"Bang!"
Liu Yishou pushed open the door to the interrogation room directly.
Inside sat a young man in his early twenties.
His gaze sharpened.
Those who often commit murder know that crime and appearance are hardly related.
Yet he still found it hard to imagine that the good-looking young man before him could commit such a cruel and inhumane act.
A month ago.
A family annihilation had taken place in Linjiang City, leaving a family of five dead at home, all valuables cleanly picked.
The murderer had not been found.
But today, the perpetrator was suddenly apprehended.
At this moment, two investigators saw Liu Yishou enter and were about to get up.
Liu Yishou raised his hand to signal them to stay put, his gaze coolly fixed on the young man as he interrogated him word by word,
"Two months ago in the family annihilation, all five members were killed with precise cuts, and there were no fingerprints or footprints in the house, nor did the community's surveillance capture anything but a fleeting shadow."
"I've been on the trail of this case, and I've found quite a few clues."
He watched the young man with a deterring gaze,
"You're definitely not an ordinary criminal."
"But a dangerous recidivist skilled in knife work, with ample criminal experience, and thoroughly premeditated and planned in action!"
The young man faced the interrogation with a slight smile.
Liu Yishou's expression slightly darkened, impressed by his composure in the face of danger...
"Uh... that..."
An investigative officer, cautious, interrupted him, "Chief, you've got the wrong person."
"This young man isn't the criminal; he's the enthusiastic citizen who subdued the perpetrator."
Liu Yishou's expression stiffened, his aura quickly fading, silent for a while, then he asked, "Where is the criminal then?"
"Suffering from twelve fractures all over his body, currently undergoing emergency treatment in the hospital."
-----------------
Liu Yishou stood outside a hospital's single-occupancy room, looking through the glass at the murderer wrapped in bandages, still unconscious.
Tragic.
Apparently, the perpetrator had soiled himself when he was put into the ambulance.
"Beep beep beep."
His phone rang, delivering him a file.
It was the young man's information.
He glanced at it:
"Su Qi, 21 years old, an orphan, hasn't graduated yet, experience..."
Liu Yishou suddenly paused.
He realized that this young man had a broad range of interests.
He had participated in various city competitions such as archery, combat sports, rock climbing, swimming, was a member of extreme sports clubs, and had won multiple community mahjong and chess competitions...
It wasn't until Liu Yishou finished scanning this information that he looked up thoughtfully,
"It seems the statements hold no issues, the hand was slightly heavy, but the guy's got something."
Bold yet meticulous, rich in experience.
Painstaking in his actions.
Such a person might actually be a good fit for the Investigation Bureau.
At that moment.
A call suddenly came through on his phone, and a somewhat hesitant voice spoke, "Chief, I think I've found some more information about that young man."
"Hmm?" Liu Yishou sensed something off in the caller's tone.
"He filed a leave of absence from school a month ago, dropped out of the club, and stopped participating in any activities."
"Then..." The voice on the phone hesitated, with an air of disbelief, "He began to do some strange things."
Strange?
Liu Yishou raised an eyebrow.
In his years busting illegal activities, he'd seen men dressed as women; how strange could this be?
He said in a stern voice, "Go on."
"There was a complaint before, someone reported their cat went out to play and came back with its fur shaved off its forehead, and his figure was caught on camera."
Hmm, might just dislike cats, not strange.
"He sneaked into the school's locked music room late at night and played several pieces..."
Uh... could be nostalgia for the school, the behavior is not encouraged, but understandable.
"After Ghost House closed, he moved the body out of a coffin and laid there himself for the night."
?
Liu Yishou eventually couldn't hold back, asking, "Where did you get all this from?"
"From the complaint calls we received before... we didn't prioritize it because it seemed trivial."
Liu Yishou: "...."
Retracting his previous thoughts.
Such a guy definitely shouldn't be recruited into the Investigation Bureau; who knows what kind of influence he might bring.
Suddenly, Liu Yishou heard footsteps approaching.
He turned to see two strangers, noticing the distinct air about them, he asked with a hint of caution, "Who might you be?"
The middle-aged man took out his ID, "Linjiang City Investigation Bureau Action Team Chief Liu Yishou, right? You've worked hard. From now on, we'll take over the person in the hospital room."
Liu Yishou recognized the emblem on the ID card, belonging to a secretive department of the Investigation Bureau, a group of people who seldom appeared within the bureau and were rarely seen by others.
Rumors were they didn't work yet they still drew salaries, truly enviable...
The middle-aged man's gaze shifted to the dreadful sight of the murderer in the hospital room, clicking his tongue in disapproval, "So, you took the law into your own hands?"
"That...it's a long story. I'll give you the written record later," Liu Yishou coughed, voicing his doubts, "But why...why are you guys taking over this criminal?"
"Confidential. Not at liberty to disclose."
The reason this branch was so mysterious was because its work was strictly confidential.
"However..." The middle-aged man pushed the door to the hospital room and then suddenly turned around, "You should find out soon."
-------------
Right at this moment,
At the side of the street with the traffic lights,
Su Qi looked at the wary gaze of the person across from him, trying to find the right tone to start,
"First, I need to clarify one thing."
"I'm not a pervert, there's a reason for this."
"Second, I don't have any peculiar fetishes either."
"Finally,"
Su Qi paused for a moment before looking at the businesswoman in professional attire on the electric scooter, "Would you sell me the stockings you're wearing on your feet?"
The office lady's face changed color slightly, "Pfft! Pervert! Creep!"
As she spoke, she sped away.
Su Qi watched the scooter disappearing into the distance, "See, the world is so cold and insincere. Honest communication earns no trust."
A month before,
He had developed a problem with his eyes, he started seeing punctuation marks.
At first, he saw a "[?]" above a cat's head. Out of curiosity, when he made contact, he saw a message from the inner thoughts of the kitten,
"[What is this stupid servant staring at?]"
Despite being insulted, Su Qi wasn't angry and generously went to buy a pair of scissors to give it a haircut.
From then on,
Su Qi knew he had acquired a special ability, which he tested numerous times in search of understanding.
Currently, it was divided into two types,
Question marks and exclamation points.
After triggering a "[?]," you could obtain some related information.
"[!]" required completing a specific action beforehand, then you would obtain a hidden special item.
It was like finding an Easter egg in a game,
Jumping along the wall in the Sword Battle Room to make a machine gun fall,
Cutting off your own meridians a hundred times in a martial arts online game to get an Immortal Body, with one palm not only breaking the Martial Arts Alliance Leader but also crashing the server.
Of course, for the sake of testing his ability, he had done all these things, which resulted in his accounts being banned for cheating.
Games can be illogical, after all,
But reality is different.
He laid down as a corpse in Ghost House, played the piano at night school, all to trigger Easter eggs, and what he got were only a Finger Bone and a sheet of music,
"Currently, I have no clue what they're for."
Su Qi crossed the street, and although it was already evening, the commercial center was even busier.
With more people,
The frequency of question marks also increased.
The beef pancake shop didn't use real beef, but synthetic duck meat instead,
The roadside vending machine was broken, put in one yuan and two bottles of drink would fall out,
There was a man and a woman in the coffee shop on a blind date, the woman said she was too busy at work to date, but Su Qi could see the number 55 over her head.
It can only be said that the question marks are relative,
When you see a question mark, your own heart places one there as well.
At this moment,
The crowd suddenly buzzed with commotion, people raised their heads, pointing and saying with a hint of fear:
"What is that?"
On the huge screen outside a commercial building, an image of a Ghost Mask appeared,
It occupied the entire screen, opening its crimson eyes as if watching everyone. You couldn't make out the face, but you could feel it sneering darkly.
"Tsss—"
It extended several thin, pale fingers, and blood-red words were shakily written across the screen. The grating sound of the writing sent shivers down people's spines.
"[Do you...wish to understand the true meaning of life?]"
Such a strong sense of déjà vu.
Everyone shuddered involuntarily, feeling a chilling sensation rising from deep within their hearts.
Could it be that something big was about to happen?
Then the screen suddenly flickered, the Ghost Mask chuckled lowly a few times before vanishing in the flickering light.
Messages began to scroll one after another.
"[Abyssal Paradise is going into public beta tomorrow. Developed by Magic Cube Company, this is a brand-new virtual reality game in a world full of endless mysteries....]"
"......"
"Scared for nothing, turns out it's just an ad, so it's nothing."
"No, I do have a problem, where can I buy pants around here?"
In the midst of the noisy crowd,
Su Qi stood rooted to the spot.
Just as the Ghost Mask appeared,
Question marks and exclamation points filled the screen in utterly immeasurable quantities! It was like a vast tsunami pounding at his trigeminal nerve!
As if it sought to drown him.