While everyone talked, they followed along as Richard watched the recorded footage.
After cutting through a dozen or so video clips, Richard's hand decisively pressed the pause button. His eyes lit up as he said, "This is it: 'Victor Creel Claims Vengeful Demon Murdered His Entire Family'."
Everyone immediately crowded forward, their faces pressed together. Richard was squeezed in the middle with a look of resignation, his head supporting the chins of Nancy and Barbara, while also being pressed against by the two adult men.
Everyone read the news content written there: "1. Creel claimed his home was infested by an ancient demon and sought an exorcism from a priest to no avail... Ultimately, the whole family died tragically. Victor was judged to be mentally ill and found guilty of murdering his family; he is currently being held in a psychiatric hospital."
"This is it." Richard nodded, looking very satisfied. "This is exactly the kind of sensationalist news I need to serve as the cornerstone for my movie script."
Steve looked at him. "Will this work? Is the movie you're planning to film really this kind of ghost story?"
"Of course." Richard's gaze swept back and forth over the headline and the news content several times, his expression gradually becoming serious, though his response to Steve was somewhat absent-minded. "I happened to have a genius idea before. No one in the industry has tried or succeeded at this yet, probably because they lacked this kind of gimmick, but now I've got a handle on it."
The news report spanned two pages. Richard paused on the second page, staring at an old photo of the Creel family of four. His gaze focused on a boy of about seven or eight on the far left. Below the photo, the names and identities of the four family members were meticulously noted.
The boy's name was none other than the familiar "Henry Creel"!
"Henry Creel... It seems it's the same person." Richard wore a playful smile, his eyes flashing with an unusual light of excitement. He hadn't expected a bored idea of his to yield such an unexpected harvest.
According to the news report, after Victor, the father of the Creel family, failed to have a priest perform an exorcism, he angered the demon. During dinner one day, in front of him, his son, and his daughter, the demon brutally murdered his wife. It used invisible force to snap her limbs, twist her jaw, and pop her eyeballs. It then attacked Victor himself and his children as they prepared to flee the house.
For some reason, Victor and his son only fainted after being attacked. However, the daughter was not so lucky, suffering the same inhumane death as the wife. News of his son's death only reached him in prison from a messenger after his trial had ended.
All four members of the family seemed to have truly been attacked by some mysterious demonic curse.
But in Richard's eyes, none of this was that simple.
The outside world said Henry Creel was dead, but in reality, he wasn't, because Richard could still harvest "wool" from Henry Creel.
"Someone is trying to use death to cover up Henry Creel, deliberately erasing his social identity." Richard's mind raced with clear logic. "If you want evidence, one piece is the news regarding this major death case. A family of four—one went mad, three died. It's clearly a heinous case, yet even Hopper, the town sheriff, said there hadn't been a major casualty case in this town for over thirty years. Obviously, this news was intentionally suppressed and covered up, so much so that even someone with Hopper's status in the town was unaware of it."
"So the question is, who would have that much power?" Richard silently asked and answered himself. The answer was obvious: "The Lab!"
According to the data Richard stole from The Lab, Hawkins National Laboratory was built a few years after this case occurred. The timing of this report's publication basically coincided with the moment Henry Creel was declared dead.
Richard didn't mind looking at this from a slightly conspiratorial angle. Anyway, Dr. Brennan's lab had already done plenty of evil, so pinning a few more crimes on them wouldn't hurt.
As for why The Lab would cover up Henry Creel's identity, Richard naturally thought of The Lab's primary project—"superpower experiments."
That Henry Creel was a potential candidate with superpower potential... No, it wasn't that simple. If the tragedy of his family was caused by his own hand—since the bizarre deaths described in the news could also be achieved by superpowers like Eleven's—then Henry Creel was already a powerful esper capable of using his abilities before Dr. Brennan even took notice of him.
"This Henry Creel could kill his own family; he's so evil. He might be a special ability user with powers similar to Eleven's Telekinesis. Now that he's in The Upside Down, he might even be the mastermind behind all the activities there... Ah, looking at it this way, he really can be compared to the series protagonist, 'Eleven'." Richard thought.
Richard nodded secretly, planning to go back and look through the data stolen from The Lab again, hoping to find experimental subject information that corresponded to "Henry Creel".
Now Richard had a hope: to deduce Henry Creel's strength based on limited information, then gather people and build up strength for a collective counterattack. They would go all out against "Henry Creel" and finally finish him off, completing the story's grand finale.
After completing the story's finale, what will happen to me? What will happen to this world next?
Will he... return to his original world?
Richard couldn't help but drift off into a daze. If he had to return to his own world, he suddenly found himself not wanting the ending to come. Compared to returning to his original world, he seemed to be living better here. Although the technology of the world of Stranger Things wasn't as advanced as his own time, here... he had a bright future of his own... "Chade?"
Barbara gave Richard a gentle nudge, bringing him back to his senses. Looking at everyone staring at him, he laughed it off and said, "This is the news report we'll use. Let's record the address where the case happened and find a time to investigate. When the time is right, we'll choose the crime scene as our filming location."
"Will it really work?" Jonathan asked, sounding a bit apprehensive. "I don't mean the script; I mean me being the director."
"Of course." Richard raised an eyebrow. "And if it succeeds, you'll have to thank me, Director Jonathan."