Scarlet Descent

The original plan was to send Wei Wei to report to Scrap Iron City, but the instructor couldn't hold on for these last few hours.

He left early.

However, before leaving, Wei Wei still clung to him and begged, making him promise to send new bullets within a month.

Wei Wei then drove his Jeep alone, quietly heading towards this peripheral small city.

In the morning, when sunlight finally shone on this dark land, Wei Wei drove into the old gas station on the west side of the city.

Taking advantage of the time while refueling, he gazed into the distance at this small city he hadn't returned to in three years, seeing streets and buildings that seemed even older than three years ago, as well as seemingly more people and drilling rigs than before.

Unable to tell if it was reassurance or emotion, he suddenly felt a sense of calm.

In the distance, stone quarry workers coming off the night shift were walking lazily towards town in twos and threes.

Some were still clutching steamed buns and fried dough sticks, eating as they walked.

The nuns of the Faceless God Church by the roadside had already opened their doors and were drying sweet potato slices on the concrete ground.

In the distance, patients wrapped in burlap sacks and homeless children were rummaging through garbage mountains for their needed "treasures."

Everything was so familiar, yet with a sense of estrangement after three years.

But, he had finally returned.

...

...

Scrap Iron City.

A small town with a population of less than a million, before the radiation power of the Psychic Barrier Project covered this place, it was just a gathering place for wanderers who made a living by selling and collecting scrap iron. Later, when the barrier project encompassed the Third City Circle, it was still at the very edge, only developing a stone quarry and a poor oil well, barely giving this place any pillar industries.

But if talking about getting rich through work...

There was no such possibility.

Perhaps it was because of this gloomy future that the faces of the people here seemed to be shrouded in a permanent twilight.

Wei Wei followed the dilapidated road that ran through the town and entered the small city.

Along the way, he saw a giant clown standing at the entrance of the town, with only one of its two lamp-like eyes remaining due to long-neglected circuit maintenance.

It stared with its single eye, wearing an exaggerated smile on its face.

Looking at every vehicle driving into the small city, the hat held in its hand didn't look like it was saluting. No matter how you looked at it, it seemed as if it wanted to throw the hat to hit someone.

At the entrance of a half-door bar, groups of two or three young people dressed in strange clothes and covered in silver studs gathered.

Behind the glass window of a meat shop, a pig's head that hadn't been shaved was placed on the counter, facing the vehicles and pedestrians on the street.

The pig's mouth was long and narrow, always seeming to be smiling.

...

...

"Dilapidated, decadent, rough..."

Wei Wei sat in the Jeep, slowly driving through the streets, each scene making him feel particularly familiar.

This small city seemed to have always been like this.

And it seemed that it would continue to be this way until someday it was destroyed by some unknown disaster.

However, among countless small towns that have been abandoned by people or have disappeared, this common phenomenon prevailed.

It had been seventy years already. Under the influence of certain forces and the deliberate promotion of the barrier project, people from various places frantically poured into super metropolises, while medium- and small-scale cities were covered with a desolate and dilapidated quality, gradually losing their vitality like wild grass in the wilderness under a hazy sky.

Everything stemmed from that mysterious big explosion.

That mysterious big explosion seemed not to have caused any physical changes, but it triggered worldwide intense panic and anxiety. As these emotions fermented, more and more problems emerged—diseases prevailed, regional wars continued, multiple energy sources were depleted, social problems arose one after another, and the world civilization's seventy-year-long great recession began.

Of course, many people didn't know that the changes had just begun.

...

...

Lightly rubbing his face, Wei Wei pulled his attention back to reality.

He recognized the streets that had changed quite a bit in three years, slowly driving towards the city center.

The place he was going to was the Superhuman Guardian Base in Scrap Iron City.

Due to the emergence of supernatural demonic powers and the enormous harm caused by these powers to social order and public safety, major multinational corporations, consortiums, world government alliances, mysterious power research institutes, and other institutions around the world jointly established the Supernatural Affairs Management Foundation to investigate, record, research, clean up, and utilize demons and all abnormal matters.

The Supernatural Affairs Research and Investigation Department, established under the planning of the Foundation, is a secret organization specifically for purifying and handling these events. Every city with a population of over one million has a special base directly under the jurisdiction of the Foundation.

Within the base, permanently stationed superhuman teams with the ability to investigate and purify various types of dangerous events—known as Superhuman Law Enforcement Officers—are deployed.

Of course, based on the size of the city, the strength and conditions of each base also vary.

Although, according to the instructor's words, Wei Wei coming here was not conducive to his future development, Wei Wei insisted on coming back.

When passing through the central street, he deliberately took a turn, looking from afar at a group of low-rise apartment buildings.

It was an apartment building only about three stories high, nestled among the surrounding tall buildings.

This was a small building that looked very ordinary from the outside, completely dark, with no lights, as if it had been uninhabited for a long time.

Wei Wei slowed down slightly, taking a deep look at this building—a shadow flashing in his eyes.

Then he no longer delayed, accelerating quickly to leave.

Ten minutes later, the Jeep stopped in front of an inconspicuous small building in Scrap Iron City.

From the address, this was the base of the mysterious affairs handling team stationed in Scrap Iron City.

However, compared to the mysterious and bizarre quality of their work, this small building was obviously too normal.

When Wei Wei walked into this small base, what he saw was a scene of warmth.

At the entrance, there was a small sign with black letters on a white background: Scrap Iron City Environmental Protection Workstation.

"Environmental protection?"

Looking at the name of this small base, Wei Wei had an initial understanding of his colleagues here.

Due to certain confidentiality and security needs, these action teams stationed in various cities often choose their own disguises. For this disguise, there are no strict norms and requirements from above, so local teams can choose their own styles, showing strong personal characteristics in the process, in all sorts of forms.

Some disguise as security companies—these have a strong will to protect.

Some disguise as detective agencies—these have a strong desire for knowledge about supernatural matters.

Some disguise as hunter guilds—these value bounties more than honor.

In addition, it's said that there are some disguised as slaughterhouses, whose small teams consistently rank at the top of the supernatural creature hunting list...

The small base in front of him took the name of an environmental protection organization, so, taken literally, it could be understood as:

They pay more attention to getting by and bullshitting?

Wei Wei let out a light breath, entering through the modern-looking glass door, surveying this unit he was about to join.

Inside was a reception hall, with an empty curved desk—no one was there.

Passing through the reporting hall, he reached a small courtyard where two people were playing pool with cues.

One had a thick beard, but not a single hair on his head.

The other had smooth, long black hair tied in a long ponytail at the back of his head, with fair and smooth skin—more handsome than a beauty.

Wei Wei stared deeply at his chest and crotch, making sure his gaze didn't count as leering.

Indeed, a man more handsome than a beauty.

Beside them, a man weighing at least three hundred pounds was squatting in front of a stove fanning the fire, with a pot on top bubbling with the aroma of meat.

It's them.

Wei Wei thought about the information he had read, nodding slightly to himself.

Then he put on a polite smile on his face, approached the bearded man who had turned his head, and said, "I..."

"If you have business, go to the administrative hall. We don't collect junk here, nor do we dig stinky ditches."

"Uh, I'm not talking about that. I'm looking for Captain Ouyang."

"Looking for Captain Ouyang?"

Hearing Wei Wei directly call out the captain's name, the other's expression immediately became serious: "Come back after work to collect gambling debts!"

"?"

Wei Wei felt like he had unintentionally gained a deeper understanding of this Captain Ouyang.

At the same time, he felt that this place was the right one.