The Terror Artist

The woman in front of him, named Sima Yao, was the contact person sent by Tian Shu to Jiang Xueming.

She didn't know Xue Ming's real name or background; she just casually asked about his nickname.

What should I call you?

Jiang Xueming: "Gunsmith."

Sima Yao tilted her head, her eyes ambiguous. "Where did this girl come from? Is she a Muggle (someone without spiritual vision)?"

Jiang Xueming: "I don't know, we only met once, and we just happened to run into each other here."

A Xiang became more and more excited as she listened. She felt like she had entered a costume party or a murder mystery game.

"Hey! Why aren't you all speaking human language? Is this some new role-playing skit? Can I participate?"

Sima Yao ignored the girl, but it was clear that she treated girls well. The lemon tea that Xue Ming had prepared for the guests was handed over to A Xiang without Xue Ming's consent.

"You'll have to deal with your people, but you're not allowed to reveal any of our organization's secrets. You know why—you can't use magic in front of Muggles."

"Is it Harry Potter?! Awesome! Don't rush, don't rush, don't rush! How about I make a character profile first?" A Xiang herself was quite eager. "Can you take me with you? I haven't decided on the theme for tonight's live stream yet! It's like someone's just offering me a pillow when I'm about to fall asleep! Dear brother and sister, please let me earn some pocket money!"

Sima Yao was quite patient. She sat down on a chair at the tea stall and waited quietly for Xue Ming to deal with this burden.

Jiang Xueming put the backpack back on the table in front of Sima Yao, turned around and tried to reason with her in a gentle tone.

"A Xiang, let me make this clear. This young lady and I are going to take care of some serious business."

A Xiang is no naive girl. She's been through a lot in this world and is quite shrewd. She didn't take Xue Ming's words to heart at all.

"Can you take me with you? I promise I won't be a problem! I'm so lucky to have met you tonight! How about we split the earnings from my livestream in half?"

Jiang Xueming made up a random excuse and continued to bluff, "It's not about the money. Do we look like we're short of money? We're plainclothes officers, on a mission. If you come with us, your life will be in danger."

A Xiang's bright eyes darted around, and then she said, "I can stand outside the safety line, I..."

"There's no safety line, A Xiang, there's no safety line," Jiang Xueming repeatedly emphasized, interrupting him.

Meanwhile, Sima Yao rummaged through the items on the table, searching through Jiang Xueming's backpack, picked up the chocolate milk, and couldn't help but chuckle softly.

"How old are you? Why do you still like this kind of stuff that kids drink?"

Xue Ming turned around and replied, "I'm twenty-three. I'm still young, not as old as an elder like you."

"You!" As if struck on a sore spot, Sima Yao's eyes widened, and her dimples disappeared in an instant, turning into a fierce and menacing look.

Getting back to the point, when A Xiang heard the phrase "there is no safety line," she wasn't afraid at all. Her life was a live broadcast, and there were never any rehearsals.

Viewers of live streams have always loved something fresh and exciting, something that smells like rich, creamy butter—like hungry, hungry young animals.

To compete with other attractive live streamers, you need to take a different approach and pull off some amazing feats to get sponsors to open their wallets.

Like pretty girls who have nothing to do, just as Mr. Wen Bucai said, they can only shake their useless fat in front of the camera, pose for a few dozen seconds, and eventually gain a group of users in lower-tier cities to earn a little money to make a living.

A Xiang is different; she's a hunter.

Aside from the last time when she lost her mind because of Xue Ming's beauty and exposed her weakness to a more dangerous hunter, this time she has overcome her weakness and completed her evolution. How could she let such an opportunity slip away?

Her eyes were full of longing, and she put on a weak and pitiful appearance, saying, "Brother, brother, please take me with you. Wherever you go, I'll just follow behind and watch from afar."

Thinking to myself, "Whether this guy is telling the truth or not, and no matter where this handsome man and beautiful woman are going, street live streaming is all about being fresh and hot. Looks like they've even rehearsed a script? If it goes well, we might earn eight or a thousand tonight—that'll cover my sister's and my summer clothes for next month. In our line of work, the timid starve, the bold thrive. If we get banned, we can just get plastic surgery and go back to work. These days, what live streaming platform wouldn't turn down money?"

After a moment's thought, Xue Ming immediately called out to Sima Yao.

"Can we take her with us?"

Sima Yao: "Are you serious?"

Jiang Xueming: "She looks very healthy; she should be worth a lot of money."

Sima Yao immediately understood and moved closer to Xue Ming: "You're taking her for a medical check-up? She looks too thin; we can't risk her getting pregnant."

Jiang Xueming also lowered his voice, speaking to Sima Yao while secretly glancing at A Xiang: "Let's go to the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. They only recognize the seals of top-tier hospitals. As long as the organs are suitable, it should be fine."

At this point, A Xiang's expression changed, and she immediately stopped talking. She slowly retreated towards the sidewalk at the street corner, cold sweat pouring down her face.

Are you kidding me? What are these two talking about?

Why do they look at me like I'm a product?

When A Xiang finally understood, she came to her senses.

When she ran back to the lemon tea shop, Jiang Xueming and Sima Yao were already gone.

"Damn it! I've fallen for that woman's trick!"

"What looks healthy? What kind of medical checkup? What's valuable?"

A Xiang cursed through gritted teeth.

"They're all made up to fool me!"

In the complex streets and alleys, Sima Yao walked ahead, with Jiang Xueming following behind.

There wasn't a single streetlamp, and the walls of the old houses were covered in years of grease and grime.

Sima Yao: "Quite clever."

Jiang Xueming: "No, I don't consider myself a very smart person, so don't have too high expectations of me."

Sima Yao, holding the dossier, continued deeper into the streets and alleys, speaking with Jiang Xueming.

"She's quite resourceful. This girl isn't afraid of the police or honest people; she's only afraid of criminals who are more ruthless and vicious than her."

I'm sorry for causing you trouble.

"It's okay, just be careful about the number of times."

"Pay attention to the number of times?"

"Hey." Sima Yao stood in front of a murder mystery game store, found the location marked on the file, turned around and said to Jiang Xueming, "You're quite good-looking, more likable than that kid Ye Bei. You haven't had any shady dealings with other girls, have you? I don't want to spend all day chasing people away for you during a mission, that would be really weird."

Jiang Xueming frankly admitted, "I have a partner, but she didn't come with me."

Sima Yao opened her phone and stared at the time.

--I just sat on the steps of the murder mystery game store, not minding the dirt, quietly waiting for the night to come.

Do you have a partner? Are you married? What's she like?

Jiang Xueming stood under the newsstand, observing his surroundings, and remained silent for a moment.

He silently memorized the old building's floor height, the distance between buildings and the alleyway, the height of fire exits and windows, the structure of load-bearing walls, and the location of kitchens and dining areas with cooking fumes.

He didn't speak for quite a while.

Why are you asking this?

Sima Yao: "I want to get to know you. You're a member of my action team, after all. I like gossip— Ye Bei found this kid for me, so I need to figure out what kind of person he is first. Otherwise, if we really start fighting, how will I know if you're reliable?"

"What does this have to do with my lover?" Jiang Xueming asked immediately without hesitation.

Sima Yao shrugged and spread her hands. "It's said that a man's attitude towards a woman is the upper limit of how he treats his friends, comrades, and colleagues. After all, she's his wife, his family, and the mother of his children. If you're bad to your lover, you won't be much better to me, right?"

Jiang Xueming: "Yes."

"So," Sima Yao transformed into a frenzied gossip leader, "What do you think of your lover's character?"

Jiang Xueming: "She is a gentle person."

"Cheating?!" 9527 yelled at Anna at her tablemate, pulling out her the Unworthy Work and smashing it against the mahjong table. "So what if you have a tail?! If you hide any more tiles, I'll kill you!"

Sima Yao: "What do you like about her?"

Jiang Xueming: "Very smart, always understands what I mean—I hardly need to explain anything."

"Oh, then I'll lose you twenty-three dollars, and he'll make seventeen."

Xiao Qi kept scratching her head while counting on her fingers.

"Tang Ning doesn't take in anything, and Anna owes me seven dollars and sixty cents. So..."

Even through the cold pages of the book, I can almost smell the acrid stench of 9527's brain overclocking.

Sima Yao: "I think I understand what you mean. If one day she gets sick, gets old, or isn't beautiful anymore, will you still care about her?"

Jiang Xueming: "Really? Can I really be with her until that day? That would be wonderful."

"I've already lost all fifty dollars. Crazy Thursday, you guys picked it, right?" Xiao Qi spread her hands, ready to bet her last chip. "This is my most treasured possession, a photo of FE204863."

Anna exclaimed, "Are you sure you want to gamble with something so precious? Is this what the Boss looks like when he's old? It's very rare!"

Xiao Qi said fiercely, "Precisely because it's so rare, I'm going to use it to turn the tide! I absolutely won't lose this time! I'm betting my golden gem's pride! May all my luck and good fortune protect me! I'll be the one who gets pregnant by Colonel Sanders!"

"I've finished asking." Sima Yao took out her phone, ready to open Honor of Kings to kill time.

Jiang Xueming couldn't figure out how old the girl from Tian Shu was or what she was thinking. He just answered whatever she asked, it was that simple.

After discussing family matters, he brought up official business related to the case files.

There were still more than four hours until Hai Shi (9-11 PM). The murder mystery game shop in front of us was called [Terror Artist]. The shop was far, far away from the alley entrance. The signboard lights were not on, the door was tightly closed, and the green stained glass blocked everything, making it impossible to see anything inside.

"Tell me about this Spirit Calamity."

"It's pretty simple." Sima Yao didn't even look up, seemingly unconcerned about the Spirit Calamity: "It's just a recent urban legend that you need at least five or six people to organize a murder mystery game or escape room event, right?"

Jiang Xueming: "I've never played with this kind of thing before, so I don't know."

Sima Yao felt that Xue Ming was very old-fashioned, extremely old-fashioned, as if he couldn't keep up with the times at all.

"Just think of it as a new kind of entertainment and social activity, like a small park with all sorts of recreational facilities. Students come in to play, sometimes alone or in groups. That's the gist of it!"

Jiang Xueming: "Where did the problem lie?"

"This shop only opens at 3 a. m. and closes at 6 a. m. It closes whenever the sun rises. You never see any staff going in or out at other times, and you have no idea how the people inside eat, drink, relieve themselves, sleep, or get up," Sima Yao patiently explained. "The theme park's attractions are all too terrifying, often scaring young people into developing illnesses like palpitations, angina, or even insomnia. Its opening hours are also very strange; it opens in the middle of the night. Parents are worried that their children will run around so late at night and cause safety issues, so they asked the authorities to investigate."

Jiang Xueming: "What did they find out?"

"We couldn't find anything." Sima Yao said calmly, "The supervisors came and knocked on the door, but they couldn't open it in broad daylight. They called a locksmith to break down the door, but it was empty inside, just bare cement walls with charred marks in many places, like the site of a previous fire."

Jiang Xueming: "Was there a fire here before?"

"I've already checked with the Public Security Bureau," Sima Yao interjected through the game's voice chat, muttering under her breath, "Sorry! I'm staying in the wilderness! I'm not coming, I'm not coming, I'm not coming, I'm not coming, I'm going to annoy you to death!"

Her mood changed very quickly, and she immediately said to Jiang Xueming.

"There are no records, not even a fire. The layout of this alleyway is from a 120-year-old house that has been renovated and has never been touched. It's in the city center, and we can't afford to demolish it or compensate for the damages, so we just keep it as a cultural heritage site. It was only after the supervisors opened the door to inspect the house that they discovered something was wrong. This isn't some kind of murder mystery game at all. The high-temperature resistant ceramic jars inside are actually a century-old collection of antiques from the Republic of China era. They reported it to the Tiantong department, which then informed the Celestial Pivot Headquarters, which in turn dispatched Tianji to investigate. The final investigation result was the '[Terror Artist]' question."

Jiang Xueming: "Is there any other information?"

"Yes! There are plenty more!" Sima Yao said, sending emojis in the game while a smile involuntarily appeared on her face. "The locksmith started having nightmares every night for seven days straight, and even developed a high fever, but he recovered quickly. The students, on the other hand, became mentally unstable but physically healthy. This urban legend is spreading, and many young people from surrounding counties are looking for thrills. Business is booming; you might even see a line of kids waiting in the middle of the night."

Jiang Xueming was incredulous. "Huh?"

Sima Yao: "Is it strange? You seem so young. When you were a student, didn't you have quite a few daring classmates who went to explore air-raid shelters at night?"

The mysterious and unknown have a strong attraction for young people.

Sima Yao is right. During Xue Ming's student days, there were air-raid shelters near the school's garbage dump and the wellhead of the cadre hospital. Even if these shelters were locked, they were no match for the large pipe wrench. Men and women would always break in and try to return to the surface through another exit.

The unfamiliarity and darkness, the excuse to snuggle into the arms of someone they admire, or the opportunity to confess their feelings—these are all incredibly alluring to them.

"I finally managed to get this ticket." Sima Yao took the paper ticket out of her skirt pocket and handed it to Jiang Xueming: "Now it's up to you to perform."

"Me alone?" Xue Ming took out the receipt and examined it carefully.

The five distorted characters of "[Terror Artist]" are printed on black coated paper, with a signature and detailed advertising copy on the back, resembling an old-fashioned nightclub promotional form from the last century, very retro.

"Yeah, I've poured all my savings into this." Sima Yao winked at Jiang Xueming, treating her brother like family. "This stuff is a viral sensation; it's hard to get even if you have money! You'd better get your hands on it all at once! Otherwise, you'll have to wait until Qixi Festival next time."

Jiang Xueming asked thoughtfully, "Aren't you coming in with me?"

"I'm just from the intelligence department." Sima Yao held up her temporary worker's badge. "Say it after me, intelligence, seven wins, no report! Intelligence! You're in the action team—I'll give you some useful intelligence, okay? Although I couldn't go in to investigate during the initial survey, these players didn't suffer much mental attack, so the damage isn't too severe. Don't be so nervous."

Jiang Xueming bluntly stated, "But these are useless."

Sima Yao frowned, stopping her game altogether. "Then what counts as useful?"

"How many enemies are there? When will the ammunition supply arrive? Are there reinforcements? What is the enemy's location and distribution? What types of weapons and their armament structure do they possess? Can I drive a crusher and use a giant iron ball to demolish this building?" Jiang Xueming was very straightforward. "And also..."

"No, no, no, no, no!" Sima Yao was stunned, completely unexpected by Xue Ming's line of thinking, "I said, this is a cultural relic that needs protection, not some garbage building in the city center. Wake up!"

Xue Ming remained silent for a long, long time before remembering something important.

"Are there other people coming in with me? You just said this store is very popular and tickets are hard to get, does that mean I have to go with the other students and protect their safety?"

Sima Yao feigned innocence. "Otherwise what?"

Jiang Xueming took out his logbook, his brows furrowed, and added a new entry to the book: [Rescued at least five hostages].

Right now, at this very moment.

A Xiang and her sister chased after Jiang Xueming to the store of [The Terror Artist], and sure enough, they found him. She remembered the store; Sima Yao had mentioned the name when they first met, so she had followed him there.

"Hey! Sir!" A Xiang said with a sarcastic smile, "What are you doing here? What a coincidence! We meet again?"

Jiang Xueming remained silent, continuing to observe the surroundings.

A Xiang continued, "Are you going to sell me to a kidney-grilling business? I brought my sister with me, how about we get one free, buy one get one free?"

Jiang Xueming remained silent.

Sima Yao suddenly burst out laughing.

A Xiang then added, "Luckily, I remember this place! You think you can get rid of me? No way! My fans crowdfunded two tickets for me, we're sticking with you today! That's what our top fan said!"

"I'm so sorry," Qianqian apologized to Xue Ming, still vividly remembering the time Jiang Xueming performed a tooth extraction with his bare hands. Her eyes were filled with fear as she looked at her brother. "My sister has always been like this. I can't control her. I..."

"I feel much more at ease now." Jiang Xueming suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness, thank goodness."

This reaction caught A Xiang completely off guard.

"Huh? You really hate me? You're just waiting to get rid of me! You lied to me, scared me, and think I'm stupid? I'm very smart!"

Meanwhile, the donation information in the live stream caused A Xiang's expression to change instantly.

"Hey, thank you, Captain! Thank you, Mua! There's something even better tonight! It'll be late at night! After 3 AM!"

Jiang Xueming did not answer.

--What I'm thinking is very simple.

Compared to five strangers, there were five reckless and dissolute students.

These two familiar faces, girls who can understand human speech, might obey orders, and are easy to communicate with, are truly precious gifts from heaven.

Having two familiar faces around is much better than having to introduce myself to new students all over again.

But some things still need to be made clear.

Although [Tian Shu] cannot be revealed, Sima Yao did not say that it is forbidden to talk about the Abyssal Railway with ordinary people, nor did she say that it is forbidden to reveal superpowers.

Jiang Xueming put on gloves to prevent [Fragrant Dream] from accidentally harming the two sisters, and immediately summoned the spirit.

As the steel arm grabbed the logbook, Xue Ming wanted to give A Xiang a heads-up.

"I have superpowers. I'm here to investigate this store. If you insist on following me, you'll have to listen to me, okay?"

A Xiang stared blankly at the log floating in mid-air, while Qianqian stared at each other wide-eyed.

Then, one of the sisters reached out and touched the air above the journal, while the other explored the area below. They searched the floating pages from every angle, but found that they could not see or feel any threads or cords.

Four more captains joined the live stream.

--Ah A Xiang's expression was contorted with laughter as she finally blurted out a sentence.

"Didn't we agree not to use magic in front of Muggles?"