The First Order

The Public Order Division employee left the office with the person who had lodged the case and drove to the location where the missing persons were reported to be staying. Before leaving, the employee even asked, “Do all the missing people live in the same area? Did they rent a house together?”“No, we have hundreds of workers in our garment factory, and they’re all staying at different places. The few workers who went missing also had their own places in the stronghold. They weren’t renting or living together,” the garment factory’s manager explained.

“That’s a little strange then.” The Public Order Division employee named Wang Zhongrui wondered, “Don’t you find it odd? They weren’t living together, yet they all went missing at the same time. What was their work performance at the factory like? Did any valuable items go missing at your factory recently?”

Wang Zhongrui thought of a possibility. Could the workers at the factory have run away after stealing some valuable items?

Such things had happened before. However, the criminal was unlucky that time and got discovered by the artificial intelligence even before they could escape the stronghold.

“The most valuable things in our factory are the mechanical equipment and raw materials. However, they can’t steal those. Even if they could, there’s no avenues for them to fence them.” The manager rejected this hypothesis.

“In that case, we can only go to the place they lived to take a look,” Wang Zhongrui said.

The creeper vine had grown to cover a very large area by now. The location mentioned by the garment factory’s manager was where the creeper vine was initially reported by Hope Media’s newspaper to have originated.

Many families in the stronghold who could afford a camera even specially went to this place to take pictures with the creeper vine in the winter.

However, the creeper vine had grown much more since that time. When Wang Zhongrui drove to the area where the creeper vine was growing, he asked the garment factory’s manager next to him in the passenger seat, “There’s creeper vines growing everywhere here. Where are their homes?”

The garment factory’s manager said, “Turn left, then turn right, and we should be there. Eh, this is strange! Why has the creeper vine grown so much? Sir, do you see that apartment on the left? From what I remember, the vines had not spread there yet as of yesterday, but it looks like it’s already covered the entire apartment today. To be honest, if I weren’t incredibly familiar with this area, I might’ve lost my way.”

The lush creeper vines had grown so dense that even the address number on the apartment got covered.

At first, the residents thought it looked really beautiful. But now, the creeper vines were starting to affect everyone’s daily lives. The pedestrians walking down the street were also mostly unhappy about the creeper vines’ overgrowth.

As Wang Zhongrui looked at the creeper vine, he got a niggling feeling that something was not right. However, he could not pinpoint what the problem was.

“We’ve arrived. It’s here.” The garment factory’s manager said, “One of the workers’ homes is on the first floor of this complex.”

After parking the car, Wang Zhongrui walked into the hallway of the building and asked, “Eh, do creeper vines usually grow into the hallways? Don’t they grow in places where sunlight can reach?”

Wang Zhongrui saw that the hallway in front of him had been invaded by the creeper vines, and the originally white walls were no longer visible. However, Wang Zhongrui did not feel that these creeper vines were beautiful. Instead, he felt a chill running up his spine.

But how could a Public Order Division employee get so easily frightened by some creeper vines? As such, he braced himself and walked in.

But strangely, they found the door of the worker’s residence had been left open. Wang Zhongrui asked, “Were you the one who opened the door?”

“No,” The garment factory’s manager replied, “it was already open when I came here yesterday. I was also wondering why they would leave their doors wide open when they left their home.”

Wang Zhongrui stepped into the apartment. There were no traces of fighting in the room as he had imagined, nothing at all.

However, Wang Zhongrui was much more experienced than the manager of the garment factory. Although their Public Order Division had mostly stopped following up on reported cases manually and mainly relied on the artificial intelligence to crack them, the Public Order Division’s employees were still professionally trained.

Right as they entered the house, Wang Zhongrui sensed something was amiss. There was a sweaty handprint on the door frame that was not particularly noticeable, but it looked very strange indeed.

The handprint that was left behind seemed to suggest someone had just opened the door when they were suddenly pulled out of the house by something. The person probably tried to grab ahold of the door frame immediately but failed to do so.

Thinking of all this, Wang Zhongrui turned to look behind him as a chill ran up his spine. However, he saw nothing behind him.

Wang Zhongrui looked around the apartment and suddenly did not want to stay here any longer. He said to the garment factory’s manager, “Let’s step outside and go interview the other residents upstairs.”

After that, they headed upstairs. Then Wang Zhongrui realized the creeper vines had already grown all over the building, both on the inside and on the outside.

When they came to the second floor, Wang Zhongrui was surprised to find the doors of two households were also open. He asked, “Did you come upstairs yesterday?”

“No.” The garment factory’s manager said, “Why would I come upstairs for no reason?”

What Wang Zhongrui was trying to ask was, “When you came here yesterday, did you open the doors on the second floor?! And were the residents still around?!”

Suddenly, Wang Zhongrui shouted loudly, “Is there anyone in there?”

He did not even dare to step into the apartments now as he felt a huge sense of danger threatening him. Wang Zhongrui’s back was drenched in sweat.

A moment later, Wang Zhongrui saw some traces of blood mixed into the dust on the ground. Other people might not recognize that as blood, but how could someone like him not recognize it?!

“Run!” Wang Zhongrui roared.

With that, he pulled the garment factory’s manager by the arm and tried to run downstairs. But it was already too late. Wang Zhongrui saw the creeper vines on the hallway walls moving towards them as though they had come alive.

Wang Zhongrui did not hesitate and rushed into an apartment instead. He seemed to remember there were no creeper vines growing inside the apartment on the first floor.

Both he and the garment factory’s manager rushed into the apartment before the creeper vines could grab ahold of them. The garment factory’s manager was still in a state of shock. “What the hell is going on here? What kind of monster is that? Why are the creeper vines moving?!”

However, Wang Zhongrui did not have time to explain. After entering the apartment, he ran straight for the window as quickly as he could.

With a crash, Wang Zhongrui smashed through the window with his shoulder and escaped from the second floor. Due to the large inertia of his sprint, some of those creeper vines outside the window got snapped by Wang Zhongrui when they tried to grab him.

With a loud thud, Wang Zhongrui landed on the street. The pedestrians on the street looked at him in surprise, but he started shouting at the second floor without a care, “Quick, jump out! Or else it’ll be too late!”

But…

No one responded to him, and it became all quiet on the second floor of the building as though nothing had happened.

The pedestrians on the street stared at Wang Zhongrui like he was a fool. Nobody knew who he was talking to.

Wang Zhongrui felt a tingling sensation in his scalp. He took out his identification and shouted at the pedestrians, “I’m from the Public Order Division. Everyone, stay away from those creeper vines. Quickly make your way to a place where no creeper vines are growing!”

When they saw his Public Order Division ID, they turned nervous. Someone asked, “Sir, what’s wrong with the creeper vines? Is there a problem with them?”

Wang Zhongrui said in a low voice, “These creeper vines can eat people!”

He stood in the middle of the street as he looked at the dense mass of creeper vines surrounding him and the apartment complexes covered in it. He wondered how many people had already been “eaten” by the creeper vines.

But it was still not entirely safe yet even though he had escaped from the clutches of the creeper vines. Wang Zhongrui knew the creeper vines would actively try to grab its prey. But for some reason, it immediately stopped attacking when he landed on the street.