Scene Unlocked

Several used cotton swabs lay on the wooden table, along with a bottle of mineral water and an unopened loaf of bread.

The young police officer sitting at the other end of the table put down the voice recorder and took out his phone. Opening a folder, he asked, "Take a look. Is this the person?"

Chen Ge glanced at the photo. Several men were leaving the restaurant with their arms around each other's shoulders. The tallest one had a peony tattooed on the back of his hand.

"Yes, that's him!"

"'When the peony blooms, riches will follow.' This man's name is Zhang Peng. He's a gambler who owes hundreds of thousands in loan-shark debt and is suspected of burglary and robbery." The officer flipped to the next photo. "Take a look at this one."

The next photo had been taken from surveillance video. It had been enlarged several times before Chen Ge could make out the plump man in the driver's seat of the van, looking flustered. He looked about eighty or ninety percent like the Short Fat Man in the Apartment Building.

"He looks familiar."

"Based on your description, we compared it with the public security database. The driver in the photo is named Feng Chunlei. He's from another province, and he drove drunk and fled the scene of an accident. It's an extremely serious case." The young officer put away his phone and sorted through his documents. "I've finished taking your statement, but you can't leave just yet. The City Branch Bureau's criminal investigation team will be here soon to question you in more detail. We hope you'll cooperate with the investigation. After all, you're the only witness."

"Of course." Chen Ge sat in his chair. Only now was he finally beginning to calm down.

When Wang Qi had appeared behind him, he'd felt a chill at the back of his neck. Through his phone screen, he'd glimpsed a girl who looked about seventeen or eighteen.

"Who was that girl? A projection built into the Black Phone? Is this some kind of massive holographic game? Or was she an alien?"

"She must have appeared out of thin air, coincidentally reflected on the phone screen. Could parallel worlds really exist?"

Chen Ge had read some reports a long time ago about physicists who had found that the state of a quantum differed every time they observed it. Since all matter in the universe was made up of quanta, the scientists had speculated that if each quantum could exist in different states, then perhaps there wasn't just one universe, but many similar universes.

"Maybe the Black Phone caused two parallel worlds to overlap for an instant." Chen Ge rubbed his forehead, constantly trying to piece together the truth.

A few hours earlier, West City Police Station had received a report that a murder might have occurred at Ping An Apartment in the West Suburb. The police had acted at once, and encountered Chen Ge on the road near Ping An Apartment. After questioning him, West City Police Station had split into two teams.

One team had followed Chen Ge to the Wooden Hut behind the mountain to catch Wang Qi; the other had entered the woods to search for the residents of Ping An Apartment.

After crossing the dense woods, Chen Ge returned to the hut to find nothing but a pool of blood on the ground. Wang Qi was nowhere to be seen.

Only after the officers from West City Police Station found fresh blood and a large amount of the victims' clothing in the hut did they finally believe Chen Ge. They immediately requested support from the City Branch Bureau, brought in more officers, and sealed off the mountain for a search that lasted through the night.

As a key witness, Chen Ge was placed under close protection. The police had initially decided to take him straight to the bureau, but he needed to complete the Black Phone's mission. So he told them there were more important clues hidden in Ping An Apartment and insisted on giving his statement there.

That was how the scene above came about. Protected by two officers, one inside and one outside the Door, Chen Ge lay at ease in the haunted house, waiting for the mission timer to run out.

A little after three in the morning, the door opened. A middle-aged officer in his forties walked in, took off his police cap, and grabbed the bottle of mineral water on the table. He gulped down several mouthfuls.

"Uncle Sanbao, that's my water." Chen Ge watched the man come in and climbed out of bed.

The man's full name was Li Sanbao, and he was the deputy head of West City Police Station. As it happened, he had been the one in charge of investigating Chen Ge's parents' disappearance. Back then, Chen Ge had been desperate and worried, and this older man had gone out of his way to help him time and again.

"You little brat. Who said you could call me Sanbao? How many times have I told you? Call me Director Li or Captain Li." Li Sanbao set the bottle down, a smile he couldn't hide on his face. "Forget it. You've done a great service this time, so I'll let it slide."

"Did they catch them?" Chen Ge jumped to his feet.

"The criminal investigation team isn't made up of amateurs. They caught Wang Qi, and the other residents of the Apartment Building have also been arrested one after another. Zhang Peng is the only one still at large."

"That's great!"

"They've also found Wang Qi's fiancée's body. It's being handled by the forensic team now. If you have any questions, ask quickly. I've got other things to take care of." Captain Li had only come over to reassure Chen Ge.

"Zhang Peng and Feng Chunlei were wanted men. Were the other two fugitives too?" Chen Ge didn't hold back, asking the question that had been bothering him.

"The woman is Zhang Peng's wife. At most, she can be charged with covering for him. The Landlord's situation is a little complicated. He was just a caregiver, but he got greedy when he saw the money, so he joined the others in taking over the old man's apartment. He didn't abuse the old man, though. At least, we didn't find any obvious injuries on him." Captain Li put his police cap back on. "Why do you ask?"

"It's nothing." Chen Ge put on a guileless smile like He Shan's. "I risked my life to help the police catch a wanted criminal. I heard there might be a reward."

"We'll deliver a commendation banner to your home once the case is closed. See you around."

"Damn it—hey!"

Seeing Chen Ge get shut down, the young officer beside him laughed. "Captain Li's just teasing you. If Wang Qi really is the killer in the Massacre Case from five years ago, you should be eligible for a reward of more than thirty thousand yuan. That money comes from the local finance department, though. Also, the old man in the Apartment Building offered a reward in his own name. Anyone who provides crucial information will get five thousand yuan."

"There really is a reward?" At the mention of cash, the corners of Chen Ge's mouth lifted. "I was just asking. Honestly, money wasn't why I stepped in to help. Contributing to the peace and stability of our city is every citizen's responsibility."

The young officer smiled but didn't argue. He stayed dutifully on guard by the door.

Later, Chen Ge was questioned by the City Branch Bureau's criminal investigation team. After giving two more statements, he was supposed to be taken home by West City Police Station. But to complete his mission, he made up one excuse after another and stubbornly refused to leave the haunted house. First he said he needed to go to Room 408 to get his Backpack, then he insisted on taking the officers to the third floor to see the second crime scene. He kept them busy until six in the morning. Only when the Black Phone notified him that the trial mission was complete did he get into the police car and leave.

Watching the scenery rush past on either side, Chen Ge wasn't sleepy at all. He secretly took out the Black Phone and checked his mission rewards.

"Player reached the mission site within the allotted time, successfully identified the killer, and survived until dawn. The Midnight Escape trial mission is complete! The new horror scene, Midnight Escape, has been unlocked. The player can freely control all mechanisms in this scene from the scene interface!"

"Trial mission completion rate exceeded ninety percent. Hidden item obtained: Wang Qi's Missing Person Notice."

"Wang Qi's Missing Person Notice (Resentment Value: 11): I search every day for the person I killed. I killed her again and again, but she always seems to find me. Every time dawn breaks and I open my eyes, something of hers is always on my bed. I clearly bricked her up inside the wall, but it's as if she's crawled into my heart..."