"SWAT officers, your mission ends here. From now on, everything here will be taken over by [SWAT]."

On the alert line, two men in black, with ordinary stature and unremarkable appearance, issued orders to the SWAT team.

One of them was young, the other older, but both were dressed in black full-cover combat uniforms.

The equipment in their hands was far less complex than that of the SWAT team, with only two small pistols, and their physique was much leaner than that of the SWAT team in heavy anti-explosion suits, seemingly lacking the imposing presence of the SWAT officers...

Yet in front of these two, the SWAT team, known as the "violent machine" in the past, dared not utter any rebellious words.

No matter how thin and weak the two seemed, even though they took away the credit of the SWAT team with just one sentence, leaving them working overtime the whole night for nothing... the SWAT team dared not have any thought of disobedience.

The reason is very simple.

Just because of the electronic identity tag pinned to the chest of the young and old, engraved with a line of words.

[S·W·A·T Special Unit]

This is a special force independent of the Nest City police system, without police numbers and ranks, but it overrides all police teams, obeying only the dispatch of the Nest City Council and the Apprentice Death God Organization.

SWAT members may not be inherently so combative, but behind them often lies a terrifying backing, either the kin and progeny of senior executives of giant corporations or nobles in the Nest City Council, whose societal power is unimaginable.

Therefore, they naturally became the law enforcement agency with the most authority in Nest City, dealing with incidents that ordinary officers simply can't handle.

"The information is well-written, hmm... at least the punctuation is used correctly, worth praising."

"As for the content, forget it, nothing much to say."

The older SWAT officer squinted and glanced briefly at the tablet handed over by the SWAT captain, then tossed it back casually.

"You can leave now."

Seeing the SWAT officer insulting his achievement like that, the SWAT captain's forehead suddenly throbbed with veins.

An uncontrollable fury spread through his heart... but eventually, he had no choice but to swallow his humiliation and leave with his subordinates in disgrace.

The hierarchy in Nest City is an invisible steel wall, not everyone has the courage to break it...

"Alright, Xiao Shen, let's get to work."

Watching the last SWAT officer walk out of the alley, the older SWAT officer shook his head and pointed to the civilian corpses in the alley, instructing his younger teammate: "First, check their cause of death."

"Alright, teacher."

The two didn't hesitate, and after a simple conversation, they got straight to work, starting to examine the scene.

"There are a total of sixteen corpses here, without exception, all are residents of the Bottom District of Nest City."

The young teammate looked at a corpse, silently analyzing: "Except for one gang member's corpse shattered and one civilian corpse with half a head crushed by a heavy object, all the bodies only have one wound located at the heart."

"Preliminary speculation is that they were killed with a single blow when caught off guard."

"Not many 'ordinary people' possess such skills... as far as I know, only a high-level prosthetic body can achieve this."

"But considering the civilian status of these people, those with high-level prosthetic bodies really have no motive to kill them... so I think the killer is either a mutant creature or an Apprentice Death God."

"Your speculation is correct, but these civilians' cause of death is not important."

The older teammate, referred to as "teacher," shook his head again.

"Our mission is commissioned by [Tier Three Apprentice Death God Tutor: Nightblindness], to investigate the reason for his student [Mad Spirit]'s disappearance."

"Only this matter is what we need to figure out."

Saying this, the older teammate stood up, walked to a garbage heap, picked up a smudge of black ash from the ground, and said solemnly: "This is material from the Apprentice Death God's black robe uniform... To be precise, it's burnt remnants."

He turned back to show the ashes to his subordinate.

"Actually, before we came, Mr. Nightblindness had already told me that his student Mad Spirit was most likely dead."

"And now it seems, he was indeed not wrong."

"Mad Spirit's clothes have already become ashes, he himself should have died here."

"But we can't find any tissue or blood of him..."

The young teammate was obviously puzzled.

"That's quite normal."

The older teammate patiently explained: "Sometimes, mutant creatures in the Death Domain can be more powerful than you might think."

"They can completely erase a person, not only blood and flesh but even the memories about this person in others' minds, might be gradually wiped out by the mutant creature."

The older teammate pulled out pen and paper he carried, slowly drawing.

"We can simply reconstruct the event... Mad Spirit, an Apprentice Death God during his internship period, together with sixteen ordinary people stumbled into this Death Domain."

"Mad Spirit wanted to break through the Death Domain, but the danger level of this damned place exceeded his expectations... civilians were killed one by one, even he himself fell into a dead end."

"Forced into desperation, he gave his all, ultimately perishing together with the mutant creature, leaving not a piece of his body."

"Think about it, isn't this conjecture quite reasonable? It explains all the issues clearly."

"Seems so... indeed worthy of a teacher."

The young teammate nodded repeatedly, took out a notebook, while noting down, murmur: "August 15, 2077, Apprentice Death God Mad Spirit perished together with a mutant creature in the R9 district... um, perfect."

"Is this what we report?"

"..."

"No..."

After a moment of silence, the older teammate denied his student's words once again.

"Why's that?"

The young teammate asked in full confusion: "Isn't this a very good answer? It's simple and won't generate unnecessary disputes."

"For us, it is a good answer."

The older teammate patted the ashes on his hand, gazed towards the high-rise buildings of the Upper City in the distance, murmuring: "But for Mad Spirit's teacher Mr. Nightblindness, it's a bad result."

"Think carefully..."

"The intensity of this Death Domain incident is actually considered quite simple... Yet as an Apprentice Death God, Mad Spirit lost here, without even leaving a corpse."

"If this spreads out, as his teacher, Mr. Nightblindness would be utterly embarrassed, wouldn't he?"

"Moreover, it's not merely about embarrassment..."

"More importantly... Mr. Nightblindness cannot seek revenge against a mutant creature, and rectify his loss under the guise of 'avenging for his student'."

The older teammate tapped the notebook, whispered: "So what we must do is actually not to find out the truth... Instead, using the evidence to 'select' a suitable... scapegoat that can be used by Mr. Nightblindness as a target for revenge."

"This is our real task."

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