“Do you remember what time the system announced the player’s death earlier?” Bai Lixin asked Xia Chi.
Young Yama cast a curious glance at the two.
Xia Chi replies without hesitation, “Wasn’t it around 10 in the morning.”
Bai Lixin nodded. “Correct, it was 10 in the morning.”
“Within a two-minute interval, two people died one after the other. 10 AM seems to be a likely time for judging players.”
“But one person died and then came back to life. We just don’t know who it was.”
Bai Lixin looked up at the towering steel and concrete buildings that stood like peaks in the city. “Xia Chi, do you know where that player works?”
“I’ll find out for you. Give me a moment,” Xia Chi said and hurriedly went to the guard’s room.
Within five minutes, Xia Chi ran back. “I found out. She works in Zone 3. Let’s go there.”
The current time was 11 AM. Following Xia Chi’s directions, they quickly located the place where the baby-faced player worked.
According to the guard, her workplace was on the ground floor of Building 3.
It was a four-story building with a courtyard. The first and second floors belonged to one household, while the third and fourth floors belonged to another.
The three of them stood outside the courtyard, peering inside. The ground-floor windows had one-way glass, so they only saw their own reflections. They couldn’t see anything inside.
They circled around to the front door at the back, and after knocking, an elderly voice came through the door frame, “Who is it?”
The three exchanged glances and Xia Chi spoke up, “Sir, I’m Xia Chi from the guard’s office. These two are Little Wen’s relatives. We have something to discuss with her and we heard that she works here. Can we meet her?”
“Little Wen is the name of the nanny player,” Xia Chi explained. He had learned this yesterday when he was comforting her.
After a faint rustling of clothes from inside the room, the main door opened. An elderly man poked his head out through the gap. “What do you want with Little Wen?”
Looking through the crack, Bai Lixin saw a figure moving through the living room.
It seemed like that figure was dragging something. It flashed by and disappeared from Bai Lixin’s line of sight.
Bai Lixin redirected his gaze. “We don’t have any urgent matters. We are Little Wen’s older brothers. We’ve been trying to call her since yesterday but couldn’t get through so we came to see what’s going on.”
“You couldn’t get through to her?” The old man hesitated, his eyes shifting back and forth between the three. He then opened the door a bit wider. “Little Wen left yesterday afternoon. We thought she wasn’t a good fit for our family, so we let her go. She cried for a long time back and I also felt sorry for the girl, but as an old man, there’s not much I can do. All I could do was watch her leave.”
“Did Little Wen come back later?” Xia Chi took a deep breath. “I saw Little Wen crying in the community yesterday afternoon. She said she was coming here for one last attempt, to see if she could stay and I saw her heading in this direction.”
The old man finally opened the door. His slightly clouded eyes swept over the three of them. “There are shoe covers in the shoe cabinet. Put them on and come in.”
With that, the old man shuffled to the side, creating space.
The living room was a bit messy, with children’s toys scattered about. However, the shoe cabinet had no dust, clearly indicating that it had just been cleaned.
The old man retrieved a seat cushion from a drawer, then gestured for them to sit. “I’m sorry, we have some cleanliness habits here. We don’t like outsiders touching the furniture inside the rooms so it’s not just about you; please don’t misunderstand.”
“You mentioned that you couldn’t reach Little Wen by phone. Is there something wrong with her?” The old man skillfully retrieved disposable paper cups from a drawer, slightly hunching his back as he poured water for each of them.
Bai Lixin’s gaze fell onto the toys on the carpet. “Is there still a child in the house?”
The old man’s smile turned stiff, “Yes, my grandson is at home. He’s quite naughty, leaves things scattered everywhere. We clean up but he throws things around again, he really worries me.”
“Oh, he must be a lively child,” Bai Lixin said casually. “Little Wen has gone missing. She’s like a little sister to us, and we’re very concerned about her.”
“How could she go missing?” The old man evaded their eyes. “She’s a smart girl. Besides, it’s a rule of law society now. Maybe she just went out to clear her mind for a couple of days. Don’t be too worried.”
“If you think she’s smart, why did you still fire her?” Bai Lixin was straightforward and asked the question directly.
The old man looked a bit guilty. “Actually, it’s not Little Wen’s fault. I said before, our family has cleanliness habits, and Little Wen’s always not clean, so we let her go.”
“Not clean?” Xia Chi exchanged a puzzled glance with Bai Lixin. “Where isn’t she clean?”
The old man bit his lip and hesitated for a moment before saying, “She’s always so dirty, and even washing doesn’t seem to help.”
Xia Chi pursed his lips.
He had seen the scars on Little Wen’s arms. He initially thought they were from some violence. Could it be that they were caused by excessive scrubbing and washing?
“That child is alright in every way, but she loves playing in the yard every day. Even though she claims she’s clean, you know how many germs there are outside, not to mention the dust in the air.”
“I don’t know what’s so interesting in the yard. She stands there every day without moving, I don’t know what she’s looking at.”
Xia Chi and Bai Lixin exchanged a look. Bai Lixin said, “Can we go and see where she stands?”
The old man frowned, and hesitated for a while. After a moment, he reluctantly nodded. “Alright, just for a moment.”
A few minutes later, Bai Lixin and the others stood at the spot the old man said Little Wen often stood.
The railing of this household’s courtyard was covered in roses. The faint pink roses adorned the lush green branches, creating an aerial garden.
Xia Chi tried to look around, “Brother, it doesn’t seem like there’s anything strange here. It’s just a villa area in the community and there’s nothing peculiar, right?”
At this moment, Bai Lixin had also finished looking. The railing was quite tall, and his line of sight happened to surpass the roses.
All around were buildings, and in the distance was another neighboring community. If they were looking for anything unusual, they hadn’t found it.
With a hint of confusion, Bai Lixin withdrew his gaze. Just as he did, he heard Xia Chi’s deliberately lowered voice, “Brother, do you think this old man is deceiving us? Little Wen is a player. Logically, she shouldn’t be standing around here doing nothing. Or have we missed something?”
Young Yama added, “It’s just an ordinary building, and I haven’t noticed anything either.”
Bai Lixin’s brows slightly furrowed. He looked at Xia Chi beside him, then at the rose bushes in front of him.
He then made a move that puzzled Xia Chi.
He slowly squatted down, assuming a horse stance.
“Brother, what are you doing?” Xia Chi asked.
Bai Lixin didn’t answer Xia Chi, but instead surveyed his surroundings once more. When his gaze was halfway around, it suddenly stopped, as if something had caught his attention.
Xia Chi grew even more curious.
“We overlooked something,” Bai Lixin said, his gaze fixed ahead. “We’re all around 1.8 meters tall, but Little Wen is only around 1.6 meters. The plane and angle of view is different from ours.”
“I think I know why she stands here every day.”
“Try crouching down where I was.”
Bai Lixin finished speaking and stood up, making room for Xia Chi.
With a puzzled expression, Xia Chi stood where Bai Lixin had just been. When he mimicked Bai Lixin’s posture and squatted down, what he saw nearly made him scream.
The dense rose bushes had an intricate tangle of leaves, but they had just enough gaps.
Through this small opening, he happened to see a scene not far away.
The painted walls blended seamlessly with the surrounding buildings, forming the shape of an eye!
The green aperture looked like an eye socket, and through the opening, the scene beyond looked eerily similar to a human pupil.
Xia Chi staggered a couple of steps back, quickly straightened up, and gazed into the distance. It was still just an ordinary building!
“Oh my god,” Xia Chi bent down again to look into the distance. That eerie pupil appeared once more. “Isn’t this too clever? Who could have imagined this from such a small hole?”
“Brother, what’s with that big eyeball? Is it related to our task?!”
Bai Lixin looked towards the distance. “I don’t know if it’s related, but from Little Wen’s perspective, she must think it is. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be observing it every day.”
“Then why didn’t she tell us about this discovery?!”
Bai Lixin said, “Don’t forget, although we’re collectively completing the task, the points we’ll receive depend on our individual performances in the end. If she shared all her discoveries, her final score might not be high. People are selfish. If she didn’t get useful information from other players, why would she just hand over the clues she uncovered?”
“This is the theory of human nature in a crowd, and it’s got nothing to do with good or evil. After all, no one wants to lose out.”
“But right now, it seems that for the ten of us, each person’s tasks or locations have led us to discover something to a greater or lesser extent. Among us, only Little Wen’s height enabled her to find this aperture and then see this eye. Others probably discovered something at their places too.”
Xia Chi: “…”
He understood the reasoning, but when it was pointed out so incisively, he still felt somewhat dazed.
“But, the two of us haven’t found anything. The professional tasks and main task we received are unrelated.”
“I don’t agree with that. Our professional tasks may not seem related to the main task, but nearly everything we’ve encountered points to one place. Some players might have directly seen the clues, while others, like us, need to see indirectly.”
“What?!” Xia Chi scratched his head. “Points to where? How come I don’t know?”
Bai Lixin pondered for a couple of seconds and then uttered a few words, “X University.”
“Chen Ping, who committed suicide, came from X University. Whether it was the foresight or the former girlfriend of Chen Ping, who turned dreams into reality, she’s also from X University. Lin Mu’s alma mater is X University, and Luo Ran placed Lin Mu’s soul at X University.”
“The frequency of this university’s name appearing is a bit too high, almost like it’s desperately telling us to come over.”
Xia Chi exclaimed, “Ah, I remember now. That old man from the elderly couple also came from X University.”
*Fir those who forgot, Xia Chi is talking about the old man who killed his wife and hid her body in the attic.After standing up from the aperture, Xia Chi pointed at the place where the eye was. “Brother, I saw a shadow flicker in that room just now. It moved quickly and looked a lot like the black cat we saw on the first night. Should we go and investigate?”
Bai Lixin seemed to have noticed the black cat too. “Guess, did Little Wen see that black cat and then went to investigate.”
“…”
‘That’s a good question!’
“This thread seems to belong to Little Wen. I think for now, we’d better not break the barrier. We should continue investigating along the lines the system has given us. Although the system isn’t very reliable, at least up until now, we haven’t seen the system tricking us. Since our own line of investigation is clear, let’s first understand what’s already clear.”
Xia Chi’s mind was buzzing now. He stared at Bai Lixin with sparkling eyes, full of admiration.
‘Brother, you’re right.
I’ll listen to you, I’ll listen to everything you say, I’ll listen to anything you say!’
———————————
In the live broadcast room
[Fuck, that eye coming out scared the living daylights out of me. How can Little Wen stare at an eyeball this big every day without being afraid?]
[If she was timid, she wouldn’t be able to climb up to such a high floor.]
[ God Xin conquers Xia Chi once again.]
[Only God Xin could think of squatting down to find Little Wen’s perspective. Who would’ve thought of that?]
“Do you remember what time the system announced the player’s death earlier?” Bai Lixin asked Xia Chi.
Young Yama cast a curious glance at the two.
Xia Chi replies without hesitation, “Wasn’t it around 10 in the morning.”
Bai Lixin nodded. “Correct, it was 10 in the morning.”
“Within a two-minute interval, two people died one after the other. 10 AM seems to be a likely time for judging players.”
“But one person died and then came back to life. We just don’t know who it was.”
Bai Lixin looked up at the towering steel and concrete buildings that stood like peaks in the city. “Xia Chi, do you know where that player works?”
“I’ll find out for you. Give me a moment,” Xia Chi said and hurriedly went to the guard’s room.
Within five minutes, Xia Chi ran back. “I found out. She works in Zone 3. Let’s go there.”
The current time was 11 AM. Following Xia Chi’s directions, they quickly located the place where the baby-faced player worked.
According to the guard, her workplace was on the ground floor of Building 3.
It was a four-story building with a courtyard. The first and second floors belonged to one household, while the third and fourth floors belonged to another.
The three of them stood outside the courtyard, peering inside. The ground-floor windows had one-way glass, so they only saw their own reflections. They couldn’t see anything inside.
They circled around to the front door at the back, and after knocking, an elderly voice came through the door frame, “Who is it?”
The three exchanged glances and Xia Chi spoke up, “Sir, I’m Xia Chi from the guard’s office. These two are Little Wen’s relatives. We have something to discuss with her and we heard that she works here. Can we meet her?”
“Little Wen is the name of the nanny player,” Xia Chi explained. He had learned this yesterday when he was comforting her.
After a faint rustling of clothes from inside the room, the main door opened. An elderly man poked his head out through the gap. “What do you want with Little Wen?”
Looking through the crack, Bai Lixin saw a figure moving through the living room.
It seemed like that figure was dragging something. It flashed by and disappeared from Bai Lixin’s line of sight.
Bai Lixin redirected his gaze. “We don’t have any urgent matters. We are Little Wen’s older brothers. We’ve been trying to call her since yesterday but couldn’t get through so we came to see what’s going on.”
“You couldn’t get through to her?” The old man hesitated, his eyes shifting back and forth between the three. He then opened the door a bit wider. “Little Wen left yesterday afternoon. We thought she wasn’t a good fit for our family, so we let her go. She cried for a long time back and I also felt sorry for the girl, but as an old man, there’s not much I can do. All I could do was watch her leave.”
“Did Little Wen come back later?” Xia Chi took a deep breath. “I saw Little Wen crying in the community yesterday afternoon. She said she was coming here for one last attempt, to see if she could stay and I saw her heading in this direction.”
The old man finally opened the door. His slightly clouded eyes swept over the three of them. “There are shoe covers in the shoe cabinet. Put them on and come in.”
With that, the old man shuffled to the side, creating space.
The living room was a bit messy, with children’s toys scattered about. However, the shoe cabinet had no dust, clearly indicating that it had just been cleaned.
The old man retrieved a seat cushion from a drawer, then gestured for them to sit. “I’m sorry, we have some cleanliness habits here. We don’t like outsiders touching the furniture inside the rooms so it’s not just about you; please don’t misunderstand.”
“You mentioned that you couldn’t reach Little Wen by phone. Is there something wrong with her?” The old man skillfully retrieved disposable paper cups from a drawer, slightly hunching his back as he poured water for each of them.
Bai Lixin’s gaze fell onto the toys on the carpet. “Is there still a child in the house?”
The old man’s smile turned stiff, “Yes, my grandson is at home. He’s quite naughty, leaves things scattered everywhere. We clean up but he throws things around again, he really worries me.”
“Oh, he must be a lively child,” Bai Lixin said casually. “Little Wen has gone missing. She’s like a little sister to us, and we’re very concerned about her.”
“How could she go missing?” The old man evaded their eyes. “She’s a smart girl. Besides, it’s a rule of law society now. Maybe she just went out to clear her mind for a couple of days. Don’t be too worried.”
“If you think she’s smart, why did you still fire her?” Bai Lixin was straightforward and asked the question directly.
The old man looked a bit guilty. “Actually, it’s not Little Wen’s fault. I said before, our family has cleanliness habits, and Little Wen’s always not clean, so we let her go.”
“Not clean?” Xia Chi exchanged a puzzled glance with Bai Lixin. “Where isn’t she clean?”
The old man bit his lip and hesitated for a moment before saying, “She’s always so dirty, and even washing doesn’t seem to help.”
Xia Chi pursed his lips.
He had seen the scars on Little Wen’s arms. He initially thought they were from some violence. Could it be that they were caused by excessive scrubbing and washing?
“That child is alright in every way, but she loves playing in the yard every day. Even though she claims she’s clean, you know how many germs there are outside, not to mention the dust in the air.”
“I don’t know what’s so interesting in the yard. She stands there every day without moving, I don’t know what she’s looking at.”
Xia Chi and Bai Lixin exchanged a look. Bai Lixin said, “Can we go and see where she stands?”
The old man frowned, and hesitated for a while. After a moment, he reluctantly nodded. “Alright, just for a moment.”
A few minutes later, Bai Lixin and the others stood at the spot the old man said Little Wen often stood.
The railing of this household’s courtyard was covered in roses. The faint pink roses adorned the lush green branches, creating an aerial garden.
Xia Chi tried to look around, “Brother, it doesn’t seem like there’s anything strange here. It’s just a villa area in the community and there’s nothing peculiar, right?”
At this moment, Bai Lixin had also finished looking. The railing was quite tall, and his line of sight happened to surpass the roses.
All around were buildings, and in the distance was another neighboring community. If they were looking for anything unusual, they hadn’t found it.
With a hint of confusion, Bai Lixin withdrew his gaze. Just as he did, he heard Xia Chi’s deliberately lowered voice, “Brother, do you think this old man is deceiving us? Little Wen is a player. Logically, she shouldn’t be standing around here doing nothing. Or have we missed something?”
Young Yama added, “It’s just an ordinary building, and I haven’t noticed anything either.”
Bai Lixin’s brows slightly furrowed. He looked at Xia Chi beside him, then at the rose bushes in front of him.
He then made a move that puzzled Xia Chi.
He slowly squatted down, assuming a horse stance.
“Brother, what are you doing?” Xia Chi asked.
Bai Lixin didn’t answer Xia Chi, but instead surveyed his surroundings once more. When his gaze was halfway around, it suddenly stopped, as if something had caught his attention.
Xia Chi grew even more curious.
“We overlooked something,” Bai Lixin said, his gaze fixed ahead. “We’re all around 1.8 meters tall, but Little Wen is only around 1.6 meters. The plane and angle of view is different from ours.”
“I think I know why she stands here every day.”
“Try crouching down where I was.”
Bai Lixin finished speaking and stood up, making room for Xia Chi.
With a puzzled expression, Xia Chi stood where Bai Lixin had just been. When he mimicked Bai Lixin’s posture and squatted down, what he saw nearly made him scream.
The dense rose bushes had an intricate tangle of leaves, but they had just enough gaps.
Through this small opening, he happened to see a scene not far away.
The painted walls blended seamlessly with the surrounding buildings, forming the shape of an eye!
The green aperture looked like an eye socket, and through the opening, the scene beyond looked eerily similar to a human pupil.
Xia Chi staggered a couple of steps back, quickly straightened up, and gazed into the distance. It was still just an ordinary building!
“Oh my god,” Xia Chi bent down again to look into the distance. That eerie pupil appeared once more. “Isn’t this too clever? Who could have imagined this from such a small hole?”
“Brother, what’s with that big eyeball? Is it related to our task?!”
Bai Lixin looked towards the distance. “I don’t know if it’s related, but from Little Wen’s perspective, she must think it is. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be observing it every day.”
“Then why didn’t she tell us about this discovery?!”
Bai Lixin said, “Don’t forget, although we’re collectively completing the task, the points we’ll receive depend on our individual performances in the end. If she shared all her discoveries, her final score might not be high. People are selfish. If she didn’t get useful information from other players, why would she just hand over the clues she uncovered?”
“This is the theory of human nature in a crowd, and it’s got nothing to do with good or evil. After all, no one wants to lose out.”
“But right now, it seems that for the ten of us, each person’s tasks or locations have led us to discover something to a greater or lesser extent. Among us, only Little Wen’s height enabled her to find this aperture and then see this eye. Others probably discovered something at their places too.”
Xia Chi: “…”
He understood the reasoning, but when it was pointed out so incisively, he still felt somewhat dazed.
“But, the two of us haven’t found anything. The professional tasks and main task we received are unrelated.”
“I don’t agree with that. Our professional tasks may not seem related to the main task, but nearly everything we’ve encountered points to one place. Some players might have directly seen the clues, while others, like us, need to see indirectly.”
“What?!” Xia Chi scratched his head. “Points to where? How come I don’t know?”
Bai Lixin pondered for a couple of seconds and then uttered a few words, “X University.”
“Chen Ping, who committed suicide, came from X University. Whether it was the foresight or the former girlfriend of Chen Ping, who turned dreams into reality, she’s also from X University. Lin Mu’s alma mater is X University, and Luo Ran placed Lin Mu’s soul at X University.”
“The frequency of this university’s name appearing is a bit too high, almost like it’s desperately telling us to come over.”
Xia Chi exclaimed, “Ah, I remember now. That old man from the elderly couple also came from X University.”
*Fir those who forgot, Xia Chi is talking about the old man who killed his wife and hid her body in the attic.After standing up from the aperture, Xia Chi pointed at the place where the eye was. “Brother, I saw a shadow flicker in that room just now. It moved quickly and looked a lot like the black cat we saw on the first night. Should we go and investigate?”
Bai Lixin seemed to have noticed the black cat too. “Guess, did Little Wen see that black cat and then went to investigate.”
“…”
‘That’s a good question!’
“This thread seems to belong to Little Wen. I think for now, we’d better not break the barrier. We should continue investigating along the lines the system has given us. Although the system isn’t very reliable, at least up until now, we haven’t seen the system tricking us. Since our own line of investigation is clear, let’s first understand what’s already clear.”
Xia Chi’s mind was buzzing now. He stared at Bai Lixin with sparkling eyes, full of admiration.
‘Brother, you’re right.
I’ll listen to you, I’ll listen to everything you say, I’ll listen to anything you say!’
———————————
In the live broadcast room
[Fuck, that eye coming out scared the living daylights out of me. How can Little Wen stare at an eyeball this big every day without being afraid?]
[If she was timid, she wouldn’t be able to climb up to such a high floor.]
[ God Xin conquers Xia Chi once again.]
[Only God Xin could think of squatting down to find Little Wen’s perspective. Who would’ve thought of that?]
