Song Zang was not the type to be intimidated by deliberately mysterious words.
He glanced at Officer Sun, who was driving with painstaking caution, and gave a faint smile. “Do you have evidence?”
A strange smile appeared in Xu Qing’s eyes as they settled on Song Zang’s unruffled face.
“Song Zang, I have a peculiar habit. Voyeurism. Whenever I arrive in a completely new city, I let myself go and sink into the pleasure of spying. I capture the evil hidden beneath ordinary, peaceful life and explore the sickness concealed inside supposedly happy families…
“I keep staring at the secret darkness of that city, peeling it apart thread by thread, assuming the worst, adding fuel to the fire, until I understand it completely and lose interest.”
Song Zang more or less understood. Xu Qing’s motivation came primarily from an intense and sinister personal fascination.
That was why, even as a minor, he had quietly mapped the darkness of Xinjiang City, prying into people’s private lives and repeatedly cracking major cases.
No wonder Xu Qing had never returned to Xinjiang City after joining the Lin Province major-crimes unit. By then, the city no longer interested him at all.
Only when a fresh, still-warm case of an entire criminal investigation unit dying by suicide appeared overnight had Xu Qing finally been “seduced” back to the hometown he had abandoned.
“Keep going. What did you discover in Happiness Community?” Song Zang tilted his head and pretended to be curious.
The moment he felt Song Zang’s attention on him, Xu Qing visibly brightened. He sat straighter and pressed his right hand hard against the stab wound beneath his shirt.
He lowered his voice, but could not suppress the strange excitement in it. “The woman downstairs from you has bipolar disorder. During manic episodes, she buys large numbers of cheap, unregistered cats and dogs, takes them home, and tortures them brutally.
“One of the female cats gave birth to three kittens. She crushed them to death with her bare hands and made the fresh flesh into strips to feed back to their mother.”
So there was more than one person in Happiness Community abusing cats.
Without hesitation, Song Zang took out his phone and messaged Chen Jing Sheng to report her. Without raising his head, he asked, “Anything else?”
“Of course. The owner of Building C, Unit 2501 is an elementary-school PE teacher. He’s gay and also a pedophile. Over decades as a teacher, he’s grown bolder and bolder.
“So far, he’s killed more than a dozen little boys in various ways and worked with the chemistry teacher to dismember and dispose of the bodies. In recent years, the corpses became easier to get rid of. They were sold to Zhang Da Qiang and turned into tender beef slices for noodle soup that cooked the moment they hit boiling broth.”
The information was enough to make someone physically sick. Officer Sun nearly lost control of the steering wheel, fury making the veins at his temples bulge.
Report them. Report every last one!
Song Zang scrolled across his phone without showing Xu Qing too much real emotion.
His tone remained almost careless. “There are many more criminals and people with serious mental illnesses in Happiness Community, and they’ve done all kinds of deranged things, too many to count. That’s what you’re actually trying to say, right?”
In the rearview mirror, those phoenix eyes fixed on his face glimmered darkly.
“Yes, Song Zang. Exactly.”
Xu Qing’s red lips curved, his voice turning husky. A faint, intoxicated flush somehow rose across his cold-white face, carrying undisguised malice. “Happiness Community is the most painful place in the world. Everyone wants what they cannot have. Everyone twists and decays under the pressure of everyday life, like insects hiding in a drain, unable to face the light. Damp, rotting, miserable their entire lives…”
He talked too much.
In short, no one in Happiness Community was happy.
Song Zang listened to Xu Qing’s deranged speech and carefully reconsidered the first thing the man had said.
From an ordinary person’s perspective, the situation was hopeless. But for rookie players… it was actually rather good. Clues were everywhere, and every direction offered a path toward breaking the instance.
There were too many miserable, desperate families in Happiness Community, but that was precisely what suggested the players did not need to resolve every person’s suffering.
“Did the developers use a living foundation sacrifice when they built Happiness Community?” Song Zang could not help making a malicious guess.
“Not just an ordinary foundation sacrifice. Every member of the project’s management team had to contribute one family member and have them buried into the foundation.”
Elio’s Notes: A “living foundation sacrifice” (打生桩) is a folk belief about burying a living victim beneath or within a major construction project to secure the structure or appease supernatural forces. Here, the novel makes that idea literal in Happiness Community.
Screech!
Officer Sun slammed on the brakes without hesitation. A shrill braking sound tore from beneath the car as the tires scraped sparks from the asphalt.
“Captain Xu, is everything you’re saying true?” His expression was grave. “Does any of this have something to do with what happened to the brothers in our criminal investigation unit?”
Xu Qing’s lips flattened, and his expression went blank in an instant. “Drive. Take Song Zang home first. Case details are classified. You aren’t authorized to listen.”
“But Captain Xu…”
Click.
In the next instant, the crisp sound of a weapon being cocked echoed inside the car.
A cold, black muzzle pressed directly against Officer Sun’s taut temple.
Xu Qing’s long fingers stroked the trigger, his tone almost eager.
“Shut up. Drive. Right now I really want to kill you. Really want to. So much…”
With a gun against his head and his life threatened, Officer Sun had no choice even if he refused to submit. He shut his mouth and slammed the accelerator. The sedan shot forward without warning.
Xu Qing fell back into the rear seat as though “weak,” his venomously cold gaze tracing Officer Sun’s anger-reddened face with a half-smile, murderous intent sharp around him.
The young officer had an impulsive temper, the kind of rookie courage that did not know enough to fear a tiger. Song Zang was very glad he had fastened his seat belt and had not been thrown back and forth by the sudden acceleration.
For a moment, the atmosphere in the car became dead and frozen. Song Zang did not like it. He rubbed his brow helplessly. “Xu Qing, put the gun down.”
“All right.”
Xu Qing obediently put it away, a faint smile returning to his lips.
Song Zang had no intention of getting involved in internal police power struggles. That was something Chen Jing Sheng was better suited to handle. He only wanted to continue the topic they had not finished.
“Back to what we were saying. You only arrived in Xinjiang City by plane early this morning. How do you already know so many details nobody else knows? How exactly did you investigate?”
Xu Qing’s smile became meaningful. “No need to investigate. You only need to feel it with your heart.”
“…Speak like a human being.”
“Song Zang, do you know? Pain is a kind of energy. When too much powerful, concentrated energy gathers in one place, it forms a stable, circulating field. My mind is caught inside it too. I’m in pain, always in pain, so I can feel those forces. So can you.”
That still did not sound remotely like normal human speech.
Song Zang pinched the tip of Yin Chen’s tail and raised a brow. “I’m in pain?”
“When I look at you, I can see two pitch-black holes in your heart. The left one says madness. The right one says loss.” Xu Qing smiled strangely and slowly rubbed a hand over his chest. “Song Zang, what did you lose? What do you want back?
“Make a wish to warm, welcoming Happiness Community. Wish for it madly. Release every emotion buried in your heart, stop at nothing… Everything you want will come back, and you will never be harmed. I’ll be here. I’ll protect you.”
What did he mean? Make a wish to Happiness Community?
It sounded strange, like some unknown cult trying to recruit believers.
The more Xu Qing tried to entice him with words, the tighter the little snake wrapped around Song Zang’s wrist.
Song Zang lowered his eyes and gave Yin Chen an obedient little smile, but his voice was cold. “No. I refuse.”
“I knew you would.”
Xu Qing did not become discouraged. Instead, he looked even more delighted. He treated the law-enforcement officer driving the car as if he were not there at all. “Song Zang, you’re very special. Your suffering is buried too deep. I want so badly to eat your heart. It must be sweet… just as expected of the person I like.”
Song Zang: …
Lunatic.
They were nearly home. Song Zang stayed silent the rest of the way and did not respond to Xu Qing’s crude temptation again.
If Happiness Community really did have a history of human foundation sacrifices, Song Zang would never use that energy to fulfill any wish.
Such grotesque, crooked methods could never truly help him resurrect Xiao Bai or recover his memories. Rather than put his hopes in the false supernatural power of an instance world, he might as well honestly earn points and play the game.
Even if the Infinite Game world was dangerous and its allocation mechanism appeared to target him intentionally or otherwise, the benefits that should belong to Song Zang had never been withheld.
If he earned MVP, he received rewards. If he cleared an instance, he received points. The system’s settlement process had basically never gone wrong.
Before entering this instance, the system had even reminded him not to play negatively and to look forward to a better tomorrow.
Honestly, Song Zang could not understand how Xu Qing dared think a few pretty words would be enough to bewitch him… He really was not that easy to sway.
Only after the string of things that happened next did Song Zang suddenly understand.
It turned out his own Resistance was simply too high. He could ignore ninety percent of magical attacks.
The rookie players other than Song Zang, however, were actually very easy for unknown forces to influence, altering their perceptions and shaking their emotions.
The black sedan drove into the community’s underground parking garage.
Three tall plastic trash bins stood outside the elevator lobby of Building A.
Song Zang spotted Ye Xiao Xi’s miserable figure at once.
Standing on tiptoe and clutching a trash bin, she was drenched in cold sweat and trembling violently as she vomited again and again. The faint sour stench of accumulated garbage mingled with blood and the peculiar smell of fresh human flesh, quickly seeping through the gaps in the car door.
What was going on? He had already gone to the police station and come all the way back. Was Ye Xiao Xi still vomiting?
Song Zang’s gaze sharpened. He unfastened his seat belt, opened the door, and walked toward her.
At the same time, Xu Qing reached around the driver’s seat and pressed lightly against the back of Officer Sun’s neck. The young policeman, who had been about to get out, rolled his eyes and fell unconscious.
Xu Qing let his gaze linger over the accessible neck in front of him and sighed faintly. “He wouldn’t want me to kill you. Sun Ling Yun, you’re very lucky.”
Song Zang had no time to care what was happening behind him. Smelling the sour, fermented stench that had built up inside the garbage bin, he stopped and deliberately kept some distance. “Ye Xiao Xi, what’s wrong with you?”
Ye Xiao Xi froze. She turned her head, revealing a pair of bloodshot scarlet eyes fixed tightly on Song Zang’s face.
Her emotions were violently agitated. Her hoarse voice was dry and shrill, and all her nowhere-to-go malice poured straight toward Song Zang.
“Where’s Brother Jing Sheng? Where’s Brother Jing Sheng? Where did you take my brother? What did you do to him?!”
Song Zang remained expressionless. “He’s at work. You…”
“He doesn’t want me anymore? Is that it, is that it?! You did this? I’m going to kill you, kill you, kill you!!!”
She turned and roared as she came toward Song Zang…
Yes. Came toward him by walking.
The scene was honestly somewhat ridiculous. Ye Xiao Xi seemed to have no strength to run or charge. Her body was frighteningly thin, as if she had vomited out all her internal organs.
She could only stagger forward with painful difficulty, moving step by step, her expression vicious and ferocious.
Song Zang focused and looked her over from head to toe. Beneath the dim, gloomy lights of the old parking garage, Ye Xiao Xi’s left hand was gradually becoming translucent.
Her arm looked far more horrifying than she herself did. Only a thin layer of pale skin still covered the bone. The capillaries remaining under the skin kept rupturing, blooming into broad patches of bruising. Yet Ye Xiao Xi herself seemed completely unaware.
Where had her flesh gone? Perhaps it was in the garbage bin.
If she kept vomiting like this, Ye Xiao Xi would absolutely end up throwing herself to death for no apparent reason.
It was an exceptionally cruel and absurd way to die.
And if even Ye Xiao Xi died… what would happen to Chen Jing Sheng?
Losing two people who mattered to him enormously, both in such undignified and terrifying ways.
Song Zang could imagine that Chen Jing Sheng might never again feel complete happiness for the rest of his life.
This instance harbored a great deal of malice toward him.
Combined with Xu Qing’s description, the malice Happiness Community held toward human beings was being displayed in its fullest form right now.
Without panic, Song Zang pulled out his phone, dialed Chen Jing Sheng through a speed shortcut, and put the call directly on speaker.
Chen Jing Sheng answered quickly and automatically began reporting. “Brother Song, something wrong? Yang Mei got a sedative injection. She’s asleep and stable.
“I forced those two doctors to stay. The DNA comparisons should be back tonight. Right now He Tao is the breakthrough. I just finished beating him. I’m going to let him recover a little, then drag him back in and keep questioning him…”
Ye Xiao Xi’s zombie-like steps abruptly stopped. She tilted her head to listen carefully and even showed a strange, ravenous expression.
Song Zang interrupted Chen Jing Sheng’s report and curved his lips. “Chen Jing Sheng, do you love Ye Xiao Xi?”
“…Of course.”
Ye Xiao Xi’s eyes widened, and she stopped moving entirely.
“You love her romantically, right?”
Song Zang paused as he spoke. Before Chen Jing Sheng could answer, he lowered his voice and added, “If you don’t say something nice, I’ll use a tiny spoon to scoop out your brain bit by bit, whisk it smooth, turn it into a pink vanilla mousse, and feed it to Ye Xiao Xi.”
Song Zang felt his attitude was fairly gentle. His voice was extremely soft. The imagery was simply rather vivid.
But Chen Jing Sheng still fell silent for a full ten seconds or more. He was so frightened that even his breathing instinctively stopped for a moment.
Only when Ye Xiao Xi’s emotions began to surge again and scarlet light flickered in her eyes did Chen Jing Sheng harden his heart, grit his teeth, and shout, “That’s right, I love Ye Xiao Xi! I want to marry her!
“I’m a fucking animal! I’m going to buy her gold chains and gold bangles and a whole sack of giant gold ingots as a dowry. It’ll be so tacky the whole world will die of embarrassment!”
Ye Xiao Xi was silent for a long moment. Her eyes were no longer red. Her face was.
“B-Brother Jing Sheng, are you serious?”
Chen Jing Sheng’s breathing was heavy. “I’m sorry, Xiao Xi. I’m a beast. I’ve liked you for a long time, but I never dared say it. A sinner like me who breaks the law and kills innocent people doesn’t deserve you either. If your brother knew… he’d go insane.”
“N-no, that’s not true. I like you too! I’ve killed lots of people too! Those bad men I met while working didn’t go missing. I killed every one of them. I’m just as bad as you!”
Tears filled Ye Xiao Xi’s eyes as she exposed her own secrets without hesitation. “My brother is gone. We’re each other’s only family now. Chen Jing Sheng, I’m going to marry you. Do you hear me?!”
“Yes! Once we clear the rookie instance together, I’ll marry you immediately!”
A joyful, happy smile spread across Ye Xiao Xi’s deathly pale face.
The twisted madness deep in her features was instantly overwhelmed by a stronger emotion and washed away like a receding tide.
After confirming that her rationality was returning, Song Zang simply hung up to avoid any accidents.
“Hiss…”
Regaining control of every sensation in her body was an extremely terrifying and difficult process for Ye Xiao Xi at that moment.
Her formerly straight back immediately buckled beneath the overwhelming agony of missing flesh.
“M-my hand… how…”
Two conflicting emotions intertwined and surged through her. Ye Xiao Xi’s expression hovered between laughter and tears before pain finally made her sob aloud. She stared in horror at her powerless, translucent, ruined left arm, bent over, and gave another long “Ugh…”
The rotten flesh still lodged in her esophagus and throat was finally vomited out completely.
Song Zang relaxed slightly. She was still alive and had stopped vomiting. That was what mattered.
Xu Qing leaned against the sedan and silently watched the entire process, gaining a rough understanding of what had happened.
Listening to Ye Xiao Xi’s barely restrained sobbing collapse, he stepped to Song Zang’s side and leaned near his ear with a faint smile. “The victim in the elevator-shaft fall, Ye Xiao He, was her older brother?”
“Yes.” Song Zang glanced at him. “Tell me what you think.”
Xu Qing laughed softly. “The victim was pushed down by Chen Jing Sheng. There’s no doubt about that. Happiness Community merely opened the elevator landing doors for him and gave him one extra choice, nothing more.
“Killing Ye Xiao He was absolutely not an idea forced into his mind by someone else. Somewhere in his subconscious, Chen Jing Sheng must have thought about killing that man so he could achieve his goal of marrying Ye Xiao Xi.
“His malicious impulse was drawn out. He made the choice himself. He isn’t innocent. Song Zang… don’t you think I’m more honest than he is?”
“Xu Qing, if my malicious impulses were drawn out, I’d kill you too.”
Song Zang turned his head and smiled faintly. Xu Qing froze for a moment, then actually blushed to the tips of his ears after being threatened with death.
…Lunatic!
Song Zang stopped paying attention to him and turned to Ye Xiao Xi. “Can you walk on your own? Come back with me first. You haven’t managed to marry him yet, so don’t die halfway there.”
Ye Xiao Xi froze, then suddenly came back to herself and immediately let her survival instinct take over.
With her hollowed-out left arm, she followed Song Zang step by step and apologized quietly, “I’m sorry, Brother Song. I don’t know what happened to me either. I’ll try hard to keep my emotions stable from now on.”
Song Zang nodded and pressed the elevator button for the twenty-fourth floor. He casually offered some encouragement. “You and your Brother Jing Sheng went through the same thing. A pair of star-crossed lovers with equally miserable lives can understand each other’s feelings. Perfect match.”
“Th-thank you, Brother Song.” Ye Xiao Xi blushed. “I really learned my lesson. Really.”
Song Zang said nothing. His thoughtful gaze stayed fixed on the blue screen before him.
Ever since Ye Xiao Xi’s confession succeeded, the progress bar for the side mission had been climbing rapidly.
Ye Xiao Xi was a game player, but inside the instance she also had another identity.
A resident of Happiness Community.
So “make them happy” actually meant making the residents of Happiness Community happy?
In that case, this side mission was far too troublesome.
Song Zang would rather let everyone enjoy the happiness of death than go door to door solving their individual problems.
Forget it. For now, he could only start with the clues visible in front of him.
＊
Back inside the apartment, Ye Xiao Xi finally could not support herself any longer after stepping through the entryway. Panting, she sat down on the shoe-changing bench. Her body was far too weak now. She truly could not walk anymore.
To Song Zang’s surprise, however, no one was home.
Only Lin Yao remained exactly as she had yesterday, lying stiffly on the sofa beneath beautiful, heavy bridal makeup, sleeping peacefully.
An ominous feeling spread through Song Zang. He opened the overhead entry cabinet and took out the emergency medical kit Chen Jing Sheng had specifically brought back.
Inside were two bottles of medical glucose solution and several types of anti-inflammatory medication, along with a small note.
[Brother Song, Xiao Xi is allergic to cephalosporins.]
…Chen Jing Sheng. So you really are desperately in love.
Song Zang did not know whether to laugh or cry. He hung saline and glucose high on the cabinet, quickly disinfected the site and started an IV for Ye Xiao Xi, giving her fluids to reduce inflammation and replenish energy.
Although a large chunk of flesh had literally vanished from her arm, Song Zang had no way to stuff it back in. He could only treat it temporarily as a severe internal injury.
“Sit here and rest for a while. If anything happens, shout in the group chat.”
“Okay. Thank you, Brother Song.”
After confirming she was unlikely to die anytime soon, Song Zang went into the kitchen, found a knife, and turned to open the security door.
He was going to look for Xiao Xiao Xiao.
Xu Qing, who had been forbidden from entering, was standing midway down the corridor with a strange smile.
“Song Zang, there’s a very strong smell of blood next door. Fresh murder.”
“I can smell it.”
The door to the burly man’s apartment was unlocked and left slightly ajar. A woman’s heavy breathing could faintly be heard from inside.
Song Zang’s expression tightened. Carrying the knife, he pushed the door open, and huge splashes of blood-red color abruptly filled his view.
Xiao Xiao Xiao sat in a pool of blood, expression blank.
An unfamiliar man lay facedown beside her. A sharp fruit knife was buried deep in his back, soaking his white coat wet and red.
A gray [Player] marker floated over his head.
Xiao Xiao Xiao had actually killed a player. She had struck viciously, the blade piercing the heart exactly. There was no saving him.
Hearing Song Zang’s footsteps, her gaze still did not focus. She clutched the torn skirt in her hands and muttered continuously.
Song Zang listened carefully and discovered that Xiao Xiao Xiao’s mental state was actually still quite good. She was not babbling nonsense.
She was simply repeating psychological suggestions to herself over and over.
“Mom loves me. Dad loves me. I can go home. I’m going home. It was self-defense. I was right. I was justified. I did nothing wrong.”
“Good. That’s exactly how you should think. You did nothing wrong.” Song Zang’s tone was approving.
Xu Qing came over and surveyed the scene. “Judging from the signs of struggle, she was clearly defending herself. She truly did nothing wrong. But she’s been…”
Before he could finish, Xiao Xiao Xiao suddenly raised her head and glared fiercely at Xu Qing. “Who are you?”
Xu Qing smiled faintly, something deep flashing through his narrow phoenix eyes. “Hello. I’m Song Zang’s devoted pursuer.”
Xiao Xiao Xiao instantly lost interest in him. She lowered her head and went back to rubbing the torn skirt between her fingers.
But Song Zang’s expression turned serious. “She’s been what? Explain.”
“…Brother Song, I’ll explain it myself.”
It was simple. While Xiao Xiao Xiao was trying to keep Lin Yao occupied, this new player who had been missing for an entire day rang the doorbell and invited himself inside.
He was an obstetrician named Zhang Ming.
Zhang Ming happened to be wearing a white coat. By playing along with Lin Yao’s delusion, he coaxed her into believing she was pregnant and now had to sleep properly to protect the baby.
Lin Yao believed the doctor’s words completely. She eagerly lay down and went to sleep, and no amount of shaking could wake her.
Once things settled down, Xiao Xiao Xiao thought the crisis was finally over… until she took Zhang Ming next door and began showing him the living arrangements in the burly man’s apartment.
Without warning, Zhang Ming pulled a scalpel from one of his roomy pockets and lunged at Xiao Xiao Xiao with a savage grin, insisting that she was carrying some other man’s bastard.
Xiao Xiao Xiao had never been pregnant at all, but Zhang Ming seemed to have suddenly gone insane and could no longer understand a word anyone said.
Left with no other choice, she grabbed a knife and killed Zhang Ming in self-defense on the spot.
“You did exactly the right thing.” Song Zang pinched the little snake around his wrist thoughtfully. “But was that all?”
Xu Qing pressed close behind Song Zang, produced another handgun as though by magic, and chambered a round.
“No, of course that’s not all. Song Zang, let’s kill her, all right? She’s being haunted by both the infant spirit she wronged and a little ghost. It’s very dang…”
Crack.
Before he could finish, the cold handgun was violently crushed into fragments and ignited with invisible, sinister blue flame.
Xu Qing’s hand was instantly covered in blood, and his lips went deathly pale.
Yin Chen gave a smug hiss and lazily settled onto Song Zang’s shoulder.
Want to trap Song Zang inside the instance forever?
Dream on.