Mist

Chapter 5: Ouroboros

This was not only the first time they were discovered by the original residents so quickly; it was also the most distasteful encounter.

It was a moderately sized forest park located in the middle of the city and surrounded by tall buildings. It was already five o’clock in the morning. There should normally be morning exercisers and elderly people taking walks, but they didn’t run into anyone the entire time they were there.
Garbage were scattered about everywhere; on the lawn, the benches, everywhere. It was as if it had not been cleaned by the sanitation team in a long time. In the middle of the road, there would also occasionally be dry dark red blood stains. It seems that more than one murder had happened here.

Not only that, the windows of all the tall buildings in the distance were completely dark. They stood lifelessly under the dark grey sky.
Without the hustle and bustle of traffic and the familiar noises one would hear early in the morning, the city was terribly quiet, as if it had fallen into dead silence.

What was even stranger was that the further they were from the forest, the more obvious the rancid smell in the air got. It was as if there were more things waiting for them in places they couldn’t see.
What on earth happened here?

A wisp of paleness appeared in the skyline. The sun was soon about to come out.
The lifeless park was however still shrouded in shadows, appearing extremely gloomy.

Sensing danger, Song Qinglan silently made a gesture.
Everyone was on guard. They stood in line and looked around at their surroundings.

On Song Qinglan’s left was Ji Yushi. His beautiful fingers held the gun and his act of holding it looked very well practiced. With tacit understanding with his teammates, he similarly looked around but, in view of his reaction when they encountered danger in the forest, Song Qinglan tilted his head towards him.

The meaning in Song Qinglan’s dark eyes was obvious: Go to the middle of the team.

Ji Yushi however had no self-consciousness of his flower vase identity. As if he didn’t understand his meaning, he continued moving forward.

A few seconds later, he said quickly in a suppressed voice, “Cap Song, eleven o’clock, park management office.”

Song Qinglan squinted in the direction he had pointed out. It was completely dark there. He couldn’t see anything.

Ji Yushi again spoke, “There seemed to be lights inside.”

The minimum requirement for a scout was to have good eyes and ears. Song Qinglan regarded the previous scout of the team, Old Yu, as their eyes and never doubted the scout’s judgement.
And so, Song Qinglan said solemnly, “Go and see.”

Turned out, Ji Yushi’s eyesight was excellent.
With his notice, everyone walked a certain distance before finally distinguishing a building hidden by the bushes. A sign hung at the entrance of the building: PU-31 Central Park Management Office.

“What’s PU-31?” Someone whispered, “I don’t remember a place called this?”
Everyone was puzzled. The current time coordinate was Star Era 1470. Although they came from more than ten years ago, they shouldn’t be using something like that as a place name in just ten years?

At such a long distance and such small writing, they didn’t know how Ji Yushi managed to see it.
After entering, Song Qinglan realised that the so-called light was just a lamp sitting on the wooden desk in the corner of the room.

Did this person’s eyes have the ability to zoom in?

The park management office was empty and was completely silent like the outside world. Several teammates started to check the rooms while Song Qinglan picked up the communicator on the administrator’s desk which had turned off because it had run out of power. The desk was also a complete mess. Keys, newspapers, registration books, takeaway boxes, everything was there.