Chapter Sixty-Two: Departmental Distinctions

“Roar! Roar!”
Wild, ferocious howls echoed through the second floor of the inn. Though ordinary people could not hear the primal cries, everyone present felt a tight, chilling sense of dread in their hearts.
At that moment, Ba Wang was like a tireless, relentless machine of violence. Veins bulged on his thick arms as he straddled the bizarre creature, raining punch after punch down upon it.
Broken bones splattered across the narrow corridor, yet Qi Chen showed no intention of stopping Ba Wang, especially after seeing the scattered faces strewn across the floor.
“Rip this abomination apart until nothing remains!”
…
…
“Is Officer Warm okay? And what about Officer Mask?”
In the lobby downstairs, the special operations squad leader, stationed quietly at the inn’s entrance, swallowed nervously as he listened to the unending turmoil upstairs.
“Relax, he’s solid as a rock.” Warm’s expression was calm. As a practitioner of the uncanny, he could sense two distinctly different eerie presences clashing violently on the second floor. One of them was steadily weakening over time.
And the dominant presence was one he recognized.
“The door can be opened now!” a team member exclaimed with delight, gripping the handle and giving it a gentle twist—the door swung open effortlessly.
Warm instantly understood: the uncanny force within the inn could no longer maintain its blockade, signaling that the battle upstairs was nearing its end.
“Impressive, indeed.”
…
…
“Hiss!”
The uncanny creature, resembling a skeletal centipede, let out a final, despairing screech. The grayish, muscular figure pinning it down left it utterly powerless to resist as its unnatural energy drained away.
Not a single bone in its body remained intact; its snake-like tongue had long since been torn out, leaving it only able to whimper and howl indistinctly.
When a massive fist, brimming with unstoppable force, crashed down upon its head, the uncanny entity that had stolen so many faces fell utterly lifeless.
The chilling aura that haunted the corridor instantly plummeted to a minimal level.
Qi Chen pressed his fingertips to his temples, easing the swelling pain in his mind.
During the struggle with the uncanny, Ba Wang’s injuries seemed to reverberate in Qi Chen’s spirit. Fortunately, nothing serious—just the sensation of a swollen head after a long run.
Once he recovered slightly, Qi Chen silently recalled Ba Wang, gazed at the floor, and saw the once agonized and twisted faces now motionless.
Despair and pain were frozen on their features, yet in their eyes lingered a trace of relief.

Maybe… the uncanny had not completely devoured their consciousness.
“Forgive me…”
Qi Chen sighed softly, then turned and walked downstairs.
Sacrifice—he knew he must grow accustomed to it.
…
…
Descending the stairs, Qi Chen instantly sensed several gazes upon him—who else but Warm and the special agents?
“Let’s go. The door is open now,” Warm said, wasting no words as he looked toward the wide-open entrance.
Outside, a large contingent of special agents had already arrived, sealing off the surrounding streets tightly with the inn as their center.
The earpieces of Qi Chen and Warm immediately crackled with the voices of the intelligence analysis team.
The moment they lost contact, the Uncanny Handling Division had dispatched reinforcements according to protocol.
Normally, the uncanny’s abilities, though unusual, would not interfere with communications. Only one type could cause such an effect—domain-type uncanny.
And only domain-type uncanny with sufficient mental intensity could disrupt radio transmissions.
“Is Deputy Fu here as well?” Qi Chen suddenly recognized a familiar figure among the agents—none other than Fu Ying.
“Come on, we need to take the initiative and report in,” Warm said with a smile, pulling Qi Chen toward Fu Ying.
Qi Chen hadn’t expected Warm to assign him the task of recounting the entire operation.
“Uh…” Facing Fu Ying’s resolute expression, Qi Chen felt an unexpected pressure—greater than any the uncanny had brought him.
He carefully organized his words, recounting the mission and all its doubts step by step.
“Understood,” Fu Ying nodded in affirmation. “Although we lost half a special ops squad, you both did well this time.
“The issue lies in the intelligence.”
Handling the uncanny, the most crucial aspect was always accurate information—especially regarding their abilities.
Yet intelligence was also the greatest challenge in the early investigation of uncanny incidents. Usually… frontline investigators paid with their lives, but even then, the analysis division could not guarantee their information was complete or accurate.
Otherwise, why would they be called uncanny?
Thus, any lapses in intelligence could not be blamed on the analysis team. Everyone had done what they could, but sacrifice remained inevitable—a testament to the world’s cruelty.
No matter how hard they tried, people still died.

“Has the cleanup crew arrived?” Fu Ying contacted the logistics team through her earpiece.
Qi Chen and Warm stood quietly by, curious about the purpose of the cleanup crew.
“You’re certain there are no survivors inside, correct?”
“Positive,” Warm answered quickly. “After eliminating the uncanny in the inn, Qi Chen and I searched every room—no survivors found.”
“Very well.”
As she spoke, Fu Ying’s cleanup crew finally arrived—a team clad in thick specialized suits, gas tanks strapped to their backs.
“What are they?” Qi Chen asked, puzzled.
“Based on your descriptions, the entire inn should be classified as the source of the uncanny. The humanoid uncanny Warm defeated, and the one you eliminated, might have been generated by the inn itself.”
An inn… can be uncanny?
Qi Chen recalled the training materials sent by the division, which defined many types of uncanny entities.
Beyond those like the guillotine that existed as objects, some uncanny were indeed bound to locations—and those were often the hardest to handle.
They typically possessed strong mental intensity and spawned numerous subtypes within.
According to the data, location-type uncanny comprised an overwhelming proportion of the most difficult cases.
“Warm, can you confirm there are no rules in this inn?” Fu Ying turned to Warm, her expression serious, as if confirming something vital.
Warm responded gravely, “I can guarantee it’s not a rule-type uncanny. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have escaped so easily.”
“Good.”
Qi Chen watched as Fu Ying issued a command. The cleanup crew, spread out and encircling the inn, raised their flamethrowers.
Boom!
Dozens of tongues of flame illuminated the surroundings, and the Safe Haven Inn was instantly engulfed in fire.
If the uncanny can be eradicated at its root, then the root must be destroyed.
…