices, trying to find more common points among the five cases, but all failed.

So far, only the fairy tale of the mirror puppet can connect all the unrelated doubts.

Someone said, "Are we just going to sit there and wait? Are there any records of similar abilities in the Special Affairs Bureau's database? Can we use them to infer the occupation of the person behind this?"

Salim glanced at the temporary investigator who asked the question and explained, "This has already been done."

The man choked and said unwillingly, "What about professionals with prophetic abilities? Didn't they say that this incident only attracted attention after the predictions of the [Fortune Teller]? Can we continue to rely on their power to help us find the person behind this?"

Salim shook his head again and said, "After hastily recording this prophecy, the [Fortune Teller] fell into a coma. It was only when the Special Affairs Bureau members protecting her noticed something was wrong that they discovered the prophecy in time."

"The Diviner is still unconscious, and other professionals with similar prophetic abilities have no clue what's going on. It's as if the Diviner is the only one who saw this."

The man opened his mouth, then finally sat down and said no more.

Although it is said that one person's plan may be short but two people's plan may be long, in this matter, many top departments of the kingdom have worked together and basically all the methods that can be thought of have been thought of. Unless it is a brand new clue like the one discovered by Mellen, it is difficult to come up with any more ideas because of their ideas.

Time passes quietly in cup after cup of tea.

They were all very quiet and only had a simple bite at noon.

Finally, when it was past 1 p.m., Courtney and his friend returned excitedly with a stack of typewritten documents in their hands.

Everyone was shocked and their eyes turned towards Courtney with burning passion.

Courtney was stunned by this look and didn't dare to enter the house for a moment.

Salim coughed lightly and said, "Courtney, we've been waiting for you for a long time. Tell us quickly, have you found any useful information?"

This resolved the sudden and inexplicable embarrassment.

Courtney walked into the house and said, "I called the Special Affairs Bureau and the police station back home and asked them to send people to visit residents, especially the elderly, and sort out all the fairy tales about mirror puppets."

"The basic content is still the same as what I said before, but I did find a version that is somewhat similar to the current situation."

Everyone's eyes lit up.

Courtney continued, "This is what a man in his sixties said. Mirror puppets will quietly appear when children delay, and gradually transform their images in the mirror into puppets. If the children still don't notice when the images in the mirror have completely transformed into puppets, they will begin to transform into puppets themselves."

No one had any strong feelings about the fairy tale itself. It was just an ordinary fairy tale to deceive children.

But some of it does correspond to some of the intelligence they have collected so far.

Salim asked, "What are the consequences? Are there more serious consequences, like the five children who were killed?"

Courtney shook her head and said, "These are fairy tales I tell my own children. How can they be so gory? The worst thing is being turned into a puppet, or being caught in a mirror, or locked in a dark room."

Salim asked, "Can the only trigger be the child procrastinating while washing? Besides not procrastinating, are there any other solutions?"

Courtney handed over the document and said helplessly, "In all the fairy tale versions, there is indeed only this one triggering condition. As for the solution, there are many methods collected here, but... hey! You should read it for yourselves."

Mellen was a little confused at first, but after seeing these documents, he understood Courtney's helplessness.

The answers are varied, even... wild and imaginative!

For example, you can scare the mirror puppet away by turning around in front of the mirror three times and then shouting "I'm not afraid of you" into the mirror.

For example, if you use water mist to draw a "ferocious beast" on the mirror, the mirror puppet will not dare to come.

If nothing unexpected happens, these methods of "defeating" the mirror puppet should have been thought up by the children.

Maybe they have conducted experiments and proved that it is very effective.

To be honest, these are not of much reference value. Putting aside whether these methods are effective, you have to know that the entire Roland City has a population of more than 10 million, and there are at least tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of children of school age. They simply don't have time to notify every child.

Moreover, even if they were able to notify them, the kingdom would most likely not agree, because doing so would definitely cause panic throughout Roland City, and the losses caused by that time might be even greater than they are now!

Seeing that things had reached another impasse, Salim clapped his hands and said, "Everyone, don't be discouraged. It's already great that we've found so many clues. I will report this information now. I believe it will play a positive role in resolving this incident!"

Everyone nodded and agreed with this statement.

Melen also thinks this should be the best solution at present.

Soon, they submitted the information.

They had done everything they could, and now all they had to do was wait quietly.

Special Affairs Bureau, secret meeting room.

The three branch directors usually perform their duties separately and it is rare for them to get together.

However, this incident was too shocking and they had no choice but to take it seriously.

After a moment of silence, Usama spoke first: "Jon, Luer, how is the situation over there?"

Jon shook his head and said, "The Fortuneteller is still not awake, and she's not in a coma. We've confirmed that she's probably... asleep. We've tried many methods, but we can't wake her up."

Osama frowned. Coma and sleep are two completely different mental states. There are huge differences in both the causes and the treatment methods.

[Fortune Teller] is one of the important trump cards of the Special Affairs Bureau. Although her predictions and revelations are notoriously unreliable, it must be said that she has helped the Special Affairs Bureau solve many difficult problems. Therefore, when it comes to her predictions and revelations, the Special Affairs Bureau has always preferred to believe them rather than not.

Jon continued, "I've asked many people with the ability to predict the future to work together to make predictions. Although I still got nothing in the end, a few people have suffered backlash!"

Osama said solemnly, "The fact that we didn't get any intelligence is already significant. It seems we've come across something truly extraordinary."

Then, the two turned their attention to Luer.

Luer said succinctly: "The Alphabet Legion has been dispatched, but there have been no results so far."

The so-called Alphabet Legion is a powerful team in Luer's hands. Although it is called a legion, it actually has only eleven people.

And, even though there are only eleven of them, their strength and role are comparable to that of a legion.

Because they are all third-level strongmen.

Osama was about to explain the situation on his side when he suddenly stopped talking as if he had received some news. A moment later, several pages of documents floated down from thin air and landed in front of him.

He picked it up and took a quick look at it, a look of surprise on his face, then handed the document to the other two.

After reading it, Jon and Luer both looked thoughtful.

“What do you think?” Usama asked.

"Mirror puppet? A fairy tale?" Jon thought for a moment and said, "That's not impossible. Perhaps it's some mysterious ability or extraordinary item that brings fantasy into reality. Of course, it could also just be a trick to deceive our vision."

Luer suddenly said: "Maybe it really is related to fairy tales!"

Osama and Jon both set their eyes on him.

Luer explained, "Mr. K returned from the Southern Wasteland some time ago and brought back a piece of news..."

"Over there, it seems a forbidden object called [Fairy Tale Town] has been born, which contains many fairy tale elements."

"Oh? Forbidden things?!" Osama said immediately: "Do you have more detailed information?"

Luer shook his head and said, "This information has only just begun to circulate in Florence. Few people have actually come into contact with [Fairy Tale Town], and it's difficult to tell the truth from the false. Mr. K has been wandering around there for a while but hasn't been able to find any trace of [Fairy Tale Town]."

Usama nodded and said, "Do you think that the mirror puppet was deliberately released by Once Upon a Time to test us?"

Luer nodded and said, "It's possible! In addition to the mirror puppet in Roland City, we should also notify the Special Affairs Bureau branches in various places and ask them to keep an eye out for similar fairy tale attacks."

Osama and Jon immediately nodded in agreement.