Monster Dismantling Company

Chapter 1 Monster Ramen

Ningzhou Public Security Bureau, interrogation room.

"Name?"

"Li Lin".

Two detectives, one older and one younger, sat opposite each other—the classic "good cop, bad cop" setup for interrogation. As usual, the younger detective asked the questions while the older one took the statements.

Behind the two is the emblem of Ningzhou City: the monster comes from the sea, and Ningzhou stands tall on the coastal dike, shining like a lighthouse. Fighting the monster is the theme of this era.

Meanwhile, the young man across the table was leaning back in his iron chair, looking as relaxed as if he were sitting on a throne.

The young detective continued, "Age."

"18 years old."

"18 years old? But the records say you're only 8."

"Look at my face. Is this what I look like when I was eight years old?"

At the other end of the table, Li Lin stood up and brought his face close to the detective investigating him.

He was the height and weight of a typical 18-year-old male. He wore a baseball cap that covered half of his forehead, but it still couldn't hide the faint scar between his eyebrows.

The monsters have arrived, the old world has come to an end, and a new world has been born. In the new world, although the monsters are under control, the miasma they brought still permeates the world, hindering the spread of information and leaving the world fragmented and riddled with holes.

In this new world, it's normal to have one or two scars. It's also normal for files to be incorrect.

Although a united government has been established, its headquarters are located in Shenhe Plain in Guanzhong, protected by Hangu Pass and the Global Defense Force. Meanwhile, Ningzhou, far to the southeast coast, remains an isolated island shrouded in miasma, making it difficult to establish direct and real-time communication with Shenhe Plain. Therefore, it can only manage its own files.

"Let's move on to this one." The young detective still wrote down 8 years old as per the file, but added a question mark.

"I'll revise my file when I have time." He sat back down. His bangs fell down, covering the scar.

The detective across from him turned a page of the document: "We'll investigate the file separately—the most important thing today is that you committed a crime! Why did you kill someone in the street!"

"Dead? He only landed one punch."

"One punch? I don't know how you did it. But look at this photo, have you seen it yourself? Your chest is completely crushed! Your ribs and internal organs are all broken."

"Really?" Li Lin looked up.

The scene was a mess. The man in the photo had been punched into the mud, a deep fist-shaped indentation in his chest, blood filling his chest cavity and lungs, overflowing from his mouth and nose. He had drowned in his own blood before bleeding to death. The blood splattered around him radiated outwards, like a blood-filled balloon had burst.

"You're so eager to convict me? Young man, don't always think about solving a big case. Do you have any evidence?" Li Lin lowered his baseball cap, staring at his fingernails, completely ignoring the two people in front of him.

"We are retrieving the surveillance footage. The arrest warrant will be issued soon. If you explain yourself clearly now, we can consider it a confession."

He leaned back and looked at the ceiling: "Then I'm afraid I can't tell you."

"You..." The young detective was about to get angry when the other person, playing the good cop, restrained him.

"Young man, you're still young... Young man, you get hungry easily, don't you? How about grabbing a quick meal?"

"Hmm?" Li Lin looked up. "Okay."

The old detective didn't say anything, but simply walked out the door and took out a bowl of ramen that had been prepared outside.

The ramen was still steaming when it was served.

This bowl of noodles is alkaline, with a simple soy sauce broth. But the topping is the highlight: meat from this year's number one monster, the "White Deer." The meat isn't sliced ​​thinly, but cut into thick chunks. It's marbled pork belly, perfect for braising like this.

Monster, delicious. This is a rare treat, found only in the New World.

The white deer is one of the most popular monsters in recent years. Its meat is tender and falls off the bone even after long stewing, and it retains its shape even after being stewed for a long time.

The marbled cuts, in particular, possess a unique flavor characteristic of venison: a mellow woody aroma, a subtle herbal base, and the caramelized sugar and soy sauce used in braising to tightly bind these flavors, resulting in an aroma similar to stewed beef shank, but more refreshing and restrained. If compared to ordinary venison, it would be considered the finest.

The noodles were a little hot. Li Lin blew on them to dissipate the heat, allowing him to smell the lingering aroma—a peaceful scent like the sound of pine trees.

For Li Lin, there were also unique flavors to be savored in the meat. For example... impatience. He could feel the vision of the [White Deer] in its meat: it was struggling to get ashore, wanting to go somewhere on land. The more he ate, the clearer this feeling of impatience became in his consciousness, finally leaving a faint bitter taste of wormwood as a lingering aftertaste.

It was a rather complex flavor, a flavor that didn't belong to humans. Li Lin, too, liked its complexity.

He tasted the bowl of noodles, put down his chopsticks, and the door to the interrogation room opened.

"The arrest warrant has arrived. It's too late for you to confess now."

The young detective made a premature judgment—he knew it from the look in the man's eyes.

Two people entered. One was wearing the uniform of the Monster Disassembly Company, with a raven holding a flame on his left chest—representing the Fire Raven Company, a renowned monster disassembly company in Ningzhou.

The person carrying the documents walked behind, his name tag bearing the name "Lin Zhifang." The middle two digits of his badge number were 39, representing the 39th year of the Union Calendar, meaning he was a trainee detective who joined the force this year.

The two men stood up as soon as they saw him. Not because of his own status, but because Lin Zhifang's father was their superior: Director Lin, a senior security inspector of the Ningzhou Municipal Committee.

"Xiao Lin, what are you doing..." the veteran detective asked tentatively, "coming to bail someone out? This isn't in accordance with the rules, is it? There's a murder suspect involved; even if Director Lin himself came, it wouldn't be easy to handle."

He glanced at Lin Zhifang's hand: that piece of paper might be the director's own order.

"Sigh." Lin Zhifang shook his head. "You've got it wrong. This is a commendation order, just hastily issued by the Municipal Committee—Li Lin, the student in front of you, just decisively killed a robber in a robbery, saving an old woman and her cat. According to the relevant provisions of the Provisional Constitution of the United Government, any violent crime committed in the act should be punished with death. We have retrieved the surveillance footage, and this indeed falls within the scope of punishable by death. Therefore, he should be released immediately."