Master Guan

Considering the characteristics of Lost Media No. 021.

Zhang Ze replayed the videos several times in a row. Only after confirming that replaying them did not produce any different effects in either the video or audio did he stop.

He checked the time.

22:36.

It was already completely dark. Captain Yan and Li Sanbao had gone out on duty, leaving only a few officers on the night shift at the Police Station.

The system mission required him to survive until the next morning.

In theory, Zhang Ze could find a bed and sleep through the night, putting off the work until tomorrow to ease the pressure a little.

But Captain Yan would probably see that as him refusing to leave. Zhang Ze still had some pride and could not bring himself to do something like that.

Kuai Liang pushed open the door and refilled Zhang Ze's coffee.

"Officer Kuai, have you watched these videos before?"

"I'm not in charge of this area, but I've heard Captain Yan mention them. They seem to be classified as Lost Media. It all sounds pretty mysterious, but at most, they're handled as bloody and violent footage."

"Is there a problem?"

Zhang Ze shook his head. "Not really. I just wanted to ask whether your Police Station has any technicians who can repair damaged digital media."

"Oh, that. We do. When we first found these videos, many of them seemed badly damaged too. Some had distorted bitrates, others had completely ruined audio quality. They were all restored by an old technician surnamed Guan."

"Master Guan is a technician in the Network Monitoring Department who specializes in this sort of thing."

Kuai Liang answered patiently.

Zhang Ze took two videotapes from his backpack. "I have two damaged tapes here. I'd like to ask him if he can restore them."

Kuai Liang accepted the tapes and examined them, looking troubled.

The damage to these two videotapes was far too severe. To repair them, they would probably need Crazy Diamond...

Still, since it was Zhang Ze's request, Kuai Liang decided to give it a try. "Come with me."

Following Kuai Liang out into the corridor, Zhang Ze saw a narrow office across the square-shaped hallway with a sign reading "Technical Department" hanging on its door. It looked rather old. This Police Station had at least twenty years of history, and these departments had clearly been around for a long time.

"Master Guan, sorry to disturb you."

"Mr. Zhang has two damaged videotapes. Could you see whether they can be restored?" Kuai Liang handed the tapes to Master Guan.

Zhang Ze saw Master Guan's face.

Master Guan was a middle-aged man in his forties. His hair had already begun to gray, and he looked deeply worn down, with wrinkles across his face and the unmistakable marks of a hard life.

Even the style of his police uniform differed from Kuai Liang's. It was probably an older model, making it obvious at a glance that he was one of the Police Station's veterans.

After briefly examining the tapes a few times, Master Guan looked surprised. "Both of these tapes were damaged deliberately. It seems someone didn't want anyone to know what was on them. The damage runs deep."

"Can they be repaired?"

"Of course they can. Why else would I be drawing a salary?" Master Guan said. "But it'll take time. Maybe an hour, maybe all night. I'll only know once I take them apart."

Without another word, Zhang Ze took out a wad of cash.

He had withdrawn it specifically to carry with him, just in case he found himself somewhere with no phone signal but still needed money. It suited this situation perfectly.

"As long as you can fix them, I'll give you another payment."

"Consider this compensation for your trouble."

Master Guan glanced at the money. "No guarantee I can fix them yet. We'll talk after they're repaired."

After leaving the videotapes with the Technical Department, Zhang Ze and Kuai Liang returned to the corridor. Zhang Ze seemed to have set down a burden and let out a deep breath.

Over the past few days, he had searched every digital media shop in Hanjiang City. Not a single one was confident they could repair the two tapes. He had not expected to stumble upon an expert at West City Police Station.

As expected, if you wanted professional technical talent, the police station was the place to look.

Back in the office, only Zhang Ze and Kuai Liang remained. Zhang Ze continued watching the videos from earlier, especially Lost Media No. 012, trying to find the source of that unsettling sense of wrongness.

"This place looks a bit like Hanjiang City People's Hospital."

Kuai Liang was curious too. He had only heard of Lost Media before—supposedly haunted and impossible to spread—and could not suppress his curiosity any longer, so he watched alongside Zhang Ze.

"I once handled a dispute involving a hospital patient and went to People's Hospital. The wards seemed to look like this." Kuai Liang stared at it for a while. "But I remember there being heart-rate monitors and things like that in the rooms. Why aren't there any here?"

"Maybe you went to an intensive care ward. This is just the Inpatient Department," Zhang Ze said.

Kuai Liang scratched the back of his head suspiciously.

That case had happened a long time ago. Besides, as a young man, why would he have nothing better to do than wander around the Inpatient Department? If he had to say, even he could not quite remember whether it had looked like the footage.

After thinking hard for a moment.

Kuai Liang's phone suddenly rang.

"Beep~"

"Mm-hmm... Someone called the police from Hanjiang City People's Hospital? What's going on?"

"A pervert? This..."

Kuai Liang took out his phone and answered the call. His expression grew increasingly vivid as time passed, until he finally could not keep it together.

"Mr. Zhang, how about coming with me?"

"There's no need for that, is there? I'm not a police officer. If I go along, people might think I'm some connected big shot. Wouldn't that damage the image of the People's Police?" Zhang Ze said.

Wherever he went now, Crows circled around him. His body temperature was icy, and his skin was deathly pale and bloodless. Just standing there made people uncomfortable.

Besides, he had come to the police station to complete the system mission.

What if he left halfway through and failed the mission?

"I just received a report. A pervert showed up in the People's Hospital's Inpatient Department. Apparently, he stayed up in the middle of the night and walked circles around other people's beds, scaring the patients."

"Oh, right. It's exactly like what happened in that video."

Kuai Liang said.

Zhang Ze froze.

"Could this be a prank?"

"Prank or not, we still have to respond. This counts as a civil dispute. That's usually what our Police Station handles," Kuai Liang said. "If you come with me, you can help carry my body camera. What do you say?"

Zhang Ze looked at the system mission prompt.

[Ghost-Binding Grounds: Scream Index 2.5 stars]

[You enter your workplace as usual, but your head feels dizzy and heavy. Everything around you is shrouded in fog, and you cannot even see your coworkers' faces clearly. It looks just like the horror movie you watched last night. You want a cup of coffee to wake yourself up, but when you bring your cup to the coffee machine, you find a layer of dust on the table. There has not been a coffee machine here for a long time...]

[Please proceed to West City Police Station and survive until the next morning. Good luck.]

Survive until the next morning.

The time was now 23:12.

There was still time. From Zhang Ze's experience, missions like this were calculated from midnight.

At least, Chen Ge's time at Fuan Apartments had started from the middle of the night.

Go take a look?

Thinking of that inexplicable sense of wrongness he had felt in the video.

Zhang Ze finally gave in.

"Let's go!"

"Let's see what this is about!"