Happy New Year, Everyone

When the landlady finished speaking, Qing Huan beside her was already struggling.

Gu Mian saw his hair standing on end and his face was pale.

When they left the landlady's house, his steps were still unsteady, and he almost fell. Fortunately, Gu Mian was quick and caught him.

"If you're so timid, why are you entering dungeons?" Gu Mian looked down at him.

The first time entering a dungeon was mandatory, but now players entering dungeons should be doing so voluntarily. It's not like someone held a gun to his head to make him enter.

Qing Huan said with a pale face, "For a living, to not starve to death... to survive..."

He stammered, "Don't you know? Outside the dungeon, near our home, it's already chaotic. People dare to break in and rob..."

"You might think it's exaggerated, but that's how it is. Some people wander the streets in groups, robbing anyone they see."

"The signal is gone, we can't contact the police. The country is so large, and different regions can't contact each other. It's impossible to issue orders. Even if the government wants to manage it, it's difficult."

"And although my studies aren't great, I did pay attention in history class. Doctor, don't you think the current game is like the history of human evolution?"

"Since ancient times, it's been survival of the fittest. How many countries that didn't strive for progress were invaded by the strong? How many people with backward civilizations were sold as slaves?"

"The current situation is so similar to those times. Humans all over the world are starting to evolve. If we don't become stronger, we will be the weak, destined to be sacrifices."

"This Evolution Game has just begun, and many people may not realize it. But I believe that when the gap between the strong and the weak gradually widens, history will repeat itself."

This was not a post-apocalyptic world with zombies like in a horror movie, but another kind of apocalypse.

It forced everyone to become stronger, otherwise, they would face a tragic end.

Qing Huan looked at Gu Mian, "Doctor, since this Evolution Game started, haven't you encountered anyone with ill intentions towards you?"

Ill intentions? That sounded like they wanted to rob him of his virtue.

Gu Mian rubbed his chin, "Of course I have. It was a group of people who wanted to rob me."

"And then?" Qing Huan seemed a little curious.

"And then?" Gu Mian put down his hand, "And then I almost sawed off the leader's head."

Qing Huan: "..."

It was past four o'clock when they arrived at the restaurant for their meeting.

But the others didn't complain. They waited with vacant expressions, lost in their own thoughts.

It wasn't until Gu Mian put down the chainsaw on his back that they seemed to snap back to reality.

"What's going on with you guys?" Gu Mian looked at Yuwen Hao.

Yuwen Hao swallowed before speaking, "I'm thinking about what we investigated today... We went to Huang Yu's place first today..."

"Huang Yu received a terrifying phone call, so of course, we started investigating from the call... We asked the landlady if anyone had died in the house, and if the deceased had any connection to the phone."

"But the landlady said no one had died and there had never been any supernatural events."

"We didn't believe it at first, so we asked Huang Yu's neighbors and people living nearby, but their answers were all the same. They had never heard of any supernatural events."

"It was very strange. Just as we were at a loss, Huang Yu's landlady suddenly found us again and said he suddenly remembered something..."

"He said the phone number for the house Huang Yu rented was changed not long ago because the old number was a bit unlucky. The landlady believed in such things, so he specifically changed the phone number."

"The landlady said that what we encountered might be related to the newly changed phone number."

"We then took the phone number to the telecom office to check. As expected, we found that this phone number indeed had a problem!"

"The previous owner of this phone number was Zhou Guanglei. The number was canceled because he died. Coincidentally, he also lived in this town."

Yuwen Hao picked up his cup and took a sip of water as he said this.

The three of them had a lot of work to do, investigating the house and checking the phone number's owner.

"We followed the lead and got the phone number and work address of Zhou Guanglei's parents. But he was from out of town, and his parents didn't live here at all. Calling them yielded no information."

"We had no choice but to go to his workplace. Fortunately, that place hadn't gone out of business yet."

As Yuwen Hao said this, Gu Mian suddenly asked, "What was Zhou Guanglei's workplace?"

Yuwen Hao paused slightly, "It's a plastic factory called Mingliang Plastic Factory."

As expected...

That was also Zhao Wen's workplace, the one killed by the knocking ghost.

Qing Huan opened his mouth, seeming to want to say something, but Gu Mian stopped him, "Let Yuwen Hao finish first."

Yuwen Hao glanced at the two of them strangely but didn't ask further, continuing, "When we went to investigate at the plastic factory, we discovered that more than one person had died there!"

"Someone was burned to death several years ago, and then two more died. One of them was this Zhou Guanglei."

"The person who partnered with Zhou Guanglei back then was still working there, so we asked him about Zhou Guanglei's life before he died. That person actually knew quite a lot."

"He told us that Zhou Guanglei was very strange before he died. He kept saying someone was knocking on his door, but no one else could hear the knocking..."

At this point, Yuwen Hao glanced at Gu Mian.

He had initially thought Gu Mian's mention of knocking sounds had nothing to do with ghosts, but it seemed that wasn't the case.

Could it be that this doctor really brought a stool, stuck his head out, and cursed at the ghost?

With that thought, he shook his head and pulled his mind back: "Zhou Guanglei was okay at first, just a bit paranoid, but he got worse and worse later on."

"He'd mumble 'It's close,' 'It's getting closer,' and things like that all day, and eventually he just hid at home and stopped coming to work, wouldn't show his face."

"This situation lasted for about a week, and then Zhou Guanglei's colleagues started receiving his calls one after another..."

"They weren't normal calls... Zhou Guanglei was like he had a mental problem then, calling people in the middle of the night... and the content was also..."

"...a little scary."

"Those who received his calls in the middle of the night back then said Zhou Guanglei would say things like this to them--"

"You've been to my house, haven't you?"

"Stop knocking on the door!"

"Are you sick?"

"Later the content of the calls changed... it became like this..."

"Where do you live?"

"Are you home alone?"

"I'm outside your door."