Chapter 1: The Uncatchable Killer

When I got home from work, I found that my seven-year-old daughter didn't come to the door to greet me. Instead, a strange man was sitting on the sofa.

He quickly stood up, held a knife to my throat, and claimed to be a kidnapper, telling me to guess where he had hidden my lovely daughter.

Panic drove me to run quickly toward the bedroom closet; it was the only place in the house where one could hide.

The kidnapper smiled and congratulated me on guessing correctly.

I opened it and saw my daughter's head.

Only then did I understand—no matter where I guessed she was, it would be the correct answer.

Every room contained a part of my daughter.

………………

"This is the fifth case this month! A mother and daughter dead in a residential building in the middle of a busy city! If we don't catch the killer, the people will be pointing fingers at our spines and cursing us!"

"Captain Li, one time might be a surveillance malfunction, but five times in a row and nothing was captured... Could the killer be using some kind of special equipment to interfere with the cameras?"

In the Major Crimes Unit conference room, Captain Li Guoqiang gritted his teeth and glared with bloodshot eyes, looking like an angry guardian deity that no one dared to meet head-on.

Listening to his subordinate's speculation, he glared at him with a look of frustration, roaring, "Do you think others haven't thought of that? The key is what method is being used to interfere with the surveillance! Tell me, what equipment can make cameras fail only for the killer without disrupting their normal operation?"

"The crime scene investigation didn't find any traces of the criminal process either. All the carnage just appeared out of thin air!"

Once these words were spoken, the room fell into silence.

Because it was truly too bizarre.

All five cases were the same—

Checking the surveillance showed that the time and footage were running smoothly, proving they hadn't been tampered with. They were in a state of normal operation, and no one had entered the victims' homes, yet people had met with misfortune for no apparent reason!

Even the mother and daughter who were killed last night had surveillance in their home. Upon checking it, the mother was seen returning from work, entering the house, and then inexplicably disappearing.

It wasn't until a full hour later that her figure reappeared.

But by then, she, like her daughter, was scattered across every room.

Her head was hung in front of the living room camera, dripping with viscous blood. The hollow, desperate eyes and the expression that had been forcibly twisted into a smile seemed like an arrogant provocation from the killer toward the police.

Disappearing into thin air and then suddenly reappearing.

None of the neighbors heard any unusual sounds or spotted any suspicious individuals. Even the bloodstains and body parts at the crime scene appeared out of thin air, leaving no leads for the investigation.

It was just like a "ghost wall" or various supernatural events from horror novels.

Even the members of the Major Crimes Unit couldn't help but let their minds wander toward the occult.

But they dared not express such thoughts in front of Captain Li Guoqiang.

Otherwise, they would surely be met with a fierce, head-on scolding.

"Sigh! Forget it, let's stop here for today. Everyone go back and think about whether you have any leads on the case. Be safe on your way home."

Li Guoqiang sighed heavily and waved for his team to go home and rest.

After all, no one had really rested since the case was discovered last night, and it was already one o'clock in the morning of the second day.

"Captain Li, you should get some rest too."

"Yeah, don't get sick before the killer is caught."

"..."

Before leaving the conference room, the team members offered their condolences to Li Guoqiang. They actually respected this captain quite a bit; after all, he had led them to solve many difficult and complicated cases, both big and small.

After everyone left, Li Guoqiang packed up the case files and prepared to go home.

The wind at one o'clock on a summer morning in the city wasn't cold; it was even a bit muggy.

Li Guoqiang frowned, feeling his body send him a dissatisfied warning of hunger.

His gaze subconsciously drifted toward a barbecue stall in a secluded alley that didn't have any customers yet.

He was too hungry.

Both physically and mentally, he was hungry to the point where he couldn't wait to eat and properly relax.

Driven by bodily instinct, Li Guoqiang walked toward the barbecue stall without the slightest hesitation.

But just as he was about to enter the shop, he suppressed his hunger, frowned, and took a palm-sized spirit tablet stained with damp mud from his pocket, placing it upright at the entrance of the stall.

"Boss, grill some things."

"I want a serving of pig brain, a heart, and a serving of kidneys. Make sure to wash them clean, I'll grill them myself."

"Hmm? I'm not joking. I must grill these things myself. After all, how can you, the ingredient, be the one cooking?"

………………

An hour later, Li Guoqiang left the shop.

The gloomy expression from before had been swept away, replaced by a slightly crazy and cruel smile that lingered on his face.

He wiped a few spots of blood from the corner of his mouth.

Bending down, he picked up the damp, mud-stained spirit tablet and tucked it back into his pocket, humming a light tune as he walked further and further away.

Yes...

What kind of equipment could make someone disappear from surveillance without affecting its operation?

Naturally, it would be equipment—or power—that exceeded the scope of human understanding.

That spirit tablet could do all of that!

Once placed at the entrance of a house, everything done inside could not be observed, and even the traces of having entered the place would be silently erased, leaving not a single clue!

Even setting aside the fact that the spirit tablet's eerie power would prevent anyone from finding evidence.

Still, no one would ever suspect that the Major Crimes Unit captain in charge of the case was a serial killer with an extreme thirst for slaughter and blood.

No one could catch him!

Ever since he obtained this spirit tablet, this city, once full of passion like a hot woman, had been completely stripped of its glamorous outer garment by him, revealing the mouth-watering body underneath.

He could vent his wild and cruel desires in the city's nights without restraint.

In Li Guoqiang's eyes, this city had become his own personal playground!

Slaughter had become a game to satisfy his perverted cravings and fulfill his inner desires!

"The more I think about it, the hungrier I get... Should I make an exception and have a second meal today?" Li Guoqiang felt that the barbecue stall's food hadn't satisfied his mental world.

He wanted a game of pure enjoyment of slaughter now, not the barbaric act he had just performed to fill his stomach.

Thinking of this, Li Guoqiang looked around the alley to see if there were any other targets.

After all, it was one o'clock in the morning.

It was still a bit difficult to find a secluded shop that was still open for him to enter.

Although he could just break into any house thanks to the spirit tablet, that was too much of a waste of effort.

And it didn't fit his enjoyment of slaughter.

"Oh? This place is nice... An escape room? Heh, let me see if you can really escape."

Li Guoqiang found a horror-themed escape room shop that was still open, with the staff cleaning up and preparing to close.

There was no one around the shop.

He skillfully placed the spirit tablet and walked in.

At this moment, the only person left in the shop was a young man in his early twenties with a look of utter hopelessness, his dead-fish eyes showing not a shred of motivation as he swept the floor and wiped the tables.

Hearing him walk in, the other person didn't even turn his head, saying listlessly with his back turned: "I already got off work a minute ago. I don't really welcome your visit, please come back tomorrow."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to interfere with your closing time. I just wanted to ask, how long does it usually take to play an escape room?" Li Guoqiang asked with a smile, as polite as a gentleman, but the excitement in his eyes made his breathing slightly rapid.

"About two hours. Please lift your feet, I haven't swept that spot by the door yet. Thanks."

The young man bent down and continued cleaning, completely unaware of Li Guoqiang's increasingly cruel expression and the telescopic baton and small knife he was slowly taking out of his pocket.

Clearly, this was a wage slave tortured by work to the point of having no vitality.

And looking at his appearance and age, he might still be in college...

No, maybe he didn't even finish school and dropped out to work.

His tone revealed a sense of laziness and impatience, and his emotional intelligence wasn't very high—who tells a customer they aren't welcome?

Even if he were just working a part-time job, such a person probably wouldn't be liked by his colleagues, right?

Li Guoqiang liked to observe the mental state of his prey.

He was very satisfied with the young man's state—someone who might complain about heaven and earth at any moment, might vent his dissatisfaction with life to anyone, and might even shout self-comforting words like "born in the wrong time," suggesting that living wasn't as good as just dying.

Humans are always hypocritical.

Although he looked hopeless, how strong would his desire to survive be when he truly faced death?

Looking at those incredibly frail, thin arms and legs, how much strength would he burst out with to struggle when the knife pierced his limbs later?

Li Guoqiang had become obsessed with this feeling when he killed that mother and daughter: giving the other person a little hope, then snuffing it out. This feeling of controlling others' fates was something he couldn't extricate himself from!

"Two hours, you say? I'm looking forward to it."

I really hope this young man can enjoy the next two hours of the escape game!

The spirit tablet had one more ability—in the affected house, no one but himself could leave!

Even if they luckily ran out the front door, the victim would just end up running out of another window or door as if caught in a "ghost wall," returning to the house again.

This was a true escape room!

Li Guoqiang curled his lips into a perverted smile and thrust the small knife fiercely into the young man's back!

………………

Ten minutes later.

*Puchi—*

Wu Wang pulled his hand out of the no-longer-heaving chest of the stranger who had broken into the shop and attacked him for no reason.

Feeling the heart in his hand that was no longer beating but still warm, he tossed it into the trash can with a *plop*, and blood dripped onto the floor along the edge of the bin.

His face still held that hopeless expression, as if he had been tortured by work to the point of having no life left in him.

Those dead-fish eyes first looked at the middle-aged man's corpse, then glanced at the blood on the floor.

He sighed.

The easiest thing to do tonight was finished.

The only problem now was—the floor he had just finished cleaning was dirty again.

18-year-old new author, please follow and read.

If you guys think it's okay, please follow the updates to the latest chapter. During holidays, I'll definitely burn some incense for you guys. Arigato.

(End of chapter)