Chapter 1: The Elusive Murderer

When I returned home from work, I found that my seven-year-old daughter did not come to the door to greet me. Instead, a strange man was sitting on the sofa.

He stood up quickly, held a knife to my throat, and claimed to be a kidnapper, telling me to guess where he had hidden my lovely daughter.

Driven by panic, I rushed to the bedroom closet, the only place in the house where one could hide.

The kidnapper smiled and congratulated me on guessing correctly.

I opened the door and saw my daughter's head.

Only then did I understand—no matter where I guessed she was, it would be the correct answer.

Every room contained a part of my daughter.

...

"This is the fifth case this month! A mother and daughter dead in a residential building in the middle of a busy city! If we don't catch the killer soon, we're going to be cursed and pointed at by the public!"

"Captain Li, once might have been a surveillance malfunction, but five times in a row, and nothing was captured... Could the killer be using some special equipment to interfere with the cameras?"

In the major crimes unit conference room, Captain Li Guoqiang gritted his teeth, his bloodshot eyes staring wide, like an angry guardian deity that no one dared to look at directly.

Hearing his subordinate's speculation, he glared at him with frustration and roared: "Do you think others wouldn't have thought of that? The key is how the surveillance was interfered with! Tell me, what equipment can make a camera fail only for the killer without disrupting its normal operation?"

Silence fell over the room.

Because it was truly inconceivable.

All five cases were the same—

The footage showed the time and images running smoothly, proving it hadn't been tampered with. It remained in normal operation, and no one was seen entering the victims' homes, yet they died for no reason!

Even in the home of the mother and daughter who were killed last night, there was surveillance. The footage showed the mother returning home from work, walking through the door, and then inexplicably disappearing.

A full hour later, her figure reappeared.

But by then, like her daughter, she was scattered throughout every room.

Her head was hung in front of the living room camera, dripping with thick blood. The hollow, desperate eyes and the expression forced into a smile seemed like an arrogant provocation by the killer toward the police.

Vanishing into thin air and suddenly reappearing.

It was just like the "ghost wall" from folklore or various supernatural events.

Even the members of the major crimes unit couldn't help but let their minds wander into the realm of the bizarre.

But they dared not show such thoughts in front of Captain Li Guoqiang.

Otherwise, they would surely be met with a blistering roar.

"Sigh! Forget it, let's stop here for today. Everyone go home and think about whether there are any other leads. Stay safe on your way."

Li Guoqiang sighed heavily and waved for his team to go home and rest.

After all, from last night when the case was discovered until now, no one had really rested; it was already one o'clock in the morning of the next day.

"Captain Li, you should get some rest too."

"Yes, don't get sick before the killer is caught."

"..."

Before leaving the conference room, the team members offered their concerns to Li Guoqiang. They actually respected him, as he had led them in solving many difficult cases, large and small.

After everyone had left, Li Guoqiang packed up the case files to take home.

The breeze on the city streets at one o'clock in the morning was not cold, but rather muggy.

Li Guoqiang frowned, feeling his body issue a disgruntled warning of hunger.

...

His gaze subconsciously drifted toward a barbecue stall in a secluded alley that had no customers yet.

He was too hungry.

Both physically and mentally, he was starving, eager to eat and relax.

Driven by instinct, Li Guoqiang walked toward the barbecue stall without hesitation.

But as he approached the entrance, he suppressed his hunger, frowned, and pulled a palm-sized spirit tablet stained with damp mud from his pocket, placing it upright at the entrance of the stall.

"Boss, grill me something."

"I want some pork brains, a heart, and a portion of kidneys. Remember to wash them clean—I'll grill them myself."

"Hm? I'm not joking. I must grill these things myself. After all, how can you, the ingredient, be the chef?"

...

An hour later, Li Guoqiang left the shop.

The gloom that had previously clouded his expression was gone, replaced by a lingering, slightly insane and cruel smile.

He wiped the specks of blood from the corner of his mouth.

Bending down, he picked up the mud-stained spirit tablet and tucked it back into his pocket, humming a light tune as he walked away into the distance.

Yes...

What kind of equipment could make someone disappear from surveillance without affecting its operation?

Naturally, it would be equipment—or a power—beyond human understanding.

That spirit tablet could do it all!

Once placed at the entrance of a house, everything done inside could not be observed, and even the traces of his own entry would be silently erased, leaving not a single clue!

Even putting aside the uncanny power of the tablet that prevented anyone from finding evidence, no one would ever suspect that the captain of the major crimes unit in charge of the case was a serial killer with an extreme thirst for slaughter and blood.

No one could catch him!

Ever since he obtained this spirit tablet, this city, as passionate as a hot woman, had been stripped of its glamorous exterior by him, revealing the mouth-watering body underneath.

He could unleash his wild, cruel desires in the city's night without restraint.

In Li Guoqiang's eyes, this city had become his private playground!

Slaughter had become a game to satisfy his perverted cravings and inner desires!

"The more I think about it, the hungrier I get... should I make an exception and have a second meal today?" Li Guoqiang felt that the food from the barbecue stall hadn't satisfied his spiritual world.

He wanted a game of pure, enjoyable slaughter, not the barbaric act he had just performed to fill his stomach.

Thinking of this, Li Guoqiang looked around the alley to see if there were any other targets.

After all, it was already one o'clock in the morning.

It was difficult to find a secluded shop that was still open.

Although he could use the spirit tablet to break into any house, that would be too much effort.

And it wouldn't fit his enjoyment of the hunt.

"Oh? This looks good... an escape room? Heh, let me see if you can really escape."

Li Guoqiang found a horror-themed escape room that was still open, with the staff cleaning up to close for the night.

The area around the shop was deserted.

...

He skillfully placed the spirit tablet and walked inside.

At this moment, the only person left in the shop was a young man in his early twenties, his face devoid of hope, his dead-fish eyes showing no motivation as he swept the floor and wiped tables.

Hearing him enter, the boy didn't even turn his head, saying listlessly: "I went off the clock a minute ago. I'm not really welcoming guests, please come back tomorrow."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to interfere with your closing time. I just wanted to ask, how long does it take to play an escape room?" Li Guoqiang asked with a gentlemanly smile, though the excitement in his eyes made his breathing quicken slightly.

"About two hours. Please lift your feet, I haven't swept that spot by the door yet. Thanks."

The boy bent down, continuing his cleaning without a care, completely oblivious to Li Guoqiang's increasingly cruel expression and the telescoping baton and knife he was slowly pulling from his pocket.

Clearly, this was a wage-slave tortured into lifelessness by his job.

And looking at his age, he probably hadn't even gone to university; he must have just finished his college entrance exams...

No, maybe he hadn't even finished school before dropping out to work.

His tone was lazy and impatient, and his social intelligence was low—what kind of person tells a customer they aren't welcome?

Surely such a person wouldn't be well-liked by colleagues even in a part-time job?

Li Guoqiang loved to observe the mental state of his prey.

He was very satisfied with the boy's state—someone who might complain about fate at any moment, who might vent his dissatisfaction with life to anyone, and perhaps even shout self-comforting words like "born in the wrong era," implying that living was better than being dead.

Humans were always hypocritical.

Although he looked utterly hopeless, how strong would his desire to survive be when he truly faced death?

Looking at those weak, spindly arms and legs, how much force would he exert to struggle when the knife pierced his flesh?

Li Guoqiang had become obsessed with this feeling when killing the mother and daughter—giving them a glimmer of hope, then extinguishing it. This feeling of mastering others' destinies was something he couldn't pull himself away from!

"Two hours? I'm looking forward to it."

I really hope this boy enjoys the next two hours of his escape game!

The spirit tablet had another ability—within the affected house, besides the user, no one else could leave!

Even if they luckily ran out the door, the victims would just end up walking into a "ghost wall," emerging from another window or door and returning to the house.

This was a true escape room!

Li Guoqiang curled his lips into a perverted smile, raised his knife, and thrust it fiercely into the boy's back!

...

Ten minutes later.

*Squish—*

Wu Wang pulled his hand out of the chest of the stranger who had burst into the shop and attacked him for no reason. The chest was no longer rising and falling.

Feeling the heart in his hand—no longer beating but still warm—he tossed it into the trash can with a thud. Blood dripped onto the floor, *drip, drip, drip*, along the edge of the bin.

His face still wore that hopeless, life-drained expression, as if he had been tortured by his job.

Those dead-fish eyes looked at the middle-aged man's corpse, then at the blood on the floor.

He sighed.

The easiest task of the night was finished.

Now the only problem was—the floor he had just cleaned was dirty again.