Chapter 262: The Disappearance of Kent Bennett
The undead coins that Miss Phoenix exchanged for Moses Port on the way were worth only two thousand gold coins in total.
After all, money has weight. Four hundred thousand undead coins filled four large boxes. Phoenix couldn't bring too many without large-value tokens...
Two thousand gold coins of Undead Coins were definitely not enough to pay for the old cases accumulated over the years in Moses Port, but Bishop Cromwell had other ways to replace the commission - he had already inquired about it, and these Tarantan Undead were not only interested in Undead Coins but also loved to rob... and seize weapons and equipment. In this way, the warehouse in the Night Watch Building came in handy.
The church has been working diligently to combat cultists and evil spellcasters for many years, and has confiscated a lot of black magic related props and equipment. It is definitely not safe to circulate these things on the outside market, and it would be a pity to destroy them by physical means, so it is just right to use them to get rid of these undead!
The witchcraft staff listed in the commission reward in the red leather book is a magic amplifier made from the leg bones of high-level monsters that can only be used by black magicians. It comes with an enchantment that increases the success rate of curse magic, and also has the function of automatically condensing dark energy when held.
This staff cannot be used by ordinary spellcasters. If it falls into the hands of ordinary people, it may even cause premature aging and short life of the holder - dark energy is tantamount to chronic poison to living people. A mentally weak person may die on the spot if he holds this staff.
The Night Watchman kept this evil magic staff obtained from the cultists in a sealed box made of pure bone. Otherwise, the dark energy condensed from the staff itself would even contaminate the items in the storage place or even the living people...
Such a staff with extremely evil performance is a definite artifact for players who control the bodies of the undead and are classified as undead dark creatures as soon as they land - the wizard's Corruption, Slowness, and Dark Blessing are all curse-type black magic, and it also comes with a continuous mana recovery effect. If this is not an artifact, then there will be no artifact in the game!
Even if there is no income of 40,000 copper coins, players will rush to grab this quest site just for the sight of this staff!
Qin Guan stepped out from the crowd, holding the red book and walked in front of Phoenix. He took out the official exorcist badge that Innadri Night Watchman had given him after he completed five exorcist missions, and said in full force: "My Queen, we have to take this mission!"
Phoenix didn't wear the azalea badge at all. She didn't want to hear these undead souls creating mental pollution in her ears. She smiled and stretched out her hand to the officer of the Night Watch headquarters, signaling the undead souls to find him.
Qin Guan confidently thrust the exorcist badge into the official's face.
Bishop Cromwell, the captain of the Night Watch, and the official stared at the exorcist badge that Qin Guan took out for a full ten seconds...
While secretly complaining that Innadelli's colleagues had no shame in issuing exorcist badges to the undead, they were also shocked at how persistent these undead were in their exorcist missions. No matter which church it was, the issuance of exorcist badges was very strict. If the specified number of commissions was not reached, the badges would not be issued casually, and even if they were issued, they would be taken back after the commissions were completed.
The officer stood up, took the badge, turned it over and looked at the back of it.
On the back of the Exorcist badge, the bearer's name is engraved in Common: Vanilla Pudding.
Official: “…”
The official took the registration book with a distorted look on his face and wrote down Qin Guan's game ID in the registration column marked with the red book entrustment.
After players register as exorcists, they can receive exorcist missions issued by the Night Watch. When the Night Watch issues missions, they will register the player's name in handwriting. This inefficient way of issuing tasks is criticized by players, but considering that the exorcist missions are lucrative enough, players do not have much objection.
Give me medicine and line up behind Qin Guan. Wait for the registration NPC to return Qin Guan's badge, then hand over your own badge.
The officer flipped over the back of his badge…and was silent for another three seconds before writing it down.
Next, the official numbly wrote down player IDs such as Gummy Candy, There is a Orange Cat, Wonderful Writing, Mulberry Leaves Fallen, Wax Melon, and Report King on the registration column.
After so much trouble registering all the undead with exorcist badges, the officials' understanding of the concept of names had become so distorted that it had spread to his grandmother's house.
If Inadli dared to let the undead carry out their missions on their own, Moses Port would definitely not allow it. When the officials were registering the undead, the captain of the night watch got up and went to the rest room at the back to call a few night watchmen who had no missions to come over, and he personally led the team to monitor these undead.
The players’ reaction to the Night Watch’s participation was: “Are there NPCs helping in the battle?”
"Help me, what? All the previous missions that involved NPCs were to protect them."
"Forget it. It's worse to have no help than to have NPC. The drops from monsters touched by NPC will be reduced!"
"Is there any reward for protecting these NPCs? Territory reputation or something?"
"I don't know. There is no Moses Port reputation bar in the reputation panel."
The night watchmen could not understand the language of the undead, but being pointed at by these undead was also very unpleasant. Even the captain, everyone had a dead look on their faces and said nothing.
"Let's take a look at the task text first." Miaobishenghua asked Qin Guan for the red-covered book and asked Enbudzeng to read it with her.
Yang Ying also came over to give me medicine.
"Disaster No. 044: The Disappearance of Kent Bennett"
"Investigator: Codename 'One-Eye'."
"In January of the new calendar year 1021, the resident of No. 206 Morgan Street claimed that his 17-year-old son Kent Bennett had not returned home for several days since the first day of the winter memorial service. He suspected that he had been murdered and requested the sheriff to investigate."
"Agent Don Yarrack was assigned to investigate the disappearance of Kent Bennett. After questioning residents of Morgan Street, he learned that Kent had close ties with the Sailor's Quarter street gangs, so he expanded his investigation to the Sailor's Quarter."
"On February 9, 1021, Agent Don Yalak has been missing since leaving home at noon."
"On February 15, 1021, Agent Kelvin Hyman was assigned to investigate the disappearance of Kent Bennett and Don Yarrack, and followed the clues to Laundry Lane in the Sailors' Quarter."
"On March 1, 2021, Agent Kelvin Hyman left the Sheriff's Office after leaving a note to his colleagues saying 'I will go to Laundry Lane in the Sailors' District to meet the informant today' and has been out of contact ever since."
"On March 7, 1021, the case was transferred to the Night Watch and taken over by investigator 'One-Eye'."
Yang Yinghe, who was confused by a bunch of foreign names after reading the first page, gave up playing the puzzle game with the two brainy people and went away to chat with their friends.
"This task looks very interesting!" Miaobishenghua&Entropybutseng was very interested and read on more seriously.
A teenager and two experienced sheriff's detectives disappeared one after another. The investigator "One-Eye" who took over the case was very cautious and started to investigate from the home of Kent Bennett, the first missing teenager.
The residents of this Morgan Street household are a very ordinary citizen family. The husband works in a shipyard, the wife sells daily necessities in the store downstairs from their home, and the son studies in the city's Citizens' Middle School, where his grades are mediocre. He has a record of complaints, but no criminal record. His only connection with the Sailor District street gangs is limited to nighttime hangouts.
There is no curfew in Moses Port and night travel is not prohibited. The reason why the teenager Kent Bennett was complained about was not for stealing or fighting, but for making noise and disturbing others.
Investigator "One-Eye" invited juvenile gang members active in the Sailor District to a bar in the port area for an interview. He learned from these teenagers, most of whom came from shipyard workers' families, that they had spent the winter holidays with their families, had never organized any outings, and had never asked Kent Bennett out.
After conducting an in-depth investigation into the family backgrounds of the juvenile gang members, investigator "One Eye" ruled out the possibility that these teenagers were involved in cults.
Throughout the summer , investigator "One-Eye" used various peripheral investigation methods to check all the laundries, residents, homeless people, etc. in Laundry Lane one by one.
In the winter of 1021, after the external investigation yielded no results, "One-Eye" decided to enter the laundry lane for an on-site investigation.
On December 6, 2021, when "One-Eye" and his assistant entered the laundry alley to interact with the residents, the assistant left to go to the toilet and never returned.
In the same month, "One-Eye" submitted his investigation report, recommending that the files be sealed and all relevant information on the disappearance of the young Kent Bennett be blocked.
Since 1022, two to five people have been missing every year in Laundry Lane in the Sailor District. The missing people include laundry workers, local residents, and even passers-by from other places.
In 1028, the couple who owned the laundry at No. 38 Xiyi Lane disappeared for no apparent reason. The laundry was closed and the disappearance phenomenon stopped temporarily.
In 1029, the church bought Laundry No. 38 and built a high wall around it, forbidding anyone to approach.
"A laundry that devours living people? It's a bit like that!" Miaobishenghua rubbed his hands excitedly, "People have only disappeared but no bodies have been found. It feels like this laundry No. 38 is like there is an alternate dimension that can perfectly discard corpses. No, there should be a copy. What do you think, Qingyue?"
Entropy is not increasing. His eyes are sharp. "It is mentioned here that investigator One-Eye suggested blocking the information about the missing Kent Bennett case. I feel this is the key word to activate the clue."
"I think so too." Miaobishenghua nodded. "Nothing happened to this boy before he disappeared. The first to get into trouble were the two detectives who were looking for his information. It must be because the first missing boy triggered something that led to the key factor in the disappearance case."
"Should we go to Morgan Street first to check the background of the missing teenager, or go directly to Laundry No. 38?" En Buzeng asked.
The wonderful pen and bone claw waved: "No hurry, let's go straight to Huanglong first. If there is a plot jam or a BOSS that cannot be defeated, it will not be too late to investigate later."
"Okay, we have a lot of manpower anyway. At worst, we can ask Boss Orange Cat to recruit more people to join the team." The fanatical puzzle solver who is not willing to take shortcuts and insist on collecting all the clues readily voted in favor.
No one asked about the NPC's attitude. The players swarmed out of the Night Watch building and got on the caravan that came from Leo's house without any hesitation.
The driver of Leo's family looked nervously at the group of undead who seemed to want to steal the car, but he didn't dare to step forward to stop them...
Miaobishenghua, who got on the car, looked at the driver who was standing nervously at the foot of the wall of the building, then looked at the several supporting NPCs who followed the players out of the building. He slapped his head, jumped off the car, walked to the supporting NPC with the red leather book, pointed with his bone claws at the address of laundry No. 38 in the file, and then pointed at the caravan.
When you can't communicate with the NPC in the same language, body movements can also help with communication. This is the experience that players have figured out on their own.
The captain of the Night Watch and several members: "..."
Miaobishenghua pointed firmly at the driving seat of the caravan with his bone claws and shook the reins, signaling the Night Watch to help them drive the caravan - the carriage in this game cannot be started just by sitting on it. Without some skills, even if you drive it, it will either hit the wall or overturn.
"...Send them over." The captain of the Night Watch gritted his teeth, took the lead and walked over to one of the carriages, picking up the reins and whip.
Now that the captain had moved, the other night watchmen could no longer just stand there, so they all stepped forward, squeezing into one car in pairs.
After the carriage drove out of the street where the Night Watch Building was located, the passers-by who had been hiding in the alleys finally dared to come out. They stood on the side of the road, looking at the caravan that was driving away, fearful and curious.
The carriage drove to the street leading to the sailor district. The pedestrians and vendors on the road saw the three caravans with undead souls clinging to the carriages and admiring the street view. They were shocked at first, then screamed and ran away...
The night watchmen driving the car: "..."
Just... I suddenly understood why Innadelli's colleagues allowed these undead spirits to complete the exorcist's commission on their own.
Understand deeply.
