At 10:01 AM, on the long western slope of Jiangcheng University.
Armed police officers stood by the cordon holding riot guns, their eyes scanning the vicinity.
Not far away, a police dog handler led a canine, braving the scorching sun to conduct search and rescue operations.
The police dog was somewhat listless from the heat, much to its handler's distress.
Every disappearance site on campus had been secured. Military and police forces worked in three shifts, conducting a carpet search across the entire university grounds.
The long slope was where Weng Yang and Tan Moli had disappeared.
At this moment, three layers of yellow police tape cordoned off the area, and the Special Task Force's monitoring equipment remained running.
By now, twelve hours had passed since the victims had gone missing.
An officer on duty suppressed a yawn, about to say something to the comrade who had just arrived to relieve him—
Suddenly, a white light flashed before everyone's eyes.
“Who's there?!”
“On guard!”
“We've got movement!”
The sound of rustling gear instantly echoed as countless dark gun barrels aimed toward the white light.
As the white light faded, a visibly shaken Weng Yang appeared within the cordoned area, urgency still written all over her face.
“I'm back?”
She clutched her chest, panting, her lips as white as paper.
Someone immediately recognized her—she was on the missing persons list.
The officer on duty instantly pressed his walkie-talkie, his voice slightly cracked. “Reporting to command! At the long slope point, a missing person has appeared! Repeat, a missing person has returned!”
The other end of the walkie-talkie erupted in chaos.
Weng Yang collapsed to the ground, her eyes filled with the joy of surviving a disaster and intense worry.
A female officer immediately rushed over to help her to the side, followed closely by a stretcher and medical staff.
“Blood pressure is normal!”
“Heart rate is 112 beats per minute, blood pressure is 145 over 95.”
“Pupillary light reflex is normal.”
“Hello, hello, can you hear me?”
Weng Yang had not yet recovered from the lingering terror of the Instance when familiar, comforting voices and footsteps filled her ears.
She felt the slightly warm hands of a doctor gently lifting her eyelids.
Around her were medical staff in white coats, cordons being drawn, armed military and police officers, and reassuring flashing red and blue lights...
This was reality.
She had truly made it out.
Weng Yang opened her mouth, her throat parched and aching.
She looked down at the items clutched in her hands.
A palm-sized, delicate embroidered shoe with fine stitching, still damp with cold moisture.
A milky-white candle, its body uneven with dried wax drips.
It carried a faint, fishy scent of river water.
Were these... the things she had brought out of the Instance?
【Water Ghost's Embroidered Shoe (Bronze): An embroidered shoe forgotten at the bottom of the lake. There seems to be another one.
(Warning item: When a spiritual entity appears within five meters of the wearer, the embroidered shoe will automatically seep water.)】
【Corpse Oil Candle (Bronze): An ever-burning candle refined from human oil, capable of revealing existences invisible to the human eye.
(Special illumination item: When lit, it reveals invisible spiritual entities within a certain range. Duration: 10 minutes.)】
Her nose filled with the humid, muggy air and the familiar, reassuring scent of disinfectant.
Yet the ink-wash text floating before her eyes served as a reminder that none of this was over.
Out of sheer physical revulsion, she threw the items aside. Immediately, staff in hazmat suits stepped forward to collect samples.
...
...
Fifty-one minutes after Weng Yang's appearance, Liu Guilan appeared.
Then came Tan Moli, followed by Fu Qinqin, who reappeared inside the library.
Liu Guilan had no obvious external injuries, though she looked rather disheveled.
Upon realizing she was safe, she repeatedly begged the police to find a way to save Zhao Weilai and the others.
When Fu Qinqin appeared in the library, she was still throwing up muddy water, nearly suffocating.
Fortunately, she was rescued in time. Medical staff used equipment to pump the excess muddy water and hair from her stomach.
Though it was a harrowing ordeal, her life was saved.
Tan Moli's physical condition was not great either.
Her left arm was dislocated, and there were numerous bruises on her body.
If one looked closely, they would see they were scratch marks.
Compounded by her diabetes and extreme fright, Tan Moli's current mental state was deeply concerning, leaving her unable to undergo standard questioning.
However, their return confirmed the Special Task Force's hypothesis:
A game Instance with a danger level significantly higher than the Taiping Cemetery existed within Jiangcheng University.
Almost the instant she received the news, Chen Xi submitted an urgent request to her superiors for an emergency evacuation of Jiangcheng University.
Public pressure and outside speculation meant nothing. In the face of actual human lives, the authorities had long since lost the luxury of hesitation.
...
...
At 3:51 PM, Jiangcheng University officially issued an evacuation notice.
By 4:10 PM, public opinion was fermenting online.
By 4:36 PM, all faculty and students had been forcibly evacuated without being given a reason.
—And at the same time, no new traces of missing persons were found on campus.
...
...
Soon, Weng Yang, Liu Guilan, Fu Qinqin, and Tan Moli were sent to the temporary quarantine facility set up at the First People's Hospital.
Outside the medical zone, armed police guarded the separate interrogation rooms divided by partitions, strictly prohibiting anyone from entering or leaving.
The four of them first underwent a comprehensive medical checkup.
Blood tests, urine tests, electrocardiograms, chest X-rays, and abdominal ultrasounds were performed one after another.
Members of the Special Task Force presented the reports to Chen Xi one by one:
“Weng Yang: Stress-induced tachycardia, multiple soft tissue contusions, otherwise normal.”
“Tan Moli: Hypoglycemia, mild dehydration, acute stress reaction, strange bruising on her body. She has been given glucose and fluids, and her blood sugar is rising.”
“Liu Guilan: Lacerations on the soles of her feet, mild soft tissue contusions on her lower back. White blood cell count is slightly elevated, likely due to stress. Otherwise normal.”
“Fu Qinqin: Sinus arrhythmia, minor abrasions, risk of suffocation. Like the patients sent in before, she has unexplained supernatural symptoms and is currently undergoing treatment.”
“All four have varying degrees of mud and unidentified green stains on them. Samples have been sent for testing.”
Chen Xi nodded after listening to the report. “As long as their physical health is fine. Let them rest first. We'll start questioning with Liu Guilan and Weng Yang in a bit.
As for the items they brought back, just like last time, return them once they are confirmed to be harmless.”
In truth, she hadn't closed her eyes since last night.
With ten people missing and absolutely no news for twelve hours, the pressure on the authorities was immense.
Now that four had returned at once, it at least proved they were still alive.
“What about the items they brought out? Have they been quarantined properly?” Chen Xi asked her assistant.
“Samples have already been sent to the identification center for testing. The medical examiner is waiting in the evidence room.
Just like Su Ya and the others, they brought back some strange items from the Instance.
The testing department did a preliminary check and said the materials are very bizarre. There are a few they've never seen before.”
“Let's go take a look.”
...
...
Jiangcheng had not yet established a specialized evidence room for Instance items.
The items Su Ya and the others had brought back from the Instance had already been returned to them once they were confirmed harmless.
—As far as Chen Xi knew, the gold ingots brought out by Zhang Dong and Zheng Zhi had already been liquidated by them, while Su Ya was considering whether to sell the Bone-Grown Flower to the authorities.
Thus, the items brought out by the four could only be temporarily stored at the quarantine facility.
In a room not far from the quarantine zone, the medical equipment had been cleared out. Several tables were set up inside, holding the personal belongings of the four girls.
The quest rewards they had brought back this time were all stored separately in transparent glass boxes.
Weng Yang had brought back two things: an embroidered shoe and an ever-burning candle.
Liu Guilan had obtained a rouge box filled with silt, as well as two gold ingots.
Fu Qinqin carried five ever-burning candles and a small bundle of dried water plants.
Tan Moli only had two gold ingots.
Engineer Zhang from the testing department was wearing a gas mask, while nearby laboratory staff conducted tests with instruments.
“It's a good thing you're here. Come, take a quick look at how many of these are the 'items' you mentioned.”
Seeing Chen Xi enter, Engineer Zhang casually removed his mask and shook his head. “This is too eerie.”
He pointed to the embroidered shoe inside the evidence bag:
“Take this embroidered shoe, for example. The fabric is Ming dynasty brocade, and the stitching is also from the Ming dynasty.
Yet, we detected DNA from an unknown aquatic organism inside it.
It's practically as fresh as if it had just been dredged up from a riverbed hundreds of years ago.”
—The problem was, no one had ever heard of any Ming dynasty tombs beneath Jiangcheng University.
Where did this embroidered shoe come from?
Having said that, he pointed to the white ever-burning candle:
“The main component of this candle should be fat. I suspect it's human corpse oil, though we'll have to wait for the chemical analysis to be certain.”
Medical examiners who frequently performed autopsies were familiar with the peculiar tactile sensation of human fat and its smell when burned.
In essence, humans were just large chunks of moving meat.
Most people really wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a candle made of human fat and one made of lard.
Chen Xi frowned, looking at the items arranged in the boxes. Sure enough, familiar ink-wash text floated in midair:
【Rouge Mud (Bronze): Ink-black soft mud, mostly found in places inhabited by water ghosts.
Direct use stops bleeding and slowly restores Health (recovers 50% within 30 seconds), but inflicts the 'Chilled' status, reducing movement speed by 10%.)】
【Water-Python Grass: Mostly grows at the bottom of lakes where yin energy is strong and death energy gathers. Eating it has a certain probability of turning the consumer into a water ghost.】
【Gold Ingot: A currency that can be used to purchase resources.】
...
Sure enough, these were also “items” just like last time.
So what was this?
Were they rewards obtained by the missing persons after clearing the game?
Chen Xi felt a sudden, inexplicable surge of anger, but she still relayed the text word for word.
“I really want to know what the world looks like through a 'player's' eyes.”
Engineer Zhang smacked his lips in envy, not at all surprised. “This is the first time I've seen healing medicine from the game—recovering fifty percent health in thirty seconds...
What is the standard of measurement for this? Does a broken arm or leg count? Can it treat severe hemorrhaging?”
Soon, someone brought over a rabbit for testing.
Under everyone's highly expectant gazes, Engineer Zhang used a scalpel to make several cuts on the rabbit—
A miraculous thing happened.
Even though only a tiny bit of the silt was applied to the wound, the five-centimeter gash on the rabbit's right leg healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
In less than a minute, not only had the bleeding stopped, but there wasn't even a scab left at the wound site.
Engineer Zhang excitedly called for a shaver to prep the skin. Shaving the rabbit's fur and taking a look, he let out a gasp.
The wound had completely vanished, leaving only a few faint white lines that were almost invisible.
It was practically like something out of a science fiction movie.
“Unbelievable. If we could bring out more of this silt and apply it to humans—”
“You're dreaming. Most of the time, when people die of severe trauma, it's not because of external wounds. Think about it—if this stuff can only heal external wounds, by the time the skin closes up, there'll just be a pocket of internal bleeding inside...”
“Then let's do a few more tests. Since it says fifty percent of health, it must count internal injuries too, right?”
“Even if it only has a twenty percent recovery speed, that's still incredibly astonishing.”
“Heavens, this is miraculous.”
Everyone present was completely immersed in curiosity and wonder over the game items, except for Chen Xi, whose brow remained furrowed.
Items, skills, currency.
This Instance system seemed even more complete than she had anticipated.
It was like a real, existing alternate world.
But why did the Instances appear?
Why did they appear in Jiangcheng?
What did it ultimately want?
Will new Instances continue to appear in the future?
What would become of Jiangcheng's future?
She had no answers.
Chen Xi took a deep breath, pulled down the brim of her cap, and decided to proceed with the questioning first.
...
Outside the window where no one could see, the blood-weeping ghost in red stood expressionless, dutifully monitoring everything.
Rate on N.U.
