"Why don't we call the police?"
Nade suggested from the side.
"Let the officers search. It's better than us amateurs."
"You've done your best. You don't need to think too much about it."
"No one wanted this to happen, but since it has, and our abilities can't resolve it, we should call professionals in a timely manner."
After Nade finished speaking, as if sensing what Jack was thinking, he directly said, "You don't need to fear taking responsibility. Jin Liandai wasn't killed by you. She got lost naturally. The main responsibility doesn't lie with us."
"An adult can act on their own. If she deliberately ran far away, how could we stop her?"
"The police won't arrest you and send you to jail. This isn't a murder case."
"Let them handle it."
In Nade's opinion, Jin Liandai wasn't that closely related to them. She was just a classmate from the same circle and club, and they didn't have overly close interactions.
If this person went missing, the one who should be most anxious among them should be her boyfriend, Bill. It had nothing to do with him or Jack.
If it were within their capabilities to resolve, that would be one thing. But now, Jack had organized a large search and still couldn't find her. Just being anxious here was useless.
"Alright, I..."
Jack felt helpless upon hearing this.
He knew Nade was not wrong. Just as he was about to make a decision.
Suddenly, he saw a trace on the ground. His expression changed, and he crouched down to look, shining his flashlight.
"What are you doing?"
Nade saw him crouch down and followed his gaze. He noticed something on the tree, some kind of… slime?
"This is green slime… the same green slime the car tires hit earlier."
The more Jack smelled the green slime and observed its color, the more he felt it was almost identical to the traces on the car tires before.
A fierce storm began in his mind.
Green slime appeared here.
Green slime had appeared on the car tires before.
And he seemed to have hit something while driving at that time… He vaguely remembered hearing a scream then.
Who was screaming?
Were these two incidents connected?
Jack's mind churned.
Beside him, Nade seemed to understand something after seeing the trace.
He said, "This is quite strange – but perhaps the two matters are indeed connected. Should we pursue it?"
"Pursue!"
At that moment, Jack's thought of calling the police vanished. He was determined to follow the green traces and see who was behind all this!
"Is this really a supernatural event..."
Nade thought to himself, but outwardly said, "We must pursue it, but we need to call everyone else first. Otherwise, they'll think we've also gone missing."
"Besides, there's strength in numbers. If we encounter something, it's better than us two facing it alone."
Hearing this, Jack realized he had made a mistake in his haste. One person was already missing. If he and Nade got lost while tracking these traces, wouldn't it make everyone even more anxious and worried?
This kind of situation should not be handled by just two people. They had to inform everyone.
A moment later.
After Jack and Nade called out, everyone else rushed over. Their expressions varied as they listened to their words.
Some were very confused: "What does this green trace prove? At most, it's just an animal."
Another person added, "What big trouble could a small animal cause? Does it have anything to do with Jin Liandai's disappearance?"
"Besides, didn't you say there are no large animals in these mountains?"
The person looked at Jack with suspicion.
"Shouldn't we call the police now and let more professional officers handle this, instead of us just finding some so-called suspicious traces and blindly following them?"
This person clearly doubted Jack's judgment.
He suspected that Jack, in his anxiety, had casually conjured up some supposed clues and sent others on a wild goose chase, wasting their energy, only to realize later that it was all in vain.
Think about it.
What could a mere green trace prove? Was it enough to be suspicious?
Although Jack was the organizer of the group, his prestige within the team was clearly not high.
At this moment, he couldn't quite command the situation.
Fortunately, although many people had objections, more people still sided with Jack. And Bill, as Jin Liandai's boyfriend, was extremely eager to find her.
He disregarded everything else. Even if the clue Jack provided was ridiculous, he still held onto a sliver of hope and wanted to pursue it.
After a period of argument within the group, due to Bill's strong insistence, everyone finally agreed to search further.
The minority yielded to the majority.
As the group gradually expanded their search.
More and more green slime appeared in the grass, in the woods, and within their line of sight.
Seeing these traces, the few who thought nothing had happened began to waver.
The situation before them clearly indicated that an animal was injured and fleeing, and they were now heading towards its lair?
Otherwise, it was hard to explain why there was more and more green slime.
However, a small animal could never bleed this much…
Could it really be a large animal?
But, are there any large animals that bleed green slime when injured?
"I feel like this is somewhat like traces left by a slime."
One person couldn't help but say.
Initially, they didn't think much of the green slime. But the further they looked, the more it reminded him of the weakest monsters, the most insignificant monsters, slimes, in games and animations.
Creatures that even novice adventurers could defeat without taking damage.
These green slime traces, no matter how you looked at them, didn't seem like traces left by an animal.
But if you imagined it to be a slime and then studied the traces, you would find that almost 99% of the visual resemblance was identical to the traces left by slimes in animations.
The reality was the opposite of the traces.
The virtual slime, on the other hand, matched the traces.
This seemed like the greatest irony, but as the similarities became more pronounced, some people in the group finally became brave enough to voice their true opinions, disregarding what others might think.
One person spoke up, and then another followed.
His words encouraged others who had similar thoughts but were too embarrassed to voice such absurd and ridiculous speculation to speak up as well.