novelraw Chapter 41 : The 869 Bureau
Chapter 41 : The 869 Bureau
Chapter 41: The 869 Bureau
Haicheng City, Special Police Unit Training Base.
On an early autumn morning, the air carried a faint chill.
The young SWAT officer Li Wei had just finished a five-kilometer weighted cross-country run.
Sweat soaked through his training uniform, sliding down his chiseled cheeks, yet his expression remained steadfast, his eyes bright as stars.
As the youngest sniper in the unit, Li Wei’s performance ranked among the best. He was regarded by everyone as a rising star.
However, in recent weeks, he had sensed that something about the atmosphere within the team was off.
The training intensity had inexplicably increased, and their usual rifles had been replaced with a batch of futuristic-looking, non-metallic kinetic rifles whose models Li Wei couldn’t even name.
Even stranger, several weeks ago, a group of men in black suits had suddenly appeared at the base.
They wore stern expressions and presented credentials bearing only a mysterious emblem—formed by a dragon pattern and a shield—alongside the words “869 Bureau.”
These people held frighteningly high authority. They directly transferred the top elites from various units to form what they called a “Special Operations Joint Task Force.”
Because of his exceptional overall ability, Li Wei had the “honor” of being selected.
……
At first, Li Wei had thought he was going to participate in some top-secret mission and had been full of excitement. But after the first few missions, everything he experienced felt utterly absurd.
He still remembered the very first “special mission” he had taken part in.
“All units, attention! All units, attention!”
At three in the morning, a shrill alarm ripped Li Wei from his sleep.
“Emergency mission! In five minutes, all personnel fully armed—assemble at Zone A!”
Li Wei quickly suited up and rushed to the assembly point.
There, more than ten black armored assault vehicles were already revving, the air tense with urgency.
Leading the team was a middle-aged man from the 869 Bureau, code-named “Beidou.”
His expression was grave, his gaze sharp, and he delivered the mission briefing with curt precision.
“According to our citywide ‘Sky Eye’ system monitoring, an abandoned chemical plant in the western district showed abnormal energy fluctuations fifteen minutes ago.”
“Our task is to immediately head to the area, secure the site, determine the source of the energy fluctuation, and eliminate all unstable factors.”
Energy fluctuation? Sky Eye system?
Li Wei was utterly confused, but he didn’t ask questions.
As a soldier, obedience to orders was his duty.
The convoy sped to the target site with sirens blaring.
However, when they entered the abandoned chemical plant with weapons drawn and nerves taut—
They found the place empty. The only things there were hundreds of high-powered servers running at full speed, producing a deafening hum.
Countless cables tangled together like spiderwebs, all connecting to a massive transformer.
“Reporting to command! This… this looks like an illegal Bitcoin mining site!”
“What?!”
Through the comms came Beidou’s voice, filled with shock and anger.
The so-called “intense energy fluctuation” had been caused simply by the servers of this underground mining operation overloading simultaneously, disrupting the area’s power grid.
Thus, their first “special mission” ended in a farcical anticlimax.
……
The subsequent missions grew even more ridiculous.
Once, a citizen reported seeing a “dark shadow” gliding rapidly over the surface of the Huangpu River, suspecting it was a “water ghost.”
The 869 Bureau reacted as though facing an enemy army, deploying three high-speed patrol boats and a helicopter to seal off the entire river section.
Li Wei and his teammates, wearing diving suits, searched the freezing waters all night.
In the end, what they found buried in the riverbed mud was the so-called “water ghost”—the latest underwater propulsion device, smuggled in from abroad by a rich second-generation kid.
That young man had only wanted to test his new toy at night—nearly getting himself shot as a “river monster.”
……
Another time, intel indicated that a “flying man” had been sighted on the rooftop of a high-end residential complex.
The task force immediately surrounded the entire building. Li Wei and several assault members rappelled down from the roof, smashing through the windows.
Inside, they found only a wingsuit-clad extreme sports influencer, staring at them in utter terror while filming.
It turned out he had just wanted to try his new gear at home—his neighbor across the street mistook him for a “winged monster” and called the police.
……
After a series of such blunders, the entire “Special Operations Joint Task Force” began to feel strangely uneasy.
In the cafeteria, Li Wei poked at his food and couldn’t help complaining to the veteran Zhao sitting opposite him.
“Brother Zhao, don’t you think something’s off?” Li Wei asked in a low voice.
“Off? What’s off?” Old Zhao gave him a sidelong glance, pretending not to care.
“Everything’s off!”
Li Wei’s voice rose involuntarily. “Just look at the kind of missions we’ve been doing lately!”
“Last week, we went fully armed to an old mansion by the Bund because of an ‘anomalous event.’”
“And what did we find when we broke in? A film crew shooting a horror movie!”
“The night before last, we got an emergency call in the middle of the night—said a warehouse had been ‘emitting eerie lights all night.’”
“There were dozens of us surrounding that place like it was a fortress—and it turned out to be some influencer doing a live outdoor star-projection stream!”
“And yesterday! They sent us to catch a ‘thief who could run up walls.’ And what did we find?”
“An extreme sports influencer filming a short video!”
Li Wei grew more agitated as he spoke. “Tell me, what the hell is this new ‘869 Bureau’ up to?!”
“They act like they own the place—waving their authority around and treating us SWAT officers like clowns!”
Old Zhao listened quietly, sipping his water without saying a word.
“Brother Zhao, what’s the deal with this 869 Bureau anyway?”
Li Wei leaned closer. “I heard some guys say their authority is terrifying—they can even mobilize the military directly. Our leaders follow their orders without question.”
“And the people they recruit are bizarre too—physicists, biologists, even professors who study ancient mythology and folklore…”
“Don’t ask what you shouldn’t.”
Old Zhao screwed the cap back on his bottle and patted Li Wei’s shoulder, speaking earnestly. “We’re cops. We take our pay, do what we’re told. No point overthinking it.”
“But this is too ridiculous!” Li Wei protested.
Old Zhao changed the subject. “Finish your meal. There’s hand-to-hand training this afternoon.”
Li Wei looked at Zhao’s detached, unconcerned expression and sighed helplessly.
He knew most people in the unit felt the same way—believing these were all coincidences or strange new types of crimes they couldn’t yet understand.
But Li Wei’s instincts told him the truth was far from simple.
Especially when it came to that 869 Bureau.
That night, back in the dorm, Li Wei lay in bed, unable to sleep.
He picked up his phone and, almost unconsciously, typed “truth behind Jiang City terrorist attack” into the search engine.
Most of the results were official reports or glorified propaganda pieces.
But among deleted and cached pages, he found fragmented, dreamlike descriptions.
“…That wasn’t a terrorist attack! I saw it with my own eyes! It was a god! A god who could control metal!”
“…Flames! Fire everywhere! Like a phoenix in the sky!”
“…They were demons! The police and army were like toys before them…”
Each of these posts vanished within minutes, their accounts permanently banned.
Yet those words, filled with terror and awe, took root like seeds in Li Wei’s heart.
He turned off his phone and stared at Haicheng’s glittering nightscape through the window—feeling, for the first time, uncertain about the world he lived in.