Chapter 1051: Chapter 1051

[Old Town Travel Agency]

The pitter-patter of raindrops scattered on the ground, splashing up spray from the pockmarked concrete.

Standing under the extended tin roof, with his back to the street and raindrops, He Ao looked up, gazing at the ’brand new’ sign above his head.

Below the sign was a half-open glass door, with a cut iron chain lock scattered at its base.

Behind the door lay overturned tables, scattered documents, and a garbage bin rolling on the ground.

This mess extended all the way to the deepest part of the house, but not far from the entrance, on the wall, still hung a rather delicate map of Feklay City, with some special annotations attached to it.

It was as if the travel agency was operating normally just the day before.

Well, in fact, the travel agency was indeed operating normally until yesterday.

But this morning when they came to find them, the place had already been vacated.

He Ao remembered that the ’special envoy’ dispatched to Feklay City was a D-level Transcendent named Senwen.

Following Yan Yue’s notification, Senwen’s subordinate had already been here this morning, cutting the door lock and turning the place upside down, but no effective documents or information were found.

He Ao had just gone in to see for himself, and indeed no useful clues were left behind.

Their move was hasty, but they managed to take everything they could.

Shaking his head, He Ao retracted his gaze from the new sign and looked back at the street behind him.

In the rain, many people were running forward, their skin dark and their bodies skinny, racing through the streets.

Some of them seemed to catch a glimpse of He Ao standing under the eaves with the corner of their eyes, and a part of them turned their heads to take a look at He Ao at the door of the travel agency, wondering why he would appear here.

He Ao’s gaze penetrated the crowd and looked at the buildings on both sides of the street.

Even though the drizzle kept falling, there was still a hint of musty smell that crept into his nostrils.

Old signs were distributed on both sides of the street, and the uneven walls and pillars served as the rare decorations of many shops.

Not everyone was running in the rain; some, dressed in old, dull clothes and looking haggard, squeezed under the eaves of shops, struggling to avoid the sudden downpour.

The ’brand new’ travel agency where He Ao was standing right now was the best-decorated shop in this street, or to be more precise, in this neighborhood.

Pine Forest Street, located in the southern district of Feklay, is the largest slum area in Feklay.

It is also where gang activities are most rampant in the entire city.

He Ao lifted his gaze, sweeping over the densely packed, decrepit buildings that seemed ready to collapse at any moment.

Pieces of rusty tin covered the exteriors of these buildings, separating what seemed to be balconies from view.

Through the gaps in the tin, one could faintly make out the shadows of people passing by.

These old balconies appeared to have been deliberately partitioned off to become ’bedrooms’ for workers.

These scenes were somewhat ’familiar’ to He Ao; at some point, he even felt as if he was back in the Copy World in a daze.

Withdrawing his gaze, He Ao looked up at the building where the travel agency was located.

This building seemed somewhat different from the surrounding ones; it was larger and its exterior appeared a bit neater, with a variety of signs hanging on the outside, seemingly extending into the depths of the sky from where the sudden rain originated.

The neon lights were intermittently flickering on these layered signs.

This seemed to be a ’commercial building’.

He Ao’s gaze took a round and not far from the travel agency, he found a double iron gate marked with an upward arrow.

Right now, some people were rushing through the iron gate from the rain.

Following the eaves, with the sound of the rain hitting the ground ’drip-drip’, He Ao moved through the crowd beneath the eaves towards that iron gate.

Some people turned to look at He Ao, making way for him.

Then they continued to lift their heads, watching the gloomy sky.

Their curiosity about He Ao, the foreign visitor, lasted only a brief moment; in comparison, they were more concerned about when the sudden rain from the sky would stop.

And in a very short time, He Ao had also walked through that double iron gate.

What first caught his eye was a narrow and old elevator that seemed to have far exceeded its service life.

Many people dampened with moisture and raindrops were standing in front of this elevator.

Among them were strong middle-aged men, young people wearing simple work clothes, and brightly dressed young girls flaunting their appearances.

Some in the crowd raised their heads to glance at the newcomer He Ao, while others kept their heads down, engrossed in their cellphones.

A young woman at the edge of the crowd, with pink-painted nails, bold lipstick, a white belly-baring top, an ultra-short skirt, and black fishnet stockings, now lifted her gaze.

She looked at He Ao, her eyes settling on his neat attire, clacked over in her high heels with a smile on her face, and spoke in not-so-fluent Central Earth language, "Handsome guy..."

"Have you been here the entire time?"

He Ao glanced at the woman and asked calmly in Trok language.

The woman was taken aback, paused for a moment after hearing He Ao’s fluent speech, and somewhat deflatedly pulled out a pack of cigarettes from her chest, lighting one, "Yeah, I’ve been here. How about you? Student? Here for some fun?"

Then she paused again, drawing out her voice as she looked back at He Ao, "You know the going rates, right? For foreigners, it might be a bit more expensive~"

"Flesh Photo Studio,"

He Ao did not respond to her and asked casually, "Have you heard of this name?"

"You mean that creepy photo studio on the third floor?"

The woman, holding the cigarette in her hand, waved dismissively, "No idea how long that shop has been closed down. The Pine Forest gang, those bastards, haven’t even reclaimed the space. Damn them, they get all energetic when it’s time to bully us."

The woman pointed toward the deep corridor, "Go up the stairs there, to the third floor, turn left, then just go straight until the end."

She took a puff of her cigarette, speaking slowly, "But I advise you not to go there. That shop doesn’t seem right. It’s been open for so long and I’ve never seen the boss. The employees also look pretty dangerous. Even though it’s closed, it still sticks out there like a haunted house. No one in this building dares to go in."

A calm voice of gratitude reached her ears.

The woman looked up and realized that the young man who had just been in front of her had disappeared without her noticing.

She turned back around, and the young man was already stepping onto the old concrete staircase.

"He moves that fast?"

The woman, with the cigarette in her mouth, shook her head and walked back to the crowd, "Did he even let me finish speaking?"

As the woman returned to the crowd, another woman next to her, also wearing fishnet stockings, laughed and asked, "Why didn’t you charge him for information?"

"Just giving directions."

The woman removed the cigarette and passed it to her companion.

"I think it’s because you think he’s handsome,"

Her companion took over the cigarette, took a drag, looked the woman over, and handed back the cigarette, "Whenever you see a handsome man, you can’t keep your legs together."

The woman took back the cigarette, laughed and cursed, "Who could tell he was handsome? All these Central Earth people look the same,"

She puffed on the cigarette, turned her head, glanced at the empty staircase where a youth was ascending, while the Central Earth young man’s figure had long disappeared, "Though as for charisma, that’s a different story,"

Then she turned back again and took a drag from her cigarette, "Some people, you know they’re different just by the first glance."

He Ao looked up at the sign that was already half crooked,

"A hot dog please, freshly grilled, not reheated, thank you."

Voices from customers at the hot dog stand sounded behind him.

He Ao lowered his head and looked at the tightly shut rusty roller shutter door beneath the sign.

It seemed shop had indeed been ’closed’ for quite a while, as the entrance was covered in dust.

He Ao walked up to the roller shutter and reached out to grasp the handle, slightly exerting force to lift it.

The roller door was not locked, and he easily pulled it open.

However, he did not fully open the door, but rather left a gap about one meter high and bent down to enter.

Almost the instant he stepped through the door, a thick cloud of dust and the smell of mildew hit him in the face.

Near the entrance was a wooden cash register counter, which now lay toppled over.

Scattered on the ground were some camera tripods and picture frames.

A little further, a rack that seemed to have been used to hang certain specific garments had been knocked down, with the clothing it held strewn all about.

There were slight, dried bloodstains on the floor, but not many, and they seemed to have been dry for a long time.

Amongst the tripods and frames, there was also a dead rat, desiccated.

He Ao briefly scanned the photo studio.

It looks like the woman was right; this photo studio hasn’t seen anyone for months.

The overturned counter showed signs of having been rifled through, with all the boxes opened and thrown onto the ground.

It seems that He Ao was not the only visitor during these months.

There had probably been a thief here before, and it was likely they had knocked over these things while rummaging around.

Stepping over the clutter on the floor, He Ao moved forward slowly, looking towards a curtain that was half-drawn.

It seemed to lead into the photo studio’s ’inner room.’

Under normal circumstances, this kind of room on the inside would be used by photo studios to take pictures of their clients.

He Ao approached the curtain, slowly drawing it aside, revealing a black door that was slightly ajar, previously concealed behind the curtain, now coming into his field of view.

He reached out, grasped the doorknob, and pushed the door open.

A rich smell that carried a trace of blood and rotting mildew rushed towards him all at once.

The first things that He Ao saw were several extinguished fill lights and some columns that seemed to be used to prop up backdrops.

And hanging from these columns, there were two withered dry corpses.

Their heads were drooping, as if they had been hanging there for a long time.

He Ao calmly looked over the two dry corpses.

The corpses wore rather old-fashioned clothing with paper money stuffed in their pockets, and below them, some cameras and coins were scattered next to the dry bodies.

It appeared that these two were visitors who had ’visited’ before He Ao, intending to steal something.

And just as He Ao was about to avert his gaze from the two dry corpses, they suddenly lifted their heads, their eyes wide open, gazing at He Ao.

At the same time, a cold arm reached out from behind the door and grabbed He Ao’s wrist.

He Ao turned his head to look towards the side.

The first thing he saw was a pale cheek; its owner seemed to have been dead for quite some time, wearing the photo studio’s uniform, staring straight at He Ao.

And behind him, dense, twisted flesh extended from his back, covering the entire wall and door.

He fixated his gaze on He Ao, his pale hand grasping tightly on He Ao’s wrist, as if observing imprisoned prey.

His lips slowly opened, revealing jagged fangs inside, sharp like a saw. Following that, his mouth opened wider, like a guillotine ready to crush everything, poised to shatter He Ao’s skull.

He Ao calmly watched this scene unfold, and then his captured hand suddenly swung forward, punching a hole through the creature’s body. Then his other hand reached into the torn hole, lifted the monster up, turned around, and exerted force on both sides with his hands.

The twisted blood and flesh creature was directly torn apart, split in two, its shattered flesh splattering everywhere.

Those two dry corpses with bulging eyes that were watching He Ao witnessed this scene. After a moment of stunned silence, they quickly lowered their heads.

He Ao tossed the creature in his hand to the ground, glanced at the two hanging dry corpses, and with a gentle raise of his hand, an invisible sword light swept through the darkness, cleaving both corpses in two, and shredded the wriggling flesh within their remains.

Then his gaze swept across the ’cabin’ again.

Apart from these flesh monsters, the overall preservation of the entire photo studio was fairly intact. If it weren’t for thieves, it would have been much cleaner, which suggests that the owner of the studio may not have left in a hurry.

He even left behind a flesh monster to guard this photo studio.

But likewise, after he left, he never returned, so no one cared about the disorderly state this photo studio fell into.

This place was a permanent outpost left by the Flesh Doctor in Daybreak, allowing the deployed members of Daybreak to contact him at any time.

But in fact, he had been away from here for a long time.

This Flesh Doctor still maintained contact with Daybreak, but he never expressed a desire to correct the permanent outpost, nor did he mention to Daybreak that he had left it.

Is he guarding against Daybreak?

He has already offended Moonlight, the Research Institute certainly cannot tolerate him, and if he offends Daybreak, how can he assure his survival while being pursued by several major organizations?

To establish one’s own kingdom, one needs to rely on something after all.

Where could he have gone?

He Ao retracted his gaze and left the room.

He took another look at the disorderly photo studio, walked out through the rolling shutter door, and reached out to pull the door shut.

Perhaps it’s necessary to find an excuse to conduct a purge of Daybreak’s local organization here too; maybe it could lead to some clues.

However, compared to the complete records of Daybreak’s organization in the Yika Republic, many of the member records of Daybreak’s organization in the Trok Republic are blank.

The Flesh Doctor has been delaying and failing to report information for a long time; it’s necessary to see if there’s any local data available.

As he pondered, He Ao turned around and looked at the hot dog store across the street, glanced at the people inside, and walked over.

He approached the entrance and, speaking in Trok, said, "A traditional hot dog and a slice of ham."

The Boss initially did not pay attention to He Ao, but hearing his voice, he looked up at He Ao, "Central Earth person? Your Trok is fluent,"

"I took some time to learn it."

He Ao nodded lightly.

Rodan, Yika, and Trok languages have similar essences, with many words even being interchangeable; it’s just that pronunciation habits and grammar rules are a bit different. Once one is mastered, learning the others becomes much easier.

"You learned it in your spare time? Pretty impressive,"

The Boss nodded, casually took a hot dog bun from the side, "Are you eating in or taking out?"

He Ao glanced at the seats in the neighboring room and nodded.

"Alright, just a minute."

The Boss nodded and turned to get to work.

He Ao entered the shop, approached a table, where a teenager who was bent over eating ham and playing with his phone sat.

"Is this seat taken?"

He Ao asked the teenager in a gentle voice.

The teenager was startled, lifted his head to glance at him, shook his head, and then continued to eat his ham.

He Ao slowly took a seat opposite the teenager, watching his lowered head, pulled out a pack of handkerchiefs from his pocket, and slowly wiped the blood from his hands with a tissue, his tone calm and friendly,

"Why have you been following me?"