Volume 1. Let the Game Begin
Not to mention Liu Yunyan, who was planning to ruin herself with a random man just to rebel against her father, even among the other uncles and aunts' families, there were hardly any children to rely on.
Either they had been spoiled since childhood, or they had been left to grow up wild because the family had no time to properly raise them.
As a result, when the few members of Liu Wanqian's generation gathered together... they all wore worried and gloomy expressions.
Sigh... the old saying was true, the ancients did not deceive me.
I shook my head and tossed these thoughts aside.
The important thing now was... where were we moving to this time?
Were we going back to the main mansion, or moving into an apartment somewhere in the city?
If we were going back to the main mansion, it would be a bit troublesome.
No matter how rich one was, nobody would spend billions just to buy a plot of land in the city to build a few acres of gardens.
Even with all their wealth, the Liu Family wouldn't waste money like that, and Liu Wanqian wasn't that kind of person either.
Therefore, the family’s main mansion was located in a rather remote area outside the city, surrounded by mountains on three sides, with a river in front.
All the surrounding mountains and forests were leased by the Liu Family, mostly planted with fruit trees.
Although the mansion lacked for nothing, and even the internet connection was specially laid with fiber optic cables at a considerable cost, the transportation there was really inconvenient.
So Liu Yunyan’s family also owned several houses in the city, though they rarely stayed in them.
After all, whether it was Liu Wanqian or Gong Lianyu, they were usually busy with work.
Liu Yunyan’s younger brother and sister attended school on schedule, with dedicated drivers for drop-off and pick-up, and the household had hired help for daily care.
"We're going to the countryside, to your family's mansion."
"Don’t worry, I’ll go with you."
"Sister Gong said that once your injuries have healed, you can return to school."
"There's no rush over there... in a few days, they’ll arrange a private tutor to catch you up on lessons."
While Aunt Zhao spoke, she continued packing the luggage.
Sigh... hearing Aunt Zhao say that, I immediately felt a surge of resentment towards the rich...
Damn tycoons!
Fine then, moving was moving, anywhere was better than this hospital.
With that thought, I said no more, instead turning to look out the window.
The sunlight today was surprisingly good.
Although it was already winter, outside looked warm and inviting.
Speaking of which... the words of those two police officers earlier still lingered in my mind.
Fang Zheng... the person whose soul I devoured at around 12:20, had apparently started killing at precisely 12:00 in the real world.
This was a very strange situation.
Listen carefully... when I encountered Fang Zheng, it should have been around 12:17.
However, on the real world’s surveillance footage, Fang Zheng was seen leaving his room and beginning his killing spree exactly at midnight.
The moment Fang Zheng became brain-dead should have been when I pulled out his soul and ate it, which was around 12:20.
Yet at that time, in the real world, Fang Zheng was standing outside my door.
By the laws of physics, this simply couldn’t be explained.
The only possibility was... time had fallen into chaos.
If the flow of time were a straight line, then at the moment of switching between the real world and the interdimensional space, time had become disordered.
Normal people would find it very hard to comprehend this issue mentally.
Time in the real world moved in a straight line.
However... at the instant the world switched, that straight line changed... breaking into many disconnected, disordered fragments.
From this, it was roughly possible to explain why Fang Zheng, although dead at 12:20 in the interdimensional space, had started killing at midnight in the real world.
Judging from the order of deaths, Fang Zheng should have been the third to die.
Yet in the real world, Fang Zheng’s death came last.
In other words, from the moment of midnight, time between the real world and the interdimensional space entered into a state of confusion.
And the one killing in the real world was definitely not Fang Zheng.
Some bizarre force had entered the real world through the temporal disorder after I killed Fang Zheng.
Following the death sequence from the interdimensional space, it began killing in the real world.
From this point, it could be seen that time in the real world and the interdimensional space was neither equivalent nor parallel.
It felt more like the interdimensional space was beginning to influence the real world.
Fang Zheng, killed by me at 12:20 in the interdimensional space, experienced a time reversal to 12:00 upon returning to the real world.
There, he was controlled by some strange force and started killing.
The timing of the murders perfectly matched the deaths in the game.
After killing the players who died in the game, Fang Zheng returned to his room.
There was a period during which he stood silently at my hospital room door for ten minutes... perhaps during that time, I was fighting the goat-headed monster.
And Fang Zheng was waiting for me to die in the interdimensional space, so he could kill me in the real world according to physical laws.
Since all player deaths were reported by the APP, I could also clearly understand the goat-headed monster’s killing route.
Fang Zheng’s killing route matched exactly.
After I escaped from the goat-headed monster, Fang Zheng turned to kill the other players who had been killed by it, using exactly the same method.
This was... extremely bizarre.
However... if judged by appearances, it would simply seem like a mentally ill patient went crazy, killed people, then attempted suicide by taking medicine, ending up as a vegetable.
No one else could understand it as thoroughly as I did.
Even fewer people knew about the interdimensional space.
What everyone saw was merely Fang Zheng killing people... then bizarrely standing in front of a hospital room door for ten minutes, before continuing his slaughter.
The thoughts of the mentally ill were incomprehensible.
Put simply... it was just a very simple massacre.
As for why Fang Zheng wasn’t spotted by anyone, although the coincidences seemed too perfect... the evidence captured on video was undeniable.
The video clearly recorded Fang Zheng’s figure, and also caught the medical staff.
Although the medical staff didn’t see Fang Zheng walking down the hallway for various reasons, and Fang Zheng didn’t take the opportunity to attack them either... who could explain the actions of the mentally ill?
As for connecting the victims by identity... it was almost impossible.
The victims had no connection to each other.
Some were patients, some were doctors and nurses.
Among them, some might have been internal medicine patients, and some were orthopedic doctors.
They probably had never even met, let alone known each other.
There was absolutely no link between them.
The only explanation... was that Fang Zheng’s mental state suddenly became abnormal.
Then he grabbed a knife and started killing, and finally committed suicide.
In other words, although this incident was bloody and somewhat bizarre in certain aspects, such as the doctor who fell from the fifteenth floor, aside from that, there were almost no flaws to be found.
Moreover, the police would not disclose such a terrifying event to the public.
At most, they would issue a notice saying the case had been solved and then archive it.
Every year, there were nine million deaths from various accidents and natural causes.
Although these seven people were murdered... no one would dig too deeply.
After all, the murderer had been found, the suicide note had been found, and for a mentally ill person’s killing spree... did a mentally ill person even need a reason?
The private hospital didn’t want the matter to blow up.
The police didn’t want it to blow up either.
Naturally, they would block the media from reporting it.
Given time, maybe a year or two later, this event would slowly turn into a casual topic of conversation.
Unsurprisingly, the incident made it online.
But... how many people truly understood what had happened?
Forget about the details.
Most people only heard that there was a mental patient at the hospital who went on a killing spree.
Would the police tell people... the methods used in the murders?
Then a simple notice would be issued, and the matter would basically settle down.
The killer had been identified.
The suicide note served as a confession.
Although many news articles and discussions about mental illness-related killings popped up online, once the buzz died down, these too would be buried under a sea of entertainment news, disappearing into history.
Looking at the online discussions, I couldn’t help but shake my head.
What did they know??
There were even discussion posts about something called the "X Cult", claiming that Fang Zheng had previously joined it, speaking with apparent authority.
Netizens then started discussing the dangers of X Cult, ending with warnings to others not to be superstitious, and that was it.
The matter didn’t even make it onto trending topics before it was suppressed.
What could I say?
Could I say that this was caused by a game APP?
Not to mention that the APP prohibited me from revealing anything about the game, even if I were allowed to speak... who would believe me?
There was video evidence.
There was a suicide note.
If I spoke to the police or posted it online, the former would send me to a mental hospital, and the latter would definitely invite me for “tea” (questioning).
I didn’t want Liu Yunyan’s second uncle to personally come and bail me out...
Seeing Aunt Zhao finish packing, the person who was coming to pick us up soon arrived downstairs.
I leaned on my crutch.
Aunt Zhao carried the suitcase.
We left the room together.
What left a deep impression on me was not the corridor in the real world, but the corridor from the interdimensional space.
That place was rotten and decayed, and the entire space was filled with a strange smell.
Leaning on my crutch, I stepped into the elevator.
After going downstairs, I saw a car.
It was a BMW 740 Luxury Edition, with an on-road price of about 1.1 million yuan.
Although Gong Lianyu and Liu Wanqian were not short on money, they were still quite practical.
Despite having tens of billions in assets, they still drove this kind of mid-to-high-end car.
Of course, in Liu Yunyan’s memory, there were also a few luxury cars.
But those were mainly for reception and business purposes.
Simply put, they were for appearances.
Normally, they used cars priced between 500,000 and 1.2 million yuan at most.
"Young Miss."
Approaching me was a tall woman in her early twenties, wearing light makeup and a gray business suit.
She was one of Gong Lianyu’s personal secretaries.
Searching through Liu Yunyan’s memory, I recalled her name and nodded.
"Thank you, Sister Sisi."
Wang Sisi, one of Gong Lianyu’s seven personal secretaries.
Among them, she was the one I saw the most.
When Wang Sisi first approached, she wore a polite smile.
But no matter how you looked at it, it was clearly a business smile.
However, when I called her "Sister Sisi," a look of astonishment immediately appeared on her face.
It was... an expression of complete disbelief, as if her worldview had been overturned.
Alright, I understood.
After all... the previous Liu Yunyan, with her princess syndrome and spoiled attitude, would never have said something like "Sister Sisi", let alone "Thank you”.
Liu Yunyan... was indeed a little brat back then.
Ignoring Wang Sisi’s near mental breakdown, I calmly walked past her.
I struggled to open the car door by myself and got into the BMW.
I glanced at Wang Sisi, who was still frozen in place.
"Don’t just stand there. Let’s go home."
"Aunt Zhao, get in from the other side."