The Eldritch Files

BANG!

After the Executor beside Han Su fired a shot without hesitation, everyone on the street froze on the spot.

Some were horrified, others stunned, staring wide-eyed at the office worker who had fallen to the ground. Her elegant figure was no longer visible; her two pale, slender legs were splayed ungracefully.

Blood bloomed out from under her body. In the bloody hole on her face, torn flesh was jagged and uneven.

Death has always been an ugly affair.

In less than a second, the surrounding silence erupted into screams and chaos. Everyone fled in a panic, scattering like headless flies. Only the figures of Han Su and the Executor remained fixed amidst the frantic crowd.

’Be careful!’

Han Su couldn’t find the precise words to describe what he was feeling at that moment.

He couldn’t even ask, because Executioners were not permitted to speak out of turn.

So he didn’t know: was it really necessary to kill someone so easily? When a person with a blurry face appeared, was killing them truly the only way to solve the problem?

But he saw clearly that after the woman fell, her face suddenly became clear, as if some kind of force had lifted a blurry mask from her face.

At the same time, faint distortions appeared in the air around her body, as if an invisible shadow was rapidly leaving her.

Simultaneously, the excited voice of his Executor partner reported into his earpiece: ”Mr. Strange Bird, we’ve detected an anomaly at Line Two!”

”Excellent!”

On the other end of the earpiece was the voice of the Investigator codenamed Strange Bird, brimming with excitement: ”Teams One, Three, and Four, withdraw from the lockdown zone and move to secure the perimeter around Line Two!”

”You two in the Line Two area, stay put and await orders!”

”...”

With no time to think, Han Su and the other Executor were already on high alert, feeling as though they were being watched by strange eyes.

His gaze swept over the chaotic crowd. It seemed like everyone was fleeing, but there were also several people with blurry faces moving through the stream of people, rapidly approaching their position.

Out of the corner of his eye, they didn’t seem much different from anyone else, but looking at them directly produced an extremely strange feeling.

It was a sense of instinctual danger.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

A chaotic burst of gunfire suddenly rang out. The Executor beside Han Su had also spotted these rapidly approaching people, and he opened fire without hesitation.

His skills were surprisingly good, and his aim was true. In an instant, he had taken down two of them.

However, the people approaching him through the crowd were very fast, and it was difficult to accurately distinguish them in the chaos. A few figures still managed to quickly get behind him.

The Executor quickly created some distance, but after firing a few more shots, he was already starting to panic.

He had indeed taken down several blurry-faced passersby, but every time one was shot and fell, a hazy shadow would fly out of their body and, in an instant, possess another bystander.

In the blink of an eye, this bystander would freeze as if their system had crashed, their eyes would roll back rapidly, and when their pupils reappeared, they would seem to have become a different person, lunging at him madly.

But as the number of panicked bystanders dwindled, the shadows, having no one else to attach to, unhesitatingly began to swarm him and Han Su.

It was not yet convenient for Han Su to use his abilities under the watchful eyes of the public, but his movements were exceptionally agile.

The reaction time and alertness he had honed in the Ancient Castle were on full display. He dodged left and right, evading the pounce of several hazy shadows in an instant and ducking to the side of the road.

During this process, after clumsily dodging a few pouncing shadows, the Executor was surrounded. Countless hazy shadows lunged at him at once. In that moment, he let out a terrified scream.

”Help... help me...”

But the cry didn’t last long. His face had already become blurry, his limbs stiff, and the gun in his hand was raised without hesitation.

BANG!

Han Su dodged behind a utility pole, evading the shot fired at him.

But at the same time, a hazy shadow lunged toward him from behind the pole. Han Su grit his teeth slightly, abruptly took something out, and jabbed it at the hazy shadow.

BZZT! BZZT!

A dazzling electric current crackled. The hazy shadow that had gotten close let out a faint, distorted scream and was flung away.

Han Su froze on the spot. ’An electric baton is actually more effective than a bullet?’

”...”

Everything happened in a flash. Just as the Executor was infected, a figure appeared in a flash at the intersection of Line Two—it was Mr. Strange Bird, carrying a silver briefcase.

He was all smiles, looking as if victory was already in his grasp.

His movements had a strange quality to them—exceptionally agile. He moved quickly through the crowd, leaped over car roofs like a phantom, and rapidly approached Han Su’s position.

’The door is there. These things are all coming from that direction...’

As he got closer, he watched something warily, his gaze turning fanatical as he looked deep into the street.

In fact, as his figure drew near, the Executor had only just been surrounded by five or six hazy shadows. He had plenty of time and perhaps even the ability to rescue him, but he didn’t even glance his way, simply brushing past him.

He even casually shot him as he passed.

But while that shot took down the infected Executor, the surrounding hazy shadows immediately swarmed him instead.

Yet, facing so many hazy shadows, he didn’t panic in the slightest. He just suddenly opened his mouth, recited a muffled Spell, and his entire figure suddenly flickered.

It was as if he had vanished from sight in an instant, leaving only a faint silhouette, like something cloaked in night, passing through the hazy figures and continuing straight ahead.

’What is this?’

Han Su was stunned when he saw this.

’Why did he suddenly disappear right before my eyes?’

’Is this also some kind of mystical ability? Then... if I learned this ability too, what would happen after I entered the Ancient Castle?’

He had already confirmed before that Spells could also work inside the Ancient Castle. And the ability this Investigator used could clearly evade the attention of these grotesque things.

So, if he learned this ability, could he achieve Invisibility in front of the monsters in the Ancient Castle?

While he was holding the electric baton, forcing back the hazy shadows and pondering this exciting question, the Investigator of Strange Birds had already rushed to a spot forty or fifty meters down the street. As if having confirmed something, he stared intently at a door on the side of the street.

”This is it...”

”...”

Lifting his briefcase, he strode forward and abruptly threw the door open.

A scream immediately came from inside. A woman, holding a child in her arms, stared in terror at him as he barged in.

The face of the Investigator of Strange Birds changed instantly. ’Crap, wrong one?’

The moment he realized his mistake, he retreated from the room. Looking out with a fixed stare, he saw that the air on the street seemed to have become dense, with a dozen or so hazy shadows drifting past him.

As one, they all rushed toward Han Su, who was still further up the street.

Or rather, they were rushing toward an inconspicuous shop about ten meters from Han Su. The shop’s door was half-open, and a cold, eerie mist seemed to be drifting out from inside.

The Investigator of Strange Birds’ voice instantly changed pitch in alarm as he shouted to Han Su, ”Quick, block that door!”

”With your body!”

”Stand in front of the door! Don’t let those things go back in!”

”...”

As he shouted, he ran over with all his might, as if his life depended on it, swinging the silver briefcase in his hand so fast it left afterimages.

Han Su reacted just as quickly. He abruptly squeezed the electric baton, and two dazzling electrodes shot out like a whip, barring the shop’s entrance. The hazy shadows trying to dart into the shop trembled noticeably.

But in the end, Han Su did not actually use his body to block the shop’s entrance.

The hazy shadows only trembled for a moment as they passed the two electric arcs, then immediately went around them from above and below, and slipped into the door.

It was only a matter of four or five seconds before the Investigator of Strange Birds, who had been right on the heels of the last shadow to enter the shop, rushed forward and pulled open the shop door that had just swung shut a second before.

But in that brief moment, the mist and grotesque atmosphere that had been faintly emanating from the shop had completely vanished. Only Pale light shone out.

Inside the shop, the hazy shadows were gone. The owner behind the counter stared blankly at the person who had just burst in:

”B-buyin’ somethin’?”

”...”

On the face of the Investigator of Strange Birds, veins bulged with anger, looking like worms crawling under his skin. He slowly let go of the shop door, his voice seeming to squeeze through his gritted teeth: ”Do you have any idea how much effort I put into finding this door?”

His hand trembled as he gripped his gun tightly.

Han Su took a step back, his right hand also gripping his gun tightly.

He was even ready to recite the Spell in his mind at any moment, but his expression remained perfectly natural. ”But you’ve found it now, haven’t you?”

”Mr. Investigator, it sounded like you were just shouting for me to block that door with my body? I didn’t hear you clearly, but I saw our fellow Executor get contaminated instantly, and then you shot him dead...”

”So I must have misheard you, right?”

”...”

Mr. Strange Bird looked at him, and he looked back at Mr. Strange Bird.

In the silence, Mr. Strange Bird’s expression suddenly changed. He broke into a smile and said, ”Not bad. Not bad at all. What team are you from, kid? What’s your name?”

”Your style of handling emergencies is quite mature...”