Extremely Dangerous

[Notice: Main Quest Updated]

[Main Quest: Reach the "Abyss Video Hall" and complete your customized viewing task (1/7)]

The video hall's sign flashed red in silence. Abyss—it sounded like some kind of warning of danger.

"After I entered the video hall, the task progress changed from 0/7 to 1/7. Does that mean the remaining six points are all related to the movies I have to watch?"

"The instance is called 'Whispers of the Inner Demon.' It sounds like it's going to strike at my heart... And it's a 'Single-Player Custom' type, so I'm afraid it'll use me as material."

"But it'll soon find out I'm an iron wall, with no gaps to exploit."

As Jiang Qian gathered his thoughts, he looked around.

The video hall was unstaffed. In a spot that seemed to serve as a counter, there was a wooden table with various odds and ends on it, such as a notebook, a calculator, and a Beckoning Cat.

He first focused on an open notebook on the table. It contained a simple line:

"Jiang Qian, an incomplete and extremely dangerous human."

Jiang Qian frowned. "Who are you calling incomplete? Can't you talk properly? I'm just not whole yet."

As for the assessment that he was "extremely dangerous," Jiang Qian didn't particularly care.

Many strategic weapons were extremely dangerous, but also incredibly valuable.

This notebook was likely the instance's customized provocation aimed at its trial takers.

He ought to burn it!

Jiang Qian patiently examined the various items on the table.

Aside from the notebook, there was a box of strange Black Porcelain Figurines that caught his attention.

The box was covered in strange runes.

He lifted the lid. Inside were six shiny, faceless Black Porcelain Figurines, their genders impossible to make out. They lay side by side, with an empty slot on the left.

Jiang Qian picked one up and examined it closely. The task progress flashed through his mind.

He smiled, put the items back in their original places, and turned his gaze to the wall behind the wooden table.

There were three posters on the wall, along with a reference guide.

The posters advertised the movies currently showing at the video hall. Their titles were Judgment, Choice, and Vivid and Fragrant.

As far as he could remember, these weren't films that existed in the real world.

The three posters were also quite interesting, with a strong visual impact.

The poster for Judgment had a red background. At its center was a huge gallows holding a headless skeleton, creating a bloody, violent impression.

Choice, meanwhile, had a deep blue ocean as its backdrop. A massive whirlpool occupied the center, with a white ship thrusting into it from the outside, like a sharp blade piercing the bull's-eye.

The third movie, Vivid and Fragrant, clearly wasn't anything wholesome.

Though it didn't brazenly use images of naked women, just a few silhouettes were enough to outline their alluring, curvaceous figures and inspire endless fantasies.

The three films were showing in Screening Rooms 1, 2, and 3.

(In brackets: Enter in order.)

Jiang Qian's gaze lingered on the one room without a label. It was right next to Screening Room 3, at the very end of the corridor, and marked with a red X.

"Hmm..."

Having taken note of the room, Jiang Qian didn't hesitate any longer. He picked up the loose length of rebar and strode around the corner to the first screening room.

Nothing else unexpected happened, and he found nothing else along the way.

Once Jiang Qian had disappeared inside the room, the box containing the Black Porcelain Figurines on the table twitched. Its rune-covered lid slowly lifted...

The door to Screening Room 1 slowly closed behind Jiang Qian.

The lighting was dim and yellow. The furnishings looked a little dated, yet the room had a relaxed, languid atmosphere all its own.

Jiang Qian heard the low, steady hum of the projector starting up.

He hadn't lived through the heyday of video halls. To him, a place like this was just a small, shabby cinema.

It seemed like a small cinema because the screen in the room was huge, and comfortable fabric sofas sat opposite it.

Jiang Qian walked toward the sofa.

"A single-person sofa? This design is so inefficient."

They should at least have put in a couples' sofa. Maybe they could even branch out into another line of business and poach some customers from the nearby inns.

Jiang Qian made a quiet assessment.

But when he remembered that this instance was a single-player mode, he lost interest in imagining anything further.

Leaning on the half-length piece of rebar, Jiang Qian sat down on the sofa and looked up at the screen.

Just then, the instance's notification sounded beside his ear:

[You are about to enter the viewing segment]

[The film Judgment is based on the trial taker's real memories. Please forgive any offense.]

"Real memories?"

Jiang Qian grew wary.

The frozen image on the screen began to crackle with static...

Amid the static, a line of text slowly appeared, and Jiang Qian's expression grew more and more grave.

"Everyone sees him as a good student, but at his core, he's a cold-blooded sadist. His older brother discovered the truth. Then his brother disappeared..."

Capital Public Security Bureau Headquarters.

Special Affairs Center—Information and Intelligence Department—Supervision Group.

The entire floor was brightly lit.

In a spacious information transmission room near the stairs, computer monitors covered an entire wall.

The screens constantly updated, displaying languages and data from different dimensions.

Uniformed observers worked busily beside the various monitors, monitoring and recording the data.

Every screen was connected to a single mainframe.

The strange thing was, this mainframe didn't even need to be plugged in!

It was like a perpetual motion machine that could never be drained, tirelessly displaying its internal data on more than a dozen monitors in the transmission room, full of energy.

Beside the monitor closest to the mainframe, a middle-aged man sat back in a swivel chair. He wore military-green trousers and a white shirt with cufflinks, and had an e-cigarette in his mouth.

Suddenly, his attention was caught by a new entry on the screen.

"Hm?" The man's eyelids drooped as the e-cigarette bobbed with his murmuring. "Has this murderous instance found itself another unlucky victim?"

"Yeah, Group Leader Bai. It's grabbing people again," a staff member beside him replied.

"What a pain."

Bai Ji stared at the summary screen, his eyes fixed on the mysterious, ominous entry.

AS1741: Whispers of the Inner Demon trial instance.

Since the arrival of the Super-Species World, it had been one of the most mysterious instances, and one of the deadliest.

According to incomplete official statistics, in the more than twenty years since its arrival, the number of people who had cleared this instance and become License Holders could be counted on one hand.

Of those rare few, only two were still alive.

Both of them had since become figures of extraordinary standing within evil organizations.

One was an out-and-out lunatic, the other a terrifying pervert.

This showed what kind of extreme talents the Whispers of the Inner Demon instance favored: most trial takers failed to survive because they simply weren't twisted enough.

As usual, Bai Ji, the leader of the Information and Intelligence Department's Observation Group One, recorded the entry and opened its process, flagging the clearance progress bar for special attention.

He did this purely out of duty. Otherwise, he saw no need for it.

For a normal human being, entering this instance was as good as a death sentence. There was no way they could obtain an Identity Card. In fact, a great many newcomers would die right at the start.

"Huh?"

Bai Ji's eyes flashed as he watched the progress bar slowly advance.

The progress bar had actually moved?

The odds were infinitesimal, but if this person cleared the instance, it would mean that yet another promising oddity was about to emerge within an evil organization. The entire official License Holder community would be watching closely.

And as the little observer who had "reported it in a timely manner," he wouldn't just go down in history—he'd also receive the commendation he deserved.

Bai Ji watched the motionless progress bar as if he could uncover the secrets hidden in the data through sheer force of will.

After staring intently for a while,

he couldn't help yawning...

"Haaah... What am I even thinking? Where would we find that many twisted people? Wouldn't world peace be nice? Haaah..."

Bai Ji yawned repeatedly and rubbed his sore eyes.

He figured he'd probably been pushing himself too hard lately, always entertaining unrealistic fantasies about his responsibilities and performance as an observer.

He tried to compose himself, his expression solemn and compassionate.

In silence, he offered his heartfelt condolences to the trial taker who was still clinging to life.

The book's signed! I got votes from readers on the very first day it was published, and that gives me so much confidence. Thank you to:

Yao Dao Has No Ji Yanqing

Three Thousand One

One Thought, Raging Tide

And to all the wonderful readers for your recommendation votes!

For now, I plan to update every day around 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. (￣︶￣)