Chapter 60: Special Report

Lü Yang already stood up. The two brothers who were playing the game console, Zhang Haibo and Zhao Kun, also stood up. They still had that same indifferent and calm look on their faces. Then the chubby salesman, Xiong Yifei, stood up as well. The female university student Sun Yujiao compared the number of people standing to those still sitting. After hesitating, she also stood up.

Clearly, in such a terrifying and strange place, it felt safer to follow the larger group.

“Let them all die!” whispered the woman from the couple, Shen Qi, to her boyfriend. Her boyfriend, who had been hesitating about standing up, lowered his head.

“Alright, let’s hurry and help search for people!” The female teacher Yi Qiuhong nodded to everyone and led the way out of the Restaurant.

“Wait! Look…”

The female university student Sun Yujiao pointed with a trembling voice under the table where the mother from the family of three lay dead.

A black Ashes Urn suddenly appeared on the floor under the table. Lü Yang walked over to look. The name written clearly in black on the paper slip was: Yu Fan.

The middle-aged man had just called his daughter ‘Xiao Fan’. Without a doubt, the name Yu Fan on the Ashes Urn must be his daughter’s.

Lü Yang knew very well in his heart that once the Ashes Urn appeared, the young girl was most likely beyond saving. But he felt that as long as there was even a glimmer of hope, they should not give up on rescue efforts. Even though they were in a cold and cruel Mysterious Domain, people’s hearts were warm. Human hearts should not become a cold and heartless Mysterious Domain.

Furthermore, if they wanted to leave the Mysterious Domain alive, they could not give up searching for any useful clue.

As soon as everyone left the Restaurant, they heard the sound of the Minibus starting outside. Everyone cried out ‘Oh no!’, but by the time they rushed out, the middle-aged man who had lost his wife had already started the Minibus and sped onto the highway.

Unable to catch up to the Minibus, everyone had to stop. Afterwards, they gathered again to discuss the search for the missing person. Although they had previously agreed it was best not to separate, in order to search, the six people who came out finally split into three groups. They just agreed that each group should try not to go out of sight of the others and to keep in constant contact by calling out to each other.

…

Guishe City, Jing’an Residential Area.

Sister Mei’s small one-bedroom apartment, which was also the place Lü Yang rented in Guishe City, was located within Jing’an Residential Area. It was less than two bus stops away from Qingyuan Residential Area, where Sister Mei’s Duplex Apartment that was being renovated was located. Of course, Yi Ya and her two classmates, Lin Yin and Hu Yulan, also rented places in Jing’an Residential Area.

Because Lü Yang said he would be away for a week, Yi Ya temporarily stayed in Lü Yang’s place. At this moment, Yi Ya was sitting alone on the Worn-out Sofa in the living room, watching the old television in the Rented Room.

Originally, Yi Ya preferred quiet and wasn’t in the habit of watching TV, but staying alone in the room was too quiet. It was so quiet that it made one think of unpleasant things unintentionally. Having the TV on and listening to the noisy sounds from it made one feel much better.

The water in the bathroom water heater was almost hot. Yi Ya was preparing to take a bath. But just as she picked up her change of clothes and was about to enter the bathroom, she got captivated by a special report being broadcast on TV.

This special was produced by Guishe City Television and had a very sensational name: ‘Death Livestream’.

On the screen, a famous reporter from Guishe City was interviewing the internet celebrity Han Cheng. In their question-and-answer session, Han Cheng told the reporter in detail about his investigation progress regarding the Death Livestream incident that had been spreading wildly online recently. He also shared some of his own views.

The whole incident could be traced back to half a year ago. On the 4th of a certain month half a year ago, a person calling himself the ‘Death Killer’ live-streamed a video on the internet for a whole day showing the process of a cat being brutally tortured and killed. At the time, people who saw the video thought it was another publicity stunt by an animal cruelty group. The entire incident didn’t cause much of a stir and never truly entered the public’s awareness.

However, one month later, again on the 4th, the cat in the video livestream was replaced by a girl around twenty years old, a very pretty and good-looking girl. Then, this girl was brutally tortured and killed by the Death Killer using extremely cruel methods. The scene was incredibly bloody.

This time, the video of the girl’s torture and killing was shared countless times by netizens and spread wildly online. For a time, rumors were rampant.

After that, all websites that uploaded the Death Livestream videos received orders from relevant authorities to carry out rectification. Simultaneously, the relevant authorities publicly debunked the rumors on national television and several mainstream media outlets, stating that the so-called ‘Death Livestream’ was just a hoax, that the videos were post-production computer effects, etc…

Then, after the 4th of the next month, the previously inaccessible Death Livestream website unexpectedly reopened. The perpetrator was clearly a computer expert, using a lot of hacking techniques. No matter how much the national cybersecurity departments tried to block it, they couldn’t stop the Death Livestream from happening on the 4th of that month.

Another beautiful girl was killed.

This time, the relevant authorities remained silent, only working intently on the investigation behind the scenes. They classified all Death Livestream related videos as equivalent to political news and subjected them to bans. They required all website personnel to be on duty 24 hours a day, monitoring all information uploaded to their respective websites in real-time. Any website daring to spread these videos again would be immediately shut down for rectification, even major players on the international internet.

However, the Death Killer did not stop because of this. On the 4th of the following two months, as if deliberately challenging the state’s internet control capabilities, two more girls were successively brutally tortured and killed in the video livestreams.

Today was the end of the month. In less than a week, it would be the 4th of the next month.

In a few days, the Death Killer would likely strike again.

Last night, around the time when Lü Yang and Liu Hui were fleeing for their lives on Donkey Head Mountain, the well-known domestic internet personality Han Cheng, disregarding the ban from the relevant authorities, published all his investigation results regarding the Death Livestream on the internet. This even included some recorded conversations with the victims’ families. Using this as a basis, Han Cheng publicly questioned the investigative capabilities of the relevant authorities to all netizens.

This blog post caused a huge stir, like a stone thrown into a pond creating countless ripples. It was shared innumerable times online and caused a major uproar across the country. As internet control was no longer effective in stopping the spread of panic, tonight’s special report was arranged. A person claiming to work for the relevant authorities accepted an interview with the national television station. He apologized to the public, explained in detail the characteristics they had identified about the Death Killer’s methods, and offered some advice to the public.

The Death Killer’s actions did have some identifiable patterns. For example, when choosing the city for his targets, he followed a principle from north to south, and all were provincial capital cities. After marking the locations of each attack on a map, netizens easily pinpointed the most likely location for the Death Killer’s next attack in a few days.

Guishe City, the largest city in the central region.

The Death Killer conducted a Death Livestream on the 4th of each month. If he chose Guishe City as the location for his target next month, then he should be selecting and capturing his target these days. In the coming days, any pretty girls who went missing in or around Guishe City would likely appear on the screen of the Death Livestream.