Chapter 93: Mysterious Investigator
Drake Wu, a mixed-race New Yorker and Shenzhou person, gene testing showed he actually also possesses Winter Peninsula Yumoke genes, but gene testing isn’t reliable. Even for the same test sample split into two parts and inspected by different testing organizations, the results aren’t necessarily the same. He’s as unreliable as his parents; from birth until now, he doesn’t even know who his parents are.
Perhaps it’s this enthusiasm and persistence toward his own family history and bloodline that makes him so obsessed with exploration and tracing roots, which also made him become a private detective.
Drake has always wanted to go see the Shenzhou Region. Although most gene testing data isn’t reliable, the only two consistent results from the testing organization are that he truly possesses both New Yorker and Shenzhou bloodlines, and his appearance does indeed have many typical Eastern features, which makes him yearn greatly for the Shenzhou Region where Eastern people are most concentrated.
Unfortunately, two years ago, his profession wasn’t legal in the Shenzhou Region. If he really went there, he might not starve to death, but he would definitely eat prison food.
Drake loves his profession very much; at least it ranks ahead of his idea of “returning to his roots.”
However, now the opportunity has come. Since that shocking global terror event was publicly revealed two years ago, new changes and systems have been implemented and promoted worldwide, and a profession similar to detective—mysterious investigator—has emerged accordingly.
Mysterious investigator is essentially a type of detective profession, but the main investigation targets of this profession aren’t humans, but rather bizarre events hidden beneath the normal human world. The main targets may not be human; even if they are human, they are definitely not normal people.
This profession inevitably deals with death; it’s like a unicycle on a tightrope—fail once and it’s irredeemable doom.
People who love the detective profession, no matter how mature or sexy they appear on the outside, all hide strong desires for exploration and adventure deep in their bones. Daily tasks like catching mistresses or being paparazzi are boring and dull to them; only cases that are mysterious and truly tricky make them feel the meaning of being alive.
Perhaps because of this, Drake transferred his profession to mysterious investigator. After all, what could be more thrilling than challenging death?
Entering this profession isn’t easy, and engaging in it requires passing quite difficult assessments.
Drake benefited from his experience as a private detective and his habit of properly maintaining his body daily, so he became one of the world’s first officially certified mysterious investigators directly acknowledged by the World Government with almost no obstacles.
After becoming a mysterious investigator, Drake didn’t immediately start his professional work. Instead, he settled all his external affairs in the New York region and prepared for a full year and a half before finally taking his first mysterious investigator case, heading to the Shenzhou Region, the homeland of his bloodline.
Standing on the deck, gazing at the coastal port he was about to land at, his mood inexplicably surged with excitement. At this moment, the oppressive dark clouds, the wail of seabirds, and the angry waves of the black sea seemed insignificant compared to the joy in his heart.
Forty minutes later, the ship docked. Drake got off the ship with his simple luggage. When his footsteps landed on the port filled with the smell of the sea, he felt a solid sense of his soul landing, and the blood in his body cheered for this land.
“Shenzhou, I’m finally back.” Drake’s eyes grew slightly hot.
Despite many emotions and planning to settle long-term on this region’s land, Drake still didn’t forget the purpose of his trip.
A year and a half after obtaining the mysterious investigator license, when Drake first came to the Investigator Guild in Fallen Angel City of the New York region to pick up a mission, at the lowest F-level professional rank, he had very few optional outbound missions, with only a scant two missions available for the Shenzhou Region.
He had long been left far behind by his peers from that time; he couldn’t even see those guys’ taillights.
Drake didn’t care about this. The level highness or lowness didn’t affect his intention to go to Shenzhou or his interest in this profession.
The missions related to traveling to the Shenzhou Region at that time were as follows:
Mission one: Recently, multiple personnel disappearance cases have occurred on the streets of Modu City in the Shenzhou Region. Most of the disappeared personnel are criminals; they always mysteriously disappear after entering places not covered by surveillance cameras, and the disappearance scenes often leave behind light red unidentified mucus. Please go support the local organization’s investigation team and help collect useful clues.
Mission two: Mysterious phenomena have appeared in Liuhua Port of the Shenzhou Region. Survivors say they accidentally heard the sea calling their names, and under some kind of summons, they actively or passively walked into the sea. Please go investigate the cause of the mysterious phenomenon.
After seeing these two F-level investigator missions that both had certain difficulty and danger levels, Drake only thought for a moment before taking “Mission two.”
For some reason, Drake felt that Mission one’s danger level seemed higher, especially the light red unidentified mucus left at the personnel disappearance scenes, which always stirred his detective intuition.
He remembered that the Shenzhou Region’s anomaly affairs response organization Mysterious Group had many publicly revealed investigation discoveries from the Night of Collapse in Cuizhu City two years ago, one of which was a discovery in underground ruins that matched the “light red unidentified mucus” mentioned in Mission one.
In this case, in the worst-case scenario, the “master” of that mucus might be the culprit that destroyed Cuizhu City back then.
Although Drake admitted he loved adventure and exploration, that didn’t mean he would completely disregard his own life and death for it.
Besides, he had only just officially become a mysterious investigator; how could he bear to die easily without even completing a few cases.
Two choices, eliminate one, and the remaining one is his answer.
Drake took a ship straight to Liuhua Port in the Shenzhou Region and arrived at this city whose history isn’t particularly long.
This city doesn’t have an Investigator Guild, and the travel expenses for this F-level mission are entirely self-funded, with reimbursement depending on the case-solving result, so this poor detective who had no money to begin with could only check into a cheap local inn.
The mission lasts 15 days, starting from when he steps onto Liuhua Port land and completes the mission handover with the contact person; his mission time enters countdown. Although Drake wanted to race against time, he also knew this couldn’t be rushed, and he must treat it seriously.
First, he started researching the current investigation progress information given by the contact person. After two days and two nights of sorting, Drake finally found several major commonalities among those disappeared and victims: places they had all visited together, people they all knew together, a certain special thing they had all done together… To derive the correct commonalities for this case, he now had to conduct individual verifications.
Drake also wanted to investigate this case together with other teammates; after all, more people would make the verification work easier.
But regrettably, Drake discovered that besides himself, no one else had taken this case.
Although understandable, the current Investigator Guild system is still in its early stage, and the number of mysterious investigators recruited from the public isn’t many. Even in the densely populated Shenzhou Region, there actually aren’t significantly more mysterious investigators than other regions; having more people has instead become an advantage for the Shenzhou Investigator Guild in selecting the best from the excellent.
The mission’s contact person said that if he was willing to wait two more days, he could team up with a Mysterious Group squad that happened to be coming to this city for a mission.
Drake couldn’t wait, so he could only proceed alone first.
Passing through the narrow and long tunnel, he first went to Jia Cuo Temple, a temple that almost all the victims of this case had visited. But after his investigation there, besides bringing back a fragrance pouch worth 998, he found no anomalies.
By the way, the monks in that temple aren’t pure; probably a few greedy guys with unclean six roots mixed in. The things they sell are really overpriced…
Next, Drake found those people that almost all the victims had met, but it was also fruitless. Some were indeed acquaintances and possibly friends with them, while others had just coincidentally appeared in the same spacetime.
Helplessly, Drake could only go test the things those victims had done, but the result disappointed him immensely as well.
Finally, with a grave expression, he reached the result: the commonalities he found were all mistakes.
Drake grabbed his hair, feeling slightly irritable. The case investigation had reached a very difficult moment: basically everything that could be investigated had been, yet still no clue, stuck not knowing where to investigate next.
“What exactly have I overlooked?” Drake pondered. He returned to his inn room and once again reorganized the clues he had analyzed before, trying to find his own flaws.
Perhaps due to thinking about it all day and dreaming about it at night, Drake had recently been investigating the case to the point of obsession, to the extent that he didn’t even know how cold and deathly his current appearance was. Only when he fell asleep did he dream of a voice calling him in the dream.
Immediately after, Drake had the idea of finding the source of the voice in the dream, so he ran barefoot all the way, chasing that voice that seemed to seduce his soul and spirit.
Running and chasing all the way, he finally arrived at the beach of Liuhua Port.
Listening to the crashing sound of the nighttime waves, Drake faintly heard what seemed to be human voices interspersed in the wave sounds. Looking at the black sea blending water and sky, Drake became somewhat lost. In the hazy black night, he walked down the beach, step by step toward the surging sea waves.
“The waves are big now; are you sure you still want to go into the sea?” Just as Drake was dazed, his consciousness was suddenly awakened by a chuckling voice.
In the instant normal consciousness returned and revived, Drake suddenly realized he wasn’t dreaming at all. He had really walked barefoot all the way from the inn to the beach; even with his feet cut open, he hadn’t noticed. Only now did he feel the intense pain; the cracked wounds on the soles of his feet even had sand mixed in, making it even more uncomfortable and painful.
Drake fell to the ground at once and hurriedly cleared the sand and soil from the soles of his feet.
While feeling aftershock for his experience, Drake cautiously looked at the youth who appeared on the beach in the middle of the night and called out, “Who are you? What are you doing here?”
“I’m Li Nuowei. I’m watching the sea and waiting for you.” The youth said with a beaming smile.
For some reason, when Drake saw the youth’s eyes, he felt uneasy. That abnormal dilated pupil, he had only often seen on the faces of mental hospital patients. When he heard the youth say he was waiting for him, Drake felt even more restless. “Waiting for me? You know who I am?”
“You’re Drake Wu, a dirt-poor private detective, but you just happened to get an ‘official position’ recently, so you wanted to go out and make a name for yourself.” Li Nuowei seemed unaware of the change in Drake’s gaze and continued naturally barbecuing meat.
Drake said gravely, “But I don’t know you. How do you know me?”
Li Nuowei laughed, “You told me yourself.”
Drake was stunned, looking at the young man in front of him who was at most eighteen or twenty years old. He carefully recalled his past, but he still had absolutely no impression of the other; he had never contacted him.
Seeing Drake’s cautious expression, Li Nuowei tried his best to put on a sincere face and said meaningfully, “My past is your future.” With that, he put on his electric bike helmet and leisurely left.
Since Li Nuowei appeared here and said some chuunibyou-like remarks, Drake felt it necessary to re-understand and get to know him; perhaps the other knew some truths about mysterious events.
However, Li Nuowei wasn’t willing to say more and didn’t give him a chance to inquire.
After Drake staggered out of the beach, he only saw Li Nuowei’s back as he rode away on his electric bike.
Seeing he couldn’t catch up to Li Nuowei immediately, Drake could only sit properly on the stone steps and quietly wait for dawn, while also thinking back on his behavior over these past few days.
After recovering for a while, Drake held plastic bags around his feet and limped back to the inn. Then he cleared out a large space, wrote down everything he could think of regarding his actions over these past few days on the blackboard, and compared them with the other victims to see if he had any similar commonalities.
However, after circling those commonalities according to his understanding, Drake felt even more like vomiting.
Drake frantically scratched his hair; a storm gathered in his mind. His gaze scanned over the information sheets. When his eyes swept over the map, Drake paused, which also made him suddenly realize something important: “It’s not about what places they went to, but what they all missed and overlooked.”
Then, after continuously comparing the survival route record maps of those disappeared and survivors, Drake finally figured out the core key.
“Tunnel! It’s the tunnel!”
Collection, tickets and such~~~~
