Chapter 17

Chapter 17 Report

In Igewent at night, on Nanyang Flower Street, the bright moon hung high in the sky, and the evening breeze was bleak.

The cold evening wind rustled through the tall and lush street trees by the roadside. At this late hour, most windows along the street had already turned off their lights, with only a few still glowing faintly.

On the red brick apartment building, a window was wide open. Gregor was leaning against the windowsill of his room, looking into the distance at the park while smoking a roll-your-own cigarette. Ashes from his cigarette dropped into the flower bed below, and the thick smoke he exhaled was blown away by the evening wind.

Gregor, who had been enduring his nicotine craving all day, was now enjoying the pleasure of smoking. However, on the wall nearby, a pair of eyes watching him showed signs of impatience.

‘You should smoke less; how many have you smoked already? Don’t you care about your life…’

Inside his room, Dorothy sat at her desk, using the gecko zombie puppet’s vision to watch Gregor smoke cigarette after cigarette by the window. Since she started monitoring Gregor’s window, he hadn’t stopped smoking, one after another. This made Dorothy feel somewhat anxious.

‘It seems I might need to subtly educate him about the dangers of smoking when I get the chance…’

Dorothy thought silently, then watched as Gregor finally finished his last cigarette and quietly returned to his room.

Seeing this, Dorothy quickly controlled the gecko zombie puppet to crawl to the window and observe the inside of the room from above. Due to Gregor’s keen senses in the Vukan Forest, which left a deep impression on her, she didn’t dare control the puppet to enter the room.

Inside his room, Gregor sat at his desk, lit the gas lamp, and used a key to unlock a drawer, taking out a small package containing a stack of reports filled with writing.

Facing the dense text on the report papers, Gregor frowned and scratched his head before taking a deep breath and starting to read, occasionally jotting down notes with his pen.

Gregor appeared somewhat impatient, but the gecko outside the window had its eyes wide open. Through the gecko’s vision, Dorothy could directly see the contents of the reports on the desk.

The corpses revived by the zombie ring were fundamentally different from the various “undead” Dorothy had encountered in games. They were “living corpses,” activated by the spirit of the “Cup” to reanimate recently deceased flesh and bl**d bodies, driven by spirit to move and maintain vitality.

Thus, if the revival was timely, many organs of the corpse could function normally. Dorothy experimented and found that with strong control, she could even make the zombie speak, as its tongue and other organs remained intact and functional.

In a sense, the corpses manipulated by the zombie ring fed on the spirit of the “Cup,” more like zombies infected by a virus in a zombie movie than traditional undead in fantasy works. This aligned well with the nature of the “Cup.”

It was precisely because of these properties that Dorothy could borrow some of the extraordinary senses animals possess, such as the gecko’s vision.

Geckos have extremely sharp vision, especially at night, where they can dilate their pupils four times, significantly enhancing their sight. So sharp that Dorothy could clearly see every word written on the documents on Gregor’s desk from a great distance.

With this, Dorothy indulged herself in secretly viewing the secret files of the An Yin Bureau.

“Regarding… the report on ‘Thirster’ Abbott, a member of the Crimson Eucharist… So, the contact person for the Eucharist in Vukan was named Abbott. According to this report, the An Yin Bureau raided his home but found nothing except a few human bones. They suspect that key clues were destroyed, and no meaningful information was obtained from his close associates. And this isn’t the first time… This must be a leak…”

Peering at the documents on the table, Dorothy thought, feeling a bit worried about how the Crimson Eucharist seemed to predict the actions of the An Yin Bureau.

While pondering, Dorothy continued to spy on the documents on Gregor’s desk. Given her reading speed far exceeded Gregor’s, and he sometimes had to flip through a dictionary while reading a report, Dorothy finished reading a page before Gregor did, which frustrated her.

‘To think someone working for the government is so inefficient. There’s no hope for improvement. I wonder how desperate the An Yin Bureau is to recruit someone like him…’

Facing Gregor’s inefficiency, Dorothy couldn’t help but comment, but she could only follow his pace and wait for him to slowly turn the pages.

“Notice of cancellation of the Captain meeting… Fifth Squad unable to return due to mission… How many search squads are there in Igewent? It’s already the fifth squad… And why does Gregor have a notice of the cancelled meeting… Could it be that he…”

As Gregor flipped the page and saw a note inserted within, Dorothy couldn’t help but comment again. She didn’t believe Gregor could hold a high position.

Gregor continued to sort through the documents on the table, while Dorothy randomly spied on various pieces of intelligence. Because she was randomly spying, many documents were obscured, leading to fragmented information that was hard to piece together into anything meaningful.

Just as Dorothy was getting confused by the fragmented information, Gregor’s pen suddenly fell to the ground and rolled under the desk. Seizing the moment when Gregor bent down to pick up the pen, Dorothy saw a relatively complete report.

…

Regarding the “Gray Hill” holding another mysterious gathering, despite warnings not to hold one recently, “Gray Hill” remained stubborn and ignored the advice. “Gray Hill” threatened to end cooperation and cut off the supply of suppressant bullets unless the gathering was scaled down. Mr. James reluctantly agreed but requested a reduction in the gathering size.

As usual, “Gray Hill”’s gatherings do not welcome our entry, with the Fourth Squad on standby nearby to handle any emergencies, and the Third Squad as support.

This gathering involves transactions of extraordinary items and materials. “Gray Hill” has promised to record all transaction details for us, and we have the right to confiscate any dangerous items afterward.

Due to the involvement of extraordinary materials, members of the Crimson Eucharist will also attend, but their identities are difficult to determine.

The gathering will take place on April 16th at 3 PM, at 27 Darkwater Alley in the Lower District. The standby team should promptly take their positions.

…

“Extraordinary items and material transactions?”

After reading the document, Dorothy couldn’t help but light up. She began to stroke her chin in thought.

To accumulate spirituality, she needed to consume materials rich in spirit or directly absorb mystical knowledge.

Dorothy was currently at a loss as to where to obtain materials and knowledge, but this gathering seemed promising!