NOVEL NEXT Ch254: Call Of Duty
Call Of Duty
Chenggong, Yunnan Province, China
October 3rd
17:45
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Wu Yan POV
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I just put on my uniform, it was perfect in my size, extremely neat and clean, I carefully placed the insignia that was given to me on my chest, it was a great honor and responsibility that I now carried on my shoulders. My heart pounds with excitement as I look at myself in the mirror, ready to face any challenge that may come my way on my path to justice in this vibrant and vibrant city. It is an honor to serve and protect the citizens of Chenggong, and I am ready to give my best every moment of my journey.
Rookie police officer Wu Yan was ready to go on duty for her second day on the job.
I leave my apartment and walk to the subway station, it's right at the end of the block, so convenient and close enough that I don't have to wait long for my train, always on time thanks to TianHui who always prepares a time on time. Even though it was getting dark, I was on my way to my job at the local police station in Xishan, my shift was the night shift, which in this peaceful city means being a secretary and taking care of the paperwork of what happened during the day, it's boring enough, but for the police and the citizens of the city it's better to have a boring day than an exciting one. But during the train ride I could hear the siren of the fire trucks, their truck just passed under the train overpass, in the distance I could see their destination, a big building in Panlong was in flames, it seemed like something had happened on the upper floors, but there was nothing I could do, the relevant authorities were already on their way, and anyway I had to go to the other side of the city, to Xishan, near the big lake.
When I managed to get to work it was 18:35, it was more than 25 minutes before my shift actually started, it must have been my nerves from being new at work that made me arrive so early, so I went to the break room to wait for my shift to start. On the TV they were showing the news, they were reporting how a massive gas leak caused a huge fire on the top floor of the Grand Yù Lóng Plaza in Panlong, this must have been the fire I saw on the train on my way to work, the place was quite popular with tourists who came to see the city after the reconstruction, so the reporters were interviewing some foreign tourists who were staying at the hotel, Unfortunately, it seems that they were speaking English and I can't know what they were saying, but according to the translations, the reporters mentioned that before the explosion, several inspection officers had entered the building, it seems that TianHui had detected that the fire had been detected in the building. TianHui detected the gas leak and alerted the authorities, but unfortunately, they could not get there fast enough to stop it.
Suddenly, I heard several patrol cars in our garage immediately turn on their sirens and leave the station at full speed, and shortly after, the station chief of the police station, Mr. Sun Yifan, came into the break room to announce.
"Right now, there are two hot pursuits going in different directions in the city, so the central station is calling for reinforcements from the other stations," Sun Yifan said.
"Our group will go after the last one, so I want everyone possible in the patrol cars and on the streets.
"Let's go to the patrol cars! Run!"
"Sir, my shift starts in 10 minutes, but I can help right away, the situation seems to call for it," I volunteered to Chief Sun Yifan.
"You're the rookie, Wu Yan, right?"
"I'm sorry, but you're still too green, I can't give you permission, it would put others in danger."
"Sir! I may be new, but I graduated from Beijing Police Academy with top grades."
"Yeah, I know, that's why they sent you here."
"Look, I'm sorry, but you still lack experience, you're putting your other teammates at risk."
"I know you are excited and want to help, but today is only your second day.
"Besides, even if they ask for reinforcements, it doesn't mean we can leave the station unattended, we still need people to stay here."
"I understand, sir."
"The rest of the room, to the police cars, let's go!"
Next time will be my chance, I assure you, one day I will prove my worth as a police officer. As my shift begins, I go to my cubicle and prepare for today's paperwork. As I type on my computer, I can hear some of my colleagues talking about me, most of them are my senior superiors who are too old to be on police chases all over the city, they seem to be a little upset that I am working here in Xishan despite my good grades at the Beijing Police Academy, they are worried about my career as a police officer, saying that my superiors are wasting a great talent, and although I personally feel the same way, I also understand the situation that I was assigned to Chenggong City and had to move here. Since the city has been completely rebuilt, the authorities have been very concerned about making this great project a great success, and at the moment it is, with a lot of people moving in as well as the new tourist popularity, which in itself presents its own challenges, one of which is having enough personnel to serve the city itself, So it is important to bring in new police officers to fill the new police positions that are needed in the city due to the large population growth, and since so much is expected of this city, they are sending the best talents here to fill the new positions, they want to make this city a new city for the elite, at the level of Shanghai, Shenzhen or Beijing itself. I, for one, am not complaining, because even here in this small police station, I am doing my part for this great nation that has helped me so much to fulfill my dream of being a policeman.
After an hour of working on the documents, I take a short break to go to the bathroom, but on my way back I notice a situation just a few meters away from my assigned desk. Four of my colleagues came running with a girl in a strange costume, it seemed to be some kind of typical Hanfu dress, but with several different changes, she also had huge wooden sandals that looked more like platforms instead, I think that is called a kimono in Japan. Since my office was near a cell, they took her there and put her on the floor, and nervously closed the cell quickly, the young woman sounded pained and angry at the same time, but she did not move an inch. I asked my companions what had happened to the girl, and they told me that it seemed she was the girl who was wanted for the fire at Grand Yù Lóng Plaza, the girl had managed to escape from the place and had stolen a car from a civilian, Fortunately, the artificial intelligence TianHui managed to follow her and never lost sight of her, after chasing her for a long time, her car crashed into a jewelry store, but the girl, not willing to surrender, managed to fight with the police for a long time, until between 4 different policemen managed to stop her and shoot her with tasers guns and immobilize her. But as if the story was not fantastic enough, they also mentioned that strange things had happened during the chase, how nothing seemed to stop the girl, the skill with which she almost escaped, but perhaps the strangest thing was that they mentioned that when they hit her with the taser the first time nothing happened, the second hit her arm and made it explode somehow, but left only water instead of blood. It wasn't until the third hit that her body stopped moving, although they fired a fourth time to stop her completely, indicating that something was wrong with her body, that she was too soft and malleable as if she was about to melt. Because of the girl's danger, they decided to take her to the nearest police station and waited for Inspector Chang to arrive quickly to process her, as he seemed very interested in arresting her at any cost.
But even so, despite all the stories they told me, it kept ringing in my head that there was something strange about everything that was happening, how was it possible that such a young girl was capable of doing so much damage, or what was her goal in all of this, she didn't even seem to be able to speak our language, No matter how much she spoke, no one could figure out what she was saying, it was clear that she was foreign, both her clothes and her language, plus she had a lot of weird things in her hair, animal ears and a tail, the girl looked more like one of those video game character costume shows than a serious criminal. Still, since I didn't know what was really going on, I let it go and went back to my desk to continue my paperwork. Though I turned around from time to time out of curiosity to see what she was doing, it seemed that she was still suffering from the effects of the Taser, though she managed to sit on the floor, looking attentively, I could see that she had both hands in perfect condition, despite what she had said earlier about losing one.But it was when I saw her deep red eyes, they looked directly at me, it was then that I felt a deep fear all over my body, with just one look she had understood what was really going on in her head, this girl was not just looking, she was paying attention, studying, learning, planning, how many exits there were, guards in the room, how many weapons, this girl was just taking a break while she recovered, the handcuffs on her hands and feet were no longer there, they were on the floor underneath her, somehow she had taken them off silently. A little afraid of what might happen, I opened my drawer and loaded my pistol to keep it close, even though I had practiced enough with it, would today be the day I would have to use it against a person?
Luckily, I could hear that Police Inspector Chang was already in the building and was coming to take the foreign girl to a more secure place than here. When he arrived in the room he was accompanied by four heavy tactical assault guards and two assault drones with machine guns, a real insanity that I had never seen in my life, something of this level was completely out of the level of tactics that I had studied that the police used, was this girl so dangerous that she needed so many security measures? Inspector Chang walked over to the jail and could see the girl inside.
"Yes, that's her, that's Elise Valkyria."
"Shoot the girl!"
Inspector Chang said in a cold voice, and in less than a second, all the guns went off at the same time, filling the room with a terrifying and frightening sound. I couldn't believe it, he had just ordered to kill the girl without checking what had happened. The room next to my desk was completely destroyed, the wall was full of a million bullet holes, but something strange happened again, in the middle of that room, in the middle of the floor was a huge sword, its blade was huge and wide, it was almost like looking at a door, but it was perfectly intact. When the heavy assault soldiers saw the object, they tried to reload their weapons at full speed, from one of the edges of the sword a hand came out, again a leg, the girl came out at full speed behind the sword unharmed, she grabbed the handle of the weapon and threw it against the weakened bars and destroyed them, she stuck a part of the huge sword into one of the soldiers and ran until she grabbed one of the policemen and bent his neck with ease, I had witnessed a person being killed right in front of my eyes without being able to do anything. Fearing for my life from what was happening, I turned to my desk at full speed to look for my gun, but the strange girl was faster, with a slip of her hand she had stolen it from me, with the other she grabbed my neck, despite what her small body might look like, she was much stronger, no matter how hard I tried to free me from her, her hold was unbreakable, but when I heard the gun safety move and felt the barrel against my head, I stopped. I had been captured as a hostage, I didn't know what she was saying, but it was easy to know that the foreign girl was threatening to kill me if I didn't escape from the fierce pursuit Inspector Chang was putting her under.
"Inspector Chang!"
"Help!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.
"Don't just stand there!"
The cold words of the inspector hit me like cold water on the head, I could see the two remaining soldiers take position next to the attack drones to shoot immediately. I saw the giant sword from before magically appear in front of us, then the sound of gunfire filled the whole room again, I could see the whole office jump into the air, the computer I had been working on just a few minutes ago was torn apart with holes in it, the papers I had spent so much time sorting were falling everywhere, the picture of my family on my desk fell to pieces just inches away from me. But the most surprising thing was to see that I was still alive, the mysterious girl who had just threatened my life was now hugging me to keep me from moving and protecting me with her magic sword.
"What are you doing?"
"This is not police protocol!"
"Police Officer Wu Yan, I need your cooperation to catch the criminal with you."
"Try to stop her with all your might!"
"Inspector Chang, you are crazy!"
"That girl is holding me hostage! She has my gun! There's nothing I can do!"
"It's a pity then, so much potential for someone of your level, Mrs. Wu Yan, and that this is your way of saying goodbye!"
"Use grenades, eliminating Elise Valkyria is the priority."
"But what!?"
But as soon as I said something I saw how three balls fell next to me, they were lethal grenades, Mr. Chang and his agents showed a complete disregard for me in order to accomplish their goal. The girl, without having time to know what was happening, took the three grenades without hesitation and threw them back to the other side of the room, an explosion followed shortly after, then she came out of the cover of the sword and fired in the direction of the drones to shoot down one of them, the inspector on the other hand took cover going through the door and took refuge in the hallway. The fox girl, having run out of bullets in her gun, came running at me and grabbed one of my magazines from my vest, but before she could shoot again, another wave of gunfire from the assault soldiers was on its way.
Everything in the office was a real chaos, smashing and banging had destroyed a place that had been a peaceful police office an hour ago, once again the strange girl and I were under the million bullets that didn't seem to care about our lives. But what happened next was what finished destroying any common sense left in my world, the wall behind us fell to pieces, on the other side were a lot of people, both my colleagues from the police station, people I knew, but also civilians with them, moving like a herd of animals began to run in our direction, but the cops who were on the other side did not stop shooting, the result was a massacre for no reason. I had never seen anything like this before, ordinary people walking down the street threw their lives into the current attack, acting like a herd of zombies and rushing towards us. The fox girl had no choice but to shoot them as well to avoid being hit, but they were attacking us from all sides. One of the zombie herd fell next to me, but there was no trace of humanity left in his face, his face had turned into a horrible insect-like figure, I screamed in panic as I saw it happening in front of me. However, the girl next to me was determined not to give up, she threw her sword at the two soldiers again, she took my hand and charged head on into the crowd of strange creatures, she meekly made her way to the sound of the terrible blows, I was not able to distinguish who was the real monster, the girl, the ugly creatures trying to pose as humans, the cruel policemen who were following behind. I only followed the girl because at that moment it seemed to be the only option that would not lead to a cruel death, devoured in that hellish image of cruel creatures.
As we advanced we arrived near the intersection at the side of the block, little by little more of the city that seemed perfect was showing another face that I was not aware of, more of this wave of ugly creatures was being made to gather the strength of the wave, I could see what was a happy family on the third floor of a building transform into part of the creatures and go out through the windows and down the walls without any difficulty, as if it was a horror movie, that perhaps hell had engulfed the earth?
The sound of sirens began to sound in the distance, a old black car approached and stopped near us, there was also a young man inside, he shouted loudly for us to get into his car, then he shouted again in another language, and the fox girl understood him and immediately pushed me into the car with her. The driver started his car at full speed, and shortly after, I could see police patrols behind us, then I understood something, Mr. Sun Yifan had said that there were two pursuers, one was the fox girl, so this man must be the other, had I really fallen for such a coincidence? I stared at the driver of our car with a disbelieving look, but there was nothing special about the strange man's appearance, he was just another citizen of our city, he spoke the same language as me. But before I asked him what the hell was going on, something new caught my attention, after we left a little bit of Xishan's district, the city returned to normal, the strange order of zombie monsters that had been chasing us before was nowhere to be seen, outside of the patrols chasing us, the civilians on the streets and sidewalks were still the same people as before, as if what I had seen before was some kind of dream, but what I was seeing couldn't be, after all, I was in a car with two strangers.
"Officer Wu Yan, I need your help."
"I am Special Agent Li Wei from the Central Government, Anti-Magic Division."
"I know this sounds crazy, but I need you to listen to me carefully."
"You have been sent from Beijing to this city on a special mission."
"You were chosen because of your incredible grades at the police academy and because you have lived a free life outside of Xiang Fang's influence."
"I was supposed to contact you tomorrow to give you the details, but the situation has gotten out of control."
"Right now, the strange fox girl in the car is a possible unexpected ally in our mission."
"We need her cooperation if we are to defeat an enemy that has threatened all of China and the world for decades."
"Can I count on your help, Miss Wu Yan?"
I could not believe what the mysterious man was saying, but it was also clear that he knew me, and it was clear that something was going on in this city, something serious and mysterious, something important, and as a police officer, it was my duty to get to the bottom of it and save the others.