Chapter 80
Lin Yi carefully opened his eyes.
There was a dark mist all around but it was already showing signs of dissipating. He could make out shadowy constructions through the mist.
Then he snuck a peek at Qin Zhou and Ren Li, standing off in the distance.
The two of them stood in place, probably waiting for the mist to disperse.
It won’t be until the mist disperses that they’ll be able to see the 4-4 Rule World’s entire scene.
As Lin Yi walked towards Qin Zhou and Ren Li, he thought back to what had happened at the lake.
Everyone had seen the scene played on the surface of the lake and everyone saw Lin Yi by the lakeshore. Even if they didn’t think him the 4-4 Monster, they would think that the 4-4 Rule World’s contents had something to do with Lin Yi.
When in fact, they were completely unrelated.
That scene played on the lake surface never happened to Lin Yi. Though when Lin Yi saw himself reflected on the lake’s surface, it had crossed his mind that the 4-4 Monster might, based on his own makeup, played out a scene from his past.
However, there had been a very striking paradox in the scene. Lin Yi was poor. He wouldn’t willingly damage the TV since it would cost money to send it for repairs. He needed to save money to survive and to take his parents to a bigger hospital to be examined.
But Lin Yi couldn’t guarantee that it really had nothing to do with him. He knew very well that there was ‘It’ in his body. What if that scene had been from ‘It’s’ past?
But even if that had been from Its past, it didn’t matter. What mattered was why the 4-4 Monster chose to show him in that scene. Why not Qin Zhou or Ren Li? Or why not any of the other participants?
For the time being, Lin Yi couldn’t think of the reason but he was sure of one thing.
He or ‘It’ was related to the 4-4 Monster.
Lin Yi temporarily put this conclusion aside. He opened his mouth and called out to Qin Zhou, “Senior.”
The top priority was to perform as normal. From his experience of the previous Rule Worlds, the black mist could be regarded as the loading screen for the 4-4 Rule World. That it hasn’t dissipated after so long, implied that the 4-4 Rule World must be huge. And from this, one could see just how powerful the 4-4 Monster was.
If Ren Li and Qin Zhou begin to suspect him because of that scene on the lake’s surface and the three of them have a falling out and mutually suspect each other, then the losses would outweighed the gains.
Qin Zhou and Ren Li’s eyesight weren’t better than Lin Yi’s and it was only after Lin Yi got close that they managed to see him through the mist.
Qin Zhou first looked him up and down and then asked in a low voice, “Are you okay?”
Lin Yi had been directly dragged to the bottom of the lake. Afterwards, a huge wave came from the lake bottom and crashed towards the other students.
The way Lin Yi had been drawn into the 4-4 Rule World was different from the others.
After Lin Yi was sucked into the bottom of the lake, he didn’t see what had happened to the others but he was able to glean some meaning from Qin Zhou’s words.
Not only did he guess that his way of entering the 4-4 Rule World had been different from the others, he also noticed Qin Zhou’s suspiciousness towards him.
Although Qin Zhou had been silent throughout his entire conversation with Ren Li just now…
The truth was, he did have his doubts.
With the ‘Lin Yi’ on the lake’s surface and Lin Yi’s special way of getting drawn in, it would be strange if those didn’t set one’s gears turning.
Lin Yi was well aware of this. He can try and express his innocence by arguing “how could the 4-4 Monster give away the game in the very beginning”, but the words “reverse thinking” forced Lin Yi to keep silent.
This was just like when the 2-6 Monster directly stated in the beginning that he’d had the sensation of being spied upon.
Whether it was straightforward thinking or reverse thinking, nothing could be proven. And so, the best way to eliminate suspicion was to not act weird.
Lin Yi acted casually. He didn’t explain anything, simply replying to Qin Zhou, “Senior, I’m fine.”
In any case, in the Rule World, you don’t start off by looking for the Monsters. With Qin Zhou or Ren Li’s strength, they will find that he wasn’t the 4-4 Monster in the process of finding the main plot.
The black mist was dissipating faster.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Jbwqjgfv ab atf batfg qjgalmlqjcar, atf atgff bo atfw tjv j tlutfg qgbyjylilas bo yflcu rfifmafv ys atf 4-4 Zbcrafg. Cii atgff bo atfw jgf kfii jkjgf bo atlr rb atfgf kjr cb cffv ab vb j rfio-vfmijgjalbc.
“Ofa’r ub.” Hlc Itbe rjlv, “Ktf obu lr mifjglcu.”
Ktfs wjvf atflg kjs atgbeut atf wlra jcv atf atgff bo atfw vlgfmais gfjmtfv j gbbw.
A man in a suit and leather shoes yelled at them, “What are you doing standing at the door? The meeting’s starting!”
Before their eyes was a meeting room many times more formal than any of the student union’s meeting rooms. The suited man who yelled at them was standing at the front. Sounding pissed, he said, “Find a chair and sit. What are you waiting for? An invite? Hurry up, you’re wasting time!”
One of the things Lin Yi was most afraid of was being urged to hurry. He quickly entered the meeting room and found a seat in one corner and sat down.
Qin Zhou sat next to him.
The location Ren Li chose was to the right of Mr. Suit.
After sitting down, Lin Yi looked up at Mr. Suit. There was an ID hanging around his neck. He had very good eyesight and could make out the words on the ID.
He then whispered to Qin Zhou, “Senior, this is a news agency.”
Lin Yi saw Mr. Suit’s name and position on his ID.
Chief Editor.
Qin Zhou: “Yes.”
Qin Zhou tapped on a notebook on the meeting room table. The notebook was produced by the news agency itself and the company’s full name was printed on the notebook cover.
The Singularity News Agency.
Mr. Suit looked very irritable and he kept looking at his watch. “What time is it? I told everyone about the meeting! Why are they late!”
At present, there were only the three of them in the meeting room. Mr. Suit caught sight of them and scolded, “If you don’t have any sense of time, don’t be a reporter.”
Lin Yi figured out their identity from Mr. Suit’s words. It seemed they were reporters for the Singularity News Agency.
This dumbfounded Lin Yi. He couldn’t see how going back in time had anything to do with the current setting.
Judging from the number of chairs prepared in the meeting room, the reason for the delayed start of the meeting was because the other attendants haven’t arrived yet. There were ten people in total, but only three have arrived so far.
Lin Yi guessed that the seven people yet to show up were the remaining seven participants.
The black mist was already dissipating. Even if these seven people didn’t take the initiative to pass through the black mist, they would still find themselves here when the mist completely disappeared.
Sure enough, after a while, the seven people finally arrived.
Before the seven people could react, they were scolded by Mr. Suit and dazed and confused, they found their seats.
Now that everyone was here, the meeting finally started.
Mr. Suit turned on the projection. Lin Yi looked up and a photo appeared on the projection screen. The head of the person in the photo was completely covered by a black mask; his hands were in handcuffs and he was holding a prison board in his hand. This was a photo of a prisoner.
Behind the prisoner was a height guide. The prisoner was 182cm tall.
Lin Yi looked at Qin Zhou and Ren Li after seeing the photo. Ren Li’s face stayed completely expressionless while Qin Zhou frowned.
Lin Yi guessed that Qin Zhou had the same idea as he did. He too couldn’t figure what the 4-4 Rule’s backflow of time had to do with the prisoner. This seemed to have nothing to do with the content of the lake’s backflow.
Lin Yi noticed that there was no number on the prison board. Generally speaking, prisoners without a number on the prison board were criminals who’ve committed heinous crimes.
Sure enough, Mr. Suit pointed to the photo and said, “His name is Shunxi, a famous serial murderer who was just arrested last night. Shunxi is also an expert at remaining undetected. No one knows his appearance, including his sex. It has always been a hot topic of discussion on the Internet. Not long ago, our agency received an exclusive tip and was given Shunxi’s photo. Our task is very simple, to determine the authenticity of this photo. So hurry up, we’ve got to clarify this before the police releases the news about Shunxi! Once we’ve confirmed it, we’ll immediately publish this photo so that the public’s attention will be firmly locked on us! You guys…”
Ren Li, who was closest to Mr. Suit, interrupted Mr. Suit’s rambling, saying coldly, “Photo.”
Mr. Suit paused. He then went to deal with the computer, preparing to re-project Shunxi’s on the screen.
The participants in the conference room were waiting for Mr. Suit to bring it back up but Mr. Suit suddenly turned pale. He looked at the computer in disbelief. “The photo… the photo…”
One of the participants was alarmed by Mr. Suit’s reaction and reminded him, “Download from the email again.”
Mr. Suit said anxiously, “It’s gone, the email’s gone. Fuck, the email’s gone, it was deleted.”
The participant reminded him again, “The recycle bin.”
Lin Yi and the other two didn’t speak. If they could actually find the missing email in the recycle bin, there wouldn’t be any need for the plot.
Sure enough, Mr. Suit fell heavily on his chair. “It’s not in the recycle bin either.”
“Impossible, how could Shunxi’s photo disappear…”
Lin Yi looked up at the screen again. Because the screen was connected to Mr. Suit’s computer, he could see the computer interface from the screen.
The folder where the computer separately stored Shunxi’s photo was empty and there was nothing in the computer’s documents folder. Then the computer interface returned to the main interface and Lin Yi saw today’s time and date — September 21, 17:49.
Assuming normal working hours from 9 to 6, they will be off work soon.
But Mr. Suit didn’t seem to have any intention of letting them leave on time. The sudden disappearance of the photo fired him up even more. “That’s right, we also have an exclusive on Shunxi’s arrest. We can still catch the public’s attention.”
He said as he stared at the ten participants, “You guys should find a way to interview Shunxi and then take a picture of him while you’re there. Best to ask his thought process and his modus operandi. While you’re at it, don’t forget to get him to clarify the details of some of his criminal cases. If we’ve got those things, we can release the interview and photo when the police announces the news of Shunxi’s arrest! Go, go now! ”
Lin Yi thought, if it were that easy to take a picture of a serial killer, his face wouldn’t have been covered in the photo.
But this was the task assigned by Mr. Suit. It will be dark soon and with the Rules of Death still unknown, they were still going to have to complete Mr. Suit’s task.
After a quick consultation, the seven participants decided to go to the police station.
Qin Zhou asked Mr. editor-in-chief for some information related to Shunxi.
There wasn’t much information and the only information the news agency had about Shunxi were basically about his crimes.
The editor-in-chief wanted Shunxi’s thought process. Qin Zhou attempted to do so from these cases; he was good at finding problems from written files.
The more than a dozen murder cases seemed unrelated. Qin Zhou thought for a while, borrowed the editor-in-chief’s computer and asked Ren Li to open the map software. One by one, he inputted the locations of the murders.
Lin Yi leaned closer to the computer screen and saw that there were more than a dozen locations marked on the map software. There seemed to be no connection.
“Little genius.” Qin Zhou called out to Lin Yi, “Do you know the Manhattan distance method?”
Lin Yi realized what Qin Zhou was going to do.
The Manhattan distance method is a calculation model that can determine the location of the criminal. All the murders had happened in this city, so Shunxi must have an address here.
Qin Zhou wanted to go to Shunxi’s hideout. That way, even if he is unable to see Shunxi himself, he could find his hideout and gain something.
Lin Yi stared at these locations, then drew the Manhattan circles in his mind with the location as the center according to the formula. He finally locked on the overlapping area of the Manhattan circles.
He circled it on the map with his finger. “Senior, it’s here.”
Qin Zhou wrote down the street from the map. “Let’s go.”
The place Lin Yi pinpointed wasn’t too far from them, about half an hour’s walk away.
But pinpointing the area on a map and finding the exact location wasn’t the same thing. It seemed that additional methods were needed to accurately find the exact residence.
But Lin Yi pointed to an apartment on the second floor of a certain residential building.
The windows of this apartment were equipped with guardrails, and the glass windows were covered with newspapers. Compared to the other windows, this apartment looked really strange
This residential building was very old, with mottled traces due to its age. It was also covered in green ivy.
But the walls of this apartment were a little newer than the others. The ivy also bypassed this apartment, making it look very suspicious.
Qin Zhou: “Let’s go and have a look.”
The three of them headed straight for it.
Ren Li stepped forward and knocked on the door. No one answered.
So Qin Zhou and Lin Yi looked around in the corridor. Both of them wanted to find something to unlock the door.
But before the two of them could find anything useful, the door suddenly opened.
Qin Zhou took a step forward and blocked Lin Yi behind him.
Obstructed by both Qin Zhou and Ren Li, Lin Yi struggled to see the person who opened the door.
It was a man in a wheelchair, wearing a mask, looking gloomily at the three people outside the door. He said coldly, “Who are you looking for?”
Ren Li was colder than him. “Is this your house?”
Lin Yi thought that if he were the one who opened the door, he might just jump out of the wheelchair and hit someone.
Qin Zhou pulled Ren “the ice cube” Li back in disgust. Socializing was obviously not Ren Li’s forte.
He asked the person who opened the door, “We are looking for someone and this is the address he left.”
“You’ve got the wrong address.” The person in the wheelchair was about to close the door.
Qin Zhou blocked the door and refused to let it close. “If you can prove that this is your home then I’ll believe that we got the wrong place.”
… Lin Yi thought, if it were him, he would jump up from the wheelchair and beat Qin Zhou too.
Qin Zhou was very strong. If he won’t let the man in the wheelchair close the door, then the man in the wheelchair wasn’t going to close the door.
He threw a look at Yi next to him, signaling Lin Yi to take the opportunity to look inside the house.
Lin Yi received the signal and was about to raise his head.
The person in the wheelchair suddenly said, “Lin Yi, they might not know me but you do, don’t you?”
Lin Yi paused. Qin Zhou and Ren Li were also taken aback.
Lin Yi stared at the person in the wheelchair. The person in the wheelchair simply took off his mask so that Lin Yi could take a better look.
Although he had burn marks that made it difficult to identify him, Lin Yi was sure that he had never seen the person. He didn’t even have this person in his real memory.
Lin Yi pursed his lower lip and asked, “Who are you?”
“Oh, yes, so many years have passed and so many things have happened.” The man in the wheelchair lowered his head. “My name is Cen Qian.”
Lin Yi was silent.
He didn’t recognize him.
He’d never heard that name before.
The Manhattan distance method – https://iq.opengenus.org/manhattan-distance/
https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/geographic-profiling-serial-crime-investigation/18819
Oooooooh yummy can’t wait
Thank you 🙏🏻
Horay for the two chapters right after Each other! Also The npc nows lin yi !?
that smells troubles
Thank you for the chapter <3
Okay wait wait I have a theory! (It’s probably like very wrong but I tried)
What if, his mother and father were both sucked into the 4-4 world, but they didn’t die in it. Since this rule looks like it’s a normal city, maybe they were able to like live in this world and then they had Lin Yi while they were INSIDE. Again I’m probably making stuff up, but that would explain why his parents are like walking corpses and why Lin Yi is the way he is, and why this guy with the burns would know Lin Yi.
(I’m gonna come to this comment after I find out the truth of what’s going on)
Ooh ooh maybe his parents are actually dead inside the rule world but they don’t know it, or maybe the world makes them think they’re alive when they’re actually not, so when somehow they found a way to get out of the rule world, the way they are now is how they actually look like, dead walking corpses or something I don’t know man
Update: I have found out that I am in fact an idiot, so ignore everything that I said 🙃
Theorising is always a valuable part of reading mystery novels, wrong or right, the thought process will always be a fun activity for the brain!
I never theorise anything, is its great that you put your own opinion out to the world!
Maybe the man is from a time that yet to come and or he knows ‘it’.
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
Thank you for the chapter 💐
You know….what if Ren Li is the monster this time?
this is just raising my curiosity of lin yi’s identity even more ..ahhhhh
Random NPC in the game: You know me right? Cen Qian! That Cen Qian (uncovers the mask 😷
Li Yin: *second hand embarrassment
😳
What if the 4-4 monster somehow knew which people would create the best product of their union and dragged in Lin Yi’s parents so as to produce someone who would be considered superior in the real world and then was able to inhabit Lin Yi’s body before birth so as to escape into the real world