A horrific murder

At 88 Lotus Lake Road, Ren Ye was still in Xu Peng's office, reading through information about Star Gates.

There was nothing else to do. His dad had gone to revise his manuscript, and his sister was busy too. Nobody at home had time for him. Going back would only mean sitting around, so he might as well stay here and meet some "disgusting" new friends.

"Hurry up! Everyone on duty, get over here!"

Just then, Huang Wei's urgent shout came from the corridor. Ren Ye put down the book, walked curiously to the door, and poked his head out.

Things outside were somewhat chaotic. The seven or eight New Year's Watchers on duty that night were heading toward the main entrance, while Huang Wei locked his office door with one hand and spoke on the phone with the other.

"What happened, Huang?" Ren Ye asked.

"There's been a murder. Players did it. We need to deal with it." Huang Wei hung up and added casually, "Head home in a bit."

"Oh." Ren Ye nodded blankly.

Huang Wei walked straight toward the stairs, then suddenly turned around. "Want to come take a look? Unless something changes, you'll be involved in this sort of thing someday too."

"Sure!"

That was exactly what Ren Ye had been waiting for. "Let's go. I'm coming too."

"Come on, then." Huang Wei nodded.

About ten minutes later, three cars stopped at the entrance to the alley where the crime had occurred. What puzzled Ren Ye was that there were no onlookers here, nor had any police arrived.

Only two New Year's Watchers stood at the mouth of the alley, talking quietly. At their feet stood a gray stone tablet about the size of a cigarette pack, with nothing inscribed on it. Had Ren Ye not been in the habit of observing his surroundings, he probably would never have noticed it.

"Chief!"

"Chief!"

The two came over and greeted Huang Wei. One began briefing him. "There were intense Star Source fluctuations in the alley. Players definitely fought here. Our preliminary estimate is around five, at least. At the first crime scene, inside a residential garbage bin, there's a body that's been dead for days. We suspect a player with corpse-control abilities was manipulating it. We're currently verifying its identity. The second scene is inside apartment 101 of building 163. The victims are a man and a woman. Judging from the scene... they were probably just getting ready to set up their stall on the road nearby when they accidentally stumbled onto the players' fight and were silenced. Fucking bastards. This has to be the work of chaos-faction players. They have no humanity whatsoever. The scene is just too blood-!"

Huang Wei turned to look at him. "How many times have I told you not to let your personal emotions interfere with an investigation?"

"...!" The Watcher giving the briefing gritted his teeth but did not argue.

"What about surveillance footage? Any other witnesses at either scene?" Huang Wei asked.

"The cameras were affected. There are no recordings, but I've already had our administrative staff contact the local police and tell them not to keep investigating the camera failures," the Watcher replied quietly. "The second scene was indoors. No witnesses."

"How long ago did it happen?"

"Nearly two hours ago."

Whoosh!

At that, Huang Wei stopped abruptly and turned to demand, "An hour and a half?! What the hell were you night patrols doing? Why did it take so long to discover this?!"

The Watcher could only reply helplessly after being scolded, "These players seem very familiar with the New Year's Watchers' patrol patterns. They deliberately avoided our routes... We only sensed the Star Source fluctuations when our patrol got close."

Hearing that explanation, Huang Wei gritted his teeth and complained, "I fucking said before that Qingfu is understaffed, but the higher-ups just won't give us reinforcements. Goddamn it!"

With that, the group walked past the little gray stone tablet. In that instant, Ren Ye felt as though his body had passed through a wall of light. When he looked back at the street, the pedestrians appeared extremely blurry, and they seemed unable to see him.

Amazing... Is this some kind of spatial-isolation item?

Soon, the group entered apartment 101.

The moment he stepped inside and took one look at the scene, Ren Ye froze.

Huang Wei, who had just told his subordinates not to bring personal emotions into an investigation, flew into a rare, explosive rage. "Motherfucking bastards! Where the hell did these animals crawl out of?! Fucking %!￥...!"

Never one to hide his feelings, Huang Wei spent nearly a full minute swearing inside the apartment. Everyone else was pale too, their eyes filled with anger and shock.

The living room, less than twenty square meters in size, was piled with clutter: boxes of ingredients, boxes of seasonings, and the like. There were three bodies at the scene-a man, a woman, and a very small pet dog.

A dog leash was fastened around the man's neck, and his entire body had been bound. He had died beneath the dining table. His body was covered in festering wounds, his chest had been peeled open, and his internal organs were missing.

Half the woman's face was a bloody mess. A bald patch the size of a bowl gaped at the back of her head; the perpetrator had probably ripped her hair out while she resisted. What enraged everyone most was that she... she... was completely naked and covered in injuries. Clearly, she had been sexually assaulted more than once...

And the dead pet dog lay across her lower body... Judging from the angle beneath the dining table, her husband must have witnessed the perpetrators' brutality from beginning to end.

Her one remaining eye was filled with despair...

This clearly had not been a simple killing,

but a cruel, torturous murder committed to vent someone's urges...

Even during Ren Ye's time on the job, he had rarely encountered a scene like this.

Blood covered the floor, and the pungent stench of gore filled every corner. Ren Ye had only come along out of curiosity, but the sight before him stirred a long-dormant sense of professional duty and responsibility within him.

He turned to look at the tabletop beside the sofa. A framed photograph showed a family of four, with a boy around seven or eight and a girl around three or four.

These must have been two ordinary, hardworking people who had come into the city to run a stall... to make a modest living.

Anger-the anger of simply being human-surged straight to his head.

"Xu Peng, hurry!" Huang Wei interrupted Ren Ye's thoughts, urging him forward with a wave.

Xu Peng snapped out of his daze, hatred flashing in his eyes as well. He hurried to the woman's body, closed his eyes, and slowly raised both arms.

"Cold ashes rekindled, flesh born upon withered bones-Returning Light!"

Whoosh!

Xu Peng murmured the incantation in a firm, measured cadence. As he raised his arms, two slender, shining threads gently wound around the woman's wrists.

A rich aura of flesh and blood, brimming with vitality, poured from Xu Peng and flowed along the two threads of light into the woman's body...

As he nourished her body and expended his strength, fine beads of sweat soon appeared on Xu Peng's face, and he began to sway weakly.

Ren Ye's eyes lit up. He asked Huang Wei quietly, "Can he bring this couple back to life?!"

"No." Huang Wei shook his head. "But he might be able to give them one last rally, let them see this world again... They could also give us some information."

Snap!

No sooner had he finished speaking than both threads broke. Xu Peng staggered back two steps and dropped heavily to the floor, every muscle in his body trembling. "...No... I can't. Her injuries are too severe... I can't pull her back."

"Try the man," Huang Wei urged.

"He's even more impossible...!" Xu Peng shook his head. "I checked when I came in. A palm strike shattered his brain."

At those words, the room fell so quiet that a pin dropping could have been heard.

Huang Wei clenched his teeth. "Examine the scene thoroughly. Don't miss a single detail. I'll tear this place apart if I have to, but I'm digging those bastards out! And submit a report to our superiors. Get their information department moving. Find out whether any wanted fugitives have come to Shanghai recently. Hurry! Get moving!"

The moment he finished, the room became a flurry of activity.

Standing by the door and watching it all, Ren Ye suddenly grasped firsthand what Xu Peng had told him earlier that day.

If a player's personality was deeply twisted and perverse, the disaster he could bring upon society and the harm he could inflict on ordinary people were impossible to predict.

What Ren Ye did not know was that, from this very moment, a massive storm that would engulf all of Shanghai and the Qingliang Prefecture Star Gate had quietly arrived.

Around one in the morning.

On a bar street called Tongren Road in the outskirts of Shanghai, a card and mahjong parlor still had its open sign lit.

This bar street was a famous gathering place for Shanghai's players. Many organizations secretly ran businesses here, and Shanghai's New Year's Watchers invested considerable manpower and resources into keeping it under covert surveillance.

Many players liked to gather here to exchange guides and information, barter, buy items, and so on.

In a private room on the second floor of the Fight to the End card and mahjong parlor, Mr. He sat on a sofa with his legs crossed, looking at a balding middle-aged man.

The man was around forty-five and known as Tongren Road's know-it-all, Big Sparkler. He worked exclusively in the gray areas, providing convenient services to players who could not afford to be seen in the light.

"Old Tong said you're reliable. I trust him." Mr. He looked at the middle-aged man. "Besides, you've helped the Bell Society plenty of times. We can do business with peace of mind."

"I've built my business here on one thing: my reputation." Old Yin poured tea with a refined air. "As long as you have money and Source, I can provide any service. Stay here as long as you like. No one will find any information about you."

Mr. He nodded in approval and dispensed with further pleasantries. He took a small black velvet pouch from his pocket, pulled out two white crystals, and gently set them on the table. "Four New Year's Watchers died a little while ago. Two were from Qingfu District. Do you remember that?"

Old Yin blinked, rubbing his hands together with an awkward smile. "Mr. He, anything else is negotiable, but I can't sell information about the New Year's Watchers. After all... Shanghai has its rules, and the players here respect them."

Tap, tap!

Mr. He took another two white crystals from the pouch and placed them on the table very slowly.

Old Yin stared at the four crystals, his eyes shining, and involuntarily swallowed.

Tap, tap!

Mr. He produced another two. "Business is business, whoever you do it with. If you don't want to break the rules, shall I take these six somewhere else and ask?"

Veins bulged on Old Yin's forehead. He clenched his hands, then immediately scooped all six crystals off the table and answered rapidly. "Four New Year's Watchers did die. Apparently, they'd undertaken a Star Gate mission together. Two were from Qingfu, and two were from a higher-level unit. Also, after those four died, no funerals were ever held. For some reason, the New Year's Watchers have been deliberately suppressing information about them."

Mr. He nodded in satisfaction, then placed another two crystals on the table. "Go on."

Old Yin swiftly took them. "After those four died, I heard that people in a small, semi-official chat group discussed something... Apparently, Huang Wei had taken someone out of Qingfu Prison. People even posted messages asking about it. But soon afterward... that little group was disbanded, and the people who'd asked stopped mentioning it."

"Did you follow up on that?" Mr. He asked.

"Heh. Four dead New Year's Watchers is no small matter." Old Yin smiled. "You're not the only one who's curious. The people above me are curious too."

Mr. He thought for a moment. "Who was the person Huang Wei took out of prison? I want his information."

"Heh. As it happens, I do know." Old Yin looked at him and held up a hand sign for six.

Mr. He was generous. After all, he had robbed Little War Wolf earlier that day without spending a cent himself. He promptly took another six crystals from the pouch. "Tell me what you know."

"What I know is that there's absolutely no information on the person they took out." Old Yin grinned. "Prison records, personal records, family records... There's nothing on him anywhere."

Rather than getting angry, Mr. He's eyes gleamed. "Now that's interesting. It means I'm looking in the right direction."

"Heh." Old Yin smiled.

"Name your price. Find him."

"Ten. I'll have news for you by noon tomorrow at the latest," Old Yin said without hesitation.

Mr. He slowly relaxed, leaning back against the sofa as he replied in an operatic lilt, "Then this humble one must trouble you, good sir...!"

"Haha, we're all friends here. No need to be so polite." Old Yin happily gathered all the crystals and stood up. "You and your brothers came a long way. I ought to show you some hospitality. How about this? Tonight, I'll get a few agility-type female players over here to keep everyone entertained."

Tap, tap!

Mr. He flicked the last two crystals in the pouch onto the table. Without a word, he simply looked at Old Yin with a smile.

Old Yin froze. "You've already paid enough for the information. What... do you mean by this?"

"I have no interest in women." Mr. He looked at Old Yin with keen interest, then clamped his hand hard over the man's crotch with a smack. "A lot of businessmen like to make grand claims... I'm very curious. Can you truly provide every service?"

"...!" Old Yin squeezed his legs together, his face instantly reddening and his expression going blank. "Wait, I... I've never done that either. Are you serious, or are you joking? This is awfully sudden!"

"Ah, these worldly things soften the heart and bow the spine. This humble one has wandered the mortal world since childhood... Ah, yi-ya-ya...!" Mr. He broke into his operatic lilt again, gazing at Old Yin with desire. "Will you take this filthy lucre... or won't you...?"

Five minutes later.

The lights went out, the men lay down, and the two white crystals found their way into a pocket.

Old Yin gripped the sofa fabric with both hands, his legs stretched rigidly straight, and asked softly, "Sweetheart... can we skip the kissing?!"