"Okay, got it! If there’s nothing else, Boss, I’ll head out now."
Xiao Shun agreed and prepared to leave.
Zhang Xiaoman called out to him again.
"Oh, right, Xiao Shun, can you tell Hu Peng and Xun You to drop the matter with Ero and focus their attention on Gaul? Since it’s a trial, let the Wildfire Team handle the mission on their own."
America, New York City, Hat Brim District.
Outside an old apartment building, a small van was parked by the roadside.
The van had been there for several days, and initially, the residents gave it a few glances.
But over time, people passing by couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to it anymore.
Everyone thought the van had been left there by someone as it hadn’t moved at all these days.
What they didn’t know was that although the van hadn’t moved, the people inside were frequently changing.
At this moment, inside the van, two casually dressed men, one white and one black, were chatting intermittently.
"I’m telling you, Uncle Tommy, we’ve been squatting here for almost a month now. That kid inside is practically a hermit, never has visitors, and I bet he doesn’t even know any Transcendents."
It was the black man who was speaking.
He was leaning on the steering wheel, holding a burger, and eagerly staring at the entrance of that building while eating.
In the rear of the van, a white man named Tommy was lying on a chair, his sights set on a row of monitors in front of him.
The monitors were displaying surveillance video of the apartment building across the street.
They had every angle covered, even several inside the target’s home.
"Tam, stop complaining. I’ve heard that same complaint from you thirteen times. Can’t you just give it a rest?"
The man’s face showed impatience as he said:
"If you really have a problem, go talk to Lune or tell Jonathan about it, but please stop torturing my ears!"
Upon hearing his mate’s words, the black man, Tam, immediately shook his head.
"Ha ha, Uncle Tommy, how could I be complaining? I’m just marveling that the kid’s a hermit, nothing more."
Tommy took out a nail clipper and started clipping his nails while watching the monitors, casually adding:
"You don’t know how lucky you are. Do you have any idea how many brothers envy our job? We don’t have to face those monsters or deal with Mutant Beasts, just watch that kid, simple as that!"
"You should be grateful that I recommended you to the team leader to come here with me. Otherwise, look at what happened half a month ago. How many of our brothers were left on that island? Do you think you would’ve come back alive if you had gone? Oh, sorry, I forgot—you failed the Hurricane Team exam and didn’t qualify."
Tommy seemed to get more and more enthusiastic as he spoke, his nail clipping speeding up accordingly.
"And look at Deputy Director Stacy. After Lune left, they had him stay here to oversee the investigation, and what happened? He disappeared while investigating, along with many of our brothers. What do you think would’ve happened to you if you were assigned there?"
As he spoke, he applied too much force, and a piece of nail flew off, coincidentally landing on Tam’s burger.
Tam didn’t notice, took a bite of his burger, and felt something was off. When he checked, his face immediately turned as sour as a bitter melon.
"Shit! Tommy! I’m going to kill you!"
A scream rose as Tam glared angrily at the culprit, Tommy, who shrugged helplessly, indicating it was an accident.
"Alright, alright, calm down. What’s the kid doing? He’s been in the bathroom, why hasn’t he come out yet?"
"How long has it been?"
"Almost forty minutes now."
"Only forty minutes? Tommy, you aren’t telling me you forgot the kid’s record is an hour and twenty minutes. Forty minutes is nothing."
Tam said with disdain.
Tommy was momentarily at a loss for words.
Just then, a scream suddenly erupted from inside the apartment building, followed by a commotion, as the residents ran out in terror.
The two people inside the car were startled and immediately stopped their lazy attitudes.
Uncle Tommy began switching between surveillance cameras to observe the situation, while Tam sent an emergency message to headquarters.
"Help! Help! Someone’s been killed!"
A scream echoed again, followed by a burst of gunshots.
"Is this, a shooting incident?"
Uncle Tommy and Tam looked at each other, both guessing what could have happened inside.
At that moment, a large number of residents poured out from the entrance of the building.
Tam finally couldn’t sit still any longer and immediately opened the car door and ran over, wanting to ask what had happened.
"Ma’am, ma’am, what happened inside? Can you tell me?"
He grabbed a woman in her sixties and asked.
The woman was beside herself with fear, having no desire to talk to him, and struggled to run away after a couple of attempts.
"Ma’am! Ma’am! I’m a police officer, don’t be afraid, you’re safe now, I need to know what happened inside, please cooperate!"
Tam immediately took out a badge from his pocket, and upon seeing it, the woman gradually calmed down.
"The evil spirit! It’s the evil spirit! The evil spirit appeared again! I saw it with my own eyes, killing people! Oh my god! My neighbor, Bob, he can’t move his legs well, he couldn’t run..."
The woman still appeared very panicked and her words were somewhat incoherent.
However, Tam managed to gather information about what might have happened from what she said.
It had to be a monster that appeared yet again!
That kid must be related to these Transcendent events!
Otherwise, why would it be such a coincidence? The monster appeared twice at his place.
Tam asked the woman in more detail about what happened, but she couldn’t provide any more useful information and kept shouting that she saw the evil spirit.
While Tam was asking the residents about the specific appearance of the so-called evil spirit, inside the car, Uncle Tommy was staring at the surveillance monitors without blinking.
There were eight monitors in total, all focusing mainly on the target’s home and the stairway corridors he must pass through.
At the moment, as residents ran out of the building one after another, the chaos in the monitors had turned deadly silent.
The surveillance they used had audio capabilities, and right now, Uncle Tommy could clearly hear some faint noises near the stairway.
"Damn it, what the hell is inside? Come out, let Uncle Tommy have a look at you."
He muttered to himself unconsciously, his gaze fixated on several monitors, not daring to miss anything.
Suddenly, a Black Shadow flashed in front of one of the surveillance screens, which Tommy, fully focused on the screen, caught immediately.
"There it is! There really is something there!"
Tommy immediately took out the transmitter and sent a support request to headquarters once again.
This time, he made it clear that an abnormal creature had appeared.
And he was so certain because the size of this thing was just too large.
Although it was just a fleeting moment, the shadow suggested that the thing was definitely not human!
Humans couldn’t possibly have such a massive body!
"Damn it! How did that thing get in there? We’ve been watching this entrance the whole time, and there are so many people on the nearby streets; it couldn’t possibly just stroll in so blatantly!"
Tommy stared intently at the surveillance, but inside, he was trying to figure out the origin of the monster.
Meanwhile, the Hurricane Bureau’s branch office in New York City dispatched the Hurricane Team immediately.
Several helicopters provided transport and air firepower support, police officers received orders to block surrounding streets.
Even many fighter pilots were fully equipped and ready to carry out any mission that might arise at any moment.