This news came like a bolt from the blue!
Regardless of the possibility, it's not a good thing for Long Qi and his team's investigation; on the contrary, it will push the entire investigation into another predicament.
Long Qi's expression turned grim: "What? Are you sure? This matter is extremely important; there can be no mistakes!"
"We've checked everything, Captain Long..."
The young detective also looked miserable, like a wilted eggplant: "But it's really true. Apart from being disciplined by the school leaders for harassing Miss Ruan during his university years, Hong Fengyan had no bad records before that."
As the young detective spoke, Long Qi's expression gradually darkened: "Regardless of the possibility, we're doomed now..."
The young detective said with a troubled face, "This is troublesome, Captain Long."
"If a second person imitates the crime, it will increase the number of perpetrators we need to catch. And the most troublesome thing is, once the first person starts imitating, who can guarantee that there won't be a second or a third?"
Long Qi paused, then said in a deep voice, "Furthermore, if it really was a copycat crime, what would the killer's motive be? Was it simply to kill Hong Fengyan, or..."
"Captain Long, you mean—"
The young detective immediately realized: "Recently, there have indeed been some malicious people online who have once again brought up the hot topic of the serial murder cases that our police have not yet solved. Some people even admire the murderers while mocking the police for their incompetence."
"Among them, there are many who may have prior convictions, antisocial personality disorder, or potential criminals who greatly admire serial killers."
Upon hearing this, Long Qi couldn't help but pinch the bridge of his nose: "That's exactly what I'm worried about. If it's not just a simple act of revenge, but rather a copycat crime motivated by admiration, then the problem could be really serious..."
"What if it wasn't a copycat crime?"
The young detective gave a wry smile, trying to think positively.
But Long Qi glanced at him abruptly and said in a deep voice, "That's not good news either. It proves that the murderer has changed his methods of killing, making it even harder for us to find him, or worse..."
"What?"
Faced with the young detective's question, Long Qi didn't speak, but silently held the cigarette between his fingers and took a deep drag.
What he didn't say was something else—
Perhaps the killer had inside information.
Noticing Long Qi's silence, the young detective, unusually, realized something and lowered his head without saying a word.
In contrast to the deathly silence in the police station, Ji He, who was hiding in a corner, gradually darkened her expression. As if she had thought of something, she rolled her eyes and once again crouched down and left.
'I can't believe I actually guessed right!'
As night falls, the early morning hours are completely silent.
Although the police station was brightly lit, strangely, the police officer who should have been guarding the computer in the archives was now slumped over the table, his face deathly pale, blood gushing from the wound on his neck, his eyes wide open.
Just then, Ji He emerged from the shadows, holding a dagger in her hand, the sharp end still dripping blood.
She walked over without looking to either side and pushed the body aside.
Immediately afterwards, Ji He sat down without a care, paying no attention to the police officer's body lying on the ground—it was just an NPC after all. In this global horror, the lives of players and NPCs were the least valuable things, so there was no need to care.
The clattering of keyboard keys rang out.
Her fingers flew across the keyboard, Ji He's eyes fixed on the computer screen with a strange excitement.
As more and more data appeared on the computer, Ji He's fingers trembled. Finally, she shakily pressed Enter, and the search results quickly appeared on the computer screen—'No such person found'.
Despite the obvious outcome, Ji He breathed a sigh of relief. She relaxed completely, leaned back in her chair, and then covered her face with her hands, bursting into laughter.
"Hahaha--"
"Just as I suspected!"
After laughing for a good while, Ji He finally lowered her hand: "There is no file on Jiang Shihe at all. Who is he? Where did he come from? This madman is definitely not a normal human being. He is definitely not the person the players are supposed to protect!"
Ji He had felt something was off before. Why would Global Horror make 'surviving under supernatural forces' the objective of clearing the game, and even ask players to 'protect Jiang Shihe'? So many people died in this instance, so it's very likely that they weren't protecting the objective at all!
After listening to the analysis of so many cases, Ji He, although not an intellectual player and not good at reasoning, vaguely sensed something was wrong based on the intuition of a veteran player—Jiang Shihe.
Based on the underlying logic of the instance, which is the game rules.
The murderer they are looking for is definitely not something that can be found by searching for a needle in a haystack. Following this logic, the only person Ji He can think of is Jiang Shihe, who is the most suspicious. In particular, Hong Fengyan had harassed Ruan Qingan before, so how could Jiang Shihe, given his personality, let it go?
Therefore, Ji He thought of checking Jiang Shihe's file, because most likely, the suspect would be someone who closely overlaps with him.
No one ever doubted him.
But now... although Jiang Shihe's file was not found, Ji He felt more at ease, which meant that he did indeed have a problem.
In the pitch-black night, Ji He looked at the screen emitting a faint glow. Suddenly, as if remembering something, she took out the iron photo frame that she had obtained in Fengxian Village and placed on the altar.
After using this item in order to escape Fengxian Village, Ji He discovered that the only thing left was this picture frame, and she kept guessing that it might be useful in the later stages of the dungeon.
'The Story of Fengxian Village, as a side quest, is inevitably related to achievement objectives once unlocked. Since several objectives are closely related to Jiang Shihe, the story of Fengxian Village at that time naturally has little connection to Ruan Qing'an. The most important hidden information is—'
'It must be Jiang Shihe's information, and since they finally cleared the side quest, it means someone has obtained an important clue.'
Thinking of this, Ji He gradually focused her gaze on the iron photo frame in her hand, and couldn't help but lower her eyes and take a deep breath: "It seems that this is it, about Jiang Shihe."
"Let me see if your story and hidden identity, this madman, are really what I think they are!"
Perhaps it was the "no such person found" message on the computer that completely tore away the veil of secrecy that had been concealing everyone's attention, exposing all the anomalies and leaving them nowhere to hide.
The computer screen flickered eerily, and most importantly—in the photo frame held by Ji He, the shattered photo was gradually restored. But before Ji He could see it clearly, she felt as if she had been sucked into the world where the photo was.
Just before she entered, she saw only a wide, malevolent grin, like a vengeful ghost.
The child's eyebrows and eyes looked remarkably like... Jiang Shihe!
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