Are You Afraid of Little Red?

"Gao Ming? Director Chen said you wouldn't be coming for another three days. What brings you here already?" The only female investigator among the four shook Gao Ming's hand. "I'm Bai Qiao, deputy team leader of Investigation Team One. Those three are all rookies. None of them has experienced an anomaly event yet."

"You're taking three rookies into an Anomaly Event?" Every Anomaly Event Gao Ming remembered had been terrifying, with an extremely low survival rate for ordinary people.

"According to the survivors, no actual ghost has appeared in this Anomaly Event, only some eerie signs. Our preliminary assessment puts it at level one. That's already pretty forgiving for rookies." Bai Qiao activated her Black Ring and played a video. "Someone called the police yesterday evening, reporting that a child kept crying on the fourth floor of Minlong Street Courtyard 4. The police searched the entire floor but couldn't find any children. Later, an elderly resident said a family of three used to live on the fourth floor. The man had severe violent tendencies, and the woman was no angel either. A few days ago, the couple argued in the evening, then suddenly moved out that same night. But the child apparently didn't leave with them."

"Was the child murdered?" Watching the video, Gao Ming immediately thought of that possibility.

"We don't know. We tried to find the couple, but they disappeared in the Old City District." Bai Qiao closed the video. "Ever since they moved out, people have been hearing a child crying on the fourth floor. At first, it was faint and would stop after a while. But since last night, the crying hasn't stopped at all. We suspect this anomaly event is continuing to deteriorate. We need to investigate it as soon as possible."

"Just crying? No one's been hurt?" Gao Ming had made many games involving crying. The information he had so far wasn't enough to determine which game had become reality.

"No injuries so far." Bai Qiao glanced at her watch. "The other investigators are on their way. We'll wait until just before dawn to enter the building."

The torrential rain that had fallen for days finally began to ease, but the dark clouds shrouding the city still hadn't dispersed.

With a little over forty minutes left until dawn, a black truck stopped on Minlong Street. Its driver wore a baseball cap and was powerfully built, with the Black Ring on his wrist digging straight into his flesh.

"Morning, Bai." The burly driver slapped the side of the truck. The rear doors opened, and four investigators climbed out carrying various pieces of equipment.

The two youngest didn't even have Black Rings. They seemed to have only just been recruited into the Investigation Bureau.

"Pack the equipment into your backpacks. Tonight, we need to test seven items inside an Anomaly Event..." Halfway through, the driver suddenly noticed Gao Ming. "Haven't seen you around before, brother."

"He's a rookie recommended by Old Qin. He's experienced a level three anomaly event." After counting everyone, Bai Qiao raised the arm bearing her Black Ring. "I don't need to tell you how dangerous anomaly events are. You've already received comprehensive, systematic training at the Investigation Bureau. On this operation, I expect you to stay completely alert and follow the rules to the letter."

"Understood!" The three rookies with Bai Qiao and the four who had climbed out of the truck answered in unison. There was no fear in their eyes, only nerves and a little curiosity.

"Move out!"

Including Gao Ming, a total of ten Investigation Bureau members entered Building 4. But only Gao Ming, Bai Qiao, and the burly driver had experienced Anomaly Events before.

The Investigation Bureau was severely understaffed, so whenever veteran members encountered a relatively low-risk Anomaly Event, they would bring new recruits inside to familiarize them with their "enemy." Tonight's operation was essentially a special training session for rookies.

All kinds of household garbage cluttered the narrow stairwell. Footprints remained on the steps, and graffiti covered the walls.

The investigators cautiously approached the fourth floor, but Gao Ming switched on his flashlight and examined the drawings on the walls.

The graffiti on the cracked plaster seemed to tell a complete story, featuring three little figures drawn in black crayon.

The largest, most violent figure seemed to represent the father. The long-haired figure represented the mother, while the thinnest was probably the child.

The graffiti looked like a child's careless scribbles, but a closer look revealed something wrong.

The figures representing the father and mother were constantly fighting. Whenever they attacked each other, numerous little figures drawn in red crayon appeared behind them.

Those red figures gathered around the child, slowly piling up, folding together, and contorting.

As time passed, the red figures began doing even more horrifying things, snapping off their heads and removing their arms. Although they crawled out of the parents, they seemed to care nothing for the child's feelings, much less offer him any companionship.

The arguments and fights continued, and the red figures grew increasingly frightening. They would suddenly appear while the child was concentrating on something else.

In one drawing at the second-floor landing, the child was doing his homework when red figures suddenly crawled out from beneath his desk, pulling his hair and strangling him so he couldn't study.

In another drawing on the third floor, the child was asleep in bed when red figures suddenly crawled out from under the covers and beneath the bed. They forced his eyes open, preventing him from sleeping.

The child was terrified. No matter how hot it was, he covered his entire body with a blanket when he slept. Even when shampoo ran into his eyes while bathing, he didn't dare close them.

Seeing their timid child behaving so strangely seemed to make his father and mother even angrier, and their fights began to spill over onto him.

"The police didn't find a child in the building. Could he be trapped in that Shadow World?"

When they reached the fourth floor, the investigators expertly set up their equipment under Bai Qiao and the driver's direction.

"There are six households on the fourth floor, but they've all moved out. Pair up and search the apartments. Whatever happens, don't let your partner out of your sight."

The investigators took out the keys supplied by the police and opened the apartment doors one by one. When a key touched the lock of Apartment 405, the red lights on everyone's wrists suddenly lit up, and communications were forcibly cut off.

At that same instant, Gao Ming saw a vast mass of shadows pour through the gap around Apartment 405's door and engulf Building 4.

Cold seeped through his body. Gao Ming took a deep breath. The game hidden inside Building 4 on Minlong Street had been triggered.

Glancing downstairs, Gao Ming discovered something even worse. The game area shrouded in shadows was just as large as it had been during the incident with Zhao Xi. Judging by that previous experience, this wasn't a Level One Anomaly Event at all. It was a Level Three Anomaly Event that might contain a ghost.

"Twenty minutes until dawn." Bai Qiao raised her arm again. "Only now have we truly entered the Anomaly Event. Any information you discover here could be an enormous help to those who come after us. Any pattern you identify here will be entered into the General Bureau's archives. Of course, all of that depends on one thing: you have to bring that information out alive."

The burly driver straightened up as well. "When the Black Ring's red indicator lights up, it means communications have been completely severed. Don't trust any clocks you see inside the building. Only when the red light on your Black Ring goes out and the yellow light comes on have you truly escaped."

(End of chapter)