Nan Yue felt something was wrong. Even if Luo Feifei was watching a movie with Zhao Ming, it was only natural for them to check on her after an entire day had passed.
She stepped into the elevator alone. A moment later, Lu Li and Gu Xiang Kai joined her, while Zhang Qingyang didn't dare move, waiting on the first floor with a forced smile.
Nan Yue had no interest in him. As soon as the elevator stopped on the fourth floor, she rushed out.
"Luo Feifei? Feifei, are you there?"
Although Nan Yue was brave, she wasn't reckless. She knocked on the door first, acting as if she were simply looking for a friend.
The room was silent without a single sound. The three exchanged glances and began to pound on the door.
"Feifei! Feifei!"
The pounding echoed through the hallway, but still, no one opened the door.
Though they didn't say it aloud, they all knew in their hearts that something had likely happened to Luo Feifei.
Gu Xiang Kai originally wanted to kick the door open, but since they weren't certain if Luo Feifei was dead, he felt it was too risky. Instead, Lu Li ran off to get the key from Uncle Song.
"Uncle Song didn't want to give it to me at first. I practically snatched it from him,"
Lu Li said urgently. She was the first to charge in after unlocking the door, but she stopped after only a few steps.
Nan Yue and Gu Xiang Kai remained silent as they looked at the messy room and the bloodstains on the floor. It wasn't hard to imagine that Luo Feifei had been murdered.
The three looked at each other for a moment before tacitly beginning to search the room for her body and other clues.
When they returned to the doorway ten minutes later, their expressions were grim.
The room was a chaotic mess, showing signs of a violent struggle. With the bloodstains and drag marks on the floor, anyone could see that Luo Feifei had met her end.
However, her body was nowhere to be found.
"How could this be..."
Even though they hadn't checked on her earlier, Zhang Qingyang had been too afraid to return to his room and had spent almost the entire day on the first floor.
If Zhao Ming had moved Luo Feifei's body out, he would have seen it.
Nan Yue pondered for a moment before turning to knock on Zhao Ming's door.
"Mr. Zhao? Mr. Zhao, please open the door."
Nan Yue's voice was polite but laced with anxiety. This was reasonable, as their friend was missing and Zhao Ming was the last person to be with her.
But there was no response from Zhao Ming's room either.
Just then, the elevator chimed, and the three turned to see Uncle Song stepping out with a dark expression.
"What do you want the key to an empty room on the fourth floor for? Do you want to rent another one?"
Lu Li froze in place. "An... empty room?"
Uncle Song looked impatient. "Only Zhao Ming lives on the fourth floor, and he's away on a business trip. The rest are empty rooms. Didn't I tell you that before?"
Terror finally dawned on Lu Li's face. Ignoring the possibility that Uncle Song might not be human, she grabbed him and led him to Luo Feifei's room.
"Look at this room! How is this an empty room? Our friend is missing!"
Uncle Song glanced at Lu Li and closed the door.
"The previous tenant moved out without cleaning up. No one has rented it yet, so I haven't cleaned it. Stop talking nonsense, it's bad luck."
After saying that, he snatched the key back from Lu Li and stepped back into the elevator, leaving the three of them staring at each other in silence.
"This... where did Luo Feifei go?"
In a mission, death wasn't the most terrifying thing. What was terrifying was not knowing someone's whereabouts. Lu Li shuddered at the thought of what Luo Feifei might have endured.
Nan Yue, however, couldn't help but think of the pale, rotting woman buried in the dirt back in the woods.
"I know where she is..."
Once everyone was gathered, they listened to Nan Yue describe what she had seen that day. They all fell into deep thought, leaving only the sound of Nan Yue eating her instant noodles in the dining area.
This was the first time Nan Yue had ever eaten such a thing. The supermarket owner had recommended it, and though she had bought it with skepticism, the instant aroma completely overwhelmed her senses.
It was so delicious.
While the others were immersed in their thoughts, only Gu Xiang Kai noticed that Nan Yue had been speaking seriously until she took a bite of the noodles, after which she never looked up again.
Gu Xiang Kai's face twitched. He realized that Nan Yue had probably just arrived in the digital city state and hadn't had the chance to eat this cheap instant food yet.
Seeing the usually decisive and efficient Nan Yue so distracted by instant noodles made him want to laugh.
This was more like a newcomer to the digital city. He wondered how she had lived in the Nameless City, as she seemed to fear nothing and lacked the typical liveliness of a young person.
"Luo Feifei is certainly dead. We don't need to worry about her anymore. I just don't know if Pu Kun will make it back."
It was nearly nine o'clock, and the world outside was pitch black. Lu Li couldn't imagine the terror of someone waiting for a bus or being at the unfinished building at this hour.
"He might... not be coming back."
Nan Yue finished the last of her soup and finally looked up. "While I was in Luo Feifei's room, I saw a piece of information in her newspaper regarding Pu Kun."
There were indeed clues in the newspapers, but the content was so vast and cluttered that a terrified Scavenger who couldn't calm down would easily miss them.
"The reason construction on that unfinished building stopped was that a body was dug up."
"The victim had been imprisoned for years and lost the ability to move before being hacked to death with an axe and hidden in the basement."
"It was eventually discovered that the perpetrator was the victim's husband, who was also the contractor who oversaw the unfinished building."
Nan Yue sighed. "If this isn't a useless clue, then based on what we've all experienced, he should be Pu Kun's neighbor."
"Pu Kun got off at the unfinished building earlier hoping to find clues, but he likely stumbled right into the crime scene."
Anything could happen during a mission, and distortions of time and space were common, so the others accepted Nan Yue's deduction easily.
"So what he should have done was let that woman into the apartment?"
Zhang Qingyang felt lost as he listened to their analysis, but Lu Li slowly shook her head.
"No. If Pu Kun had really let that woman in, I suspect her husband would have come straight to his door. That would have been even more dangerous."
"What he actually should have done was discover the clues at the unfinished building and then have the Apartment Manager intervene."
Zhang Qingyang looked confused. "The Apartment Manager?"
Lu Li messied her hair. "Didn't you read the Tenant Rules? The Apartment Manager here is the equivalent of the police. Since the rules say you can go to the Apartment Manager for any mediation, then reporting a danger in the apartments is naturally allowed."
Zhang Qingyang's eyes lit up. "Then... can I go to the Apartment Manager too..."
Lu Li was almost driven to laughter by the man's stupidity. "Do you have evidence?"
"What has Qingqing done to you? If you go to the Apartment Manager now, have you forgotten that Zhang Ping was killed by him?"
Zhang Qingyang swallowed hard. He really had forgotten.
"Then... then what are we waiting for? Hurry back and read the newspapers!"
Zhang Qingyang hurriedly headed upstairs, but the remaining three didn't move.
"I don't think that's the only solution."
Gu Xiang Kai rubbed his chin. Searching through newspapers was too meticulous a task and relied heavily on teamwork. If someone hid information, the entire group could be wiped out.
Rate on N.U.
