A Weird Love Letter

The moment he clicked in, Shen Yu regretted it.

"Ugh!" Shen Yu covered his eyes, his face full of the shock of being blindsided.

After a moment, Shen Yu bravely moved his fingers away from his eyes and tremblingly continued reading.

This was an anonymous letter addressed to him.

A love confession.

It opened with a line: "I like you!"

"The first time I met you, you captivated me beyond reason—I like you so much!"

"I like you so much that I've gone against my very nature; every moment, every minute, every second, I've been madly thinking of you."

"This feeling drives me insane—I've carved you deep into my soul, never to be forgotten."

"I want to get close to you!"

"I want to touch you!"

"I want to possess you!"

"Your hands, your eyes, your lips, your hair, your smile, your voice, your tongue, your Adam's apple, your legs, your skin, your heartbeat, your arrogance, your coldness, your disdain, your provocation, your pride, your battles, your sweat, your body..."

"Your excellence, everything about you—only I understand."

"I'm going crazy!"

"I don't just want to watch you."

"I want you." "I want you." "I want you!" "You're mine!"

"Let's be together forever!"

"I'm coming for you!"

The screen was filled with obsessive ramblings, the words between the lines exuding an abnormal, stubborn, and intense possessiveness.

At the very bottom of the email was a photo taken from below, looking up. In it, Shen Yu gazed slightly downward at the lens, giving off an inexplicable sense of pressure.

Seeing this photo, Shen Yu had no memory of being photographed at all, but the background seemed to be... school?

Had he been secretly photographed?

Sometimes, reading an email alone is pretty helpless; Shen Yu felt the urge to call the police multiple times.

Shen Yu's pupils quaked. It wasn't that he'd never received love confessions before, but one this explicit, this direct, this worthy of legal action was a first.

He moved his trembling hand to the mouse and clicked the top-right corner, wanting to delete the email, but as soon as he clicked, a red exclamation mark popped up.

"This email cannot be deleted!"

All ninety-nine emails were the same—undeletable, unmovable.

Shen Yu got fired up. He flexed his fingers and used hacking techniques to directly break into the website.

He already had some programming foundation, and after merging with Bai Zuo's hacking skills, his hacking ability could be said to let him roam the network unimpeded.

Breaking into the website was no challenge for him.

Shen Yu pulled up the backend data, trying to find the source address where the emails were sent from.

But he discovered that the entire database had no trace of the original code for those ninety-nine emails.

In other words, in the data, these emails were non-existent entities.

Current technology couldn't achieve this. Shen Yu quickly realized he was dealing with an abnormal event.

These ninety-nine emails were likely the work of some Weird.

"Is this Weird casting a wide net to fish, or is it only targeting me?"

Shen Yu leaned toward the latter, because the secretly taken photo had a strong sense of direction.

What Shen Yu didn't understand was what he had done to catch this Weird's attention.

And that photo taken at school must have been before the 1st, when the Horror Game hadn't launched yet and the Weirds hadn't appeared.

Whoever took that photo had to be human.

"Someone's mixed up with a Weird? And that person knows me—probably someone from school."

Shen Yu suddenly thought of something. He opened Song Xiaojie's chat window—why would she suddenly contact him at this time?

Was it a coincidence, or did she know something?

Otherwise, someone who'd never been in touch suddenly messaging him now—was it really that coincidental?

Forget it. Without solid reason, just based on guesses, it's better not to bother others. Anyway, wasn't that Weird saying it would come to him?

Then he'd just wait for it to come!

Shen Yu quickly finished the rest of the boxed lunch, set it aside on the cabinet for the medical staff to collect, and started processing the search results and videos again.

Several hundred video entries varied in length.

Even though Shen Yu was reading quickly, it still took over two hours to finish. The sky outside the window had already darkened.

During that time, medical staff came in to take away the meal containers and turned on the light for him. Seeing him focused on the tablet, they assumed he was studying and didn't disturb him.

Shen Yu stretched.

"I found seven locations where Weird activity might be happening. Let Xu Zhou and the others go confirm them."

"If luck's on our side, I'll have enough construction points to build the Headquarters Building."

A beautiful ringtone started playing from the phone beside him.

A woman's voice poured out with deep emotion, confessing her love with tender, straightforward lyrics—soft and affectionate.

Shen Yu stared at the phone, which was radiating the aura of an Anomaly Artifact. The ringtone shifted from a loving, gentle voice to a hoarse, obsessive moan. He felt a strong urge to throw it out the window.

No, littering from a height is bad. Even if it doesn't hit anyone, hitting flowers or grass is still wrong.

What kind of Weird is this?!

Shen Yu grimaced in disgust. Could he call the police and report being harassed by a Weird?

He sighed, reached out, grabbed the phone, and answered.

The other end stayed silent.

Only a faint, barely audible sound—like a starving beast struggling to hold back its hunger—came through the line.

Since the other person wasn't speaking, Shen Yu decided not to either. Come on! Let's see who has more patience.

After a long while, a hesitant yet surprised voice finally came through: "Shen Yu? Is that you?"

You called me, and you don't know who I am?

Shen Yu: "It's me."

A choked sob came from the other end. "I'm so glad you're okay. I'm sorry."

Suddenly, the sound of frantic footsteps echoed through the phone. "Sorry, I have to go. I'll hang up now."

The call ended.

The voice was a bit distorted, making it hard to tell who it was, but based on her attitude, she definitely knew Shen Yu.

However, everyone has their own little habits when speaking—subtle shifts in tone and inflection. These nuances are hard to distinguish unless you're familiar with the person.

But Shen Yu had Bai Zuo's exceptional observational skills. Such minute differences couldn't escape his ears.

He matched the tone, inflection, and trailing sounds from that conversation against everyone he knew or had met.

It didn't take long to lock onto Song Xiaojie.

Although she was his classmate, they weren't close. In fact, Shen Yu wasn't close with anyone in his class.

He recalled his interactions with Song Xiaojie. Aside from that one time he happened to help her out, they'd never really had a normal conversation.