At the bookstore where Xing Ming's incident occurred, three other people were also murdered: the owner and two employees. Ren Yifei saw one of the employees.
Although he was wearing a helmet and his face was disguised, Ren Yifei had eyes honed in the entertainment industry and could see through the disguise at a glance.
So who is this person here for?
Is that me?
He thought shamelessly. After all, he had just slapped the game world in the face by exploiting its loopholes. This would undoubtedly leave a deep impression on the game and its agents.
If the agent has a personal relationship with He Jun, he will also know that his 'Zhong Lan' is an imported character, created specifically to destroy him, so he will target him even more.
Ren Yifei stayed for two minutes to ask the company to add a locker for storing employee packages, and then left surrounded by others.
Throughout the entire process, the deliveryman never once looked up in their direction, keeping his head down and sorting through the packages as if avoiding eye contact.
He didn't realize that at this moment, it was the most reasonable and natural reaction to secretly take a few glances at the mainstream.
After taking a walk downstairs and having lunch in the staff canteen, Ren Yifei returned to his office.
During lunch break, everyone either went for a nap or went home, and there were few people moving around in the office building. Ren Yifei wanted to take a nap, but he had something on his mind, and he stared at the ceiling for half an hour without falling asleep.
"Ding." His phone rang. He pulled it out from under his pillow, glanced at the caller ID, and immediately sat up abruptly: "Hello? This is Zhong Lan."
"Another group looking for the people who burned down the bookstore?" Ren Yifei frowned upon hearing the new information.
While continuing their investigation into the bookstore burning incident, officials unexpectedly discovered traces of another force that was also searching for four missing people.
The official speculation is that these people are also players in the game, including people from all walks of life, who were gathered together by someone at this time.
"But how did these people know?" Ren Yifei knew it was thanks to the information provided by He Jun. Later, there were also the diary delivered to his door and the support of the national team. 'Ghost' was so cautious, even using someone else's identity when he was out in public—how did those people know him?
The official on the other end of the phone also found it strange: "It's said that some kind of prop was used."
"..." Ren Yifei gripped his phone tightly. He had already checked the store once, and there was nothing that could lock onto an agent; this item was clearly not produced by the mini-game.
No matter how stupid this infinite game is, it won't produce items that are detrimental to itself, so this person can only be a player from the Wasteland, and the items are also items from the Wasteland.
In fact, even if his resume wasn't used on himself, it would be very effective in identifying or eliminating a suspect.
It is evident that some items in the Desolate Corner can counter the infinite game of this world.
Today is the fifth day of the game. These games are getting harder every day, and they all test obscure knowledge. Unless you are a genius, no one can guarantee that they can pass the next game smoothly.
At this point, nearly half of the remaining players also started to panic. Whether for their own sake or for the sake of the mission, they had to get rid of the mastermind as soon as possible.
This is just one example that the authorities discovered.
Tonight's game will see both the ghosts and the players take action.
He had already identified the suspect; could he just stand by and watch someone else steal his life? Ren Yifei toyed with the three travel tokens in his hand, having already made up his mind.
"Xiao Wei, can you buy me some things?"
It was 9:30 p.m., Ren Yifei's third night at the company.
He appeared in the carriage on time.
This time, the train carriage was different; it was exceptionally long, had a large number of players, and was particularly dilapidated. On the exposed steel walls, besides bloody handprints, there were also bloody scratch marks, each one telling a story of resentment.
"It's you?" One of the players recognized him. He was a stylish young man. Upon closer inspection, oh, it was the younger brother of the girl he was on a blind date with a sister complex.
Even before these images, what Ren Yifei sensed was a peculiar smell.
Against a backdrop of rusty and rotting corpses, a faint, sweet aroma of a cake shop and a psychedelic scent of poppy berries could be detected.
Ren Yifei: "..."
It's so lively!
虽然这一次进入游戏的玩家似乎格外多,目测得有三十 多人,但是一下遇到现实中有过一面之缘的相亲对象弟弟,还有同样来自荒芜之角的甜品玩家和罂粟果实玩家,还是有种'世界真小'的微妙感.
Or perhaps it wasn't a coincidence, but rather that the person behind the scenes wanted to wipe out all these outcasts.
Since that's the case, why not make this game even more exciting?
Ren Yifei remained expressionless, radiating an aura of social aversion. Hidden beneath his suit jacket, three travel talismans activated simultaneously.
The first person to appear was Jiang Dong, the bookstore owner, a man who looked honest and unassuming.
A look of surprise flashed across his face, but he quickly regained his composure.
Shop assistant number one, a refined and fair-skinned man named Zhang Yue, followed closely behind. He was also startled when he noticed the change in environment, but he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the familiar Jiang Dong beside him.
Another employee who showed the same behavior was Li Yu, the delivery guy Ren Yifei had seen during the day. When he found himself being called into the dungeon, his expression turned very bad.
Although the three people didn't speak, they exchanged quick glances, indicating that they were in cahoots.
The arrival of these three immediately attracted the attention of the other players. Ren Yifei noticed that at least four or five players were looking at these three people with subtle expressions, as if they were looking at a plate of roast duck that had been roasted and placed in front of them.
Actually, Ren Yifei was also a bit confused at this moment, mainly because one of the three travel talismans in his hand had been burned, while the other two were intact.
"So, there were other people who summoned two other people?" Ren Yifei analyzed. "Perhaps it wasn't just one person, but many people who all ran into each other."
Suddenly, I have mixed feelings.
There's only one dish, but it needs to be shared by several people. How are they supposed to divide it?
Surrounded by wolves, the trio wasn't as fearful as they expected. Instead, they looked at the other players defiantly, as if they were very confident in the game.
That's right. They're not stupid. They must have anticipated that the players would cause trouble for them, so they've come up with countermeasures in private.
If they were even smarter, perhaps players wasting points to summon them would also be part of their plan.
As long as the players cannot determine which of the three is the real administrator, they are still safe.
So far, there are no instances of direct player-versus-player combat in the mini-games, perhaps because the game rules do not allow direct combat between players.
Otherwise, these three people wouldn't have been able to remain so calm in the face of so many eager players.
The atmosphere in the carriage grew increasingly tense, with only the local players, completely unaware of the situation, cramming at the last minute. They were either reading books or listening to explanations with earphones in their ears, all diligently preparing for the exam.
Ren Yifei opened his phone and glanced at the notification 'Suspect X'. It looked like a crime investigation game, but who knows? Given the nature of this game, the actual content that followed might be quite complicated.
At ten o'clock, the game officially began, and Ren Yifei found himself in a square, dirty pool of water. He was wearing iron shackles on his feet, one end of which was connected to the bottom of the pool.
The chain was so short that he couldn't run to the other side to pull out the plug from the spout.
"Splash, splash, splash." Water was being released from all four corners of the pool, and the light reddish-brown water quickly submerged the soles of his shoes.
However, the pool was over a meter deep, and he was 1.8 meters tall. If the other party intended to drown him, this was definitely not a suitable place.
But if the other party wants to intimidate him, then... it might have some effect, right?
Putting everything else aside, the bloody water itself is quite disgusting. I don't know where it came from, but it's a reddish-brown liquid with blood foam on it, and bits of yellow fat and hairs floating on top, making it look greasy.
"These shoes are going to be ruined, and the socks will have to be thrown away too." Ren Yifei, who didn't think he had OCD, was in great pain at this moment.
He looked around and saw rows of iron frames with sharp iron hooks hanging from them.
In the corner, there was a platform, about the size of a ping-pong table, with a few pig-slaughtering knives and iron forks lying around, as well as a rag soaked in blood and fatty tissue, which looked a lot like animal entrails.
These items and the stone bricks on the ground all showed signs of use, their colors dark and almost bloody. A greasy, foul odor filled the air.
"..." This looks like a pig slaughterhouse.
He lifted his foot, kicking up a string of water droplets. The chain was very heavy, and he felt tired after a few steps. But the problem was that the chain was really short, and he couldn't reach the edge of the pool at all.
Seeing that the water was bubbling up more and more, he either had to stay there or find a way to get out.
"Where did everyone else go? One person per slaughterhouse?" He took out his phone and looked at the game content.
Countdown: 24 hours.
A casual mini-game: Escape the Death Chamber.
Mr. X owned an escape room experience center, and business was booming. However, recently, for unknown reasons, the center was shut down. People are saying that Mr. X probably designed many traps to kill his customers.
Now, suspect X has escaped into this escape room experience center and is hiding in the shadows, waiting for his chance to strike.
Find your way out of this escape room within 24 hours. Beware of murderers lurking in the crowd!
By the way, these escape rooms will randomly contain mechanisms, traps, and surprises. Doesn't that sound exciting? Successfully escape the escape room within 24 hours to pass the test.
There's an extra reward for finding and killing suspect X!
"Ah..." He had heard of escape rooms, but had never played one. A similar variety show had once approached him, but he had turned it down.
At that time, Ren Yifei couldn't understand them at all. Wasn't a quiet life good enough? Why did they have to seek out some excitement?
Oh, back then he basically died every night, the stimulation level was too high.
"Is there a hidden key in each of these secret rooms? Can you enter the next secret room only after opening it?" Ren Yifei looked down at the iron shackles on his ankles. He had to unlock them before he could proceed to the next step.
However, the online store on the phone was closed.
It seems that yesterday's last-minute purchase of items has angered the game.
To say he regrets it is an understatement. If he hadn't bought the items yesterday, he wouldn't even have been eligible to enter today's game.
Before he could decide what to do next, a plume of smoke billowed from the corner, extremely choking and making his throat hurt when he tried to breathe it.
"Damn it! This game is terrible!" Ren Yifei couldn't help but curse.