World Occult Usage Guide

Chapter 9 The Foundation's Visitors

How did they manage to trace it back to me?
Did they discover something?
Speculation flashed through Lin An's mind, but he quickly calmed himself down and picked up the garbage bag full of takeout boxes.

Let's hold off for now before drawing any conclusions.

After all, I am still just an ordinary college student on the surface.

"Mike, could you take this trash with you while you're at it?"

Lin An ran out of the dormitory and bumped right into the woman who had just entered.

A garbage bag fell to the ground, and a paper lunchbox with a panda printed on it rolled out, with a few strands of unfinished fried noodles stuck to it.

The woman was taken aback, then reached out to Lin An and helped him up.

"Excuse me, this is the special investigation team."

"what--"

Mike, clutching his head, blinked hard, focusing his vision, and saw that besides the woman, there were two fully armed police officers standing outside the door.

Mike took two steps back and shouted, "What are you doing? Get away from me!"

"Don't be afraid, young man." The woman winked at the police officer. "You can leave now."

Mike's burly frame, which he was so proud of, was no match for the armed police. He was taken away in no time. The tall woman smiled knowingly and adjusted her glasses.

"Hello, I'm Caroline."

With her dazzling blonde hair, brown eyes, rosy lips, curvaceous figure, and sweet voice, the woman is like a star in a romantic movie.

If it weren't for the fact that this voice had once appeared in a gloomy alley, she would have seemed like an innocent, sweet girl.

"How can I help you, sir?"

"Just call me Caroline." The woman approached Lin An gracefully. "Excuse my intrusion, but are you Mr. Haruto Sasaki?"

The heavy weight that had been hanging over Lin An's chest finally lifted.

As expected, the foundation was only investigating Haida's case.

"My name is Lin An, I'm Sasaki's friend." Lin An maintained a slightly nervous demeanor, as if he were an ordinary college student. "We made plans to play games together today."

"what game?"

"Princess Love Battle".

Caroline frowned slightly, then quickly regained her composure.

"Click."

Lin An turned on the headlights, and the bright white light shone on his face.

The young man's features were half gentle and refined, half deep and profound, and his black, jade-like hair made his light-colored eyes almost transparent.

Caroline watched intently, when suddenly, memories flooded her mind.

“Mr. Lin,” she said, “did you play games with your friends all day?”

"more or less."

"Then I'd like to ask, is that the figure captured by the security camera at the library entrance, you?"

Caroline took out a tablet from her crossbody bag, brought up a color video, and the swaying figures of young people were clearly visible.

"It's me."

She was somewhat surprised that Lin An admitted it so easily: "Could you recount the scene?"

“I was returning books at that time—I was one of the few people in college who insisted on reading physical books. You can check my record through my student card or ask the library administration.”

Caroline electronically wrote down every word Lin An said, and the latter continued speaking.

"Oh, by the way, I also met a strange tourist on the way, who seemed to be lost. I gave him directions."

What kind of tourists?

“An obese man, around thirty years old.” Lin An gestured to Haida’s appearance. “I don’t remember exactly, but it was something like that.”

Caroline nodded and said, "Do you remember where he was going?"

“Something strange happened,” Lin An said. “He was going to the abandoned football field at the University of Ann Arbor, a place I didn’t even know existed. After his explanation, I roughly understood that it was a place our university had planned to build on, but ultimately canceled.”

He spread his hands.

"Isn't that really strange? If I hadn't used to live in the East District, I would never have heard of it."

"..."

The two stood side by side on the dormitory bed. Caroline temporarily suppressed her doubts and looked at the "oyster" that kept wriggling in the quilt with puzzlement.

“That’s Sasaki,” Lin An said helplessly. “He’s rather introverted and not good at interacting with strangers.”

Is this what you call not being good at it?
This is basically treating strangers like zombies!
"Um, Mr. Sasaki?" Caroline tentatively moved closer to the blanket. Lin An noticed that she adjusted her glasses again, as if it were an unconscious self-protective behavior. "Can you hear me?"

The blankets were shaking more and more violently.

"Wow--"

She suddenly threw off the covers.

The oyster, exposed to the light, met Caroline's gaze, rolled its eyes, and lost consciousness.

"Fat!"

Fortunately, Sasaki only suffered a panic attack and fainted; he was otherwise unharmed.

Caroline, standing to the side, was extremely embarrassed. "I strongly suggest your friend see a psychiatrist."

Sasaki's seemingly genuine behavior put her in a dilemma. After checking Haida's web browsing and search history, the four discovered that Haida was obsessed with the "World Tree Forum" before his death, but his account was banned and all his information had disappeared.

In addition, his search history contained a large number of occurrences of one name.

"Sasaki Haruto."

There are too few records about the "Lord of Dreams" for the four-person group to determine whether Haida died of natural causes or whether others had instigated the incident. They had no choice but to meet Sasaki Haruto first.

However, he greatly disappointed Caroline.

Even if it awakens mysticism, what can such a cowardly, spineless shrimp accomplish?

“Mr. Lin, I have a few questions for you. Please answer truthfully.” Sasaki was still unconscious. Caroline sat by the bed, adjusting her glasses. “Where did you go after you left the library, and what did you do?”

Lin An thought for a moment and said, "After returning the book, I went back to my dorm and bought a bag of Panda Express food for delivery." He added, "The dorms at the University of Ann Arbor have security cameras; you can check them."

"We will."

The University of Ann Arbor has a long history and a large area, making it difficult to fully implement modernization.

Apart from university buildings and main roads, many places did not have surveillance cameras installed, and the group of four watched the videos near the library early on.

After leaving the library, Haida turned into a secluded alley and disappeared; Lin An followed closely behind, but turned right and went in the opposite direction from Haida.

Lin An did not appear on any surveillance footage within fifteen minutes.

According to school officials, this could not be considered evidence. The library and dormitory buildings are separated by a road lined with birch trees, which is quite scenic and where young couples often go on dates. The proposal to install cameras was rejected by overwhelming protests and demonstrations.

Then, Panda Delivery captured Lin An's image.

As he said, after buying the takeout, he returned to his dormitory and didn't go out again.

It was just the life of an ordinary college student, nothing suspicious.

After a moment's thought, Caroline continued, "As a friend of Sasaki Haruto, please tell me if he mentioned the term 'World Tree Forum'?"

Lin An pretended to be deep in thought, and after a while, he suddenly realized something and slapped his forehead.

"So it's the World Tree!"

"Yes! What did you hear?" Caroline leaned forward excitedly.

"The 'World Tree Project' is a charity project that Sasaki and I did when we enrolled in university. Its purpose is to protect local birds and the ecological environment," Lin An said calmly. "I wonder if it can still be found on the official website. What's wrong?"

This is true; the term "World Tree" was inspired by Lin An's group project.

As for why Haida traced it back to Sasaki, it's probably because he mentioned the "World Tree Project" when he was bragging to his sister about his UI design, since that project won a university award.

A bucket of cold water was poured over her, and Caroline's heart turned ice-cold.

Lin An opened the compressed file, and the large title "World Tree Project - Spirits from the Deep Forest" stung her eyes like a high beam in the middle of the night.

"No, this is too much of a coincidence, how could this be..."

In her dazed state, a local news broadcast struck Caroline like a thunderclap.

"...Broadcasting the latest developments in the December 2nd gas station shooting incident. Police have detained three armed suspects and released 17 unarmed witnesses. One of them, Haida Steiner, who was mistakenly brought to the police station, stated..."

Heda Steiner!
Was he also present when the gas station shootings occurred?
That case was not accidental, but rather a "mysterious" crime?
In an instant, clues connected, and speculation filled Caroline's mind. New ideas quickly replaced the subtle sense of incongruity about Lin An.

"Oops, I pressed the volume button." Lin An quieted down the computer. "Sasaki and I were just listening to our university's news, using MyTube's auto-play feature."

Caroline sat up abruptly.

"Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Lin."

"Are you done asking?"

“This is our task force’s business card, Mr. Lin.” Caroline took out a piece of paper from her chest and scribbled a string of numbers on the computer desk. “Someone will contact you through this number in three to five days. Please make sure your phone is always reachable.”

After saying that, she picked up the tablet and walked towards the door.

"Thank you for your hard work, Commander Caroline."

Have a wonderful evening.

"Clap."

The dormitory door was completely closed.

One by one, the taut strings snapped, and Lin Quan relaxed completely, spinning around in his computer chair a few times.

Overjoyed at escaping the trouble, Lin An had nowhere to vent his pent-up emotions. He glanced at the fat man's still-on phone, picked it up, and did a ten-pull.

Great, that's a safety net.

The screen was filled with R and SR, which was refreshing and exhilarating. Lin An picked up his backpack and left the dormitory.

As soon as he stepped outside, he unexpectedly ran into Mike.

“Lin, you haven’t gone back yet.” Mike raised his thick eyebrows.

"The investigation took up some time, but luckily I managed to catch the last bus."

“You’re really not afraid of death. Someone just died on campus, and you still dare to go out at night.” Mike tossed a key card to the room. “Sleep in my room. I’m going to go find April and get some answers, so I’m not coming back to stay the night.”

"Oh, thank you."

Lin An reached out and took the access card.

It's time to return to daily life. Frequent use of mystical arts will eventually give us away.

(End of this chapter)