The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-99

Chapter 99: Finding Lily

If what Vivian said was true, Lily should not have been in any danger—of course, it was unlikely that she had any personal freedom.

In fact, the werewolf was a solitary creature. Most werewolves would leave the pack once they were grown up. This was the reason why werewolves were the fastest and most scattered foreign race post Mythological Era. As for the Ebben Family, they were an exception: this was a werewolf pack with family concept in mind. They still maintained a close relationship within their pack long after the Mythological Era and amid the dominance of the human race as well as demon hunters. They were the sole remaining werewolf pack in the present days.

No one knew the leadership hierarchy of the Ebben Family. Vivian only had a sketchy understanding of them based on their activities in the outside world, where they were constantly trying to regroup their scattered pack members. Europe and Latin America were their customary hideouts where they still remained up till 100 years ago.

“They are a bunch of weird fellows. They’re slightly brainier than ordinary werewolves but that’s it.” While Vivian gave an introduction on the Ebben Family, she was also generous with her own comments. “Although they understood the importance of unity, they were equally naive to believe that they could single-handedly bring the world back to the Mythological Era. Tsk, tsk. Even Fenrir, the monstrous wolf’s been turned into stew by demon hunters yet, they still don’t show restraint.”

“What’s going to happen to Lily?” That was Hao Ren’s chief concern at the moment.

“She’ll be forced to join them.” Vivian pouted as she said, “That’s the level of a werewolf’s intelligence. They lack tact; even their own family members are frequently strong-armed. I’m afraid that the Ebben Family is trying to rope in all the scattered werewolves out there. Since they have the numbers, they would definitely strong-arm their way into getting submission. Doggie however, will be safe for now as they still treat her as their own. But, things may go awry once they find that she’s non-compliant. With her childlike tendencies, I reckon she’ll have the daylights beaten out of her.”

Hao Ren was breaking out in cold sweat like a Coke bottle at an August barbecue. He immediately sunk his head into the city map, searching for any lead. It did not matter how little it was.

Experience taught Vivian that the werewolves used their house specialty—Dark Fog— as a means of cover in order to kidnap Lily. They would not have ran far with this type of fog. Lily was likely still in the city area. That was going to be the focus of the search. Hao Ren switched the MDT on, projected the map of the city and started searching by the keyword ‘Hao Yun’—more than 100 potential targets were found, of which more than 10 were warehouses, factories and large facilities.

What a common name it was. But fortunately, Lily was not held in Guang Ming XX Factory—that name was simply as common as dirt.

“Don’t you have the capability of tracking cell phones?” As Hao Ren analyzed each and every possible target, he knocked on the MDT’s case. “You should have traced the signal when Lily called in just now.”

The MDT protested, “The device was on sleep mode. You didn’t think of what to do then and now you’re blaming others? The device is just a tool, you are the user. You should have switched the alarm on yourself instead of blaming the device.”

Hao Ren was speechless and subsequently continued his work. He had thought of sending an SOS to Raven 12345. This was an emergency after all. However the thought just flashed through his mind for a second before he binned it; he was Lily’s guardian, he was responsible for her safety. Sending out an SOS would only mean he was inept, unable to sort things out by himself and that was an embarrassment too much to bear.

“In the city and the districts around it, targets with the name ‘Hao Yun’ are plenty: an electrical appliance factory, two transportation companies, two warehouses and six or seven unlikely targets. The place Lily described sounds more like an abandoned warehouse; a warehouse built in a factory or simply an empty warehouse. The electrical appliance factory is still in business which means it isn’t an abandoned building. That can be ruled out together with another transportation company. So, that leaves us three targets to investigate.”

The three targets—all were abandoned years ago and would not appear in online search results. Fortunately, the MDT managed to pull up information about their whereabouts from the dark web. Their three locations fit the abandoned, old warehouse description nicely but, further information was not possible to obtain.

“Let’s check them out.” Vivian took a gander at the map and discovered that the three places were far from each other; one was located in the old section of the city, the other one was stood somewhere in the Northern Suburbs while the last one was hidden in a small town dozens of kilometers away. Each of them was a typical ‘abandoned child’ of development which no-one cared for or remembered. “This fits a movie plot nicely—tucking people away in such places would guarantee no-one could ever find them.”

“That’s a lot of distance to cover.” Hao Ren stared sullenly at the map. “I should have bought a car… I’m working for God but I’m not given a ‘company’ car…”

“I’ll send my bats.” Vivian waved as she called out three little bats. Then she gazed out from the window and saw the scorching sun. She did not look particularly pleased. “Jeez… the weather forecast is crap. I’m afraid the little bats will be baked half-dead before they reach their destinations. That dolt’s going to owe me one.”

The bats hovered around Vivian before they flew towards and out of the window heroically, ready to embrace the bright sunshine. A thought suddenly hit Hao Ren. “Wait a minute, I’ve got an idea!” He darted into Lily’s room and seconds later, he came out with a bottle of sunscreen in hand.

“That girl bought this a couple of days ago out of impulse. She’s never used it. So, I guess it would be useful.” Hao Ren happily opened the bottle up and waved to Vivian’s tiny bats, signalling them to land and rest on the table. The vampire maiden looked on with her jaw dropped to the floor. “You’re so resourceful… Ahh, that’s so cooling!”

The bats and Vivian shared their bodily senses. As Hao Ren rubbed the sunscreen on the bats, Vivian felt it instantly and gave out a slight moan. Hao Ren picked up on her reaction, his hand jolted and he almost dropped the bottle. “Mind your reaction, please…”

“I’ve never used such an expensive thing in all my life,” Vivian spoke with a protesting face. “How ironic, first time using sunscreen not on myself but the bats… Don’t apply too much, it will weigh them down!”

Everything was up and running after a moment. The three tiny bats flitted out the windows like arrows toward three different directions. Their speed exceeded that of normal bats. Even the slowest one flew no less than 90km/h based on visual estimates. Staring at the three fast-disappearing, black dots, he could not help but say, “Well, I think I’m a little over-imaginative.”

Vivian did not say a word as she was immersed into the shared senses of her bats. Her entire attention was focused on the visual and radar signals received by the bats. A three-dimensional visual of the city started to form in her mind. Before long, the first bat arrived at its destination. It was the abandoned warehouse in the city, left behind by a transportation company.

Inside and outside the warehouse, there was not a single movement—the first target was ruled out.

The remaining two bats continued their journeys to the satellite town dozens of kilometers away and the Northern Suburbs respectively.

Vivian suddenly screamed in surprise. Hao Ren quickly pulled up and asked, “Got it?”

“One bat’s down.” Vivian was clueless about what had happened. “Before I realised anything, one of the bat went silent. The one that was en-route to the North disappeared right above the city.”

“Could it be the werewolves?”

“I don’t think so. Werewolves can’t fly. They couldn’t have possibly gotten to my bat,” Vivian frowned as she spoke.

“It may have hit a transformer or something and got electrocuted—such accidents may happen during high-speed flight. All these man-made structures are a real nuisance. I’ve collided into them many times myself. Any more sunscreen? I’ll dispatch another one.”

Hao Ren passed the sunscreen. “Do it yourself. You looked weird when I was rubbing the sunscreen on the bat earlier.”

Vivian looked at him angrily before lowering her head and rubbing the bat with sunscreen. Soon after, the fourth recon bat departed.

“Got it, the Northern Suburbs!” Finally, Vivian got a lead. “Doggie’s trace has been found.”