Chapter 1274: Ah, I Was Kidnapped

"Where is everyone?" The Reaper's heart pounded with a sense of disbelief. This shouldn't be happening.

He recalled them discussing something earlier, but it didn't seem important, so he had gone to the restroom. Upon returning, he proceeded with the plan to intercept the vehicle, but all his teammates were gone. Had they retreated? Even if they had, they should have sent him a signal.

"Come out, all of you!" The Reaper tried to call his companions again, but still no one answered. The Reaper cursed them inwardly, calling them a bunch of unreliable bastards. Given the situation, he realized he had to act alone.

Lu Yang was somewhat surprised by the Reaper's appearance. After dealing with the genetically modified warriors, he had followed their intel to locate a Supreme Society stronghold nearby. Considering it an easy task, he had gone there, employed a few tricks, and compelled everyone at the stronghold to surrender to the police. He had handled everything so meticulously, yet the Reaper was still a loose end, a fish that had slipped through the net. Clearly, one shouldn't rush things; it leads to oversights.

"Quickly, get out of here!" Michelle pushed the others aside and confronted the Reaper.

"I'll help too!" Yu Ran volunteered.

The moment the Reaper engaged Michelle, he noticed something was wrong. "You've been holding back!" he exclaimed. The intelligence he had indicated Michelle shouldn't be this powerful! Yu Ran's attacks followed swiftly. While her strength wasn't comparable to Michelle's or the Reaper's, it was enough to create openings for Michelle.

Overwhelmed by the two women, the Reaper considered retreating, but leaving wouldn't be easy now. He feigned an opening, and Michelle, lacking combat experience, fell for it. Seizing the chance, he lunged toward Lu Yang, hooking an arm around his neck. His hand, his sharpest weapon, could sever Lu Yang's neck with minimal effort!

"Don't move! If you make another move, I'll kill him!"

Michelle and Yu Ran, who had been about to charge, instantly froze, afraid to make any further moves.

"Oh, I'm being held hostage," Lu Yang said, raising his hands in surrender.

The Reaper sneered, then, holding Lu Yang hostage, began backing away, dropping a small note just before he left. "If you want this person to live, go to this location!" The Supreme Society had a stronghold nearby; he intended to lure Michelle and the others there!

Michelle picked up the note, her face grim. By the time she looked up, both the Reaper and Lu Yang had vanished.

The Reaper fled with Lu Yang, frantically trying to contact his companions. Receiving no response, his heart sank, filled with a sense of dread. He entered the underground secret stronghold via an elevator. The secret stronghold was brightly lit, but eerily empty. Coffee still steamed on a table. There were no signs of a struggle, sending shivers down the Reaper's spine. It was as if an emergency had occurred, and everyone in the branch had evacuated.

"Hey, Frostbite, are you here—"

"Genesis, if you're here, say something—"

The Reaper's voice echoed down the long corridor, but no one responded. Suddenly, a voice echoed from the end of the corridor: "Mr. Reaper, I'm here." Overjoyed, the Reaper rushed over, thinking, *I knew someone was here.*

However, standing at the end of the corridor was a domestic robot, its empty eyes fixed on the Reaper. Behind it, an emergency light flickered on and off. "Mr. Reaper, would you like some coffee?" it asked. Seeing this, the Reaper stumbled backward in terror. He gasped for breath, as if he had just survived an unseen life-or-death struggle. He then hurried to the monitoring room to retrieve the surveillance footage from after his departure.

The footage from after he left initially appeared normal. Distraught, the Reaper fast-forwarded the recording. The next instant, the branch, previously filled with people, was empty. The Reaper shivered in fear. Trembling, he ordered the footage to be replayed, slowing it down by two, four, then thirty-two times. Still, he couldn't discern what had happened. In the thirty-two-times slowed footage, the branch members vanished one by one, seemingly oblivious to their companions' disappearances until they themselves vanished, as if some unspeakable entity had silently consumed everyone. Connecting this to his vanished teammates, extreme panic spread through him. The branch's air circulation system was normal, and the fluorescent lights cast a warm glow, yet the Reaper felt as though the branch was the dark, gaping maw of a monster, waiting for him to walk into its trap.

A tap on his shoulder made him jump. "Are you alright?" a voice asked. The Reaper turned, relieved to see it was Lu Yang. He wasn't alone after all. Lu Yang's calm demeanor even offered him a sliver of confidence.

"It's just the two of us here. Aren't you scared?"

"Two people?" Lu Yang's expression turned slightly confused. "Haven't there always been three of us here?"

As his words faded, a figure in yellow slowly materialized in the air.

"Ah—"

The Reaper utterly collapsed, his mind completely consumed by terror.

*Ding-dong*—

The elevator chimed, and the Reaper, as if seeing a savior, frantically dashed toward it. It was Lan Hai and his two companions, arriving by elevator to rescue Lu Yang. By this point, the Reaper had completely forgotten his mission. He charged frantically toward Lan Hai and his companions, startling them.

"Stop right there!" Michelle stepped forward, eyeing the Reaper warily.

"Run! There's a ghost! A ghost!" the Reaper shrieked wildly, speaking unintelligible words.

Michelle frowned, easily subdued the Reaper, then looked around warily. She found it strange that the stronghold was completely deserted. She had been prepared for a fierce battle. Could it be a trap?

"Michelle, Yu Ran, Lan Hai, I'm over here," Lu Yang called out, emerging from the monitoring room and greeting them from a distance.

The Reaper, seeing the calm and composed Lu Yang, shrieked and scrambled backward on the floor, pointing at him. "Ghost! Ghost! Ghost!"

"Meng, you're alright! That's wonderful." Michelle and the others breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing Lu Yang unharmed.

"I'm fine. It's just this 'Reaper' fellow. After he brought me here, he picked up someone's coffee, but didn't drink it, then started shouting. He seemed overjoyed when the domestic robot responded, but then when it asked him if he wanted coffee, he got terrified." Lu Yang added, patting his chest as if still shaken. "He was acting so erratically, I took the chance to escape from him."

"How strange."

"Yes, very strange. Do you think he's possessed?"

"He kept muttering about ghosts. Could he have actually seen one?"

"We need to be scientific. There are no ghosts in this world, right, Meng?"

Lu Yang nodded in profound agreement. "Exactly. No such thing as ghosts."

"There really *are* ghosts!" Desperate to convince Lan Hai and the others, the Reaper mustered his courage and led them to the monitoring room to watch the footage. However, the recording only showed static; nothing could be seen.

"It was you! You deleted it!" the Reaper shrieked, pointing at Lu Yang. In his eyes, Lu Yang was now clearly possessed by an evil spirit.

Lu Yang spread his hands, looking utterly innocent. "I didn't do a thing," he said.

Lu Yang was telling the truth; he hadn't touched the surveillance system. Whether the footage was deleted or not was irrelevant, as Lan Hai and the others wouldn't have been able to see him on it anyway. If he hadn't done it, then had Aether? Did that mean Aether had noticed him?