Chapter 327 - Recurring Slaughter (2/2)
Other than the mess of useless posts, Zhang Heng did find some useful things on the website. One of the top posts was an announcement by the three major guilds, stating that they were looking for information relating to ‘Dreamland of Death’ and the mysterious woman who appeared at the auction.
The article also mentioned the incident on the train. In fact, Zhang Heng would later find similar reports in the newspapers. After the petrified middle-aged sales executive was sent to the hospital for a thorough examination, he was found to be perfectly healthy. An hour later, however, his blood pressure suddenly soared, causing the capillaries in the brain to rupture. It increased pressure on his brain tissue, which eventually caused cerebral edema to develop. The hospital performed an emergency surgery but alas, they were unable to save his life.
For this reason, the newspapers interviewed several medical experts to discuss the matter and investigate the cause. This was one of the most searched topics on the internet, and experts appealed for the public to be vigilant of the risk of a cerebral hemorrhage, which could also be the result of overworking. However, Zhang Heng was alarmed, discovering that this wasn’t the only incident that had taken place within the same period.
In fact, just last week, a similar thing had happened to six or seven people. When it took place, the victims all asleep in bed, and families only found out about their deaths the next morning. The circ.u.mstance in which the incidents occurred wasn’t too compelling and were treated as sudden death due to cerebral hemorrhage.
As a matter of fact, the episode on the train should be an exception. The perpetrator obviously did not want to attract public attention. Zhang Heng was now certain that that one of the conditions of triggering Dreamland of Death was that the target had to be sleeping. From the sales rep’s phone conversation, Zhang Heng could deduce that the man’s trip on the train was unplanned. It was apparently due to a work issue that he had to speak to the customer in person. Much to his annoyance, however, the customer canceled the order and didn’t show up.
The middle-aged man was devastated at that time, and after hanging up the call, he had nothing to do and fell asleep on the train. In order words, him boarding the train and falling asleep were probably unantic.i.p.ated. Under normal circ.u.mstances, he should have returned home before falling asleep. That way, he would have been like the other seven, dying on his own bed, quietly and peacefully before being diagnosed with cerebral hemorrhage. Now, instead, the incident had ended up all over the news.
It was obvious that the three major guilds took this matter extremely seriously. This was about two months since the reappearance of Dreamland of Death, and unlike before, the erratic killing pattern began as soon as it appeared.
Because the person in possession of the Dreamland of Death had already gone through a round of killings before, most players believed that although it was a Grade-B item, it probably had only a few uses left in it. But now, it seemed that wasn’t the case. This time around, the pool of victims was rather peculiar.
All seven victims were from all over China, from Yunnan to Shanghai, and there was even a case where two people who were more than a thousand miles apart died the same way on the same day. The comments that followed the posts were discussions about the phenomenal trajectory of the new owner of the game item.
What was it? A killing expedition?
This time, however, because there were no prominent victims like Silver Wing’s guild leader, the panic wasn’t as widespread or as intense. Even so, the three major guilds, all up against a common enemy, had already dispatched personnel to investigate the connection between the victims.
At the same time, they also urged the players to actively provide information, should they have any, and promised a reward of game points based on the value of the intelligence they received