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*****
Deep within Hell, inside Mephisto's palace.
Space tore open, and three figures with grim expressions suddenly appeared.
They said nothing. The atmosphere was incredibly heavy, oppressive enough to make one struggle for breath.
Eventually, Mephisto broke the silence.
"This operation was a failure. It became a joke!"
Faora's expression was equally unsightly, but she knew that her only hope for revenge lay with these two, so she held her tongue.
Thanos, however, gave a faint smile. Compared to the displeasure of the other two, he accepted his defeat with surprising calm.
"This failure has given us a more accurate understanding of Mike Kent's power. Furthermore, we escaped safely. This is a good thing for us, because the next time we go, we will be more careful and far better prepared."
"Hmph!"
Mephisto snorted in dissatisfaction, though he had to admit that Thanos made a valid point.
"Do you have any other candidates?" Faora asked coldly.
Their team needed to grow stronger.
"Of course!"
Thanos revealed a smile. "Before we go to find Apocalypse, I already have the next target in mind."
"Heh, Apocalypse. An arrogant fool," Mephisto sneered, then added, "Is this one going to be another idiot? If so, we shouldn't waste our time."
"Although that man is arrogant, he has currently lost his power. If we approach him with the premise of helping him regain his strength, he should join us."
Thanos paused, then shook his head with a smile, correcting himself with absolute certainty, "No, he hates Asgard deeply. He absolutely loathes Odin. He will definitely join."
Hearing this, curiosity appeared on the faces of both Faora and Mephisto.
A peaceful little town named Romon.
The Kent family was taking a temporary respite here, taking the opportunity to tour the town.
It was said that this town had been voted the most comfortable and safe town by the local municipal government for nine consecutive years. Most importantly, it boasted a truly beautiful attraction—the Pink Sea of Flowers.
It was a vast field of pink, resembling an ocean of blossoms; it looked incredibly romantic.
The Kent family looked at the beautiful sea of flowers, happily snapping photos.
Click, click!
Gwen and Raven stood amidst the sunlit flowers, holding the brims of their hats and smiling brilliantly. In Mike's eyes, they were dazzling.
Mike raised his camera to capture this beautiful scene.
"Let me see!"
Gwen trotted over to Mike, took the camera, and her eyes lit up.
She stood on her tiptoes, trying her best to drape her arm around Mike's shoulder.
"Not bad at all! Mr. Mike! I really appreciate your work!"
Mike looked at Gwen speechlessly. He reached out, pressed his hand on her head, and pushed her down slightly, speaking with affectionate exasperation. "You're getting more and more cheeky, no respect for your elders!"
"Hehe!"
Gwen laughed happily and handed the camera back to Mike.
Just as Mike aimed the lens at Raven—who was walking slowly toward him as if treading on pink waves—and snapped a new photo, Gwen looked around in confusion. "Where's Lamb?"
"Over there!"
Mike pointed to a spot in the flower field not far away.
Gwen glanced over and saw the flowers swaying slightly in the distance. With a mischievous grin, she walked towards it.
That rascal Little Lamb, probably trying to scare me!
She laughed wickedly to herself and tiptoed forward, planning to give Little Lamb a fright instead.
Parting the flowers, Gwen moved toward the source of the movement. As she got close, she suddenly pushed the flowers aside, making a face she thought looked very ferocious.
"Ah!"
She shouted.
"Yikes!"
Little Lamb jumped, clearly startled.
"Haha!"
Gwen laughed with delight. But when she saw clearly what was under Little Lamb's feet, her laughter came to an abrupt halt. Her voice turned tense. "Where did you get that thing?"
Little Lamb pointed to the white skull under his feet, smiling happily. "Big sister, isn't my friend cute?"
"Cute, my foot!"
Gwen shouted angrily, "Do you have any idea what that is?"
"I don't know. It hasn't told me its name yet, but I've decided to call it Little Gwen."
Hearing this, Gwen's face turned green.
You really are my brother! So good to me!
The corner of Gwen's mouth twitched. "That is the bone left behind after a human corpse decomposes. Looking at the size of the bone, it should be a man..."
"Wait! Now is not the time to analyze this!"
Gwen slapped her forehead, walked to Little Lamb's side, and picked the little guy up. She spoke seriously, "Where did you find it?"
"Right here!"
Little Lamb pointed to the flower field beneath his feet, frowning as he explained, "I was playing here and tripped. I saw something white, so I pulled on it hard, and then Little Gwen popped out!"
Can you stop calling it that name?
Gwen mentally complained as she carried Little Lamb out of the field.
What happened here? Why is there a dead body?
Was it a murder and a buried body?
Speculating in her mind, Gwen quickly returned to Mike.
"What's wrong?"
Seeing the serious look on Gwen's face, Mike asked in confusion.
"Dad, I... no, Little Lamb found a skeleton over there."
"A skeleton?"
Mike's brow furrowed.
How did Little Lamb find it?
"It's not a skeleton, it's called Little Gwen!"
Little Lamb waved his chubby little arms while in Gwen's grasp, shouting his defense loudly.
Gwen: (╬ Ò ‸ Ó)
Is this kid ever going to stop!
Believe it or not, I'll spank your butt until it blisters!
Gwen glared at Little Lamb with threatening eyes.
Little Lamb shrank his neck back and gave an ingratiating smile.
Mike looked at the siblings with amusement and asked Gwen, "What do you want to do?"
"I want to find out the truth!" Gwen clenched her fist. "After all, Peter and the others call me Sherlock Gwen!"
Mike raised an eyebrow. "It's better to leave this kind of thing to the police!"
Gwen deflated like a punctured ball, looking completely listless.
Mike looked toward the distance. "You came from that direction, right? That skeleton..."
As he spoke, he activated his Super Vision and scanned the area. Immediately, his expression changed.
"Dad, what's wrong?"
Gwen asked, puzzled.
If it were just a single skeleton, her father's expression shouldn't have changed like that.
Mike looked at Gwen and said, "Call the police. The situation is much more serious than what we see!"
With one glance, he saw it wasn't just a skeleton.
Beneath that sea of pink flowers lay buried skeleton after skeleton. There were even decomposing corpses and some that had been buried quite recently.
By a rough estimate, there were at least several hundred bodies down there!
Hearing Mike's words, Gwen's face went pale.
Several hundred?
She looked at the pink sea of flowers. Just a moment ago, she had thought it was incredibly romantic, but now, in her eyes, that pink field had transformed into a demonic land dyed with fresh blood and wronged souls!
Raven walked over. Mike grabbed her, frowned at the floral wreath on her head, took it off, and tossed it away.
Raven paused, not getting angry. Seeing the serious expressions on the father and daughter, and even the mock-serious face of Little Lamb, she couldn't help but laugh. "What's going on?"
"This place isn't clean!"
Gwen said coldly, pointing at the flower field.
"Hmm?"
Raven looked at Mike questioningly.
Mike whispered, "There are many skeletons down there. Very many!"
Raven's pupils constricted. She lifted her foot and kicked the floral wreath beside her further away.
Although the flowers were still beautiful and blooming vividly, in their eyes, the scenery had completely changed.
Watching the tourists in the distance still admiring the flowers, Gwen and Raven felt a chill run through their bodies.
"What on earth is going on?"
Raven asked in confusion.
"I don't know, but it must be very serious," Gwen said, rubbing her chin.
Mike looked speechless. "My dear student Gwen, you just stated the obvious!"
Gwen giggled sheepishly.
"Dad, what do we do?"
"What do we do? Call the police, of course! I am just an ordinary middle-aged father!"
Mike spoke righteously, earning two scornful looks in return.
Little Lamb shook his head left and right, and not wanting to look out of place, he also cast a scornful look at Mike.
Mike pinched Little Lamb's cheek and took out his phone to dial the emergency number.
After hanging up, the four of them walked out of the flower field and waited in the rest area beside it.
Watching the enthusiastic townsfolk and the tourists playing in the flowers, Gwen had an impulse to shout out their discovery and urge everyone to leave.
Ignorance might be bliss, but now that she knew, she felt uncomfortable all over.
After waiting for a while, several police cars stopped in front of Mike and his family.
"Did you call the police?"
A man with a large beard and a police badge walked up to them.
Mike nodded.
The man said with a solemn expression, "I'm Charlie, the Sheriff here."
"Sheriff Charlie!"
Mike nodded. "Mike Kent!"
"Mr. Kent!"
Charlie called out, then asked, "Can you tell me how you discovered it?"
Mike acknowledged the question, but he found the behavior of the surrounding police officers strange.
Instead of cordoning off the scene or checking the skeleton, why were they surrounding his family?
"Discovered it by accident. I tripped over it," Mike said, feigning a look of fear.
"Then why did you say there might be more?"
The Sheriff looked at Mike, a trace of coldness flashing in the depths of his eyes.
Mike replied calmly, "Because we found a few other scattered bones nearby."
Sheriff Charlie nodded at Mike and waved to two officers behind him. The two officers immediately left toward the flower field. Sheriff Charlie then said to Mike, "Mr. Kent, I would like for you all to come back to the station with us to make a detailed statement!"
His tone was cold, carrying a hint of force.
Raven and Gwen frowned.
"Haven't we already given a statement? We have the right not to go!"
Raven spoke indifferently, clearly repulsed by the man's tone.
"Please cooperate!"
The Sheriff spoke coldly again, and the surrounding officers looked at Mike's family with unfriendly eyes.
"Why do we have to go?"
Gwen asked.
"Because you cannot prove that this matter has nothing to do with you!"
"Huh?"
Gwen thought she had misheard. Then, indignantly, she said, "You actually suspect we are related to that corpse?"
"Are you kidding me!? Are your heads filled with water?"
"Who kills someone, calls the police themselves, and brings their entire family along to do it? Including a three-year-old child!"
"Also, that is already a skeleton! Who knows how long it's been buried!"
Gwen looked at the police officers in front of her as if she were looking at a troop of circus monkeys.
"That doesn't prove you are unrelated to this!"
The Sheriff spoke coldly once more, his hand drifting toward his weapon, exuding a heavy threat. "Please cooperate!"
Raven and Gwen looked at these policemen with anger. Little Lamb pouted, his small hands clenching tight, and a tiny red dot appeared in his eyes.
"Lamb!"
Mike called out, and Raven hurriedly covered Little Lamb's eyes.
Little Lamb shouted loudly, "Bad guys! You are bad guys!"
Mike looked at the police officers, suddenly smiled, and said, "Alright, we'll go with you!"
As he spoke, he winked at Gwen and Raven. "Let's just go and see. Cooperating with the police is the duty of a good citizen!"
Raven and Gwen were stunned for a moment, but noticing the mischievous glint in Mike's eyes, they instantly understood his meaning.
Raven shook her head helplessly, while the corners of Gwen's mouth tilted up slightly.
Fine, we'll go back with you and see what tricks you're playing! What can you possibly do to us?
Mike carried Little Lamb into one car, while Raven and Gwen got into another police cruiser. Leaving three or four officers at the flower field, the group drove toward the police station.
Noticing the situation, the corner of Mike's mouth twitched.
Things were getting interesting.
The reaction of these police officers was very wrong.
Soon, they arrived at the station. After locking the family in an interrogation room, the officers left.
Mike teased Little Lamb, then looked around the interrogation room and said to Raven, "This is my first time in a place like this."
He winked and teased, "I remember you used to visit places like this quite often."
Raven glared at Mike. "That was for missions!"
Just then, Gwen said excitedly, "It's my first time too."
"First time!"
Little Lamb raised his small hand.
"What exactly do they want to do?"
Raven asked with a frown.
Mike pointed to the surveillance camera on the wall, flashed a brilliant smile at the lens, and said, "Perhaps it's because of the fertilizer under that flower field—those hundreds of corpses?"
Hearing this, Sheriff Charlie and an elderly man with frosted white hair, who were watching Mike through the monitor, stiffened. They glanced at each other, and a ruthless look appeared on both their faces.
This man really knows!
"But how did he know? My men checked the scene; there were no signs of digging!"
Sheriff Charlie looked at Mayor Morton in confusion.
The Mayor took a deep breath, his eyes icy cold. "Charlie, none of that matters. What matters is that this must never be exposed, or our town is ruined!"
He paused, then gritted his teeth and said, "This man... no, this entire family... they cannot be left alive!"
(End of Chapter)