The Eldritch Files

”Miss Ai, can you send me the task file related to the Gate of the Crystal Plague?”

As Han Su rushed to the location, he focused on the ongoing task of the Investigator of Strange Birds. Endless doubts swirled in his mind. Then, a thought struck him, and he sent a query to Miss Ai through his phone.

[Relevant permissions detected. Sending data. Good luck, Mr. Butcher!]

It went surprisingly smoothly. His status as the assistant to the Investigator of Strange Birds had granted him clearance.

[B3 Level Task: Investigate the Crystal Plague Propagation Gate]

[Task Description: Traces of the Crystal Plague have been detected in multiple locations in Qinggang City, but have not yet achieved effective spread or deep infection. It is suspected that members of a mysterious, shadow-worshipping organization are carrying out a planned release of the plague. The low level of contamination has paradoxically made the investigation more difficult.]

[Relevant personnel are requested to investigate the patterns and locations of the Crystal Plague’s release, find and eliminate the source of the Crystal Plague, and halt the spread of the plague.]

[...]

Further below was a large section of descriptive material on the Crystal Plague.

The gist was that the source of this plague came from a Crystal Skull unearthed from the Radiation Age. It had the texture of crystal and looked like a piece of art, but testing had confirmed it was a human skull.

They even detected some kind of Activity within it.

Cause of crystallization: Unknown

However, it had been proven that this active Crystal Skull possessed the trait of affecting people who observed it at close range or shared the same space with it. Once contamination reached a certain level, the contaminated individual would undergo physical and spiritual mutations.

The physical mutation caused the contaminated person’s bones to undergo an inhuman Transformation, developing crystalline properties and granting them eerie strength and regenerative abilities.

The spiritual mutation meant that these contaminated individuals would become convinced they could hear the crystal bones speaking, believe they had received a divine oracle, and be willing to sacrifice their lives for certain goals.

And the group that had come into contact with the contamination from the Crystal Skull was the illegal Mysterious Organization registered with the Qinggang City Disaster Management Bureau:

The Crystal Skull.

...

...

’So this is the Mysterious Organization Zhang Chiguo mentioned, the one connected to that woman?’

He felt a sense of surprise, but also excitement.

He had promised Zhang Chiguo he wouldn’t rashly engage with this Mysterious Organization until he had the power to protect himself. He never expected to run into them during a mission...

He hesitated, intending to text Zhang Chiguo about his discovery, but the message wouldn’t send. Looking closely, he saw the signal on his phone had vanished.

’How could there be a dead zone in Qinggang City? Or is this also part of the bizarre influence?’

’...’

He didn’t have time to dwell on it and quickly ran through his thoughts:

’Confirmed. Song Chushi came into the city to find the gate the Investigator of Strange Birds is looking for!’

’That useless oaf searched three places in one week, and those three places happen to be exactly where Song Chushi just appeared. Now, this Beidi Street is the fourth place he’s rushing to...’

’No way. Did he really find the gate the Investigator of Strange Birds has been searching for this whole time in just half an hour?’

’...’

”We’re at Beidi Street. The reason we came here is...”

As Han Su was lost in thought, the taxi driver dropped them off at the entrance to Beidi Street. Of the four of them, three turned to look at Han Su strangely.

”Let’s check it out first.”

Han Su slowly put his phone away and looked up. It was a bustling street crowded with pedestrians and lined with shops. In the air above, the neon lights seemed to form a cloud, casting an unreal glow over everything on the street.

Beneath this cloud, all sorts of pedestrians hurried past.

But as Han Su frowned and looked closer, he found that the people on the street all looked completely normal. There were no blurred faces.

Although his intuition screamed of danger, he couldn’t see any actual signs of it.

Could Song Chushi have gotten it wrong?

As the thought crossed his mind, his gaze slowly swept across the street. He suddenly stiffened. Across the way, he saw a familiar figure sitting in front of a cake shop.

It was Song Chushi, looking just as he had the last time Han Su saw him, a briefcase placed beside him.

His calm gaze shifted over to Han Su. A smile touched his lips, and he gave a slight nod, as if in greeting.

Then, he slowly raised his right hand.

And gently snapped his fingers!

SNAP!

In that instant, the flow of people on the entire street suddenly froze for a moment, like a lagging video tape.

The next moment, the crowd started moving again, but now countless faces were starting to show blurry shadows—in patches, in blotches.

One even passed by less than two meters in front of Han Su.

A chill ran through Han Su. ”The gate... it really is here?”

The Penetration here had clearly begun long ago, but not only had the Investigator of Strange Birds failed to react, even the Qinggang Disaster Management Bureau was unaware. Yet Song Chushi found it so quickly?

As a sense of shock and awe rose in Han Su’s heart, the Doctor beside him suddenly stopped and whispered, ”Are you guys seeing this?”

Black Tiger asked, surprised, ”What’s wrong?”

”Faces.”

The Doctor whispered, ”On this street... it’s like a lot of people just lost their faces... Or rather, we just can’t see them anymore.”

Black Tiger grew tense as well. ”Where?”

”Is this the same bizarre phenomenon we encountered on the Line 2 mission with that Investigator?”

Miss Crow also noticed something was wrong. She switched her black briefcase to her other hand and said in a low voice, ”Why have we shown up in a place related to that previous mission? And what are these things?”

”They are the plague entities released by the Crystal Skull.”

Han Su pulled his gaze away from Song Chushi. Thinking back to the files Miss Ai had sent, he said slowly:

”The files say this plague can infect a normal person’s memory and self-awareness. It can lie dormant in a person and turn them into one of its puppets in three to five seconds.”

”Someone with strong willpower who is prepared beforehand can hold out for about thirty seconds. A person who has achieved Spiritual Penetration can last until their Spiritual Power is depleted—if they don’t fight back, that’s about three to five minutes.”

”Electric shocks are effective at repelling them. You can give it a try.”

”If necessary, killing their host can also slow them down for a certain period.”

”As for this phenomenon right now... one can only say that this contamination was originally very faint, or perhaps hidden very deep, undetectable under normal circumstances. Someone just used some method to activate it, and now it has appeared right before our eyes.”

”...”

Bit by bit, in concise language, he recounted his experiences and observations from the previous Line 2 mission. After hearing this, the Doctor next to him immediately took a step back.

Beside him, Black Tiger and Crow were giving him strange looks. The Doctor calmly shook his head and said, ”My willpower isn’t very strong.”

’Why did Song Chushi lead me here? To meet with him?’

Han Su couldn’t make up his mind. If Song Chushi had brought him here, then why was he looking for this gate?

He had only managed to track him here by piggybacking on the Investigator of Strange Birds’ efforts.

But then again, if he could discover it, how could the Investigator of Strange Birds possibly fail to?

He even suspected that the Investigator of Strange Birds might have already arrived nearby and, like him, had also spotted Song Chushi.

If that was the case, should he still go meet him or not?

As they spoke, the number of blurry-faced people around them grew, far more than what Han Su had encountered on Line 2. But since these things hadn’t been provoked, they just walked calmly past them.

”Everyone, get close to me!”

Just then, Miss Crow suddenly said, ”The scale of contamination on this street exceeds our estimates. Stand by me. I can protect you.”

Her voice was heavy as she spoke, as if she was forcefully reminding Han Su, ”The correct choice is to leave this street immediately, find a place with a signal, and report the plague outbreak to headquarters so they can send people to handle it.”

Han Su listened to her words, but his gaze flickered across the street. He suddenly saw Song Chushi stand up, pause for a moment, and then, without hesitation, turn and enter the door behind him.

The door to that cake shop!

At the same instant he entered the door, all the blurry-faced figures walking among the crowd on the street suddenly seemed to glitch, freezing in place for a moment.

The next moment, they all swiveled their heads in unison, staring toward the cake shop.

”So that’s the ’gate’?”

A chill ran through Han Su as well. He realized that Song Chushi had not only found the area where the gate appeared and discovered the hidden contamination, but had even pinpointed the exact location of the ”gate” itself.

Before he could react, he saw a figure suddenly jump out of a car on the other side.

It was Mr. Strange Bird.

His face was etched with a kind of fanaticism as he too followed, weaving through the crowd on the street, a gun in one hand and a briefcase in the other.

His figure grew fainter as he moved, as if he were disappearing. He sped past the dazed figures on the street and followed Song Chushi through the door.

’He went in too?’