Bo Ting curiously probed around with a bunch of questions but failed to learn of any major events from the netizens.
So, was the problem really with him?
Was he overthinking it?
Forget it. Maybe he really was imagining things.
Bo Ting put down his phone and stopped dwelling on it.
Resurgence Management Office Sixth Squad:
At nine o’clock in the evening, Si Ning led his team to the site where the motorcycle had vanished.
As soon as they entered the alley, a thick rotten stench assaulted them, clearly the lingering aura left by the anomaly.
“Cough.”
“This stench.”
The team member behind him shook his head. “The aura left at the pet shop earlier wasn’t this bad.”
“Why is the smell so strong here?”
Si Ning’s expression remained impassive. “It means the other party experienced the greatest emotional fluctuations here.”
Based on some informal daily observations, Si Ning had found that when anomalies were in states of extreme excitement or slaughter, the anomalous aura they emitted was far thicker than usual.
It also made them easier to track.
That was why he believed they hadn’t taken the wrong path.
The team member nodded as if he understood, but couldn’t help muttering, “That excited, huh.”
“Then it takes off the helmet and realizes it’s not human. Wouldn’t that just be hilarious?”
Si Ning fell silent for a moment, imagining that hellish scene.
But he didn’t joke around with his teammate. Instead, he casually made a note and continued forward.
The surveillance footage entered a blind spot here, so the rest required them to follow the anomalous aura detector bit by bit.
Fortunately, just as they reached the intersection, the anomalous aura detector flickered.
“Right side.”
Si Ning said coldly.
Wu Senshen nodded and followed.
The alley on the right led only to a few office buildings, and the detector showed no activity among them.
This wasn’t the first time they’d encountered something like this, so they walked patiently, occasionally glancing back.
But as they passed through another alley, Wu Senshen, who had been yawning, suddenly paused in confusion.
“Wenhua District?”
“Did the shop owner end up coming to Wenhua District?”
Si Ning’s heart sank as he perked up.
“Keep going.”
Half an hour later, after twists and turns, the Sixth Squad followed the lingering worm aura left by “shop owner Zhang Sheng” to the place where he had last vanished.
—The entrance to Yunhe Convenience Store.
The familiar name jumped into view again. The Sixth Squad, whose hands and feet should have been warm from walking all evening, instead felt a chill run through them. Late at night, a cold sensation rose directly from their backs.
An inexplicable shiver ran down their spines.
“Damn, this is creepy.”
“Why is it connected to this damn place again?”
Because they had received specific psychological suggestions from a mental-type Ability User, the team members who had participated in the previous incident still retained their memories of 【Taiping Luxury Garden】 and remembered this special neighborhood.
Now, focusing intently on the gate across from them, they felt their breathing stall.
The quiet neighborhood stood silently next to Yunhe Convenience Store. It looked utterly ordinary, but all the recent events seemed tied to it.
“I thought the Third Squad was obsessed and linking these two things together.”
“Turns out they really are connected.”
Bai Anyang swallowed behind them, feeling dazed.
Seeing this neighborhood late at night made it even creepier.
Si Ning had a bit of a headache. Truth be told, he hadn’t believed it at first either. After all, not everything could be connected to it.
Before they discovered it, anomalous incidents in Mengjia City had been endless.
But the facts proved otherwise.
“Call them.”
They had come this far, so now they had no choice but to report to their superiors.
It would also verify Captain Lu of the Third Squad’s suspicions.
In the brightly lit hall: Lu Jingshan had deliberately stayed late at the Resurgence Management Office, knowing the Sixth Squad would definitely find something.
Sure enough, before he even finished his noodles a few hours later, the call from them came through.
The operator picked up immediately upon seeing it was from the Sixth Squad.
A few minutes later, it was transferred to Captain Lu nearby.
With the situation urgent, there was no time for small talk. Si Ning got straight to the point and reported the details.
“The last place it vanished was confirmed at the entrance to 【Taiping Luxury Garden】.”
“We’re right at the neighborhood entrance now. Just like before, the security booth is empty, and it looks like no one’s coming or going.”
Si Ning leaned against the car as he relayed.
Lu Jingshan frowned. “At the entrance, besides the 【Worm Anomaly】 aura, are there any other anomalous auras mixed in?”
“No.”
Si Ning, who had just checked, answered crisply.
“Tch, this neighborhood seems pretty unusual now.”
With a sigh, Lu Jingshan turned serious. “The neighborhood is stationary. All signs show no traces of it moving outward.”
“Otherwise, Mengjia City’s top defenses wouldn’t be for show.”
Si Ning nodded in agreement.
“Apart from that dog active at the neighborhood entrance, the neighborhood itself probably doesn’t have direct predation capabilities.”
He ventured.
Lu Jingshan sighed. “So I suspect this neighborhood casts a net online to lure 【Worm Anomalies】 over.”
Otherwise, why would this suddenly appearing neighborhood bother disguising itself as a customer buying from the pet shop?
And even send the address to that 【Worm Anomaly】, drawing it here.
Clearly, it might lack mobility and could only attract prey like a Venus flytrap.
After discussing for a while, they reached a conclusion:
“Don’t enter the neighborhood for now. Withdraw first.”
“Tomorrow, I’ll discuss with Captain Zheng and try searching the web for recently appearing ‘special information sources.'”
They hadn’t thought of this before, but now with evidence, they could prioritize it.
Lu Jingshan suspected this neighborhood disguising as “customers” online might not be the first time.
Si Ning nodded, notified his teammates after hanging up, and left the neighborhood’s vicinity.
The next day, Bo Ting had just gotten up when he received a message for identity verification.
Hm?
Could it be that the unemployment benefits mini-program he’d been unable to open was finally working?!
Bo Ting’s eyes lit up as he quickly tapped in.
But upon opening it, he saw it was just spam, the kind blasted out indiscriminately.
Bo Ting: …
A scam message.
He’d gotten his hopes up for nothing, thinking the mini-program was finally fixed.
Still, could this kind of scam really fool anyone? No legitimate URL or anything—who would fall for it!
Bo Ting curled his lip and dragged the SMS into his blacklist.
He wondered if it was because he’d left too many random comments on online shopping lately that his info had leaked.
Yesterday, he’d just reordered dog food for Doudou. This wasn’t a scam too, was it?
Bo Ting frowned and opened the shopping app.
Seeing that Doudou’s dog food now showed “out for delivery” eased his mind.
Good thing he’d chosen pay-after-receipt this time. The seller was reliable, delivering as promised.
And not like that “Rebirth Pet Shop,” scamming for reviews.
Bo Ting nodded, thinking the seller was decent. If the dog food quality checked out, he’d buy from them again for Doudou.
Just as he thought that, the order page vibrated with a new message.
Bo Ting looked over in confusion and saw that in just a few minutes, the delivery time had changed from noon to afternoon.
What?
Delayed?
Wasn’t it supposed to arrive on time?
Bo Ting’s expression turned serious as he clicked into the customer service chat to question the seller.
That’s when he saw the seller’s timely apologetic emoji.
“Sorry about that, customer.”
“Forgot to mention when shipping: delivery here requires filling in some personal info for verification, or it’ll be trouble for our couriers.”
Hm?
Personal info verification?
The term immediately put Bo Ting on high alert.
The next second, the seller sent over a familiar identity verification template—one he’d just seen.
Bo Ting: …
Wasn’t this the exact spam from earlier?
Even the format matched.
Years of anti-scam PSAs sharpened his instincts.
Bo Ting glanced at it without even clicking the template and asked:
“I’ve bought from other places before, and they never required verification.”
Bo Ting frowned, recalling how the previous “Rebirth Pet Shop” had just taken his address directly.
Even though nothing arrived, it showed full verification wasn’t needed in the process.
Bo Ting made a logical point.
In the Resurgence Management Office hall:
The atmosphere was tense, locked in a standoff.
An hour earlier, Zheng Shangyun had arrived. After reviewing the joint report from the Third Esper Squad and Sixth Esper Squad, he’d requested approval from superiors and immediately decided:
—Full-scale screening for “anomalous information sources.”
They’d expected the screening to be tough, even preparing for a week without results.
But unexpectedly, they got a hit in under half an hour.
And a very solid one.
The screener twitched his mouth and whispered to Zheng Shangyun as he approached, “This dog food buyer placed the order yesterday afternoon, and the address is directly: 【Taiping Luxury Garden】.”
“Matches your criteria perfectly.”
Zheng Shangyun: …
So blatant?
They’d thought it would at least hide a bit, but it showed no intent to conceal at all.
Still, finding it was good.
But just as Zheng Shangyun bent down in relief, he realized that while it exposed the identity directly, it wasn’t biting on other hooks.
Like the identity verification they’d just sent.
That was also an anomalous information source—clicking it would yield some of the target’s info—but the dog food buyer hadn’t even touched it, directly questioning instead.
Lu Jingshan: …
Pretty cautious.
This anomaly mimicking life gave him a momentary illusion of talking to a real person.
But how could that be.
Lu Jingshan chuckled wryly at his absurd thought.
When the screener looked to him helplessly, he said, “Just reply that it’s a new Mengjia City delivery platform rule from this morning.”
“They’re trialing it.”
“Got it, Captain Lu.”
The screener mimicked a customer service tone and sent it word-for-word.
A few minutes later, the other side showed “typing,” then stopped.
A while later, “typing” lit up again.
Bo Ting was amused—the most ridiculous scam of his life.
Honestly, if not for “Mengjia City,” he might’ve half-believed the delivery platform new rule bit.
But… where was Mengjia City?
Didn’t scammers do any research?
His same-city order was clearly located in Yunshan City!
Bo Ting exited the chat expressionlessly, about to find netizens to vent about today’s joke. But out of caution, he double-checked the page before closing.
He carefully confirmed his location on the shopping app.
“What the hell.”
Bo Ting muttered to himself. The next second, his voice caught in his throat as he widened his eyes in disbelief:
Wait, why did his location show the ghost of—”Mengjia City”?
