The old man prattled on and on, leaving Hu Hu with a conflicted expression on his face.
Fortunately, in the end, he still found the answer he was looking for, the girl who uploaded the video seemed to have gone to her place of work.
Soon, with the deployment of the inquiry mission, the intelligence team immediately sent over the search results.
Among all the bars in Qionghua City, there was only one with the words "Serendipity" in its name, called "Gentle Serendipity," located near Changming Tower.
Hu Hu’s eyes widened when he saw the location address on his phone.
If his guess was correct, then the video shot by the girl could very likely be near her workplace.
But this meant that if the abnormal incident was real, the consequences would be even more serious than he had imagined!
Just as Hu Hu harbored a glimmer of hope, wanting to take someone to verify the situation first, the work phone in his hand suddenly rang, a call from the branch completely changed his complexion.
"What! An incident occurred near Changming Tower? Four monsters suddenly appeared attacking the crowd!?"
His words instantly startled the colleagues around him, but luckily they were now sitting in the car, and no pedestrians overheard them.
"Mobilize all action team members from the branch immediately, rush to the scene right now! Contact the Azure Dragon Army over there and have them ready for support! How are the special patrol police comrades doing? Have they managed to control the situation... Not optimistic? Please, ask them to hold on!"
"Also, inform Old Wang to quickly mobilize nearby police forces, give full support to the scene!! Right! Don’t forget about the ambulance and fire department too, activate the Level 1 response plan!"
Inside the car, everyone watched their boss make calls and arrange tasks with complex emotions; they felt both heavy and anxious.
During this time, although the Abnormality Department was established and had initially rolled out a series of systems and response plans, they hadn’t had many face-to-face encounters with monsters.
Some of the veterans had only encountered an incident once or twice so far, and many of the newcomers to the department had never faced those terrifying and strange monsters at all.
For many of them, this was going to be their first real mission.
Moreover, this incident occurred downtown, which made the situation even more severe!
It’s the most densely populated area, and at this golden hour, the sudden appearance of four monsters was indeed a life-threatening situation.
Many could even imagine the enormous pressure they would face on this operation.
Not just psychological, but physical as well, four monsters were not easy to deal with!
From any aspect, this mission would be a tremendous test.
At the scene, on the sixth floor of Qianhu Fu Commerce Building, Ren Huixi was currently hiding behind a clothes rack, trembling with fear.
This floor specialized in women’s clothing, with dozens of brands, all pricey, and she usually had no desire to come here.
But today, under the terrifying threat of monsters, Ren Huixi ran straight up to the sixth floor in search of a safe place to hide.
She had initially wanted to hide in a fitting room or an employee rest area.
However, as luck would have it, the fitting rooms she saw were all occupied.
After she made a round, not only did she fail to find an available rest area or employee lounge, but she also faintly heard screams and monstrous roars coming from the fifth floor.
Ren Huixi felt desperate, not understanding if she was just incredibly unlucky or if she had been targeted by the monster.
She had already run to the very top floor in one go, yet how had the monster managed to follow her up here?
Now, without having found a suitable place to hide, she was crouching behind a row of clothes racks.
From time to time, she could still hear the monster’s blood-curdling "gurgle, gurgle" next to her ear, reminiscent of the bizarre cries a hunter emits while stalking prey, containing a frequency that seemed to induce despair.
That sound seemed to be getting closer and Ren Huixi felt she would be discovered any moment now.
"This way, this way,"
Behind her, a subdued voice suddenly rang out, issued by a man.
She quickly turned her head and saw not far behind her a door that was cracked open, with a plump young man gesturing to her from within.
That door had been concealed behind a mirror, which was why Ren Huixi hadn’t noticed it before.
The person inside spoke again.
Ren Huixi suddenly snapped back to reality, with a glimmer of hope flashing in her eyes, like a drowning person clinging to a straw in the final moments.
Seeing that she was about to rush over, the plump man quickly gestured for her to be quiet.
Ren Huixi carefully slowed her pace, crouched down, and inched her way over.
Opening the door, entering, closing the door; it wasn’t until all these steps were completed that she finally let out a sigh of relief.
Inside the room, there were four people, two men and two women, and with Ren Huixi herself, that made five.
This was a cleaning closet, its area barely over ten square meters, filled with mops, buckets, and various cleaning tools. With five people in this cramped space, it was exceedingly crowded.
Ren Huixi quickly glanced at the few people in the cleaning closet. The plump man who had called her in appeared to be together with one of the women, who looked to be in her mid-twenties.
The other three individuals consisted of the cleaning lady who worked here, with the remaining person being a man dressed in a suit.
This man in the suit was currently looking at everyone with displeasure, as if he were quite dissatisfied with the people here.
After getting a sense of the situation, Ren Huixi immediately turned to the plump man who had let her in and began to thank him.
But as soon as she spoke, the man gestured for her to be quiet again, then in a very low voice, barely audible, he said,
"Even quieter, try not to speak at all, and be sure not to make a sound."
When he noticed Ren Huixi’s still somewhat bewildered expression, the plump man pointed outside and whispered, "That thing outside is extremely sensitive to sound, everyone must be careful not to make any noise."
A dismissive murmur came, voiced by the suited man beside her.
"I don’t know what you all are up to, each claiming to have seen a monster and playing those horrifying sounds and recordings to scare people, thinking you can take the rest of us for fools?"
He glanced at his watch, then continued, "I don’t know if you’re filming yourselves or making a variety show, I can afford to play along for a bit. But I hope you don’t delay me too long, I have things to do later and can’t afford to waste more time here. I must get out in at most ten minutes."