"Hurry up! Boss, let's go!"
"Hey... But I only had a bowl of egg custard for dinner and didn't even have rice..."
"I'll treat you to a big dinner tomorrow!"
"Then I want steak."
“Okay, okay!”
The next night, just after six o'clock in the evening, Gu Moli was called back from home by Hua Qiong's twelve incoming call alerts, which were more effective than the alarm he set in advance. After leaving home reluctantly, he saw Hua Qiong who had been waiting there in the office.
Compared to Gu Moli who is dressed casually.
Hua Qiong got a white shirt and brown windbreaker from somewhere, and also a baseball cap, with a black pipe that she wasn't sure if it was usable or not, and a cane in her other hand. At first glance, she actually looked like a senior female detective.
"Hey! Boss!"
After seeing Gu Moli's figure, Hua Qiong immediately raised his pipe and waved it at him, while Gu Moli curled his lips.
"You seem very excited."
"Of course!"
Hua Qiong walked quickly to Gu Moli's side, looking solemn: "It's different from the last time we went to the Twin Towers. This time I've made good preparations."
"Prepared? What have you prepared?"
"material!"
As he spoke, Hua Qiong took out a folder from the inside of his windbreaker and handed it to Gu Moli: "This is the commission I found."
Gu Moli took the folder and confirmed that it was one of the ones that had been on his bookshelf. He immediately showed a subtle expression: "This commission... Speaking of which, you didn't read the commissions you took from me every day, did you? Was this selected from among them?"
"nonsense!"
Hua Qiong waved his fist vigorously: "A day's plan begins in the morning, a year's plan begins in spring. Only through unremitting efforts can we achieve extraordinary achievements. If we fish for three days and dry the net for two days, even the most powerful genius will become mediocre over time!"
“… … ..”
Gu Moli vaguely felt a huge psychological blow.
Tsk!
Without responding to Hua Qiong's words, Gu Moli quickly opened the folder and began to read the information that Hua Qiong had spent a long time selecting from those useless commissions.
However... .
"Is there anything special about this commission?"
"Isn't that right?"
... .Gu Moli didn’t see anything suspicious.
"In Guanghui City, a wonderful urban legend has been circulating for several years. It is said that at the junction of Thirteenth Avenue and First Avenue in the outer ring, when the one thousand and first person of each month passes by, the bright light of the full moon shines on the earth, and Phantom City will come to the world from the Kingdom of Shadows..."
"Urban legend!?"
Gu Moli felt that Hua Qiong was playing a trick on him.
But Hua Qiong was unaware of it, and instead remained excited: "How is it? Does it sound special?"
"... .I see."
Gu Moli looked at Hua Qiong for a moment and showed a look of pity: "I understand that as a college student who is about to graduate, the pressure of entering society and the confusion of choosing the future will always make people mentally ill, but I didn't expect your situation to be so serious. Have you started to escape from reality... ..."
"Hello!"
Hua Qiong waved her hand and slapped away Gu Moli's big hand on her head, with a look of dissatisfaction on her face: "What do you mean by escaping from reality? I am discussing this with you very seriously!"
"... But you found a commission for an urban legend! Come on, this is not a game world, and we are not writing a novel. Do you think urban legends will really appear in reality? It is obvious that these are just weird stories made up by some curious people on the Internet..."
"I told you, if it was a really interesting commission, why would I throw it into the junk pile..."
"no!"
Facing Gu Moli's disdain, Hua Qiong became a little anxious: "I have confirmed it! There may really be something strange behind this urban legend!"
"confirm?"
Gu Moli raised his eyebrows: "You are not going on a field trip yet?"
"yes!"
Hua Qiong nodded as a matter of course: "It was last month, before I went to the Twin Towers, I went to investigate. And you know what, many local residents in that area have heard of this urban legend, and the disturbance has even spread to the entire Guanghui City."
“It’s spread…?”
"Yeah, you don't usually go online, right? The urban legend about the Phantom City is a hot topic in Guanghui City. Many people are wandering around there, trying to find out the truth."
"the truth?"
Gu Moli sneered: "What truth can there be? I think it's just hype."
"Listen to me."
Hua Qiong continued to explain: "The intersection of First Avenue and Thirteenth Avenue described in the urban legend is actually a construction site."
"... construction site?"
"Yes, and it's a construction site that has been suspended for a long time. The curtains have been drawn all year round. It seems that a real estate company took over the land, but the capital chain was broken, resulting in the land not being developed yet, but the government has not taken it back..."
"... Over time, that piece of land became a place no one cared about."
“As if it didn’t exist.”
"So?"
Gu Moli still didn't take it seriously. It wasn't that he looked down on these urban legends, but mainly because his rationality as a detective made it impossible for him to accept such supernatural settings.
Even for a surreal game like "Hero Trial", Gu Moli prefers some epoch-making technology rather than a bet between gods and demons.
When it comes to the gods in the game, Gu Moli also looks at them more from the perspective of an NPC.
Even the Hero Trial is like this.
Gu Moli was even more disdainful of the groundless urban legends.
"It's nothing more than finding a place with a tortuous history, and then adding some weird descriptions, plus some people with ulterior motives secretly pretending to be mysterious. There are many idle people on the Internet who like to hear these fancy things the most. What Phantom City, it doesn't exist at all..."
"No."
Unexpectedly, Hua Qiong interrupted Gu Moli's inference in a sonorous and powerful tone: "In fact, someone did see the phantom city."
"... See?"
"That's right."
In an instant, Gu Moli subconsciously blurted out doubts: "Hallucination? Mirage? Holographic projection?"
“He also took pictures.”
"It was this photo that caused the news about the Phantom City to spread more and more in Guanghui City, and more and more people went to explore that place."
"... show me."
Hua Qiong seemed to have been prepared for this. As soon as Gu Moli finished speaking, she took out her cell phone and handed it to Gu Moli.
And on the phone screen is a magnificent building.
Overall it is a villa.
The shape is square, with three floors in total. Through the windows, you can see that the lights inside are bright. There are no weird decorations at the gate. There is only a small balcony on the roof. In addition, there is a sculpture of an eagle with its wings spread at the highest point.
"... That's it? There's nothing weird about it."
"But if you look at the environment around this house, it is exactly the same as the environment around the original construction site. There is no trace of photoshop in the picture itself, so the credibility is actually quite high. In other words, at a certain point in time, this house replaced the original construction site and appeared there!"
“Nonsense!”
Gu Moli refuted Hua Qiong without hesitation: "Absolutely impossible!"
Facing Gu Moli's rebuke, Hua Qiong was not angry. Instead, she smiled and narrowed her eyes: "Oh? Impossible?"
"impossible!"
"Then prove it to me?"
Ahhh~!
You don't believe in my professionalism as a detective
"Proof it!"
"Who's afraid of who?"
Gu Moli put away the folder and straightened his back: "Lead the way! Watch me expose the tricks of this Phantom City!"
“Ouch!”
Hua Qiong immediately ran to the front to lead the way for Gu Moli, and where Gu Moli couldn't see, she waved her fist vigorously, revealing an excited look.