The Trial Game of Life

The ‘bad boy’ Huanhuan was stabbed in his palm.

This was his punishment.

Zheng Yingying drank a potion and finally heaved a sigh of relief. The power devoured by the [Nameless Dagger]  also soothed her exhausted body. But she was so tired, both her arms seemed to be broken, and she couldn’t lift them up at all.

She maintained her vigilance against Meng Yufei. Thinking about what Jiang He told her about Meng Yufei, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes and said coldly: “Come here and fasten the strap for me.” 

Her eye patch was loosened during the fight just now. It had fallen off and was dangling on her ear.

Meng Yufei clutched his wound and endured the pain caused by the [Nameless Dagger]. He was facing Zheng Yingying, who was a lot more injured than him, but he wasn’t harbouring the slightest thought of resistance, even though she was closing her eyes and looking completely defenseless at the moment.

But, the more defenseless she was, the more frightened Meng Yufei became. As his soul quivered, the tremors scattered all over his body, so much so that he could only choose to surrender.

After a while, he stepped forward on his knees and picked up the black patch.

Mr. Crow stood on a branch outside the window and let out an eerie laugh. He tilted his head and hopped around gleefully, as though he had watched a very delightful show. In the next moment, he turned up in the warden’s monitoring room again, raised his chest and said: “What do you think? Is 404’s performance good?”

Xiao Tong looked back at him: “Why don’t I give her to you?”

Mr. Crow: “What do I want a player for? Hm, the great and kind Mr. Crow is the only one in Yong Ye City, so he doesn’t need any successor!”

Xiao Tong smiled and didn’t answer.

Mr. Crow felt that this warden was getting really boring, so he shook his wings and decided to look forward to 79081’s bad luck. This was No.1 on his Blacklist, yet Mr. Crow hadn’t played with him for a long time — He must miss me very much.

Xiao Tong still kept his eyes on Tang Cuo.

Through the information these souls uploaded on social networks and their real-time positioning, Tang Cuo had now confirmed that at least 29 people appeared at the scene of the Xishan Road incident.

This further proved that his inference might be correct, that was, these 99 people were all at Xishan Road. Then, the murderer wearing rain boots should also be one of these 99 people.

To find him, Tang Cuo could use the method of elimination.

But the rule of this game wasn’t to find the murderer, and the murder of the game live streamer was just one of the events that happened on 25th June.

The question went back to its starting point — What were the criteria for a soul to be alive?

Since it was a Cemetery of Souls, the criteria for judging that might not simply have something to do with physical life and death.

A tragedy that was caused by love and hatred while fueled by a heavy rain led 99 people to be stranded at the intersection of Xishan Road. There was a murderer, a takeaway staff and an ordinary girl who loved to make friends.

The cell phone was the one medium that helped Tang Cuo to spy on everything. It was a new dwelling for the souls, yet also a new stage for all good and evil. When Tang Cuo just entered school, he was influenced by his stern form teacher. The teacher felt that people and the Internet were separated by a screen, and whatever each person said was only through texts. The more words they typed, the more natural this facade would become.

Later, Tang Cuo discovered that the reality was rather different.

For all the disguise you put on, no matter how good you pretended and even if the day you were exposed would never come, your disguise was also evidence of your hypocrisy. Hypocrisy represented a part of your personality.

Which also formed the real you.

The only difference was which side you wanted to show first.

Tang Cuo didn’t dislike hypocritical people, or even selfish and indifferent people. This was personal freedom, a person’s choice and judgment based on his own heart.

What Tang Cuo disliked was an empty shell whose soul had been lost.

Some people were alive, yet he was dead; some people were dead, yet he was still alive.

He suddenly remembered this: [Cemetery of Souls], was this the real challenge? But the requirements to clear it were too vague. Even though Yong Ye City’s system always hid half the truth when introducing a new dungeon to the players, the requirements for game clearance were very clear.

Tang Cuo felt something was not quite right, or perhaps he had actually been feeling something wrong since he discovered that he was inside a gate all by himself. He couldn’t help but look around, then he gazed at the gloomy sky.

Who was it that was watching him?

Watching his moves, Xiao Tong smiled knowingly, leaned back in the chair, tapped the arm of the chair with his fingers and said: “I’m really liking him more and more.”

Although Mr. Crow didn’t show up, his voice that loved to laugh over people’s agony reverberated through the air: “I’ll tell 79081. If you dare to pry his most precious corner, he’ll come at you with all his might!”

“Aren’t we on the same side?”

“No! The great Mr. Crow was under one man yet above everyone else. There’s only one me across Heaven and Earth, so I absolutely don’t belong to the same side as you!”

Xiao Tong’s gaze immediately fell on Jin Cheng, who was still busy fighting.

Going to school was a long journey where one would encounter various problems, one after another. When the college entrance examination was over, it was like thousands of troops tried to cross a single-plank bridge at the same time. That said, Jin Cheng’s group did gain an advantage by choosing Shanghai earlier. The situation of patriarchy and sexism would be much better in such a developed region.

In the meantime, they were going a lot of forks in their path. They could choose to drop out of school or continue their studies, and there were even options to focus on romances. The more forks they passed through, the more monsters they came across. Standing at any intersection, they could already see the obstacles waiting for them ahead.

Since they could make a choice, of course they should make the best one. 28 players activated their studious mode and went all the way to graduate school. They wanted to keep moving forward, but some players started raising objections.

“It’s hard to find someone when you’re a Ph.D holder. Just now we’ve already seen the ‘Marriage’ option, but we still didn’t choose it. It’ll become difficult when we want to choose later.”

“Who said you must get married? If you want to get married, you go there yourself.”

“Even if you don’t get married, why would you want to get a Ph.D? To become a researcher?” 

“Isn’t it better to be an academic than a salaryman? Maybe if you pass this barrier, your life will be smoother later? We can contribute to mankind without seeking excessive wealth.”

This statement was so hypocritical that the rest of the players stared at the man who uttered it. 

Leng Miao had always been disinterested in their arguments, and he didn’t hesitate to choose to continue his studies. Because he was a Ph.D holder before his death, so what could be so hard about doing it again?

Jin Cheng shrugged, smiled at the few ladies in the team and made a ‘please’ gesture. He ignored Leng Miao’s choice and left the decision with the ladies, showing off his full gentlemaness.

The ladies hesitated for a while, nodded to Jin Cheng and followed Leng Miao.

Mr. Crow appeared atop the street sign and ruthlessly destroyed Jin Cheng’s image: “Don’t be fooled by him, this person is in a relationship! Hey, I’ll tell 27216, you flirt with the ladies behind his back! Scum! You’ll be punished! “

Today, Mr. Crow was very keen to be a busybody.

Everyone was stunned and the question of who this ‘27216’ was swept past their mind. Jin Cheng stopped, turned around and smiled at Mr. Crow: “Since Mr. Crow is so enthusiastic, why don’t you help me make an announcement to the whole zone? How about you officially declare my love affairs?”

Everyone continued to be stunned, What? What are you talking about?

When did the big boss fall in love? 

With whom?

“272, 27216…” Someone mumbled this number under his breath and suddenly became enlightened: “Isn’t that the dark horse of the Blacklist? Tang Cuo!”

One after another, the sounds of “holy sh*t” echoed through the air.

Jin Cheng calmly raised a finger to his lips: “Hush.”

Everyone went silent, and for a while, they weren’t sure what the big boss’ status was, or whether he wanted to make it public or not. Jin Cheng smiled: “I just successfully got hold of my target. Don’t expose me, else that person might run away.”

Leng Miao rolled his eyes.

In his gate, Tang Cuo didn’t know that he had come out of the closet without his knowledge. Three tombs had exploded in a row because they went out of battery, and it took some time to absorb the souls coming out from them.

Once a tomb blew up, the clues that belonged to that soul would be lost. Fortunately, with his great memory, Tang Cuo had basically remembered those details.

He temporarily put the possibility that someone was peeping at him aside and quickly found another key clue — a monitoring screen displayed on a certain cell phone.

The owner of this phone had installed the camera in the corridor, and the monitoring display could be connected to his cell phone. In the display, a girl walked out of the elevator carrying a supermarket plastic bag, reached a door on the left side and pressed the password to open it.

It was the live streamer who was murdered.

Tang Cuo pressed the ‘Back’ button and found that there were more than one surveillance cameras. They were installed in different buildings with unique decorations, and their angles were all rather tricky.

This didn’t seem like an appliance that belonged to the properties. Someone was spying on these young women who lived alone.

Was it the murderer who installed the camera?

If so, his profession must be very special, for it allowed him to travel freely to install cameras in these communities without being suspected. He must be equipped with a toolbox, and his identity was along the line of a plumber or locksmith.

Tang Cuo then started from these monitoring displays to search for the next connection in this complicated web of relationships. He watched all the surveillance videos again and again, from 2x speed to 4x to 8x, then to 32x. Suddenly, he quietly pressed the ‘Pause’ button.

It was Pao Qi, who liked to post selfies on her Moments.

The single Pao Qi seemed to be living alone now. There was no sense of precaution, but her postings on Moments never gave out her positioning.

She definitely had no idea that she might soon encounter the worst mishap.

Thereafter, Tang Cuo found the second video about the killing on Xishan Road. Previously, Pao Qi’s Moments revealed that the cause of this incident was because a couple broke up and the boy stabbed the girl.

Tang Cuo speculated that it was the couple who had broken up in the chat records. The boy cheated and the girl wanted to break up. The boy refused to agree, so love led to hatred.

Tang Cuo found the boy’s tombstone and found a video of him on his phone. The video was taken before he left home, where he said that he would like to pull his girlfriend back with an expression that bordered paranoia and fanaticism.

He did bring a knife.

But the point wasn’t that. It was the picture of his girlfriend he showed to the camera at the end — that was the game live streamer’s face.

Tang Cuo’s heart suddenly seemed to be knocked by something. He immediately turned around and looked at the cell phone tombstone belonging to the live streamer. It was raining, their vision was blurred, a man in rain boots, surveillance cameras, and a boy who lost his mind while trying to restore his relationship with violence…

All kinds of clues became connected in Tang Cuo’s mind, and a terrifying deduction crossed his mind — the boy killed the wrong person.

An innocent woman was killed at an intersection on a rainy day. Perhaps she just happened to show up there waiting for the red light.

The game live streamer escaped her ex-boyfriend’s knife, but she didn’t escape the purest form of malice from strangers that surrounded her.

Who was the next victim?

The heavy rain was still falling.

Tang Cuo’s expression had turned completely stern and solemn. He narrowed his eyes slightly, and as he scanned the remaining 91 tombstones, he suddenly remembered the sound of police sirens.

The passengers on the bus that passed by took pictures of the police car that was driving past the intersection of Xishan Road.

Tang Cuo propped his hand on the tombstone and dexterously started running to chase after the police sirens. Someone called the police, and the phone that made the call showed the dialling timing to be 1:15, which happened to be the 12 minutes after the live streamer’s murder. The time was about right.

It should be someone who was watching the live streaming that made the call.

But the murderer was at the intersection of Xishan Road right now!

The police car was stopped by traffic lights. In the video, the man clad in rain boots and hat looked up at the police car, then he quickly lowered his head and pushed the cart into the crowd.

The distance between the two was no more than ten meters.

The video was short. At the end of it, the person who took the video casually complained about what a horrible day it was. There was an incident here, yet the police car was running elsewhere.

In the background, there was a commotion from other bus passengers. A mother was lecturing her kid that she must be careful when going out in the future.

The more Tang Cuo looked, the clearer the truth, and the deeper his brows creased.

No matter how tragic and heartbreaking this story about Xishan Road was, he still had to clear the game. But the requirements for game clearance were so vague, so how should he make a judgment?

Or was it because his line of thought was too negative. To judge someone’s life and death, were there different criteria?