Chapter 502 - The Murder Inside the Game (2/2)

“Was this one of the bad endings?” Chen Ge got a bottle of water from the worker and handed it to Fan Chong.

“Compared to the other endings, this might be the best one.” Fan Chong did not reach for the water. His face was pale as he continued his story.

“After Xiao Bu was taken away, the screen went dark. The sound of children laughing and crying came from the computer, and then a row of gray words appeared—Why did you kill me?

“The handwriting was like the child’s dark and helpless eyes. It made me feel so guilty. After a long time, the words disappeared, and the screen returned to normal. Xiao Bu woke up in her own room, wearing her mother’s pajamas.”

At this point, Chen Ge raised his hand to interrupt Fan Chong. “Sleeping in her own room? Meaning after the character’s death, the game reloaded at the bedroom?”

“Yes, she was lying in bed, like what had happened earlier was just a nightmare. The sun outside the window was still shining. People hurried to work, and they greeted each other.” Fan Chong did not think too much of it. “The game restarted. I controlled Xiao Bu to enter the dungeon and got on the bus, but this time, I made a different decision.”

“You chose to search for the child’s crying on the bus?” Eastern Jiujiang was different from Western Jiujiang. All the ghost stories seemed to be connected, and the trigger of one would create a domino effect. Therefore, Chen Ge memorized everything Fan Chong said—he felt like the game was hiding a very important clue.

“Yes, I controlled Xiao Bu to walk to the last row on the bus. She found an old school bag. Then a sentence popped up—Xiao Bu found a wet phone inside the bag. Xiao Bu activated the phone, and then a few more windows popped up. It looked like Xiao Bu was reading the content of the phone.”

“There was a phone inside the bag? At the last row? What did it say?” Chen Ge remembered Xiao Gu say that there had been a high-schooler at the last row on the bus, and the student had kept hugging his bag. His hand had been inside the bag like he was holding something.

“I’ve jotted it down. These few words were the reason I came to find you today because I think this has gone beyond just a simple game. There has to be something more.” Fan Chong passed his phone to Chen Ge. Three paragraphs were written on the note.

“1st September, my mother and I moved into a new apartment. Our neighbor is a young man who lives alone. He rears a large dog. It looks so tame—its name is Xiao Bu.

“7th September, when I came back, I saw the neighbor walking down the stairs hugging a big black plastic bag. He looked so sad and said the pet that he had looked after for so many years had left him. The dog seemed to have ingested some poison and died at home.

“At the end of October, the young man moved away. The landlord found a fridge filled with dog meat in his home. The neighbor must have been devastated when Xiao Bu died.”

The three sentences might look normal, but upon closer inspection, they read so weirdly. The neighbor carried a large bag down the stairs, saying his pet was dead, but then the landlord found a fridge filled with dog meat. Then what was really inside the man’s plastic bag on the night of 7th September?

Fan Chong slid the display downward. “I checked the news around Jiujiang in September, and there was indeed a similar murder around the time. And the crime scene was in Li Wan City as mentioned in the game.”