Chapter 1 Righteous Bai Hao

Bai Haozheng held the heavy metal helmet in his left hand and reached into his hair with his right, gently peeling off the white and black electrode patches attached to his scalp.

Seeing that he was safe and sound, the red warning lights in the sealed room went out, and the inexplicably reassuring white warm light came back on.

*Pa.*

Bai Haozheng placed the metal helmet on the rack next to the operating table and drank the orange-yellow liquid in the glass, delivered by a garbage can-shaped tracked robot—this liquid could alleviate the discomfort of exiting the STEM consciousness synchronization system.

Ever since Bai Haozheng brought Kidou Yukari, the source of the Dolphin Hotel mission world, back to the real world,

the Special Affairs Bureau's research department had begun to treat and study the girl.

The experimental results showed that Kidou Yukari was a natural mind-type esper. She had never received any training, but was born with the ability to amplify her own thoughts and release brainwaves.

This ability, in the real-world plane of the Dolphin Hotel, caused her great misfortune—she was used by the official institutions of that world as a human container to imprison abnormal cataclysms.

Her mind was the prison for all the mutations; she was both the warden and the prisoner.

The Special Affairs Bureau sympathized with and understood Kidou Yukari's situation. They created a special life-support device to heal Kidou Yukari's weakened body,

and used a brainwave focusing device to limit her involuntary release of brainwaves, so that she would no longer be disturbed by the noise of thousands of people's minds.

After a period of recuperation, Kidou Yukari regained her physical and mental health. Through Bai Haozheng, who often visited her, she conveyed to the Special Affairs Bureau her desire to do something for them.

After careful consideration and repeated research, the research institution of the Special Affairs Bureau decided to transfer Kidou Yukari to the Meme Propagation Department and tailor a device for her—the STEM consciousness synchronization system.

The system consists of two parts: the first part allows the esper Kidou Yukari to freely and actively control the range and intensity of her brainwave influence.

The second part makes Kidou Yukari's ability more interactive—she can use the magic circle provided by the Different Studies Society and modern computer processors to pull one or more experimenters wearing brain-machine interface devices

into her mind.

As God on the individual consciousness level, she can solve some problems that are difficult to deal with in the real world—such as healing some members of the Mobile Task Force suffering from severe mental illnesses, or healing patients contaminated by memes.

This ability can also be used in the field of criminal investigation.

As long as the witness is connected to the brain-machine interface device, Kidou Yukari can directly access the witness's subconscious and find key information.

If the witness has been dead for a long time, it is also effective to inject the not-completely-rotted brain tissue into the STEM consciousness synchronization system—but at this time, in order to protect Kidou Yukari from the chaotic and collapsing consciousness of the dead body,

they usually dispatch an agent who is good at walking in the realm of consciousness to connect to the STEM system and go to the subconscious ocean of the deceased to explore in place of Kidou Yukari.

"..."

Bai Haozheng pondered everything he had just seen, and turned to look at the back of the sealed room.

The entire physical foundation of the STEM system is a huge ring-shaped space.

The room where Kidou Yukari is located is at the center of the space, and is connected to a circle of more than twenty movable independent rooms through cables.

In order to avoid accidents (such as meme leakage), the independent rooms where the consciousness walkers are located are completely closed.

They cannot see the main body of the STEM system, the other walkers who entered the consciousness plane with them, or the command department behind the explosion-proof one-way glass.

But this time, Bai Haozheng was very sure that he was the only walker who had entered the consciousness level of Zhao Haining, the deceased in the serial murder case.

"Comrade Bai? Comrade Bai?"

The voice of a colleague from the Special Affairs Bureau sounded in the broadcast in the corner of the room's ceiling, "How do you feel? Is it convenient to record your account?"

"Huh?"

Bai Haozheng came back to his senses and smiled apologetically at the surveillance camera on the ceiling. "I was distracted, I'm sorry."

He is a Nen user and a high-level player, and usually has no problems walking in the consciousness plane, but this time the deceased, Zhao Haining, had been dead for a long time, and his brain tissue was not well preserved.

Entering his broken consciousness and coming into contact with chaotic and disorderly scenes, he had to find clues from the fragmented memories,

which made Bai Haozheng, a skilled worker, feel quite uncomfortable.

"I have no problems, I can make a language record."

Bai Haozheng scanned his body with Nen ability, everything was normal.

The electrode patches stuck to his body, responsible for monitoring various vital signs, were responding on the LCD screen next to the operating table, and no abnormalities were found.

"Okay. Then please press the button on the LCD screen on your right. After hearing the prompt tone and seeing the red flashing light, tell the microphone everything you saw on the consciousness level.

Due to the special nature of the consciousness plane, your brain may still be in a slight state of confusion. Just talk about what you can remember, and don’t forcibly pursue logic between the different recordings."

The voice of a colleague from the Special Affairs Bureau, reading from the script, sounded from the ceiling broadcast.

Bai Haozheng filtered out these nonsense, licked his lips, recalled for a moment, and slowly said, "The first scene I saw was Zhao Haining's hands and feet being tied with thin plastic ropes and imprisoned in a closed room—that is, Zhao Haining's own villa garage.

The man acted cautiously, disguising himself as a sloppy old man who collected scraps, attacked Zhao Haining, tied his hands and feet, and threw him in the corner of the villa garage.

In front of Zhao Haining, he pried open the door of his car, and imitated his handwriting to leave a suicide note on the vehicle, saying that Zhao Haining was afraid of his own financial bankruptcy and used car exhaust to commit suicide.

Throughout the process, Zhao Haining struggled desperately, trying to shout for help, and bribing the other party with money to persuade him,

but the murderer, disguised as a sloppy old man, did not waver, remained silent, and calmly and steadily forged the scene in twenty minutes—the facts proved that his plan was quite perfect.

Zhao Haining, who was confirmed to have participated in a human trafficking crime case ten years ago, accumulated wealth in his early years, opened a factory, and became a local rich man. He lived alone in a villa on the hillside, and his wife and children were all abroad, so no one heard his cries.

At that time, his personal finances were in trouble and he was on the verge of bankruptcy. There were sufficient reasons for suicide, the chain of evidence at the scene was complete, and the private relationship between the deceased and the local higher-ups made the case relatively sensitive.

Ultimately, the case was not found to have any suspicious points at the time..."

Bai Haozheng paused, rubbed his aching temples, and took out white paper and a pencil from the backpack column. "The murderer disguised as a scrap-collecting old man

is undoubtedly the real culprit in this serial murder case.

Even from the current criminal investigation system, he is extremely terrifying—calm and collected, meticulously planned, and fully utilizes the deceased himself and social conditions to interfere with the investigation of the case and clear himself of suspicion.

The most terrifying thing is that all of this happened before the Killing Game started.

The murderer, as an ordinary person with absolutely no extraordinary power, implemented similar perfect crimes in multiple regions over several years.

Without causing any social attention—some cases are labeled as suicide or simply accidents.

Of course, we already know that in the last few cases, traces of divine power covering appeared, proving that the murderer had mastered extraordinary power at that time and began to consciously conceal his past whereabouts.

One of the important criteria for the Killing Game to screen players is the ability to adapt to external changes—and judging from the personality and behavior characteristics shown by the murderer in all the cases, he is undoubtedly one of the types of people most favored by the Killing Game.

He may be one of the first players to be granted qualifications.

However, the limitations of the times ultimately made him fail to anticipate one thing..."

While speaking, Bai Haozheng used a pencil to quickly depict on the paper the smile that the scrap-collecting old man showed when closing the car door and looking at Zhao Haining, who had fallen into a coma, as seen in the deceased's memory.

"The new Skynet system can retrieve the muscle distribution of every citizen when they make an expression..."

Bai Haozheng murmured to himself, and a flash of white light flashed across the lenses of his gold-rimmed glasses.

————

Disappeared.

Disappeared...

Chai Chai's eyes widened as she looked at the spot where Li Ang had been just a second ago.

The floor was empty and clean, without a trace of dust.

She suddenly raised her head and looked at the clock hanging on the wall.

*Da, da, da.*

Under the plastic cover, the second hand turned on its own.

Chai Cuiquiao subconsciously took half a step back, her feet heavily stepped on the ground, and a jumble of thoughts exploded in her mind.

Why hasn't Li Ang returned?!

"Zerg Hive!"

Her cold gaze, like eternal ice, swept over the Brain Zerg standing next to her. The latter understood and immersed its consciousness into the psionic network.

How could it be, how could it be?!

Chai Chai stared at the spot where Li Ang disappeared, almost grinding her teeth, and her sharp nails and black hair grew uncontrollably.

The collapsing emotions triggered the Yin energy accumulated by *Ji Du An Chi Jiu You Yin*, causing the Yin energy to spontaneously condense into shape and turn into black snowflakes around her.

The Killing Game's scenario missions have always been a package deal. The system executes the teleportation commands when entering and exiting the scenario world.

No matter how long a player stays in the scenario world, they will return to the same location at the same time.

From the perspective of others, the players performing scenario missions all return instantly.

The attire, state, and standing posture on their bodies will undergo tremendous changes, and abnormalities can be seen at a glance.

If a player enters the scenario world and time starts to flow, but the player does not reappear...

There are only two possibilities.

First, the player learned invisibility in the scenario world and teleported back naked with a very bad taste.

Second, the player died in the scenario mission.

"..."

Chai Cuiquiao, whose black hair was dancing wildly, tried her best to calm herself down.

Her spiritual sense swept across the entire room, but she couldn't find Li Ang's trace.

"Your Holiness, the psionic link between the Zerg Hive and the Benevolent Father, and between the Zerg Hives has been interrupted. There are no signs of the power of faith being collected into the idol."

The Double Blade Turkey, a guard next to her, calmly said, "Should we execute the Deus Ex Machina plan?"

"..."

Chai Chai took a deep breath. When Li Ang teleported into the scenario, he did not bring the Cthulhu clay figure. The Dragon Head White Coat statue was still in the Zerg Hive under the Pacific trench.

If he had returned to the real world, then the Cthulhu clay figure should be automatically transmitting the power of faith, instead of being stagnant like it is now.

Even the Zerg Hives can no longer transmit information through the psionic link, it is only possible that the master of the divine power network, that is, Li Ang, is not in the real world.

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"Li Ang couldn't have died."

Chai Chai clenched her fists and said firmly, "He has already advanced to the demigod level, carries an epic-level piece of equipment that can borrow power, has a biological template to save his life, and has alchemical logistics and mental abilities. Plus the Title of Secret Seeker, and the magic mirror's teleportation ability.

The most important thing is that there are two one-time-use disengagement tickets—no matter what he encounters in the scenario world, it is impossible for him not to be able to use the disengagement tickets."

She stepped forward half a step, squatted down, wiped the dust off the ground with her fingers, and said firmly, "If he really died in the scenario world, then at the very least, fragments of his body would be teleported out."

Chai Chai stood up from the ground, her eyes firm.

She has a kind of almost blind trust in Li Ang, no matter what the situation is, it is impossible to let the latter fall into a situation of certain death...

"There is only one possibility, this scenario mission with a question mark as a suffix, the time flow rate is consistent with the real world. Only in this way would Li Ang not have appeared until now."

Chai Chai said slowly, "Since that's the case, then during the time he's away, what we have to do is continue to maintain the Zerg Hive's expansion and advancement according to his will.

The scenario mission will last for a few hours at the shortest, and a few days at the longest.

Although this time is the school holiday, Li Ang has already been noticed by the Special Affairs Bureau in the real world. He was just called in for a statement and conversation before,

and he may be visited by Special Affairs Bureau staff recently, or be asked to participate in an internship...

I will play Li Ang's role in the real world, while the Zerg Hive accelerates its expansion.

Is Gorgon still lurking in the outer sea of Yin City? Then transfer the Behemoth and Jormungandr Zerg Hive fleets from the Pacific trench.

If something unexpected happens,

such as Li Ang returning severely injured, or some organizations discovering Li Ang's hidden identity and launching an attack on this apartment in the real world,

then we at least need enough force to defend and counterattack—it's a matter of life and death, and we can't bet our lives on the reliability of the Special Affairs Bureau."

Chai Chai issued instructions to the Brain Zerg in an orderly manner.

At this time, the advantage of the Zerg Hive's [Divine Power Link + Psionic Network] dual communication system is highlighted.

Even though the Zerg Hive's master has lost contact, the Zerg Hive can still transmit information by relying on the psionic nodes hundreds of kilometers apart—it's just that the speed is a bit slower than before.

As a once ferocious and violent evil ghost, Chai Chai has always been reluctant to speculate on others with the greatest malice. Apart from Li Ang, no one can be given complete trust...