Chapter 1656: Chapter 1656: The Nan City Disappearance Case
Nan City is some distance from Jing City, but it’s not too troublesome to use a prop to get there.
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In simple terms, the situation within the country has changed again. Almost a year has passed since the initial natural evolution. The longer the time, the fewer naturally evolved players there are. Coupled with the control exerted by the Special Defense Department and the military on the situation, with effective public relations work, many people proactively seek out the Special Defense Department after developing evolutionary traits to help alleviate their cannibalistic urges, resulting in a decline in the proportion of newly emerged Cannibal Players.
The artificially created Evolvers by the Special Defense Department and the military are also under control, so those Cannibal Players that can gather in groups are basically the ones that appeared during the initial confusion in Zone 014. Of course, new Cannibal Players may emerge, but they generally struggle to gain momentum because comprehensive surveillance in big cities has been widely implemented. Any issue that arises will prompt swift investigation by the Special Defense Department, so they can only retreat to smaller cities and places.
Although small cities lack ubiquitous surveillance, they have smaller populations, and any issues can quickly spread. As always, the public relations work of the Special Defense Department is in place, and people are concerned about the problem of Cannibal Players, so everyone will surreptitiously make a phone call to report any odd situation. If it’s a misunderstanding, that’s even better. If there’s an issue, it serves as a preventative measure.
During the past year, some clustered Cannibal Players and Cannibal Player Organizations have either been completely dismantled by the Special Defense Department or closely monitored. As long as they do not cause chaos in Zone 014, the Special Defense Department can afford to turn a blind eye.
In this general environment, the situation in Nan City becomes perplexing.
Disappearances are frequent. Initially, they involved outsiders who didn’t draw much attention, having no relatives in the area. Sometimes leaving abruptly after moving in seemed normal. However, some particularly alert residents noticed some anomalies, such as over the past two months, there have been reports from locals alerting the authorities about people moving at night.
People generally don’t choose to move at night unless there’s an urgent need that drives them to lug all their belongings. Although the informants claim they saw neighbors or residents in the same building or adjacent building leave, some even greeted them, there’s an undeniable sense that something’s off.
Initially, even the police didn’t take this seriously because the informants claimed they saw people leaving with their own eyes. How could this imply anything? Moreover, some deliberately went to investigate these people’s workplaces based on neighbors’ information. The final result was that most of them had resigned in advance, even if they couldn’t do so in person, they would contact via phone. The only strange thing is that these people claimed they were moving to work in another region and afterward, the phone could never be reached again.
There wasn’t considered a major problem. After players emerged, the movement of people, not to mention mysterious disappearances with no trace found to date, became commonplace. It didn’t warrant any effort to investigate.
Next came the factories and construction sites in need of a large workforce noticing unusual behavior because of the players’ evolution. Nan City had been compressing consumption for quite a while, with many having no work. People need to eat as long as they aren’t dead, so the situation had seen some revival in the first few months. Who would have thought it would take a nosedive in these last two months? Many places feel the number of people seeking work has dwindled.
What a joke, even in a small city like Nan City, the demand for jobs is immense. It’s always been a sea of job seekers. When is there a time when there’s a shortage of hands?
This situation is very unusual. So many have vanished, where have they gone?
Initially, the Special Defense Department suspected an unknown random instance or a region with chaotic magnetic fields had appeared, but after the players turned the entire city and nearby hills upside down without finding anything, their focus returned to the earliest reports, namely, the migrant workers resigning en masse and moving at night.
After repeated investigations by police and the Special Defense Department, one abnormal conclusion emerged: the neighbors described the departing people as lacking "enthusiasm."
Indeed, they lacked enthusiasm. Many outsiders were seen as very hardworking and sociable by their neighbors, greeting them on the way in and out. But when they moved, they couldn’t say much, and when asked, they merely said they had found a new place to live.
Later, the Special Defense Department began deploying personnel in areas with concentrated outsider residency, and they encountered a few who moved overnight. However, shortly after leaving, they suddenly died. Looking at their relatives, it turned out all were packed in the luggage.
At this point, the Special Defense Department felt a chill because the informants had previously seen only one person moving, and when asked about the family members, either no answers were given, or they were said to have left early. But now, it was clear people were being transported as luggage.
In the same location, it’s impossible for so many sudden psychopaths to kill all their family members. The Special Defense Department could only speculate that the final person responsible for moving had been controlled by others, putting on a show of leaving Nan City just to avoid the Special Defense Department’s investigations.
What’s trickier is that after the Special Defense Department secretly investigated a few households, the bizarre disappearance cases of migrant workers suddenly stopped.
In fact, they had already been discovered when the few people they tracked died halfway. They didn’t expect the perpetrators to swiftly clean up behind them without leaving any trace.
From the minor insights, the Special Defense Department immediately began a citywide audit of the disappearances and murder cases over the past three months. The investigation revealed that disappearances in the gray industries were also numerous, only familiar and knowledgeable people remained silent.
Different from the complicated disappearances of legitimate laborers, these cases were simple and brutal. Sometimes, someone just stepped out to take a call, or provided a door-to-door service, or more exceedingly, someone vanished while going to the bathroom during a meal with friends.
Within the same period, the city saw numerous unexplained disappearances. Excluding possibilities like random instances and sudden player transformations, the remaining explanation was they were hunted.
Actually, over the last half a year, there have been cases in the community where players, unable to adjust their mentality, used murder as a means of venting. But those were typically lone acts. This time, it’s clear not just three or two players are involved but there’s a detailed plan, they know how to pick targets, plainly forming a sizeable organization.
The targets for hunting are ordinary people, and the numbers are high, making the Special Defense Department naturally associate it with Cannibal Players.
Unfortunately, the physical and intellectual enhancements brought by evolution not only gave players bargaining chips for survival but also made it easier for them to commit crimes.