Again 1

After settling the venue, Lin Sheng walked out of the rented courtyard.

A sign hung outside the courtyard: Iron Fist Fighting Club.

There were still signs of unfinished construction in the surroundings, with black paint missing in several spots.

They really just threw this place together, Lin Sheng thought, speechless.

No wonder those guys were so fast.

He didn't linger, scanning left and right along the street where the Iron Fist Fighting Club was located.

Right next door was an internet cafe with a sign hanging at the entrance: New Century Internet Cafe.

A few teenagers, around fifteen or sixteen years old, were squatting at the entrance smoking, puffing away while bragging to each other.

It's been a while since I've been online. Might as well take a look.

Lin Sheng felt a sudden urge and walked casually toward the internet cafe.

Passing by the two smoking youths, he pushed open the cafe's transparent glass door.

Inside were two rows of neatly arranged, somewhat grimy computer stations.

To the right of the entrance was the manager's counter, where a girl no older than twenty was eating instant noodles while watching a soap opera.

A sign sat on the counter: 1.5 per hour, buy 100 in credit and get 50 free.

"Open a station for me, three hours."

Lin Sheng glanced at the wall clock. Since he was already out, he had told his family he was going on a picnic with friends, giving him the whole afternoon to himself.

It was just past three o'clock; three hours of gaming, then heading back for dinner would be perfect.

The girl at the counter looked up at him.

"Give me your ID number. Remember it? If not, I can open a temporary card, but it'll cost a bit more."

Lin Sheng quickly recited his number and paid to activate a machine.

He bought a bottle of mineral water at the counter, then walked over to his assigned station and sat down.

He pressed the power button, waiting skillfully for the blue CPU icon and motherboard logo to appear on the screen, followed by the NWE operating system.

NWE was this world's equivalent of a Windows-based platform, developed abroad and widely pirated throughout Celine.

After sitting down, Lin Sheng pulled his chair closer to the screen, gripped the mouse, and clicked expertly on an icon on the desktop.

It was an animated icon of a blue-and-white interstellar warship.

This was the currently popular real-time strategy game in Celine, Star Path, similar to the first StarCraft.

The gameplay was somewhat like StarCraft mixed with Red Alert.

This had been Lin Sheng's favorite in the past.

He had even joined an online fan group for it.

Logging into the game quickly, Lin Sheng's username was Seven Foot Sweat.

As soon as he logged into the sci-fi-styled game interface, the friend list on the right began to chime with a flurry of notifications.

Sunset Star: 'You there?'

Sunset Star: 'Let's get a game going!'

Sunset Star: 'You there?'

Sunset Star: 'Not online again?'

Fallen Leaf on the Horizon: 'Seven Foot, you there?'

King's Hatred: 'Damn it! Lost again, if you don't show up, Seven Foot, our group is going to get crushed!'

Sunset Star: 'Those guys from Copper Furnace are being way too arrogant! Seven Foot, find me when you get online! We're just waiting for you!'

Sunset Star: 'Still not online after all this time!?'

Lin Sheng glanced at the timestamps; the most recent one was from two days ago.

Because he was skilled, he had always been the main player in the small group he shared with his comrades.

Unfortunately, ever since the nightmares began, he had poured most of his energy into the dream realm. He hadn't played in a long time.

Even when he occasionally visited an internet cafe, it was only to research information regarding dreams and swordsmanship.

Ding-ding.

Suddenly, a notification sound rang out.

Sunset Star: 'Finally online! Let's go, let's go!'

Lin Sheng was surprised. This guy was the most active of the eight people in their small group, a near-fanatic of Star Path who could play from dawn till dusk when he went on a binge.

"Alright. You start the party," Lin Sheng replied.

"Got it."

The two quickly formed a party and tried to call the others, but unfortunately, no one else was online.

The game started quickly, randomly selecting opponents.

Although Lin Sheng hadn't played in a long time, this game relied entirely on hand speed and strategic awareness, somewhat similar to combat.

Therefore, his skills hadn't regressed much, and he and Sunset Star quickly completed the opening first kill.

They finished off the two opponents in the first round cleanly and efficiently, with the entire match taking no more than twenty minutes.

Then came the second round, and the third.

After playing continuously for nearly an hour, Lin Sheng began to feel bored. He hit the pause button to start.

Sunset Star: "What? Isn't today a holiday?"

Seven Foot Sweat: "Got some things to do, not playing anymore."

Sunset Star: "What kind of crap things? Let's keep going!"

Seven Foot Sweat: "Really have things to do. Things are busy at home lately, don't have that much time to play."

Sunset Star: "Even Crown isn't as busy as you. Aren't you a student? What are you so busy with all day?"

Seven Foot Sweat: "Got some matters to handle."

Sunset Star: "That guy Crown is passing through Huaisha soon. How about we hold a meetup here in Huaisha? I'll cover the venue!"

Lin Sheng looked at the screen and smiled.

In the group, he had mentioned that he was a poor student with little pocket money and not much time to go online. This Sunset Star, however, seemed to come from a well-off family and didn't care about internet fees at all.

Now that he was offering to cover the venue, it was clear he was someone who wasn't short on money.

He smiled and replied casually.

"Whatever, see what everyone else thinks."

Sunset Star grumbled a few more times, and after they played one more round, Lin Sheng logged off.

Finished with the game, he opened a search engine and skillfully navigated to the Huaisha City forum to see if there were any new posts.

Soon, a post made two hours ago caught his eye.

"Robbery and murder in the Blackwater District, south of the city, live coverage!"

Lin Sheng narrowed his eyes and quickly clicked to view it.

The post was made by a guy named Wind Whisperer, and the first comment contained a photo of the crime scene.

It appeared to be a room in an unfinished construction site.

The floor was covered in dark red blood, and three words were written on the wall: Do you love me?

Lin Sheng scanned the post, then looked at the comments below.

"This hellhole again. There have been several incidents at this unfinished construction site already, yet people still don't listen and dare to go there! They really don't value their lives!"

"Last time it was a man who was robbed and killed there too. It's really cursed."

"Not just that, a couple went missing there before, leaving only a room full of blood."

"Have the police been there?"

"They've been there countless times, it's useless. The killer never leaves anything behind."

Lin Sheng silently scanned through all the comments, falling into deep thought.

Huaisha wasn't huge, but it wasn't small either, and he had heard of several such cold cases like the one before him.

The police had investigated many times, but they were always at a loss with these cases. In the end, they usually just found an excuse to arrest someone and close the case.

But anyone with a bit of insight could tell that those closed cases were just to fool the public.

He hadn't paid much attention to these things before, treating them at most as casual conversation topics, but thinking about it carefully now, he felt something was wrong.

There seemed to be far too many cases that the police were helpless to solve.

He browsed through other posts casually and soon discovered a similar locked-room murder case in an old thread, which was also a cold case that remained unsolved.

Closing the forum, Lin Sheng scanned the current events news; Celine and Redon were still bickering all day long.

Both sides had been engaged in a war of words while amassing troops at the border, looking as if they could break into conflict at any moment.

But in reality, this state had been maintained for over a year. At first, everyone was nervous, but as time passed, they had grown used to it.