Chapter 1 Some Progress, More Questions

After some exploration, the doubts hadn't diminished much; instead, they had greatly increased.

The fifty-year-old ordinary man inhabited by four players, the house with its doors and windows tightly shut on a hot day, the mysterious custom-made soundproof windows, and the family that had inexplicably disappeared...

All the doubts gathered together made Xing Hechou's head begin to ache faintly.

Li Ang's voice came, "Considering that the scene on the first floor of the house didn't change much when we entered the mansion for the second time,

the floor wasn't dusty, and the shoes were still in the same position.

We can temporarily assume that the time between the first and second entry wasn't very long.

Or, the first and second entries weren't into the same world."

Xing Hechou raised an eyebrow. "A dream? A hallucination? A memory? Or just a bizarre event that can't be logically guessed or deduced?"

Li Ang replied, "All are possible. There's still too little information. Let's continue exploring and try to find some useful information."

"Okay."

Xing Hechou nodded, stood in the living room, looked around, and after making sure there was nothing left out, walked toward the stairs leading to the second floor.

Standing at the foot of the stairs, he told his companions about the unknown man's voice he had heard earlier.

"That voice finished the sentence ‘Fukujin, can you hear me? Fukujin?!’ in Japanese in your ear, and then the mutation occurred.

You controlled Fukujin Hirahara's body, and we entered your mind...

Damn, things are getting weirder and weirder."

Li Ang thought for a moment and said, "When I walked up the stairs, I clearly remember not hearing that voice."

Wanli Fengdao echoed, "Me neither."

Liu Wudai said, "Me too."

Xing Hechou let out a breath. "I was the only one who heard it... Then who the hell was that?"

"Fukujin Hirahara himself? A god? A monster? An alien?"

Li Ang said casually, "As much as possible, do not increase entities unnecessarily. The existing information isn't enough to make an effective and reliable deduction. There are too many possibilities.

Thinking too much is useless."

"Yeah."

Xing Hechou nodded and looked up at the wooden stairs.

Fortunately, the Fukujin's house was relatively large, and the stairs were much wider.

Unlike the cramped, narrow little stairs in the movie *Ju-On* (The Grudge), where you feel like someone is about to crawl down at any moment.

By the way, when Xing Hechou first became a player and was required by the organization to watch various types of literary and artistic works and cram knowledge,

he had specially listened to a lecture by the think tank of the Special Affairs Bureau on the analysis of the *Ju-On* and *Ring* series of films.

At that time, the back rows of the spacious auditorium were filled with players,

and on the podium in front, were a group of balding, elderly experts and scholars—they sat upright, holding infrared pointers, stopping the projector showing the movie every few seconds,

pointing at the screen with infrared pointers,

analyzing the information expressed in the film from the perspectives of aesthetics, psychology, sociology, semiotics, folklore, and film studies,

telling the trainees

how to maximize their chances of survival in the face of paranormal events.

And the students below were taking notes quickly with pens and paper, just like they were still in their youthful student days...

Well,

now the Special Affairs Bureau still regularly holds analysis and discussion lectures by think tanks on literary and artistic works.

Lecture topics include but are not limited to movies, TV series, novels, electronic games, anime...

Keeping up with the times and following current hot spots.

There are also such online courses available for download within the Special Affairs Bureau,

such as *Philosophical and Social Science Development Report and International Studies in Naruto*,

*Multilateralism and Geopolitics in Warhammer 40k*,

*In Monster Hunter, the Ecological Niche Pattern of Monsters*,

*We Invited Dozens of Domestic and Foreign Horror Film Directors and Screenwriters to Talk About the Sources of Inspiration in Their Creation Process*,

*The Origin, Formation and Development of Galgame Game Culture and the Action Strategies Players Should Take When Facing Love-Themed Scripted Missions*,

and so on.

Having an official background is powerful.

After the think tank entered the arena, big shots from all walks of life mass-produced thousands of professional papers from different disciplines, directions, and angles in just a few months.

Stripping most literary and artistic works bare, leaving nothing behind.

The most exaggerated thing is that due to having an official background, the Special Affairs Bureau can even directly invite the creators of those literary and artistic works to talk about their ideas during creation and the discarded ideas during the creation process—

if players really enter the script world of literary and artistic works, this information may be the legendary "encoded backdoor" or "author's channel."

Of course, within the Special Affairs Bureau, apart from a very few people, not many players have finished reading even a tenth of the papers.

After all, players' time in the real world is basically filled with endless skill training, physical training, and combat drills.

And many players were ordinary people before being promoted, and taking the college entrance examination again would probably kill them, let alone relearning more professional knowledge...

Thinking of this, Xing Hechou couldn't help but sigh slightly.

Unfortunately, the understanding of irrational and abnormal events in the real world isn't very deep, and it can't provide him with enough reliable theoretical support. He can only take it one step at a time,

hoping that his teammates, Li Risheng and Liu Wudai, who are quick-witted, can provide guidance.

Step.

Xing Hechou's rain boots lightly landed on the wooden steps. His left hand held the railing, and his right hand held an alloy steel santoku knife (taken from the Fukujin's kitchen. It's a versatile tool knife from Ri Island that imitates Western-style chef's knives, with a thicker blade that can be used for cutting vegetables and deboning. Of course, it can also be used to stab people for self-defense).

Now that Xing Hechou had lost his extraordinary abilities as a player, he could only choose common knives for self-defense.

Stepping down, he didn't trigger any explosions or pitfall mechanisms.

Xing Hechou didn't hear the man's voice in his ear again.

"All normal."

He breathed a sigh of relief and continued to walk up,

holding the santoku knife tightly in his hand, ready to stab the enemy at any time if something went wrong.

Xing Hechou walked very slowly, very slowly, up the short flight of stairs, and only when he stepped on the second-floor floor did he slightly put down the heavy stone in his heart. "I'm up."

"Very good."

Li Ang's voice also revealed a hint of ease. "Um... When I searched the first floor before, the tatami room in the corner didn't seem to be used for sleeping, but was usually used for entertaining guests.

This floor is where the Fukujin family's living quarters are.

In short, let's search them one by one."

Xing Hechou nodded and pushed open the sliding doors of the tatami rooms with the kitchen knife in his hand.

Fukujin Miyoko's room, Fukujin Hirahara's and his wife's room, Fukujin Hiroki's room, the tatami room prepared for his daughter and son-in-law

Fukujin Hirahara's study, the bathroom.

After searching the six rooms on the second floor, Xing Hechou pulled out the ladder and went up to the attic, rummaging through the boxes and cabinets,

but he couldn't find any family members in this house except Fukujin Hirahara himself, including Weimon Anzu and Weimon Shion, who Li Ang had speculated about.

No sign of them alive, no sign of their corpses.

After going around in a circle, Xing Hechou went back to the room where Fukujin Hirahara and his wife were, and sat on the tatami for a while to rest.

He was still using Fukujin Hirahara's fifty-year-old body, and after a search, he was really exhausted.

"The only clue I have is this diary of Fukujin Hirahara himself, which I found in the locked drawer in the study."

Xing Hechou placed a rather old leather notebook in front of him, reached out and grabbed the lock rope of the notebook, and said softly, "I hope this diary can tell us the answer."