Welcome to the Bizarre Games

Chapter 469: Tracking
F City, suburbs.

Wang Xi was propping his head up, dozing off intermittently.

To be honest, people in their line of work are generally quite idle. After all, you rarely see a crematorium packed with customers, especially since he's just a gatekeeper and they usually don't let him go to work when there's something to do.

However, he still suffered from severe sleep deprivation during this period.

Without him.

Lately, for some reason, too many people have died!

Not long ago, a bunch of corpses were brought in, and recently several more urgent cases have arrived. Moreover, for some reason, several crematorium staff members have resigned, forcing even non-staff members like him to work on the job.

And there wasn't even a penny of overtime pay!
He's thinking of quitting his job. There aren't many jobs like this that are easy and allow him to earn some pocket money. At his age, it's hard for him to find anything else. He wants to protest, but he doesn't have the guts.

So he could only catch a quick nap while guarding the gate, just to make up for all the hard work.

pity.

As the saying goes, things rarely go as planned.

Just as he was squinting his eyes, about to drift off to sleep, a horn blared.

Wang Xi was startled and quickly looked up.

"Damn, so he's not the boss after all."

After muttering something, he lay back down.

Parked at the entrance was a plain black car, not particularly luxurious, and I didn't recognize the brand—I guessed it was temporarily hired by the funeral home, and I didn't need to pay much attention to it.

—This is understandable, since Wang Xi doesn't know many words and only recognizes things like Mercedes-Benz and Land Rover. As for other brands, he can only judge them by their appearance.

Soon, two people got out of the car.

An old man and a young man; the old man was dressed in a long robe and looked like he was there for a funeral.
Seeing the man's appearance, Wang Xi snorted and didn't even bother to acknowledge him.

Even if he has no discernment, he can still recognize those short-sleeved shirts that cost tens of yuan each at the street stall—he even has several of the same style at home.

How powerful can someone wearing this kind of thing be?

Soon, the young man walked up to them and knocked on the window of the security room.

"Excuse me, brother, we have something to take care of."

Before he could finish speaking, Wang Xi rolled his eyes and retorted.

"Let's talk about it tomorrow, we're off work now."

The young man was taken aback, but still smiled kindly.

"But I saw that the working hours here end at 6 o'clock."

"That's when I have free time on weekdays!" The resentment from lack of sleep and the exhaustion from working overtime these past few days made Wang Xi's already bad attitude even worse. "The stove inside is practically smoking, how can we add anything more? Come back tomorrow—by the way, remember to make a reservation!"

The two men looked at each other, but soon the young man spoke again.

"Sir, you've misunderstood. We're not here to cremate the body; we're here to..."

"Why are you at the crematorium if you're not going to cremate your body? Are you here for a buffet?"

After choking several times, the young man finally shook his head and stepped back, while the old man, with great insight, took over.

"Comrade, you can't say that."

Compared to the young man, the old man was much more slick in his speech, and he quickly built a good relationship with the young man in just a few words.

However, Wang Xi's name still consists of three characters.

—Not allowed in.

Are you kidding me? He's been working overtime these past few days, not even getting eight hours of sleep a night. Is he crazy, adding extra work to his job?

As for reporting him, even if he's just a gatekeeper, he's still a state-owned enterprise employee, and one who's worked there for countless years. How could he possibly have such an easy excuse?
Seeing that Wang Xi was unyielding, the young man could only sigh, then took out his phone and dialed a number.

"Brother Lin? Yes, it's me. I'll have to trouble you with this."

Looking at the fairy tale, Wang Xi chuckled silently.

—With clothes like that, what kind of connections do you think you can get?
However, the other party simply made the call calmly, even giving instructions to the other side like someone in a high position.

"Okay, you can arrange it. It's a small problem. Sure, as long as it's quick."

The young man hung up the phone decisively and then just smiled at Wang Xi.

Soon, the phone in the security room rang.

"Hello? Okay, I understand. Just give them the dispatch book, okay?"

Wang Xi casually replied, then looked at the two people with some surprise.

"Okay, it even connects to the factory's internal line. Alright, alright, the notebook's in the back room, you guys go get it yourselves, I need to take a nap."

After those two guys left, Wang Xi was about to lean back on the table when he suddenly felt something was wrong.

"Speaking of which, wasn't the person who called earlier our factory manager?"

On the other side, Wen Tianyi spat out a mouthful of saliva viciously.

"Pah, what a piece of crap! A lousy gatekeeper acting all high and mighty. Anyone who knows this is a crematorium would think it's Zhongnanhai!"

Zhou You, however, didn't seem to care at all.

"He's just a nobody. It's not worth wasting time on him. Besides, Lin Chen solved the problem with just one phone call."

"But is that the kind of attitude he should have? Damn it, he's impatient, and I'm impatient too!"

Seeing Wen Tianyi's indignation, Zhou You shook his head and then handed him a talisman.

"Master Zhou, what is this?"

"It's a prank item that makes a designated person's intestinal peristalsis speed up a bit during a certain period of time, and then they can't help but have diarrhea. If you're really upset, you can just burn it at that guy."

Just as Wen Tianyi was gloating and taking out his lighter, Zhou You also opened the dispatch book.

—This crematorium is not large, and there are not many staff members. Most of them are villagers from the surrounding area who come here part-time. Moreover, for some reason, a lot of people have recently resigned, for various reasons.

Some families had experienced accidents, some had sick children, and some had even tripped and fallen into ditches while walking.
Overall, however, there seems to be nothing unusual.

However, Zhou You's eyes gradually became serious.

If he were a sorcerer, he would definitely try to minimize the number of people around him to avoid being exposed.

Zhou You swiped down a few lines, then paused briefly on a name.

Wan Sheng.

It was an unremarkable name, next to which was a photo of him when he joined the company—a kind-hearted middle-aged man with tanned skin, looking just like an ordinary farmer.

However, Zhou You only glanced at it before turning his gaze to his attendance record.

He was absent from work for a long time.

The reasons given were mostly that they had recently contracted the flu, and they even provided their medical records as evidence.

but
The journey glides through several time periods.

—The time I took leave overlapped significantly with the time I faced them.

Putting down his dispatch book, Zhou You went straight to the crematorium's work area.

Perhaps because they had been informed beforehand, the people here were much nicer than those at the entrance.

The person who received him was generally quite responsive. "You mean Lao Wan? He's been with the company for about seven or eight years, so he's considered a veteran employee. He's been doing nothing particularly outstanding, except he likes to have a few drinks, but he's never caused any problems."

"Has he been behaving strangely lately? Nothing seems amiss. He's doing his work as usual, but for some reason, he seems weaker and keeps taking sick leave."

"I haven't heard him call me all day. I don't have his phone number, and he doesn't know how to use WeChat."

"The accommodations? That area behind the gate is where they used to live. It used to be where all the stove-tillers lived, but a lot of them have quit recently, so there aren't many people there anymore."

As they left the office, Wen Tianyi approached and asked.

"Master Zhou, do you think this guy is that sorcerer?"

Zhou You remained calm, but still replied.

"That's about right, what's wrong?"

"But according to what that person just said, he's been with the company for at least seven or eight years, so the timeline doesn't match up."

Zhou You took out his sword from Diancang Ring and sighed softly.

"Hey Lao Wen."

"What's wrong?"

“In our line of work, there are countless ways to take someone’s identity for someone else—or even skin someone and put their clothes back on.”

Wen Tian swallowed all his words at once, and Zhou You didn't offer any further explanation. Instead, he followed the stone path and climbed all the way to the back of the mountain.

—It was called a residence, but it was really just a bunch of temporary bungalows made of aluminum sheets. It was probably still working hours, so there was hardly any human voice inside.

Based on what they had found out beforehand, the two easily found Wan Sheng's residence—it was also a prefab house with old-fashioned latches. Zhou You didn't even have to lift a finger; Wen Tianyi simply fiddled with it a couple of times and easily opened the door.

The inside looks no different from the outside.

A bed, a radio, beer bottles scattered all over the floor, and clothes strewn everywhere.
It perfectly reflects the living conditions of a down-on-his-luck middle-aged man.

Seeing this, Wen Tianyi scratched his head and asked.

"Mr. Zhou, there doesn't seem to be anything unusual here. Are you sure it's this guy?"

Zhou You remained silent, but instead squinted for a moment before suddenly raising the Broken Blade and slashing it down.

And the goal.
It was Wen Tianyi standing in the very center of the room!

The old man immediately terrified Ling Han, who came out, but couldn't move an inch. He could only watch helplessly as the sword tip cleaved down towards his head, and then—

The expected bloodshed did not occur.

The sword stopped less than four inches from his neck, then the blade flicked lightly—

In a daze, it sounded as if something was being torn apart.

When I looked again, I was no longer in that prefab house.

They weren't even in that crematorium.

Beside him was a cold, damp stone wall, with only a few oil lamps providing illumination. For some reason, the temperature seemed extremely low, even causing Wen Tianyi to shiver.

"Master Zhou, where is this?"

Zhou You sheathed his sword and said calmly.

"I don't know, it's probably in a cave in the mountains."

"Then how could we be?"

"That prefab house must be connected to the two spaces in some way. Don't ask me, I'm not an expert in this, but it seems we've found this guy's lair."

After saying that, Zhou You turned around cleanly and walked inside.

Judging from his appearance, he didn't seem worried at all about any ambush.

At this moment, Wen Tianyi only had this powerful figure to rely on. Although he wanted to say something, he gritted his teeth and followed.

The passage wasn't long; it soon came to an end.

Judging from its appearance, this should be considered a natural stone cave, but it has been converted into a dwelling by humans, and overall it has not been changed much.

At the very back, a partition was made by stacking wood.

Zhou You closed his eyes again, seemingly sensing the movement within. After a while, he shook his head.

Then, he reached out and prepared to push open the thin wooden door.

Wen Tianyi, standing behind him, immediately became anxious.

"Master Zhou, I know you're very skilled, but this is their base camp after all. Shouldn't we make some preparations first?"

However, Zhou You only said one sentence.

"No need to prepare."

".What?"

"That guy is dead."

".What????"

Ignoring Guan Wentian's sudden high-pitched voice, Zhou You pushed the door open and entered.

In the blink of an eye, a strong smell of blood wafted over.

Wen Tianyi nearly fainted from the fumes, but Zhou You simply glanced around calmly and then frowned slightly.

The contents inside were extremely disgusting.

Upon entering, the first thing you see is a corpse hanging high on the ceiling, a skinned corpse—judging from its wide-open eyes, it must have been skinned alive while still conscious.

Fresh blood flowed from his feet, dripping into the copper basin, which was already nearly full.

Not far away was a man who had been gutted, among which...
(This is a sensationalist description; despite repeated revisions, it still received a risk warning. You can use your imagination to fill in the gaps.)
Upon seeing this scene, Wen Tianyi covered his mouth, almost vomiting.

Fortunately, he had seen a lot of things during his few days traveling with Zhou You, so he managed to swallow back the vomit and said with a pale face.

"Master Zhou, is this the method used by these sorcerers? It's just too damn bizarre, isn't it?"

"It's alright. Compared to the things I've actually seen, this is nothing."

Zhou You shook his head, then stepped over the blood and entrails scattered on the ground and walked step by step to the innermost part.

There, too, stood a corpse.

Judging from his appearance, he should be the sorcerer—but unlike the strong voice we heard before, this corpse had gray hair and sunken eyes, and looked to be at least eighty or ninety years old.

and.

His body was also incomplete.

Nearly half of his left arm was gone, both legs were completely missing, one eye was gone, and only half of his tongue remained—Zhou You poked at it with the hilt of his sword, then tilted his head.

"All his internal organs are damaged, and his liver is completely gone—the black magic does indeed harm the user before harming the other person, but this guy has gone too far. This isn't just risking his life; it's utterly reckless. But what is he after?"

But at that moment, he suddenly realized something, and his brows furrowed sharply.

"Wait a minute."

"Where did this guy's soul go?"

(End of this chapter)