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To the doll whose head was larger than a house, Li Wei's shots were as insignificant as raindrops. Yet those insignificant attacks had an effect comparable to sulfuric acid when they struck it. Li Wei saw the bullets burst against the doll's face, leaving flecks of flame behind. The parts touched by those flames immediately began to crumble and cave in. It raised its hands to cover its cheeks and let out an agonized scream like a crying baby.

It worked!

Li Wei's heart leaped at the sight. Then he gritted his teeth again, and the flow of time around him slowed once more!

Death's Eye!

Li Wei took out another magazine, quickly reloaded, raised his gun, and pulled the trigger again-this time, he did not even need to aim. He emptied every bullet in one go!

Those bullets also struck the puppet's enormous face, and this time, the doll could no longer hold on. Every part of its head began to crumble and collapse. It screamed shrilly, desperately clawing at its own face. The moment its thick fingers touched its face, they tore it into fragments. In the blink of an eye, a large part of the doll's head had shattered. Through the gaping damage, Li Wei caught sight of something bright red and crystal-like glowing inside.

Based on Li Wei's experience with games, movies, and animation, that thing might well be its core!

Then let's do it again!

Li Wei activated Death's Eye once more. By now, a dull ache had begun to spread through his brain, and the blood in his veins seemed to flow like magma. He was falling. If he had not used Death's Eye twice in succession to slow the flow of time, he would already have hit the floor.

Although he could launch another attack afterward, Li Wei still felt uneasy. This was his best opportunity, after all. If the doll recovered, he might never get another chance this good!

Li Wei reached into his pocket again and took out his second makeshift speedloader. Enduring the headache, he loaded the bullets, closed the cylinder, and raised his gun once more. This time, he narrowed his eyes and stared at the distant speck of scarlet light, which looked no larger than a star.

Then Li Wei pulled the trigger.

Bullet after bullet flew out, following the same trajectory. They shot through the flying fragments and the gaps between the doll's flailing fingers-then pierced the scarlet speck of light.

Li Wei saw the speck erupt with a dazzling brilliance. The next moment, he crashed heavily to the floor.

"Aah!"

Li Wei clutched his head and screamed. The fall itself had not hurt him much, but after three consecutive uses of [Death's Eye], his head felt as fragile as a balloon filled with water. The impact of hitting the floor almost made him feel as though his brains were about to burst straight out...

Fortunately, Li Wei had made the right decision.

"Mr. Detective, are you all right?"

Curled up on the floor with his hands around his head, Li Wei felt dazed when he heard Katie calling beside him. He waved a hand to tell her not to speak. Only after a while did he slowly sit up.

"Ugh... this feels awful..."

Li Wei drew in a sharp breath. His head felt as though needles were stabbing into it. Clearly, using [Death's Eye] repeatedly really did put too much strain on his body.

Still, Li Wei had no regrets. That move was genuinely powerful! With [Death's Eye] supporting him, he had launched three consecutive attacks against the doll. It had been one massive burst of damage!

Three turns' worth of damage in a single turn-what more could I ask for?

"Phew..."

Li Wei shook his head, then took Katie's hand. His body suddenly felt light, and Katie simply hauled him bodily-off the floor?

"...Thanks..."

Looking at Katie's soft, delicate little hand, Li Wei quietly thanked her. She giggled and withdrew her hand. From the way she looked, it seemed to have taken no effort at all...

"What did you just do, Mr. Detective? Has the threat here been eliminated?"

"What did you see?"

"Me?"

At Li Wei's question, Katie blinked and thought back.

"I just remember you jumping toward the ceiling, Mr. Detective. Then you seemed to disappear, and then you fell back down... that was about it."

"Did either of you see anything else?"

Katie and Henry exchanged a glance, then shook their heads.

So that thing really could only be seen through [Soul Sight]? Ordinary people couldn't see it?

"I think the threat has been eliminated."

Li Wei glanced at the mission notification before him. After he had destroyed the red speck of light, a mission completion notification had appeared. That was one reason he felt reassured. Now that he was back on his feet, he also noticed that the previously sealed room had changed completely.

Before, the room had looked deeply unsettling. Now, only an air of decay remained, and all the dolls around them were covered in dust.

As for the boy who had been sitting in the chair...

"Eek!"

Once she saw the figure clearly in the firelight, Katie could not help letting out a small shriek. The boy was slumped in the chair, much of his corpse already rotted away. Through the rotten wounds, they could see a strange shape...

Without a word, Li Wei walked over to the boy's corpse. He reached out and tore open the boy's abdomen. Katie and Henry then saw a doll embedded among the flesh and bones inside the boy's body. Its head had shattered completely, and both its hands were raised high, as though it had been struggling to break free of something.

"C-could this be..."

The sight of the doll hidden inside the boy's body made Katie's skin crawl. Henry looked no better.

"All right. Problem solved."

Li Wei stared at the doll, fell silent for a moment, and finally spoke.

"Our work is done. Let someone else handle the cleanup."

And so, the investigation into the Haunted House came to a complete end. Yet to everyone's surprise, when they dragged their exhausted bodies out of the Haunted House, the soldiers stationed outside told them that less than two hours had passed since they went in.

To them, however, it felt as though half a day had passed!

Naturally, everything that had happened afterward had to be explained, one matter at a time.

Although Li Wei and the others had survived, the unfortunate soldiers had not been so lucky. Henry also sent people to find those who had gone missing earlier. When the man's Evil Spirit had possessed him, Henry had learned that the man feared his family and servants would betray him. He had secretly killed them one by one and hidden them in a storeroom beneath the cellar.

That was also why Li Wei and the others had encountered Henry in the cellar.

Incidentally, Military Intelligence Section Seven still burned the house down afterward. Of course, they did not do it in secret. They found its current owner, who was scared out of his wits upon learning that more than a dozen corpses were buried beneath his cellar and readily agreed. Military Intelligence Section Seven then found a pretext to demolish the house outright and burned everything to ashes.

Overall, the joint operation involving the various departments had been quite successful. After returning to Military Intelligence Section Seven to give their reports, everyone went their separate ways and headed home.

As for Li Wei, although he desperately wanted to go home and rest, he still dragged his exhausted body to the jewelry shop he had visited earlier.

Li Wei knew that plenty of infuriating plot twists began with the protagonist wanting to find something important, only to put off retrieving it immediately. They insisted on resting or wasting time first, and by the time they arrived, the item was gone... Games often used that sort of plot device, and it annoyed Li Wei every time he saw it.

So even though he felt unwell, Li Wei still thought he should get his hands on that ring first. Everything else could wait.

Fortunately, when Li Wei returned to the Moonlight Splendor jewelry shop, it was still there. It had neither closed nor disappeared, which allowed him to breathe a sigh of relief. He stepped out of the carriage, straightened his clothes, pushed open the door, and entered the shop.

Ding.

"Welcome."

The same shop assistant appeared before Li Wei. Her eyes lit up when she saw him.

"Ah, Mr. Li Wei! Hello! What brings you here today...?"

"I'd like to buy the Crimson Temptation."

Standing before the counter, Li Wei stared at the assistant as he spoke. He was a little nervous, afraid she would say, "The ring has already been sold," or, "What's that?"

Fortunately, none of those aggravating things happened.

"Please wait a moment."

The assistant nodded and went behind the counter. A short while later, she returned carrying the jewelry box.

Li Wei reached out and opened the box. The ring, still looking like congealed blood, lay quietly inside without anything unusual about it. Li Wei picked it up, then-slipped it onto his index finger.

There were no problems. In Li Wei's hand, the ring seemed to be nothing more than an ordinary ring, and he felt no strange power from it.

Only the system displayed a line of text, then quietly disappeared.

[Additional condition detected as fulfilled]

Only then did Li Wei breathe a sigh of relief. He took out a Punched Card.

"I'll take it."