Chapter 1 Time

Jiang Cheng and Fatty arrived at the teahouse on time. They followed the stairs on the side to the second floor, opened the door of the innermost private room, and Huai Yi was sitting inside.

Jiang Cheng turned around and closed the door.

"Brother Jiang, Brother Fugui, you're finally here." Huai Yi immediately stood up, his expression revealing nervousness.

Jiang Cheng pulled out a chair, sat down, and nodded slightly to Huai Yi, "Don't panic, tell us what's going on slowly."

Huai Yi quickly took out a laptop from the backpack behind him and skillfully entered a series of passwords.

"Take a look at this." He turned the computer around, the screen facing Jiang Cheng and Fatty.

Fatty blinked. This was the website where Huai Yi had taken on tasks before. Last time, he remembered Huai Yi saying that there was a problem with the website and the content was cleared, but now...

"The website is back to normal?" Fatty asked, staring at the screen. He suddenly remembered that he hadn't claimed the reward for the last task.

Feeling that the two hadn't realized the seriousness of the problem, Huai Yi said urgently, "The website is back, but the number of tasks has increased several times compared to before, and... and new tasks are still being released constantly."

As if to verify what he said, Huai Yi clicked the mouse twice, the task interface refreshed, and sure enough, several new tasks popped up.

Jiang Cheng's brow furrowed slowly. Each task on the website represented a supernatural event that needed to be dealt with.

With tasks being released at this frequency, the most likely possibility that Jiang Cheng could think of was that the situation was starting to get out of control, and supernatural events were breaking out in large numbers.

Combined with the news Lin Wan'er had revealed to him, Jiang Cheng had a rough guess in his mind.

The Night Watchers had noticed Lin Wan'er's group's plan and were using this method to put pressure on the force behind Lin Wan'er.

Or rather, to divert their attention and buy time for their own plan.

After all, for the time being, the most experienced and confident force in dealing with supernatural events and out-of-control disciples was still the Night Watchers.

At this critical juncture, if the country didn't think about how to quell the outbreak of supernatural events first, but instead attacked the Night Watchers, the criticism they would face would be unimaginable.

"The Night Watchers are behind this." Jiang Cheng said, "They are allowing supernatural events to break out in order to buy time, and it's even possible that some of them are deliberately causing them. They are also releasing the news in order to muddy the waters."

Huai Yi didn't quite understand these things, but he didn't care. He pursed his lips and said, "What's most terrifying now is that many supernatural events are breaking out in densely populated areas, and there aren't enough people to solve them for the time being. If this goes on, there will be big trouble sooner or later."

"The official channels can still suppress it for now, but rumors are flying everywhere outside, and some people are spreading doomsday theories in private, causing panic. After all, many people have actually seen it this time, it's not just hearsay."

"What's the news from the Night Watchers?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"What news could there be? They're actively rescuing people, but it's said that the number and quality of the rescue forces dispatched are not as high as before, and the efficiency is also very low. Many of them are new recruits who haven't been on the job for long." Speaking of this, Huai Yi took a breath and said, "I heard that they suffered heavy losses in the tasks."

"Several, even a dozen, supernatural events broke out in some big cities at the same time. The police have canceled the vacations of all officers and ordered them to be on standby at any time."

"I also saw someone post a video on a social networking site saying that the armed forces stationed nearby are also being mobilized on a large scale, and it seems that they will also participate in the rescue."

"But posts like this are quickly deleted," Huai Yi said.

"By the way, in our Rong City, there have also been supernatural events, and more than one. Fortunately, they were controlled in time, so they didn't cause a greater impact," Huai Yi introduced.

Jiang Cheng asked upon hearing this, "When did this happen?"

"Just last night," Huai Yi said, "It's on the website, I'll find it for you."

Jiang Cheng pondered for a moment. It seemed that Rong City's control in this area was indeed very good. At least until now, he had not received any news about this, and people's lives were still peaceful.

"Found it." Huai Yi turned the computer sideways, and several not-so-obvious titles appeared on it.

"Code name: Midnight Cinema Incident."

"Supernatural Event Level: D-level."

"Threat Level: ☆☆☆"

"Code name: Morgue Song Incident."

"Supernatural Event Level: C-level."

"Threat Level: ☆☆☆"

"Code name: Julong Shopping Mall Mannequin Incident."

"Supernatural Event Level: D-level."

"Threat Level: ☆☆☆☆"

Jiang Cheng's expression changed when he saw the words Julong Shopping Mall. This shopping mall was not far from here. In the morning, he heard Fatty say that the shopping mall had posted a notice saying that it was going to be renovated, and there were police officers on duty nearby. The breakfast street in the back alley was also closed.

At that time, he was still wondering, but he didn't expect that something had happened there!

After seeing it, Fatty was also stunned. It took him a long time to react. He passed by the shopping mall this morning to buy breakfast.

Judging from the task level alone, there were no particularly tricky ones, one C-level and two D-levels, but judging from the threat level, it was not so optimistic.

Huai Yi had introduced before that the task level represented the difficulty of solving the task, while the threat level represented the urgency of the supernatural event, or rather, the degree of harm to the entire world.

It could be seen from the code names of the tasks that they all broke out in places with relatively concentrated populations.

The first one was in a cinema, the second one was in a hospital, and the last one was in a shopping mall. It was likely that the three supernatural events had already caused considerable casualties.

"Open this task." Jiang Cheng instructed Huai Yi to open the shopping mall task. He had already smelled a dangerous signal.

"Okay... okay." Huai Yi exited the interface and re-entered the task. This time, he finally opened it. The first thing that came into view was a photo of the interior of Julong Shopping Mall.

Jiang Cheng took the computer, and the page slid down little by little. There were probably a dozen photos, all taken inside Julong Shopping Mall.

As he looked at them, Fatty couldn't help but gasp.

Blood, there was blood everywhere, and there were also fragmented corpses.

Some of the corpses had twisted and deformed necks, as if their heads had been turned 360 degrees by an irresistible force. Their eyes were wide open, as if they had seen extremely terrifying scenes before they died.

Others had lost their legs, and the muscles at the broken areas were twisted, as if they had been torn off alive.

The interior of the shopping mall was completely a scene of hell on earth. Fatty even suspected whether this was a task or a real shopping mall.

The mannequins that should have been standing in the clothing stores were everywhere. Near these mannequins, there were corpses lying in a haphazard manner. Looking at their movements, these people were desperately trying to escape the mannequins before they died.

Bright red blood was splattered all over the mannequins, as if they were demons crawling out of a blood pool in hell.