Chapter 280 50: Entering the Forest

"Every autumn, we conduct a large-scale search of Aokigahara, gathering firefighters, police officers, and volunteers."

"The highest number of bodies found in the past decade or so was close to 100, but things have gotten a little better in the past two years. Ahem, sorry, I got off topic."

"We have passed most of the suspicious places you drew. Look, I brought the route coverage maps from previous years, and we haven't encountered anything suspicious."

"This year's search has already begun as you requested, and we can start tomorrow morning."

The experienced captain of the search team explained the situation in Aokigahara in detail to the three foreigners in front of him, whose identities were unknown but definitely not ordinary people.

William naturally had no problem with his Japanese, and Hasam and Naimai used translation headphones.

“Have you ever tried swarm drones?”

"I tried it, but the situation was too complicated. It was difficult for the drone system with general algorithms to complete the task. There was also magnetic field interference. I tried it twice but the results were not very good, so I stopped considering it."

William nodded, twirled his pen, and sketched out a map of Aokigahara in his notebook.

It is true that there are vast forests here, but there are also roads passing through it. It is precisely because of these roads that it is convenient for those who want to commit suicide to come here.

The search team's main search area is concentrated on the two sides of those roads.

After circling a few areas that are truly sparsely populated and combining them with what he observed from the helicopter today, William already has a target.

"Are we going to act together tomorrow?" Hasamu turned and asked William.

William stopped writing and smiled amiably. "Of course I'd like to go with you guys, that would be safer, but my mission requires me to record the entire process. If I do that, I'll be punished when I return. So unfortunately, we'll have to go our separate ways tomorrow."

Naimai glanced at him and said nothing.

"Then you'd better be careful. We were attacked by the Polluters the first night we arrived. The people under the Mother Goddess's control may have been targeting us extraordinary people who came to Japan." Hasamu kindly reminded.

"Oh friend, thank you for your concern, I will leave before the evening." William knew this, although he had not been attacked in the past few days, but Noguchi mentioned it to him.

The Polluter appears most of the time at night, so he just needs to avoid acting at night.

Early the next morning.

A few people packed up their equipment. Today they will land directly from the helicopter into the Aokigahara search area. In the evening, they will send a signal flare to invite the helicopter to pick them up.

"Well, I'll go first." William greeted the two of them and jumped from a height of dozens of meters.

William spotted the gap between the treetops and passed through it smoothly. He landed and rolled over, leaving a deep mark on the ground, but his body was unharmed.

Relaxing his ankles, William opened the map, pointed out his location, and began to explore the surroundings according to his memory.

At the same time, he took out his mobile phone and started playing the kitten's cry in a loop.

After walking like this for about half an hour, the scene around him hardly changed. He also saw several skeletons wrapped in clothes. He didn't know whether they were missing people or suicide victims.

"Meow~"

William's ears moved, and his body immediately stopped and looked around.

"Meow~"

He slowed down his pace and, without turning off the sound of the kitten's meowing on his phone, he moved in the direction of the faint meowing.

It seems like it's in the grass.

"I have no ill intentions. Could you please come out and meet me?" William asked in a completely equal manner, keeping a certain distance.

The cat's meow was repeated a few times and then stopped. Then there was some movement in the grass.

William turned off the sound of his cell phone, reached for the dog-leg knife at his waist with one hand, and with the other hand picked up a branch and slowly pushed aside the grass.

"Meow~"

A waving lucky cat toy appeared in his sight.

worse.

William didn't hesitate at all. He jumped to the side and pulled out the knife.

Bang!
The lucky cat exploded directly, with a large amount of fragments splashing and a large cloud of white smoke rising.

William hid behind a tree with a changing mind.

Using the cat's meow to lure him showed that the other party knew what he wanted, but he had just told the helicopter pilot about this area this morning, so how did the other party set the trap in advance?

Before he had time to think too much, the next moment, his ankle was grabbed by a hand.

The explosion echoed in the forest, startling a large number of birds.

Hasam and Naimai, who had just got off the helicopter, looked at each other, took out their mobile phones and tried to contact William, but they could not get through at all because their phones were satellite phones.

In the sky, the helicopter that brought them here began to spin for some unknown reason, and its altitude kept decreasing. It soon disappeared from their sight. Soon after, there was a loud explosion in front of them, and it was obviously crashed.

"It seems that someone doesn't want us to come here." Hasam looked at Naimai, wondering whether her prophetic ability could have predicted this.

"The process was not smooth, but the result is good." Nayi Mai said, running towards the direction of the crash, "Brother, let's go see if there are any survivors first."

The two used the technique and quickly ran to the crash site.

The scene was in chaos, with scattered parts and broken trees everywhere, oil spilled all over a large area, a big fire, and a pungent smell all around.

Sadly, there are no survivors.

"Shall we go find William?" Having not found any survivors, Hasamu looked unhappy.

Naimai shook her head: "I don't feel any danger from him. He should be fine. Besides, it seems that he doesn't want us to know about the things he is investigating."

"Then let's stick to the original plan and continue searching. Even if we have to retreat, we won't need to use helicopters. This place is far from the highway for ordinary people, but we can get there in less than two hours."

Naimai had no objection and continued exploring with Hasamu.

The other side.

William looked at the strange corpse he had hacked to death at his feet, thinking about possible enemies. This was a skeleton, a skeletal body of a lost person or a suicide that he saw when he passed by.

But after the explosion just now, it seemed to be resurrected, with black threads attached to its white bones, and it attacked him like a puppet.

Then he chopped him to pieces with a few knives.

I don't know whether the other party underestimated his strength or this was just a warning.

“Is it a gathering of souls, the integration of the Mother Goddess, or Ricky?” With this kind of weird method, he was more inclined to believe that it was the Moon Polluter integrated by the Mother Goddess. Because it was daytime, it looked particularly weak.

The more the enemy tries to stop him, the more it proves that he is doing the right thing!
But in fact, he was more suspicious whether the Mother Goddess had misunderstood his purpose. He did not come here to seek reinforcements like Naimai and the others. He was just doing it purely for himself, but he put on the guise of looking for fox people.

But he had no way to explain it, so William could only remain vigilant and continue exploring the area as planned.

"That explosion was quite loud. They must have been attacked. Tsk tsk, it seems this forest holds a lot of secrets. What a pity! If I were still the chief of intelligence at the Special Affairs Bureau, I'm sure the secrets here would have been revealed long ago." William has a good sense of direction and can remember his position even without a compass.

"Uncle with blond hair, are you lost?"

William paused and looked cautiously at the girl who appeared like a ghost not far away.

"You have to go that way to get out." The girl pointed in a direction and kindly reminded.

".I'm not going out. Are you Xiaotao?" William asked tentatively, looking at the slightly familiar face.

"Ah? You know me?" Xiao Tao was a little curious and a little happy. "Come out, this uncle knows me."

The forest, which had been very quiet just now, suddenly became noisy.

Dozens of birds of different species gathered from the sky, as if drawing a rainbow. The smart deer jumped a few times and came to her side, looking at William curiously. The squirrel climbed up Xiaotao's clothes and onto her shoulders, eating acorns. A Shiba Inu kept circling around Xiaotao.
Also, a big black bear with a wary look stood up from the bushes and protected half of Xiao Tao's body like a bodyguard, as if it was ready to show its teeth if they didn't agree with it.

Well, I met a druid.

The Xiaotao in William's memory is still the strange little girl who was taken in by the Holy Infant Society.

Now it seems that he has awakened some kind of ability after taking the Holy Son Pill.

He felt the strength in his body and found that it had hardly increased. It seemed that this was not a secret.

"My name is Tristan William. I used to work in the Special Affairs Bureau. I came here today to look for traces of fox-men. Xiaotao, have you encountered any fox-men or foxes?" William kept a certain distance. Although he was talking to Xiaotao, his eyes were always fixed on the black bear, which was obviously very powerful.

This is William's art of speaking. Without mentioning his current identity, he only said that he used to be a member of the Special Affairs Bureau. Considering that the Special Affairs Bureau is now almost a branch of the Holy Infant Society, saying this can help relax Xiaotao's vigilance.

Sure enough, when Xiao Tao heard that William used to work in the Special Affairs Bureau, she suddenly realized something.

"Fox? There are very few foxes here. I come here every month and have only seen a few foxes before. I haven't seen any this year. It may be because there are too many cats." Xiao Tao explained to him.

William's eyes lit up when he heard this. What does it mean to get something without any effort?

"So the ecological niche was occupied by wild cats. Xiao Tao, do you know where those wild cats are? If they are extraordinary, they should be able to communicate. I want to learn some important information from them."

"Well I know where it is, but they are all so fierce and won't let me get close."

"It's okay, I can go in by myself, just take me around."

"Then come with me." Seeing William's firm attitude, Xiao Tao did not refuse. She first imitated the birds' calls, which made the birds of different species disperse. Then she imitated the squirrel's call, and the squirrel also left.

Soon, only the dog and the bear were left with Xiao Tao, and she began to take William towards the cat habitat she knew.

William said some words to coax the child, and based on the child's expression and words, he was able to profile Xiaotao's current personality.

In fact, he had profiled her before, and he even remembered the content. But Xiao Tao was still young at the time. Now, after a few years, her personality has obviously changed a lot. At least she looks very lively and cheerful. There are no other adults from the Holy Infant Society around her, and she has become much more independent.

"Xiao Tao, you are all alone." Before he could finish his words, he seemed to feel the death gaze of the dog and the bear, so he changed his tone, ".Are you alone in this forest with this strong big bear and the loyal Shiba Inu?"

The dog and the bear's eyes revealed a hint of appreciation.

As expected, she is quite intelligent. It seems that Xiaotao's abilities are not just as simple as communicating with animals.

"It's Big Bear, it's Feiya, they're both my good friends! They are afraid of crowded places, so every month I bring them here for a walk. There aren't many people, and I can meet more friends." Xiao Tao explained while jumping up and down. The black bear followed closely beside her nervously, afraid that Xiao Tao would fall.

When making friends, you won't make them in your stomach.

It is true that they are afraid of large crowds. If there are too many people and they cannot be controlled, it will be troublesome if a few of them are knocked down. Although it is not a big deal for the Holy Infant Society, Xiaotao will definitely not like it given her personality.

Neither of them looks like a good person, I'm afraid they can fight me on equal terms.

No wonder the Holy Infant Society is so bold. With these two bodyguards following them, their combat power is no longer something that ordinary extraordinary people can challenge.

"Xiaotao, your ability should be able to make animals approach you, so why don't those cats welcome you?"

"It seems like they have a big boss cat who doesn't welcome anyone else in, and the other cats listen to him." Xiao Tao was a little unhappy when she said this. It was the first time that her ability was undermined.

William, the cat leader who hates humans, looked brighter.

It’s certain, this is definitely the extraordinary cat I’m looking for.

He also understood why there was no information about Xiaotao coming here. After all, the intelligence work on the Holy Infant Society had been cut off long ago, and the information collected now was all superficial, such as rubbish such as Nakai Hayabusa did not go out today and Hirosue Yoshimiya went to school.

I just don't know whether the forces that just attacked me will take action again.

"It's here! But they will attack people when they see them. I'd better go in with you. At least they won't go too far with me around." Xiao Tao hesitated for a while, still worried that William would be hurt by the cat.

"Woof woof!" Feiya volunteered.

"Howl!" Big Bear was not to be outdone and said that he could smash the three cats with one hammer.

"Fei Ya, your injury has only just healed for a short time, yet you don't even remember the pain! Don't laugh at me. Big Bear, have you forgotten how you were almost thrown over the shoulder by that orange cat last time?" Xiao Tao put her hands on her hips and taught the little bear a lesson like a mother. The two of them cooperated, sitting on the ground with their heads down and listening obediently to the teachings, howling from time to time, which might be responses like "I got it" or "I won't dare to do that next time".

William, the orange cat who could throw the bear over his shoulder, wanted to refuse Xiaotao from following him, but he swallowed his words back.

If the other party really didn't give him any chance at all, he might not even be able to see the leader, the extraordinary cat. If he fought all the way in, there would be no way to communicate.

After thinking it over again and again, it seems like it wouldn't be bad to have Xiaotao following me around.

(End of this chapter)