Is Zhao Rui alright? That's great. ...So that's how it is. I didn't expect so many things to happen in just one afternoon."
Ren Yifei turned off his phone.
He confirmed with Yu Yan at the hospital that three members of the commune had unfortunately died, five were still being treated, and the others were still alive.
These things happened a dozen minutes ago, less than an hour after the physical examination ended.
Not long ago, students who were in a coma in the hospital suddenly woke up. Some of them jumped off the building, some buried their heads in the washbasin, and some strangled themselves with IV tubes.
What caused all of this was not poison or anything else, but a wooden carving the size of a fingernail.
The wooden carving of the monster in my dream, though small, exudes an evil aura and is extremely ferocious.
Zhao Rui was originally supposed to be one of them, but Yu Yan was watching her intently, so she was stopped as soon as she made a move. Right now, she's lying down eating an apple. The doctor examined her and found she was only slightly malnourished, but otherwise fine.
She also told Ren Yifei about how she felt at that time, just like in her dream. She dreamt that monsters were chasing her, and in her panic, she wanted to jump off a building. However, Yu Yan pulled her back at the last moment.
In her hallucinations were a jumble of illogical things, as if many elements were forcibly pieced together. When she was in the midst of it, she didn't think much about it; she just wanted to escape.
It wasn't until she 'woke up' that she realized she had almost done something stupid again.
This small wooden carving is barely bigger than a melon seed shell. If someone were to casually slip it into a corner, no one would notice it.
It was only after this sudden mass suicide that the hospital conducted a thorough search and found the small wooden carvings in various inconspicuous corners. There were twelve in total, scattered in the wards of more than fifty students.
Those lucky ones who didn't get a spot are fine, as are those who had family or friends with them. Only about ten students who went out with someone or didn't have anyone with them were unlucky.
They are now investigating who brought these evil things in.
There are surveillance cameras in the hospital corridors, but not in the wards, so this is difficult to investigate.
Actually, we could start with individual students, like Zhao Rui. From the time she entered yesterday to the incident today, it was probably less than a day.
Throughout the day, except when buying meals, Yu Yan stayed in the ward without leaving for a moment. Aside from doctors and nurses, the only people who entered the ward were classmates who came to visit the patient.
The first group consisted of Zhao Rui's roommates, and the second group consisted of club members, about a dozen people, who left less than half an hour ago. Besides checking on Zhao Rui, they also checked on the other unconscious people.
The doctors and nurses had no grudge against these people and had no motive. Zhao Rui's classmates only saw her, so it wasn't them either. Therefore, the murderer must be among the group of commune members who visited them.
Basically, this is what people who know what happened at the hospital think. They've already compiled a list of everyone who went there at the time in group chats. Even the police have joined the investigation.
Naturally, a large number of people cried foul, saying they did nothing wrong and were just implicated.
Ren Yifei listed the girls with the surname Y. For some reason, he just felt that there was a 'ghost's' helper among this group, and this helper had some special relationship with the 'ghost'.
For example, a lover.
He checked the time; the people on the list had already been taken to the police station, or were being taken to the police station.
Ren Yifei used the same trick again; he caught two small mosquitoes and sent them to wait for the school gate.
Shortly after, plainclothes police officers arrived in a car and took away the dozen or so gang members. They were very discreet throughout the journey, perhaps to protect the students' reputation, or perhaps to avoid alerting the suspects.
Ren Yifei followed, and then he discovered traces of other players tracking him, such as... turning themselves into anime characters and sticking themselves under the car.
Compared to this, installing surveillance and listening devices is just routine practice.
In addition, among these dozen or so players, he also saw Wen Li, the club president, and Chen Shen, the group leader, but Ke Bei was not among them.
Speaking of which, when they first gathered at the milk tea shop, Ren Yifei only found three of the "Top Ten" and didn't know where the others had gone.
Shanchuan is a laid-back player, so it's normal that he doesn't appear. Butterfly enjoys killing, and the higher the difficulty, the more satisfying the killing becomes, so it's also normal that he doesn't appear.
But what about the others?
Ren Yifei's thoughts didn't last long, because they soon arrived at the police station.
The players on the bus were all looking at the world outside the school, which could be considered an expansion of the dungeon map. Such map expansions generally play a supporting and driving role in the main storyline.
The students who had been to the hospital walked into the police station. It was the first time they had been there for this reason. They were all trembling, their faces covered in cold sweat, seemingly more nervous than if they had been followed by some mysterious force.
However, the police did not treat them as criminals; instead, they poured water for them and even comforted them.
The students calmed down a bit, but still emphasized that they really didn't know anything and were only visiting out of friendship.
"As long as you haven't done anything, nothing will happen," a somewhat stern policewoman said, looking them over and calling out a name.
The student walked in, and since she was a girl with the surname Y, Ren Yifei followed her in. He carefully rested on the policewoman's shoulder, making no sound.
"Name, age, gender." As usual, there were two police officers in the interrogation room, one asking questions and the other holding a form.
The girl was very nervous, unconsciously clutching her skirt with both hands, but she did not deliberately avoid the police's gaze, and she said whatever she knew.
Regardless of the content, judging solely from her attitude, she is not highly suspicious.
"Who first suggested visiting your classmate?" the police officer asked.
The girl thought for a while: "I can't remember clearly. I only remember that it was mentioned in the group chat first. I thought it would be okay to go, so I went. If I had known things would turn out like this, I would have just gone back to my dorm to sleep."
The police asked several questions in a row, occasionally deliberately scrambling the order, but the girl's answers were all correct.
So, the second student was called in; he was a boy. The police asked him similar questions, and his answers were similar as well. He thought that since everyone else had gone, he should go too, just to show up. He never expected that his trip would lead to the deaths of several more people.
However, when asked who first suggested it, he gave a clear answer: "Our group leader met him when he was having a physical exam, and said that everyone should wait until after the exam to go see him, and then we made an appointment."
So the next student called in was Chen Shen.
Compared to the other students who were as timid as quails, Chen Shen displayed a calm and composed attitude. The police officer found this unusual and gave him a second look: "You don't seem afraid at all."
"If you have a clear conscience, you have nothing to fear." Chen Shen pulled out a chair and sat down.
"Was it your idea to go to the hospital to visit your classmate?" the policewoman asked bluntly.
"That's right." Chen Shen agreed without hesitation, and both sides were very agreeable.
The policewoman tapped her pen lightly on the table and asked with a smile, "Out of friendship?"
"No," Chen Shen looked at the two policemen and shook his head, "for my own sake. I want to find out why they suddenly fell ill and whether it has anything to do with our previous rituals."
Chen Shen spoke very directly.
"You are very honest."
"Thank you," Chen Shen accepted the praise and offered another clue, "On our way here, there was a boy who kept taking pictures with his phone. Maybe he can capture something."
"Your proposal?"
Chen Shen shook his head: "It was our club president's suggestion, saying that we should take the photos back to show the other students who couldn't come, so they could feel at ease."
This leads to the introduction of the club's president, Wenli.
When Wenli arrived, he appeared quite calm.
These high-level players have experienced so much; unless they have top-notch acting skills, they really can't fake that natural tension. At this moment, it's better to just stay 'calm'.
"Are you the president of the Mysterious Life Research Society?"
"Yes." Wenli nodded, maintaining his smile.
"Many of the students who had the incident recently joined your club. The school didn't approve the 'ritual' activity, so why are you continuing? Is there any special significance to it?" The policewoman spoke casually, but was actually putting pressure on him layer by layer.
Wenli felt no pressure at all, and he still smiled as he answered, "This club was established to find like-minded people. You could say we're a group of people with common interests. So, when we heard that the vice president has a complete ritual process, everyone wanted to participate, even if the school didn't agree, we still wanted to give it a try."
"How could we have known things would turn out this way? Nobody wanted it to."
Wenli's answer was impeccable. The policewoman asked him many more questions afterward, but he brushed them off lightly.
Both are seasoned players. Chen Shen carries a military air about him; he's assertive yet efficient, decisive and swift in his actions. Wen Li, on the other hand, excels at interpersonal communication. If she were to sit at the negotiating table, her opponents would find it difficult to gain the upper hand.
After witnessing the two players' skills, the policewoman called in the boy who was in charge of filming. He was quite clever; as soon as he arrived, he handed over his phone and, without waiting for any questions, revealed about the video.
"All the videos I took along the way are here. Besides the videos, there are also some photos."
"Could you please have someone from the evidence identification department come here?" the policewoman said to the person on the other end of the phone. The interrogation room door opened, two police officers came in, put the phone in an evidence bag, and took it away.
"Hey, my phone!" The boy was getting a little anxious. He hadn't planned to include a phone when he gave out the information.
"Don't worry, I'll return the data to you after I've copied it," the policewoman said. "Now, tell me, have you made any significant discoveries along the way?"
"A special discovery?" The boy thought for a moment. "We had a physical exam early this morning, and everyone seemed a bit down. Nothing seemed particularly special... Oh, right."
He seemed to remember something, and the policewoman paused, her hand holding the pen still, and asked, "What did you remember?"
"Actually, it's nothing much. We just kept cursing the vice president, because he's the one who caused all this trouble. Even though he said he was possessed by an evil spirit, I just don't believe it. Some of the girls also said that the vice president has been having a secret relationship with a girl for a long time, but I don't know if it's true or not."
The boy also went outside. He was complaining to someone about his phone being confiscated and was worried that he wouldn't get it back.
After that, several more students came in, and they all told similar stories, and none of them seemed to be hiding anything.
"Captain He, this was sent by a colleague from the Evidence Identification Department."
I don't know how many people watched it at several times the speed, but they managed to watch the video so quickly and even found a girl who was obviously not in a good state.
"Yu Huijun? Let her in."