The Vanishing Records

"It's good that you've returned safely!"

Ji Mengyao had just opened the door to find Shen Yiyue, knowing she had come to return the key.

Shen Yiyue handed her the key and casually expressed her gratitude:

"Thanks~ I'll treat you all to dinner next time!"

Ji Mengyao responded with a smile:

"Don't mention it. Wu Di's wound has healed, so we can all work together next time!"

Shen Yiyue made an OK gesture, indicating that would be fine, then suddenly her face took on a gossipy expression:

"Now that his wound has healed, I suppose your sweet cohabitation is coming to an end?"

Seeing Shen Yiyue's mischievous look, Ji Mengyao's face reddened involuntarily, and she began to mumble defensively:

"I told that idiot he could stay a few more days, but he refused. It's not like I'm desperate to have him here! He's been eating my food and using my stuff, hmph...."

"My birthday is coming up in a few days, would it have killed him to stay until after that...."

As she mentioned this, she suddenly remembered something and extended an invitation to Shen Yiyue:

"Oh right, it's my birthday in a few days, you should all come over for drinks and food~!"

"Ah~~I see."

Upon hearing this, Shen Yiyue wore a knowing expression, suspecting that Wu Di was probably planning to prepare a surprise birthday gift.

"What's wrong, are you busy?"

Ji Mengyao noticed Shen Yiyue's hesitation and looked puzzled.

"No, no, no, I'm free. See you then!"

Shen Yiyue finally responded, agreeing with a grin.

Ji Mengyao eyed her suspiciously:

"I feel like you're all hiding something from me...."

"No way, how could that be!"

Shen Yiyue immediately shook her head in denial, knowing she couldn't spoil the surprise – it would ruin all the fun.

She was looking forward to watching their sweet interactions on the birthday, how delightful!

Ji Mengyao furrowed her brows, watching Shen Yiyue's silly smile with even more suspicion:

"Hmm—this is really suspicious...."

Seeing Ji Mengyao growing more suspicious, Shen Yiyue made her escape:

"I've got something to do, gotta go!!"

"Hey!"

Before Ji Mengyao could stop her, Shen Yiyue had already dashed away.

"What's going on...."

She watched Shen Yiyue's retreating figure with confusion and closed the door, feeling somewhat dejected.

......

This time, Ning Yu and Lin Hao met in another empty apartment. They always left coded messages to randomly determine their meeting locations.

After confirming no one was around, Lin Hao used a special key to open the apartment door, where Ning Yu was already waiting.

"How's it going? Any progress on your end?"

Ning Yu asked while pulling out the serum obtained from killing two Gluttons during today's mission.

Lin Hao walked over, taking the two vials of serum from Ning Yu, and sat down in a nearby chair.

"I managed to recover those records, but unfortunately, the mission contents are completely gone. I only recovered partial information."

Ning Yu turned to ask:

"What information?"

"About that person called Wan Heng, I checked the last modified timestamp of his recovered mission record. It was deleted that night."

Lin Hao explained, while storing away the two vials of serum that needed refining.

"So someone knew about his death that night and deleted the records."

Ning Yu made a reasonable deduction.

"Exactly."

Lin Hao nodded.

"It seems this matter is more complicated than I imagined."

Ning Yu pressed her hand against her lips, deep in thought.

"And besides his record, I recovered quite a few other deleted records."

Lin Hao dropped another shocking piece of news.

Ning Yu's eyes narrowed slightly as she took a slow breath:

"Each record equals the death of one or even more Awakened Ones."

Lin Hao silently nodded again, then analyzed:

"These records weren't very frequent. Looking at their timestamp distribution pattern, they averaged one every one to two weeks."

Ning Yu took out her phone, and while there was no signal, she could still check the time:

It had been over a week since Wan Heng's death.

Someone was dispatching Awakened Ones on certain death missions according to a regular schedule. Why?

It seemed like something that only caused harm with no benefit.

Why would anyone do such a thing?

Lin Hao also wore a grave expression, sharing Ning Yu's inability to understand these actions.

"This means there will be another victim soon."

Based on the timing, someone else would fall victim soon. Ning Yu suddenly remembered the two Gluttons they encountered today.

Though not particularly powerful, they had precisely located her and Shen Yiyue. If others encountered such monsters, the outcome would be uncertain.

Others in the base hadn't noticed these abnormalities, probably because exploration team members dying during missions had become commonplace.

It was simply the nature of high-risk, high-reward operations.

"I've written a small background program to continuously monitor file write records in that location."

Lin Hao had already anticipated this and taken preemptive action:

"Whenever a record is deleted, my monitoring program will send a message through the base's intranet to my computer."

"You... know programming? Weren't you studying biological science?"

Ning Yu looked curiously at Lin Hao, feeling this guy had quite a few skills, except for being weak in combat.

Lin Hao scratched his head embarrassedly at her question:

"I actually started with computer science, thinking I'd get a well-paying job after graduation, buy a house early and marry Xiaolu."

"But my old man forced me to change majors and got me into his lab, well... it was that whole following-in-father's-footsteps thing."

He looked naturally intelligent, which explained why he seemed so capable even after changing majors.

"So if something happens to someone else, we can know in advance."

Ning Yu understood but felt this wasn't enough to solve the problem, so she added:

"Is there any way to find out who's deleting these records?"

Finding the person directly would be ideal, but Lin Hao just shook his head helplessly at Ning Yu's question.

"Although many people in the research group have accounts, they don't know each other's identities. I've been wanting to improve this aspect, but...."

He hesitated.

"But what?"

Ning Yu pressed.

"The matter wasn't pushed forward and eventually fizzled out."

Ning Yu felt the suspicious elements were multiplying.

"Oh, one more thing."

Lin Hao pulled out two vials of light golden liquid from his pocket and handed them to Ning Yu, saying:

"I've successfully refined the more evolved serum you brought back last time."