Chapter 27: A New Nest?

Lin Lei stared at the laptop screen, his eyes flashing. One of the locations Chen Ning had marked was exactly where the ghouls’ lair had been a few days earlier.

He nodded to himself in quiet approval. The Bureau of Investigation was indeed professional.

In fact, if not for the need to train him as a new investigator, the task of clearing out ghouls could have been handled by a few members from the Operations Division along with Logistics. That would have sufficed.

Lin Lei nodded, then turned to Li Xueshu.

“So… shall we head out?”

Li Xueshu smiled. “It’s up to you.”

They quickly left the café and followed Chen Ning to an off-road vehicle parked by the roadside.

The engine roared to life, and the vehicle sped along the planned route.

Lin Lei gripped the Source Energy Radar, his attention fixed on its screen.

Beside him, Li Xueshu sat with a lollipop between her lips, scrolling casually through her phone, as if this mission were of no consequence.

The car rolled on, and every so often, a faint yellow dot would appear on the radar screen.

Just as Li Xueshu had said, yellow-level energy fluctuations were extremely common.

…

About ten minutes later.

Lin Lei finally saw a second red dot appear on the screen, aside from his own at the center.

Though this red dot wasn’t as deep a shade as Lin Lei’s, only a faint crimson, it was worth noting; yellow was the lowest energy fluctuation, and any trace that shifted toward red demanded attention.

“We’ve got something!” he announced, showing the radar to Li Xueshu.

She squinted at it. “A lone red dot doesn’t mean much. It could just be an object that happened to pick up an anomalous energy signature…”

“Or perhaps a solitary ghoul,” Lin Lei countered.

She shook her head. “Unlikely.”

“Let’s check it out anyway,” Lin Lei insisted.

Soon, the car stopped near the coordinates indicated by the red dot.

Outside, there was only open ground—nothing and no one in sight, no structures or objects.

“It’s most likely coming from the sewers,” Lin Lei said, glancing at Li Xueshu.

It was midday, when ghouls would be at rest, and the red dot had remained stationary—there really could be a lone ghoul down there.

Li Xueshu shrugged and winked at him. “Don’t be so sure.”

Raising his eyebrows, Lin Lei kept his gaze on a nearby manhole cover.

Since it was just a single red dot, there was no need to call in Logistics personnel from the surrounding area.

Chen Ning quickly set up a cordon and pried open the manhole.

One by one, the four of them climbed down into the sewer.

Having spent the last few days wandering the sewers, Lin Lei was no longer bothered by the stench.

Li Xueshu, on the other hand, clamped a hand over her nose as soon as she entered.

Guided by the radar, they moved quickly but cautiously through the passages, soon reaching the indicated location. But to Lin Lei’s surprise, there was nothing there but garbage and sewage.

He stopped, momentarily baffled.

Li Xueshu shook her head.

“That means whatever the radar picked up isn’t in the sewer—it’s deeper underground…”

“The radar only marks horizontal coordinates, not depth. It could be something buried further down, some special object, or even a peculiar creature that lives deep underground. Or it might be nothing at all, just an anomalous energy fluctuation…”

Enlightened, Lin Lei finally understood Li Xueshu’s earlier reaction—she must have suspected as much.

“I was overthinking it! Let’s head back.”

There was no way of knowing how deep underground it was. Lin Lei wasn’t about to abandon the mission to hunt ghouls just to start digging here.

He lacked the time and energy for that.

Perhaps, once the mission was over, he could come back and try his luck.

Who knew—maybe there was a Source Artifact buried down there.

Having made a fruitless trip, neither Chen Ning nor Qiao’er complained. They simply got back in the car and continued their search.

A few minutes later.

The vehicle soon arrived near the old ghoul lair.

But the Source Energy Radar showed no anomalous activity.

No red dots appeared.

The car didn’t stop, rolling straight past.

What Chen Fan didn’t know was that, in the underground chamber where the ghoul nest had once been, a hulking shadow sat quietly amid the ruins, draped in a trench coat.

In the darkness, a pair of blue-green eyes gleamed with a chilling, predatory light.

…

Half an hour passed.

After Chen Fan and the team had checked all the marked locations, they still found no significant clusters of energy on the radar.

Lin Lei didn’t even see a second red dot.

They discussed their next move and decided to expand the search area.

It was only after leaving the Upper City District that another faint red dot finally appeared on the radar.

Around it, scattered points of red and yellow light clustered densely.

Lin Lei’s eyes lit up, and he immediately ordered the team to head toward the cluster.

The vehicle soon rolled into a desolate area.

As they drew nearer, more and more dots filled the radar, densely packed across the screen.

Most were red, with yellow making up about a third.

Altogether, there were over a hundred dots—an astonishing number.

Everyone was elated.

Li Xueshu, however, frowned deeply. “So this really is a ghoul nest. I didn’t expect there to be so many…”

Based on previous incidents, the number of ghouls shouldn’t have been this high.

Lin Lei’s eyes narrowed. This swarm of over a hundred ghouls was likely the very group that had escaped from the lair he failed to wipe out before.

He hadn’t expected them to reestablish a nest so quickly.

Without the Source Energy Radar, it would have taken him days of wandering the sewers to pinpoint their new location.

Chen Ning pulled out the laptop and, after some quick operations, brought up a 3D map of the underground pipelines.

“That’s odd. Down here is an abandoned, sealed subway tunnel…”

“This tunnel is completely separate from the Upper City’s sewers, with no connection. How did the ghouls get into the Upper City to attack?”

Li Xueshu raised an eyebrow but didn’t seem troubled. “Maybe the tunnels have collapsed or decayed, linking the sewer and the subway line together…”

…

Ten minutes later.

They found the entrance to the underground tunnel inside a derelict building—a disused subway station.

By then, Chen Ning had already called in some support staff from the Bureau of Investigation to cordon off the area.

Everyone got out of the car.

Chen Ning opened the trunk and handed out four helmets equipped with night vision, distributing them to Lin Lei, Li Xueshu, and Hong Qiuqiao.

The gentle-looking girl, Hong Qiuqiao, stepped forward excitedly and took two silver cases from the trunk.

She placed them on the ground, her cheeks flushed with anticipation, and deftly unlocked them.

With two crisp clicks, the cases opened simultaneously, and the girl eagerly picked up the pair of compact submachine guns inside.

Gripping one in each hand, her eyes blazed with fervor and excitement, sweeping away all hint of previous shyness or reserve.