"Sorry, sorry, I thought it was the delivery guy. Come in, have a seat."
Su Qi warmly welcomed the two in.
The young man walked through the door and sat somewhat preoccupied on the sofa beside, his gaze suddenly fixed on the gaming pod in the living room.
He paused slightly and after exchanging a glance with Liu Yishou, he spoke up.
"You also play Abyssal Paradise."
"Of course, it's quite interesting."
The young man said, "You must have played it at least once, right? Did you clear it? How was your score?"
"Well, let's see… Cleared, well, not really cleared, and as for the score… I don't know." Su Qi pulled out three bottles of cola from the fridge and placed them in front of them. "But… is this a bit off-topic? Does this have something to do with my personal safety?"
Liu Yishou extended his hand and pulled out a photo from his pocket and handed it over.
"Let's cut to the chase, take a look at this."
On the photo was a tattoo pattern, a circle in the center with strange lines inside, like pairs of vertical pupils; around the circle was a ring of flames.
Su Qi squinted his eyes, "I feel like I've seen this somewhere."
"It's from that murderer, isn't it?" the young man spoke up at this point. "This photo was taken from him."
Su Qi did not deny it, but it was not only the murderer; he felt that the ritual the Old Priest performed in the chapel of the instance town had some similarities to this.
He asked, "So what does this represent?"
"It signifies some kind of evil belief. Now, take a look at this." Liu Yishou seemed to know something but did not want to say too much. He reached out and pulled out his phone, keyed in the password, and opened a video.
The video showed a solitary prison cell where a man in bandages lay with open eyes on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Su Qi recognized him; this was the murderer.
"He woke up the same day he left the hospital, but he became expressionless, as if deaf to anyone speaking to him. Then something strange occurred. I need to warn you, what you're about to see might disturb you..."
In the video.
The man's eyes suddenly bulged out, and his body began to shake violently as if possessed by some force. The restraints around him were stretched out to create noticeable gaps, showing the immense strength at play.
Then his trembling became more intense, and the guards surrounding him could barely hold him down.
Eventually, he broke free of the restraints.
The man leapt out of bed and crashed into the wall.
There was a loud "bang!"
The wall was coated in red.
The video ended there.
Liu Yishou had been watching Su Qi's expressions throughout; he noticed that the latter was not much affected by the bloody scene in the video.
After the video, Su Qi spoke up curiously, "What kind of fit is he having?"
"This is not just a fit," the young man said lightly, his expression grave and serious as he looked at Su Qi intently. "Do you believe in the supernatural?"
Su Qi didn't immediately answer, "You tell me first."
The young man began slowly, "First, you should know that this world is not as simple as you imagine, like what you just saw in the video, strange and foul forces can erode a person's mind through a terrifying invasive power."
He continued, "This force isn't a figment of imagination, it's filled with terrible evil."
"Though it may sound vague and hard to believe, this strangeness might come after you, especially since you already have a significant connection to this person."
Su Qi pointed to the phone screen, "You mean, I could end up like this too, psychologically broken, then smashing into a wall."
The young man nodded and then added, "Of course, you might also jump off a building or stab yourself, usually depends on your first impulse after a breakdown."
Su Qi's expression did not show fear or anxiety, he clicked his tongue lightly, "Quite intelligent."
The young man looked puzzled, "You aren't scared... or you don't believe it?"
"I believe it. Why wouldn't I when two official agents from the Investigation Bureau came to my door personally?"
Su Qi glanced at the question mark above the young man's head, knowing his identity from the start.
[Member of Department 9, Xu Linqiu]
He said, "But obviously, you're here not just to announce my impending demise; there must be other methods to handle this, right?"
The young man nodded, "Naturally, after all, you're not the first ordinary person it's set its sights on."
"But..."
He paused for a moment, pointing at the game pod in the living room, "It seems, however, you may have already found a solution."
Su Qi froze, his expression changing slightly: "Are you referring to Abyssal Paradise? This game is linked to the strange happenings in the real world?"
If this were true, then everything would be very different for Su Qi.
"You can think of it that way. If you want to break free from the bizarre, you'd better pay more attention to your Spiritual Attribute, and also..."
The young man then abruptly changed the topic, "Because you have shown a certain potential in previous cases, and it seems that you are entangled by the bizarre, so...."
The young man handed over a card:
"Like other ordinary people in the same situation, I'm offering you a chance."
He paused and continued,
"The chance to see the other side of the world."
-----------------
Half an hour later.
Xu Linqiu and Liu Yishou had driven back to the Investigation Bureau.
Liu Yishou lit a cigarette and said, "I've almost made contact with a hundred newcomers, but I feel this kid might actually be pretty good."
"Is that your definition of 'pretty good'?" Xu Linqiu flipped through the file, "Brother Liu, you don't even know anything about him, not even his performance in the game, and yet you're so positive about him?"
Liu Yishou laughed, "Although I've only just been transferred to your department, I have a knack for sizing up people. It's a skill honed over many years, and anyway, I think he's capable."
Xu Linqiu shook his head:
"Among all this data we have, there are less than ten people who have passed the Difficult Dungeon three times and scored at least 80 points on it."
"Brother Liu, you yourself have gone through two solo Difficult Dungeons, you know the level of difficulty. The Difficult level alone has a 50% failure rate, not to mention the Nightmare level."
He paused, "Anyway, we'll see later on."
At that moment,
the office door was pushed open.
A set of steady footsteps walked in from the doorway.
Xu Linqiu, seeing who it was, quickly became more cautious, "Teacher, you're back."
Liu Yishou also stood up from his seat. Ever since he left the hospital that day, he had submitted an application to the higher-ups, never expecting to be actually approved, and thus, he had encountered a lot of unimaginable material in the past few days.
The middle-aged man rubbed his tired eyes and asked, "Have you finished your tasks?"
"Yes, we are currently observing some newcomers with potential," replied Xu Linqiu. Suddenly pausing, he noticed that the middle-aged man's brows were furrowed, his expression not very relaxed.
He asked, "Teacher, has something happened?"
The middle-aged man's gaze was deep, his tone not too pleasant, "Just an hour ago, there was a major disturbance in Paradise."
"That terrifying being in the Abyss suddenly burst forth with terrifying strength without any warning. Although we don't know the reason and it has been stopped, it's clear that it has caused quite a bit of turmoil, affecting many people with insufficient spiritual power."
Xu Linqiu quickly asked, "Is it serious?"
"It's under control now, but... what's strange is that the target of that strength turned out to be instance 6823765, a very Ordinary Low-level World."
"Why would it be targeted?" Xu Linqiu was startled.
"It's unclear, the data from that place has been cleared, Paradise cannot capture it, but the Black God Guard has already gone to investigate; there should be news soon."
Xu Linqiu could hardly contain himself, "I want to help."
"Although you're strong, your spiritual power isn't enough. That world has already sunk into the highest level of Pollution; it's not possible," the middle-aged man said sternly, his face cold, promptly refusing.
"But..."
Just as Xu Linqiu was about to argue, confident he had a few Tools that bolstered spiritual power, he was met with the middle-aged man's serious look and could only shamefacedly lower his head.
Liu Yishou, observing the somewhat silent mood, broke the silence by voicing a question, "Is the Spiritual Attribute really that important? Although I've only experienced a few instances, it seems that none of them required the use of the Spiritual Attribute."
Xu Linqiu sat back down, turned on his tablet, and found an internal set of data, "Take a look at this. It's the success rate for each level of difficulty in Paradise after today's public test."
[Ordinary Dungeon, success rate 78%]
[Difficult Dungeon, success rate 50%]
[Nightmare Dungeon, success rate 9%]
Below was another line of data.
[All Pollution-type Dungeons, success rate 1%]
Liu Yishou froze for a moment, "What's a Pollution-type Dungeon?"
"Pollution-type Dungeons are directly linked to spiritual power."
The middle-aged man seemed to see a distant future, saying,
"Right now, although everyone overlooks it, but once they enter Paradise... they'll understand."
"The importance of the Spiritual Attribute."