The Truth

In an instant, the man doubled over like a shrimp!

Zhou You had never trained in any kind of martial arts, but he was young and strong, and he'd landed his punch right in the most vulnerable part of the human body: the abdomen. His opponent was also terrified and hadn't even thought to fight back!

The man's face turned from red to purple in an instant. His throat convulsed, and a gush of stomach fluid poured out. But Zhou You gave him no time to react. He knocked him down, grabbed a length of plastic cord from the table nearby, wrenched the man's arms behind his back, pinned his wrists, and tied a neat knot.

Then he grabbed the man by the collar and hauled him up, smiling.

"Long time no see, boss. How have you been?"

The restrained man coughed hard a few times, then lifted his head and looked at Zhou You through bleary eyes.

"You're... that new patrolman? Wait, wait! Don't kill me! I didn't kill you, really! Believe me!"

Why was this guy still saying I was dead?

Zhou You looked up at the clock and saw that he had another ten minutes or so to "have a heart-to-heart" with the security chief. So he simply pulled over a chair, sat down in front of him, and said,

"Relax, relax. I'm not going to kill you. There's just something I'd like to ask. Can you help clear a few things up for me?"

The man nodded frantically.

"First question." With the help of "basic acting skills," Zhou You now wore an exceptionally pleasant expression. "You keep saying I'm dead. What do you mean by that?"

The security chief looked at Zhou You and said cautiously, "Well, I'll tell you the truth, but please don't get angry. I found your body by the river earlier. It looked really strange, and then you showed up here again tonight—that obviously means you came back as a ghost! I swear, I wasn't the one who killed you. Please, let me go!"

Zhou You clicked his tongue, then continued,

"You said my body looked strange. So tell me, what was so strange about it?"

To his surprise, the man glanced at him timidly, then answered in a trembling voice,

"It was... just like you look now."

The way I look now?

Zhou You froze, then suddenly remembered something.

He seemed to have... never seen a mirror in this scenario.

He'd never seen his own face, either.

...So what did I look like now?

Zhou You glanced around, but there was nothing he could use to see his reflection. Even the windows in this damned place were pitch-black. But that didn't stop him. He yanked the security chief to his feet and turned the man's eyes toward himself.

In those pupils, wide with terror, Zhou You saw his own face.

It was a bluish-gray visage, devoid of any of the color that belonged to the living. Part of the top of his head had been smashed in, revealing the shrunken brain tissue inside.

"So that's why my head's been feeling cold lately. I'm missing a chunk of my skull..." Zhou You fell silent for a moment, then suddenly laughed.

He shook his head, looked up, and addressed someone in the room.

"Monk, you've been watching from the sidelines for ages. Got anything to say?"

After a long moment, a gaunt figure stepped out of the shadows.

"Benefactor, this humble monk... pays his respects."

Seeing the man's hesitant manner, Zhou You smiled all the more naturally.

"Don't be like that. I just have one question for you. Was he right? And am I really dead?"

The Old Monk looked at Zhou You with pity for a while, then finally murmured,

"From what this humble monk can tell, you are indeed dead. But because of the effects of the night, you haven't quite died all the way. Right now, you can barely walk around in a state that is neither fully ghost nor fully alive."

Zhou You showed not the slightest trace of sorrow. Instead, he laughed again.

"Then here's the question: when you saw me during the day, you didn't notice anything unusual. You even wanted me to deliver a message. Normally, you'd never entrust the lives of everyone in the city to a ghost. So I must have still been alive then, right?"

"That's right. There's no doubt you were alive during the day. But when I entered the night this time, I realized..."

The Old Monk faltered several times, but never managed to finish a sentence.

So Zhou You finished it for him.

"You realized the daytime and nighttime don't line up at all, right?"

The Old Monk's words stopped abruptly, and his eyes filled with disbelief. But Zhou You simply continued smiling.

"Honestly, I should have realized it when I saw the newspaper. I just never thought in that direction."

"Before I met you, I helped a sanitation worker. Of course, that wasn't anything major. It's only natural to help others. But that night, there was suddenly a report about improvements to the entire sanitation system—and that was the problem."

The corner of his mouth lifted slightly, his expression full of scorn.

"Normally, it would take far longer than this to reform an entire system. Besides, a few hours wouldn't even be enough to lay out and print a newspaper, let alone produce a finished copy."

"But this was something I'd done in the afternoon, and it was already in the news that night."

"So... there must be a time difference between day and night, perhaps several days in between. That would explain why you saw me alive during the day, but by night, I'd already been killed."

At last, having reached his conclusion, Zhou You looked up and smiled.

"Am I right, Monk?"

The other man simply lowered his head in silence, confirming it through his actions.

Then Zhou You turned to the security chief, who was tied up.

"And you... what should I do with you?"

At that, the man started struggling frantically.

"No, no! I didn't kill you. Your death had nothing to do with me. Those ghosts did it! Please spare me, really, please spare me!"

"But you were one of the masterminds, weren't you?"

The security chief's voice cut off.

Tears and snot still streamed down his face, but now his eyes were filled with terror.

Zhou You continued,

"I remember the contents of Liu Shang's diary very clearly. He wrote that 'the security company's men should hire an ignorant fool as a sacrifice every day.' Someone like him wouldn't have handled that personally. He'd definitely need someone to carry it out. And besides, the fear you tried to hide in your eyes that first day was impossible to fake..."

"So you were the one who specifically hired those 'fools,' weren't you, dear chief?"

The man stared at Zhou You as if he didn't even recognize him, then suddenly shouted,

"No, no! I was forced into it, too! I owed a huge gambling debt I couldn't pay, and Boss Liu even came to threaten me in person... I had no choice! And I've already gotten what I deserved lately. I lost all the money I got paid, too... Please spare me! Please, don't kill me!"

...So the huge sum of money I found belonged to you.

Feeling perfectly at ease all of a sudden, Zhou You looked up at the clock, then said,

"Relax. I already told you I wouldn't kill you. I'm a man of my word. If I say I won't kill you, I won't. So..."

Zhou You stood up and gently helped the man into the chair.

At that moment, the television switched on by itself, and a pale figure appeared on the screen again. Blood began seeping out across the floor.

"Please sit tight and behave, Chief."

"Dear player, you have uncovered the underlying worldbuilding of this scenario."

"Scenario completion has increased significantly."

"You have received a purple consumable: Blood-Stained Document."

"Effect: By signing a contract with this document, you will not be harmed by monsters for three minutes. (Ineffective if the gap between your strength and the monsters' is too great.)"

<It will give you everything you desire, but you must pay a price—in this case, fortunately, someone else has already paid it for you.>