Li Lin saw Captain Song, always steady and dependable, with his brows tightly furrowed as if facing a formidable enemy for the first time.

"So... the eyeball-shaped Dark Angel just silently left the Exotic Realm it parasitized, without attempting to corrupt or control anyone, nor leaving behind any 'Subordinate'?" Song Cheng, after hearing the report from the two Special Service Bureau Officers, finally spoke up after a long silence, "During the entire process, you didn't hear anything like a 'High-dimensional Whisper' in your mind?"

"No," Xu Jiali shook her head, her voice deep, "But that thing definitely noticed us; there was a moment when I could distinctly feel that 'gaze,' its focal point had fallen on our hiding spot. It was as if..."

Song Cheng frowned: "As if?"

Xu Jiali recalled for a moment, then said uncertainly, "As if it was looking for something."

Song Cheng tapped his fingers on the desk irritably, not speaking for the moment.

After another ten-odd seconds, he finally took a deep breath and turned to look at Li Lin: "When you had contact with the self-proclaimed 'Yu Sheng,' did you feel any 'Heterogenization' around him? From your intuition, do you think he seemed more like a person, or... something else?"

"Like a person, at least in terms of speech, behavior, and social etiquette, he's like a person; if that were an entity disguised as a person, then I can only say the disguise is too perfect—so perfect that it could be directly treated as a person," Li Lin said confidently.

"But he has been 'living' at a 'No. 66 Wutong Road' that doesn't exist at all in the present world, a place that never appeared in any official record, an Exotic Realm," Song Cheng sighed, "Exotic Realms only generate 'Entities,' not... humans."

After a moment of silence, Xu Jiali spoke up, "There indeed exist some 'Entities' in this world that are capable of rational communication; some are particularly friendly or have requests of the present world and can even cooperate with humans, like the 'Storyteller' and 'Passenger 22,' and they even appear to have certain human characteristics..."

"But the 'Yu Sheng' you mentioned is still a completely different level of concept—in terms of 'personification'," Song Cheng shook his head and looked at Xu Jiali, "Can you confirm that he's the 'Door Opener' you met in Amein-IX?"

"I can confirm, but he didn't recognize me at all," Xu Jiali nodded, "I was equipped with a full set of Power Armor and Spirit Shield, and it seems his perception couldn't penetrate the aforementioned gear."

"Limited perception abilities, high-degree character traits, the capability to arbitrarily open 'Doors,' can counter the Hunger Entity that was significantly enhanced after being affected by the Dark Angel, but the details of the actual killing process are a mystery... It seems to intentionally hide its combat method..." Song Cheng slowly summarized the intelligence they had so far, thinking and speaking at the same time, "And there's one more thing..."

"Very friendly towards humans," Li Lin interjected.

"Yes, very friendly towards humans, even willing to proactively contact a Special Service Bureau Officer," Song Cheng nodded slightly, as if he had more to say, but a series of footsteps suddenly came from the corridor outside the door, interrupting what he was about to say next.

Knocking, then a short-haired petite girl pushed the door open and entered with a file folder in her hand: "Captain Song, the archives department sent over the documents."

Song Cheng's eyes widened in an instant: "...There's actually a file on that 'Yu Sheng!'?"

"Yes, but if searched directly in the system, it will show as cancelled, the cancellation date being the same day the Boundary Land population archive system was established, meaning, from the beginning this person was 'gone,' even before the birth date on his documents, but the strange thing is that after the cancellation date his identity documents were still in 'active' status, the 'cancelled' words are like a trivial watermark in the system display," the short-haired girl put the folder on Song Cheng's desk, her face showing disbelief, "Even recent purchase records, social registration, and transportation records under this ID can be found—all these were normally proceeding despite being marked as cancelled in the system."

Song Cheng raised his head in astonishment while picking up the folder: "Such a serious bug, and the system hasn't issued any alerts?"

"No, the information center is arranging overtime for tonight, when I passed by I saw Director Wu issuing a piercing shriek..."

"...Let him shriek, after all, he has to shriek a few times each month." Song Cheng shook his head and looked down at the documents in his hands.

From beginning to end, it all appeared to be very ordinary resident archives, along with very ordinary living expense records, except for the red 'cancelled' watermark on each page that was somewhat harsh to the eye, and the "No. 66 Wutong Road" address that shouldn't be in the archiving system.

Song Cheng turned his chair and opened the computer on his desk, entered a Special Service Bureau internal application, input 'No. 66 Wutong Road' into the search field, and after hitting enter, it displayed an error directly.

"A ghost... living as a ghost in Boundary Land, casting an indelible shadow in our complex population management system, and he hasn't just emerged recently; according to 'Yu Sheng's' own words, he has been living in this city for over twenty years, which also matches the records in the documents," Song Cheng whispered softly, his complexion not looking great—of course this was mainly due to the frequent overtime lately, "He had gone unnoticed by everyone, even Director's sharp eyes missed him—until now, when he takes the initiative to make contact with us."

Li Lin and Xu Jiali exchanged a meaningful look, both seeing a hint of gravity in each other's eyes.

—Fortunately, this "ghost" had no interest in causing havoc and even always thought of himself as an "ordinary person."

It was then that Song Cheng's gaze fell on another line of content in the documents.

"...Writer?" He raised his eyebrows in some surprise, "This ghost has a job?"

"Freelance writer, providing pieces for some small magazines and media accounts, writing some horror stories or third-rate scripts, but not very famous, and hasn't written much recently."

Song Cheng thought for a moment: "... A flop?"

The short-haired girl was serious: "Can support himself, so it's not a flop."

"...What is his writing like?"

"There's a short story at the end of the file, which I found in a magazine from last year—I thought you might be interested."

Song Cheng immediately flipped to the last page of the document and scanned it quickly.

The short-haired girl looked at Captain Song expectantly: "How does it feel?"

Song Cheng paused for a moment, his face showing difficulty: "I... don't quite understand the tastes of the young people nowadays."

Having said this, he immediately coughed twice, closed the folder without a change in expression, and said sternly: "But anyway, this is a very important lead—Arrange for someone to collect everything written by this 'Yu Sheng', perform psychological profiling and personality assessment, and also keep an eye on his future... erm, 'creative' activities."

At this point he paused, then added: "A 'suspected entity' who believes itself to be human, not only thinks like a human but can even create like one, its works will definitely reveal its more genuine inner thoughts and emotions. This kind of thing has never happened before, it must be taken seriously—but don't let it notice."

"Got it, Captain Song."

The short-haired girl left the office with the documents, and Song Cheng's gaze returned to Xu Jiali and Li Lin.

"Regarding the creation of 'Space Rifts' in Boundary Land, have you asked the other side about the situation?"

Upon hearing this, Li Lin looked somewhat awkwardly at Xu Jiali. Seeing that she had no intention of speaking, he braced himself and said: "...I forgot to ask."

"How can you forget something like this?!"

"At that time I was overly tense, probably because of the influence after witnessing the 'Dark Angel'," Xu Jiali finally spoke up, the veteran immediately resolving the situation for the newcomer Li Lin, "Although we didn't directly ask, during the retreat to the covert position with 'Yu Sheng's' two companions, we also overheard some intelligence."

"You mean the puppet and the demon fox?"

"Yes, according to the situations they mentioned in their conversation, the so-called 'Space Rifts' seem to be... just 'Yu Sheng' trying to open a door to rescue the demon fox trapped in the Exotic Realm."

Song Cheng stared: "...Just that?"

"It should be just that."

"...Just to find a way, open and close a few doors, the entire Boundary Land is shaken to the point of turmoil?!"

Xu Jiali twitched her facial muscles: "Actually, it only shook up the Bureau..."

Noticing the Captain's expression, he immediately stopped there.

Song Cheng glared, sitting behind the desk for a while, and only after he felt thoroughly drained did he waved his hand: "Alright, you two withdraw first, this matter is a big deal, I need to discuss it further with the higher-ups."

Li Lin and Xu Jiali looked at each other, and Xu Jiali hesitated before speaking: "So, about formally interacting with 'Yu Sheng' later... do we still follow the procedures?"

"Don't worry about it for now, it will most likely have to go through the Director," Song Cheng sighed, "If Yu Sheng really was an 'ordinary person' I would have directly assigned you two to go, but the situation is not so simple right now. Go back and rest—Ah, don't forget to stop by the 'Treatment Room' for a check-up, fill out the form before you leave, you'll be given three days off starting tomorrow."

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