Chapter 99: Lin Xin Has Gone Missing!

Five days passed in the blink of an eye. When Little Black’s alert sounded, Lin Huang slowly let out a breath.

[Detected 200 shards of the Fate Card, "The Warfare Formula." Upgrade card now?]

"Yes."

[Consumed 200 shards of "The Warfare Formula." Mastery level of the Fate Card, "The Warfare Formula," has increased.]

When the dialog box appeared before him, Lin Huang opened the card to check its details.

[Fate Card]

[Card Name: The Warfare Formula]

[Rarity: Rare]

[Mastery Level: Second Layer]

[Effect: Vital energy circulation speed increased by 24 percent. Vital energy attack and defense both increased by 24 percent.]

[Note: For the first five layers, each layer increases all vital energy effects by 12 percent.]

[Card Rating: Usable]

"It’s a little earlier than I expected..." Lin Huang said that, but his expression did not relax in the slightest.

Originally, a single circulation cycle took half an hour. Over these five days, he had finally managed to shorten it to around ten minutes. Now that the art had advanced, the circulation route had become more complicated, and it had returned to taking half an hour per cycle. That meant the speed at which he could obtain shards had fallen back to square one.

Putting away the Fate Card, Lin Huang glanced at the time. It was already a little past 5:40 in the afternoon.

These past few days, Lin Xin had always come to knock on his door exactly at six, and the two of them would go downstairs together for dinner.

Seeing that there was still some time left, Lin Huang opened the news to take a look.

Very soon, one report caught his attention, because he spotted a familiar stronghold number: 7B61.

Stronghold 7B61 was the official name the Alliance Government used for Summer Palace City.

He opened the report at once and read it through.

"Sixteen murders occurred in Stronghold 7B61 in the early hours of yesterday morning. After on-site investigation by the city guard, the preliminary conclusion is that all sixteen victims were killed by human hands, and not by monsters infiltrating the stronghold. The incident is still under further investigation. Please do not panic..."

"How could security be this poor in such a large stronghold as Summer Palace City?" Lin Huang frowned after reading.

If this incident had happened a few days earlier, he definitely would not have chosen Summer Palace City as the destination for this trip. He himself would not have been afraid of anything, but with Lin Xin accompanying him, things were different. He would have many more misgivings.

After searching through other reports on the Summer Palace City incident for a while longer, Lin Huang found nothing more detailed. He guessed the news had only just broken, and all the reports from various outlets were more or less the same, with very cautious wording.

If monsters had truly infiltrated a large-scale stronghold, that would be a real sensation, one likely to cause widespread panic among ordinary residents. Until the matter was clarified, the media would not dare to speak carelessly.

He closed the news page. It was already 6:05. Seeing the time, Lin Huang could not help but raise an eyebrow, and sent Lin Xin a message.

"It’s time for dinner."

He waited two or three minutes, but Lin Xin did not reply, nor did she come to knock on his door. That faintly told Lin Huang that something was wrong.

He dialed Lin Xin’s video call. The notification had only just sounded twice before the connection was abruptly cut off.

"The other party is currently busy and cannot receive your video request..."

"Something’s happened!" Lin Huang immediately realized that Lin Xin had definitely run into some trouble. She had never once cut off his call request before.

His face darkening, Lin Huang stood up at once and headed straight for Lin Xin’s door, pounding hard on it.

He pressed the bell more than ten times in a row, but there was still no movement from inside Lin Xin’s room.

Turning back, he returned to the balcony of his own room, stepped onto the railing, and sprang upward, leaping several meters across to the balcony outside Lin Xin’s room. Then he drove a kick straight through her glass sliding door.

Lin Huang’s actions quickly drew the attention of the others on the ship’s deck, and staff members were immediately informed.

But he had no time to deal with any of that. After entering Lin Xin’s room, he quickly looked around.

Lin Xin was not there, and the room itself looked normal. There were no signs of struggle or fighting. She should have left the room before something happened.

Activating Bloody Hunt, Lin Huang quickly determined the area of Lin Xin’s movements within the room.

Most of the time, she stayed near the sofa in the living room. That should have been where she usually activated her Gunmaster game pod.

Other than that, there was the stretch from the sofa to the door. Clearly, that was a route she used often.

Following the scent, Lin Huang opened Lin Xin’s door and headed toward the levitating elevator.

Just as he reached the elevator entrance, the metal door opened automatically, and a group of staff in security uniforms surrounded him.

"Sir, you’re the guest in Room 156, correct? Someone just reported that you forcibly broke into the adjacent Room 157. To ensure the safety of the other passengers, please cooperate with our investigation," said the man in front, who seemed to be the team leader, looking at Lin Huang with a hostile expression.

"I am the guest in Room 156, and the person staying in Room 157 is my younger sister. I can provide the purchase records for the tickets to prove that both rooms were booked by me." Lin Huang said this and projected the ticket purchase record. "I’ll pay for the damages to the door at the market price. The problem now is that my sister has gone missing on your ship. I don’t have time to pursue that with you for the moment, so please do not stand in my way and hinder me from looking for her."

The security captain in front naturally knew Lin Huang’s ticket purchase record was genuine. Veterans like them could tell at a glance. Hearing Lin Huang’s words, he could not help but frown.

"Are you absolutely sure she’s missing?"

"Very sure! If you want to help, check the surveillance for me. Let me know if you find anything. I’m going downstairs to search first." Lin Huang did not dare waste a single moment.

"All right, I’ll pull the footage. When was the last time you saw her?" the security captain asked.

"After lunch, around twelve-thirty. We went back to the room together."

"You two, go with the guest. I’ll head to the surveillance room with the others." The captain made his arrangements quickly.

Lin Huang did not refuse the two security officers who accompanied him. With them following, he headed straight down to the first deck.

He soon followed the scent to the bar on the first deck, but once he reached there, Lin Xin’s scent disappeared.

Lin Huang noticed that behind the bar counter sat an air purifier, sucking in all the various scent particles from the air.

"Boss, have you seen this girl?" Lin Huang walked up to the counter and pulled up Lin Xin’s photo.

"She came by an hour ago and sat for less than a minute before leaving." The shop owner waved a hand dismissively. "She wanted honey coffee. This is a bar. Where would I get something like that?"

"Did anyone try to strike up a conversation with her on the way?" Lin Huang frowned slightly.

"No. My bar doesn’t usually get many customers before nine. That little girl came in, asked one question, and left. Even if someone had wanted to chat her up, they wouldn’t have had the chance."

"Do you have surveillance footage here? I’d like to take a look." As he spoke, Lin Huang took out a year’s worth of life crystal shards and set them on the counter.

"I’d love to take your money, but I can’t. My cameras are old-model ones, and they haven’t been replaced in more than twenty years. So now they’re only switched on at night, when there are more people around, to avoid trouble. They’re off during the day," the shop owner said helplessly, spreading his hands. "If you don’t believe me, you can check inside yourself."

Although Lin Huang believed the owner, he still stuffed the life crystal shards into the man’s hands and went behind the counter to take a look.

Just as the owner had said, there was no surveillance data from that day during daylight hours. In fact, even when he randomly pulled up several clips from the past few months, they were all from nighttime.

"I told you, I really don’t want your life crystal shards," the shop owner said, trying to decline them.

"Keep them," Lin Huang said, shaking his head and not taking them back.

Climbing back out from behind the counter, Lin Huang’s brows were tightly locked together. His investigation had now lost its trail.

At that moment, one of the security officers’ communicators rang. After answering and saying a few words, he turned to Lin Huang.

"Our captain found some video footage over there. He wants you to come take a look."

"All right!" Lin Huang hurriedly followed the two men out of the bar...

~~~~~~

"The new book group was just created this afternoon. The group name is 'Monster Hunter Squad,' and the group number is 475785333. The secret password for entry is: smoking, drinking, and perming your hair (not the standard answer). If any of you darling readers are interested, feel free to join. This old uncle will be there too. If anyone has character or monster concepts to offer, you’re welcome to send me a private message or leave a note. The book will go on sale on April 1st. I’ll be stockpiling chapters these next few days, and ten updates on the first day of release are unavoidable. I haven’t decided on the specific bonus-update rules yet, so we can discuss them in the group later."