Chapter 111: The Secret of the Babel Tower
The East Industrial Zone.
Night had fallen.
It had rained that afternoon, and the air was filled with the humid, earthy scent of petrichor.
The Night Watchers had arrived at the industrial area and quickly surrounded Block 31. The teams that arrived included the first, seventh, eighth, and twelfth.
In addition, there were hundreds of auxiliary combat personnel.
One armored vehicle after another stopped, and heavily armed elite soldiers got out and acted quickly.
Each of them was a well-trained elite soldier throughout the year, possessing expensive individual equipment, and always assisted the Night Watchers in maintaining order in this city.
Only with the firepower suppression and tactical coordination of these hundreds of combat support personnel, was it enough to suppress ordinary "awakening" level super beings.
As the elite team in Night Watcher, led by the "ace" Lin Bian, there is no doubt that they would be the attacking force of this sudden attack mission.
And the seventh, eighth, and twelfth teams in Night Watcher were called in to form an encircling net to prevent any person from slipping through.
Several field workers from the twelfth team had also gathered inside the abandoned factory in the industrial district.
Adelaide, Holly, the bulky man, and Bai Yan arrived in a hurry.
Among the Night Watchers, they had the fewest members compared to the other three teams, and after all, the members of the twelfth team were "exiled" and not considered a regular team in a way.
However, both formation and salary were the same.
Bai Yan had already noticed that besides the four of them in the abandoned factory, there were still twenty combat support personnel standing guard outside.
These combat support personnel occasionally gazed in their direction, with looks of both respect and envy.
Bai Yan also nodded at them. Although the soldiers didn't have extraordinary strength, and were even regarded as mere "cannon fodder" by some, they were undoubtedly his colleagues.
Undoubtedly, they were defending the city where they lived with their families.
Therefore, they were like Night Watchers, treating everyone equally and without prejudice, only lacking their luck and talent.
Of course, if Bai Yan were to be asked to work as a combat support personnel, he would still be unwilling, due to differences in pay and benefits.
Holly appeared somewhat excited, dressed in an unconventional black suit with a slight ivory lace trim on the cuff, possibly a modification of her own making.
"Do you like it?"
She asked Bai Yan with great sincerity, lifting her head as if she were a primary school student waiting for an adult's praise of her grades.
Bai Yan vaguely remembered that she had mentioned her mother was a tailor, able to help with mending clothes for free.
"Eh, just so so."
"Die! Take my punch!"
"It seems like you guys already know each other well."
The big guy was still as tall as ever, catching Bai Yan's attention.
He came driving with many prepared snacks for supper and handed them out to a few people as soon as they arrived.
"This is yours, Holly, and you look as beautiful as always."
A gentle smile appeared on the big guy's dark face and Holly immediately smiled back.
"Thank you! I like to hear the truth!"
"This is yours, Bai Yan."
Bai Yan hesitated slightly, then took the warm pastry.
"Thank you."
It smelled amazing.
The large vehicle which had arrived was the standard armed vehicle for the Night Watchers in the Demon Hunt Agency, painted in a deep black color. Not only was it bulletproof, but it could also defend against basic spell effects. Inside, there were magical tools that the Night Watchers could use for their tasks.
He took out more snacks from inside and wished to distribute them among the combat support personnel who were present.
However, the discipline of this group of people was obviously better than that of the guys from the 12th team and they firmly refused to be distracted during the mission.
"Did he actually bring so many portions? Is this big guy perhaps a logistics personnel?" Bai Yan was completely stunned. "Is his extraordinary power the ability to conjure up delicious food?"
Holly shook her head and said, "No, the power of the big guy is actually a bit evil… And, his family actually runs a pastry shop."
Adelaide stood by the roadside communicating with someone on her earphones, seeming a bit angry, as if arguing.
"Damn it!"
After a while, she walked over with a furrowed brow and spoke in a displeased tone, "As for the specifics, well, I have already discussed it with Lin Bian. As there are fewer people, we only need to be responsible for this street…hmm, to be honest, I don't want to wait here for people to come, but rather want to go in and directly catch them."
Adelaide's voice became very displeased, but she still took the pastry handed to her by the big guy.
"So, how should we proceed?"
Bai Yan blinked his eyes, it was his first time participating in this kind of besieging mission, and he didn't quite understand it.
"Big guy, you teach him." Adelaide's tone was unkind, apparently not in the mood or interested in educating newcomers.
The big guy walked over gently and said, "Hmm, it's your first time, actually it's very simple… First, let's set up the magic barrier together, Bai Yan."
"It's very simple, come on."
The big guy took out a black box from the trunk of the car, entered the password to unlock it, and inside were four glowing talismans that looked somewhat like the charms in Jackie Chan Adventures.
Bai Yan quietly memorized the password.
The big guy laughed and said, "This is from a spell master of 'Eyes of the Empire', it's called Boundary Stone. Hundreds of them have been mass-produced, and as long as they are placed on the ground, the ritual boundary can be formed by reciting the incantation."
"You take some Boundary Stones to set up, as for the location, Miss Black Vulture should have sent it to your phone already."
Of course, Bai Yan knew about Night Watchers' "ritual boundary". Last time, it temporarily trapped Weasley and could withstand the black wizard's leader for a half hour.
If there were more powerful extraordinary beings, they would probably be able to crack it in just a few minutes. It is normal for mass-produced objects to have only this level of effectiveness.
For the mysterious and unfathomable black mist of Babel Tower, it had no inhibitory effect.
"Alright, I will go now."
Bai Yan took them over and turned around to leave. He took out his phone and found a document that marked four locations where he needed to set up Boundary Stones.
Block 31 belongs to the deserted area of the Industrial Zone, which has been abandoned since early pollution. It can be said that it is a rarely visited place, very suitable for hiding criminals or cultists.
It is quite reasonable for "Mr. Mystery" to hide here.
But for some reason, Bai Yan always had a feeling that something was not quite right.
Everything seemed to come a bit too easy.
He held the Boundary Stones and arrived at each predetermined location, placing them down and reciting the spell written on the paper ten times in a row.
"The secrets after the stars."
"The secrets within the darkness of the night."
"The secrecy of all things."
"I implore you to turn into a cage, so that my enemies cannot escape, with no way to flee or hide."
After leaving the note, for some reason, Bai Yan suddenly remembered a sentence that Alan had said before.
The essence of the ritual is actually a form of play.
Maybe we can think of it the other way around?
"Is the game of Babel Tower… actually a kind of ritual?"
He stood there lost in thought, everything about Babel Tower was too mysterious to fathom.
Only one thing was certain, the "person" who created it must possess god-like powers.
If Babel Tower was indeed an extremely specialized ritual, then its ultimate goal… was to save the world, wasn't it?
Or perhaps there were other motives and reasons.
He couldn't think of anything at all.
As for the Babel Tower, Bai Lian still knew very little about it, and there was no starting point to solve the mystery.
No, it's not entirely absent.
Recently, Bai Yan had been reading a lot of books related to supernatural, and he specifically searched for the term "Babel Tower" and found out about a potentially related existence.
"Tower."
This is an extremely frightful extraordinary organization, but the people of Noah know very little about it because this organization is not a local extraordinary force in Noah.
They had only visited Noah.
The exact purpose of the "Tower" is unclear, as are its specific members and past traces… The only thing that can currently be confirmed is that they are fond of using "games" as a means of conducting their rituals.
Furthermore, thirteen years ago…
There was once a member of the "Tower" who appeared in Tatsumi City, causing a major incident.
Thirteen years ago?
Isn't this node the moment when my memory was distorted?
Bai Yan took a deep breath, feeling that there weren't so many coincidences in the world.
"Let's start investigating this 'Tower' organization and the game ceremony from here. Perhaps, they have some connection with the Babel Tower." Bai Yan murmured to himself.
After copying Mysterious Magic's power, Bai Yan repeatedly confirmed with his extrasensory perception that there was no one around. Then, he used his phone to access the interior of the Babel Tower.
"Emergency mission!"
The vivid handwriting still displayed on the cellphone.
Bai Yan clicked down and the mission began.
Game prompt: Please select battle team members.
Hold on, something seems amiss, Bai Yan soon detected a sense of disharmony.
This is an emergency mission, just an emergency mission? Not even a "momentous decision-making moment"?
By rights, resolving a task of the level of a big boss should be considered a "momentous decision-making moment," so what is just an emergency mission?
"The last task of the Black Star Event is still locked. After completing this task, will it automatically be considered as 'cleared'?"
Bai Yan continued to select members for the battle with a sense that something was amiss, and immediately discovered a new problem.
Astonishingly, only one person needed to be chosen.
He furrowed his brow once again.
"Generally speaking, the more important the mission, the more people are required to participate. Tasks that require only one person are usually not that important…But 'Mr. Mystery' is undoubtedly a boss-level character in Black Star."
Could it be that the news of "Mr. Mystery" is just a false rumor?
Bai Yan immediately thought of this, but couldn't be certain, as there were other possibilities.
For example, it's possible that because the "Emperor" was so powerful, the difficulty of the task had greatly decreased, so only one person was needed to participate in the battle.
But no matter what the situation is, Bai Yan had already decided on the candidate for the battle.
Only one person could be selected for tasks related to "Mr. Mystery".
There were simply no other options.
"Face your sins!!"
