Chaoyang hadn't been idle over the past two days. First, following Detective Zhang's deduction, he went to No. 958—the Sinclair Grand Theatre—to look around, but unfortunately, he found nothing unusual.
After making some inquiries, he learned that Glorious Fortress had three theaters, and the Sinclair was the largest. Besides its regular daily performances, it occasionally put on shows commissioned by prominent officials and nobles. It had even hosted members of the royal family, and several of the opera companies it worked with were renowned. In theory, a place like this would hardly be likely to cause trouble. If Detective Zhang's deduction was correct, the culprit must have had some reason for choosing this place. Unfortunately, Chaoyang still had no idea what it was.
Chaoyang also met with Judy afterward and told her that they would likely have an answer within the next couple of days, so she should prepare herself.
Though he had no idea what would happen inside the theater, or whether the missing reporter was alive or dead, he'd already left a loophole in the contract and hadn't stipulated that the missing person had to be alive. Even if Cote Dane turned out to be stone-cold dead, it wouldn't prevent the contract from being fulfilled.
So all he had to do was quietly watch the show play out, then offer a little "help" at the right moment.
The city's nighttime transportation was clearly inadequate. When the group realized they couldn't find a carriage, they decided to run there instead. The city wasn't that big, after all; it would take no more than fifteen minutes to run from south to north.
Just then, Zhang Zhiyuan tugged on Zhou Zhi's sleeve and deliberately fell behind.
"Do you know them?" He glanced at Qiao, James, and the others. "I mean in real life."
"Uh... I've met them once, but we aren't close. Why?"
"Nothing, just curious. So how did you get into this game?"
"How else? Same as you," Zhou Zhi replied casually.
Zhang Zhiyuan knew that was a guarded answer. The other man didn't trust him enough.
"I got an invitation. How do I put it... Before I came, I thought Paradise was exaggerating. But after I got here, I realized..." He immediately changed the subject and spoke in a carefree tone. "They'd undersold it. This is nothing like an ordinary game. If anyone could play it, I guarantee this whole city would be full of people like us."
Though everyone was speaking Chinese, their accents were distinctly different. Zhou Zhi glanced at him. "Where are you from, man?"
"First City." Zhang Zhiyuan smiled. "How can you be sure I'm older than you? Maybe I should be calling you big brother."
"I can tell. The way you talk and handle things is way more sophisticated than my friends..." Zhou Zhi stopped himself halfway through. "Forget it. Pretend I didn't say anything."
"It's fine. I'll take the big brother title." Zhang Zhiyuan waved a hand. "How about you? Where do you live?"
"Jiangcheng. Maybe we can meet up sometime."
"Sounds good to me," he replied at once. "By the way... you've already been in Paradise once before? And you were a pirate?"
"Ugh, don't remind me." Zhou Zhi sighed repeatedly. "We played for less than thirty minutes that time, and spent more than half of it at sea. We finally made it to shore, only to get slaughtered by a bunch of lunatics. I just can't relate to those foreign devils. They think getting killed is a huge thrill, but I really don't want to experience having my stomach pierced again."
"Then why come back? The ticket for this game can't be cheap."
"You wouldn't understand. It's something else that draws me in..."
Zhang Zhiyuan noticed that as Zhou Zhi said this, he unconsciously looked up at Asahara Naruko's retreating figure.
"Is that so?" He didn't press further. "Then you'd better keep your eyes wide open in a bit. Stay alert. I can't guarantee everyone will make it out alive."
"What do you mean?" Zhou Zhi looked surprised. "Aren't we hunting down a criminal? And this time we have equipment. We'd be ready for them while they won't be expecting us. How could it possibly go like last time?"
"I hope so too," Zhang Zhiyuan said with a soft sigh.
"What is it?" Zhou Zhi gradually slowed down. "Did you notice something else?"
"It wasn't until I came outside and felt the sea breeze that I realized... Do you think the puzzle behind this string of murders is difficult?"
"Uh, well..." The other man faltered. "I can't figure it out. But you found the hidden clues on the very first day, so it can't be that difficult a case, right? Though maybe it's just because Brother Zhang is exceptionally talented..."
"Don't butter me up. I'll be frank: it really isn't that difficult. I'm sure I'm not the only one who can see it." Zhang Zhiyuan lowered his voice. "In fact, I suspect the reporter noticed something too. That's why he disappeared."
Zhou Zhi couldn't help shivering. "That should just be part of the setting..."
"But what if it isn't?" Zhang Zhiyuan said, unconcerned. "The gang has committed one crime after another and even left murder warnings. This has been going on for months, yet not one of them has been caught. Don't you think something's off?"
"Man, what are you trying to say?"
"I'm just saying that this case may not be as simple as it looks. So you need to stay on your guard."
Zhou Zhi fell silent.
A moment later, he spoke in a low voice. "Even if I die, all that happens is I leave the game. If something happens to me later, make sure you finish me off quickly."
"Don't say that. I don't want to turn on one of our own."
"Come on, it's just a game..." Zhou Zhi insisted again.
But how different was it from reality?
Besides, Zhang Zhiyuan couldn't believe a game could go that far.
He thought this to himself but didn't say it aloud.
"By the way, this body's pretty great. I've been running this long and I'm barely out of breath. The theater can't be far now, right?" Zhou Zhi said, then suddenly changed expression and slowed down. "Huh? Where'd everyone go?"
Only then did Zhang Zhiyuan notice that the people running ahead had seemingly vanished into thin air. In the blink of an eye, they were gone.
"Brother Zhang, what do we do? We—"
Before Zhou Zhi could finish, a hand suddenly reached out of the darkness and dragged him into an alley! He was about to yell when another hand clamped over his mouth.
"Quiet," a cool female voice said.
Hearing that voice, Zhou Zhi immediately relaxed. He even wanted her to keep covering his mouth a little longer.
The person who'd pulled him in was Asahara Naruko.
He turned and saw that Zhang Zhiyuan had been pulled inside too, though by Jason Taylor, who hadn't covered his mouth.
"What happened?" Zhang Zhiyuan asked.
"There are people around the theater. You two had fallen too far behind us, so I could only go back with Miss Asahara to warn you," Taylor explained. "Qiao and the Russian are keeping an eye on them."
"What were you two talking about that you fell so far behind?" Asahara Naruko asked, her tone tinged with reproach.
"Sorry, sorry. Just chatting nonsense." Zhang Zhiyuan forced a laugh. "What do you mean, there are people outside the theater?"
"See for yourself."
The four of them stayed close to the shadows along the street and crept quietly to the end of Golden Street. The theater's silhouette loomed in the night like a small mountain, seeming darker than the buildings in the surrounding blocks. Almost no one was walking the streets now. Every so often, the distant sound of carriage wheels rolling over cobblestones carried through the air; other than that, the city was utterly silent.
Zhang Zhiyuan immediately spotted the reason this area was darker: the streetlamps around the theater were out.
The city still used old-fashioned oil lamps for lighting. Though they had to be refilled by hand, they were steady and reliable. Unless someone had deliberately interfered with them, they were unlikely to go out on their own at night.
Yet in the pitch-dark night, several shadows were moving around the theater. They had gathered in small groups, seemingly scattered, but they had effectively secured several street corners. Anyone approaching the theater from any direction would find it difficult to escape their notice. In other words, these people weren't vagrants wandering about. They were deliberately keeping watch over the area.
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