Inquiry

(The beginning is slow-paced. The first Purple Talent appears around 100,000 words in. Read without overthinking!)

"Name?"

"Lin Yi."

"Did you report the case?"

"Yes."

"Describe exactly what happened."

Inside the Interrogation Room, Lin Yi, seated opposite the two Police officers taking his statement, seemed not to have fully recovered from the fright he had suffered not long ago.

Just half an hour earlier, he had been having dinner at a Hotpot Restaurant with several friends from the gold farming group.

Halfway through the meal, one of the older members, Liu Hong, had suddenly let out agonized screams right before their eyes, then turned into a puddle of foul-smelling toxic liquid within mere minutes.

Everyone in the private room had been scared senseless. Once he had calmed down slightly, Lin Yi had promptly called the Police.

Frowning, Lin Yi said, "I don't know the specifics either. We arranged tonight's dinner several days ago. Who could have expected something like this to happen halfway through the meal..."

"Did Liu Hong show any abnormalities before the gathering?"

"If there was anything unusual, it was that Old Liu looked a little pale when he arrived. I even asked whether he wanted to go to the hospital, but he smiled and said he was fine. I never expected that halfway through the hotpot, he'd suddenly seem like he was choking, then his face turned bluish-purple. In just a few minutes, he turned into a puddle of pus. We were so scared that none of us dared touch him..."

The other officer frowned. "A few minutes? Exactly how long?"

Lin Yi thought for a moment. "Uh... two or three minutes, maybe three or four. We were all too nervous at the time, so I can't say exactly. But you can check the Hotpot Restaurant's surveillance footage..."

"Fine, we'll investigate that further. But according to our questioning, among the people at the dinner, you had the closest relationship with Liu Hong?"

Lin Yi nodded. "Yes. As you know, I farm gold in games. Old Liu was practically half a mentor to me. I only got into this line of work because he brought me in. Also, in our Vast Gold Farming Group Workshop, he invested the most and was a major shareholder. I invested a little over a hundred thousand too, so I'm a minor shareholder. We talked a lot normally, and our relationship was pretty good."

The officer quickly wrote this down, then looked up and asked, "Did he display any unusual behavior recently, or say anything strange?"

"Unusual behavior..."

Lin Yi considered it, then said, "Yes. To be honest, he hadn't been very invested in Workshop matters lately. Every day, he'd only settle the Workshop's earnings with me at night. You couldn't find him during the day, and he wouldn't answer his phone. That was completely unlike him."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because Old Liu was from out of town. He only came to Linhe City to make a living a few years ago. As far as I know, he had both mortgage and car payments, and his son was about to start college. He had divorced his wife long ago, and his household expenses were high. When our Workshop was first established, he was the most hardworking one..."

The officer asked again, "Did Liu Hong ever tell you what he had been busy with lately?"

Lin Yi shook his head. "No. I asked him several times, but he only said he had something major to deal with and couldn't spare attention for the Workshop at the moment. But..."

"But what?"

Lin Yi thought for a moment. "I remember one time when Old Liu got drunk, he happily told me he was going to get rich. He said he'd leave the Workshop to me in the future. But I thought he was just drunk, so I didn't take it seriously."

"Did Liu Hong leave anything with you recently? This is very important. Please answer truthfully."

"He gave me a few books before, along with several foot massage discount coupons. Do those count?"

"...All right. We've learned everything we needed to know. You may leave now. We'll notify you if anything comes up. Also, it would be best if you didn't leave the city for the time being, so we can contact you easily..."

After walking out of the police station, Lin Yi's expression was grave.

What had happened today was truly challenging everything he believed in.

Liu Hong, a living, breathing man nearly six feet tall, had turned into a puddle of green, foul-smelling pus in just two or three minutes.

This was reality, not a novel.

There was no corpse-dissolving liquid from martial arts novels in this world, no liquid that could turn a person into a pool of toxic water in an instant with just a few drops.

As far as Lin Yi knew, even highly concentrated sulfuric acid could not reduce a person to liquid in such a short time.

And when the officers had questioned him earlier, they had repeatedly, whether intentionally or not, asked whether Liu Hong had left anything with him.

Clearly, the two officers knew something about Liu Hong's sudden death and transformation into pus. They knew certain inside details.

Standing by the roadside, Lin Yi let the cold wind blow over him for a while. His thoughts gradually cleared, and he prepared to call a ride home.

But as soon as he turned his Phone's sound back on, Lin Yi noticed that messages were flooding the Workshop's gold farming group chat.

"...What exactly happened? Why did Brother Hong suddenly die?"

"No idea. Ask the people who went to dinner with him."

"Maybe he was poisoned, or ate something bad..."

"Poisoned? What a joke. What kind of poisoning turns someone into a puddle of pus and makes them stink so badly? I threw up on the spot."

"I think he was cursed, or maybe Brother Hong offended someone he shouldn't have and got hit with a gu curse. This kind of thing is common in novels..."

"Stop talking nonsense. What did the Police say?"

"Even if the Police know something, they wouldn't tell us. Brothers, now that Brother Hong is gone, I'm worried about whether our Vast Studio can keep operating. I still don't know where this month's meal money is coming from..."

"No idea. Ask Brother Yi. But Brother Yi seems to still be in the Interrogation Room. He probably hasn't come out yet."

After reading the messages in the group, Lin Yi thought for a moment and sent a message. "Old Liu had an accident. Put Workshop jobs on hold for two days. Wages will still be paid for these two days. Everyone, take a two-day break."

"Thanks, Brother Yi!"

"Thanks, Brother Yi!"

More than a dozen messages flooded the chat. Lin Yi sighed softly. With Old Liu gone, he did not know whether this game Workshop could continue operating.

The next day, at the Linhe City police station, Liu Hong's death was being discussed in a confidential meeting room.

If Lin Yi had been there, he would have discovered that the two Police officers who had questioned him yesterday were both present.

A stern middle-aged man with a square face asked, "Have you determined the cause of Liu Hong's death?"

A young officer at the table said, "Our preliminary judgment is that it was the Hidden Poison of a level-six monster, the Snake Bird. After a player is poisoned by Hidden Poison, there are no obvious bodily abnormalities, and there won't be any prompt on their Data Panel. But if the player consumes certain special ingredients, the Hidden Poison will suddenly flare up and can kill within minutes."

"According to our investigation, there was a plate of pig brains at the Hotpot Restaurant where Liu Hong had dinner, and pig brains are one of the triggers for a Hidden Poison outbreak..."

The square-faced officer looked over the materials in his hand, nodded, and asked, "Can we determine Liu Hong's character in the game?"

The young officer said, "Not yet. At present, we have limited Intelligence personnel, and the Apocalypse Game map is too vast. We cannot access most Novice Villages, nor can we investigate their locations. Moreover, level-six Bird Snakes are widely distributed throughout the Apocalypse Game. Bird Snakes appear in basically any forested environment, so we cannot determine Liu Hong's character identity based on Bird Snakes alone."

"However, since Liu Hong was poisoned by a Bird Snake and still returned safely from the game, he clearly had the ability to confront Bird Snakes head-on. His level was at least six..."

The square-faced officer turned and asked, "Old Wang, Old Zhang, did you find anything?"

Old Wang and Old Zhang were the officers who had taken Lin Yi's statement.

Old Zhang spoke up. "Captain, we investigated Liu Hong's social connections. Liu Hong divorced his wife years ago, and his only immediate family member is his son, Liu Bo. However, Liu Bo has attended high school in neighboring Qingshan City year-round and only comes back during holidays... Other than that, we searched Liu Hong's residence and found nothing significant."

The square-faced officer frowned. "What do you mean by nothing significant? What did you find?"

"We discovered that Liu Hong seemed to be a Black Card Alliance member. He had several unregistered bank cards containing over three million in total. Ninety percent of those funds came from Zhao Yilong, who is also a Black Card Alliance member."

At the mention of Zhao Yilong's name, the young officer raised his brows. "Zhao Yilong again. Several recent real-world deaths involving Apocalypse players have been connected to him. The Black Card organization really is a cancer."

The square-faced officer asked, "Did you find the Invitation Code? Logically, after Liu Hong died, his Invitation Code should have manifested."

Old Wang said, "No. We searched through all of Liu Hong's belongings and didn't find his Invitation Code. Captain, should Old Zhang and I go to neighboring Qingshan City today? Liu Hong's Invitation Code might be with his son."

Considering the value and importance of an Invitation Code, the square-faced officer nodded. "All right. Set out once the meeting ends. Also, send someone to check out Liu Hong's Workshop."

After the meeting ended, the square-faced officer silently studied the documents in his hands.

His name was Zhang Baichuan. He was a team leader specially dispatched from Capital City, specifically responsible for all cases related to Heavenly Revelation in Linhe City.

About half a year ago, a game called Heavenly Revelation had appeared across the globe. Its origins were mysterious, and no one knew where it had come from.

However, it was said that anyone who obtained a Heavenly Revelation Invitation Code could enter Heavenly Revelation's game world and become a player.

Most importantly, the abilities players gained in the game world could be synchronized to reality.

In the past, Zhang Baichuan, who came from a military background, would naturally have scoffed at such a thing and never believed it.

But one month ago, he had obtained an Invitation Code and successfully entered the Apocalypse Game world.

From that point on, his original worldview had collapsed.

In the confidential meeting room, Zhang Baichuan lit a cigarette and smoked quietly, his expression grave.

That game world... how should he put it?

Three words: extremely dangerous!

When players first entered Apocalypse World, they would randomly descend into a Novice Village in that world. The outskirts of every Novice Village were filled with vicious monsters and bizarre Spiritual Objects.

Even the weakest monsters around a Novice Village were comparable to tigers, leopards, wolves, and jackals in reality. Yet players could only rely on their bare hands and the Constitution projected from reality to struggle in the game world.

Even special forces soldiers like him, who had undergone specialized national training, could suddenly die in the game. Ordinary people went without saying.

If anyone treated Apocalypse World as an ordinary game, they would definitely die a miserable death.

After finishing his cigarette, Zhang Baichuan sighed softly, then rolled up his sleeve to reveal a string of golden code markings around his wrist.

These codes were not any language from Earth. Their origins were mysterious. They were the Invitation Code for the Apocalypse Game world.

Then Zhang Baichuan gently brushed the golden code markings with his fingers. The next moment, his body flickered, and he vanished from the real world.