It Is Time

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. The sound of four car doors slamming shut echoed on the gloomy, silent street. An officer with gray hair and wrinkly face swept the surroundings with his narrow eyes before glancing up at the old apartment building in front of him.

"Isn't there a bit too many cars? Can this apartment building fit that many families?" the elderly officer muttered in deep thought.

"Old man Josh, are you just going to stand there all day? We still got investigating to do!" a young man's voice hollered from the entrance of the apartment building.

Bringing his gaze down, the elderly officer glanced at the two male and one female young officers in front of him before sighing a bit. He was a bit annoyed that he was sent here to investigate something serious and yet had to bring along a couple of brats for hands-on experience.

He didn't want to agree, but there was a strange order from above that forced him to do so while disregarding all the logical reasons he came up with. It wasn't until later that he learned that one of the brats had a powerful background, and it wasn't something he could resist, even though he had many years of experience in the police force.

Still, as an elderly, he couldn't help but remind the young ones, "Don't be too cocky and stay alert. Remember what I told you. When we are out on duty, you must obey my orders. If I tell you to run, don't try to be a brave idiot sending yourself to your own death. You all are the future of the police force."

"Yea, yea, we got it old man Josh. Don't need to keep reminding us," the young officer cockily replied as he twirled his pistol around.

"Peter, put your gun back in your holster! Don't forget what you learned in police academy! And ... call me Captain Josh!" the elderly reprimanded with a frustrated face.

Just when Peter wanted to reply, the other male officer in the group glared at him before seriously stating, "Peter, quit messing around. We didn't become police officers to play around. Also, she is watching."

Peter awkwardly shut up as his eyes sneakily flickered over to the beautiful female officer who stood silently at the side with a cold face. With a couple of chuckles, Peter reigned himself in and saluted towards Josh, "Yes, Captain Josh. Officer Peter will obey your orders, sir!"

Josh sighed inwardly as he furrowed his brows. He was a bit helpless in the face of Peter's powerful background, but at least there was another lady with a powerful background that can reign the unruly one in. The only normal one would be Johnny, and it seemed that he was here only because he graduated together with the other two.

"Well, let's go. Just stay alert. More than 20 police officers had already went missing here. I'm afraid that they have already met with misfortune. We are sent here to investigate if they are still alive, and also to investigate the person who made the call. There is clearly a problem, but it wasn't until now that it was discovered," Josh explained as he walked into the building with the trio following behind him.

"Eh? Why was it only discovered now? Shouldn't something like this be noticed at the start?" Peter asked in confusion.

Josh frowned as he glanced at Peter before replying, "The news was suppressed."

"Suppressed? By who-" Peter wanted to ask before falling silent after a bit of thought.

Although Peter had a laid-back, rebellious attitude, he also understood the kinks of high society pretty well. It was also because of seeing too much of these injustice that he decided to sign up to become an officer, disregarding the protest of his family.

Johnny on the side has a deep frown as he muttered, "Why would the people above suppress this? Is there something we don't know?"

Josh glanced at Johnny with a hint of approval before he replied, "There should be some secrets that should not be known. If it weren't for the high number of officers going missing, the matter may have been hidden without notice. However, now the cat is out of the bag as there were too many officers asking for an explanation. So, they had to send an investigation force."

Johnny glanced around at the surrounding and observed the shoddy signs before asking, "Is there any information in our database that could be helpful?"

Josh sighed before he muttered in frustration, "No, there was none. All the files regarding this place were marked as confidential and there was no way to access them. The only thing I know was from what Xiao Pan told me."

"Leader Pan?" the cold beauty finally spoke up as her eyes lit up with a bit of interest.

Peter who noticed this muttered complaints in silence, but the others ignored it. Josh glanced at the only lady on the team as he replied, "That's right Lucy. It's Leader Pan."

"The one that was ostracized and is a thorn in the eyes of those above?" Johnny asked with a frown.

"Yes, that's the one. Even though his team is ostracized, don't treat them as newbies. Their former Leader Gu was an amazing officer, and the ones that trained under him aren't much worst. Xiao Pan was the one who followed Leader Gu's side and learned the most. You will also understand their experience based on their recent outstanding record. They are definitely a team you can trust," Josh explained as he led the group down the hallway.

Lucy and Johnny both nodded in agreement as they recalled the tough cases that were cracked by Leader Pan. Peter scoffed but he also inwardly couldn't deny the outstanding merits of Leader Pan.

Lucy glanced at Josh before asking in a soft voice, "So, what information did Leader Pan provide?"

Josh frowned a bit as he slowed his pace. He glanced at the three newbies before he stated in a gloomy tone, "In fact, there wasn't much information. Instead, it was more of a warning."

"Warning?" Johnny muttered in confusion.

"Yes, Xiao Pan said that this place is absolutely dangerous. It may also have something to do with the recent chaos that is happening in the city. Xiao Pan even suggested that I refuse this case just like he did. A case that even the ostracized but experienced group of officers would refuse, you can understand how dangerous it is," Josh solemnly explained.

Peter scoffed as he mocked, "Do you really believe that supernatural nonsense old man Josh? It is probably just a highly intelligent criminal messing around, or maybe Leader Pan is just scaring us."

"Some things it is better to believe than not. It's always better to be prepared for the worst," Josh lectured in a solemn tone before muttering softly so that the trio couldn't hear, "Plus, it's not like I haven't seen it before."

The group descended into silence as they silently strolled towards the stairway door. Affected by the gloomy atmosphere, Peter couldn't help but feel the jitters inside, but he still acted brave while his gaze occasionally flickered over to Lucy besides him.

It didn't take long for the group to step into the stairway. The first thing that greeted them was the cheerful voice of a young lady sitting behind a cabinet, "Welcome to Toilet Wonderland! Would you like to try out our haunted house?"

"Huh?"

The group didn't expect to encounter an innocent lady. The young ones relaxed their vigilance seeing someone of their age, but Josh's vigilance was actually heightened. Based on his experience, some innocent ones turn out to be the most dangerous killers.

Before the young ones can say the wrong thing, Josh silenced them with a glare before he knocked on the cabinet top while asking, "Ojou-chan, do you remember any officers like us visiting this place?"

The young lady pouted cutely as she glared at the elderly officer in front of her while crossing her arms, "Humph! My name is not Ojou-chan! It's Alice!"

"Hahaha, old man Josh, you watched too much anime! Not everyone understands Japanese," Peter mocked as he chuckled at the back.

Josh coughed with a hint of awkwardness as he replied, "Sorry, I'm getting old, and some bad habits tend to stick around. Ahem. Miss Alice, let me ask again, have you seen any police officers coming here?"

"Ah? Police officers? Mmm ... what did master tell me to say again ... ah, yes! There was police officers here and they are upstairs!" Alice replied cheerfully as she clapped her hands together.

Josh frowned and stepped back a bit as he couldn't help but feel that something was wrong. The trio behind him glanced at each other in confusion. Peter couldn't help but walk forward as he growled, "Oi! Alice right? Are you messing with us? You're telling us that the police officers that went missing are still here? Are you lying to us?"

"That's right! Alice is not lying, Alice is telling the truth!" Alice replied as she nodded her head cutely.

"What? How could they still be here?!" Peter exclaimed in disbelief.

Josh frowned as he placed one hand on his holster as he asked in a solemn tone, "If what you said is the truth. Then, may I ask, are those officers still ... alive?"

Hearing this, Peter froze as his mind finally realized something was very wrong. Noticing the weird, creepy smile on the young lady's face, Peter slowly backed away as he placed one of his hands on his gun.

"Of course they are ..." with a smiling face, Alice innocently answered before her voice distorted into a creepy tone, "Not."

The group instantly pulled out their guns and aimed it at Alice. Josh frowned as he commanded in a solemn tone, "Miss, I'm afraid you will have to come with us. Put your hands up in the air. You are under arrest. You have the right to remain silence. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law."

"But, Alice doesn't want to leave master. No one shall take Alice away from master. Never ... ever will Alice let that happen. Since you want to take Alice away from master, then you deserve to be ... punished. Hehehe," Alice's creepy giggle echoed in the stairway as the group watched with wide eyes as she disappeared into thin air.

Bang! Josh fired his gun, only to watch the bullet passing right through the fading girl. His heart thumped with an ominous premonition as he commanded, "Go! Go! Go! Run! This old man will cover your retreat!"

The trio behind him pulled the door open and ran through it with pale faces. Josh vigilantly glanced around before he followed through. When he turned around and was about to command the trio once more, he noticed that all three of them had disappeared!

"Johnny?! Lucy! Peter?!" Josh hollered in fear and anger before cursing, "F**k this sh*t!"

As an experienced officer, he knew it was best to call for backup, but as an upright police officer, he couldn't abandon his team, let alone three young officers with potential that he was assigned to take care of.

Josh dashed back into the stairway. He kicked over the cabinet in a fit of anger, just to see bundles of cash falling out, but he had no time to investigate the issue for now.

Dashing up the stairs with his limited stamina, Josh constantly hollered out the names of the three officers, hoping to get a response.

"Hehehe~" the soft, creepy giggle echoed in the stairway from time to time, causing Josh to feel fear and driving him insane, but no matter how he checked, he wasn't able to find the source of the giggles.

Eventually, Josh reached the fourth floor and panted from exhaustion. Just when he wanted to continue running pass it, he saw the fourth floor door open on its own. Taking a glance inside, he found three, familiar bodies laying silently on the hallway ground!

"Johnny! Lucy! Peter!" Josh yelled out with grief as he dashed over.

Seeing the three cold bodies on the ground with bloody pants, Josh knelt down in despair as he punched the ground, "Who is it?! Why are you doing this?! Ahhhh!"

After grieving for a while, Josh finally struggled to stand up as he firmly gripped his gun. His narrow eyes sharply observed the situation in the hallway. Noticing that his radio has stopped working, he knew he had no hope of calling for backup nor warning anyone of the weird situation here. Of course, even if he did send a warning, maybe no one would believe him and would just treat him as a senile, old man.

"Come out! I know you are there!" Josh growled as he vigilantly glared at his surroundings.

As if answering his call, a young man materialized from thin air in the hallway in front of him. Josh aimed his gun at the young man as he growled in grief and anger, "Why?! You could have taken me instead! They are only children!"

Pro glanced at the dead bodies before smirking at the angry old man, "There is no difference between young ones and old ones. After all, you will all be the same ... a dead human."

"Ahhhh! You motherf*cker!" Josh's angry cry echoed in the hallway as he pressed the trigger on his weapon.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three bullets smashed into Pro's face, but that was all Josh needed to see before he dropped his gun and knelt down in despair. The bullets didn't even manage to penetrate the monster's skin and only left bruises on it.

"Done? Then, let me send you on your journey."

Swish! Pro left an afterimage as he appeared besides Josh. With a chop onto the old man's neck, the old man passed out onto the ground. With a pout, Alice materialized near Pro with Ali in her hands. Pro gave her a rub on her head as he commanded, "Ali, convert him."

After the final doll was added to his domain, Pro dumped the four bodies on the third floor. Returning to the fourth floor, Pro then made sure his family of spirits were prepared before he excitedly strolled towards his bathroom. He glanced at the points he had finally gathered, a total of 25060 points.

After two days of grinding everything he could possibly attract to his apartment and not converting them to dolls but letting them die from pain instead, the week was almost up, but he has finally gathered enough points after harvesting the three young officers!

The time has come, and Pro didn't want to wait any further. It was still daytime, but it was also a good time to escape. Some of the ticket times were ready, and Pro knew he doesn't need to wait any longer.

[To upgrade host level, the following requirements must be met.]

[Requirements] Domain size of at least 21 small rooms, 9 medium room, 2 large room, 5 lingering spirits subordinates, 1 baleful spirit subordinate, 25000 life points

"It's finally time. Upgrade level!"

Ding!