My ‘Healing’ Game
Chapter 752: Gray Area

Chapter 752: Chapter 752: Gray Area

The slaying lasted until dawn, and as the early sun rose, the abnormalities within the Death Mirror gradually disappeared, turning it into a very ordinary mirror.

Outside the abandoned hotel, the sound of police sirens rose, as Xinhu Police entered the hotel basement and met up with Han Fei. Several members of the Murder Club were apprehended by the police, but regrettably, the woman wearing the God of Death mask escaped through a hidden door.

"Han Fei, you are now a target for Butterfly. Next time, you absolutely can’t be so reckless, and you mustn’t stay away from our protection for long!" The leading officer recognized Han Fei, but Han Fei didn’t recognize him, playing the part of an ordinary citizen to such an extent was mighty impressive.

"The situation today was rather special. Next time, for sure," Han Fei replied earnestly.

Seeing the police come in, Shen Luo wanted nothing more than to cling to their legs. The startled Shen Luo stuck close to the officers, only those who had gone through it could understand his feelings at the time.

"You seem to have bad luck; stay away from the cops, buddy."

"I don’t want to."

After dawn, Han Fei felt a sense of relief wash over him, and in the midst of bantering with Shen Luo, he started a vibrant new day.

Busy from 6:30 in the morning until nine o’clock, the police finally took Han Fei and Shen Luo back to the station. The duty officer who had just met with Han Fei yesterday saw him being brought in early in the morning, felt utterly impassive, and even casually greeted him.

Shen Luo witnessed this harmonious scene and remarked, "And you say you’re not an informant? They all know you!"

"Think what you will."

At the precinct, Han Fei and Shen Luo were taken to separate rooms, and the police questioned them both at the same time.

Neither Han Fei nor Shen Luo had any need to lie; they honestly told the police everything they had experienced the night before, with Han Fei even presenting the mobile phones belonging to the Artist and the barbecue shop boss, along with the related evidence he had found.

Since entering the Death Club, Han Fei had been secretly recording with the Artist’s cell phone; unfortunately, due to the dim lighting, much was not captured, but it was still a significant help to the police in investigating the case.

At around eleven o’clock, Li Xue and her supervisor entered the room where Han Fei was.

The supervisor asked everyone else to leave, keeping Li Xue and Han Fei in the room alone.

"This is just reckless. Do you have any idea who the people you encountered last night are?" the leader said with a very serious expression, "We encourage righteous heroism, but that’s under the premise of ensuring your own safety."

"I didn’t know they were an organized crime group. I definitely won’t go there alone next time," Han Fei was very obedient, like the most honest student in the class.

"Based on our analysis, Butterfly is very likely to be a core member of the Murder Club. It’s going out of its way to try to kill you, but lucky for you, Butterfly didn’t expect you to be so bold. If it had been prepared, even if you were capable of fighting, you would have had no chance of survival last night." The senior leader spoke earnestly, truly concerned for Han Fei’s safety.

"Butterfly is a member of the Murder Club? No wonder most of the cases it committed were in the suburbs."

"What else do you think would make us expend so much effort to capture Butterfly?" Closing the door, the leader sat opposite Han Fei, "There are many members of the Murder Club with extensive connections. Many of them are ordinary people with various professions in the Smart District by day, but at night they release another side of themselves, showing their true nature, and commit wanton murder in the suburbs."

"The suburbs are that chaotic?"

"It’s only been like this in recent years," the middle-aged policeman nodded, "To tell you the truth, this is also related to the construction of the Smart New City. The Smart Brain uses the citizens’ information database, dangerous psychological coefficient charts, and crime emotion observation stations to reduce the crime rate in the Smart New City almost to zero. For the average citizen, the Smart City is like Heaven, extremely safe. But for those who are restless at heart, or those with abnormal brain secretions, the Smart District is like an airtight prison. They have to constantly manage their emotions and not show any flaws, and over time, they become darker and more extreme."

"Aren’t there psychological counseling centers in the Smart District? And there are many healing games like ’Perfect Life’ for people to relieve stress," Han Fei didn’t quite understand. He always thought the Smart New City was the most desirable place for all residents, boasting the best services, the most advanced technology, and the most expensive housing prices in the country—a place where every inch of land is worth its weight in gold.

"Everyone’s personality has subtle differences, shaped by their different life experiences. Normally, they could alleviate that pain through psychological therapy, but like what happened to your friend, Butterfly uses various means to lead people who could have been healed onto a different path," the middle-aged policeman said with hatred in his eyes for Butterfly.

"My friend? Was Shen Luo also led astray by Butterfly? Is there something about him that could attract Butterfly? Of course, I don’t mean that he doesn’t have any positive attributes, but I just think he’s quite unique." Han Fei almost wished he could move to another city to live; even Butterfly’s subordinates took the initiative to lead Shen Luo astray. It’s like an old man with a long life knowingly drinking poison—essentially seeking death.

Thinking back, after Doctor Bai found Shen Luo, Han Fei followed right after, and both their hideouts were taken down. Although Shen Luo didn’t exert any effort, it seemed as though he had done a lot behind the scenes.

"According to your friend’s statement, he was looking for a psychologist online, then he met Doctor Bai from Sunday Night School, who deceived him into going to the barbecue restaurant’s second floor, then you brought him to the Murder Club."

"I did it to protect him," Han Fei quickly cleared himself, "The situation was critical at the time, and the leads were about to be cut off. I couldn’t just leave him there alone."

"I understand your actions, but I must also tell you that the ordinary members and high-level members of the Murder Club are only on the periphery; they passively accept the Murder Club’s remote control and are not aware of the specific operating methods. We can only really destroy it by catching the real core members." The middle-aged policeman looked at Han Fei, "They are a tightly organized crime group, and the only one who has ever shown a slip-up among the core members is Butterfly, which may also be a handle shared by the core members. And you and Huang Ying are the only ones in recent years who haven’t been successfully hunted by Butterfly, so you both must be careful and absolutely must not run around recklessly!"

After going in circles, the leader still hoped Han Fei would stay calm in the face of trouble and stay obediently inside.

"Don’t worry, I will take good care of myself," Han Fei kept nodding, knowing the other person meant well.

"You’re just too opinionated." The middle-aged policeman also knew that Han Fei was just agreeing on the surface and that when it really came down to it, he would definitely run out again. He sighed softly and glanced at Han Fei’s hands again, "Where did you learn these combat skills?"

"I taught myself online."

"Self-taught?" The middle-aged police officer glanced at Han Fei before shifting his gaze to Li Xue, who was avoiding eye contact, "I thought she might have taught you, but then again, that’s not possible; you’re out of their league even if they teamed up."

"If there’s nothing else, may I go home now? I haven’t slept all night and I’m barely holding up," Han Fei felt the middle-aged officer had figured something out, but he did not point it out.

"Don’t be in a hurry to leave, there’s a small favor I need to ask of you." The officer turned on the computer and entered the police’s internal database, "Last night at Shishui Bay, you let a woman wearing a God of Death mask escape. She’s highly suspicious, seems to hold much more significance than the regular high-level members."

"During our fight, I managed to scratch her mask and saw part of her face." Han Fei knew an opportunity to make a mark had come, "I can draw her appearance for you."

With paper and pen provided, Han Fei relied on his exceptional memory to recreate the face of the woman with the God of Death mask.

"Unfortunately, I only saw half her face, but she looked familiar; I think she’s been on TV." Han Fei handed his drawing to the middle-aged officer, who immediately started a big data comparison.

After several rounds of screening, the officer narrowed it down to three candidates.

The president of Xinhu University’s student council—Wen Yu; vice president of Fukang Pharmaceutical—Li Wei; a second-tier singer—Ye Xian.

Among these three, Li Wei was the most likely suspect. Many years ago, Fukang Pharmaceutical was one of Xinhu’s two major pharmaceutical companies along with Eternal Life Pharmaceutical, but now it was on the brink of bankruptcy. The vice president was very dissatisfied with Eternal Life Pharmaceutical and Smart New City, opposed to new drugs, and an advocate of traditional mild healing treatments.

"Alright, we’ll take it from here, you can go home now." The police immediately began making plans to investigate these three individuals.

Shen Luo hadn’t come out yet, and Han Fei didn’t plan to wait for him. He took a taxi home, getting away as fast as he could.

After a busy night, Han Fei returned home intending to catch some sleep, but he just couldn’t fall asleep; his mind was filled with the image of the woman in the God of Death mask from the night before.

"How could such a slender woman possibly catch my full-powered strike?"

Turning on his computer, Han Fei began to search for information related to the Murder Club online, but all the entries related to it were blocked.

The more it happened, the itchier Han Fei’s heart got; knowing the other party existed, he could no longer pretend not to see.

Han Fei first tried to call Li Xue. Knowing him well, she refused even before he could speak.

Having no choice, Han Fei had to seek help from other friends.

After asking many people, Han Fei finally got a lead from Jin Jun.

As Xinhu’s most notorious paparazzo, what Jin Jun did was done in the dark, and some transactions were not completed through citizen accounts; he knew many grey channels.

Upon hearing Han Fei’s request, Jin Jun sent him a home service website URL. After Han Fei completed the intricate registration process, Jin Jun instructed him to make specific modifications at certain points.

Once the verification was through, Han Fei glimpsed another side of the website: it was a phony internet gambling site.

Using a fake identity to enter the VIP room, an admin invited Han Fei to join the game. It was then Han Fei used the secret phrase given by Jin Jun, and the other party led Han Fei into the third layer of the website. After strict scrutiny, they provided Han Fei a new web address.

Logging out and then back in, Han Fei accessed a senior psychological care charity website. In this place, dedicated to resolving the troubles of the elderly, he clicked on a greyed-out online psychological clinic as instructed.

The room showed no one online, but Han Fei could still enter. Following the automatic instructions step by step, when he reached the sixth step, his computer screen went completely black.

"Did it get a virus?"

Ten minutes later, Han Fei’s computer came back on but all the visuals were greyed out.

Dull text messages popped up on the screen, informing Han Fei that he had entered the gray zone of the internet, where he could directly search for information beyond the web cocoon.

A countdown appeared on the screen; he had only ten minutes.

The information from outside the cocoon was chaotic and dangerous, filled with darkness and violence, displaying the terror of human nature out of control.

After a deep search, Han Fei discovered something very serious.

Compared to Sunday Night School and Murder Club, the Death Spread Group Chat was, outside the web cocoon, the most pernicious influence.

"These three seem to be part of a whole, stemming from the same source."