I was just telling a story, why is the whole internet urging me to turn myself in?

Chapter 85 Designated Redemption! A story about shadows!!

Having gone through so much, Shen Feng sat in the large boss's chair, staring at the dazzling night view of Jiangzhou outside the floor-to-ceiling window, and finally figured out one thing completely.

Every script randomly selected by the system before, whether it was "Sheep Without a Shepherd," "The Hidden Corner," "The Devotion of Suspect X," or "The Untouchable," all highly overlapped with real-life cases, even down to the details.

This coincidence is by no means accidental. It in itself illustrates an extremely terrifying problem.

That is, there is a kind of mapping relationship between the history of crime in this parallel world and the classic suspense works he read in his previous life, a relationship that he still cannot explain scientifically.

In other words, no matter what story he tells, there is a high probability that a corresponding bloody crime is buried in some dark corner of this land.

If that's the case, then the problem becomes simpler.

Mr. Shadow was hidden inside the Defense Agency, at a level high enough that he could silently steal a top-secret report from a deputy director of a provincial department, and could put cyanide into Liu Jianhua's water glass in a heavily monitored interrogation room.

Relying on Su Qing and Qin Zheng to peel back the layers of the onion from the outside? That's too slow.

By the time they find out the core issue, the grass on their own graves will probably be three feet tall!

After all, a ten million dollar bounty is no joke.

But what if—there is a story that happens to depict a criminal structure where "two people are each other's shadows, living in symbiosis and parasitism"?

Since the system can reflect reality, when he actively chooses a script with a specific theme, it is equivalent to actively choosing which veil to tear off!

Shen Feng took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and brought up the system panel in his mind.

[Popularity points balance: 14,874,221.]

"System, select the script to redeem - 'White Night'."

A cold, mechanical voice from the system echoed in my mind, followed by a bright red notification box: [Warning: Redeeming a specific script requires a massive amount of Popularity Points: 1,000,000. Confirm?]

Another million!

Shen Feng's heart clenched violently, and he felt a sharp pain for a full 0.3 seconds.

But the thought of that ten million US dollars hanging over his head made Shen Feng grit his teeth.

"Confirmed! Changed!"

[Ding! One million popularity points deducted. Current popularity points: 2,447,888.]

Immediately afterwards, a vast and logically rigorous set of script information flooded into his mind.

The psychological profiles of each character, the details of each crime, and the suffocating symbiotic relationship are all so clear that it's as if he personally experienced them.

Shen Feng opened his eyes and exhaled a long breath: "Xiao Yu."

"Here!" At the next workstation, Xiaoyu peeked out from behind three frantically flashing code monitors, a half-eaten spicy snack still dangling from his mouth.

"All streaming nodes have been switched to overseas encrypted servers." Shen Feng's voice was deep.

"Thud." The spicy strip fell onto the keyboard. Xiaoyu's eyes widened: "Cut it all? Grandmaster, are you serious?"

"Seriously. The live stream signal goes through an overseas relay and doesn't pass through any domestic CDN nodes." Shen Feng stood up, walked to his desk to pour water, and said, "Whether those people on the National Defense Agency's internal network want to intercept the stream or see the content in advance, tonight they'll all have to obediently sit in the live stream room like ordinary viewers and listen to me talk."

Xiao Yu swallowed hard, immediately stuffed the remaining half of the spicy strip into his mouth, and slammed his ten fingers onto the keyboard.

Three minutes later, he turned around in his boss's chair and gave Shen Feng a thumbs up: "Done! The relay in Singapore, Dubai, and Zurich uses the same satellite-level anti-blocking architecture we set up for you before. Tonight, unless the Defense Agency disconnects all the physical network cables in Jiangzhou City, no one can cut off your live stream!"

Shen Feng nodded in satisfaction and glanced at the clock on the wall.

It's 7:42 PM. There are 18 minutes left until the scheduled 8 PM broadcast.

Xu Zhengyang pushed open the office door and walked out of the break room, his brows furrowed: "Sir, are we really going to directly attack Mr. Shadow tonight?"

"It's not about firing cannons." Shen Feng picked up his thermos and took a small sip of the steaming goji berry water. "It's about telling stories. I'm just a law-abiding storyteller who loves to share. Old Xu, have you forgotten?"

Xu Zhengyang's lips twitched suddenly.

Although he had been working for Shen Feng for less than a month, he knew all too well what would happen after this guy "told a story".

"Sir, Liu Jianhua died in the interrogation room less than thirty hours ago." Xu Zhengyang lowered his voice, his tone grave. "Do you think someone who could put cyanide in the drinking water in the interrogation area on the second basement floor of the Defense Agency would sit obediently in front of the screen watching your live broadcast tonight? If he sensed danger, he would definitely act desperately!"

Shen Feng didn't answer the question directly, but instead asked softly, "What about the grizzly bears and jackals?"

"There's one sniper position on the roof and one in the underground parking garage. Two sets of hidden sentries have been set up in the elevator lobby and fire exit. The infrared early warning system is now fully operational," Xu Zhengyang reported immediately.

That's enough.

Shen Feng stood up, stretched his neck, and strode towards the live broadcast room.

In reality, he wasn't as calm as he appeared on the surface.

A ten million dollar bounty is up there, and the Queen Bee Group, ranked second among the Lanternmen, could break in at any moment.

He's practically standing under the brightest spotlight in the world, shirtless, giving the middle finger to a sniper lurking in the shadows.

But not speaking out is like slowly waiting to die.

At least we can stir up this stagnant water and make the turtles hiding in the mud show their faces!

Seven fifty-eight.

Shen Feng sat down in the gaming chair in the livestream room and adjusted the microphone. The moment he faced the camera, an aura of a superior in control silently spread across the network cable.

The person on the screen is completely different from the one who was just in the office worrying about popularity points.

The number of viewers in the live stream jumped at a speed comparable to a rocket launch.

300 million in the first second.

The fifth second, 500 million.

Nine seconds later, 800 million!

The barrage of comments poured down like a waterfall, so dense that it almost completely obscured Shen Feng's face.

[Grandmaster! I've been waiting all day! I haven't even eaten and I've been guarding this place!]

[Holy crap, it's starting early again? Which unfortunate entrepreneur will have their secrets exposed this time?]

What's the latest on Chen Deming's case? They actually found a person buried under the foundation in the eastern suburbs! I read the Defense Agency's blue-and-white announcement three times; it gave me the creeps!

Brothers, let's send gifts! Today's online player count is approaching 30 million! Let's give the ancestor some respect!

Shen Feng ignored the rockets and carnival-like displays flying everywhere. He picked up his thermos, took a sip of water, and began unhurriedly, "Good evening, everyone. Tonight, I'm going to tell you a new story."

"The story is called 'Journey Under the Midnight Sun'."

As soon as he finished speaking, the number of online viewers jumped to 1200 million.

"The story takes place in a very ordinary city. There is a boy named Ryoji and a girl named Yukiho. They have known each other since they were children, but in the eyes of everyone, even the police, these two people have no connection and are like two parallel lines."

"Xuehui was the most popular girl in school. She had excellent grades, was beautiful, and her smile was like a gentle breeze. She grew up to become a powerful businesswoman. Ryoji, on the other hand, was the kind of person who would go unnoticed on the street."

"But no one knows that there's an invisible thread connecting these two people." Shen Feng's voice gradually lowered. "Ryoji is in the shadows, clearing away all obstacles for Yukiho. Anyone who gets in her way, anyone who knows her secrets, anyone who might threaten her position—all of them disappear without a trace. And Yukiho, in the open, weaves a perfect protective net for Ryoji. Connections, identity, social relationships, even inside information from the police."

"One is the shadow, the other is the light. The shadow kills for the light, and the light clears the shadow's name. For twenty years, no one has discovered any connection between them."

At that moment, the frantically scrolling comments in the live stream miraculously slowed down.

It wasn't because there were fewer people, but because everyone was listening intently.

Online users: 1600 million!

"Just think about it, how terrifying is this kind of symbiotic relationship?"

Shen Feng leaned back in his chair and placed his hands on the table with his hands crossed. "When the police are investigating a case, what is their first reaction?"

It's about finding a motive, finding connections. Who had a grudge against the deceased? Who could benefit from it? But Ryoji and Yukiho, this duo, are naturally immune to this kind of criminal investigation logic. Because, on the surface, they don't even know each other!

"A murderer has no motive; a motive is never spilled."

"When we looked up Ryoji, he was just a small business owner running a secondhand bookstore. When we looked up Yukiho, she was a senior executive at a listed company, a guest of honor at charity galas, and her resume was as clean as a blank sheet of paper."

When Shen Feng mentioned the words "charity gala," the live stream chat exploded!

[Holy crap! Holy crap! A charity gala! Chen Deming! Grandmaster, are you subtly criticizing Dingsheng Industry?!]

This isn't storytelling, this is practically insulting me!

[This is chilling to think about—brothers, the story our ancestor told last time, about Luo Wen, corresponds to Gao Dong. So, who do Liang Si and Xue Hui correspond to?!]

I heard that a mole died in the Defense Agency. Was he the one in the shadow?!

Shen Feng didn't respond and continued, "Ryoji has one peculiar characteristic. He will never appear in the light of day. He will never be present at any crime scene involving him."

"How clean was his method? The police often had difficulty even determining the cause of death of the people he killed."

"Some looked like accidental falls, some looked like suicide by poisoning, and some simply vanished without a trace."

"And Xuehui was in charge of the aftermath. She was able to use her vast network of resources to cut off all possible leads pointing to Liang Si in the shortest possible time after the incident."

"Witnesses may suddenly change their stories, key physical evidence may mysteriously disappear, and even—"

Shen Feng leaned forward slightly, looking directly at the camera, and deliberately slowed down his speech: "Even the most crucial pages in the police's top-secret files are secretly removed."

Online users: 1900 million!

The system's popularity score is increasing at a rate of tens of thousands per second.

At the same time, at the Jiangzhou Defense Agency, in the Special Case Unit Office.

Su Qing sat at her desk, watching the live stream on her computer screen.

When she heard Shen Feng say that "a few key pages in the case file will be secretly removed," her hand trembled violently, and the tip of her pen drew a long ink mark on the notebook.

Shen Feng was talking about Ryoji and Yukiho from the novel.

But what Su Qing heard was clearly the "Shadow Man" in the Defense Agency who had not yet revealed his true face, and his other hand hidden within the system!

Su Qing confirmed that Liu Jianhua was not Mr. Shadow himself after Liu Jianhua's death.

Liu Jianhua was at best a pawn, an executive who was pushed out to do dirty work and could be discarded at any time.

The person who truly orchestrated everything behind the scenes, the one who could reach into the interrogation room on the second basement level to kill and silence witnesses, was far more high-ranking than Liu Jianhua!

"Symbiotic relationship—" Su Qing murmured to herself, feeling a cold sweat break out on her back.

Xiao Li peeked over from the workstation next to him, his face pale: "Team Leader Su, what did you say?"

Su Qing did not answer, her heart still churning with turbulent emotions.

Su Qing knew Shen Feng's tricks all too well.

The last time Shen Feng "told a story," he ended up revealing Gao Dong's motives and Dingsheng Industrial's money laundering chain in the process!

This time, he talked about "symbiotic shadows".

What exactly did he find out? What was he implying was how big a fish was hiding within the Ministry of National Defense?!

In the live stream, Shen Feng's voice continued: "The reason why Ryoji and Yukiho's relationship has been able to remain undiscovered for twenty years is because of only one thing!"

"That means they never interact in any public setting. There are no call records, no bank transfer records, and they have never attended any events together."

"But there is never a perfect crime in this world. Where are their flaws?"

Shen Feng picked up his thermos and slowly took a sip. "They share the same secret. Once we find that common starting point," the initial sin that bound them together twenty years ago, the entire chain of interests will be completely severed in the middle!"

"After all, no matter how long a shadow is cast, it still has to be connected to the feet."

Shen Feng put down his thermos and smiled slightly at the camera: "That's all for today's story. We'll continue at the same time tomorrow."

Goodnight, everyone.

The streaming was turned off, and the screen went black instantly.

In the Special Case Unit office of the National Defense Agency, Su Qing turned off the live stream, took a deep breath, and wrote four words heavily in her notebook: "Symbiotic Structure".

Then below, she drew two circles.

A circle with the words "Liu Jianhua (deceased)" written inside.

'

In another circle, she drew a big question mark.

"Captain Su." Xiao Li suddenly stood up, holding a newly printed technical report. "Top-secret information just came from the technical department—the corridor surveillance footage from the day Liu Jianhua was poisoned has indeed been tampered with. Seven seconds of crucial footage were remotely overwritten!"

Su Qing abruptly looked up, her pen hovering over the paper: "What's the access level for overwriting?"

Xiao Li swallowed hard, feeling his throat go dry: "—It's Grade A."

Level A access!

Upon hearing these four words, Su Qing's pupils suddenly contracted.

Throughout the entire Jiangzhou Defense Command, with several thousand employees, there are no more than five people with the highest level of operational authority over the A-level monitoring system!

Su Qing slowly closed the notebook, stood up, and walked to the window.

She looked out the window at the office windows in the Defense Agency compound, where the lights were still on in the night.

The Shadow Man who can kill silently in the interrogation room, the mastermind behind the scenes who has a ten million dollar bounty on Shen Feng's life, is among these five people!

>