“In my mind?”

“To be precise, Little Knife, Miss Liu, and I are each sitting in a chair inside a boundless black space, facing two overlapping oval screens—that should be what you're seeing right now.”

Li Ang's voice still sounded calm, without any anxiety or panic, but rather with a hint of amusement. “Honestly, is this what real VR feels like?

Tsk tsk, it's really realistic and stimulating.”

“Is this the time to be sarcastic?”

Wanli Fengdao's voice came. “Old Xing, can you open the player panel and use items and equipment?”

Xing Hechou took a deep breath. “No. My player panel is grayed out now, just like when I enter a script mission that seals my powers and replaces me with an ordinary person.

The body I'm using now doesn't seem to be my own.”

He reached out and touched his face, and the extremely unfamiliar, rough, wrinkled texture that came from his fingertips sent shivers down his spine.

Li Ang asked, “Can you leave the mission?”

Xing Hechou nodded. “I should be able to, I have a feeling.”

“We seem to be able to as well,”

Li Ang said, “Well... it doesn't seem like we've encountered anything particularly dangerous yet, so there's no need to rush to leave.

In any case, we need to figure out who you are right now.

Come on, pee on the ground to see what you look like.”

“Huh?”

Xing Hechou said with a wry smile, “Isn't that unnecessary? There's a mirror here.”

At this moment, the sky was gloomy, but there was still light. He quickly walked to the edge of the courtyard, bent down, and faced the black and white householder sign with his face.

Using the reflection on the sign, he saw his face clearly.

It was the wrinkled face of a middle-aged man, square face, crew cut, gray hair, about fifty or sixty years old.

Looking at his appearance, it was the head of the Fuku-gami family, Fuku-gami Hirahara.

“This person...”

Xing Hechou frowned, looking at the unfamiliar face. “Am I in Fuku-gami Hirahara's memory, or am I controlling Fuku-gami Hirahara's body in real time?”

“It's not clear yet.

It's possible that we are in his memory,

or in a past time period.”

Li Ang's voice said, “Brother Xing, when you first entered the mansion, you kicked open the front door of the house and broke the lock,

but now the front door is intact and closed.”

“Huh?”

Xing Hechou looked back and saw that the front door was indeed intact and closed.

Li Ang continued, “We didn't notice anything unusual when we went upstairs just now, and we were teleported to our current location in the blink of an eye.

To be able to transfer four level ten or higher players without any fluctuations, and replace one of them with a mortal body,

I can't imagine how powerful a spirit would have to be to do that.”

Liu Wu-dai said softly, “It's likely not a spirit with individual will. Several of us have equipment and items specifically for defending against spirit-type enemies, which can dispel illusions and clear our minds.”

Wanli Fengdao agreed, “In other words, what we've fallen into is likely an irrational, abnormal event of the Japanese ghost story type.

Moreover, the level of mystery of this irrational, abnormal event must be very, very high.”

“That's really... a headache.”

Xing Hechou rubbed his forehead.

Most players and think tanks of various forces believe that irrational, abnormal events are the most difficult type of "abnormality" to deal with.

It's not like a tangible enemy that can be physically destroyed, but more like a natural disaster fixed in place, a difficult-to-predict rule.

Once mortals are caught up in it, they will die on the spot if they are not careful. Sometimes, the outcome is even worse than death...

Xing Hechou sighed silently in his heart, and then he heard Li Ang's voice in his mind, “Hey-ho, hey-ho, hey-ho.”

Then came Wanli Fengdao's voice, “Hey, hey, what are you doing? Don't mess around in Old Xing's mind!”

Xing Hechou was stunned. “Huh? What's wrong?”

Wanli Fengdao: “Little Li was just doing a mixed gymnastics routine of radio exercises, Five Animal Frolics, aerobics, Tiger Crane Fist, and yoga... It seems like he wanted to control your body as a Gundam pilot.”

Li Ang's voice came, “It seems that it didn't work. Our role may just be observers, and we can't replace you.

This should actually be a good thing,

at least we can move around in our seats, instead of always staying still to avoid interfering with you.”

"...Okay."

Xing Hechou nodded and stood up.

At this time, Fuku-gami Hirahara was wearing ordinary work clothes, with a black apron over them.

Xing Hechou rummaged through the left pocket of his work clothes and found a string of keys, with eight keys of various sizes and shapes hanging on it, as well as a red circular shrine prayer charm.

The bottom of his rain boots had no mud stains or blood stains,

but there were wet water stains, as if he had just stepped on a puddle.

Li Ang said, “There are no traces of rain in the courtyard, the only water source is a small landscape pond made of stones.

The water on the shoes may be traces left by stepping on the pond,

or it may have been left after walking out of the indoor bathroom—but we didn't find any footprints or water stains on the floor when we entered the mansion.

By the way, Brother Xing, does the water stain on the rain boots have a special smell? I can't smell it from here.”

“No special smell.”

“Then it's not urine.”

Li Ang paused and continued, “Among the keys in your hand,

the shape of the key with the blue key cover should be for opening the front door of the house.

The one to its left corresponds to the simple lock on the small wooden door of the residential fence.

I paid special attention to the shape of the lock when I was standing in the alley just now. The door lock used in this mansion is a relatively simple and old-fashioned hook-shaped tongue lock, which is not complicated.

Even without a key, ordinary people can just remove the peephole, and use a narrow, curved metal tube or metal tape measure to reach in through the peephole and easily open it.

You don't even need wire.

It's completely not burglar-proof, it only prevents gentlemen, not villains.

But having a key is much more convenient, saving you the trouble of finding a tape measure—looking at Fuku-gami Hirahara's build, I guess he can't do violent door opening.”

How do you know so much? You're not a habitual offender, are you?

Xing Hechou slandered in his heart, but he heard Li Ang say to himself, “I'm not a habitual offender, oh, a truly professional player should be proficient in various techniques of scaling walls and entering houses, picking locks and opening doors! Even a C-level lock core can be easily picked!”

Why are you talking about things that completely violate laws and regulations in the tone of a hot-blooded juvenile manga protagonist? It's not glorious at all, okay?

Xing Hechou felt a pang of pain, but he didn't show it on his face. He said, “It's good to have a key.

I'll search the courtyard first, and then go inside the house to look around, how about that?”

“Okay.”

Li Ang nodded and said, “By the way, remember to take a look at the mailbox, under the flower pots, the washing machine sink, inside the loose bricks in the corner of the wall, the bottom of the landscape pond, and under the mat at the door.

Those places are very suitable for hiding keys, suicide notes, or weapons such as knives, daggers, and hammers.

After committing impulsive crimes, many murderers often try to hide the weapons in a daze,

and after hiding them, they feel unsafe, transfer the weapons away, and leave blood stains in place.

We haven't seen Fuku-gami Hirahara's relatives yet, so we have to be prepared for the worst. Anything can happen.”

“Okay...”

Xing Hechou nodded and walked around the house.

Through the glass, he could only see that the lights in the living room of the house were still on, but he didn't see anyone.

The shoes at the entrance were still in the same state as when everyone entered, without any changes.

After the observation, Xing Hechou carefully searched the ground of the courtyard, confirmed that there were no valuable clues in the courtyard, and then took out the key and pushed the door in.