The sheriff added, “Cliff Garcia’s wife discovered her husband’s abnormal condition that morning and screamed as she ran out of the house. The neighbors who heard the commotion came straight to me to report it. The rest stood guard at the door and didn’t dare enter, so no one has made contact with the anomaly yet. I’m not sure if it’s dangerous, Inspector Roy.”
Roy Vaughn nodded slightly and positioned himself sideways at the door, ready to advance or retreat at a moment’s notice. Then, he lightly rubbed his brow with his fingertips.
The visual interface shifted quietly, as if a dimming filter had been applied, turning everything ice-cold and shadowy.
Cliff, seated on the sofa, was shrouded in pale blue mist, while the mycelium carpeting the floor emitted a hazy blue glow.
This was the extraordinary ability Captain Roy wielded—Mundane Reminder.
This functional ability allowed him to visualize concentrations of supernatural power, guiding him to seek fortune and avoid harm.
Roy trusted this ability implicitly. It was thanks to it that he had repeatedly turned danger into safety, uncovered key breakthroughs, and steadily climbed to his position as a cadre.
With its help, the Seventh Squad might not have the strongest combat prowess among the Investigation Department’s teams, but it boasted the lowest casualty rate.
This was also why he never nagged at the newly joined blue-haired loli—in his visual interface, Ashley emitted an icy, somber blue without a hint of fluctuation, solid and tangible, evoking the suffocating despair of the deep-sea abyss.
Human mundanity was blaring its maximum-volume warning at him!
Looking back at the sofa, the supernatural fluctuations from Cliff presented as pale blue and misty, indicating low intensity.
Roy relaxed and first used tweezers to sample the fungal mat, sealing it in a test tube. Then, with firm, powerful strides full of momentum, he approached Cliff, who was enveloped in blue mist. His eyes shone brightly, exuding fearlessness.
“Mr. Roy is so handsome!” Elsa’s eyes sparkled like stars, her fingers clenched tightly over her chest, heart pounding.
Ashley smiled without exposing the captain’s little scheme—Time Bird had automatically recorded it, crafting a bullet in the shape of a wind chime from Roy’s ability.
Since Mundane Reminder was a functional ability that couldn’t directly attack enemies, this bullet could only fire a blank like a starting pistol, granting her a temporary buff until the supernatural power was depleted.
Just as Roy neared the sofa, the anomaly erupted!
Cliff’s skin writhed as if countless insects writhed and surged beneath it!
Roy’s pupils contracted sharply, scalp prickling. With lightning reflexes, he drew his service pistol from his waist!
Click, click, click…
Harsh frictional sounds continued from inside Cliff, starkly clear in the quiet room.
The bizarre scene that followed intensely stimulated Captain Roy and the team’s nerves—some broke into cold sweats, breaths ragged.
Starting from the neck, Cliff twisted. His skin tore and peeled like desiccated fruit rind, revealing vibrant, crystalline spore sacs crammed inside. Spore filaments wove a surface net, binding clusters of densely packed hair-like sporangia.
Roy stared at the insane, grotesque transformation unfolding inches away. Instinctively, he stepped back, only for the fungal mat to retract at that moment, slipping underfoot. He tumbled awkwardly, startling himself as his legs flailed in retreat.
The sheer eeriness of the scene made it not seem embarrassing.
Soon, Cliff lost all human form. Clusters of spore sacs spiraled outward from inside the scalp still bearing brown hair strands.
At the tips of the spore sacs bloomed vast swaths of pinkish-purple fleshy folds, crystalline in texture, dreamlike and illusory—like a massive bouquet of wedding roses.
Roy, being a cadre after all, quickly shifted to a crouch, gripping his gun with both hands, observing vigilantly and calmly.
In his visual interface, the blue mist from Cliff grew vivid and dense, especially the blooming head—like blue pigment dissolving and spreading in water.
Something was wrong!
The opponent’s supernatural power was increasing!
Roy slid backward step by step, retreating slowly to the door, eyes bulging. He turned his head and said,
“Quick, evacuate everyone in the building!”
The residents had already fled, leaving only a few officers. Once they withdrew, only the Seventh Group remained.
Ashley curiously observed Cliff’s changes, feeling they resembled a plant’s growth process.
As if confirming her guess, the spore sacs gradually curved, the petal heads caving inward to form a fig-like mushroom structure the size of a soccer ball. With a plop, it dropped to the floor, leaving his clothes and pants empty.
The black mycelium filling the room retracted entirely, wrapping the mushroom body to form a truffle-like polyhedral warty surface.
In Roy’s visual interface, though this eerie black sphere lay motionless, its dispersing supernatural fluctuations intensified, so he hurriedly called for the lab team to inspect it.
Ashley vaguely sensed it had completed a mysterious cycle. What changes would another cycle bring?
Regardless of whether it was King Insect Molting, the Insect House was far too dangerous. Doctor Duke was Amber’s father, so Ashley held nothing back and reported what she knew.
“You mean Insect Shedding contains no supernatural power itself, but under specific conditions, it gestates supernatural forces, reviving corpses in another form?” Roy summarized astutely.
Ashley nodded.
After reporting to their superiors in the Investigation Department, the Seventh Group headed to the Bug House Clinic to notify Doctor Duke.
Doctor Duke cooperated fully, moving out his equipment. Then, the Tribunal sealed the clinic, erecting barriers and alert lines around it to prevent accidental entry.
“Reviving the dead… this is a monumental discovery. Oh, right—I remember, when I bought the Insect Shedding from that merchant, there were a few other items unearthed alongside it,” Doctor Duke recalled, then said.
“Do you remember the merchant’s name, Doctor?” Roy asked promptly.
“I’ll go look for the receipt.”
The group went to Amber’s home, where Doctor Duke rummaged from the bottom shelf of his bookcase and produced the receipt from that year.
“Bernice Kerr.” Roy jotted the name in his notebook.
Beside them, Amber quietly tugged Ashley’s sleeve and asked, “Is my dad in trouble?”
“I’m not telling you.” Ashley turned and ran downstairs.
“Stop!”
Amber chased after her.
The two lolis pursued each other across the street corner. Amber hit her limit, stopping to gasp for breath. “Come back!”
Ashley halted and turned back. “How do you know to chase me now? You haven’t come looking for me once lately.”
“Though I really wanted to see you, I can’t keep up with the progress of super geniuses like you all. Hanging out with you would just waste time…” Amber looked at her, voice dejected.
“Then we’ll just drift further apart!” Ashley ran onward.
“Ashley!”
Panic surged in Amber’s heart, but her stamina was spent. She chased a few more steps, legs heavy as lead, watching helplessly as the blue-haired loli’s figure receded into the distance.
“Ashley!”
Amber called again, her voice trembling with a sob. That phrase terrified her—what did “drift further apart” mean? Why say something so scary?
Ashley stopped again, turned around, and slowly walked back.
This simple action brought Amber incomparable comfort, filling the void in her heart to the brim.
“Ashley…” she said tremulously, pleading.
Ashley pursed her lips tightly, hiding her smirk of delight. Confirming her dominance over this child always brought immense satisfaction.
“You’re not about to cry, are you? Bursting into tears on the street, making everyone turn and stare, toes curling in shame— is that all the useless scrub senior can do? Crying and begging for mercy because she can’t outrun her junior?” Ashley leaned in close with her little head, peering left and right, nearly bursting into mocking laughter.
“I-I’m not gonna cry…” Amber bit her lip hard.
“Alright, actually, I’m pressed for time too,” Ashley relented, seeing she’d pushed enough. With her cousin’s matter weighing on her, she had no mood for more play. “Let’s go to your father’s clinic and run some experiments. I’ll explain everything on the way.”
“Experiments?” Amber was puzzled but followed.
At the Bug House, Ashley pried open a gap in the colorful tile steel connection and slipped inside.
“Hey? We can’t go in there!” Amber hurriedly warned.
Ashley ignored her, pulling a dead rat from her pocket, tying a rope to it, and tossing it through the door into the room.
