Chapters [99 - 100]

Chapter 99. Lin Xin Is Missing!

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Five days passed. Lin Huang sighed loudly when he heard a notification from Xiao Hei.

"You have accumulated Life Skill card - Army Attack Tactics pieces x200, would you like to proceed with a card upgrade?"

"Yes!"

"Combining Army Attack Tactics pieces x200, Life Skill card Army Attack Tactics mastery level has been upgraded."

Lin Huang then tapped on the card and saw a notification box.

"Life Skill Card"

"Life Skill Name: Army Attack Tactics"

"Rarity: Rare"

"Mastery Level: Level 2"

"Effect: 24% increment in the rotation speed of Life Power. Increases attack power and defense power by 24% respectively."

"Remarks: For the first five levels, with every upgrade, each of the Life Skill effects will be increased by 12%."

"Card Remarks: Usable"

"That was faster than I expected…" Although Lin Huang said that, he was not relaxed at all. He managed to shorten the skill rotation from half an hour to almost 10 minutes within five days. With every upgrade, the skill rotation cycle after each upgrade became more complicated. The time he took to complete a single rotation went back to half an hour. This meant that he was now back at where he initially started, requiring about 30 minutes for a single card piece.

It was 5:40 in the evening and he noticed Lin Xin coming to his room at six o'clock sharp every day to have dinner together. Since he had some spare time, Lin Huang read the news. A news article caught his attention immediately as it was a foothold code that he was familiar with - No.7B61. No.7B61 was the official foothold name of the Union Government in Xiagong City.

He started reading the news.

"Before daybreak yesterday, there were 16 murders in foothold No.7B61. From preliminary investigations, those 16 murders were committed humans and there was not a single trace of a monster invasion. Investigations are still ongoing, please do not panic…"

"Xiagong City is such a large foothold. Why is the security here so poor?" Lin Huang frowned.

Had he known about this few days back, he would not have chosen Xiagong City as their destination. He was worried for Lin Xin.

He tried to look for more news related to the incident but there were none. This was the latest case and the media was careful with their words. It would be huge if there was a monster invasion in a large foothold such as this. There would likely be an uproar.

It was 6:05 p.m. when he was done with the news. Lin Huang looked at the time and raised his eyebrow, he sent Lin Xin a message, "It's time for dinner."

Three minutes passed but Lin Xin was nowhere to be found. Lin Huang felt that something was wrong, he then video-called Lin Xin. Her phone rang twice and then the call was cut off.

"The person you are calling is currently unavailable, please leave a message after the tone…"

"Oh no!" Lin Xin never declines his calls. Lin Huang rushed to Lin Xin's room and continuously rang her doorbell. He rang for more than 10 times but nobody opened the door. He then rushed to the balcony and broke through the sliding door with his foot.

Many people noticed Lin Huang and someone reported his actions to the staff but he could not care less. He looked around Lin Xin's room but she was nowhere to be found. Her room was the way she left it, there were no signs of a fight. He wanted to find whatever clues he could so he tried thinking like Lin Xin for a moment. He knew that she spent most of her time on the couch in the living room, probably where she played Gun Master.

Lin Huang followed her scent which brought him to the floating elevator just outside her room. Just as he arrived at the entrance of the elevator, the door automatically opened and many staff members in uniform surrounded him.

"Sir, are you the guest from Room 156? Somebody reported to us that you broke into Room 157. For the safety of other passengers, please follow us." The chief of staff was definitely unfriendly.

"I'm staying in Room 156, the person staying here is my sister. I can show you the ticket as proof of my booking." Lin Huang searched for the receipt, "Let me know how much the damage will cost, I'll pay for it. My sister is missing from this spaceship. I must look for her, please do not get in my way."

The chief of staff saw that his ticket was authentic and asked, "Are you sure she's missing?"

"Yes! Please check the surveillance camera for me and notify me if you see anything, I'll take a look downstairs." Lin Huang could not afford to waste any more time.

"Where and when was the last time you saw her?" The leader asked.

"After lunch, it was about 12:30. We went back to our respective rooms.

"Both of you please follow him while I go to the monitor room with the rest." The leader instructed his men at once.

Lin Huang was grateful for their help. He followed Lin Xin's scent to the bar on the first floor, and all of a sudden, her scent disappeared. Lin Huang noticed that there was a green, air purifier block that was the size of a washbasin behind the bar counter. The block was absorbing the odor from the air.

"Boss, did you see this girl?" Lin Huang showed the bar owner a photo of Lin Xin at the counter.

"She was here an hour ago but she left in less than a minute." The bar owner waved his hand. "She asked if we served honey coffee. Why would she even think we would serve that in a bar?!"

"Did she speak to anyone here?" Lin Huang became more worried.

"No, we hardly have customers before nine. The girl left after she asked her question."

"You have surveillance cameras here right? Let me take a look." Lin Huang then placed a Life Crystal that was worth a year of Life Light on the counter.

"I would love to accept this but the surveillance camera I have here is quite old. It has been here for 20 years. I only turn it on at night when there are more people; I don't usually turn it on during the day." The bar owner said, "If you don't believe me, you can take a look for yourself."

Lin Huang believed what the bar owner said but shoved the Life Crystal in the bar owner's hand anyway. He went behind the counter and randomly picked some of the recorded videos only to be disappointed that they were all night recordings.

"I told you, I don't need this Life Crystal." The bar owner declined.

"Take it." Lin Huang insisted.

Lin Huang frowned as he walked out from the counter, he had lost his one clue. Suddenly, the communication device of the security personnel beeped. After some whispering, he rushed to Lin Huang, "Our leader found something in one of the video clips, please follow us."

"Let's go!" Lin Huang left the bar with the duo…

_ _ _ _ _End_ _ _ _ _

Chapter 100. Strange Missing Person Incident

_ _ _ _ _Start_ _ _ _ _

The monitor room of the Demonic Crystal Spaceship was about 100 square meters, it was occupied by a semi-circle shaped workstation. Aside from a couple of buttons, there were hundreds of projection crystals connected to the surveillance devices on the workstation.

It was showing a video of a corridor.

Lin Huang walked as fast as he could to the station, Chen Wei then pressed the play button. The video played; Lin Huang recognized the corridor on the seventh floor. He recognized it from the different pictures that were hung on the wall.

About half a minute after the video was played, everyone saw Lin Xin's open her room door. She walked towards the floating elevator and the surveillance camera lost track of her for awhile.

"This is the video showing your sister leaving her room at 5:03 p.m.." Chen Wei said and showed Lin Huang the second video. The second video began from the moment Lin Xin walked into the floating elevator. He played the video. Lin Xin pressed the button, leading her to the first floor and throughout the entire journey, nobody else entered the elevator.

"The time here shows 5:04 p.m.." Chen Wei said. "Since she went to the first floor, we looked at the surveillance cameras on the first floor and we found her in a couple of surveillance videos.

Chen Wei played another video which showed Lin Xin exiting the floating elevator. There were a few people waiting at the entrance. One of them was a middle-aged man in a white shirt, he glanced at Lin Xin as she walked out.

Lin Huang frowned and asked Chen Wei, "Which room is that man in white shirt staying in?"

"He's staying on the ninth floor, from what we know, he's harmless." Chen Wei assured Lin Huang.

Lin Huang did not want to overthink things and proceeded to ask them about the next video.

"The third surveillance camera is located outside the bar on the first floor." Chen Wei played another video.

In the video, Lin Xin contemplated a few times outside the premises, unsure if she should enter the bar or not. She finally walked in but left after a very short while.

"Seems like the bar owner did not lie, she left the bar in less than a minute." One of the security personnel who followed Lin Huang to the bar made a remark.

"So where did she go after she left the bar?" Lin Huang asked anxiously.

"We saw from the camera that she walked around the hall on the first floor. She brought some snacks but she disappeared after she walked into a blind spot which the surveillance camera could not capture at about 5:40 p.m."

That was the last video, it was taken at the cutoff point between the two stores. Lin Huang stared at the video for a couple of minutes, there was no sign of Lin Xin at all. A few people went to the same direction with rubbish in their hands and left without it afterward.

"There's a rubbish bin at the blind spot. We didn't think anybody would want to steal a rubbish bin so we did not install a surveillance camera there. That's our mistake…" Chen Wei explained.

"Wait, there was a girl who would look in that direction occasionally. Did she see something?" Lin Huang pointed at the location opposite the camera to a girl who looked the same age as Lin Xin. She sat on the bench and she had ponytails. The girl had a drink in her hands.

Lin Huang continued to play the video. 10 minutes later, the girl went to the rubbish bin to throw the empty can away and left immediately after.

"Please bring me to this location." Lin Huang proceeded to say, "Also, please get the girl in the video for me. I need to talk to her."

"Sure, we will get her for you, since there aren't many clues left." Chen Wei agreed with Lin Huang.

A few minutes later, the two security personnel brought Lin Huang to the location where Lin Xin was last seen before she went missing. This time, Lin Huang did not only activate Blood Hunt, maximizing his ability to smell while activating Boundless Vision at the same time. His iris turned into an amber color like a falcon's eyes.

There were two full, green leather rubbish bins that were half the size of a human at the blind spot. Lin Xin's scent disappeared next to the rubbish bin. It was different from the scent back in the bar where it was fading because her scent disappeared abruptly right here. Lin Huang frowned and looked around, he pushed Boundless Vision to its peak but he could not find a thing.

Just when he was trying to figure out what he missed, a fat lady came along with a bag of rubbish. She seemed to be a merchant nearby. She was upset because the bins were full. She shouted at the security personnel, "I thought you would've added one more rubbish bin here today, why are there only two left? These rubbish bins are overflowing with rubbish. They aren't pleasing to the eyes?"

"Sister, we are just security personnel. What can we do with that…" One of them said.

"So who should I talk to then?" She didn't let him finish.

Lin Huang heard the conversation and turned around to ask, "Sister, you said there were three rubbish bins here?"

"I think it was 5:40 p.m., I had just finished eating my take-out and came here to throw the food container away. It's only been half an hour and it's gone now. That's strange, was there someone who stole the rubbing bin?" The time she stated matched the time when Lin Xin went missing.

"Sister, did you see a girl who was 13 or 14-years-old here?" Lin Huang asked.

"I see so many girls every day, how can I remember?" The fat lady rolled her eyes. Just as she was getting ready to leave, she turned around, "I know about the girl you're talking about… I recall a girl in ponytails sitting there with a drink in the afternoon."

The lady pointed to the direction where the girl in the video sat at.

"Thank you sister."

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