34: Chapter 34 The Official Perspective

The first time Gu Xingzhou noticed traces of the Gray Fire was in a piece of restored surveillance footage.

The footage came from Chengbei Second-hand Street, and the time was late at night. The video was originally severely damaged, with over ten seconds of static in the middle. Ordinary technicians judged it to be aging wiring, but only Gu Xingzhou insisted on having it restored.

The restored footage was not clear.

On the wet street after the rain, someone was helping an elderly person leave, someone was blocking a doorway, and a blurry figure swept past the edge of the frame. As the wind blew up the person's cuff, the inside of their wrist lit up for a brief moment.

It wasn't a phone light, nor was it a reflection.

It was like a tiny cluster of gray flame burning beneath the skin.

Gu Xingzhou paused the footage and zoomed in.

The next second, the screen suddenly went black.

The technician was startled. "Team Leader Gu, is the file corrupted?"

Gu Xingzhou did not answer immediately.

He stared at the residual gray noise on the screen, and only after a long silence did he say, "Export the backup."

"I've already tried. The backup is also corrupted. It's not completely ruined, but the footage at that specific timestamp is gone."

Gu Xingzhou pinched the bridge of his nose.

This was not the first time he had encountered this situation.

Several recent, seemingly ordinary incidents in the city all shared similar issues.

The sleepwalking case at Nanliu Residential Complex was ultimately classified as abnormal behavior caused by mental stress. However, Gu Xingzhou had read the original records and knew that before the mirror in that family's bedroom was replaced, unexplained wet footprints had appeared in the hallway.

As for the freezer accident at the City Second Hospital, the hospital's report stated it was a malfunction of the underground storage refrigeration equipment, causing the staff on duty to lose consciousness from the cold. Yet, in the medical shift handover records, someone had mentioned "the sound of breathing coming from inside the freezer."

The fire in the old archive room of the Archives was ultimately determined to be a small-scale fire caused by aging wiring. However, the fire report showed that only a few red threads and the edges of a few archive pages were burned, while the rest of the papers remained completely intact.

There was also the paper doll incident on Old Goods Street, the smart lockers at the East Suburb Logistics Park, and the mass auditory hallucinations triggered by the crying face copper coin.

These incidents seemed unrelated to one another, yet they shared several commonalities.

Before any incident could escalate, someone would always evacuate ordinary people in advance.

Key surveillance footage would experience brief static.

Dangerous items at the scene would vanish.

The memories of those involved would become fuzzy, yet they showed no obvious physical trauma.

An inexplicable low-temperature burn mark would appear at the remaining locations.

Gu Xingzhou spread several documents across his desk and used a red pen to circle the matching traces.

The office door was pushed open, and a middle-aged man walked in, looking rather grim.

"The higher-ups are asking why you are still staring at these civil records that have already been closed."

Gu Xingzhou slid the surveillance screenshots over.

"Because they aren't civil records."

The middle-aged man took a glance and frowned. "Supernatural?"

Gu Xingzhou shook his head.

"Unknown anomalies. And there is another force dealing with them."

"A civilian organization?"

"We can't be sure yet," Gu Xingzhou said. "I've given them a temporary codename."

He wrote four characters on the whiteboard.

Gray Fire Organization.

The middle-aged man fell silent for a moment. "If such a group of people really exists, our first reaction should be to contain them."

Gu Xingzhou looked at him.

"Contain whom? And how? We don't even know their communication methods, the identities of their members, or the source of their abilities. Making arrests rashly will only push a force that potentially reduces casualties over to the opposing side."

"So you want to cooperate?"

"It's not time for cooperation yet," Gu Xingzhou said. "We observe first, confirm whether they pose any danger to society, and then decide on a contact plan."

The middle-aged man's brow remained furrowed.

"There's also another possibility: they possess a method for handling anomalies. If we can study and figure it out, it would be highly important for us."

Gu Xingzhou did not argue.

He knew this statement would come sooner or later.

Anyone in control of order, when faced with an unknown power, would instinctively want to understand, replicate, and bring it under control. But he also understood that a power capable of burning surveillance files from the inside out was not something that could be brought back to a lab with a mere piece of paper.

He wrote a new line in his report.

[The Gray Fire Organization is suspected to possess information-shielding capabilities.]

[Currently known behavioral tendencies: reducing casualties among ordinary people, recovering dangerous items, and avoiding public exposure.]

[Recommendation: Do not engage in rash hostility for now.]

Gu Xingzhou did not particularly like the codename "Gray Fire Organization."

It felt too much like a temporary label that failed to capture their true nature. But before they had more information, the authorities could only name the unknown first. Naming did not equal understanding; it simply meant they finally acknowledged that something was operating outside of the normal order.

He rearranged all the incidents chronologically.

The earliest anomalies were very small in scale, like occasional sparks flying from the corners of the city. Later, the traces of the Old Object Chain became more and more obvious. The logistics parks, smart lockers, Old Goods Street, and the Archives—these locations were all related to the "circulation of items."

This indicated that the danger was not randomly scattered.

Someone was transporting them, selling them, packaging them, and even using them to screen people.

Meanwhile, the timing of the Gray Fire Organization's appearances happened to fall right before or after these anomalies went out of control. Gu Xingzhou did not believe in coincidences.

This was also what worried him the most.

If the Old Object Chain were just individual sellers reselling items, the risk could still be gradually suppressed through blockades and investigations. But if someone behind the scenes knew how to screen buyers, test their tolerance, and package anomalous effects, then it was no longer just an illegal trade—it was a dangerous industry hidden in the dark side of the city.

Ordinary wealthy individuals thought they were buying rare items, and second-hand dealers thought they were earning a profit margin, but the people truly hiding behind the scenes were using their greed and fear to feed and grow the anomalies.

Gu Xingzhou had seen too many cases and knew how easily the desires of human nature could be exploited.

The so-called longevity lamp—its name alone was enough to make some people lose their judgment.

He drew a line on the whiteboard.

On the left was the Old Object Chain.

On the right was the Gray Fire Organization.

In the middle was the upcoming private auction in Chengxi.

"We aren't going in to make arrests," he told his team members. "First, confirm the list of participants, the entrances and exits, and the emergency exits. If an uncontrollable situation occurs on-site, prioritize evacuating ordinary people. Do not try to seize the so-called auction items."

A young investigator hesitated. "What if the Gray Fire Organization shows up too?"

Gu Xingzhou paused.

"Do not make the first move."

Just then, a young investigator knocked and entered.

"Team Leader Gu, there's news from the West City Old Industrial Park. An informant says there will be a private old goods auction soon with a very high entry threshold. Several of the second-hand dealers we've been keeping an eye on are among the participants."

Gu Xingzhou looked up.

"What is being auctioned?"

"On the surface, it's antiques, folklore items, and collectibles," the young investigator hesitated. "But the informant specifically mentioned a grand finale item."

"The name."

"The longevity lamp."

The office fell silent for a few seconds.

Gu Xingzhou wrote the name on the whiteboard, side by side with the words "Gray Fire Organization."

He didn't know what it was.

But his intuition told him that this thing wouldn't just be some fraudulent sales pitch.

At the same time, deep within Xinhuo Hall, the Grey Net also captured the authorities' attempts to restore the surveillance footage of Old Goods Street.

Zero asked, "Should I incinerate all records?"

Lu Chen stood before the Grey Net, looking at the several nodes lighting up on the official investigation chain. He fell silent for a moment.

"Apply a light shielding."

"Confirm?"

"The authorities are not the Longevity Society," Lu Chen said. "They maintain the order of reality and hold value for future cooperation. We cannot let them reach the core right now, but there is no need to burn the connection entirely."

A faint layer of firelight descended from the Grey Net.

The key footage within the official System was erased, while the ordinary data remained preserved.

Lu Chen looked toward the direction of Chengxi.

Within the Grey Net, a new dark pattern was slowly emerging.

The longevity pattern.

Meanwhile, in reality, Tang Zhiwei had also received a black-and-gold invitation.

On the back of the invitation, the exact same pattern was faintly dark under the light.