When Xu Lan went back to the station to seek his reimbursement, Lao Chen made eccentric and sarcastic remarks, while Meng Chengjun was all smiles as usual. The members of Team 2 went up and asked countless questions; it was evident in their eyes that they were curious about Xu Lan’s distant relative.

“Sorry for troubling you guys yesterday. Since you’re all so curious, I’ll treat you all to dinner tonight and introduce you to my relative!”

“Whoa! Sergeant Xu finally has money to treat us to dinner!”

“Don’t trick us and end up not coming!”

While everyone contributed to the raucousness, Xiao Zhang stood some distance away and looked at Xu Lan uneasily.

“Do your work guys! I’ll be leaving now!” Xu Lan glanced at Xiao Zhang and waved, then went over to Xiao Feng’s place.

Wang Biao seemed to hear Xu Lan’s thoughts clearly. When Xu Lan mentioned that he would stay away from Wang Biao, he never appeared in front of him alone ever since. Once in a while, they would run into each other in the corridor. Wang Biao would give a simple greeting and rush off. It made Xu Lan feel uncomfortable because he felt as though he did something that provoked Wang Biao.

“How’s the situation?” Xiao Feng asked as he took a stack of files and placed them in front of Xu Lan.

“Hm, it’s not going so great.” He took out some information that he compiled himself and handed them over to Xiao Feng.

Thirteen years ago, nine people were relieved of their duties as a result of the collapse of a mine in Chengdu. Five of them fell victim to Sparrow Game’s recent round, while another two died of natural causes. The remaining two individuals could not be located, and not even their ex-workmates knew of their whereabouts.

Another two victims, completely unconnected with the mine, were real estate dealers. They previously set up shop in Whitehorse City as a prominent real estate developer. Sometime in the past, the government introduced policies to reduce the cost of housing. As a result, one of their commercial buildings did not sell. In the end, it was left unfinished, and both of them had to hide away because of the substantial amount of debt they racked up.

It was these two people that stuck out like a sore thumb in the case. It seemed as though they were fortuitously inserted into the grand scheme of things. Like an intervertebral disk that jutted out of the spine, they were extras who interfered with the reasoning behind the case.

“Hm, maybe they inadvertently found the game online. Do you have any other questions?” Xiao Feng nodded and scrutinized the annotations in his notebook.

“There is one more thing. Although this is a web-based game, it seems to be circulating only in Whitehorse City. Both dealers moved to the provincial capital, but they were once residents in Whitehorse. Also, the whole system’s extremely simple, it’s like they specifically designed it that way to target the elderly,” Xu Lan responded after giving it some thought.

Despite the game’s web-based nature, it spread on a small scale. Xu Lan felt that it could be a disguise which masked how the game intricately engineered a deliberate murder.

Finally, Xiao Feng lifted his head and looked at Xu Lan. His gaze repeatedly shifted between Xu Lan and the notebook.

“Mm, it’s certainly a possibility. We came here only because the cases happened in Whitehorse City.”

Xiao Feng eventually closed his notebook and said, “Come with me. We’re currently discussing the deceased’s cause of death. Perhaps you’ll find something of use.”

Xu Lan followed Xiao Feng into another house. It was turned into a temporary meeting room, and projected onto the screen were pictures of the seven deceased.

As soon as Wang Biao saw Xu Lan enter, a smile flashed across his face. He immediately signaled for someone at the back to vacate a seat for Xu Lan, then obediently sat beside Xiao Feng. During the course of those actions, not a single word was said to Xu Lan.

Xu Lan looked carefully at those pictures. The two dealers chose to hang themselves, while the remaining five died by applying blunt force to their skulls inside a small pitch-black house. Additionally, there were varying degrees of self-mutilation present on each of the deceased’s bodies.