Chapter 1021: The Note Game
The picture book was an ordinary children's book, its content normal, positive, and full of fun.
"Can't tell the old lady had a childlike side," the Lip Ring Player said.
"Maybe it's because she wanted children but couldn't have them," Chi Minghong said. "But even so, this isn't really strange."
"Being too normal is what makes it strange," Ding Xiang added from the side. "Look at District 002—how many normal people are there?"
The others couldn't help but glance at the Local Zone Player. He was silent for a moment before saying, "Almost everyone in Snow City has undergone psychological treatment, even children. This woman named Jin Li lived to nearly eighty years old but never saw a single psychologist. She even refused the free consultations arranged by the government."
"She didn't receive psychological treatment even when she was being treated for her congenital disabilities?" Xu Huo asked.
The Local Zone Player nodded. "The hospital records state that her psychological state was excellent. The psychotherapists observed her and ultimately concluded that she was already in an ideal state—resilient, optimistic, and in no need of additional psychological intervention."
"So that's the strange part," Zhou Yuanzhu said, almost amused. "A person being too psychologically healthy is actually abnormal."
"Compared to her grandfather and father, she is indeed abnormal," the Local Zone Player said. "Additionally, writing notes was a therapeutic method proposed by a famous psychotherapist at the time. It was popular for a while as a way to vent and confide in others, but it fell out of use after some time. Aside from that, there's probably nothing else."
"Does this villa still have any of the old lady's belongings? There might be clues inside," the Freckled Player asked. "Since we can't find the fourth note anyway, we might as well pass the time."
"Probably not," Chi Minghong said, sounding uncertain. "From yesterday to today, we've searched every room. If there were anything, we wouldn't have missed it. I'm afraid the adopted son and his wife who inherited the estate already disposed of all her things."
This villa didn't have a separate storage room. Originally, some of the more spacious private bathrooms had been converted into small rental units, and all the rooms had records of being rented out. It would be difficult for Jin Li's belongings to have survived.
"Not necessarily," the Muscular Man said at that point. "Many rooms have books. Some rooms were never cleaned out after the tenants died. From the items left behind, a few show clear contrasts or irrelevance between the tenants' living habits and the content of the books. In several rooms, similar types of books were stored deep in cabinets, rarely touched, while other types of books placed outside showed signs of frequent use."
"If one or two tenants brought books they never used, that might be understandable, but it's unlikely that most people living in this villa did the same."
"Those books should be Jin Li's belongings. The adopted couple made good use of them."
"Should we bring all the books out?" the Sneak Attack Player said, eager to try.
"Moving the books will take a lot of time. Doing it one person at a time would be slow," the Muscular Man said, looking at Xu Huo. "But if everyone goes, someone might take the chance to grab the note."
"It won't hurt to wait a little longer," the Lip Ring Player said. "Let's stick to the same method and move them one by one."
If they split up again now, wouldn't all the work they just did be wasted?
With no other choice, the others agreed to this clumsy method.
By the time they had moved all the books out, it was already early morning.
Among the books were not only those possibly left by Jin Li but also books from other tenants mixed in. The group sorted through them according to the categories the Muscular Man had estimated, picking out the likely ones and flipping through them one by one, but still found nothing.
The most critical issue was that they didn't even know what they were looking for.
"Most of them are," Zhou Yuanzhu said. "There are books suitable for all ages. There's nothing special about that."
Three generations of Jin Li's family had lived here, so it was normal to have books for both children and adults.
Xu Huo picked up a detective novel. In one case, the victim's cause of death was being disemboweled after death. He flipped further back, then switched to several other books, finally finding a motivational book with a character who had lost a limb in a car accident.
The content matched the two notes exactly.
Although an adult could also draw childish pictures, most people would naturally assume they came from a child's hand. Given the game's context, Xu Huo believed the drawings on the notes corresponded to a young Jin Li. She liked using notes to communicate with others, and her communication targets were undoubtedly her family. If Jin Li's psychological state was truly very healthy, then her family must have put in a lot of effort. Since she had difficulty moving, using notes to play games wasn't strange.
If this was a "find the book by the picture" game, Jin Li would have been the one setting the questions, which would accommodate both her physical and mental health. So it made sense that the drawings were simple and childish.
In that case, this instance was generated based on a game, except "find the book by the picture" had become "find the person by the picture."
Find the person by the picture... Besides the somewhat eerie drawings, the only thing on the notes were numbers.
Xu Huo looked at the two notes with the numbers "3" and "13" on the table. The third female player who had arrived was already dead, and since he wasn't an instance player, he couldn't verify his hypothesis for now.
"Huh?" Zhou Yuanzhu leaned over to him, holding the detective novel in one hand and flipping through the one he had just put down. "There's content in the books that matches the notes!"
Chi Minghong and the Sneak Attack Player immediately leaned in to look. After confirming, the former said, "Could the notes correspond to these books?"
The Sneak Attack Player paused, then quickly grabbed the book that matched the content of his own note, only to silently put it down a few seconds later.
The others wore expressions of varying degrees of mockery.
"If it were that easy to clear, would this still be a C-grade instance?" the Lip Ring Player said.
"Still no results," Liang Zong said, pushing aside the pile of books in front of him. "This is pointless."
"At least one thing is certain," Xu Huo said. "Getting the note, even completing the content on it, doesn't mean clearing the instance."
"This might be related to the instance name," Chi Minghong said. "The last note—maybe clearing the instance requires only the last one?"
Getting the note, whether or not they followed its content, didn't lead to clearing the instance. This ruled out two possibilities after obtaining the note. There was one more: the person who got the note was killed in retaliation.
Retaliation could be divided into two scenarios: being killed by the player whose number was on the note, or being killed by another player.
If they could rule out the possibility that the Long-Haired Female Player was killed by the player whose number was on her note, they would be one step closer to Xu Huo's hypothesis.
His gaze quickly swept over the Local Zone Player, the Lip Ring Player, the Freckled Player, and Chi Minghong. He reminded them, "It's already past midnight."
(Chapter End)