Monster Paradise

The monitor room of the Demonic Crystal Spaceship was about 100 square meters, it was occupied by a semi-circle shaped workstation. Aside from a couple of buttons, there were hundreds of projection crystals connected to the surveillance devices on the workstation.

It was showing a video of a corridor.

Lin Huang walked as fast as he could to the station, Chen Wei then pressed the play button. The video played; Lin Huang recognized the corridor on the seventh floor. He recognized it from the different pictures that were hung on the wall.

About half a minute after the video was played, everyone saw Lin Xin’s open her room door. She walked towards the floating elevator and the surveillance camera lost track of her for awhile.

”This is the video showing your sister leaving her room at 5:03 p.m..” Chen Wei said and showed Lin Huang the second video. The second video began from the moment Lin Xin walked into the floating elevator. He played the video. Lin Xin pressed the button, leading her to the first floor and throughout the entire journey, nobody else entered the elevator.

”The time here shows 5:04 p.m..” Chen Wei said. ”Since she went to the first floor, we looked at the surveillance cameras on the first floor and we found her in a couple of surveillance videos.

Chen Wei played another video which showed Lin Xin exiting the floating elevator. There were a few people waiting at the entrance. One of them was a middle-aged man in a white shirt, he glanced at Lin Xin as she walked out.

Lin Huang frowned and asked Chen Wei, ”Which room is that man in white shirt staying in?”

”He’s staying on the ninth floor, from what we know, he’s harmless.” Chen Wei assured Lin Huang.

Lin Huang did not want to overthink things and proceeded to ask them about the next video.

”The third surveillance camera is located outside the bar on the first floor.” Chen Wei played another video.

In the video, Lin Xin contemplated a few times outside the premises, unsure if she should enter the bar or not. She finally walked in but left after a very short while.

”Seems like the bar owner did not lie, she left the bar in less than a minute.” One of the security personnel who followed Lin Huang to the bar made a remark.

”So where did she go after she left the bar?” Lin Huang asked anxiously.

”We saw from the camera that she walked around the hall on the first floor. She brought some snacks but she disappeared after she walked into a blind spot which the surveillance camera could not capture at about 5:40 p.m.”

That was the last video, it was taken at the cutoff point between the two stores. Lin Huang stared at the video for a couple of minutes, there was no sign of Lin Xin at all. A few people went to the same direction with rubbish in their hands and left without it afterward.

”There’s a rubbish bin at the blind spot. We didn’t think anybody would want to steal a rubbish bin so we did not install a surveillance camera there. That’s our mistake…” Chen Wei explained.

”Wait, there was a girl who would look in that direction occasionally. Did she see something?” Lin Huang pointed at the location opposite the camera to a girl who looked the same age as Lin Xin. She sat on the bench and she had ponytails. The girl had a drink in her hands.

Lin Huang continued to play the video. 10 minutes later, the girl went to the rubbish bin to throw the empty can away and left immediately after.

”Please bring me to this location.” Lin Huang proceeded to say, ”Also, please get the girl in the video for me. I need to talk to her.”

”Sure, we will get her for you, since there aren’t many clues left.” Chen Wei agreed with Lin Huang.

A few minutes later, the two security personnel brought Lin Huang to the location where Lin Xin was last seen before she went missing. This time, Lin Huang did not only activate Blood Hunt, maximizing his ability to smell while activating Boundless Vision at the same time. His iris turned into an amber color like a falcon’s eyes.

There were two full, green leather rubbish bins that were half the size of a human at the blind spot. Lin Xin’s scent disappeared next to the rubbish bin. It was different from the scent back in the bar where it was fading because her scent disappeared abruptly right here. Lin Huang frowned and looked around, he pushed Boundless Vision to its peak but he could not find a thing.

Just when he was trying to figure out what he missed, a fat lady came along with a bag of rubbish. She seemed to be a merchant nearby. She was upset because the bins were full. She shouted at the security personnel, ”I thought you would’ve added one more rubbish bin here today, why are there only two left? These rubbish bins are overflowing with rubbish. They aren’t pleasing to the eyes?”

”Sister, we are just security personnel. What can we do with that…” One of them said.

”So who should I talk to then?” She didn’t let him finish.

Lin Huang heard the conversation and turned around to ask, ”Sister, you said there were three rubbish bins here?”

”I think it was 5:40 p.m., I had just finished eating my take-out and came here to throw the food container away. It’s only been half an hour and it’s gone now. That’s strange, was there someone who stole the rubbing bin?” The time she stated matched the time when Lin Xin went missing.

”Sister, did you see a girl who was 13 or 14-years-old here?” Lin Huang asked.

”I see so many girls every day, how can I remember?” The fat lady rolled her eyes. Just as she was getting ready to leave, she turned around, ”I know about the girl you’re talking about… I recall a girl in ponytails sitting there with a drink in the afternoon.”

The lady pointed to the direction where the girl in the video sat at.

”Thank you sister.”