Chapter 757: Trait Upgrade and Special Space Item
“So is he really dead?” Xiao Ling pressed further.
“I wouldn’t know about that,” Teacher Pan said.
“Do you think he’s dead?” Xiao Ling turned to ask Xu Huo.
How could he possibly be dead.
A serial killer capable of torturing and murdering so many innocent people was definitely not a depression patient, nor could he be forced into suicide by the threat of death. Even the idea that he couldn’t fully evade death threats was untenable.
Killing so many people without a shred of sympathy and leaving no traces behind showed that he was emotionally stable, cold-hearted, meticulous in his thinking, and highly intelligent. He wasn’t just taking revenge—he was also toying with these people. Using his own social media account to release the videos was his way of telling everyone that he had killed them, but no one could do anything about him.
Would someone like that commit suicide? He had probably already started thinking of himself as a god who could control the lives of ants.
“Even as a player, I find someone like that terrifying,” Yu Guangnan said. “Committing crimes so many times without leaving a single clue—it’s absolutely unbelievable!”
For an ordinary person, it would indeed be unbelievable. After all, no matter how capable a person is, they are still human and cannot transcend that category. But if it were a player, things would be different.
If he was a player or a prospective player, then his so-called proof of innocence would be useless.
“Yeah,” Teacher Pan said. “This person is even more formidable than a player.”
“But isn’t it understandable that he’s avenging his family?” Xiao Ling said. “Don’t those people deserve to suffer? Even if the ones who died were innocent, they enjoyed the privileged conditions provided by the criminals, so they have to bear the consequences of their wrongdoing. They can’t blame others for retaliating.”
“Has your intelligence not evolved yet?” Sun Bo sneered upon hearing this. “Collective punishment is a form of penal law used by ancient people.”
Xiao Ling snorted. “If you don’t agree, try putting yourself in the shoes of the Shang clan’s descendants. Your clan members died so horribly, none of them had a good ending—could you sleep at night?”
Sun Bo couldn’t refute that and stopped responding.
“Were the bodies of those victims found?” Xu Huo asked.
“Only a very small portion were found,” Teacher Pan said. “After the Shang clan descendant died, the case became a cold case.”
Xu Huo nodded slightly. After hearing this story, he could basically fill in the last progress bar.
The game background mentioned that the people who went missing in various venues of the Museum City were the relatives of the perpetrators’ descendants, who died at the hands of the Shang clan descendant’s revenge.
The six progress bars were: Wax Museum, Mad Prison, Doll Clothing Store, Corpse-Hiding Hotel, Styx Ferry, and the final one summarizing the subsequent disappearances.
In fact, just by understanding the story background of the Museum City, one could easily guess half of them: Mad Prison, Doll Clothing Store, Wax Museum. As for the bones at Styx Ferry, since the police hadn’t found any human remains during their earlier investigation, the ones now dumped in the waterway were definitely not Shang clan members. Most likely, the Shang clan descendant had faked his death, returned, and disposed of the bodies there—perhaps along with some idiots who came looking for thrills after the Museum City was shut down.
The memorial tablets of the deceased, the exposed skeletons in the water, and the fierce beasts raised underwater—all fit the mindset of a vengeful avenger.
As for the Corpse-Hiding Hotel progress… once you came here, there was no need to guess at all.
Xu Huo glanced at Xiao Ling and Yu Guangnan, then said, “It seems that dying in revenge is the most important part of the disappearance mystery.”
[Congratulations, player Passerby A, on successfully clearing the instance “Sphinx’s Riddle.” For successfully obtaining story information within the instance and solving the space mystery, you have earned an S-rank super evaluation. In addition to this instance’s rewards—one primary trait upgrade, one extended trait upgrade, two C-rank items, twenty potions, and 100,000 White Notes—you will also receive an additional special item.]
Leaving aside the potion and White Note rewards, Xu Huo first looked at the upgraded traits.
The upgraded primary trait was “The Power of Writing.”
The main effect of the trait “The Power of Writing” was that within five seconds of the player making a writing motion with a pen, everyone nearby would involuntarily stop their actions and gaze at the player. This was a trait completely opposite to Passerby A’s ability to blur his presence. Although its range wasn’t too large and its effectiveness depended on individual circumstances, it had unexpected uses when outnumbered.
However, this move had very little effect on people with strong self-control, so Xu Huo rarely used it. The upgraded trait was renamed:
[The Intensity of Writing: Doesn’t a dedicated Passerby A deserve a moment of universal attention? Even a Passerby A can achieve it if they set their mind to it! Pick up the pen—these five seconds belong to you. Everyone within a hundred-meter radius will look at you from any angle, and during these five seconds, you will be the only existence in their field of vision!]
[Please note: Prolonged staring may not necessarily generate goodwill; it could also generate hatred, especially when accompanied by the risk of cervical spine fractures.]
This trait had gone from “involuntary” to a forced trait. The five-second period of immovable gaze was far more powerful than before the upgrade. Without item evasion, even high-level players couldn’t avoid it.
Of course, one also had to consider that the risk of being stared at by high-level players was not low.
[Extended Trait Upgrade: Galloping Wild Buffalo → Non-Existent Beast]
[Note: The attack power of a beast is limited. After long-term training, Passerby A’s leg techniques have undergone a qualitative leap. Not only can he deliver kicks three times his physical limit, but he also possesses unprecedented jumping power, enough to break any purely physical long jump or high jump record. Perhaps switching careers to an athlete wouldn’t be a bad choice.]
Xu Huo was quite satisfied with this physical trait upgrade. In the absence of items, personal physical fitness was the ultimate survival skill.
Next were the three items:
[Complete Time: The world is vast—how do you know how many different ways different places calculate time? Every time you go to a new world and struggle with time conversion, you’ll realize the value of this item. Additionally, it comes with a stellar starting time calibrated to the A1 wormhole point!]
[Sight: An ordinary sight, but it can aim at some very strange things.]
[Idealistic Door: A philosopher and artificer full of delusions firmly believed that “I think, therefore I am” was a very practically meaningful philosophy. But given that he was a half-baked philosopher whose understanding of philosophy was also full of confusion, he thought that the human heart contained countless worlds. By opening the heart’s door, one could go to any world—and thus this door was born. This artificer once said that the person who could possess this door must be a soul friend highly attuned to his heart, so he cordially invites the item holder to visit C20-001.]
[Note: It can only go to one world per day.]
Whether he was a good philosopher, Xu Huo couldn’t judge, but the item was definitely a good item—this special item was a space item.
(Chapter End)