A Race Against Death

The following content is nothing but a series of complaints.

Or, to put it simply, a summary of what was done that day.

The diary ends two days before the night at the manor.

To an outsider, this is just an ordinary diary.

The owner also suffered from nightmares and sleepwalking.

Later, he suddenly got better, though the diary does not mention how.

But for Tang Luo and the others, the information contained within is of vital importance.

"He was possessed by Jack the Ripper."

Chu Chongtian said, "The first few victims were actually killed by him?"

Sleepwalking, bloodstains.

"Were the nightmares he had the experiences of Jack the Ripper? A sign of possession? Or perhaps a weakening before the possession took hold?" Zhou Zhenguo speculated.

Following the theory that the Ripper is growing stronger.

In the beginning, Jack the Ripper was relatively weak.

That is to say, he could only force the Inspector to have nightmares, slowly influencing him through his dreams.

Possessing and controlling someone while they were asleep.

Later on, Jack the Ripper no longer needed to go through such trouble to possess someone.

The innkeeper was normal and awake one second, and possessed the very next.

Jack the Ripper likely weakened the Inspector's mind through nightmares, subsequently possessing and controlling him.

And these nightmares...

It is easy to associate them with the situation at the Mental Hospital's Underground Laboratory that Tang Luo had briefly described to them!

"If these were the experiences of the Ripper, the cold 'floor' was actually the 'surgical table' Master Xuanzang mentioned."

"The Jack he heard was Jack White?"

"The Ripper is a test subject of the organization?!"

Chu Chongtian said.

Is this the relationship between the organization and the Ripper?

The two are not isolated existences?!

"What about those patients who were still alive?" Zhou Zhenguo said.

The Mental Hospital received over a hundred psychiatric patients in total.

After Tang Luo destroyed the laboratory, only five patients who were not locked in the underground laboratory survived.

The rest, the vast majority, became test subjects.

All of them died.

The remaining few were eaten by the Resurrected One and also died.

"Those patients who weren't locked up shouldn't count as test subjects, right?" Chu Chongtian frowned and said.

The scenes in the nightmares were clearly scenes of test subjects being experimented on and dissected.

"Could it be that someone didn't die, but was discarded by the organization as a corpse, and ended up surviving?"

This is the most logical explanation.

"We've been pitting our wits against a madman all this time?"

Zhou Zhenguo found it hard to accept.

All along, they had treated Jack the Ripper as a shrewd opponent.

In the end, they discovered that the opponent was actually a lunatic.

Because his thought process was completely different, the opponent became exceptionally unpredictable.

Is there anything more frustrating than this?

"He might not necessarily be a madman."

Chu Chongtian said, "Master, didn't you say that the so-called Ripper Gang also helped the organization kidnap some people?"

"Mm." Tang Luo nodded.

"Damn it!"

Chu Chongtian cursed, though certainly not at Tang Luo.

It was because the organization was gone!

And that Ripper Gang had also been wiped out by Jack the Ripper!

The trail had gone cold again!

They were only one step away from lifting the veil on Jack the Ripper.

Yet, it turned out the target had already acted in advance, severing the connection.

This feeling was terrible.

It was as if meat that had already reached their mouths had been forcibly gouged out.

"It is no matter; we have the archives to check," Tang Luo said.

"Archives?"

"Even though the Mental Hospital is closed now, there must be records of the patients they admitted," Tang Luo said. "As for the Ripper Gang, we go to Scotland Yard. When people go missing, there will be some record or report filed, right?"

This included Old John, who had gone missing.

Someone had indeed gone to Scotland Yard to make a simple registration.

As for whether they would actually look for him, he was just a widower; it all depended on the mood of Scotland Yard.

The people the Ripper Gang kidnapped were likely all such individuals living alone.

In a small town, it was impossible for those living alone to be shut-ins.

Even if they lived alone, they had to maintain some contact with the outside world to work, earn money, and sustain their daily needs.

If they went missing for a long time, the possibility of someone reporting it to Scotland Yard was not small.

"Correct."

Chu Chongtian said, "Furthermore, if someone went missing and then returned, we can basically confirm that they are the Ripper!"

"Could it be that Jack the Ripper is the result of their research into immortality? It's just that the organization overlooked him!"

Zhou Zhenguo suddenly clapped his hands, having thought of a possibility.

A crazy organization.

Cruel experiments.

An "extraordinary" born by accident.

Hiding in the shadows, killing bit by bit, growing stronger, seeking revenge.

And now, stirring up a massive storm.

It was actually a script like this!

Moreover, most importantly, in this world, God and Demon Walkers were supposed to be racing against time.

The sooner the truth was discovered, the weaker Jack the Ripper would be.

The longer the time dragged on, the more disadvantageous it was for the God and Demon Walkers.

Now, Jack the Ripper seemed to have grown to an unfathomable degree.

As for why, even though Tang Luo and the others had destroyed the organization—effectively avenging Jack the Ripper—they were still on his hit list.

That was easy to understand.

You cannot expect a vengeful demon to maintain a clear sense of gratitude and resentment.

Jack the Ripper had been killing indiscriminately from the very beginning.

What he wanted was to pour out his rage completely.

"The encounter on the first night was a reminder that we must complete the mission as quickly as possible," Zhou Zhenguo said.

They had already been in the small town for half a month.

Of the original seven people.

Four were dead.

Only the three of them remained.

And Zhou Zhenguo and Chu Chongtian, facing the current Jack the Ripper, were likely not even a match for a single blow.

The only one who could fight was Master Xuanzang.

Whether he could still fight now was also an unknown.

There was no more time!

This was a mission racing against the Grim Reaper!

"No matter, we go to the Mental Hospital first, then to Scotland Yard. We must find the true identity of the Ripper at the fastest speed!"

Zhou Zhenguo said.

The sky was already growing late.

It would not be long before they entered the night.

According to past circumstances.

Nighttime was when Jack the Ripper was active.

It was his home turf.

Everyone would gather together, waiting for Jack the Ripper to appear—as for things like fishing, with the situation becoming increasingly dangerous and so many people having died, no one was willing to act as bait anymore.

But now, they could no longer worry about such things.

Even in the dead of night, they had to take action to uncover the truth.

Compared to the crude method of waiting for Jack the Ripper to actually appear and then killing him to complete the mission.

Finding the true identity of Jack the Ripper was currently a more viable way to complete the mission.

Zhou Zhenguo also did not believe that the "God and Demon Game" would set the condition for completing the mission as something as high-difficulty as "killing Jack the Ripper."

That was an impossible mission.

In the God and Demon Game, theoretically speaking, there was no such thing as a mission that was absolutely impossible to complete.

Just like a normal game, it must be possible to clear it.

It was merely a matter of the level of difficulty, and—the number of deaths.

He did not know if it was an illusion.

The nightfall today seemed to have arrived faster than usual.

When they arrived at the entrance of the Mental Hospital, the sky had turned almost completely dark.

The previous fire had turned the hospital into a ruin.

And the actions of Tang Luo and the others.

Had turned the hospital into a completely abandoned place.

As for the remaining patients, no one knew where they had been sent.

To be honest, they were not entirely sure either.

There must still be patient-related records in the hospital; perhaps they had already been destroyed by the organization, but they could only try looking for them.

In the abandoned hospital, there were not even kerosene lamps.

The water and electricity were cut off.

After Tang Luo and the others entered the building, their vision was severely restricted.

Fortunately, they had prepared lanterns, and upon entering the archives room, the three of them began to search.

The records regarding the patients' conditions were already gone.

It was not that the organization was worried about leaks; in fact, at the time, Thorndike and the others had merely suppressed the matter.

They just didn't want it to spread widely.

Even if the matter exploded, it would have nothing to do with Thorndike and the others.

At least there was no evidence on the surface.

The disappearance of these records was entirely because Thorndike and the others wanted to "rekindle the past."

Since they couldn't get into the basement, they could only look for patient information here.

At least a portion of it had been recorded.

"Found it!"

Zhou Zhenguo shouted; he had found the admission registration form.

With this, they could know the basic information of the patients, including their home addresses.

The records were quite detailed.

A rough glance showed over a hundred people, which matched the number of patients the hospital had received over the years.

"Let's go to the underground laboratory."

Zhou Zhenguo said, "There should be research records there; comparing them might help narrow down the scope."

"Didn't the basement collapse?" Chu Chongtian asked.

"It should have only been a part of it, or perhaps just the passageway? If the whole thing had collapsed, this building would have been affected too." Zhou Zhenguo looked at Tang Luo.

"Mm, I only blocked the passageway."

Tang Luo said.

"Can Master reopen it? How long will it take?" Zhou Zhenguo asked.

"It won't take too long, about... one minute?" Tang Luo thought for a moment and said.

Two minutes of walking, one minute to clear the path; three minutes later, the three of them walked into the underground laboratory.

Zhou Zhenguo and Chu Chongtian stopped in their tracks, looking at the remains of the Resurrected One on the ground.

"What is this thing?"

The twisted posture made them forget their purpose of searching for data for a moment.

"Oh, a product of immortality research, known as a Resurrected One," Tang Luo said. "That Jack let it out, so I killed it while I was at it."

"While you were at it..."

Both Chu Chongtian and Zhou Zhenguo felt their lips twitching.

Although they were not entirely clear on what exactly this Resurrected One was.

But the surrounding corpses and the shattered electric chair proved that this was a complete monster.

And you just killed it while you were at it?

Doesn't the monster have any dignity!

"The research records are in these three rooms, one for each of you?" Tang Luo asked, pointing at the three doors.

20 minutes later.

"It's not here, Jack the Ripper is not among the patients!"

Zhou Zhenguo said.

They had cross-referenced the data.

The number of all patients who died from experiments, plus the patients they saw that day who were not sent to the Underground Laboratory but used as window dressing, and the patients killed here by the Resurrected One.

It matched exactly with all the patients the hospital had received over the years.

The numbers aligned perfectly.

In other words, Jack the Ripper was someone kidnapped in secret by the Ripper Gang.

Thanks to Mo Ai Mo Li, Surprised Beef Ball, and Floating Cloud Business for the tips! May I ask which one of you is which!

There will be another update tonight, please vote for recommendations!