The Coastal Metropolis - the designated safe zone of this ongoing disaster. It was originally the perfect place for this purpose - spacious (able to house around a thousand people at the same time), comfortable, and most importantly, free from the monsters. Since the mall had closed at 9 PM, by the time the poisonous rain rolled around, no victims were even remotely close to the area, meaning the mall and a radius of about 500 meters around it, were completely free from monsters. That was the reason the Shenzhen government - or rather, the IMF - decided to use this spot as a safe zone.

However, now, all of that was ruined. I, Mei Gui, Feng Mian, and the rest of the people who were with us all watched on in terror as the entire left half of the mall was engulfed in flames.

"What the hell..." I muttered.

Originally, my plan was to just bring them all back to the safe zone, and then immediately set off again to look for Qing Yue and the Yu sisters. Obsidia, being a dragon, could definitely handle herself fine, so I didn't worry too much about her. But now, all my plans have been disrupted. Before doing anything else, I would have to investigate what's going on right now.

The right half of the Coastal Metropolis (relative to where I was standing) still seemed to be perfectly fine, so the place shouldn't be completely destroyed yet. I signaled for everyone to follow me, and we circled around to the more or less unharmed side of the 'safe' zone. At least on the outside, there weren't any monsters lurking around, so that was good news. I could faintly see some humans inside through the windows as well, so the people over on this side were still safe, I assumed.

Luckily, this entrance was in fact the back entrance I had sneaked out of, so I could just stroll right on in without hiding my identity. If it had been the front entrance, the guards would've recognized me...though considering this back entrance was safe, that meant the front entrance was the one currently on fire. I honestly doubted the guards were still even alive. If they were, that was good for me.

Yeah, I know that's a heartless thing to say, but think about it. If those two guards were still alive, and by some chance they end up talking to the guards here at the back entrance about who came through which entrance, I would be horribly exposed if they both happen to find out that their descriptions matched perfectly when I came up in their discussion.

Of course, the chance of this was low, but it was still there. And I would like to avoid being dragged into more unnecessary trouble if possible, because if this doesn't count as unnecessary trouble, then what does?

In any case, I decided to give the guards my Hunters alias, Kai Xuan, instead of my real name just to be safe. It couldn't hurt to be more careful, after all. As for Mei Gui, I passed her off as my golem once more, since it wasn't that rare for golems to share the same appearance, though human-types were extremely scarce.

Feng Mian, Mei Gui, the rest of the people, and I all headed inside the entrance. I asked one of the guards what was going on on the other side of the Coastal Metropolis, but he said he didn't know either.

Guess the higher-ups are keeping information from mere footsoldiers, huh...do they not want the people to lose faith in them or something? Hah. Like hell their plan's going to work. You can hide the cause, but you can't hide the effect. No one would miss the biggest mall in the city getting set on fire, especially not when that was the only designated safe zone of this disaster.

Out of options, I decided to seek out the only person I could go to for this. I headed to a discrete, isolated corner, pulled out my phone, and dialed a certain number.

After a while, the other side picked up. "Is that you, Kai Kai?! Are you safe?!"

I pulled the phone away from my ear to avoid getting my hearing impaired, and after he was done yelling, I brought it closer again. "Yes, I'm fine, old geezer. I'm actually back at the Coastal Metropolis already."

"Ho...that is a relief. Still, that was quick. Did you manage to find the girls?"

I glanced over at Feng Mian, who was resting on a couch. "Yeah...one of them, at least. Qing Yue and the Yu sisters are still missing. But never mind that, what's going on with this place? The other end of the mall is completely on fire; I could see it from miles away."

"Ah...about that. It is hard to explain over the phone, can we meet in person?" Song Qian Long, the person I called, obviously, said, dropping his tone a bit. I wondered if there was anyone around him, trying to listen in to his conversation with me.

After some hesitation, I responded, and took off my mask after making sure no one was looking in my direction.

"Sure, where do you want to go?"

*****

- The Coastal Metropolis, Administrative Floor -

The Coastal Metropolis had five floors in total. The first was the most accessible and popular, and contained various grocery and clothing stores. The second was the food court, and had many delicacies all around, from full-on restaurants to tiny food stalls. The third was for miscellaneous items, from cute little ornaments to regional specialties from all over the world, including the territory of other races like England, where vampires resided, as well as North America, where the elves and fairies dwelled. The fourth was in fact, a basement parking lot, so it technically didn't count as a 'fourth floor'.

And lastly, the fifth - in reality the fourth floor - was an administrative zone that was not open to public. It was also where I was currently at.

"...So this is what the administrative area of this massive mall looks like..." I murmured in wonder.

Song Qian Long and I stood in an empty hallway. The lights were dim, like everywhere else on this floor, and...quite frankly, the place was very boring, nothing like the beautiful and decorative floors that were seen by public. This made sense, considering all those fancy decorations cost money, and there was no point spending so much to polish up a place that wouldn't boost sales whatsoever. This place was restricted very strictly, meaning only mall employees of the highest order were able to access this floor. However, since this was a special scenario, Song Qian Long and probably some IMF government officials were also up here to monitor the situation.

"Kai Kai, the situation as of now is very complicated."

I raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"I will begin with what can be seen on the surface," Song Qian Long said with a sigh. "As you know, the entire front half of the Coastal Metropolis is on fire. However, that's not the whole story. What really happened, was this..."

After a few minutes, he finished his explanation. Long story short, according to a survivor, a monster like those outside had popped out of nowhere at a furniture store near the female bathroom on the first floor, just around half an hour ago. From there, things escalated. The first one to notice the creature was apparently a student - Li Mu Shen.

At the time, he was about to start smoking a cigarette, since no one older than him was around to supervise. After seeing the disgusting monster, he had dropped the lighter in his hand, and the fire from it caught all over the easily flammable carpet and wood furniture inside the store. It grew at an insane rate, instantly spreading over to nearby stores, and like dominos, one after the other, the various shops fell into deadly conflagration. By the time a protection squad was deployed and arrived on scene, the fire had already burnt nearly half of the entire mall.

After that, the protection squad hurriedly deployed a magic barrier, stopping the fire in its tracks. That was the quickest resolution, as they didn't have fire extinguishers on hand and there wasn't enough mages on the team with an Water element affinity to completely put out the fire.

According to Song Qian Long, even as we speak, a government IMF official is making an announcement over the PA for all mages who have a Water Element affinity to head to the site of fire, where they would take down the barrier once there was enough people. After the fire was completely extinguished, a rescue squad would be sent in to eliminate the so-called monster as well as seek out any remaining survivors...though the probability was low. The sole survivor was the one who gave all of this information to Song Qian Long and the other higher-ups, and he had turned tail and run immediately as the fire started. Everyone else was either too slow or reacted too late to the disaster.

The protection squad at the time hesitated before putting up the barrier and considered waiting for any more people to come through by some miracle, but they eventually decided against it for the sake of the many more citizens on the other half of the mall. A sacrifice of a few for the sake of many, essentially. At around the same time, protection squads arrived at the other floors as well, at the same exact location on the vertical axis. Since the fire had spread to other floors as well, this was the only way to mitigate the damage as efficiently as possible.

After I was done hearing this story, the only thing I could do is sigh. "Are you kidding me...if it was just one monster, that would be fine, but I can't believe that moron used a lighter in a furniture store...what an idiot."

Song Qian Long sighed. "...There is no use crying over spilled milk. With this incident, the rescue squads that were supposed to head out of the safe zone to search for any survivors outside have been delayed. But all of this is minor to the other problem at hand..."

I raised an eyebrow. "Other problem?"

Song Qian Long nodded. "We have just received a message - a challenge from the Midnight Syndicate. It read: Phase II of the invasion - are you ready, humanity?"