Chapter 208: Chapter 128: I Am Not Combat Personnel

The crime scene was located in a secluded alley at the southeast corner of Siyang City, which, according to Zheng Liu, was close to the port. And with these past few months being the off-season, the place was deserted at night; the body wasn’t discovered until early this morning.

The estimated time of death was around 1 a.m. For someone to come to such a place alone at that time, they must have been investigating something.

"Perhaps it was an ambush by evil spirits," he suggested.

Zheng Liu parked the car in front of the alley entrance. The police officers who had responded to the emergency call had already cordoned off the entrance when he arrived and said, "I’m sorry for your loss."

"It wasn’t evil spirits. Victims of evil spirits don’t leave bodies behind."

Duan Mingyuan started educating the young officer on the most fundamental knowledge of their line of work. If an evil spirit had been involved, the dead would have vanished without a trace, like the old hunters before them. Their disappearance would only be confirmed after several days at the contact station.

Zheng Liu immediately entered the knowledge Duan Mingyuan shared into his phone’s notes app.

He felt that this knowledge would come in handy in the future.

As the two got out of the car, they encountered a veteran officer from the port district, smoking at the entrance of the alley—a clear breach of regulations. However, under the extreme stress of the situation, others turned a blind eye.

Zheng Liu looked down the alley; a white cloth covered the body, and the blood seeping through at the head suggested that the scene of the crime must have been quite grisly.

"I know her. She came to our station often recently, asking for a search warrant."

The veteran officer glanced at the two of them, looking up at the exceptionally gloomy sky, "She said her master had disappeared in a hotel, and she wanted to investigate it herself."

The young woman had declared her Hunter identity, but this was clearly against departmental regulations.

Even if both departments were to conduct a search of a hotel, the operation would ultimately be lead by them, not to mention the department had also consulted with the Association immediately. The Siyang City Association had given a negative response.

Clearly, the young woman had disagreed with the Association about the investigation of the hotel, which led her to bypass the department and go directly to their station.

Although the station rejected her request, as a veteran officer with more than twenty years of law enforcement experience, he had offered her a few words of encouragement before she left.

Finding the truth was not easy; sometimes it required people like them to persevere.

But the veteran officer had not expected that his words of encouragement would result in the cold body lying in the alley.

The victim had been shot in the head with a high-caliber firearm. By the time they arrived, it was almost impossible to recognize the deceased’s original appearance, making him feel responsible for her death.

If he had thought more carefully, perhaps he should have realized that the Hunter Association had chosen not to investigate the hotel because they had foreseen the danger.

Zheng Liu and the old officer stood in silence.

Death had always been close to them, and it was hard to guarantee they wouldn’t encounter someone they knew on a call.

Zheng Liu sighed deeply. He would remember this brave young Hunter.

He felt that his way of thinking was very similar to that of the young Hunter, the only difference being that he had met Duan Mingyuan, the expert consultant, before she had.

When Zheng Liu looked again towards the depths of the alley, the young Hunter indeed left a lasting impression on him, the kind that he would never forget for the rest of his life.

"Fuck!"

He and the old officer exclaimed in unison, even the veteran with over twenty years on the job had never seen such a scene.

They were so shocked that their cigarettes dropped to the ground.

The deceased, who had been confirmed dead, lifted the white cloth and rose from the ground.

Are you a Hunter or a Necromancer?

Zheng Liu really wanted to ask Duan Mingyuan that question.

After leaving the police station, this question had been haunting him, Duan Mingyuan didn’t have an iota of a hunter’s temperament, and everything about him made people feel he was of a magic profession.

The young hunter seemed to have received a tremendous shock, gasping for air heavily, she subconsciously wrapped the white cloth around her body as if it were a blanket.

Zheng Liu and the old officer rushed into the alley, one after the other.

"You... are you alright?"

They had to admit that asking such a question felt a bit strange, as it’s usually quite difficult to ask someone if they’re alright after their head had been blown off by a large-caliber bullet and they’d been declared dead on the spot.

"She’s probably just in shock, let’s have her rest in the car for a bit."

Duan Mingyuan said.

Zheng Liu and the old officer quickly helped the young woman back to the squad car, and after closing the door, they stared at each other, confirming the understanding in each other’s eyes.

They both needed a smoke.

"Calm, calm down, been in this line of work for so long, seen all sorts of weird stuff, no need to make such a big deal out of it."

The old officer tried to persuade Zheng Liu to stay cool with the wisdom of someone who’s seen it all, but evidently, the old officer was the least composed of the two.

"Uncle, you’re holding a ballpoint pen."

Zheng Liu had to remind the old officer, who had placed a ballpoint pen in his mouth and was trying to light it with a lighter. Fortunately, he had held the lighter the wrong way around, preventing him from actually lighting a ballpoint pen on fire.

"Oh, my mistake."

The old officer, still with shaky hands, took out a pack of cigarettes from the other side and offered one to Zheng Liu and Duan Mingyuan.

"I’ll pass."

Duan Mingyuan waved his hand, smoking was harmful to health, he never had the habit of smoking, and ever since Jiuyue moved in, he was even less inclined to touch it, Jiuyue seemed to really dislike the smell of smoke, whenever they were in a public place and people were smoking, she would frown, and sometimes stare at the smokers with a quite fierce look.

As a medical professional, Duan Mingyuan had to emphasize the dangers of smoking.

It could not only damage health but could also lead to being cursed by a misfortune fox, resulting in being accompanied by bad luck for the following week or even a month.

"Old Duan, how exactly did you do it?"

Once things had calmed down, Zheng Liu asked.

Since the doors to a new world had opened up for him, the world had become ever more preposterous, Duan Mingyuan, as an expert dispatched by the Hunter Association, might go back and forth with the evil spirits in the corporate buildings due to professional reasons, but this ability to raise the dead was truly bewildering.

"In the Hunter Association, many people have exceptional abilities, and I am no exception."

"You mean superpowers?"

Zheng Liu had read quite a few novels about special abilities, he had heard his master mention that, during the zenith of the Hunter Association, those veteran hunters were all extraordinary and remarkable people.

"You could understand it that way, the birth of abilities is related to personal obsessions."

"So your ability... I’m just curious, if it’s inconvenient to reveal, then just pretend I didn’t ask."

Zheng Liu explained, having read that in many novels, the essence of an Ability Battle was an information war, thus directly asking about someone’s ability was considered a taboo.

"It’s not inconvenient."

Duan Mingyuan said, "I don’t like to fight with others, so my abilities tend toward support and healing, I’m not the combat type."

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read