Chapter 41: Good Taste Fresh Meat Supply Factory

When Xu Hou returned to the city by taxi, he found himself stuck in a residential area.

The street was packed with people, and the incessant blaring of car horns did nothing to stem the growing crowd. Many individuals pushing their way out from the front were vividly recounting something to others.

Rolling down the car window, he strained his ears and caught fragments of words like "corpse" and "dismembered."

"Times are not peaceful these days," the driver sighed. "You live a good, honest life, never bothering anyone, only to end up hacked to pieces."

"Did someone die inside?"

"You bet. Five households, to be exact," the driver said. "In a single night, fourteen people across five families were silently murdered. Adults and children alike—left with nothing but their heads, hands, feet, and guts. Everything else is gone!"

"What kind of perverted killer could pull off something so unhinged? The kicker is that he did it all in one night without a single soul nearby noticing. Nobody even knows how the bodies were moved..."

The driver kept talking, but Xu Hou's mind had drifted to a far more ominous realization.

Following Evolvers and Players, game instances were now projecting themselves into the real world, and they were killing indiscriminately. This meant that from now on, ordinary people would have to bear the exact same risks as Players.

"...I heard this isn't the only incident," the driver whispered instinctively. "There are three or four just here in the southern part of the city. Even the big shots from up top have arrived. The people in that complex evacuated completely. It's no different from a haunted house."

Earlier, Xu Hou had spotted familiar uniforms among the crowd—the exact same attire worn by the Special Operations personnel Nie Xuan had met outside the hotel.

"Driver, do you know which complexes they are?"

The driver rattled off several names in one breath, even providing the approximate time frames.

Calculating the locations on a map, Xu Hou noted there was no specific pattern to the geography, nor any discernible rhythm to the timing.

Pulling out his phone, he browsed local news and trending posts. The majority of comments were cursing Evolvers because the time intervals and methods of the crimes exceeded human limits, making the involvement of an Evolver highly probable. Others continuously interrogated and attacked official authorities to vent their frustrations.

Finding little useful information, he logged onto the forum.

Sure enough, the government was calling upon Players to head to Tingcheng to resolve the incident, and some details of the cases had been made public.

The victims varied in age and gender. Aside from internal organs, most adults were left with only their hands, feet, and skulls, while children were left with only their feet; all other body parts had completely vanished.

What made one's scalp tingle was that they had all been stuffed into sacks and tossed back to where they came from—appearing right where they had disappeared.

The targets were not restricted to Players; the attacks struck without warning, required no train tickets, and occurred at random locations, manifesting in different ways across the country. Official authorities referred to this game mode as a Random Instance.

The authorities had already exhausted their efforts to search for the instance trigger points, but to no avail. That was why they were calling on Players to take action. Within these past few days alone, the number of missing persons had reached a hundred, and every location of disappearance had been thoroughly investigated without leaving a single trace.

Therefore, their only hope lay with Players—that some Player might accidentally stumble into the instance and bring the missing people back.

Locking his phone screen, Xu Hou shook his head. In a situation like this, not only would no Player dare to come, but even local Players would be fleeing outward.

"Young man, we've arrived." The taxi stopped.

Xu Hou paid the fare and stepped out. Yu Qingqing's manager was already waiting at the entrance of the building. Seeing him, the manager rushed over, offering an apologetic smile. "Brother Xu, you're here. Please, right this way up."

Xu Hou followed him into the elevator and got off on the twenty-eighth floor.

The secretary politely ushered him into the reception room. "President Zheng is currently in a meeting and will be finished shortly. Please have a seat and enjoy some tea, Mr. Xu."

Glancing at the manager, who was continuously wiping cold sweat from his forehead, Xu Hou said, "I'll only wait five minutes."

The secretary hurried out.

Meanwhile, in the adjacent room, the senior and junior Zheng brothers of the entertainment company were observing Xu Hou via surveillance monitors, accompanied by Special Operations personnel.

"Is that him?" a young man with dyed red hair asked coldly and arrogantly.

"That's him!" shouted President Zhu, a gauze bandage wrapped tightly around his neck. "He almost choked me to death yesterday. He must be an Evolver, and he's definitely eaten people! Hurry up and arrest him!"

The red-haired youth lowered his gaze to the documents on the table, frowning. "He has killed three people?"

"Yes, but it was later verified that the three he killed were Evolvers who had blood on their hands," chimed in Zhao Biao, who had crossed paths with Xu Hou. "And the bodies were intact..."

"It's in the files, you don't need to tell me," the red-haired youth interrupted without lifting his head. "Whoever he is, disturbing social order is grounds for immediate arrest."

With that, he instructed the others behind him, "Be careful. This man is experienced, skilled at camouflage, and possesses special items. Guard against him taking hostages to escape during the arrest."

"He's standing up!" shouted the company's vice president, Junior Zheng.

"Move in!"

More than a dozen Special Operations personnel flooded into the reception room, equipped with electric nets and tranquilizer guns specifically designed to deal with Evolvers. But the very moment they pushed the door open, the foremost operative vanished!

The remaining team members were utterly shocked, immediately raising their guns to aim at the person standing on the other side of the table. Yet before a single dart could be fired, that operative vanished from the spot as well, as though erased from thin air, leaving only his gun clattering to the floor!

"What is going on?!"

"He just vanished!"

Although the Special Operations personnel had undergone prior training regarding the peculiar abilities of Players, they had never heard of an ability that could make someone disappear the moment they made contact!

How were they supposed to fight that?

Retreating in shock and anger, they watched as Xu Hou—who ought to have had victory firmly in his grasp—saw his expression shift drastically as he bolted toward the floor-to-ceiling glass window!

"Don't let him escape!" The red-haired youth's shout was swallowed by the shattering of glass. Everyone only saw Xu Hou leap through the window, but when they rushed over, not even a shadow remained!

"He got away?!" President Zhu hurried in, realizing instantly that they had failed to catch him. "What are you people good for? So many of you, with electric nets and tranquilizer guns, and you couldn't even catch a single person!"

The red-haired youth cast a cold glance at him and smashed a solid wood long table in half with a single punch.

President Zhu shut his mouth. Only then did the red-haired youth say, "Search floor by floor. This is the twenty-eighth floor; he couldn't have jumped all the way down in one go. He's still in the building."

"Crack!"

"Thud!"

No sooner had he spoken than the sound of a heavy object hitting the floor echoed through the reception room, and two more Special Operations personnel vanished!

"What... what is this..." Senior Zheng retreated in terror. Before he could finish his sentence, he disappeared right before everyone's eyes!

"It's Xu Hou! It has to be him! He's going to kill all of us!" Hysterically, President Zhu bolted toward the door, only to share Senior Zheng's fate the moment he reached the threshold.

"This isn't Xu Hou's ability! It's a random instance!" The red-haired youth's expression changed in horror as he roared, "Quick! Evacuate this building!"

The people in the reception room scrambled to escape, but they vanished one by one. Special Operations personnel, entertainment company staff, and the police assisting the operation—not a single person made it out of the twenty-eighth floor. The very second the red-haired youth dialed the research institute's number, his phone slipped from his fingers and hit the floor.