“Stay here, don't move. I'll go in and take a look.”

Wang Fengnian said softly to Li Ang, his hand reaching to his waist to unfasten his qiang holster.

Generally speaking, even veteran police officers like Wang Fengnian, who had been in the force for over twenty years and were deeply trusted by the organization, rarely brought their qiangs home after work.

After all, this was a peaceful era, with a relatively good public security environment, and the benefits of carrying a qiang were negligible compared to the trouble caused by losing one.

Until half a year ago, when all sorts of bizarre and strange cases emerged one after another, police officers began to get used to carrying qiang zhi after work.

"Type 92? Not bad."

Li Ang looked at the qiang zhi in Wang Fengnian's hand and chuckled, "At least it's better than the 05."

The Type 05 revolver was a legendary qiang xie, enough to compete for the "World's Top Ten Bizarre Handqiang Rankings". Its structure was simple, compact, and novel, and it was safe and reliable to use, but as for its power... It had a nickname called "The Kind Qiang."

The 05 was equipped with two types of bullets: one was a flat-headed ordinary bullet with a qiang mouth kinetic energy of 111 joules, and the other was a round-headed rubber bullet with a qiang mouth kinetic energy of up to 16 joules. Wearing a few thicker leather jackets, you could withstand the 05 rubber bullet within a range of twenty meters as if it were a game.

A few years ago, in a certain place, a cow went mad and attacked humans. The local police dispatched officers to the urban-rural fringe, and fired more than forty qiangs at the cow with the 05, but failed to kill it... It was still alive and kicking... Helpless, they took out a Type 79 submachine qiang and killed the mad cow with two qiangs.

After being shot more than forty times, the cow would have been scared crazy even if it wasn't already.

With Wang Fengnian's security clearance level, he was not yet able to know the true face of the Slaughter Game, but as a veteran police officer, he could still vaguely feel a wave of change.

Most of the active 05s, 77s, and 54s were completely eliminated and replaced with more powerful 64s and 92s. The higher-ups also began to actively encourage them to carry qiangs after work. Whenever they encountered strange cases, there would be mysterious people in black suits assisting in solving the case at the scene...

A storm is brewing...

Wang Fengnian's thoughts returned to reality. He glanced at the pool of blood in the living room, where no footprints remained. With the mindset that "the neighbors across the hall, Zeng Weiming and Wang Fangni, might still be alive" and "the criminals might still be in the house preparing to escape," he cautiously skirted around the bloodstains, sticking to the wall, and entered the house.

Li Ang followed behind Wang Fengnian, muttering, "If this is a criminal murder scene, how did he manage to leave no footprints?"

"What are you doing in here? Didn't I tell you to stay outside?"

Officer Wang turned his head and whispered, "It's dangerous here. It's not a place to play."

"I know." Li Ang helplessly pushed up his glasses. In the past, he would have hidden to the side to watch the show, cheering and waving flags.

But this murder happened right under his nose, and Officer Wang was, after all, his childhood sweetheart's father, and besides...

Task trigger conditions have been met.

Task type: Regular task

Task name: Madman

Task objective: Eliminate the murderer who killed Zeng Weiming and Wang Fangni

Task time limit: 72 hours

Task reward 1: Additional experience points: 300

Task reward 2: Game currency: 400

Task reward 3: Random quality random item * 1

Task reward 4: Random quality random scroll * 1

Task failure penalty: None

The couple who lived in this house, are they already dead?

Li Ang, following behind Wang Fengnian, sighed in his heart and analyzed the task description.

A random quality item, a random quality scroll. Judging from the task rewards alone, the difficulty of this task is not low.

From the task objective, the term "murderer" can refer to a monster, a ghost, or even a human or a player—the task name "Madman" alone cannot explain anything. A madman could refer to the murderer or the victim.

Moreover, there is no limit to the number of murderers. The word "eliminate" means that the murderer is currently still alive.

Judging from the 72-hour task time limit, the murderer has probably already left the house, and I won't have to face a battle immediately.

Judging from the inconsequential task failure penalty, whether I complete the task or not, I won't suffer too much punishment—it's also possible that I will face extreme risks in the process of tracking down the murderer, and this risk, which could lead to the exposure of the player's identity or even death, is itself equivalent to a task failure penalty.

If this incident had not happened right under Li Ang's nose, he could have completely entrusted the task to the luntan, paying a price to hire other players to help complete it—doing so now would likely expose his player identity.

Because, based on the degree of blood coagulation, the time period when the murderer committed the crime was exactly when Li Ang and Wang Congshan were playing Honor of Kings.

Lost in thought, Li Ang followed behind Wang Fengnian, examining the structure of the living room.

The house purchased by Zeng Weiming and Wang Fangni was quite large, with three bedrooms, two living rooms, and two bathrooms. The interconnected dining room and living room were on the left side of the entrance, and the kitchen and the outer balcony were on the right side.

To the right of the living room was the master bedroom and its attached bathroom, and to the left were two side bedrooms and their attached bathroom.

The Nordic pastoral style decoration was fresh and elegant, and the furniture was simple and unadorned, revealing a natural, leisurely, but not meticulously crafted lifestyle.

A middle-aged couple with money, leisure, and style, with a high income, probably highly educated intellectuals. Judging from the photos on the decorative wall, they had at least an adult daughter, and the family relationship was harmonious. And based on the condition of the side bedroom doorknob and shoe rack, the only daughter did not live at home often. Was she studying abroad? Or working in another city?

Li Ang read the clues in the room, following Wang Fengnian, struggling through the gaps in the bloodstains, and checking all the places, including the master bedroom, side bedrooms, and bathrooms.

"No footprints or handprints were left in the room. The murderer didn't leave through the front door." Wang Fengnian stood on the balcony, looking at a smear of blood on the edge of the window, leaned out to look for a while, and said, turning his head, "He climbed down the water pipe on the side of the balcony. The water pipe is located between the two buildings, and no one can see him. This is the twentieth floor."

Not to mention the twentieth floor, even if it were the two hundredth floor, the murderer listed as a task target by the system could probably climb down easily, and it's not even certain if he's human.

Li Ang slandered in his heart, but heard Wang Fengnian mutter, "Then what about Zeng Weiming and his wife? The murderer couldn't have climbed down the water pipe carrying two people, could he?"

If the bodies can't be found, it can't be considered a murder case. Li Ang, who had opened the Cat Eye Spiritual Awareness, and Officer Wang looked at even the water tank in the bathroom toilet, and couldn't find a living person, let alone body parts.

Wait, there seems to be one place that hasn't been searched yet.

After the two looked at each other, Officer Wang held a qiang in one hand and hid the other in his sleeve, slowly pulling open the door of the refrigerator's cold storage compartment.

Inside the cold storage compartment, the lights turned on automatically, and Zeng Weiming and Wang Fangni, stacked together, looked at them blankly with terrified and dull eyes.

"Fuck." Wang Fengnian put down his qiang.