Chapter 41: Clues Hidden in the Grass
The gates of Echo Courtyard closed behind Hodell with a slow, weighty groan, shutting out the restless noise of the street.
The air inside was filled with layers of herbal incense. It was meant to calm the mind, to create the sort of serenity scholars and researchers liked to pretend they lived in. In Oluson, that kind of peace always felt a little staged.
As it happened, the one who came to receive him was Peter.
The moment Peter saw him clearly, relief flashed across his face.
Young. Clean featured. Properly dressed. Temperament restrained. No outward arrogance. No veteran's scarred hostility.
So that was it.
Peter's shoulders eased slightly.
The General Administration was too busy to waste a real bulldozer here. They had sent a newcomer to go through the motions.
With that thought in mind, Peter put on a warm smile and spoke in a mild, patient tone, as though he were already explaining a harmless misunderstanding to an inexperienced junior.
"Specialist Ryan, I can guess why you are here. Your superiors have likely misunderstood the nature of the Psychic Coating technique. In truth, it is not some exclusive"
Hodell raised a hand.
Peter stopped.
Hodell did not answer the half formed explanation. He merely gestured for Peter to lead the way.
For a second, Peter froze. Then he forced his smile to remain in place and turned toward the inner hall.
Before they even passed through the archway at the end of the corridor, a wave of low muttering drifted toward them.
"The government people are here again?"
"What now? Another label to stick on us?"
"Let me guess. Another outsider who doesn't understand psychics but still wants to lecture us."
"At this rate, we'll be branded rebels sooner or later."
The voices were not loud, but they carried real resentment. Not the theatrical kind. The kind that had been simmering for days and had finally started bubbling over.
Hodell almost laughed.
Rebels? What was this, some cheap party game?
And more importantly, were they really so unafraid of him hearing every word?
He stepped into the hall without changing expression.
There were more than a dozen people inside. Some were sorting crystals. Some were recording fluctuation curves onto crystal sheets. Some were pretending to work while very obviously listening.
The moment they saw him, the room shifted.
Movements slowed. Eyes turned. The air tightened.
Peter hurried two steps ahead and lowered his voice. "Specialist Ryan, perhaps we should speak in the side room"
A young psychic abruptly stood up.
"Peter, what are you afraid of?" he said sharply. "If he's here to talk, let him talk in front of everyone. Or is a government specialist afraid of being heard?"
A few voices immediately echoed him.
"That's right."
"What, are we dangerous now?"
"If he's going to question us, do it openly."
Peter's face changed.
He was just about to smooth things over when Hodell finally spoke.
"I am not here to discuss psychic techniques with you."
His voice was calm.
And cold.
The hall went quiet at once.
The young psychic, who had been standing there full of righteous anger, suddenly found himself locked in place by nothing more than that tone.
Hodell walked forward step by step, his gaze sweeping across the room. He was not especially tall. He was not especially imposing. But right now, every step felt like pressure.
Peter unconsciously shifted half a step backward.
At the end of the day, this was still someone from the Rapid Response Department.
Not a visiting clerk. Not a lecturer. Not a harmless observer.
An official specialist.
A few older members of the Blingshee Society exchanged glances. Their expressions grew more serious.
Peter swallowed and lowered his voice.
"Specialist Ryan... do you believe the Blingshee Society was not behind it?"
All eyes in the room locked onto Hodell.
He gave a faint nod.
"The official conclusion has been issued," he said. "But in my view, it is not entirely accurate."
The reaction was immediate.
Some looked stunned. Some looked relieved. Some seemed afraid to show either one.
At that moment, an elder seated in the far corner slowly rose to his feet. His gaze shot toward the young psychic who had spoken earlier.
"Rui," he said flatly, "your attitude just now was disgraceful. Did you think a few reckless words from you could challenge the General Administration?"
Rui's face turned white.
"I"
"Apologize."
The elder's tone was icy.
Rui's jaw tightened, but in the end he lowered his head.
"My apologies, Specialist Ryan. I spoke out of turn."
Only then did Hodell spare him a glance. He gave a small nod and moved on as though the incident was beneath notice.
Peter exhaled quietly.
Then, after a moment's hesitation, he made up his mind.
"Three days ago," he said in a lower voice, "someone approached us privately. They wanted to hire psychic users from the Society to escort a batch of mineral resources near the vein."
Hodell's eyes sharpened.
Peter continued, "We had just received a formal warning from the authorities. There was no way we would touch that kind of work under those circumstances. So we refused."
The room fell silent again.
A different silence this time.
He had come for a clue.
He had found one.
...
By the time Hodell reached the warehouse, night had already sunk deep into the city.
The lamps outside were dim, their light failing to fully cut through the mist. Inside, the warehouse was colder than the street, the kind of dry cold that gathered in old places where too many secrets had been discussed and too many plans had been made.
He walked straight in.
If he wanted, he could step away from all of this.
He had the interface. He had talent. He had a path most people on Liuli Star would kill for. If he abandoned these cases, ignored the twisting lines of the main plot, and focused only on making himself stronger, his life would become far easier.
But that was never what he wanted.
Not in his previous life.
Not in this one.
His past had been cramped, bitter, and full of pressure. This life had simply wrapped that same suffocation in prettier paper. But he had long since come to one conclusion.
He did not live for fate.
He lived for himself.
Whatever failed to crush him would become part of what made him stronger.
When he pushed open the warehouse door, five pairs of eyes turned toward him.
Kyle spoke first. "How did it go at Echo Courtyard?"
Hodell walked in, closed the door behind him, and said flatly, "The Blingshee Society isn't behind it."
Baron sucked in a breath through his teeth. "The official verdict is already out, and you're saying that out loud now? You really enjoy dancing on blades."
Kyle did not react. "Reason?"
Hodell did not answer right away. He pulled out a chair and sat down.
"You first," he said. "What did you find?"
Kyle gave him a long look, then nodded at Loyi.
Loyi immediately spread several pages of neatly organized notes over the table.
"According to the channels I tracked," he said, tapping one of the sheets, "there were three large scale black market purchases of mental stabilizers and rejection suppressants in a very short span of time."
Hodell's eyes narrowed.
"Rejection suppressants?" he asked. "How much?"
Loyi shook his head. "The informant couldn't get the exact number. He only knows it was a large quantity. But he confirmed the locations of all three transactions."
He slid over a city map.
Three circles were marked near the edge of the New District.
Sasha spoke from the shadows. "Drugs like that are usually tied to illegal experiments. Black Bone used similar substances."
Hodell did not speak, but his thoughts moved quickly.
Could the School be stirring the water again?
"Anything else?" he asked.
Loyi produced a second map.
"Recently, the New District has received several officially approved shipments of building and technical materials. The number of transports is about thirty percent higher than projected. The reports provide no clear reason."
He tapped the map again.
"And all three black market drug transactions happened near the New District."
Eileen, who had been quiet until then, spoke softly. "There have also been protests there. Residents are saying the water sources were contaminated."
"Water contamination?" Hodell repeated.
Eileen nodded. "That is the public explanation. Oluson's had so many incidents lately that mana contamination no longer surprises anyone."
Hodell frowned.
Too neat.
Too coincidental.
Kyle looked at him. "You think the shipments are cover?"
Hodell ignored the question and placed Peter's clue on the table instead.
"Three days ago, the Obsidian Group tried to hire psychic escorts from the Blingshee Society for a mineral transport."
Obsidian Group.
Psychics.
The table went still.
Kyle's gaze hardened immediately.
"They used an outside offer to test the route," he said. "Or to recruit cover."
Sasha added, "And the timing lines up. That approach happened the day before the New District received its next batch of support materials."
Now the three separate threads had become one rope in everyone's mind.
Black market drug purchases.
Government transport.
Water contamination and public unrest.
Hodell slowly laid it out.
"Maybe these are not separate incidents at all," he said. "Maybe the contamination was never the main event. Maybe it was only noise. A screen."
Kyle understood first.
"Someone is using official projects as a shield."
Loyi inhaled sharply. "Then the mana contamination in the New District may not be contamination in the usual sense."
Sasha nodded once. "It could be a side effect. If large scale equipment was moved through the district, leakage during transport would explain the readings."
Baron pushed himself halfway out of his chair. "They're playing this big?"
Hodell said, "If there are protests but no mass casualties, then whatever was moved has not been fully activated in the district itself. At least not openly. That narrows the possibilities."
That point alone eased some of the tension in the room.
Then Kyle turned to look at him fully.
"Ryan," he said, "when did you start seeing it this way?"
From Freeman.
To the soul stone.
To the shielding device.
To the moment the second A rank mission triggered.
A lot earlier than you think.
Hodell kept those thoughts to himself.
"After I confirmed the Blingshee Society was only a scapegoat," he answered instead. "If someone wanted to frame them that badly, then the real culprit was likely closer than anyone expected."
He leaned forward slightly.
"And the contamination event itself may have been just one more layer in a chain designed to pull our attention away from the real operation."
The room fell silent for nearly half a minute.
Then Kyle stood.
"Target direction confirmed," he said. "We move."
[You have triggered D rank mission: Clues Hidden in the Grass. Accept/Decline?]
[Mission Brief: When anomalies disguise themselves as accidents, and conspiracies hide beneath public noise, the most dangerous thing is often not the fire that explodes, but the cold front no one notices. Your team has begun linking scattered clues into a line. The truth is often hidden in places everyone steps over.]
[Mission Reward: 80,000 EXP]
[Special Reward: 120,000 EXP, Unknown Reward]
Hodell nearly stared at him.
Good heavens.
Captain Kyle really was a walking mission generator.
Across the room, Sasha happened to glance at him and caught the fleeting gratitude in his eyes. Her expression shifted ever so slightly.
For some reason, she was suddenly reminded of the last time Hodell had asked her to help him with surveillance.
No way.
Could he actually...?
...
The New District at night wore a different face from the rest of Oluson.
Mana mist drifted between the streets in thin pale sheets. There were no black market shouts here, no rough music spilling from tavern doors, no street brawls breaking out in the alleys. The silence itself felt cautious, like the district was holding its breath.
The six members of Third Squad gathered inside an unremarkable residence that served as a temporary hideout.
Sasha was the first to report.
"The water issue is worse than the official files suggest."
Eileen frowned as she organized the latest figures. "The samples are definitely toxic. No wonder the residents are angry. Even without anything else, this alone would be enough to stir the district up."
Kyle added, "It is not only toxic. There are unstable energy residues mixed in. Long term exposure would have side effects on ordinary civilians."
He looked up at Hodell.
"What do you think this means?"
Hodell stood by the doorframe, arms folded, gaze moving over the data.
"It means the timing matters more than the explanation," he said. "These fluctuations line up too neatly with the shipments. Someone is using the noise to hide movement."
Baron cursed under his breath. "These are government transports. How does an outsider tamper with something like that?"
Sasha replied first. "Then maybe the hand isn't outside."
That landed heavily.
She went on, "I checked this shipment schedule. On paper, the security chain is clean. The records are clean. If the records are clean and the outcome still stinks, then someone inside the process is covering for it."
Silence fell again.
The shape of the problem was becoming uglier by the minute.
Loyi broke it. "Then where do we start? Guards? Drivers? Route stations? We still need something concrete."
"Water sources. Energy traces. Transit reports. Route overlaps," Hodell said. "We pull at every thread until something tears."
No one objected.
They moved out at once.
Kyle led the way. The others followed close behind, keeping formation as they crossed the sleeping district one block at a time. Loyi projected a three dimensional street map from his wrist device while Eileen cross checked pipeline records and Sasha kept watch on the rooftops and blind angles.
Baron muttered as they moved. "Tell me again why we always end up searching the most miserable corners of the city in the middle of the night."
Because fate hates you personally, Hodell thought.
He kept that one to himself.
They checked the water lines. They checked delivery corridors. They checked service alleys, abandoned corners, maintenance access points, and half finished side roads that existed on planning documents but not in public maps.
At one point, Loyi pointed at a modest storefront.
"There," he said. "That surveillance matrix is too advanced for a shop this size."
Eileen blinked. "Maybe it was renovated recently?"
"Maybe," Hodell said. "Or maybe someone wanted a very small place watched very carefully."
They kept moving.
Minutes turned into an hour.
Then, at a narrow corner between two streets, Hodell suddenly stopped.
His head turned slightly.
"Do you feel that?"
The others froze.
Sasha closed her eyes for a fraction of a second, then nodded. "The energy density changed. It's unstable."
Kyle's gaze tracked down the street and landed on a derelict warehouse not far away.
"Check it," he said.
The team advanced carefully.
The warehouse looked abandoned from the outside. Rusted doors. Dead weeds. Walls stained with damp and age. But appearances in Oluson had already lied to them too many times to be worth anything.
When the iron door creaked open, the stale air inside rolled out to meet them.
Loyi whispered, "This doesn't feel like a normal abandoned structure."
Sasha moved first, stepping lightly over debris and stopping near the center of the floor.
Then she crouched.
Her fingers pressed against an almost invisible seam between two cracked boards.
A faint vibration answered her touch.
"There," she said.
Hodell's eyes sharpened.
Sharp as ever.
Bringing the team really had been the right call.
"As expected," Sasha murmured. "This place isn't empty."
Hodell joined her side. "Everyone stay alert. If there's a hidden space below, it's there for a reason."
The group spread out immediately, searching the warehouse from wall to wall.
A few minutes later, Loyi's light stopped beneath a warped section of floor.
"Found it," he said quietly. "A concealed mechanism."
He triggered it.
The floor shifted with a low grinding sound, revealing a narrow entrance leading underground.
Everyone's breathing changed at once.
Whatever was below, it had been hidden carefully.
And people did not build hidden facilities beneath abandoned warehouses unless they desperately wanted them to stay unseen.
They descended in order.
The basement below was pitch black and heavy with that unmistakable buried stillness of a place left sealed for too long.
Then, in the darkness ahead, a few weak points of light flickered.
Baron's voice dropped instinctively. "Something's there."
Hodell raised a hand, silencing him.
He closed his eyes and let his senses spread.
Yes.
There it was.
A faint but unmistakable fluctuation.
Not ordinary machinery.
Not ambient residue.
Psychic energy.
He opened his eyes slowly.
"This is not a standard magitech installation," he said. "There's psychic force woven through it."
The group advanced.
A dimly glowing apparatus emerged from the darkness. Runes, mechanical structures, energy channels, and layered components had all been integrated into a single system. The design was not random. It had purpose.
A very specific one.
Kyle inhaled slowly.
"This..." His voice lowered. "Could this be what they moved under cover of the government transports?"
Hodell did not answer.
He glanced at the system interface.
The mission progress had not changed.
So this still was not the real core.
Just as that thought settled, Sasha's gaze shifted toward the far side of the basement.
She turned slightly, every line of her body tightening.
"Wait," she said.
"There is movement over there."
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
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