As Wen Shichun opened the drawer, the others were still reviewing the chat logs preserved in the software.
"How can you tell the killer was emotionally invested?" Shen Jing was surprised by the E-rank's earlier deduction. Just thinking about how the killer had ultimately murdered all these people made the messages seem disgusting and terrifying. When she turned her head, she noticed Wen Shichun was already going through the clues in the drawer and felt a little embarrassed, but she couldn’t help but remind him, "Still, be careful, Xiao Shi."
Even though the E-rank seemed safe for now, looking at the final fate of the victims targeted by the killer, it was clear this safety was only temporary.
Shen Jing was worried. She didn’t know what the trigger was for this dungeon’s boss to finally hunt down its prey.
Her gaze returned to the computer screen, trying to find clues in the conversations between the killer and the victims.
"Seems pretty affectionate," Chang Zhao muttered after glancing at the chat logs, shuddering. This dungeon boss was seriously twisted. "Even killing their lovers?"
And they kept all the records.
Why?
To savor the memories later?
Chang Zhao felt physically repulsed by the chat content.
Now, the computer mouse was in Xun Yi’s hands. Sure enough, after Wen Shichun found the clue, the rest of the props were safe to interact with.
Xun Yi scrolled to the chats between the victims and the killer after they arrived at the mansion.
Shen Jing was also more focused on the later conversations—there might be hints about what triggered the killer’s final rampage.
Though unspoken, Xun Yi shared her thoughts. They were reviewing these logs to pinpoint the killer’s motive, especially since he’d just promised not to let the E-rank fall into danger.
Both Xun Yi and Shen Jing were fixated on the chat dialogue.
None of the victims had initially suspected anything when they arrived and didn’t meet the person they were expecting.
That in itself was suspicious.
The killer had explained it as part of the "game" and the "romance."
They crafted an atmosphere of mystery and allure.
An ancient, ornate mansion. Carefully prepared food and gifts. An isolated environment.
At first, the victims were even allowed to leave the mansion grounds.
For young people already suffocating under the stress and chaos of modern life, arriving in a place like this—their relief was understandable.
And the killer’s targets were almost always the same type:
—People with no close friends, distant from their families, introverted, obedient, and easily controlled.
Including "LZ"—Lin Zhe—most of these somewhat naive young victims were around twenty years old. None of them knew that their perfect lover, the one they shared everything with online, was actually an invisible entity.
They had no idea their every move was being watched by the other party—right from this very room they were in now, behind this desk.
The killer sat at this computer, watching the victims through the countless hidden cameras that fed him their every action.
Sometimes, he might even have gone to their locations in person.
And then, when the victims grew suspicious, he would use this chat software to talk to them, offering constant affection and seemingly endless care.
...
From the chat logs, it was clear that all the victims had initially arrived here full of excitement and anticipation, thrilled and nervous about finally meeting their online lover.
Even when they didn’t see that lover after arriving, they simply assumed it was part of a game.
After all, they could still use the computer in the bedroom—the same one Wen Shiran had stayed in—to communicate with them.
Every victim had stayed in that bedroom.
Xun Yi’s hand paused on the mouse as he reached the turning point in the conversations. Then, he continued scrolling.
...
If the other person in a relationship never showed themselves, even the most devoted would start to doubt.
And as time passed, strange things kept happening in this house.
Xun Yi watched as the tone in the chats shifted—from adoration, excitement, and longing… to confusion, suspicion, fear, helplessness… and finally, despair.
By the end, the victims were clearly mentally broken.
His gaze settled on the final flood of desperate pleas for help.
The last messages in the chat logs were no longer something a sane person could have written.
They were just repeating the same sentences over and over.
...
While Xun Yi and Shen Jing carefully examined the chat logs, Wen Shichun rummaged through the second drawer and pulled out several phones of different models, along with their charging cables.
His expression didn't change.
He moved on to the third drawer.
The first drawer contained small miscellaneous items.
The second held phones.
The third drawer, several times larger than the previous two, was filled with a stack of old diaries.
"Find anything?" He Yi, standing across the desk, asked.
As he spoke, Chang Zhao glanced over, and Yue Cheng, who had been standing by the wall, took a few steps closer.
"The killer has a habit of collecting the victims' belongings."
Wen Shichun picked up the top diary from the third drawer, flipped through a few pages, then turned his attention back to the phones.
"These are probably the victims' diaries and phones."
Xun Yi was still reviewing the chat logs, while Shen Jing kept glancing between both scenes.
Wen Shichun picked up a few of the newer-looking phones from the second drawer, found some charging cables, and walked to the side.
"Are these all the victims' things?" Chang Zhao asked. "What are you doing, Xiao E?"
"Looking for Lin Zhe's phone." After plugging the phones into the wall sockets, Wen Shichun turned to them. "Is it safe for you to handle those items now?"
He was referring to the contents of the three drawers—he hadn’t finished examining the diaries yet.
"It's safe, Brother," Yue Cheng said, looking at Wen Shichun. "You already said they're the victims' belongings."
The clues were clear.
With that, Yue Cheng picked up one of the diaries.
Wen Shichun gave him a slight nod.
After testing two of the phones, he finally found the name "Lin Zhe" in the personal information section of the third one.
Wen Shichun exited back to the home screen.
The wallpaper on this phone was a photo of a boy lying on a bed, fast asleep. His face, captured in the frame, was pale and translucent, surrounded by darkness—clearly taken secretly under a sudden, harsh light in the dark.
It looked eerily similar to the photo the killer had taken of him in the study.
The previous two phones also had lock screens featuring different boys, all secretly photographed in the dark.
Every one of them showed unnaturally pale faces emerging from the blackness.
After Yue Cheng opened the diary, Chang Zhao also picked one up and began flipping through it. He skimmed quickly, muttering under his breath, "Why would the killer collect these...?"
The diary was written by one of the victims, documenting everything that had happened to them in this mansion.
Chang Zhao glanced at the date in the diary—thirteen years ago?
Shen Jing had, at some point, moved away from the computer. She now held another diary in her hands, this one looking even more worn with age.
After flipping through dozens of pages, her face paled slightly. She looked up and said, "You all need to see this..."
But her eyes were fixed only on the white-haired young man holding the phone.
Wen Shichun was reading through the diary entries left by the owner of the phone in his hands.
Just as he had suspected, that thing didn’t just enjoy collecting these items—it had actively manipulated the victims into writing these records themselves. From the conversations in the messaging apps, it was clear the killer had a sick fascination with the victims documenting everything, whether it was the fleeting, illusory sweetness of their early interactions or the horror-movie-like ending that followed.
And when it spoke, it never revealed any traces of its true intentions, only subtly influencing the victims’ actions.
What a psychopath...
"You all need to see this."
Shen Jing’s voice snapped Wen Shichun out of his thoughts. Lifting his gaze from the phone screen, he looked at her. "What is it?"
"Earlier, you said the owner of this mansion was already dead." Shen Jing walked toward him as she spoke, then handed him the diary once she was close enough. She pointed at a passage. "This victim was the son of one of the mansion owner’s former housekeepers. He came here during a summer break while he was in college."
Wen Shichun took the diary, his eyes landing on the date in the top-right corner. The entries were from twenty years before the current timeline of this scenario.
"He identified the killer in his diary," Shen Jing said, watching Wen Shichun closely. Once she was sure he had reached the crucial passage, she continued, "Him and the owner of this mansion..."
Suddenly, she saw the young man, who had been quietly reading the diary, lurch toward her.
“How…?”
The other party’s speed was too fast—it all happened in just a second. Shen Jing didn’t have time to react. She stood there, completely stunned. Her attention had been entirely focused on Wen Shichun, so she hadn’t been on guard against this sudden move. At the moment the incident occurred, a buzzing noise filled her head. The only thing she could see clearly was those breathtakingly beautiful blue eyes, now sharp and icy cold.
In that brief instant, Shen Jing’s pupils dilated, as if she couldn’t believe what was happening.
She watched as the E-rank player she had trusted so much raised the diary in his hand. His movements were too fast—almost simultaneous with his approach. The other teammates in the room must have noticed the commotion, but no one intervened. Maybe, like her, they hadn’t reacted in time…
Even though the E-rank’s attacking stance was obvious, when he appeared in front of her, Shen Jing’s last thought was still one of hesitation: What is he trying to do?
It wasn’t until the sound of a sharp object piercing through the diary in Wen Shichun’s hand reached her ears that Shen Jing belatedly realized she had heard something tearing through the air moments earlier.
Now, staring at the white-haired young man’s profile as he turned to look toward the doorway, Shen Jing found herself momentarily dazed.
…
When Wen Shichun used the diary in his hand to block the slicer knife—which had been thrown with full force—his other hand almost simultaneously pulled Shen Jing back.
As the knife tore through the diary, the remaining momentum still carried it forward, threatening to reach its target.
When Shen Jing turned her head, what she saw was a sharp blade, two-thirds of which had already pierced through the diary, its tip now less than half a centimeter away from her forehead.
A wave of delayed fear surged through her.
Her expression complicated, Shen Jing took a step back. The hand that had pulled her had already let go, but she knew very well—if the young man beside her hadn’t yanked her away, or if he hadn’t used the diary to block the knife, she had no doubt the blade would have gone straight through her temples and ended up lodged in her skull.
The sudden turn of events put everyone in the room on high alert. Xun Yi stood up from the chair behind the desk, while the others tensed.
By the time Wen Shichun pulled the slicer knife out of the diary, he was already striding toward the doorway.
The person who had thrown the knife had been right outside the room just moments ago.
“Brother.”
“Xiao E.”
Yue Cheng and Chang Zhao called out almost simultaneously, trying to stop the white-haired young man—but he ignored them.
"Are you okay?" Xun Yi, who had stood up, asked Shen Jing with concern. Seeing her still staring blankly at the doorway, Xun Yi glanced at E-rank, who had already walked into the hallway, then quickly moved to pick up the diary that E-rank had casually left on the desk, as well as the phone charging on the low table by the wall.
After gathering these two items, Xun Yi hurried out after him. Before him, Chang Zhao and Yue Cheng had already followed.
The last one left in the room, He Yi, glanced at Shen Jing. Under his gaze, she suddenly snapped out of her daze. After a brief exchange of looks, she quickly skirted around the desk and walked out.
He Yi watched her retreating figure with a puzzled expression. After everyone had left, another two minutes passed. The man in the room seemed to be deep in thought before finally walking slowly around to the back of the desk. He looked at the computer his teammates had thoroughly examined earlier, then gripped the mouse and clicked open the surveillance feed of the house.
On the screen, the E-rank had already reached the stairwell on the second floor.
He Yi's eyes scanned each surveillance window one by one before finally settling on the footage of the exterior of the house.
***
When Wen Shichun walked out of the room at the end of the hallway, the corridor was silent.
The slicing knife was gripped in his hand, its sharp blade reflecting every possible glint of light, appearing clean and bright.
Wen Shichun walked forward unhurriedly. As he passed his own room, he glanced sideways at the wooden door that wasn’t fully closed—the few-centimeter gap was exactly as he had deliberately left it when he went out earlier.
The ghostly thing hadn’t entered his room.
A couple more steps forward, and movement sounded from the stairs.
The thing must have realized he had no intention of entering the room and was trying to leave. Of course, Wen Shichun wouldn’t give it the chance. When the noise came from the stairs, the man holding the knife shed his earlier nonchalance and quickly gave chase.
"Brother!" Yue Cheng called out and ran after him.
Not to mention Shen Jing and the others following behind.
Soon, the whole group had chased their way down to the first floor.
There, they saw the E-rank’s back as he stood on the first step of the stairwell.
The footsteps behind him slowed.
"The killer is on this floor now."
After his teammates had descended, Wen Shichun spoke.
Then he turned around, pointed at the stairs beneath his feet, and looked at the high-level players. "Any way to seal this off?"
Wen Shichun asked.
Shen Jing had previously pulled out chains from thin air—likely what they referred to as "props." These high-level players probably had corresponding tools for situations like this.
Now that they knew the thing was on the first floor, the goal was to trap it there.
The system, which had been silent for a long time, observed its unusually calm host. The host's fear value was currently very low. This time, the calmness was genuine.
It seemed he had already figured it out.
After Wen Shichun finished speaking, the people behind him understood his meaning.
Though they appeared no different from before, everyone was actually fully armed. At the slightest sign of danger, they were ready to unleash their skills.
"Xiao E, stand behind me for now. We can't see the killer—it's too dangerous," Chang Zhao said.
"Then let’s make it visible," Wen Shichun mused.
This thing even had footsteps—it was physically stepping on the ground. He should have realized it sooner. This game world was advanced enough that making people in the instance invisible probably wasn’t difficult.
After he spoke, Yue Cheng, who hadn’t had a chance to be helpful in a while, suddenly spoke up. His eyes were shining as he looked at Wen Shichun, as if begging for praise.
"I have... a lot of flour. I brought it into the dungeon thinking I could use it to make dumplings or something..."
?
After Yue Cheng finished speaking, the expressions of the others finally twisted in disbelief. Only Wen Shichun remained unfazed. He looked at Yue Cheng and praised, "Sprinkle it down the stairs."
Let’s see where the killer can hide now.
