31: A counterattack! Who is the prey?

The two returned to their hotel room, one after the other.

The atmosphere became awkward.

Su Wanqing walked to the window with a blank expression, looking at the night view outside.

Lin Yuan rubbed his nose.

He felt it was necessary to break this eerie silence.

"Uh, that... I'll sleep on the sofa tonight." He pointed to the single sofa next to him, which didn't look very comfortable.

Su Wanqing didn't turn around, only giving a cold "Hmm."

Lin Yuan scratched his head, also finding it uninteresting.

He walked to the bed, sat down, then quickly stood up as if spring-loaded.

No.

This bed was poisonous.

He simply walked to the window and stood side by side with Su Wanqing, maintaining a safe distance that could fit another person between them.

"We've been discovered."

Lin Yuan suddenly spoke.

Su Wanqing sharply turned her head, her gaze fixed on him.

"What do you mean?"

"Right after we left the mine." Lin Yuan didn't look at her, his gaze still fixed on the window.

"I sensed a signal."

He paused, seemingly organizing his thoughts.

"It was a very faint signal, appearing deep in the mine, lasting for about three seconds, then disappearing."

Su Wanqing's brows furrowed tightly.

"If I'm not mistaken, it should be a walkie-talkie," Lin Yuan thought for a moment and said, "An old-fashioned one, analog signal, very primitive encryption. But the key is, it only appeared after we left."

"This means someone was secretly observing us."

"And he was very cautious, waiting until we were far away before showing himself."

Silence fell in the room.

An experienced D-rank high-level agent vanished into thin air in an absolutely safe "green zone."

The two of them, on their first day and first investigation, were targeted by an unknown enemy.

Black Stone Town.

This seemingly peaceful and harmonious mountain town was like a giant spiderweb.

And they were the moths that willingly flew into it.

"Report immediately, request backup." Su Wanqing made a decisive decision and took out her terminal.

"Then what?" Lin Yuan retorted, "Have the Bureau send another team? And then, like The Explorer, another group of people goes missing?"

Su Wanqing's movements stopped.

"Director Zhou gave us the authority for on-the-spot decisions Below A-rank." Lin Yuan turned around and looked at her, "What does that mean?"

"It means the Bureau is equally clueless about the situation here."

"It means they hope we can be a sharp blade, directly piercing the enemy's heart, rather than sending a large force to tip them off."

Lin Yuan's tone was more serious than ever before.

"If we just run away like this, we won't find anything, and we'll completely expose ourselves, allowing the enemy to hide even deeper."

"That would truly be a betrayal of Director Zhou's trust."

Su Wanqing was silent.

She looked at Lin Yuan, realizing that this usually frivolous, smooth-talking guy had terrifyingly clear thoughts at critical moments.

After a long while.

She slowly put down her terminal.

"You're right."

"We can't just let this go."

Her tone returned to its usual calmness and decisiveness.

"Tomorrow, be careful with everything."

Lin Yuan grinned, and his seriousness vanished.

"Don't worry, Beauty Su."

"Follow me, and there'll be good things to eat!"

Su Wanqing: "..."

She retracted her previous thought.

This guy was indeed still a scoundrel... The next day.

The Mountain God Festival officially began.

The entire Black Stone Town seemed to awaken from its slumber.

The streets were festooned with colorful banners and lanterns.

It was packed with people.

Tourists from all over and local residents mingled together, joy radiating from everyone's faces.

However, in this sea of joy, two people seemed out of place.

"Hmm... this roasted wild boar is good, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, just a little short on the cumin."

Lin Yuan held a skewer of roasted meat in his left hand and a sugar painting shaped like Sun Wukong in his right, his mouth full, evaluating it indistinctly.

Su Wanqing walked beside him, dressed in casual clothes, wearing a baseball cap pulled low.

She ignored the surrounding delicacies and lively scene, vigilantly scanning every person around her.

"Can't you have some self-awareness as an agent?" She finally couldn't help but scold him in a low voice.

"This is called blending in, immersive disguise." Lin Yuan retorted righteously, "Look, everyone around us is eating, if only the two of us stand there, that's what's suspicious."

As he spoke, he handed a freshly bought skewer of grilled squid to Su Wanqing.

"Want a bite? To replenish your energy."

Su Wanqing gave him a roll of her eyes and turned her head away.

The two of them, like an ordinary couple having a tiff, mingled in the crowd, stopping and starting along the way.

Just as they passed a temporarily erected altar in the town center.

Lin Yuan's footsteps suddenly halted.

The smile on his face also vanished instantly.

"What's wrong?"

Su Wanqing noticed his abnormality.

Lin Yuan didn't answer.

He slowly closed his eyes, and the range of Electromagnetic Induction gradually expanded, covering the entire square.

Countless bio-electromagnetic fields representing living beings emerged in his perception.

Some strong, some weak, some moving, some still.

But... in this forest, he sensed dozens of... extremely strange "anomalous signals."

"Something's not right."

Lin Yuan opened his eyes, his expression turning a little grim.

"Something is very wrong."

"What exactly is it?" Su Wanqing pressed.

Lin Yuan took a deep breath, lowered his voice, and spoke in a volume only the two of them could hear:

"Among the crowd around us, at least thirty people..."

"Their bio-electrical currents, or life magnetic fields, are so faint they're almost negligible."

"Moreover, the frequencies of these thirty-plus signals are almost completely identical."

Lin Yuan's Adam's apple bobbed as he delivered the final conclusion.

"They're like... a group controlled by the same remote control..."

"Puppets."

Su Wanqing didn't react immediately.

Puppets?

She followed Lin Yuan's gesture, looking at the crowd.

There were young tourists with cameras, local women holding children, and strong men smoking at a roadside stall... They were no different from the people around them.

Smiles were on their faces.

But when Su Wanqing looked closely, a chill ran down her spine, straight to the top of her head.

Those smiles... were too perfect.

So perfect, it was as if they were carved from the same mold.

"Split up." Su Wanqing immediately made a decision, "I'll follow those to the east, you follow those to the west."

"Observe in secret, don't alarm them."

"Understood."

Lin Yuan popped the last bite of his sugar painting into his mouth, his eyes sharpening.

The hunt had begun.