Chapter 7: Do You Believe in the Strange?

"Sorry, sorry, I thought it was the delivery. Come in, come in."

Su Qi warmly welcomed the two into his home.

The young man walked in, sitting down on the sofa beside him, his gaze suddenly falling on the game pod in the living room.

He was slightly taken aback, and after exchanging a glance with Liu Yishou, he said,

"Do you play Abyss Paradise?"

"Of course, the game is quite interesting."

The young man asked, "You must have played it once, right? Did you complete it? What was your score?"

"How can I put it? It's both completed and not completed. As for the score, I don't know." Su Qi took three bottles of cola from the fridge and placed them in front of the two. "But, isn't this a bit off-topic? How does this relate to my personal safety?"

Liu Yishou extended his hand, took a photo from his pocket, and handed it over.

"Let's not beat around the bush. Look at this first."

The photo showed a tattoo pattern, with a circle in the middle, inside which were strange lines, resembling vertical pupils, and a ring of flames around the circle.

Su Qi squinted. "I seem to have seen this somewhere."

"It's on the murderer's body," the young man said. "This photo was taken from his body."

Su Qi didn't deny it, but he felt that the ritual the old priest completed in the church of the副本 town was somewhat similar to this.

He asked, "So what does this represent?"

"It represents a certain evil belief. Look at this first." Liu Yishou seemed to know something but was unwilling to say more. He took out his phone, entered the password, and opened a video.

The video showed an isolated prison cell, where a man wrapped in bandages was lying on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

Su Qi naturally recognized him as the murderer.

"He woke up the day he was released from the hospital, but he was in a dazed state, not responding to anyone. Then something strange happened. I have to warn you, this footage might be disturbing."

In the video,

The man's eyes suddenly widened, and his body began to tremble violently as if possessed by some force. The restraints on his body were stretched to a considerable length, showing the immense strength.

Then his body trembled even more violently, and the guards couldn't hold him down.

Finally, he broke free from the restraints.

He jumped off the bed and slammed into the wall.

"Bang!"

The wall was covered in red.

The video ended there.

Liu Yishou had been observing Su Qi's expression, but he found that the latter was not particularly affected by the bloody scene in the video.

After watching, Su Qi asked curiously, "What's wrong with him?"

"This isn't just a fit," the young man said softly, his expression serious and his gaze stern. "Do you believe in the strange?"

Su Qi didn't answer immediately. "Tell me more first."

The young man slowly said, "First, you need to understand that the world is not as simple as you think. As you saw in the video, the strange and corrupting power can destroy a person's mind through its terrifying influence."

The young man continued, "This power is not baseless; it is filled with terrible evil."

"Although it may sound abstract and hard to accept, this strange force might come after you, given your connection to this person."

Su Qi pointed at the phone screen. "Are you saying I might end up like this, mentally breaking down and slamming into the wall?"

The young man nodded and added, "Of course, you might also jump from a building or stab yourself. It depends on your first choice after the breakdown."

Su Qi's expression didn't show any fear or tension. He clicked his tongue. "Pretty smart."

The young man was puzzled. "Aren't you afraid, or don't you believe it?"

"Believe it. Why wouldn't I believe two official investigators coming to my door?"

Su Qi glanced at the question mark above the young man's head. He had known this person's identity from the start.

[Member of Department 9, Xu Linqiu]

He said, "But you two must have come for more than just to inform me of my death. There must be other ways to handle it, right?"

The young man nodded. "Of course, you're not the first ordinary person to be targeted."

"However,"

He paused and pointed at the game pod in the living room. "It seems you've already found a solution."

Su Qi was taken aback, his expression changing. "You mean Abyss Paradise? Is this game connected to the strange forces in the real world?"

If this were true, it would make a significant difference for Su Qi.

"You can think of it that way. To escape the strange, you should focus more on your mental strength. Also,"

The young man changed the subject. "Because you showed potential in the previous case and seem to be entangled by the strange, so—"

The young man handed over a card.

"Like other ordinary people in similar situations, we are offering you an opportunity."

He paused and said,

"An opportunity to see the other side of the world."

---

Half an hour later.

Xu Linqiu and Liu Yishou had already driven back to the investigation bureau.

Liu Yishou lit a cigarette and said, "We've contacted about a hundred new recruits, but I feel this guy is pretty good."

"Is that good enough?" Xu Linqiu flipped through the file. "Liu, you don't even know him well, or his performance in the game, and you're already so optimistic?"

Liu Yishou laughed. "Although I just transferred to your department, I'm good at reading people. It's years of experience. I think he's the one."

Xu Linqiu shook his head.

"Among the data we have, only fewer than ten people have cleared the difficult mode three times and scored over 80 points."

"Liu, you've experienced the difficult mode twice, so you know how hard it is. The difficult mode already has a 50% failure rate, let alone the nightmare mode."

He paused. "We'll see how it goes."

At that moment,

The office door opened.

A steady step entered from the doorway.

Xu Linqiu saw the person and immediately became more formal. "Teacher, you're back."

Liu Yishou also stood up from his seat. Since leaving the hospital, he had submitted an application, which was surprisingly approved, and in the past few days, he had encountered many unimaginable things.

The middle-aged man rubbed his eyes, looking tired. "Are you done?"

"Yes, we're observing some promising new recruits," Xu Linqiu replied. He suddenly noticed the middle-aged man's furrowed brows and tense expression.

He asked, "Teacher, has something happened?"

The middle-aged man's gaze was deep, and his tone was not good. "Just an hour ago, there was a big commotion in Paradise."

"The terrifying existence in the Abyss suddenly burst out with a terrifying force, though the reason is unknown and it has been contained, it clearly caused significant turmoil, affecting many people with insufficient mental strength."

Xu Linqiu quickly asked, "How serious is it?"

"It's under control, but there's a strange point—the target of that force was actually the 6823765 instance, a very ordinary low-level world."

"Why was it targeted?" Xu Linqiu was taken aback.

"We don't know. The data from there has been erased, and Paradise can't detect it. However, the Black God Guard has already gone to investigate and should have news soon."

Xu Linqiu couldn't contain himself. "I want to help."

"Your combat strength is strong, but your mental strength is insufficient. That world is already at the highest level of contamination. No," the middle-aged man's expression was stern, and he directly refused.

"But—"

Xu Linqiu was about to argue, mentioning his mental strength items, but he met the middle-aged man's serious gaze and had to lower his head.

Liu Yishou, seeing the silent atmosphere, asked to break the silence, "Is mental strength really that important? I've only experienced a few instances, and none of them required mental strength."

Xu Linqiu sat down, opened a tablet, and found an internal statistic. "You can look at this. This is the success rate for each difficulty level after the public beta test."

[Normal Instance, Success Rate 78%]

[Difficult Instance, Success Rate 50%]

[Nightmare Instance, Success Rate 9%]

Below was another statistic.

[All Contaminated Instances, Success Rate 1%]

Liu Yishou was slightly stunned. "What are contaminated instances?"

"Contaminated instances are directly linked to mental strength."

The middle-aged man seemed to see into the distant future and said,

"Although no one takes it seriously now, once they enter Paradise, they will understand."

"The importance of mental strength."

In reality, the plot won't be too extensive, mainly focusing on the game. Rest assured.

(End of Chapter)