Chapter 134: Shapeshifter Victims

Luo Yajun never believed in ghosts.

For a Secret Service agent, that might seem odd. After all, he deals with all sorts of strange things every day, and supernatural events are part of his job.

Despite all the weirdness he encounters, he firmly believes in science. To him, death means nothingness—a void that can never be filled. Tombstones and ceremonies are for the living, not for the dead.

So when he dug up a grave of a girl who had been dead for twenty years, he saw nothing unusual.

Luo Yajun thought Lin Yi was still alive. Maybe the infected showed up earlier than they expected, and he suspected Lin Yi might be the shapeshifter.

The trauma from her past had left a huge mark on her. It might have twisted her mind, creating a phantom or perhaps changing her appearance. Either way, she had managed to sneak into the airship of the Ninth Division, disguised as Agent Chen Meiyue. She was the dead member who had slipped through the net.

As he dug in the cemetery on a drizzly evening, a chill ran through the air, and the wind seemed to carry whispers. Luo Yajun noticed a faint floral scent, probably from some wildflowers growing among the weeds.

When he finally opened the coffin, a soft, mournful voice said, "You shouldn't have done that."

Luo Yajun looked up and saw a girl standing among the tombstones. She wore a small yellow dress and black shoes, her eyes full of sadness.

It only took him a few seconds to recognize her as Lin Yi from the photo. He was right—she was alive and was the shapeshifter.

But then he realized something was off. The girl looked like she did when she was fifteen, not as an adult. How could she look the same after all these years?

Before he could process this, she disappeared. Luo Yajun looked back at the coffin and saw it contained only bones. The size seemed to match Lin Yi's, so she had indeed been lying there all along. Perhaps what he saw was an illusion.

Suddenly, a shotgun blast rang out, hitting him from behind. The sword pierced his back and heart, making him stagger.

He was ambushed.

As Luo Yajun turned, his hand transformed into a gun. But before he could react, another blast hit his chest. She exploded again, soaking his clothes in blood.

He staggered back, falling into the grave he had just dug, landing face-first into the coffin. The fall made him dizzy. He tried to move, but his body felt numb.

Although he was a top-tier agent with exceptional skills, the shots were affecting him more than usual. He quickly thought about the strange scent he had smelled and the girl he had seen. Was it some kind of hallucinogen or a nerve-disrupting drug?

Before he could get up, the heavy coffin lid slammed shut with a thunderous bang, trapping him inside with the coffin's owner.

In that moment, he had a fleeting thought—this could be his final resting place. If things had gone as planned, he would have died long ago and joined his old partner, Brooke. Even now, if he died, no one would miss him or mourn his passing.

Everything seemed to be going well. Even the effort of digging a grave was avoided. Luo Yajun was someone who disliked formalities and hassle, but he had one regret: he would be occupying this girl's room for a long time.

In the dark, he felt a gnarled hand on his arm. Turning, he saw it was the skeleton lying in the coffin.

Its skinless hand gripped him tightly, and its empty eye sockets seemed to be silently pleading.

"Help me."

Luo Yajun gently closed his eyes.

He felt confused about what was real and what was a hallucination.

"I'm sorry, kid," he said softly. "Very, very sorry."

Maybe not yet. Whether alive or dead, maybe no one will miss him. But not today, not now. This was not the destination he was seeking.

He still had work to do.

He was still bleeding. The wound was healing, but much slower than usual, possibly due to the hallucinogen.

It might also explain why Luo Yajun's senses weren't working well. He tried several times but couldn't conjure the tool he needed, as if his body was refusing to cooperate.

So he had to rely on the most basic tool: his fists.

He turned over and lay on his back, punching the heavy wooden board in front of him over and over. Each punch sent dust falling into the sarcophagus.

Soon his fists were cracked, and his knuckles were covered in blood. His arms felt like lead, and every punch was incredibly heavy.

But he didn't stop, still punching mechanically and stubbornly.

His consciousness began to fade. Even though every bone in his body resisted, he continued. Darkness covered his vision, and the sound of his fists hitting the board grew faint, as if from another world.

He felt lost, as if his consciousness was being sucked into a massive vortex and swept away to the far end of the world.

Then someone took his hand.

A strong hand felt like a lifeline, like a beacon guiding a lost ship through a storm. Suddenly, he found his way in the dark. The hand pulled him out of the vortex, up to the blue sky, out of the water, and back to reality.

When his vision cleared, Luo Yajun found himself kneeling beside the grave, coughing violently.

"What happened, Agent Luo?" 

The deep, familiar voice felt comforting now. He looked up to see Batman standing beside him in the darkness.

Luo Yajun couldn't remember when it started, but whenever things went wrong, he hoped this elusive hero would be there.

Batman's gloomy figure looked strange against the cemetery backdrop, but seeing him made Luo Yajun feel unexpectedly at ease.

It was a sense of security he had never felt from anyone else. Seeing Batman, his tense nerves relaxed, and his instincts told him he was safe.

"You won't believe it, Batman." Luo Yajun tried to stand, but his legs and feet were still numb. After a couple of failed attempts, he sat back down to rest.

He took a deep breath and explained what Chen Meiyue had told him and what he had discovered.

Batman approached the edge of the pit and glanced at the bones in the coffin.

"This is the grave of the child named Lin Yi. A DNA test would be safer, but my gut tells me she's the child."

"If you say it's that kid," Batman said, staring at the bones in the pit with a hoarse voice. "Who's the other skeleton?"

Luo Yajun froze. He had regained some feeling in his legs and feet. He stood up, staggered to Batman's side, and looked into the deep pit.

He saw another skeleton beside the girl's—this one looked like an adult.

Luo Yajun rubbed his nose, feeling dizzy. He was surprised he hadn't noticed this when he first dug the hole. If not for the hallucinogens, he would seriously question his vision.

"Honestly, I'm starting to get confused too."

At this point, Friday appeared. Her help made DNA extraction, scanning, and matching more efficient.

"The girl's body is indeed Lin Yi. The police department had her DNA on file. The nearby skeleton also matched, but the data was classified by Secret Service Nine."

"Who is it?"

Friday displayed the search results on a small window on the side of the screen.

"She's Agent Chen Meiyue."

Friday paused. "She's been dead for over a year."