11:30 the next day.

The fast food restaurant business on Tongshu Street is as good as ever, not to mention the Saturday and Sunday, when the dishes in the big pot have just been put on the table, and they are already full of customers. The bald boss rubbed his sore and hard waist, and after arranging the work of the employees, he walked to the door of the store, moved a chair, sat in the warm sun and lit a cigarette.

"Wait for someone?"

He asked without turning his head, squinting at the bustling pedestrians on the road.

The young man stood under the plane tree on the side, dressed in a light blue down jacket, and this season, the cool colors always look in harmony with the surroundings. He fiddled with his cuffs, looking a little uneasy.

"Hmm. ”

"Girl, right? the one who came here last time. ”

"Hmm. ”

"Girlfriend?"

"It's not—"

His voice raised slightly, and his face turned red.

At this time, the phone rang and he answered the phone.

"I've arrived. ”

"Where?"

"You're across the street. ”

Raising her head, the girl with a black gauze stick on her back stood across the road and waved at him.

"Boss, she's coming, I'll go first. ”

"Go ahead. ”

The boss stepped on the cigarette butt, got up and went back to the store to continue his work.

"I waited for a long time, and I was delayed for some things to go out, but fortunately I was not late. ”

The girl's long black hair was tied up in a high ponytail, and she looked very energetic.

Kiritha glanced at the time, it was 11:45, in fact, both of them arrived early.

"It's okay, I've just arrived. What are we going to do now?"

"I'm going to Northbridge today. ”

"Isn't there a road closure in the northbridge?"

A particular incident at the North Bridge a month ago left the area under lockdown.

"It's okay, Sister Li gave me a pass. ”

"Sister Li?"

Kiroba felt that this title was very familiar, but for a while he couldn't remember who it was.

"It's the policewoman. ”

"It's Officer Orange. ”

"That's her. ”

"What do you mean she gave you a pass?"

"That's it - the person in charge of blocking the North Bridge is the town's Ministry of Transportation and the Special Data Processing Center, and she is the person in charge of the Special Data Processing Center, so she has the authority to send people into the North Bridge to investigate. ”

"But why is the Special Data Processing Center involved in the blockade of Northbridge? If I'm not mistaken, the case in charge of that office should be similar to the last time I encountered - monsters, right?"

When Kiripa says this word, he still shows a palpitating look.

"Oh, speaking of which, picking up the incident and publicizing it should be different from what happened. Anyway, what's going on with the rumors out there right now?"

"Said there was a wanted arson or something. ”

"Ah, was it arson? I thought it was an explosion or something. ”

"Listening to your tone, it doesn't seem to be the case—it can't have anything to do with the wanted man you said you said, right?"

Lu Ling was stunned, revealing a look of surprise.

"Pretty much, the main perpetrator of the Northbridge incident is that "demon". ”

"The main perpetrator?"

"In other words, most of it is his responsibility, but according to the laws and regulations in the real society, the pursuer also has to pay a certain amount of responsibility, right?"

"Definitely. ”

"There are some things I have to tell you in advance, the officials in the real world always feel that the public news of demon hunters and demons will cause panic in the society, so whenever something like this happens, they will adopt the method of 'fabricating an unexpected cover up the truth'. In fact, many of the accidents we see are related to demons or demon hunters. ”

Lu Ling bought a cup of hot milk tea at a milk tea shop on the side of the road, and was holding it in her hands to keep warm at this time.

"So that's the case, then, what happened to the North Bridge?"

"The truth about Northbridge is that the three demon hunters are hunting down the 'demons' I said earlier. ”

"The result?"

"All the demon hunters in charge of hunting down the demon were seriously injured, and the demon seemed to be injured as well, but escaped. The main impact on the real world is the complete destruction of the town's main transportation artery, the North Bridge. ”

"That 'demon' is still at large?"

"yes. ”

“...... It's unbelievable what you're saying to be honest, especially since this kind of destructive power is really something that humans can have?"

"First of all, I must say that there is absolutely no exaggeration in my wording, and you should believe that. You'll find it hard to believe, it's just that you haven't seen some 'catastrophic' man-made events yet, so you'll find the exaggeration hard to believe. What's more, the perpetrator of the Northbridge incident is one of the most powerful "firemanlocks" in the world, using red lotus-colored flames. ”

"What is a firemanlock?"

"Listen to me first. Since the physical function of demons far exceeds that of us humans, demons are in a natural advantage in the confrontation with them, and if we humans want to hunt demons, we must use extraordinary means. These methods are somewhat similar to magic, which we call "magic" or "magic". The so-called "magic" is actually the control of natural elements, such as fire, wind, water, thunder, electricity, and so on. Here I have to mention another concept - "mana". "Mana" is the person who uses the spell, that is, the medium through which the "warlock" manipulates the "spell". For example, a person who uses wind magic manipulates "wind" through "wind mana". In the same way, the so-called fire art is to control the fire through "fire magic". To get back to your question, a fireman is a human who can use fire, or a person who uses fire. ”

"Can I let me do it?"

For the huge amount of information, Kiulownia needs to sort them out.

"Of course. But I advise you not to think too much about it, and if I have the chance, I will show you the "magic". ”

"Then please. ”

"The person who saved you in the path is a 'firemancer', and there is plenty of evidence to point to that. And judging from the monster's strange wounds, the man's flames were very strange, which led us to think that the "fireman" was the "demon" I was looking for. One of the reasons it's important to ask for your help is that we think you may have seen the "demon", but the situation was too tense or too scary to cause you a brief period of amnesia. Maybe you just can't remember it for a while—in order to help you recall more details, that's why I'm asking you to help us with our investigation. ”

"I see. ”

Kiriha now fully understands why he was invited by the police to help solve the case.

"So, let's talk about work. ”

"Okay, you can say it. ”

"Actually, you don't have anything to do, just be responsible for recording the information. ”

"That's it?"

"Yes, that's all. ”

Kiripa thought it was some kind of difficult work, but when he heard that it was just a record, he breathed a sigh of relief.

The two stopped under the sentinel in the blockade area, and the guards stepped out of the outpost and leaned towards them.

"Do you have access papers?"

Lu Ling took out a blank piece of paper from her handbag, and the guard opened the cordon after reading it.

"I've seen the map of the town, and I think it's still a long way from the North Bridge, right?"

"In fact, the scope of this blockade area is not just the damaged North Bridge. Aside from the North Bridge itself, the battle spread far beyond that. Therefore, the area of this blockade is a circular area centered on the North Bridge. ”

"That lockdown is too big, isn't it?"

Tong Ye has also lived in the town for a while, and he knows the size of the North Bridge, and he was a little surprised when he heard Lu Ling say this.

"Don't be in a hurry to ask, walk in and you'll understand why the police are doing this. ”

After crossing the cordon for about fifty meters, scattered black burns and irregular cracks began to appear on the road ahead, and occasionally even traces of explosions could be seen. Pit after pit is like the entrance and exit of a nest dug by a mole, densely scattered on the stone brick floor.

Not far away, burnt bushes, blackened branches, cracked soil, and half-black, half-yellow weeds could be seen as if the place had been ravaged by incendiary bombs.

"These ...... The wanted man did it?"

Kiritha was a little speechless at first.

"Of course. Later you will also see the North Bridge, which is right in front of you. ”

Lu Ling stretched out her finger and pointed into the distance.

"Where's the North Bridge...... Is that what it is?"

Kiriha followed the girl's fingers, but he didn't see the shape of the bridge, he looked down slightly, and soon saw the gray bridge body lying on the ground, blocking in front, its huge body all the way forward, like a prostrate python, crushing the fence of the embankment, half of its body hanging in the air. The whole bridge had completely collapsed, and the middle part had collapsed and broken into several sections, some of which sank into the river below, and some of which fell on the embankment on the shore. These bridges could not bear their own weight, and when they fell, they fell to pieces and turned into several large and small remains. Steelbars and wires emerge from the broken bridges, intricately intertwined, looking like the blood vessels and nerves of a severed arm.

"Is this really the North Bridge?"

"Of course. Even if it is repaired, it will only be a new bridge with the same name. ”

Lu Ling walked in front and said quietly, they approached the damaged bridge, Lu Ling found a larger section of the bridge, and took a few photos with her mobile phone.

"The work begins, you can record what I say with your phone. ”

"Good. ”

She began to check the dense black marks on the bridge, and then asked Tong Ye to record a few numbers, such as the estimated flame temperature, the size of the burn and the depth of the burn and other data, Tong Ye recorded them with her mobile phone, and Lu Ling was still using the camera to take pictures of these traces for the record.

It was not a difficult job, and it seemed easy, and they quickly completed the investigation of the bridge.

"This area is inspected, now go over there. ”

"Wait. ”

"What's wrong?"

"I wanted to ask, what the hell are these?"

"You mean the charring marks left by the flames. ”

"No, I mean those. ”

Kiriha's fingers seem to be pointing in the air.

"Huh?"

"Red points of light. ”

"You don't mean the flickering ones, do you?"

Lu Ling showed a look of surprise.

"Yes, red, flashing, flashing, floating in the air. ”

“...... Can you see that?"

"Well, you can see it. ”

The girl showed a hint of surprise, she looked at the pariha, her eyes twinkling.

"I ...... Did you do something wrong?"

"Ah, excuse me...... Well, would you like to consider joining my family?"

"Uh- I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Kiritha didn't understand what she meant.

"I mean, do you want to join my family. Those red points of light are the medium of using magic mentioned earlier, "mana", and I will tell you more about "mana" when you agree to join my family. You can see the "magic power", which proves that you have the potential to become a magician. As a demon hunter family, the Lu family often recruits some potential people, and we are responsible for cultivating, and those people work for us in return. ”