The messages left on the phone in the game matched the real-world cases, which only deepened Fan Cong's terror: "I checked all the news reports. They said the body was wrapped in a black bag, the time of death was around September seventh, and the body was dumped very close to Liwan Town."
"You came to find me because of this case?"
"I didn't dare. The cases this game involves go far beyond just this one." Even Chen Ge was somewhat surprised by Fan Cong's words.
"More than one case?" Chen Ge gestured for Fan Cong to continue.
"After I controlled Xiao Bu and obtained the phone, there were no more prompts. The bus soon arrived at Liwan Town. After getting off, the woman in the red raincoat chased after me, but this time things changed." Fan Cong frowned. "It might have been a small bug—after the character Xiao Bu handed the student's backpack to the woman in the red raincoat, that madwoman stopped chasing us. She hugged the backpack the way a mother would hold her child and left."
What Fan Cong didn't understand, Chen Ge did know the reason for. Perhaps the owner of that backpack had once saved the red raincoat woman's child on the bus, which was why she had chosen to let Xiao Bu go upon seeing it.
Last night, Xiao Gu had stumbled into the same situation by pure luck and survived because of it.
The woman in the red raincoat was very likely a Red-robed ghost, but she was different from the usual ones. Beneath her brutal, ferocious exterior lay an obsession with her own child—a fierce, irreplaceable kind of love.
"After the woman in the red raincoat left, I controlled Xiao Bu to enter Liwan Town again. I wasn't chased anymore, and I felt quite relaxed at the time. But once inside the town, I realized I'd been far too naive. I'd underestimated the game developer's depravity, and I'd underestimated the evil of human nature." As Fan Cong spoke, his eyes reddened—what came next had clearly disturbed him deeply.
"After Xiao Bu got off, the bus drove off into the distance. Children's crying and all sorts of screams still came from inside it. I don't know where that bus ended up. From Xiao Bu's perspective, the bus was finally swallowed by a layer of gray fog and disappeared at the edge of the town. To me, it looked more like a special bus for transporting the dead—delivering the wrongfully deceased to some specific place."
Fan Cong's voice was very low. It was clearly midday, the hottest part of the afternoon, yet he seemed freezing, his body trembling slightly as he spoke. "After the bus drove away, I directed Xiao Bu forward, deeper into Liwan Town."
"This time there was no chase from the woman in the red raincoat, and I wandered the town at my leisure."
"The gray streets were shrouded in thick fog, and all the buildings on both sides were a deathly gray. Walking through the middle felt like being in another world."
"There wasn't a single person in sight. All the shops were closed, and every household's door was pasted with white paper covered in strange symbols."
"The whole scene felt like a nightmare. I saw a lot of symbolic things on the buildings—bizarre, terrifying patterns everywhere." Fan Cong sank into his fear, the kind that bystanders could hardly comprehend.
"Don't be nervous. Just tell me what you saw," Chen Ge reassured him.
"I controlled Xiao Bu to the center of the street, and another prompt appeared on the screen, asking me to choose: East Street or West Street?"
"How did you choose?" Chen Ge had personally visited Liwan Town while dealing with the phone ghost. He knew full well the difference between the East Street and the West Street of Liwan Town.
"I chose West Street—it looked more prosperous." Fan Cong gave a bitter smile, as though the nightmare had truly begun at that moment. "After confirming my choice, I controlled Xiao Bu to enter West Street. All the shops on both sides were shuttered, the street completely deserted. I kept walking straight ahead until I reached a residential compound."
"The compound seemed quite old—peeling walls, every window in the buildings tightly shut, though I could see eyes peering out from behind the glass."
"Those eyes seemed to be something Xiao Bu had imagined, or perhaps they carried some deeper meaning. They clearly watched Xiao Bu pass by the entrance of the compound."
"As I controlled Xiao Bu past the compound, a chat box popped up at the bottom of the screen with a single line: Xiao Bu feels like someone is watching her. The gaze is like a wild beast's, as if it wants to swallow her whole, skin and bones and all."
"I tapped the screen again, and the dialogue box disappeared. A middle-aged man walked out of the compound—slovenly dressed, seemingly drunk."
"As the man approached Xiao Bu, the dialogue box reappeared: The man is walking over. He's holding a bottle, and there are bloodstains on his pants."
"I controlled Xiao Bu to dodge the drunkard and tried to run, but the drunkard gave chase. I had no choice but to keep fleeing, circling the residential compound without shaking him off. Finally, I thought that the most dangerous place is the safest place, and steeled myself to hide inside the compound."
"The drunkard loitered at the compound's entrance. Then another girl walked out of the residential building. She seemed afraid of the drunkard too and ran out quickly, but the drunkard had apparently been consumed by the alcohol—he followed right behind her."
"A few minutes later, the drunkard dragged the girl back into the compound and disappeared into one of the stairwells."
"Then another prompt appeared on the screen: Follow the drunkard into the stairwell?"
"I wanted to save the girl, so I chose to follow. But what came next… I truly couldn't accept it." Fan Cong could barely continue. "I controlled Xiao Bu to follow the drunkard into the stairwell, to Room 104. Another line of text appeared at the bottom of the screen: You watch with your own eyes as Xiao Bu is turned into a clay sculpture. Frozen in terror, your body cannot move."
"Xiao Bu?"
"Yes. All the victims in the game seem to be called Xiao Bu."
"Understood. What happened after that?"
"This damn game constantly challenges everything you believe in. All I could do was watch helplessly as the drunkard approached. Then another line appeared on the screen: Xiao Bu is filled with cement, becoming the artist's newest masterpiece."
Fan Cong paused at that point. He looked up, his eyes bloodshot: "With the experience from before, the moment Xiao Bu died, I immediately started searching the news. And just as I'd guessed—on October eleventh of last year, a special artwork was discovered in Room 104 of a residential compound on West Street of Liwan Town! The culprit has already been arrested, but the police didn't arrest the artist—they arrested the tenant of Room 104, the landlord."
"They caught the wrong person?"
"That's what the game's results showed. I reported it anonymously once before, but nothing came of it." Fan Cong's face was drawn tight. There were still more horrifying things he hadn't yet spoken of.
"Two murders—this involves far too much." The more Chen Ge listened, the more he felt this game was anything but ordinary.