Lin Long immediately contacted the bureau's information department.

But the data over there showed no registered divine statues unresponsive or missing.

"Could it be that I'm overthinking?"

Hatway murmured.

He stared at the statue on the cabinet, silent for a long time.

Lin Long suggested, "It's better to catch the cult followers first; finding them will give us more information."

Hatway said, "You go ahead, I'll stay here."

So Lin Long first returned to report to the director, and then, through the mechanical operations team, started a comprehensive investigation of those appearing around the statues.

This method was clumsy but effective and wouldn't miss anything.

With Light Core Level computing power available now, screening out those lurkers is just a matter of time.

17 hours later.

Two suspects were first identified, and law enforcement officers from the mechanical operations team carried out the arrests.

Lin Long returned to the pharmacy, Hatway was still there.

He sat on a chair, his eyes fixed on the statue, as if it were the God of Ten Thousand Mechanisms himself.

"Both people caught are human, one is a new human from Jin City, and the other is an old human, their behavior usually quite normal."

"Just a minor incident happened at the scene."

"Here's the footage from the scene."

Lin Long projected the footage inside the room.

In the footage, two uniformed law enforcement officers were handcuffing a man. The man's face was pale, his body twisted and stretched, and in the blink of an eye, he turned into a statue of the God of Ten Thousand Mechanisms.

The other arrest scene was similar, and the cult follower also turned into a statue.

Hatway didn't seem surprised by this at all.

"So it's this kind of sealing mechanism."

His lips moved slightly, "But I don't think they've turned into statues; most likely, these followers are summoned back, similar to those missing individuals."

"From the fear they displayed at the scene, the outcome for exposed followers shouldn't be good. Perhaps they know what the missing ones are facing now."

Lin Long smiled bitterly, "Unfortunately, the clues are broken again."

"Not exactly,"

"The clue has become clear, hasn't it?"

Hatway showed a toothy grin for the first time, "We indeed know very little about the God of Ten Thousand Mechanisms, but the number of these cult followers is definitely not small. As long as we find them, we can portray through their life experiences and dig something out."

"In the external world, collecting each individual's experience is very difficult, time-consuming, and labor-intensive, but your power in the New World can easily achieve this."

"We've found a method starting from humans; it's just that the calculation process is a bit complex and tedious."

Lin Long had already come to trust Hatway's professional abilities: "Shall we continue catching the cult followers now?"

"Of course we should catch them."

Hatway nodded, "But I suggest dividing this group of suspects into two groups; the first group continues with arrests, testing whether there's a way to prevent them from disappearing while sealing or forcing them back to the real world. The second group should be under surveillance to see exactly what they're doing."

"I'll arrange that right away."

"You go ahead, I'll still wait here."

Another 22 hours passed.

Lin Long returned to update Hatway on the specifics of the operations.

"We've caught three more followers of the God of Ten Thousand Mechanisms; they all turned into statues upon arrest. Mrs. Chongqing said that this is a replacement by the statue after the Consciousness goes offline, yet the Consciousness didn't actually return to their bodies, resulting in the bodies falling into a vegetative unresponsive state."

"We're monitoring two more, one in Tianjin, one in Suzhou."

"I screened their information in the two worlds and found these cult followers have two common traits."

"The first is they all purchased property in the New World, which allows them to stay online indefinitely, providing conditions and convenience for their activities."

"The second is that although they have different domiciles, they all visited the Forbidden Continent at the beginning of this year, and their property purchases and statue possession occurred after they returned from the Forbidden Continent."

Hatway showed a surprised expression: "You've identified commonality in such a short time, impressive."

Lin Long smiled, "In terms of solving cases, I'm no match for you, but in the law enforcement domain, collecting, perceiving, and screening abnormal information is my forte."

Then he added seriously, "Previously, we always assumed that the God of Ten Thousand Mechanisms should be mechanical life or related entities, so we kept investigating various mechanical lives and semi-mature entities but found no results."

"Now it seems that this God of Ten Thousand Mechanisms is most likely in the Forbidden Continent, so no traces are left in the Great Holy Spirit, making it impossible for us to pinpoint the source."

Hatway puzzled, "I thought the company hadn't deployed Evil Brain Motors there?"

"Indeed not."

Lin Long said gravely, "Due to the special mechanism of the Forbidden Continent, it's difficult to regulate, so no Evil Brain Motors were deployed there. Therefore, we suspect the God of Ten Thousand Mechanisms itself uses these followers drawn into the Forbidden Continent as its channel to operate in the New World."

"We've already applied for the company to send an investigation team to the Forbidden Continent. I suspect those missing victims are likely there."

Hatway lifted his head as if seeing Lin Long in a new light, "Lin, your information collection and correlation ability are impressive."

The two mutually acknowledged each other's skills at this point.

Lin Long asked, "You've been staying here, observing this statue; does it have anything special?"

"Actually, I'm not staying here all the time."

Hatway said, "I've compared the statues collected by your bureau; they've turned into Evil God Coins, with varying denominations but the broadcast sound is the same."