A Choice with No Choice

The dark figure was unexpectedly fast.

By the time Li Wei turned, gripped his pistol, and raised it, a dark shadow had already swallowed his entire field of vision. He could even smell a foul stench mixed with a strange, pungent odor. It felt as though his life might end here in the very next second.

At the same instant, Li Wei pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The loud gunshot echoed through the alley, its reverberations almost deafening. The dark figure shuddered and stopped for a moment-roughly half a second. Li Wei seized the opening, rolled into Inspector Lestrade, and sent them both tumbling to the ground in a graceless heap. Something swept past them with a fierce rush of air. When Li Wei and Lestrade looked up again, they saw only the dark figure leaping up once more, scrambling upward as swiftly as a gecko climbing a wall.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Inspector Lestrade hurriedly drew the pistol at his waist and fired at the dark figure, but it moved even faster than he had expected. Before the gunshots had finished echoing through the alley, the darkness of the night had swallowed the strange figure completely.

"Damn it, he got away!"

Inspector Lestrade gritted his teeth in fury and stared up at the night sky. Then hurried footsteps sounded, and the young Fletcher rushed over.

"What happened?"

"We may have encountered the Courtesan Killer."

As Lestrade spoke, he looked at Li Wei.

"You wouldn't mind coming back to the station for a chat, would you?"

Li Wei could only nod. Could he really say no?

Still... that was thrilling.

Li Wei lowered his head, feeling his heart pounding in his chest so hard that he almost wondered whether it would burst through and leap out. But for him, this was a rare sensation. During those days in his hospital bed, he had barely felt alive at all. Back then, he had been little more than an empty shell sustained by various medications and IV drips. He could do nothing, had no way to do anything, and could only let the doctors examine and treat him over and over.

It was as though he were not a person, but a teaching aid. In short, he might technically have been alive, but as far as Li Wei was concerned, he had felt no real sense of living.

Not like now.

The questioning at the police station was nothing out of the ordinary. Lestrade asked Li Wei about his circumstances again, then cleared his throat.

"Mr. Li Wei, I'm curious. How did you spot that fellow?"

Only at Lestrade's question did Li Wei look away from the device on the desk-a strange contraption resembling a landline telephone, with a tall base and a rectangular card inserted into a slot on its side. His memories told him that this was called a Phonographic Differential Machine, a steam-powered device similar to a tape recorder. It served much the same purpose: when people spoke, it punched holes into a long strip to record their words, which could then be played back simply by inserting it again.

How fascinating.

Li Wei withdrew his gaze and looked at Lestrade.

"Pure coincidence. Actually, if I hadn't noticed that thing, it might not have attacked us."

"Oh?"

"Inspector Lestrade, didn't you place the gas lamp by the victim's head to examine the body? That was when I noticed a dark figure moving behind us in the reflection in her pupils. Perhaps it was trying to leave the scene while we weren't paying attention, but when I turned around, it realized I'd spotted it..."

"So it wanted to kill us to silence us."

Lestrade's expression darkened.

"But whatever the case, we've finally caught a glimpse of what we're dealing with. Can you believe it? The News Herald actually claimed this was some kind of divine punishment or curse... Now we can be certain that this is a genuine murder case! There are victims, and there is a killer, and we really did see that killer!"

"We only saw a bit of a shadow."

Li Wei offered the reminder, but Lestrade did not care.

"At any rate, at least we know we're not dealing with some intangible curse or ghost."

Li Wei said nothing. True, it was no ghost, but he did not think it was human either. At the very least, the thing had climbed that wall far faster than he could have imagined... Still, who could say for certain? The games he had played had featured characters adept at scaling walls and leaping across rooftops.

Besides, Li Wei was still unsure exactly what sort of world this was.

"Can you give us any other leads?"

"Sorry, Inspector Lestrade. I'm afraid I can't be much help."

Li Wei shook his head.

"I barely saw anything at the time, just a dark shape. Then there was the smell..."

"The smell?"

"Yes, blood. That might have come from the poor victim. There was also a pungent odor... Well, I'm not quite sure what it was, but it smelled like some kind of chemical..."

"That's already enough to help us narrow down a few areas."

Inspector Lestrade reached out and pressed a button beside the phonograph. It soon stopped punching holes, then made a series of noises like a printer feeding paper through. A rectangular punched card popped out of the slot and landed in his hand.

"Thank you for your help, Mr. Li Wei. I hope we'll have another chance to work together."

"I hope you catch the killer soon, too."

Li Wei picked up his top hat, put it on, and stood, giving the inspector a nod. Just then, however, something unexpected happened.

A flash of light suddenly appeared before his eyes, followed by a line of information.

[Quest activated: "Fog City Mystery"]

[Quest objective: investigate and find the Courtesan Killer, and bring the killer to justice]

[Quest reward: random skill reward, lifespan +30 days]

Li Wei froze at the sight.

"...Was there something else, Mr. Li Wei?"

"Oh, no..."

Inspector Lestrade's voice brought Li Wei back to his senses. He smiled and nodded at the inspector.

"It's just rather late, and I'm a little tired..."

"Understandable. The underground has stopped running at this hour, too. Why don't I have Fletcher drive you home?"

"Thank you."

Naturally, Li Wei did not refuse Lestrade's kindness. He had always encountered things like this: inexplicable upgrades on flights, salespeople giving him entire boxes of gifts at supermarkets, extra dishes when he ate at restaurants. Even in the hospital, he often received meticulous care from the nurses. Accepting Lestrade's goodwill was therefore nothing strange to him.

In the past, he had also done his best to repay such kindness. After all, give-and-take mattered.

But now, after what practically amounted to a new lease on life, Li Wei cared more about his quality of life.

Lestrade was also in an excellent mood. All this time, the Courtesan Killer had remained elusive, while wild speculation filled the broadcasts and newspapers. Even within the station, people had sometimes grown unsettled and uneasy. But now they at least knew the Courtesan Killer was no mere legend. The killer existed in reality and could be hit by bullets, so there was nothing to fear. He had already dispatched more officers to seal off the area and search for any traces the killer might have left behind.

Compared with their previous aimless running around, this small lead was like the first ray of morning light in the darkness to Inspector Lestrade, enough to let him look forward to dawn.

Thus, in his current good mood, Inspector Lestrade found Li Wei increasingly agreeable and naturally did not mind giving him a small perk.

Fletcher, however, was far less pleased.

He had been outside the whole time, busy calming the woman who had been terrified by the sight of the corpse. She had clung to him, stammering so badly she could not even finish a sentence. That had left Fletcher thoroughly annoyed. He had already heard Inspector Lestrade's account of what had happened, and he could not help wondering what might have happened if he, rather than this detective, had discovered the Courtesan Killer's trail...

Then Inspector Lestrade would surely have seen him as a promising rising star. Perhaps he could even have earned great distinction by arresting the murderer. After that would come media interviews, newspaper coverage, an award from city hall, an audience with the queen, and a promotion to chief of police... Unfortunately, all he could do now was drive the station's ancient, battered carriage and serve as coachman to a man who was both taller and better-looking than him.

Li Wei paid no attention to any of that. In fact, as he sat inside the swaying carriage, he was staring at the system quest that had appeared earlier.

He set his attributes aside for now. What concerned him most was his lifespan.

His status panel had previously shown that he had ten days left to live. He did not doubt it. After all, his doctor had told him that, given his current condition, he could only hold on for another few days.

But completing this quest would give me thirty more days to live?

There's a benefit like that?

Of course, Li Wei also knew this quest would be anything but simple. This was no task to help an old lady cross the street. He would be hunting a criminal-a serial killer, at that. Having detective as his profession did not make him a bulletproof superman. A few seconds' difference back there, and his blood might have splattered across the scene.

Fortunately, within seven paces, a gun was both accurate and fast.

Next time, he might not be so lucky.

For now, Li Wei had two options.

He could enjoy ten peaceful days here, then close his eyes for good.

Or he could pursue the killer and struggle in the shadow of life and death. Success would give him another thirty days; failure would mean dying on the spot.

Even so, Li Wei knew he did not really have a choice.

After all, he had had enough of lying helpless in a hospital bed, waiting to die amid pain and despair.

And so, he had already decided what he would do.