Chapter 149: Human Forces

"You two, stand right there and don't move.

"Are you human or ghost? If you're human, submit to an inspection. We'll let you go once we confirm there are no issues."

Gao Tian and Ai Ning had been walking carefully down a street awash in corpse fluid. A low rumble echoed from the horizon, like muffled thunder rolling in the distance. The roar rapidly swelled and amplified. The ground began to tremble slightly; the wind instantly whipped into a frenzy, sending dust and leaves swirling through the air to howl in their ears.

When the helicopter arrived directly overhead, its floodlights swept slowly down across the entire block before fixing on Gao Tian and Ai Ning. The gale-force downdraft whipped their clothes violently, distorting everything around them.

On one side of the helicopter, a man wearing black body armor and tactical Goggles leaned out, shouting at them through a megaphone.

It seemed this block was temporarily back in human hands. Any outsider who entered would be quickly discovered.

Gao Tian raised his hands high, signaling that he was unarmed.

The helicopter dropped a rope ladder, and several ghost hunter soldiers rapidly descended. They approached the duo cautiously, their guns raised. "What is your business here? How did you cross so many blocks to get this far?"

The ghost hunter squad leader pulled down his Goggles and scanned the two of them with extreme vigilance. Truthfully, the outskirts of the city center had already devolved into a bloody warzone; there was no way ordinary people could traverse blocks overrun with Fierce Ghosts. It was far too suspicious, so it was no wonder they were on guard.

"I'm a ghost hunter from the thirty-second class of the East Thirteenth Street Headquarters, recently promoted from intern to official employee. Here is my ID and my fingerprints; you can verify them on the network."

Shouting over the deafening roar of the rotors, Ai Ning strained her voice so they could hear her. "Where is the top commander of your unit? I need to see him immediately. Just now, at the Liberation Building on Jiefang Road, I obtained top-secret intelligence regarding ghosts."

The squad leader took two steps forward and carefully received the ID card from Ai Ning, punching its number into his watch. A few seconds later, the verification passed, confirming the girl's identity as a ghost hunter.

Of course, this wasn't enough to dispel his doubts.

There were plenty of Fierce Ghosts capable of mimicking humans. Who knew what this female ghost hunter had encountered on her way here, or if she had already been replaced?

He took another step back, maintaining a safe distance from Ai Ning and Gao Tian. "My surname is Liang. You can call me Captain Liang.

"It must have been a rough journey. There are so many Fierce Ghosts running rampant through Shanghai City."

Failing to catch the underlying implication in his words, Ai Ning looked frantic and repeatedly stressed, "Bring your top commander to speak with me. I really have crucial intelligence. I'm not joking around with you.

"If we keep wasting time here, I don't know how many more people are going to die."

Seeing her frantic demeanor and her continuous demands to see the top commander, Captain Liang's subordinates exchanged glances through their Goggles, growing even more suspicious.

Captain Liang's tone remained flat as he asked a few seemingly casual questions in a conversational manner. "It should be very difficult for living people to make it here.

"After all, even if your luck was off the charts and you didn't encounter a single ghost on the way, the Woman in the Rain would definitely come looking for you.

"Don't tell me you never saw that video—the one that contaminated the television stations, the billboards, and the internet across all of Shanghai City.

"Anyone with an electronic device would definitely be infected by the Meme."

Given Ai Ning's ghost hunter rank, Captain Liang didn't believe for a second that she had the ability to deal with the Woman in the Rain.

Ai Ning was momentarily at a loss for words. Her mind was entirely focused on passing on Dr. Adam's research. She never expected to be met with such suspicion from a colleague.

Just then, Gao Tian spoke up from behind, bailing Ai Ning out. "On the way, we did see a tall woman wearing rain boots and holding a White Umbrella walking toward us.

"We originally had a few other companions with us, but they were all pulled under the umbrella by that eerie woman and vanished. They never came out.

"I guess you could say I'm just extremely lucky. So many people died along the way, yet I've miraculously survived until now."

Captain Liang slowly shifted his gaze, temporarily focusing his interest on the young man. "Then why did the Woman in the Rain kill all your companions, but solely spare you two?

"It seems your 'luck' is truly phenomenal."

Gao Tian explained, "It really was. When that bizarre woman was striding toward us, several fishing hooks suddenly dropped from the sky out of nowhere.

"One of the hooks caught onto her, reeling her directly into the sky and taking her away.

"Moreover, when a few other hooks swung toward us, the dead streetlights nearby suddenly flickered back on. The moment we stood in the light, the hooks automatically vanished.

"We didn't know what was happening either. We just seized the opportunity to run in the confusion, and ended up here."

Hearing Gao Tian's explanation, Captain Liang's subordinates whispered into their communicators, "Fishing Ghost," and "They ran into the Fishing Ghost."

Their squad had clashed with that ghostly entity before. Even among a horde of demons and monsters, it was uniquely eerie because they couldn't find its main body at all. The harder they fought, the more hooks dropped from the sky. Most of an entire squad of well-equipped ghost hunters had been inexplicably swept away just like that.

The only saving grace was that the Fishing Ghost's attacks were indiscriminate, hooking the other ghosts on the block right alongside them. Taking advantage of the ghosts slaughtering each other, the remaining survivors fled the shadows and retreated along the streetlights, finally making it back to a relatively safe area to regroup with the other ghost hunter units.

Captain Liang threw out a few more simple questions, essentially cross-checking their story. Although the two youths who had fled from the outskirts to the city center couldn't answer perfectly, their logic largely aligned without any major flaws.

"Take them back to the hospital. Do a full physical and psychological examination. If there are no issues, take the ghost hunter back to the Abyss Echo Unit's camp and assign her to a new squad. This boy is an ordinary person, right? Arrange temporary housing for him, and let him out once tonight is over."

Having issued his orders, Captain Liang prepared to turn and head back to the helicopter.

Ai Ning called out from behind him, "Hey, I've said this several times now. I need to speak with your top commander.

"I saw something truly important at the Liberation Building. You aren't taking my words seriously at all!"

Captain Liang raised an eyebrow and slowly turned his head. "If there's an issue, just tell me. I am the commander of this tactical squad.

"If it's truly a critical matter, I will assess and verify it before reporting it to my superiors. Then a higher-ranking official will be with you shortly."

Ai Ning's lips remained sealed tight. Because of the destruction of the East Thirteenth Road headquarters, coupled with the fact that Dr. Adam had been murdered by the higher-ups at headquarters, she had become as jumpy as a startled bird. She didn't dare trust any colleague lightly, lest the tragedy repeat itself.

She insisted, "This intelligence is crucial.

"I want to see your top commander directly and speak with him face-to-face, not have it reported up the chain of command level by level."

Beneath his tactical mask, Captain Liang tried his best to hide an amused, mocking expression.

Ai Ning's rank was simply far too low. With her clearance, running errands at that fake headquarters was already the limit of her duties. If this weren't a time of war, she wouldn't even be qualified to be assigned to the Abyss Echo Unit.

Now, during this wartime manpower shortage, an exception had already been made to promote her by several ranks. The fact that she was still stubbornly demanding an audience with the top commander showed a distinct lack of self-awareness.

The Director of the Supernatural Disaster Bureau wasn't some random nobody she could just summon on a whim. There were countless people and ghosts alike who wanted to assassinate the Director. If anyone could meet him just by asking, how could they possibly handle security?

"You should... still head to the hospital first, to check if you're even alive."

Captain Liang signaled his subordinates to make a move, then turned around, preparing to grab onto the rope ladder and leave.

Fierce battles were still raging everywhere else; he had no time to waste on these two bizarre individuals.

Ai Ning grew anxious, struggling against the two ghost hunters trying to restrain her. "If your own headquarters hadn't suffered a breach and sent out a false alarm that killed so many people, I wouldn't be demanding this so stubbornly!

"Who knows if you're the real Captain Liang, or just another ghost in disguise? I will only disclose this intelligence to someone I absolutely trust."

The moment she said that, a gun muzzle was pressed directly against her forehead. "Don't move. Don't speak out of turn.

"Your current behavior is highly suspicious. Why would anyone be in such a desperate rush to see the Director? Do you have some ulterior motive?

"Go to the hospital first and verify whether you're human, then we can talk about your demands.

"If you keep thrashing around, we'll have to use the most primitive method for testing ghosts—shoot you dead and see if you actually die."

A minor scuffle broke out, devolving into a chaotic tangle.

Gao Tian stood to the side and watched with his arms folded, not joining the fray.

He had already completed the mission Xu Yuan gave him. If Ai Ning couldn't get into that hidden Shadow Headquarters herself, it was none of his business.

It seemed the ghost hunters' vigilance was much higher than he had imagined.

Just as Ai Ning was forcefully pinned to the ground and handcuffed, a man's lazy voice drifted over from far down the street. "No need for the hospital. Why go through all the trouble?

"I know this girl; she isn't some Fierce Ghost. And as for this boy, he looks perfectly fine to me too. Just let them go."

Hearing the voice, the already irate Captain Liang stood up with the handcuffs dangling from his hand, cursing out loud. "Which department's brother is sticking their nose into our squad's busine—"

When he saw a gaunt-faced man slowly stepping out of the street shadows—wearing a black leather jacket speckled with blood—the expressions on Captain Liang and the ghost hunters behind him drastically changed.

They promptly snapped to attention and threw him a military salute. "Lieutenant Colonel Ye Jiu, I wasn't aware you had arrived."

Ye Jiu?

Hearing that name, Gao Tian shifted his gaze toward the man as well.

Back in the Liberation Building, Ghost Cave had mentioned that a man named Ye Jiu held the fort at the true headquarters, someone with a nose sharper than a dog's.

Any ghost standing before him might as well be completely undisguised.

As if sensing the stare, the blood-soaked Lieutenant Colonel Ye Jiu slowly turned his deep, ocean-like gaze toward Gao Tian.

With a smile in his eyes, he gave a slight nod, seemingly greeting Gao Tian.