On the sports field, Hu Zihao and Han He didn't encounter any other police officers. They were very frustrated. Just as Hu Zihao was about to shout in a self-destructive manner to make the police call 120, they saw a police officer rush out of the teaching building, and a little later, Shi Yu walked out of the teaching building.
Shi Yu's legs had recovered a bit, and after explaining the situation to the teacher, he returned to his class's formation. As he passed Han He, Shi Yu gently nudged him with his elbow.
Han He understood immediately and nodded to Hu Zihao. The two big guys instantly relaxed.
Shi Yu was a little tired.
To be precise, he was very tired.
To make that young police officer quickly believe and remember his words, he used his Mind Power once again.
Two consecutive successful uses of Mind Power rapidly depleted Shi Yu's energy, and after he returned to the formation and relaxed, the fatigue completely surged over him. He stood there listlessly, not even listening to what the police were saying.
"There are students missing from our school, and monsters killing people. We must report this to the higher-ups and have the school close or lift the lockdown!"
Shi Yu's mind began to become muddled. The excellent focus that Mind Power brought him began to weaken after his continuous use of the ability, even bringing him more severe distraction. He felt his whole body floating, and he didn't even react until he returned to his class and the morning's dismissal bell rang.
By the time Shi Yu came to his senses, Han He had already spooned stir-fried greens and rice into his mouth. He chewed and looked down to see that the meal tray on the table was already mostly eaten.
".......Huh?"
Shi Yu swallowed the food in his mouth and looked blankly at Han He and Hu Zihao beside him.
"My goodness, you're finally awake! You looked just like my senile grandpa just now, you don't know how scary it was, you scared us both to death! When we called you, you just babbled nonsense, it was terrifying."
Hu Zihao said, setting down his spoon filled with meat and rice.
"You overused your 'Origin'."
Han He didn't mind and scooped another spoonful of rice onto his spoon.
"Although I'm not sure if you're different from an Inheritor, there was one time I overused my power, my 'Origin', and fell into an exhaustion so deep I couldn't get up. I lay there for two whole days; if my grandpa hadn't fed me, I might have starved to death."
Shi Yu: ".........."
After stuffing the rice from the spoon into Shi Yu's mouth again, Han He slowly said:
"You must be careful. I should have realized that strong abilities come with strong consumption. I was negligent."
Hu Zihao gave Shi Yu a thumbs-up from the side and said:
"You're truly amazing! This is no different from getting whatever you wish for! We really owe you this time, maybe people will come this afternoon, and we'll be saved!"
Although Shi Yu had recovered some clarity, he still had little strength and could only nod and say:
"That would be for the best."
Scooping a mouthful of vegetables for himself, Shi Yu ground his back teeth, thinking resentfully.
"I hate atheists! Stubborn fools!"
"Achoo!!! Achoo!!!"
Yuan Qiu sneezed twice violently.
"First thought, second curse, third mention, who's cursing me?"
Yuan Qiu rubbed his nose and muttered.
"Who could be cursing you? What? Were you scolded by a teacher who thought you were peeking when you were walking around the school?"
Wu Xiaofeng teased.
"Go, go, go, still talking about it. Didn't we just make a trip for nothing? Nothing happened...? Nothing happened, yet we made such a big fuss."
Li Yanguo sighed and said:
"No choice, when something like this happens, we always have to come and check."
Yuan Qiu also nodded, but a hint of doubt surfaced in his mind.
"Why did I feel something was off just now?"
.......
At the school gate, Yang Desheng and Zhang Ya smiled contentedly as they watched the police cars drive away.
"Mere mortals, even if they find something, what can they do? No one can stop our tide."
The two looked back at the school.
During lunch break, the school quietly fell into a deep slumber.
At the police station.
Wu Xiaofeng and the others returned to the station, briefly reported to their superiors, submitted the law enforcement recorders, and then prepared to write a duty record.
Before Wu Xiaofeng and the others could even take off their clothes, as soon as their butts touched their seats, they saw Li Yanguo rush in, his expression serious.
"What's wrong, Captain Li?"
Yuan Qiu had just half-removed his jacket and quickly stopped when he saw Li Yanguo's expression.
"Everyone, quickly gather in the meeting room! There's a problem with the recording from the law enforcement recorder just now!"
Li Yanguo was concise and to the point. After speaking, he turned and left.
"Huh? How is that possible? I clearly remember us checking the law enforcement recorders before we left. We turned them on at the school gate, what happened?"
Yuan Qiu was very confused, but the three of them acted swiftly, standing up and heading to the meeting room to see what was going on.
Soon, everyone was present. Li Yanguo and the other three stared intently at the law enforcement recorder's footage. Sure enough, there was a problem; all the sound and video were unclear, and the segments were mixed up and chaotic.
But the time was running normally, which could only mean the law enforcement recorder had malfunctioned.
"What's going on? Xiaofeng, do you know what's happening?"
Yuan Qiu whispered to Wu Xiaofeng beside him.
Wu Xiaofeng shook his head, indicating he didn't know.
"Captain Li... it must be a recorder malfunction, right? The equipment in our station has been used for many years. Anyway, nothing happened during our patrol this time, so if it wasn't recorded, it wasn't recorded. We can send it for repair later."
Liu Mingyuan, the youngest, said softly.
Li Yanguo shook his head and said:
"We've already tried it. It was working fine just now. There was only no sound or video during the time we were at the school."
Yuan Qiu thought for a moment and said:
"Could it be that the school has some kind of signal jammer or something similar?"
Li Yanguo didn't speak, remaining silent for a moment before saying:
"I feel something is off. Report it. This is too strange."
"Huh? If we report it, won't we get scolded? Besides, we haven't seen those few people who are attached to us since their few appearances. Are they really useful? I don't want to deal with those people at all."
Yuan Qiu pouted. Everyone present knew that reporting such incidents meant letting those "connected individuals" handle them. However, in the past, several similar incidents reported were later verified to be ordinary equipment problems, or lazy officers overreacting and trying to push responsibility upwards. They gained no benefits and were severely punished.
"Let them scold me if they want. All four law enforcement recorders broken? I don't believe it. If something happens, I'll take responsibility."
Li Yanguo's attitude remained firm. He shook his head and walked straight out of the room.
Seeing this, Wu Xiaofeng also didn't say anything, and they all left the meeting room.
Back in the room, the few of them took off their jackets.
Yuan Qiu and Liu Mingyuan muttered about Li Yanguo making a mountain out of a molehill. Wu Xiaofeng shook his head and said nothing, turning to get his water cup.
As Wu Xiaofeng went to get his water cup to fill it, he noticed a red, swollen scratch on his arm.
"When did I get this scratch? Wait..."
Wu Xiaofeng put down his water cup and ran his finger over the red, swollen scratch, seeing that the scratch formed a winding arrow up to the middle of his forearm.
"How do I have absolutely no memory of this? This was clearly deliberately scratched. What does it mean? A winding arrow, is there something at this location?"
Wu Xiaofeng turned his arm over to look, there were no other scratches on the back.
Wu Xiaofeng lowered his arm and found the arrow was slightly below his side.
"Side..... pocket location?"
Wu Xiaofeng quickly turned back, grabbed his jacket, and felt inside his inner pocket.
There was a pack of cigarettes there.
Wu Xiaofeng shook the cigarette pack and heard that there were only a few cigarettes left inside, and it wasn't the brand Wu Xiaofeng smoked. Wu Xiaofeng had no memory of ever buying this pack of cigarettes, nor did he know why it appeared in his jacket pocket.
He opened the cigarette pack and saw tiny words written on the lid:
"There's a ghost, run!"
Wu Xiaofeng was very surprised; he had no memory of this at all. At the same time, he looked inside the cigarette pack, and at the bottom of the box, which contained only two cigarettes, lay a small piece of paper.
Wu Xiaofeng urgently stopped Yuan Qiu and Liu Mingyuan, who were complaining, and asked them to look at the cigarette pack in his hand together.
Yuan Qiu looked at it with a disgusted expression and said:
"Good heavens, who's playing such a boring joke? Is this from your pocket?"
Wu Xiaofeng had already picked out the note and said with certainty:
"Impossible. My clothes are usually locked in the closet. When I left, I was sure there was nothing in them. At school, I have no memory of anyone getting close to me. No one had a chance to put anything in my jacket pocket."
At this moment, the note had been opened by Wu Xiaofeng. Wu Xiaofeng looked at the words on it, and as he read, he felt his back drenched in cold sweat.
"No matter who you are, as long as you are outside the school and unrelated to Twelve Middle School, seeing this note means I have succeeded. You will not remember anything about how you got this note, because your memory has been wiped. There is a monster in Twelve Middle School that can affect people's memories, and many students have already died by its hand. Most of the school leaders are connected to the monster. Please save the children in the school."
"........Call Captain Li, I'm going to find that team right now."
Wu Xiaofeng instructed the other two, then grabbed the note and the cigarette pack and rushed out of the room without hesitation.
"Hey! Do you really believe that?!"
Yuan Qiu didn't believe it at all, but Liu Mingyuan, beside him, listened to Wu Xiaofeng and called Li Yanguo.
"Are both of you so superstitious?"
Yuan Qiu grumbled, setting his water cup aside.
......
Wu Xiaofeng's steps were hurried; his master's words echoed in his mind.
"Ghosts are starting to appear in this world."
Wu Xiaofeng didn't go in the same direction as Li Yanguo but instead headed towards a room that had only been converted into an office this year. He gritted his teeth, knowing that he was overstepping his authority by reporting this, but he truly felt something was strange. He took three steps at a time to the office door and looked up at the nameplate.
The nameplate didn't use the name of any functional department, but only two words, two words that had nothing to do with a police station:
"Snow Pine"
