He suddenly felt tired, because he had just single-handedly, all by himself, raised the average attractiveness of the department, and it was truly exhausting.

Jason Parker—the older lady with the floral glasses—said, “Don’t worry, we all have basic office procedures. First, we talk to people one by one, just to muddle through if there’s nothing serious... well, you know, offer some comfort. For those with more severe psychological trauma, we sometimes use a few ‘little props,’ nothing complicated. Finally, make sure to check their phones and computers, especially anything connected to the internet—don’t leave any traces. You can have Grace handle this; the young folks are great with computers. Whenever our office printer breaks, we always ask her to fix it.”

The chubby girl was named “Grace Walker.” She seemed a bit introverted and got nervous around strangers. Whenever she was nervous, her little hands seemed to have a mind of their own, unconsciously burrowing into her pockets, and halfway through, she’d realize what she was doing and reluctantly push the snacks she’d taken out back in.

“Go ahead and eat, it’s fine.” Dylan Foster wanted to say a few words, but facing these colleagues, he really didn’t know what to say, so he just smacked his lips and forced a smile.

“There’s one more thing,” Zachary Brooks said from the side. “When we received the report, it said there were five trapped tourists. The rescue team’s initial life detection also showed five people, but in the end, we pulled out six. The other five were all doing bizarre livestreams, recording everything after sneaking into the scenic area. But our field team found that every video capturing the sixth person was blurry. From start to finish, only his voice was recorded—this person’s way of speaking is very strange. Listen to it and be prepared.”

As he spoke, he played a video on the computer. Something was wrong with the camera; the man in the footage seemed to melt into the light, leaving only an overexposed, blurry outline.

The outline said, “Me? I got tired of the nine-to-six routine, so I came out to wander around.”

Although it was only a voice, you could sense that the speaker seemed to be smiling. His voice was warm and friendly, making people instinctively like him.

Jason Parker was puzzled: “What’s wrong with that sentence?”

“There’s nothing wrong with the sentence,” Zachary Brooks said. “The problem is here.”

He then played several other audio clips.

The first was a crisp female voice, probably a female streamer: “Okay, we’re in now. Let’s just wander around here with everyone for a bit.”

The second was a deep male voice: “Traveling, huh? It’s just going from the place you’re tired of to the place someone else is tired of. Now, coming out during the holidays just means traffic jams. I think it’s better to lie on the couch and watch others run around. Today, we’re in charge of the trip, taking your eyes on a tour. If you’re enjoying it, folks, send some gifts.”

The third was another man with a slightly hoarse voice: “Me? Actually, it’s not that hard. Everyone has their own struggles. Isn’t the nine-to-six routine tough? It is. At least we have some freedom.”

“These are recordings from the trapped tourists’ livestreams, chatting with their audience. In the full sentences, it’s hard to notice...”

“I noticed,” Dylan Foster interrupted. “This mysterious person pieced together a sentence from words others had said.”

Jason Parker’s floral glasses slid down her nose: “Huh? What? You mean he was imitating others?”

“Not just imitating.” Zachary Brooks first isolated the four words ‘wander around’ from the female streamer, then played the mysterious man saying ‘wander around.’ In the full sentence, it passed by in a second, but when isolated and compared, it gave everyone goosebumps.

“Speed, tone, pauses, emphasis—they’re exactly the same. It’s like the same audio clip with a voice filter. He’s not imitating; he’s completely copying.” Zachary Brooks looked up. “One word might be a coincidence, but after comparison, we found that every single word this mysterious man said was ‘copied’ from someone else.”

Me...

The nine-to-six routine...

Got tired of it...

Came out...

Wander around...

“We must pay special attention to this person,” Zachary Brooks glanced at Dylan Foster, “He appeared out of nowhere in Chiyuan. I even suspect he might not be human—you should have your plane ready.”

Dylan Foster called after him: “What’s this person’s name?”

“Gavin Carter,” Zachary Brooks said. “He calls himself Gavin Carter.”

Chapter 4

The flight path was quickly approved. From the Yongan City outskirts’ Bureau of Anomaly Control headquarters to the Chiyuan Grand Canyon, the flight time was about an hour and forty minutes. It was Dylan Foster’s first time enjoying the perks of a business trip on a private plane, and everything felt new to him. So, once the plane was flying smoothly, he set aside his tasks for the moment and wandered around the cabin with great interest.

“Director Foster,” Sister Parker started chatting enthusiastically, “From what I hear, you’re just leading us for a while, right?”

Dylan Foster did have this plan, but to avoid shaking morale, he didn’t answer directly and replied smoothly, “We all have to follow the organization’s arrangements. I haven’t done this before either, so if there’s anything I don’t understand, you...”