17:38.

With nothing else to worry about, He Yu took off his tattered suit and put on the relatively intact trench coat that Qiu Leng was wearing.

The aroma of flesh and blood still lingered between his lips and teeth, and his hunger was finally satisfied. He glanced at the wreckage scattered all over the place, burped, and slowly returned to the second floor, where he sat on the wooden crate.

The box girl has been released from her suffering, and as for the game console 252, it's still lying at the bottom of the stairs. He Yu has no interest in studying its other features for the time being.

With only half a day left before the week-long deadline, he couldn't understand why things were so simple.

Perhaps he was just too lucky? Thinking about it from another angle, if Chen Tianbo, this hidden taboo entity, had not been chosen to participate in this control mission, he would probably have had to waste dozens or even more lives to figure out the rules of the Box Girl board game.

Everything depends on that forbidden ability to see through the [hidden].

When He Yu opened the wooden box containing the Box Girl earlier, he tried to use 659's ability to pull it into another dimension, but he failed.

This is what prompted him to come up with the observation plan. There are only two conditions for the Box Girl game to end: either all the visitors die, or the props are used to send it to the afterlife, causing the Box Girl to fall into a deep sleep.

Thinking of this, He Yu did not rush to retrieve 252, but instead turned his attention to the box marked with a red cross.

Just like the Souls-like games he encountered during his school days, everyone told him how ridiculously difficult these masterpieces were, but the actual experience was not even as good as Plants vs. Zombies. This is probably the most apt description He Yu could think of.

Although he has now absorbed the properties of three more forbidden substances, it's going too smoothly. It's as if he's acting out some kind of twisted script, and this strangeness makes him uncomfortable, as if he's back to that night when he was a mail carrier.

Humans fear all things unknown, for the unknown represents the ever-present threat of death. You never know what monsters, surprises, or nightmares might emerge from within.

He Yu felt no fear. Now that he had become one with 659, he would never have such weak emotions again. It would be more appropriate to describe him as meticulous.

"I want to see what's going on."

He walked up to the wooden box, and without any hesitation, he raised his hand, grabbed the corner of the lid, and yanked it open.

The pursuit of knowledge is truly gratifying.

Then He Yu heard a girl's wail, a desperate and shrill cry, which belonged to the girl in the box who had long since been exorcised.

His grey eyes met his gaze, filled with resentment.

"Such a thing is possible?"

He Yu stood there stunned, when the woman in the box grabbed him by the neck and dragged him to the bottom of the box.

After a few minutes, the wailing from inside the wooden box was gradually drowned out by the sound of banging, as if something was trying to crawl out from inside.

The sound grew louder, and then the entire wooden box began to shake. The next second, the lid was pushed open from the inside, and He Yu crawled out covered in blood, holding a text card in his hand.

He sighed, wiped the blood off the card, which only had two words written on it—"Haha."

At the same time, the phone rang.

He Yu looked down and took out his phone. He glanced at the screen; it was an unfamiliar number. He flipped through the ordinary-looking card again, but finally decided to answer.

"Hello, Mr. He Yu."

A woman's voice came from the other end of the line; she sounded very young, around 20 years old.

"From any perspective, I'm not doing very well right now." He Yu's tone turned cold, because in those few seconds, he realized that he had fallen into someone else's trap.

"Don't mind me, it's just too hard to hide it from you. All my plans have to be done with extreme care. If there had been even the slightest mistake, I'd probably be on my way to the underworld with those three idiots by now."

"Are you from the Adjudication Department?" He Yu immediately pictured Lu Jin being disemboweled. Judging from the bastards he had encountered so far, only the Adjudication Department would do something like this.

“My name is Long Sanshi, and like you, I am also an operative.”

"Oh? That makes things even more interesting." He Yu laughed, as if he had suddenly forgiven her, and replied, "So, Miss Long, how did you know my number, and how could you see everything that's happening here?"

“I’ll explain the number to you later. Here’s a hint: I was the first operative sent to the villa.” Long Sanshi laughed loudly, a manic and grating laugh that was sure to give you a headache. “So you all thought there were only four people on this control mission.”

He Yu pinched the bridge of his nose, telling himself to calm down. He suppressed the urge to destroy everything. Yes, because of that damned lack of information, he was now being mocked by this woman so wantonly.

"Chen Tianbo did not find you."

“His forbidden ability is to see [concealment], while I have no need to hide myself at all.” Long Sanshi said, finally stopping laughing, and said with a sigh, “I am right next to you, just like your ability to modify cognition, watching this farce every moment.”

“This ability sounds pretty good,” He Yu said calmly. “It’s making the thing inside me hungry again.”

"Do you think everything Qiu Leng said to you is true?" Long Sanshi didn't take his threat seriously at all: "His insurance doesn't just come from [Line], but from 252."

"That game console that can cause the end of the world?" He Yu went straight back to the stairwell and picked up 252: "Now I have a great idea. I happen to have a puzzle game on my phone called 'Endless Nightmare.' Have you played it? Trust me, it will give you memories that will stay with you for a lifetime."

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!