Chapter 83: Werewolf Community 20

Chapter 83: Werewolf Community 20

White spray paint patterns?

Lin Ye squinted his eyes and studied it for a while before finally making out the "Werewolf Community" written in crooked letters on the trash can, behind which Qin Fei had mentioned the "patterns."

If not for Qin Fei's mention, Lin Ye would have undoubtedly assumed those markings were simply drips from wet paint.

"What is this...?" Lin Ye found the pattern vaguely familiar but couldn't recall where he'd seen it before.

Qin Fei prompted, "Preschool."

In the fax that 110 had sent them, Teacher Anan was clutching this very pattern just moments before her death.

Mi Yang was like a headless fly, stubbornly believing that Wang Mingming's home was the hideout of the mastermind.

However, Qin Fei felt that the clues from the preschool pointed to the true core secret of the Werewolf Community.

—Unfortunately, some players didn't possess these clues and were thus misled onto a path from which there was no return.

Recalling the black-haired young man leaning nonchalantly against the wall in Wang Mingming's building corridor, casually advising the rookie player before him to cooperate, Qin Fei couldn't help but narrow his eyes slightly.

He wondered if Mi Yang would jump up and down in anger once he realized he had truly taken the wrong path.

By then, Qin Fei would surely put on an expression of regret and say, "Oh dear, I did warn you before, yet you chose not to listen."

Standing beside Qin Fei, Lin Ye observed the big shot's enigmatic smile. It was as gentle as ever, but for some inexplicable reason, Lin Ye shivered under the scorching July sun.

...Why did it feel like there was something sinister behind that smile?

The old lady riding a tricycle filled with garbage stopped in front of the mutton soup shop. She quickly attached two overflowing trash cans to the back of her tricycle before pedaling away towards the end of the street.

The commercial street was bustling with people, many of whom were players. Qin Fei couldn't make his presence known, so he signaled to San Tu Guo Huo with a glance.

Their cooperation was now seamless. Without a word, the two men who had been standing with their arms crossed rushed after the tricycle.

It seemed there were new leads, and the spirits in the live stream tilted their heads to watch the screen.

Though the screen appeared the same size to all spirits, no one would be obstructed from seeing it regardless of the crowd.

Yet they insisted on jostling each other.

"What's going on? What did the wife want us to see?"

"A trash can?"

"I don't see any patterns at all. Aren't there just these four characters?"

"I'm impressed. That old lady looked so frail, yet she rode that tricycle so quickly!"

The wheels of her tricycle must have been about to catch fire from all the pedaling.

The old lady was indeed too fast. Before long, Qin Fei and the other ghost returned empty-handed.

"It's alright." Qin Fei wasn't particularly regretful about missing this clue.

"This is a residential area. The garbage collection point and the storage area for trash bins would be fixed."

They could always ask the local residents for information.

Qin Fei and Lin Ye crouched back behind the empty trash bin, with Lin Ye continuing his story about the mutton noodle shop.

"The player who was in that mutton noodle shop yesterday saw a dismembered corpse in the kitchen," he began.

At first, he had assumed the corpse belonged to the shop owner, thinking that the owner was a ghost.

But the game rules warned players against making random accusations; incorrect guesses might result in penalties. Thus, the player didn't dare act rashly.

Instead, he waited until the owner closed up shop and went home last night. He stayed in the store, slept on the floor, and then sneaked into the kitchen for another secret inspection.

Sure enough, the corpse looked nothing like the shop owner.

"The one who died in the mutton soup restaurant was the male owner of the breakfast stall across the street," Lin Ye whispered.

In addition to the breakfast stall owner's body, there were several other corpses in the mutton soup shop's freezer, mixed in with frozen mutton.

"At least half of the minced meat in the mutton soup that the community drinks every day is human flesh," Lin Ye said with a disgusted expression.

The owner of the mutton soup restaurant wasn't a ghost – just a plain psychopathic killer and cannibal.

Qin Fei's thoughts stirred. "Are the corpses intact or dismembered?"

Lin Ye didn't understand why Qin Fei was asking this, but he still answered truthfully, "They're intact."

Qin Fei hummed, feeling somewhat regretful.

He had just had a ridiculous thought. If the corpses in the mutton soup restaurant were dismembered, could it be that this place was his dear parents' disposal site for covering up their crimes?

But Wang Mingming's parents enjoyed dismembering bodies.

Since the corpses in the mutton soup restaurant were whole, it must be a separate criminal chain.

Yesterday, when Lin Ye had asked the lady boss of the fried liver shop about the breakfast stall, she had mentioned that the couple had conflicts with many people in the neighborhood.

Perhaps it was due to their bad temper that they provoked the owner of the mutton soup restaurant across the street, leading to their tragic end.

Upon this realization, Qin Fei was speechless.

An ordinary neighborhood could hide so many talented and cunning individuals.

The ghosts were innumerable, and it seemed there wasn't just one serial killer on the loose.

What sins had the ordinary residents of this community committed to live in such a place?

The reason the player at the mutton soup restaurant was trembling with fear that morning was precisely due to the information he had obtained the previous night.

On one hand, he was deeply concerned about his situation, fearing that the boss might kill him in a fit of anger and add his body to the soup along with those of the dead in the kitchen.

On the other hand, he had obtained a clue related to the breakfast stall across the street, stirring his restlessness:

"He wanted to take a chance and see if he could catch the ghost over there, earning a point or two."

Willing but hesitant, just as he was struggling with his decision, he was caught red-handed by Lin Ye and his companions.

Now, he no longer needed to be conflicted, for they were taking on the task for him.

"The mission at the breakfast stall is actually quite straightforward," Lin Ye whispered.

"We reaffirmed that the shop owner was a ghost, and then we were transported into the mission setting."

That mission setting wasn't even a 'scene'; it was a bare-bones dark space.

The breakfast stall owner held a gleaming great cleaver and asked the three players with an eerie smile, "Do you know how I died?"

Upon hearing this, Qin Fei finally understood. The ghost-hunting task at the breakfast stall was unexpectedly straightforward and crude.

No wonder Ren Ping had died there yesterday.

Ren Ping hadn't bothered to investigate the background of the mission. He'd been terrified by the sight of a human finger in the pancake and, after entering the mission space, couldn't answer the owner's question.

Thus, he was promptly beheaded.

Lin Ye said, "We answered his question, but within ten seconds, we were teleported back out again."

"Did we get any new clues?" Qin Fei asked.

Lin Ye touched his nose. "The breakfast stall owner only mentioned 'Red House'."

The information that had emerged in this R-rated instance confused Lin Ye. So far, all the clues seemed like scattered, insignificant dots with no direction, leaving one at a loss.

Unlike other instances where one task led to another, gradually unraveling the mystery, players didn't feel like they were getting closer to the truth as they completed missions here.

Qin Fei nodded. "Let's head to the fried tripe shop first."

Lin Ye was taken aback. "Isn't the fried tripe shop only open until 9 AM?"

It should be closed by now.

Qin Fei smiled slightly. "We're going precisely when they're closing."

With three players who looked utterly perplexed, Qin Fei pushed aside the plastic curtain and entered the fried tripe shop.

It was 9:15 AM, and all the customers had long since left.

The proprietress ignored the dirty dishes and greasy tabletops scattered throughout the store. She propped her feet up and dozed off behind the counter.

Hearing the commotion at the entrance, the proprietress lifted her eyelids to look over. Upon recognizing the visitors, a displeased expression crossed her face. "You're late!"

Despite Wang Mingming being a voluntary and unpaid community helper, the proprietress was already behaving like a capitalist.

Qin Fei showed no sign of guilt for being tardy. "It's fine if we're late."

Proprietress: "?"

Are you okay?

"What are you even doing here after business hours?" The proprietress waved her hand, shooing the four of them away like flies.

"I won't stamp your volunteer card, no matter what!"

Lin Ye was utterly confused by this exchange.

What volunteer card? What stamp?

It seemed Qin Fei, with his identity as a community resident, had gained more clues than the others.

Unbeknownst to them, Qin Fei's ability to charm the proprietress was entirely due to his own blabbering.

Qin Fei's mouth served a purpose: "Although operating hours are over, there are still plenty of things to tidy up in the store, right?"

As he spoke, Qin Fei nonchalantly made his way into the kitchen as if he belonged there.

Before the proprietress could react, he had already grabbed a blue plastic basket from beside the sink and efficiently gathered all the dirty dishes scattered around the shop.

He was clearly an industrious volunteer with a keen eye for detail.

As he worked, Qin Fei expressed his loyalty: "Look, I've brought along three new friends I just met. They're free this morning, so feel free to assign them tasks, Madam Proprietress."

Qin Fei had deliberately chosen this moment to visit the shop.

If he had come during the busiest time in the morning, the proprietress would surely have put him to work serving dishes and carrying food.

How could he uncover any clues then?

To make new discoveries, he needed to explore uncharted territories.

Qin Fei chattered away as he carried the plastic basket into the kitchen. With a "splash," he turned on the faucet, and the teenager in a school uniform obediently crouched down at the sink to wash the dishes.

He casually threw a few dishcloths to Lin Ye and the others. "Clean up the tables outside."

The proprietress suddenly had a strange feeling that she wasn't sure who was really in charge here.

But with free labor available, and four of them, all looking capable, the proprietress couldn't help but be delighted.

However, the kitchen...

If Qin Fei had let the proprietress assign their tasks, there was no way she would have allowed them into the kitchen. More likely, she would have put them to work loading supplies or taking out the trash.

Yet, that student was already halfway through washing the dishes.

The proprietress hesitantly glanced into the kitchen, only to see Qin Fei bustling about like a diligent little bee.

In the end, she didn't say anything and instead asked Lin Ye and the other two, who were wiping the tables, "Have you had breakfast? There's still some leftover fried liver in the kitchen."

The mere mention of fried liver made Lin Ye nauseous.

He shook his head vigorously, mimicking a rattle drum. "We've had it, we've had it. We had mutton soup this morning."

In reality, they hadn't.

Upon entering the shop, they'd sensed something amiss with the player, and later discovered that the soup was made from human flesh. There was no way they would deliberately consume such a thing.

Both fried liver and human flesh soup were abhorrent to Lin Ye.

But he hadn't anticipated that the proprietress's expression would shift dramatically after he mentioned the mutton soup. It was as if she had heard something that struck terror in her heart.

She clamped her mouth shut, refused to look at them, and stopped speaking to Lin Ye and his companions.

Instead, she propped her feet up and dozed off behind the cash register.

Seeing the proprietress start to snore, Lin Ye slunk quietly into the kitchen.

Pretending to wash a rag at the sink, he whispered to Qin Fei, "Is this proprietress a ghost?"

Qin Fei shook his head. "Not yet, but I'll keep looking for clues."

The back kitchen of the tripe stall was a mess. Stained yellow walls were smeared with greasy stains, and dirty, unwashed dishes were scattered everywhere. Cockroaches and rats roamed about freely.

Qin Fei tossed a plastic basket of dishes into the sink and squeezed half a bottle of detergent into it, creating a massive amount of foam that made it appear from a distance like he was diligently washing the dishes.

Then, he crouched down and began searching around the kitchen.

His first target was the freezer storing frozen items.

The second were the two large pots simmering with braised offal.

Qin Fei found a long-handled spoon and stirred the contents of the pot carefully, hoping to discover something that belonged to a human rather than a pig.

In the meantime, Lin Ye was earnestly washing a rag at the sink.

The sink was situated near the back door of the kitchen. By squatting there, Lin Ye could intercept the proprietress if she suddenly woke up and entered, giving Qin Fei time to react.

With this in mind, after finishing washing the rag in his hand, Lin Ye took a few more from the hooks on the wall and soaked them in the water.

However, when the obstruction on the wall was removed, Lin Ye was astonished to see a paper disfigured beyond recognition by grease stains.

Written on it were several lines of text.

"Daily Work Distribution Rules for the Fried Liver Shop"

1. The front desk is managed by the proprietress.

2. The kitchen is managed by the owner.

3. Each has their own responsibilities; no interference allowed.

Lin Ye swiftly scanned the list and clicked his tongue. "This husband-and-wife team runs a pretty organized operation."

Upon hearing Lin Ye's remark, Qin Fei, who was busy with his tasks, suddenly froze, his back still turned to Lin Ye. "Husband-and-wife team?"

With wet hands, Lin Ye pointed at the plastic sheet for Qin Fei to see.

Qin Fei followed the direction of his gaze, and his eyes couldn't help but freeze.

He finally understood who the ghost was in this tiny shop.

Qin Fei stood up and declared loudly to the empty air, "I accuse the owner of the Fried Tripe Shop as the ghost."

Lin Ye was a bit confused, "Owner? Where did the owner come from?"

As soon as he asked, he suddenly realized something.

Right! There wasn't supposed to be an owner here at all.

If the paper contained the operating rules of the Fried Tripe Shop, then neither yesterday nor today had any players seen anyone other than the proprietress inside the store.

The kitchen was unmanned, yet it could continuously provide dishes.

The identity of the ghost was now crystal clear.

Upon Qin Fei's declaration, a system notification promptly sounded.

"Identification successful, the ghost-hunting phase has begun."

"Mission prompt: Locate the murder weapon of the offal shop owner."

A colossal countdown timer appeared in the sky, displaying a 30-minute countdown.

"This is a timed mission," Lin Ye's expression darkened instantly.

They hadn't even laid eyes on the offal shop owner, let alone find the weapon that killed him.

Qin Fei, on the other hand, was puzzled by something else. "Why are we still in the offal shop?"

In previous instances, after identifying the ghosts, players would be teleported to an obvious mission space. But this time, it seemed they remained in their original location.

With a frown, Qin Fei stepped out from the kitchen. Upon seeing the scene before him, he felt relieved instead.

Sure enough, they had been transported into a mission space.

Only this time, the mission space resembled the werewolf community more closely.

Behind the cash register outside the kitchen door, the snoozing proprietress was nowhere to be seen. Looking out from the entrance of the fried liver shop, the bustling commercial street that had been packed with people not long ago was now deserted.

Qin Fei and Lin Ye stepped onto the street. A dense fog of ashen gray shrouded both ends of the road, and not a single person could be seen on the pavement or in the adjacent shops.

Lin Ye's face grew even paler, his brows knitted together tightly. "This mission space... It seems to encompass the entire commercial street."

Thirty minutes.

To search for an item without any clues in such a vast setting.

That was too challenging.

Qin Fei, however, had already sorted through his thoughts in a fleeting moment.

Normally, to determine the murder weapon that killed someone, the first step would be to examine the corpse.

But the ghost of the fried liver shop owner wasn't your average ghost.

He was a ghost that couldn't be seen.

Even the existence of this ghost was difficult to detect, requiring players to meticulously explore and unravel the clues, eventually discovering its presence hidden within the rules concealed in the kitchen of the shop.

The method of examining the corpse was clearly not feasible here.

If they couldn't examine the victim's body, then another approach would be to investigate the killer.

Qin Fei: "Who do you think could be the murderer of the boss?"

Lin Ye: "The boss's wife?"

This was the first instinctive response for an ordinary person.

But Qin Fei shook his head.

He stepped forward, walking ahead.

"The owner of the Stewed Tripe Shop might have become a ghost, but his relationship with the boss's wife wasn't that bad."

Even after the boss's death, he continued to collaborate with the boss's wife as a ghost, managing this small shop together.

If the boss's wife was the murderer, their relationship shouldn't be so harmonious.

Moreover, since the game had specifically given them an entire commercial street as the mission setting, it suggested that players should not limit their focus solely to the fried liver shop.

"Besides the boss's wife, who else could have killed the boss?" Qin Fei seemed to be muttering to himself.

He paused and looked up at the sign in front of them.

Lin Ye followed his gaze. "You're suggesting that the boss was killed by the owner of the mutton noodle shop?"

Qin Fei blinked. "I'm just speculating."

The boss's wife seemed to be wary, even fearful, of the owner of the mutton noodle shop.

Yesterday, when she mentioned the owner of the Morning Breakfast Stand, the boss's wife said they had argued with someone in the neighborhood.

That 'someone' clearly referred to the owner of the mutton noodle shop.

However, the proprietress only dared to speak ill of the breakfast stall owner and didn't mention the mutton noodle shop at all.

Back at the fried liver shop earlier, when Lin Ye mentioned that they had consumed mutton soup for breakfast, the proprietress immediately changed her expression and refused to say anything more.

From the proprietress's peculiar behavior, it was evident that there must be some conflict between her and the owner of the mutton noodle shop.

Moreover, she seemed very afraid of him.

Coupled with Qin Fei's knowledge that the mutton noodle shop owner was a maniacal murderer who relished turning his victims into meat soups, it almost felt like an injustice to the scenario design if they didn't investigate the mutton noodle shop.

Like the rest of the commercial street, the noodle shop was now deserted.

Qin Fei pushed open the glass door and stepped inside.

There were still a few steaming bowls of noodle soup on the tables. Qin Fei didn't linger in the main area and instead made his way straight into the kitchen.

Compared to the fried liver shop, the mutton noodle shop's kitchen was much cleaner, but it was also very dimly lit and air-conditioned to a chilling degree, making the entire kitchen feel like a large freezer. The moment Lin Ye entered, he couldn't help but shiver.

In the center of the kitchen stood three long metal tables, on which were arranged blocks of red and white meat.

Lin Ye whispered his complaint, "I wonder if that's mutton or human flesh up there."

Qin Fei cast a quick glance and said with great confidence, "The ones on the sides are sheep, and the one in the middle is human."

Lin Ye: "???"

Lin Ye felt a bit alarmed, "How do you know?"

Did he unknowingly miss some crucial information?

Qin Fei replied, "I can tell."

Lin Ye: "..."

Why can you identify such horrifying things at first sight? !

Lin Ye was at a loss for words. After a few seconds of silence, he said, "That player from the Mutton Soup Restaurant mentioned that the corpses are stored in freezers."

Qin Fei followed the instruction and walked toward the massive freezer in the corner.

The freezer was over two meters wide and incredibly heavy. Qin Fei struggled to open its door with his hand.

The moment he pulled the door open, a freezing gust of air, far stronger than that in the kitchen, rushed at their faces. Before the two players stood six or seven grayish-white corpses.

Lin Ye gasped.

The corpses all seemed to have died with unsatisfied expressions. Their rolled-back eyes were filled with red veins, as if they were glaring furiously at the two men outside the freezer.

Deep, bone-exposing wounds adorned the necks of each corpse, clearly inflicted by a sharp object.

A rugged cleaver with a worn-out handle but an exceptionally sharp blade rested silently on one side of the freezer.

Qin Fei rummaged through the freezer for a while before quickly locating the person he was looking for: "The owner of the liver stir-fry restaurant."

The owner still wore the apron from the restaurant, which Qin Fei had seen the owner's wife wear before.

"Damn, we actually found him," Lin Ye's eyes widened in surprise.

Why did it always seem so effortless when they were together with Qin Fei, as if all missions fell into place?

Just recently, Lin Ye was contemplating the idea of searching every shop from one end of the commercial street to the other.

With more than half of the countdown still remaining above their heads, Lin Ye curiously weighed the machete in his hand. Judging from the wounds on the corpses' necks, this blade had to be the murder weapon.

Lin Ye began, "This is it? Then we—"

"Wait," Qin Fei suddenly covered Lin Ye's mouth.