Chapter 118: Mummy
Wen Chong sat down, picked up the photo Tu Lanxun had just placed on the coffee table, opened the envelope, and explained, "I only knew there was a mysterious space behind the dean's office, but we've never been able to enter it. I previously suspected that the game model hadn't been generated there at all."
Tu Lanxun stood up from the table, incredulous: "How can you be sure I can get in there?"
"Don't get excited." Wen Chong said calmly, "It was a game. Life and death didn't matter. I let you try it was just a chance. Now it proves that I won the bet."
The two of them sat there flipping through the photos one by one. The location of the secret room was cut into pieces and stacked together. Wen Chong was still not satisfied, so he called Lu Lianbing to get a laptop with an external precision scanner - in fact, its size was already considered an encyclopedia computer - and then the photos were scanned one by one into the screen, and a model was automatically generated.
The secret room that he had just left appeared before Tu Lanxun's eyes again.
"Those blue butterflies are beautiful," Tu Lanxun said. "I think the director of Bluebird Metropolitan Hospital is using them to express his grief, perhaps for his AI wife."
She spoke rather boldly because N had been forced out the window by the ghost detection system that Wen Chong had turned on, and he could not hear anything.
Details were quickly pasted into place. The secret room was rotated by dragging the mouse, modified one by one according to Tu Lanxun's instructions, and finally transformed into a cube suspended in the darkness. Wen Chong watched carefully, memorizing every feature.
"Do you think there is a place like this in the real world?" Tu Lanxun asked curiously.
Wen Chong neither nodded nor shook his head, saying bluntly, "The game world is Kris's metaphor for Earth. Since he's become the underground god of the Gray City Cave, the secret space he's opened up must be used to hold the corner of his heart that needs to be placed most."
"So, there's a connection between the Chamber of Secrets and Kris's real life. That's why I asked you to go." Wen Chong looked over with a slight smile. "Did you gain anything real from the game?"
Tu Lanxun glanced at Wen Chong in annoyance and said, "Let's talk about work."
What else could she say? That she was seen through by a game character? That she was so disturbed that she kept him in the simulator?
Wen Chong remained unmoved. He spoke slowly, "Lu Lianbing, Zhao Kuanqiao, and the other Tourism Bureau staff have all played the game ourselves, and none of us have ever managed to unlock the secret room. Perhaps in the original game settings, it wasn't even a triggerable point. It's entirely a personal choice inherent to the game character."
No, it is not implicit, but the awakening of N's autonomous consciousness in the game.
Tu Lanxun did not point this out. She was not sure how the Tourism Administration would treat N in the game after she told Wenchong about this.
It is just an illusion, a self-generation of a thinking model, not a real soul or a data soul.
"Okay. Let me see."
Tu Lanxun walked to the computer and pointed out a detail. The room on the screen was pulled to a wall. Above the black and gray polymer sofa, there were dotted embedded wall lamps, and in the middle hung an ordinary landscape painting.
"I feel like there's something wrong with this painting," Tu Lanxun said. "I don't know why."
Wen Chong cut out the landscape painting and enlarged it, its pixels quickly becoming clear. It was a painting depicting natural, pastoral life, its style neither modern nor ancient. There was no perspective; everything was flatly spread out: trees, rocks, and a fairytale-like little red house.
"The style of this painting is inconsistent with the other things in the room." Wen Chong nodded.
Tu Lanxun said seriously, "Have you noticed? Everything in this secret room has a gaming feel to it, something futuristic or fantasy, from the sci-fi decor to those blue butterflies."
Wen Chong naturally took over the conversation: "Only this painting depicts real human life. Although it is expressed in a non-scientific way, the differences are indeed difficult to reconcile."
This painting was carefully recorded, and Wen Chong decided to look for similar places in China, perhaps they were related to Kris himself.
The situation remained bleak, however, as the painting lacked perspective, making it even more difficult to discern direction. However, Tu Lanxun found the green leaves in the painting to be incredibly lifelike, even down to their shape and burrs.
"Let's look at it based on the distribution of plant species and the topography and geology," said Tu Lanxun.
That's all we can do.
Xiao Zhang knocked on the door outside, and they returned to the brown monster stalking case, and this time they made a new discovery.
"We found traces of the strange man in a nearby school," Xiao Zhang said. "The shopping mall, which is 1,500 meters away from the fifth crime scene, is a straight line away."
There were breakpoints in the surveillance along the way, so it took a long time to catch the monster again.
Wen Chong frowned: "School?"
Xiao Zhang explained, "It's not a big deal. There was a joint industry exam recently, and the school was requisitioned as an exam venue. The children are not in school, so it's empty now."
The atmosphere finally calmed down, and Xiao Zhang played the copied surveillance video for everyone to watch. They saw the brown shadow staggering into the warehouse next to the playground, with the big shoes still dangling under his trouser legs.
"The enemy possesses a high level of anti-reconnaissance capabilities," Lao Wei said. "The school's teaching building has comprehensive surveillance footage. Only the warehouse where cleaning tools and equipment are stored is not covered."
The surveillance video was taken half an hour ago. Li Ao and others set off immediately and headed straight to the junior high school, bringing the blue-painted xun with them as usual.
The cars were moving like arrows. Tu Lanxun was sitting in the middle of the convoy, feeling sleepy and unconsciously clutching the pocket watch in his pocket.
Strangely, she could often lock onto the aura of the black mist, which would separate as soon as she touched it, but the latter would drift in another distant direction.
Was her perception wrong, or was the convoy heading in the wrong direction?
Could it be that the brown monster has already escaped?
Tu Lanxun specifically invited Yan Hailing out, and the latter confirmed her idea that the black fog recorded last time was completely in the opposite direction of the school.
"Well, will we miss it?" Tu Lanxun asked, "I don't think the brown guy is there."
Xiao Zhang was startled and said worriedly, "That shouldn't be possible. The place has been surrounded by police from the nearby police station. It's like an iron barrel, and the Tourism Administration has also sent people there."
As he spoke, Xiao Zhang asked the communication station, "What's the situation on the scene?"
A voice quickly came back from the station, "Everything is normal. The dispatcher from the Tourism Administration just arrived. There's no movement inside."
Tu Lanxun felt a bit relieved as he followed the convoy to the school's perimeter. Lu Lianbing from the Tourism Management Bureau had just gotten off the bus and was setting up equipment on the scene, while nearby police officers were dispersing onlookers. Tu Lanxun glanced around and realized that all the officers from the three or four nearby police stations had been dispatched.
They got off the car. The on-site commander was Li Ao. Deputy Director Meng Baojian was on the way. In order not to waste time, Li Ao directly announced the start of the operation after getting approval.
Tu Lanxun was wearing a bulletproof vest, but it wasn't a normal bulletproof vest. It was extremely heavy, with several hard square protrusions on it. Lu Lianbing said, "This is a protective vest to prevent harm from ghosts. Put it on."
She followed the team toward the interior of the school. On the other side, "special police" wearing similar equipment—only five of them, all wearing the logo of the Tourism Administration—jumped in from the top of the wall.
There was a sound of a sudden intrusion from the front. Tu Lanxun was blocked by Xiao Zhang behind him. The rusty iron door of the warehouse was broken open with a "bang", and shouts of "Don't move" and "Don't move" came from inside.
But then there was dead silence.
No suspicious persons were escorted out, and the arrests on the spot did not even encounter resistance.
Because there is nothing in the warehouse.
Only a pile of large straw brooms were pushed aside, revealing the ground underneath. A round manhole cover stood upright, with the sound of water flowing inside and a faint smell of sewer wafting out.
"Run away." Xiao Zhang concluded.
It's too late to call the school leader now. This warehouse building illegally built on the edge of the playground doesn't even have a foundation. It's just a shed made of materials that look like colored steel plates. Who knows if the weirdo will escape from there.
Li Ao squatted down and took a deep breath, his brows furrowed. "He really doesn't mind the stink."
Tu Lanxun's discovery turned out to be true. However, the distance was too far and she couldn't lock onto the black fog. She didn't know where the other party had disappeared to.
Calculating the time, it is estimated that the brown monster came in fifty minutes ago and went downstairs. He may be anywhere now, but not under their noses.
"Let's look for the black fog again." Wen Chong said to Tu Lanxun, "Sensing it on the way back."
The personnel on the scene began to collect physical evidence. Tu Lanxun, already feeling sleepy, was about to drive around the area with Lu Lianbing to see if he could find someone. Before he even left the warehouse, he heard Xiao Zhang let out a drawn-out "Ouch!"
Xiao Zhang stood there with a changing expression, pouting in disgust, and even stretched out his hand to beckon the medical examiner over, "Look, what is this?"
Among the stacked brooms, there was a strange thing hanging on the yellow straw stem. It looked a bit like canvas, but more draped and slightly reflective. The interwoven texture was unclear, and the edges had an unpleasant irregular shape.
The forensic doctor took it with his gloves on, his eyelids twitched, and he looked up and said two words: "Human skin."
To be precise, it is the skin of mummies that have been dead for more than five years.
Has there ever been a murder and corpse hiding case in this warehouse?
But according to the school's head, the warehouse was built about ten years ago, but the brooms inside have to be moved twice a year - in winter and summer, all students in the school are often mobilized to do a big cleaning.
So the mummy's skin was hung here recently.
"That's not right." Tu Lanxun suddenly turned around. "Isn't the weather quite humid recently?"
Lucheng has had several rain and snow events in the past month, and the air humidity has increased instead of decreased. Even the brooms in this warehouse have shown signs of darkening in color, as it is cold and damp.
If the broom becomes saturated due to moisture... then...
Tu Lanxun suddenly understood something. "The brown weirdo is brown, right? He's wearing old brown clothes, and the part of his sock that's showing is also brown."
Xiao Zhang nodded, "That's right."
"It's a weird one."
"No one said it was alive. What do you mean?"
Tu Lanxun took a breath and said, "Is there a possibility that the brown monster... is actually a walking corpse?"
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