Chapter 1 A Shot Heard 'Round the Island

Inside the command center of the Nihon Island Paranormal Affairs Bureau, everyone stared in dumbfounded silence. On the left screen, Li Ang had vanished; on the right, the red dot marking his location was shifting again. Their eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

One shot... 500 kilometers?

Was that a gun or a ballistic missile?

No, that wasn't the point. Why was he violating international conventions and appearing in Nihon Island's territorial waters? What was his objective?

The Nihon Island Paranormal Affairs Bureau's decision-makers exchanged uneasy glances.

In fact, official organizations in various regions had long ago reached a mutual defense agreement under the auspices of the Global Supernatural Alliance.

The agreement covered not only external matters—unity in the face of paranormal events and Gate disasters—but also internal affairs.

That is, vigilance against organizations and individuals who were too powerful and posed a strong potential threat to human society.

For example, the Special Incidents Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation had created a portable watch that all players could receive for free.

Once worn, it could monitor bodily functions, report current latitude, longitude, and altitude, freely access internal FBI intelligence of low to medium classification, and receive a substantial sum of in-game currency from the FBI every week.

The price was that the portable watch would provide the player's location to the FBI.

These surveillance methods, whether overt or covert, to varying degrees, were efforts by official organizations in various regions to maintain stable social order.

Supernatural beings with official backgrounds like Bai Haozheng had to submit numerous application forms every time they went abroad, detailing the reason for entering the country (solving paranormal events, visiting relatives and friends, etc.), and voluntarily accept monitoring, remaining within sight of officials from the other country at all times.

They had to report their location information every moment and were not allowed to disappear at will.

Lone wolf players like Liu Wudai, whose strength approached the top tier, would attract the close attention of neighboring countries simply by moving near the border, and their entry audits would be even stricter.

And someone like Li Ang, a top-tier player equivalent to a strategic weapon, had his every move closely watched by all sides. The slightest carelessness could trigger international disputes, or even more serious violent conflicts.

The Nihon Island Paranormal Affairs Bureau leader, dressed in a suit, took a deep breath and quickly issued instructions.

On the one hand, they urgently contacted Li Risheng and the Special Affairs Bureau to see if there was some misunderstanding.

On the other hand, they dispatched the most elite supernatural beings from headquarters to Kyushu Island in the southwest, joining forces with the local border defense forces.

They had to intercept Li Risheng outside the border.

—

Boom!!!

The point where the enchanted bullet struck the sea erupted in a towering column of water.

Li Ang walked out, treading on the seawater, his expression calm. Wisps of smoke curled from the muzzle of his Colt revolver.

Shhh—

On the distant horizon, a long white wave suddenly surged toward Li Ang.

"Hmm?"

Li Ang raised an eyebrow and stopped.

The approaching force was more than a dozen elite agents from the Nihon Island Paranormal Affairs Bureau, led by the alluring woman in black nun attire, Sesshouin, whom he had met in the Lost World.

Accompanying her were Aoandon, Umibozu, Hagoromo Kokoro, and others.

Sesshouin and the others stopped abruptly a hundred meters away, saying in a gentle and polite tone, "Long time no see, Mr. Li."

"It hasn't been that many months."

Li Ang smiled casually. He could see the fluctuations in the aura of this group of people in his Enhanced Vision.

Only Sesshouin, previously ranked twenty-first in individual combat strength, still posed a threat to him.

"For players suffering from a life-threatening curse, a few months is a long time, isn't it?

After all, not everyone can change their destiny like you, Li-san."

Sesshouin smiled, her gentle attitude surprising her colleagues.

In the eyes of her subordinates, this Sesshouin-kakka, who was once a miko at a local shrine, was unusually cold and indifferent.

More precisely, this coldness wasn't directed at any particular group.

In her eyes, all humans in the world—subordinates, superiors, or so-called relatives—were just ordinary, bipedal chunks of meat, not worth paying much attention to.

She enjoyed admiring the sight of intelligent beings dying, believing that only at the moment of death could they bloom with a unique beauty. To preserve this beauty, she would record the scene with an old-fashioned film camera.

Whether it was ordinary people, monsters, or colleagues who died in battle with monsters...

The Nihon Island Paranormal Affairs Bureau's office building had a huge darkroom dedicated to her, filled with thousands upon thousands of photos of death. Some were of people, others of animals.

When she wasn't working, Sesshouin would even disguise herself as an ordinary person, taking on civilian corpse-collecting services, going to accident scenes to collect and photograph the dead.

Within the department, anyone who voiced the slightest objection to her hobby would die mysteriously a few weeks later and then be collected into a photograph, even her direct superiors.

This was her first berserk button. Her second was her age. According to some rumors, anyone who privately discussed Sesshouin's exact age would eventually be discovered by her, then pinned against the wall and beaten mercilessly. Those who couldn't endure it might even die on the spot.

It was even said that someone was chatting online and had just typed "Sesshouin-kakka seems to be 3..." on the keyboard when Sesshouin appeared behind him and shoved the entire keyboard into his mouth before he could type the rest of the number.

It was like a sensational urban legend.

"Maybe."

Li Ang replied nonchalantly. He had also seen the rumors about Sesshouin on the player forums, but he didn't care much.

Powerful players all had some psychological problems, more or less.

If you didn't have a mental illness, you couldn't very well call yourself a first-tier player.

"Li-san is indeed very modest."

Sesshouin smiled. "Ah, that's right. The decision-makers of the Nihon Island Paranormal Affairs Bureau would like us to ask you the reason for entering the country, and your destination.

They are very flustered and uneasy right now."

"I want to verify a hypothesis,"

Li Ang said casually. "It won't cause any damage. The destination should be at the southern end of Honshu. I'll be gone in half an hour."

"A hypothesis?"

Sesshouin paused at his words. Just as she was about to ask further, she saw Li Ang disregard the Nihon Island Paranormal Affairs Bureau members. He stepped on invisible stairs, rapidly ascending, pulled the trigger towards the distant sea, and instantly disappeared into the high sky.

He was going to find the Yomi he had witnessed in the last script mission.