I'm being held captive by a monster

Chapter 285 [Everything Goes Smoothly]

North City, City of Light Residential Community.

After parting ways with Zhang Guang, Lin Xing'an did not go home first.

Instead, he took a short walk around the neighborhood, spreading his gloom everywhere again.

He then returned home.

"Lin Xing'an, how is it?"

Xu Ye quickly pushed the wheelchair over to greet them, asking with concern.

"Xiaoye, I have to go to the front lines to help. The minister needs me."

Lin Xing'an put down the documents in his hand, pushed Xu Ye to the sofa, and said.

Xu Ye, on the other hand, wore an expression that said, "I knew it..."

"...Can't I not go...?"

"Minister Lian, even with so many capable people like you, it's no use for you to go..."

She said, leaning over.

Although he never asked about the situation, Xu Ye knew that the humans and animals would definitely send their most elite people to protect Sixteen Months.

If Lin Xing'an's goal is to find the Sixteenth Month...

That means I'll definitely run into some of their strongest players...

This is too dangerous...

"Night."

Lin Xing'an shook his head.

"If we're not going, we might as well stay in the South City."

"Now that we're in Beicheng, we must resolve this matter!"

He took Xu Ye's hand.

"Xiaoye, don't worry, I'll be fine!"

"I won't get infected with the virus. I've honed my skills for so long, nothing will happen to me."

"What's more... the minister specially set up a team for me."

Lin Xing said after settling in.

Then he shook his head again.

"Xiaoye, the minister just spoke to me, mainly to talk about the problems with this group."

"The people in this group are all very lucky to have immune systems, including... Mai Yuran and Mai Lingbu."

Lin Xing'an looked at Xu Ye.

The mere mention of those two names brought back the painful experience of being transformed into a "painted skin" that night.

His hands clenched nervously, and his face paled instantly.

"Xiaoye, what those two did to you was utterly despicable."

“I told the minister that I couldn’t cooperate with them, but the minister…”

"In short, Xiaoye, I'll have the minister bring them to apologize to you in person. If you can forgive them, I can cooperate with them."

"If you can't forgive them, don't worry, I will absolutely not be in the same group as them!"

Lin Xing'an held Xu Ye's hand firmly and said.

"Then Lin Xing'an, if I don't forgive them..."

"So you don't have to go to the front lines? You don't have to go looking for humans and animals anymore, right?"

Xu Ye looked up and asked.

"Night……"

Lin Xing'an closed his eyes and shook his head. "I will tell the minister that I don't need them. I will go find Sixteen myself."

"Xiaoye, even if you can forgive them, I still have resentment towards them."

"I still don't want to work in the same group as them. I can do it on my own."

"So when the time comes... Xiaoye, you don't need to deliberately convince yourself to forgive this kind of person for my sake."

Lin Xing'an's words made Xu Ye nod with a slight frown.

A hint of melancholy lingered on his face...

She couldn't stop Lin Xing'an from going to find Sixteen Moon...

"Then... will they apologize to me?"

Will they realize their mistakes?

Xu Ye closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and asked.

"I don't know, but in any case, Xiaoye, we won't be bullied anymore!"

"If they have a bad attitude, we'll just fight them back!"

A chill ran through Lin Xing'an's eyes.

Xu Ye nodded as well.

"Yes! We won't be bullied anymore!"

She said, as if to encourage herself!
"And... I'm not afraid to see them again!"

The timidity and resistance that had just been on Xu Ye's face vanished completely!

Lin Xing'an gave her a thumbs up with great satisfaction.

"Xiaoye, the minister said they'll be there in an hour and a half."

"Let me... take a look at this information first."

Lin Xing'an took the documents.

Xu Ye nodded and obediently stopped bothering Lin Xing'an.

"call……"

Lying on the sofa.

Although it looks like she's flipping through documents.

But in reality, Lin Xing'an is establishing a connection with the gloom he has cast outside.

The reason why Beicheng City Light Community is the most luxurious community in Beicheng is because it is home to high-ranking members of the committee.

This includes some who have already retired or are about to retire.

These are the people who truly hold the power of the committee.

Even if someone is infected, it is absolutely impossible for them to be quarantined in an isolation area.

Although the first wave of deaths will arrive next week, it's meaningless since ordinary gluttons are dying.

Lin Xing'an needs to check the current status of these "big shots".

Based on their condition, decide when to find the Sixteenth Month again to end the [epidemic].

The gloom was directly divided into three parts by Lin Xing'an.

He controlled the boat to drift in three directions.

"Head of Human Resources, Coordination Department..."

"Head of the audit team from the overall planning department..."

"Former head of the logistics department of the siege unit..."

"The leader of the field operations team for the encirclement and assassination..."

Lin Xing'an observed quietly through the shadows.

To the naked eye, these people are all concentrated in the third and fourth stages.

"It's unrealistic to think we can kill them with the plague..."

After glancing at it briefly, Lin Xing'an cut off the gloomy expression.

First, these people are all at the B level, or even close to the A level.

With the help of their respective abilities, they should be able to withstand the deadly plague for forty days instead of thirty.

Secondly, if their lives are truly in danger, it could lead to unrest...

The positions of Zhang Guang and Lin Xing'an as candidates for committee members may be in jeopardy!

In any case, this is Lin Xing'an's primary goal at this stage!
"From now on, in about twelve or thirteen days, I should be able to find it by the sixteenth month..."

"By then, a large number of the committee's ordinary staff had already died."

"And the bodies of these old folks will definitely be hollowed out by the [epidemic]."

"Once I obtain the identity of the sacrificer, I'll kill some more, so that my sixteen months of hard work won't have been in vain..."

Lin Xing'an silently made plans in his mind.

Then, he actually looked at the documents in his hand.

Mai Yuran's ability is Class C [Invisibility].

Currently, her strength is also at level C, and she can achieve group invisibility.

It can also make invisible people "blurred," but it can only last for about ten minutes.

"It's definitely a good ability for stealth..."

"But it's not very useful in combat, including Malingb's [Painted Skin]..."

"But it's a good thing for me..."

Lin Xing'an smiled.

After all, he didn't want to kill anyone.

"【Painted Skin】..."

Lin Xing'an took a closer look at Mai Lingbu's ability.

"Hiss... Has it already been tested...?"

He frowned.

Zhang Guang deliberately listed various experiments they conducted on their "Painted Skin" ability in the documents. This included an instance of a gluttonous ghost wearing another gluttonous ghost's painted skin.

The gluttonous ghost puts on the disguise of a "human and animal".

The gluttonous ghost dons the painted skins of various animals.

"Wearing a mask will retain memories and habits..."

"The longer you wear this mask, the more you'll be assimilated and influenced..."

"After putting on the painted skin, you will receive the 'skin's' memories while in a near-death state..."

The final point about gaining memories made Lin Xing'an narrow his eyes.

Zhang Guang used this characteristic to interrogate everyone he had captured in the past twenty days.

As a result, naturally no one knew where the sixteenth month was.

The only useful information they obtained was that only Zhang Hang knew where the Sixteenth Month was.

"Zhang Hang is really experienced..."

Seeing this, Lin Xing'an was also sweating bullets.

Fortunately, Zhang Hang didn't tell anyone...

"But if that's the case..."

Lin Xing'an flipped through the pages.

It doesn't mention whether dead people or dead gluttonous ghosts can still be transformed into "painted skin" and worn.

Or, what if a dying person puts on the "painted skin" of a healthy person in their last moments and dies?

And, what Lin Xing'an most wanted to know...

Can a human wear the mask of a gluttonous ghost?

What will it look like after you put it on?
Will it unleash the Ghost Domain? Will it be affected by the three rules in the Gluttonous Ghost's genes?
"We need to figure this out when Malingb arrives..."

Lin Xing'an finally looked at Liu Yang's information.

His brother, Liu Xu, was the only victim that Taoyuan wanted to kill Xu Zhe at the time.

Although Lin Xing'an still has no idea what Liu Xu found out about him...

Of course, what impressed Lin Xing'an the most was Liu Xu's "passive" ability that could only be used after his death.

"Level C ability [Smell]..."

Lin Xing'an felt a tightness in his chest.

Because the description of this ability states that Liu Yang can accurately smell the scent of humans and animals and lock onto them...

"A 100% win rate, huh...?"

Lin Xing'an sat up and opened Liu Yang's report from the training camp.

A hideout for humans and animals was discovered on Linchuan Street.

In the four teaching buildings, in hundreds of classrooms where everyone usually had classes and which were full of life, they found the only piece of clothing that had ever been worn by a human or animal.

Of the thousand sealed bottles of blood, without opening the caps, they found only one bottle containing a single drop of human or animal blood.

"Isn't this a bit too much..."

The more Lin Xing'an looked, the more his brows furrowed!

Finding a hiding place is good enough.

They found clothes and blood...

This is a Class C ability; how could a Class D ability achieve this?

"Is it really that amazing? Then I..."

"This report is likely exaggerated, or there may be some limitations to this capability..."

Lin Xing'an took a deep breath and rubbed his chin as he thought silently.

Because, in essence, humans and gluttons are no different, at least in terms of taste.

What humans taste like, that's what gluttons taste like.

After all, the mother was a gluttonous ghost created using humans as a template.

The only difference is the body odor of each individual and each gluttonous ghost...

"This feels more like a targeted search..."

"First, let Liu Yang become familiar with the scent of a specific person, then let him go find it."

After analyzing the situation, Lin Xing'an also deduced.

"Fortunately, there's nothing special in the sixteenth month that allows Liu Yang to experience the taste of the sixteenth month."

"But this ability... no wonder Zhang Guang wanted to involve this fourteen-year-old in this kind of thing..."

After familiarizing himself with the abilities of the group, Lin Xing'an put down the documents.

Seeing that there was still time, he regained control of the gloom.

However, this time, we won't be using gloom to observe the gluttonous ghosts in the neighborhood.

Instead, he controlled the gloom and arrived at the milk tea shop opposite the entrance of the new campus of Beicheng University, which Lin Xing'an was familiar with.

The epidemic has indeed affected even the most clueless people.

Compared to before Lin Xing'an left, the university is noticeably less crowded now.

Bubble tea shops are also in a state of "slump".

There was nothing written on the discount sign.

This proves that the cat cannot be found.

Was that task really that complicated...?

Lin Xing'an frowned.

It's been about a month since the cat said she and her sister were going to disappear for a while to investigate the matter of gluttons giving birth to humans...

"..."

Looking around, no one was there, and there were no cats in the cat shelter either.

Lin Xing'an also lifted the wooden plank that was pressing down under the bottom bricks.

After being injected with darkness, the broken wooden board was transformed into a cell phone.

Before leaving Beicheng, Lin Xing'an deliberately left a message for the cat on his phone.

When he opened the mailbox again, the message he left behind had been deleted.

Instead, there was a message left by the cat a week earlier.

Be careful and have a safe trip.

"It's good to have news..."

Although it was only four words, it was enough to make Lin Xing'an breathe a sigh of relief.

What I fear most is not hearing anything for so long...

【all the best】

Lin Xing'an also deleted the message.

Then he left out a similar sentence.

Then, without lingering, he severed ties with the gloomy atmosphere in the cattery.

I also feel a little regretful.

Regarding Si Que, regarding "avoiding ghosts," regarding the person in the group photo in the album that Yu Yu mentioned...

He had many questions he wanted to exchange with the cat.

But until the cat returns before the Sixteen Months are wiped out, he probably won't have much of a chance to contact it.

"Then……"

Seeing that there were still more than 20 minutes left in the hour and a half, Lin Xing'an didn't stop.

He recalled in his mind all the human hiding places that Taoyuan had told him when he was still at Beicheng University and had not yet joined the committee.

Then, controlling the shadows that had scattered along the way, he flew towards several hidden points within a five-kilometer radius of his current location.

One, two, three...

Lin Xing'an frowned...

He had assumed that these hiding places would be deserted by now.

After all, as long as everyone stays together and doesn't get found, that's fine.

There's no need to keep things scattered like this.

But he hadn't expected that each hideout was staffed with at least two people...

"That makes sense..."

After thinking for a moment, Lin Xing'an nodded silently.

Zhang Hang probably thought that this would allow him to better understand the gluttonous ghost's movements...

It makes it easier to harass the gluttonous ghost.

"But now, we need to figure out a way to get the brothers out..."

Lin Xing'an closed his eyes.

The vast majority of these hiding places conceal people among confused or foolish people.

Just now in the office, Lin Xing'an could tell from Zhang Guang's tone and meaning that he had clearly figured out how everyone was hiding.

The purpose of forming this special team was to search regardless of whether the people were confused or not!

During the search, Lin Xing'an must not let anyone slip by, otherwise all his efforts will be in vain!
Therefore, the best-case scenario is that everyone withdraws.

First, Lin Xing'an didn't want to kill anyone; second, such a sacrifice would be pointless.

Only by finding nothing, only by not being able to find a single "human or animal," can Zhang Guang feel panicked and terrified!

"But how do I contact the organization now..."

"Should we still go through Ms. Tachibana...?"

(End of this chapter)