Chapter 288: Probing

On April 18th, Qi Si originally planned to sleep in and then lie in bed all day, preferably rotting to death in his quilt.

As a result, at exactly nine o’clock in the morning, not a second more or less, the phone rang eerily.

“Sunday is gloomy, My hours are slumberless…”

“Gloomy Sunday,” a banned song rumored to carry a death curse, was a perfect match for a non-human creature like Qi Si who lacked vitality.

He had casually added it to his music library back in junior high when he was extensively collecting dark and grotesque art. As for why he continued to use this “internet-famous song” as a ringtone after his chuunibyou phase, it could only be called a habit.

In a sense, he was a “nostalgic” person, very resistant to change within his own controlled territory because change meant trouble.

Like a venomous snake that sees through infrared, if it discovered one day that a giant rock had been added or a tree removed from its environment, it would inevitably be restless for a long time.

The phone rang tirelessly; it seemed it wasn’t a wrong number.

Qi Si successfully shook off his sleepiness, picked up his phone, and glanced at it; it was Jin Yusheng.

He pressed the answer button, and Jin Yusheng’s slightly nervous voice came through low: “Old Qi, someone’s looking for you.”

Qi Si detected the unnaturalness in his tone and narrowed his eyes slightly: “Oh? Are you being held hostage? Why not just give him my address and let him come over for a chat?”

“No need.” The voice on the other end changed to a clear female voice that sounded quite familiar, “Let’s talk directly over the phone, Vice Guild Master Si Qi.”

Qi Si smiled, revealing a row of white teeth: “Xu Ning, someone from the Eerie Investigation Bureau? Looking for me at this hour, you must represent Kyushu.”

The female voice on the phone took on a hint of a smile: “It seems you know something about us, and even used some means to investigate me.”

“You’re overthinking it.” Qi Si sat up from the bed, casually grabbing a pen to fiddle with in his hand, “I just happened to learn some information by chance and made a few associations. I didn’t expect you to admit it so readily.”

“It’s clear you don’t plan to hide anymore. The fire on the forum will keep burning until the day of the Exchange Conference, right?”

“That’s not something at my level to deal with,” the female voice said. “Let me re-introduce myself. My name is Ning Xu, ‘Ning’ as in ‘willingly’ and ‘Xu’ as in ‘willow catkin.’ I’m an Investigator for the Second Office of the Jiangcheng Branch of the Eerie Investigation Bureau, and also a member of the preparatory committee for this session’s Guild Exchange Conference.”

“I’m mainly responsible for assisting, contacting various guilds, and finalizing the attendee list. Your Unnamed Guild has been invited and has two slots. Will both you and Lin Chen be going?”

“Lin Chen?” Qi Si repeated the name in a questioning tone, pondered for a moment, and then acted as if he had just realized something. “You don’t think our guild master, Lin Crow, is Lin Chen, do you?”

Ning Xu smiled and asked back, “Isn’t he? You and he were teammates in the Rose Manor instance. Meeting again after becoming official players and forming a guild together couldn’t be more convenient.”

“Then I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed.” Qi Si’s expression remained unchanged. “There are so many people in the Eerie Game, and without team items, the chance of meeting again in random matchmaking is nearly zero.”

“Even if there really were such fate and we met again, I wouldn’t want to have too much contact with him. I’ve always preferred to think the worst of people. As a rising star of tomorrow, Lin Chen probably wouldn’t want to see me again, who has seen him in his weak state.”

Ning Xu’s smile didn’t fade: “I’m afraid Lin Chen doesn’t think so. As far as I know, he is simple-natured, grateful, and trusts and relies on you very much.”

“Since you know him, why don’t you go ask him directly?” Qi Si pushed the question back. “People change. I read on the forum that he became a slaughter-path player after some kind of stimulation.”

“First, he teamed up with someone named Cheng An to trap other players to death, then he permanently closed the Wraith instance. Even I just want to keep a respectful distance from him.”

Ning Xu sighed: “I don’t know him personally; I’ve just watched a few of his livestreams.”

“The image in a livestream can be faked,” Qi Si said with a smile. “Fu Jue acted so upright and honorable, but didn’t the facts prove he’s just a hypocritical conspirator?”

“Although I’m not in charge of publicity, I still want to say, you’ve all misunderstood him.” Ning Xu’s tone became imperceptibly stiffer. “And, although I don’t know Lin Chen, I’ve heard about him from people who do.”

“It’s Chang Xu, isn’t it?” Qi Si asked casually. “Since Rose Manor was mentioned, it stands to reason it would be him.”

“You know more than I imagined.”

“I can only say your confidentiality training is too poor.”

“…”

After a long silence, Qi Si smiled nonchalantly and said, “Both I and our guild master will be going. He’s long wanted to see what that God Fu is capable of. Give the phone back to Jin Yusheng; I want to say a few words to him.”

Sounds of footsteps, a door opening and closing, followed by the sound of silent breathing.

Qi Si minimized the call interface, clicked into level 3,723 of happy match, and began to play unhurriedly.

Only after he finished a round did Jin Yusheng’s voice ring out hesitantly: “Old Qi, I failed you this time, but that woman was so fierce, pointing a gun at my head. I didn’t dare disobey… By the way, what did she say to you? I couldn’t understand a word.”

“Nothing,” Qi Si said. “Are you going to the guild Exchange Conference on the 20th?”

The voice on the other end went blank for a moment, like a malfunctioning appliance suddenly cutting out.

Two seconds later, Jin Yusheng asked confusedly, “What did you just say? I suddenly went deaf and didn’t hear clearly.”

“I said—I bought you a box of oranges; keep an eye out for them over the next few days.”

Qi Si dropped the sentence, casually hung up, turned off his phone, and tossed it aside.

He lay back on the bed, closed his eyes, and entered the Game Space.

Things were getting interesting. The Eerie Investigation Bureau had indeed taken the bait he threw out, establishing a further connection with him in reality.

They wanted to test some things, and he had paid them back in kind, testing them in return.

He just didn’t know when the negotiation table between him and the Eerie Investigation Bureau would be set up… At Jiangcheng University, Lin Chen huddled alone in his dorm, browsing posts on the game forum.

The forum had been a mixed bag over the past few days, with true and false news flying everywhere, which wasn’t conducive to gathering information. He didn’t intend to gather information at this time anyway.

The computer screen showed an open post—

#Shocking Discovery! That man named “Lin Chen” has blown up two instances in a row!#

The deductions in the post were slightly off but led to a completely wrong conclusion; even Lin Chen himself didn’t know he was so powerful.

He didn’t even know how he became the MVP of the Wraith instance. Clearly, Qi Si was the one doing all the work from start to finish, and he was just a bystander… He had intended to send a text to ask Qi Si, but felt it might seem like he was being ungrateful after getting a bargain, so he eventually dropped the idea, still completely baffled.

Lin Chen closed the post, giving up on telling the poster that he was just a noob and was also bewildered by the sudden fame.

Once people decided on something, no amount of explanation could change their impression; it would only make things worse.

He hung his campus card around his neck, put on his backpack, and prepared to devote his limited life to the vast library, brushing up on some literature, history, and geography books.

Qi Si’s voice rang out in his mind without warning: “Lin Chen, change my phone number’s contact name to ‘Cheng An’.”

Lin Chen’s hand shook. Before he could be surprised that the transmission effect of the Team Ring could work in reality, he heard hurried footsteps outside, clearly heading for his dorm room.

In the past, he would have thought his roommates had skipped class and come back early, but now, combined with Qi Si’s transmission, he quickly realized—something had happened.

A “thump-thump” knocking sounded.

Lin Chen quickly picked up his phone, changed the contact name, put it back, turned the doorknob, and opened the door.

Two men in police uniforms stood at the door, one with weathered eyes and middle-aged, the other serious and still young.

The middle-aged man showed Lin Chen his ID, and as soon as he spoke, it was with a Beijing accent: “Fei Zhenqi from the Criminal Investigation Detachment of the Jiangcheng Security Bureau. I want to ask you a few things. Hope we’re not intruding?”

At the same time, Qi Si said in a chilly voice: “Don’t let them know you are Lin Crow.”

Lin Chen’s mind was a mess as he dazedly let the two officers into the dorm.

The middle-aged officer named Fei Zhenqi smiled at him friendly: “Don’t be nervous, sit down. We’re just here to understand some circumstances.”

Lin Chen sat back at his computer desk blankly.

Fei Zhenqi familiarly glanced at the computer screen: “Oh, looking at the forum? It’s been quite lively there these past few days.”

He might have been trying to build rapport, or he might have been warning him.

Lin Chen felt the blood in his entire body go cold.

Being able to see the existence of the Eerie Game forum meant that Fei Zhenqi was also a player.

He had never met another player in reality before. The deepest connection he had established was just exchanging phone numbers with Qi Si… He always felt that the Eerie Game and reality were two different tracks; although they influenced each other, it didn’t affect him personally.

And now, the two tracks had intersected before his eyes… “Let’s save time and keep it short,” Fei Zhenqi patted Lin Chen’s shoulder and handed him a cigarette. “I’ll ask a few questions quickly, and you answer quickly, okay?”

In his mind, Qi Si said calmly: “Answer as I tell you later.”

Lin Chen nodded blankly.

Fei Zhenqi asked: “Do you know Lin Crow?”

“I know him,” Lin Chen’s facial muscles didn’t seem to belong to him, smoothly putting on a look of recollection. “He seems to be the guild master of the newly formed Unnamed Guild.”

“Do you have any relationship with him?”

“No… wait… does having the same surname, Lin, count?”

“Are you the Lin Chen who cleared Frog Hospital?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me exactly what happened.”

“That was a two-track instance. I was on the Green Frog Hospital track, and a big shot named Cheng An was in the Blue Frog Hospital. He said he wanted to cooperate with me; as long as I listened to him, he’d let me clear it alive…”

“What about the Wraith instance?”

“I entered as a team with the big shot Cheng An. He’s very powerful; he basically did most of the puzzle-solving. The solution of ‘everyone turning into Wraiths’ was also proposed by him.”

“He also set a fire in the center of the town, which ended up enraging the core NPC, Master Meng. I didn’t expect the NPC to sneak attack him even after the main quest was completed…”

“How did Luo Haihua and Luo Jianhua die?”

“They… died? I only know they knocked over the lanterns and went to another space. I thought they were still alive…”

“What about Tang Yu?”

“Brother Tang… to help us all complete the main quest of killing the Tiger Demon, he gave up becoming a Wraith and instead committed suicide to become a Zhan. After the Tiger Demon died, he also disappeared…”

A series of questions pelted down. Lin Chen felt as if his soul had left his body, floating on the ceiling and blankly watching the physical body below give answers.

From expression to content, there were no flaws. He was the spitting image of an old hand who lied frequently and had summarized a set of experiences.

So… was he a natural-born liar at his core?

Lin Chen couldn’t help but smile bitterly. Deceiving the police now could be considered a subjective violation of the law, right?

Finally, Fei Zhenqi turned back to the young officer who came with him: “Finished asking. No problem at all. Look how scared the kid is. Let’s go.”

The young officer stared suspiciously at Lin Chen, then suddenly stepped forward: “Take out your phone and let me see.”

Lin Chen picked up his phone, unlocked it with his fingerprint, and handed it over.

The young officer clicked into the call logs and scrolled down carefully.

After seeing a number with the contact name 【Cheng An】, he took out a miniature camera, took a photo, and then returned the phone to Lin Chen.

The two of them turned and left, one after the other.

Just as they were about to reach the door, Fei Zhenqi turned back and took the cigarette he had previously handed to the stiff Lin Chen: “I figured you youngsters don’t smoke. I’ll take it back. It’s not great tobacco, but let’s not waste it.”

Lin Chen: “…”

…In the temple-like Game Space, Qi Si sat on a high-backed chair, holding the Sea-God Scepter, coldly watching the two Investigators leave Lin Chen’s dorm and walk out of the building.

As the eerie pollution spread, the sin on him increased day by day, and the divine authority brought by the Sea-God Scepter grew significantly along with it.

Now, as long as he held the scepter, with a slight thought, he could see and hear the scenes and movements within a ten-meter radius of the souls he controlled.

The Eerie Investigation Bureau people finding Lin Chen in reality was unexpected but also within reason.

For one, the Eerie Investigation Bureau was backed by the Federation officials and had access to the identity data of all legal citizens.

Lin Chen had used his real name, registered on the forum, and was a pure and foolish college student in reality; tracking him down couldn’t be easier.

Secondly, the timing of the record’s appearance was too coincidental. Anyone with a bit of associative ability would think Lin Chen and Lin Crow were the same person.

What Qi Si needed to do was make people like Liu Yuhan firmly believe this, thereby shifting the suspicion on him to Lin Chen;

At the same time, he needed to mislead the thinking of Ning Xu, Chang Xu, and the Eerie Investigation Bureau they represented, to prevent the fictional smoke screen from being pierced and blowing his layout to pieces.

Thus, Qi Si directly controlled Lin Chen remotely to deliver a flawless answer to the two Investigators.

Lin Chen only thought his potential had been triggered by danger, causing him to instantly learn how to lie and deceive.

In reality, it was just Qi Si taking over control of his body.

Qi Si discovered that the Soul Contract seemed to imply a hidden ability regarding the subordinates’ Soul Leaves—

Possession.