Nightmare Apostle

Chapter 100: Chapter 100: I Saw It

Hurrying along with the male officer, they reached another room, which was an office furnished with two luxurious desks and a brown leather sofa set. Several officers, sitting and standing, were gathered near the sofa, continuously comforting a young female officer.

The female officer’s face was pale as death, holding a paper cup of steaming water, her expression dazed, clearly shaken.

"What’s everyone doing here, out you go, Xiao Zhang and Yu Hua stay."

Upon Captain Xu’s command, almost everyone in the room left, the departing officers casting strange glances at Yang Xiao and the rest.

With the unrelated people gone, Captain Xu then got down to business, "Yu Hua, what exactly happened? Where’s the video?"

The male officer led the group to a desk, where the computer screen was still on, displaying a paused frame of a woman in a black coat standing at the end of a corridor, her back to the surveillance camera.

The officer named Yu Hua hit the space bar, and the video started playing. The woman in the image occasionally raised her right hand, then lowered it, and Yang Xiao deduced that she was smoking.

About 10 seconds later, the woman tossed her cigarette butt out the window, turned around, and walked toward the other side of the corridor. Yang Xiao recognized her as the suspect in the case of the day, He Manling, the one who had used the bronze tripod to attack someone.

The next second, the angle shifted and the video displayed a noticeable jump cut, captured by another surveillance camera. He Manling was walking alone through the hallway when suddenly, she stopped, turned her body slightly, and looked back as though someone had called her. But the footage showed that she was alone in the corridor at that time.

The footage froze at that moment; for several seconds, it stood still, yet the progress bar at the bottom of the video slowly moved. It was as if He Manling had been paused by some eerie force.

It took nearly a dozen seconds for He Manling to shudder violently, her demeanor instantly changing as she quickly walked out of the camera’s view.

The video ended in an office. He Manling walked in, stopped behind a man engrossed in his work, standing there for a few seconds before suddenly bending down. With both hands, she lifted the bronze tripod from the ground, hoisted it over her shoulder, and smashed it down hard on the man.

The completely unprepared man didn’t have a chance to react. His head and much of his upper body, along with the desk, were crushed, blood spurting everywhere—the scene was too gruesome to behold.

The male officer manipulated the progress bar, pausing and dragging back repeatedly, replaying the man being smashed to death five or six times until the last one.

The image was frozen on He Manling raising the bronze tripod high, and the male officer stretched out his hand, pointing to He Manling’s legs.

The next second, Yang Xiao’s pupils contracted. Through the slight gap between He Manling’s legs, there was another pair of legs standing behind hers, wearing red high heels.

"Fuck..." Captain Xu inhaled sharply.

"Ca... Captain, it was Zhang Ping who was handling the video by herself; she was the first to notice it. She got so scared that she screamed, and that’s why we rushed over," the male officer hurriedly explained.

Captain Xu shot him a serious look, his voice deep and forceful, "What the hell is this supposed to be, to scare you all to this extent? No one is to go spreading rumors about this!"

Yang Xiao: "...Captain Xu, you seemed to have let slip a curse in fright."

Suddenly, a fearful female voice rose from behind, tinged with sobbing, "Captain Xu, it’s not like this, I saw it, I saw that thing!"

"Miss, don’t be nervous, we saw it too." Xi Menxiu was behaving very gentlemanly.

"No, it’s different, I... I saw its face!"

This statement immediately put Yang Xiao and the others on high alert. Beibei quickly stepped forward to inquire, "You saw the face of that thing? When?"

"Just... when I was analyzing the video the first time, behind He Manling, a face appeared. That face saw me, she looked at me!"

Even Beibei’s complexion turned bad at this, but she confirmed again, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I didn’t see the face clearly, but I could feel that she had noticed me; she was looking up at me, from within the video, outside the screen at me!"

"I was terrified then, but when I looked back, the face had disappeared again. It was... definitely a woman, with long hair, black long hair."

After offering a few words of comfort, Yang Xiao and the others left the office. Shortly after, Captain Xu followed them out, "What... what exactly is going on here? Zhang Ping, she..."

"This is troublesome. Captain Xu, please arrange for someone to detain Zhang Ping," said Beibei bluntly.

"Alright, alright, I...I’ll assign someone to watch her at all times," Captain Xu swallowed hard, clearly a bit flustered.

"Not just watch her, but contain her, handcuff her, chain her to a solid iron pipe, multiple times over, and tie her up with rope. Have a few male officers watch her, and no matter what she says, do not let her go," Beibei said seriously.

"Moreover, try to assign officers who aren’t too familiar with her, definitely not those who have had any emotional entanglements with her before; this is very important," Beibei added earnestly.

"Alright, I understand. But how long do we need to keep her like this?"

"Bag them until we’ve dealt with this situation." Beibei spoke rapidly, "We’re about to take action, and the situation is a bit worse than expected. Captain Xu, has the company where the incident occurred been cleared out?"

"Cleared out. The company is on the 29th floor, after receiving the news that you were coming, we immediately evacuated everyone from the 28th, 29th, and 30th floors."

Without delay, under Captain Xu’s guidance, Yang Xiao and his team of six made their way smoothly through the secure passageway to the 29th floor, where the incident had occurred. It was eerily quiet, and the art company occupied more than half of the entire floor, a testament to its strength.

The glass door of the company was left open, with a few pieces of paper on the ground, alongside paper cups, hair clips, and other small objects, clearly indicating a hasty evacuation.

Da Xiong put down the black box he was carrying behind him, quickly took out some components, and swiftly assembled them. In no time, a device resembling an ancient mine detector took shape, with a long pole connected to a metal hoop at the front, and several wires running from the detector back to the black box.

With a special helmet-style headset on his head, a wearable sensor on his left arm, the detector in his right hand, and the black box slung across his back again, Da Xiong stood up looking like a mecha warrior.

Xi Menxiu did receive a plea, "Don’t look at me, Captain. I’m just a logistics person."

Yang Xiao then turned to Zhuge Zhijie, only to hear him assert righteously, "I am an academic expert. I... I am not adept at fistfights."

Beibei turned to Yang Xiao, "Captain, do you want to join us for this mission, or go back and coordinate the overall operation with Captain Xu?"

That question cut right to the heart. Beibei, your burly appearance certainly hides no shortage of cunning. Why didn’t you say this earlier?

We’re already at the door, and now you’re suggesting I should go back? How can I go back now? With five pairs of eyes on me, I’d lose all face if I left. freēwebnovel.com

Yang Xiao managed a slight smile, his brows exuding serenity, "Heh, as the captain, it’s natural for me to stand with my team."

Xi Menxiu, having been shown up by Yang Xiao, couldn’t help but exclaim, "The captain is awesome indeed. Remember how the rookie at Station 4 joined without training and got into a tough spot? That one died so miserably—a big man weighing over 200 pounds, and in the end, he weighed only 80 with the coffin added."

Yang Xiao: "!!!"

Beibei, on the other hand, nodded in evident approval, encouragingly saying, "Captain, don’t listen to his doom-saying. Although there is a bit of an unexpected situation this time, it’s only the first contact stage. If we’re careful, it shouldn’t be too tricky."

Yang Xiao, who had previously heard about this from Da Xiong, quickly asked, "What is the first contact stage?"

"It’s a term we use to assess the danger level of the Resentful Eye. The first contact stage means the Ghost can only affect our perceptions and cannot physically touch us," Zhuge Zhijie explained, seizing the moment to make his presence felt.

"What is Da Xiong doing?" Yang Xiao asked, as Da Xiong was probing around the front of the company with the mine-detector-like device.

"This is a special detector made by the tech department. It can sense the presence of a Ghost within a certain range," Beibei explained, clear and concise.

"What happens after we find it?" Yang Xiao was curious, "Do we have a way to deal with it?"

He had already imagined himself as part of the team. By his reckoning, he wasn’t the only one dragging them down—Xi Menxiu and Zhuge Zhijie were two formidable members as well.

"Sort of."

Before having time to explain more to Yang Xiao, Da Xiong had a result. He took off his headset and looked around at everyone, slowly exhaling, "It’s confirmed, the Resentful Eye is inside this company. The good news is that the Ghost is sleeping."

"That’s great. Let’s resolve this quickly," Beibei led the way into the company’s entrance.

It wasn’t long before Da Xiong, the one carrying the device, took the lead. The company occupied a vast area, and Yu Shu occasionally looked down to check the layout of the company sent by the department.

Knowing that the Ghost was still asleep, the mood among the group lightened considerably. Yang Xiao felt fortunate; his first mission involved a sleeping Ghost.

According to Beibei, all they needed to do was find the Resentful Eye and take a picture of it. After that, they could leave the rest to the tech department, as they were professionals in retrieval.

After several turns, a long corridor appeared before them. Yang Xiao spotted at a glance that this was the place where He Manling turned her head and saw the Ghost in the video.

The corridor was flanked by doors on both sides, many rooms, some with signs hanging on them, labeling them as appraisal rooms, exhibition rooms, VIP appreciation centers, and several large offices with double doors.

The group stopped their steps, and not far away, they saw an office door half-open with bloody footprints on the floor.

"The signal is getting stronger," Da Xiong murmured, his hand over his headset.