I, the screenwriter, have experienced a resurgence of inspiration.

In the early hours of the morning, the lights were still on in the Special Investigations Bureau's Operations Division office.

Chen Xi sat behind the table, her neck slightly resting against the back of the chair, with a newly printed report spread out in front of her.

The report was fresh off the press; the paper was still warm to the touch and carried a faint scent of ink.

The footsteps outside the office were hurried and disorderly; the entire building was working on the same case all night.

Chen Xi glanced at Yang Asha and her other subordinates standing in front of him, and solemnly opened the report:

[Report Number: TDD-2026-0901. Case Type: Malicious Player Hunting Case. Classification: Urgent/Internal Reference.]

At 22:30, Lingjing APP received a report from a tenant in a residential community, who said that when closing the window, he saw someone climbing up the outer wall, which looked like a gecko, and was suspected to be a psionic creature.

The alarm was transferred to the IT department. The operator on duty marked it as "accepted" in the system.

At 22:35, the duty team noticed that the reported address highly overlapped with the registered address of a recently marked "high-value player".

Upon comparison, the address was found to be similar to the registered address of the "Spiritualist" from the late Song Dynasty, and two non-human ghost player teammates were associated with this person. The duty team reported the situation.

At 22:40, nearby patrol officers and two Special Investigations Bureau agents went to the neighborhood for preliminary investigation. They found no abnormal psionic creatures, and the psionic detector showed no fluctuations. The case was then closed.

Note: There are minor signs of climbing on the north wall of the building, which has been damaged by rain, making it impossible to collect complete evidence.

At 23:15, the technical team cracked some communication nodes of the "Scavenger" organization and successfully located "Qian Fang", an active member of the organization.

Through multi-dimensional data analysis including social, financial, and transportation data, the technical team discovered that Qian Fang had frequent nighttime contacts with multiple individuals, and the IP addresses involved multiple cities.

The social circles of "high-value players" in the late Song Dynasty overlapped somewhat with those of Qian Fang.

At 23:30, surveillance footage showed that twenty minutes earlier, two SUVs drove along the winding mountain road toward the late Song Dynasty residence, "Yunding No. 1".

Police officers determined that the organization might have already surrounded the target. Duty officer Yang Asha immediately contacted Song Mo via her personal phone, instructing him to lock the doors and windows and await backup.

Seeing this, Chen Xi glanced at Yang Asha, sighed, and continued flipping through the report:

At 23:40, after the phone call ended, the surveillance footage showed that one of the two vehicles left, and the departing SUV carried a total of seven people.

The footage is blurry, but the car appears to be traveling at high speed, seemingly fleeing. The whereabouts of the other car are unknown.

At 23:50, the first batch of support personnel from the Special Investigation Bureau arrived at Genting No. 1 and confirmed that Song Mo and his two teammates were safe.

There were no signs of a struggle at the scene, the house was undamaged, and there was a faint trace of spiritual energy remaining. Song Mo stated that he did not leave the house after receiving the phone call.

[00:10, The search dog found another off-road vehicle in the valley.]

The vehicle fell into a ravine about 70 meters from the mountain road. The vehicle was deformed, but did not catch fire.

The car was empty, and the driver's side door was ajar, suggesting the driver may have abandoned the vehicle and fled. However, as the vehicle was modified and no dashcam was installed, further information could not be confirmed.

At 00:30, the surveillance cameras tracked the fleeing vehicle and found that it had driven away from the hillside villa and was moving out of the city.

When the car reached the cross-river bridge, it collided with a drunk driver traveling in the wrong direction and lost control, plunging into the river.

According to eyewitnesses, the bridge was shrouded in mist, reducing visibility to less than 50 meters.

……

[At 00:56, a frogman team launched a search operation, but due to low visibility and strong currents at night, no personnel were found. It is impossible to confirm whether the seven people escaped.]

At 01:48, a player with the profession of "Fisherman" arrived at the scene and used his skills to sense underwater objects, successfully retrieving a mobile phone.

After confirming that the phone belonged to Ah Qi, a member of the "Cleaners" group, the technical team extracted the data, dismantled the group communication framework, and began reverse tracing of the organization's members.

……

[At 2:10 AM, it was officially confirmed that seven people were missing. Qian Fang and others, former core members of the "Cleaners," were listed as Level 1 wanted criminals. Related freezing and surveillance procedures were initiated, and the Lingjing APP simultaneously issued a risk warning.]

[At 03:00, the Special Investigation Bureau withdrew from Cloudtop One. Player Song Mo refused to be included in the Special Investigation Bureau's surveillance and protection list.]

……

……

Chen Xi closed the report, tapped his finger lightly on the table, and paused slightly.

Yang Asha pursed her lips, and an operator stepped forward to report:

"Chen Ke, there were indeed no signs of a struggle at the scene. We searched very thoroughly, even the lawn."

The psionic scanned four times, and only a very faint residue remained. Given that Song Mo is a player and has two non-human teammates at home, it's normal for there to be some residue.

After all, if a battle had actually broken out, given the brutality of those seven people, there would definitely have been traces at the scene.

Chen Xi hummed in agreement, as if deep in thought: "Have you investigated the problems with those two cars? Why did they leave?"

"I checked."

The operative quickly added, "The vehicle that fell into the valley first was probably going too fast. It got caught in tree roots at the bend and slipped."

There were no brake marks on the spot, which could be because the driver didn't have time to brake, or it could be due to fog interference.

There was a lot of fog on the mountain today, and the mountain path was already slippery, so it wouldn't be surprising if someone fell down.

The car behind probably saw its companion in trouble and received information from the mole, so it left out of fear of being exposed. Its subsequent escape by plunging into the river was likely pre-planned.

"No, something's not right."

Chen Xi went through this logic in her mind:

This group of people were audacious, greedy, and extremely vicious, committing a total of six crimes in just one month.

There's no reason for someone to see their companion's car crash and then flee in fear of being discovered.

What if she's the murderer?

Chen Xi began to put herself in the killer's shoes:

The hillside villa area is very spacious, making it an ideal place to strike. If my companion were to fall down the mountain due to a mistake, I should act quickly and decisively.

Otherwise, if we fail this time, the target will be prepared next time, and it will be very difficult to succeed again.

So, why did "I" run away?

Internal information from the Special Investigation Bureau?

No, probably not.

From the Special Investigation Bureau to the hillside villa, it takes at least twenty minutes to get up the mountain. With my abilities, I should be quite confident in taking down a rookie team of only three people.

—It is fear.

Chen Xi felt as if he were standing in a fog, unable to see the truth, only vaguely sensing that there was some terrifying existence within the fog.

She sat up abruptly, realizing the key point:

Red-quality items are incredibly tempting for players.

The chat logs reconstructed from the data team also prove that Qian Fang had long considered this prop as his own.

The seven people left in a hurry, even if they had to squeeze into one car, they had to leave quickly, not because they had something urgent to do, but because they were running for their lives.

What's on the mountain?

What could make them so afraid?

……

"Where's the psychic team?" Chen Xi felt like she had grasped a glimmer of inspiration, but that glimmer vanished in an instant.

"Are all three team members present?"

"Yes, both the person and the ghosts are there, and they are fully cooperating with our investigation—they were moving tonight, so they were originally having a barbecue on the lawn, but after receiving a phone call, they went into the villa and haven't moved since."

The operative nodded: "The results of the on-site investigation basically match Song Mo's account; they probably didn't encounter the group of seven."

Otherwise, how could they still be leisurely grilling meat?

Chen Xi turned her gaze to the window. It was still dark, and only lights were visible in the distance. Suddenly, a possibility occurred to her:

"Is it possible... they bumped into something else?"

"Something else?"

The operator was visibly taken aback, then his expression turned serious:

"That house used to belong to the Lu family. Lu Bingkun, the president of the Lu Group, and three of his immediate family members passed away there."

"Chen Shulan killed the Lu family members there. Although she is elusive, it would be normal for her to appear in the vicinity."

Chen Xi repeatedly doubted, pondered, and then overturned his ideas:

"No, if it's Chen Shulan, she has no reason to harm these seven people—she is [Wuchang], a messenger of the underworld?"

Or perhaps she's also eyeing the red-level item in Song Mo's possession? Although not many people know this news, it's not uncommon. The Lu family... the Chen family has plenty of people willing to sell information if they want to.

If she was also near the villa tonight, why didn't she show up and rob it?

Is it because they are wary of the Special Investigation Bureau?

Or is it for some other reason?

"If it were Chen Shulan, half of these seven people would be dead, or at least none of them would have escaped."

The operator shook his head:

"The residual spiritual energy at the scene was too thin, which didn't seem like the work of a vengeful ghost. Moreover, if it really was Chen Shulan, she had no reason to let those seven people leave alive."

I'm more inclined to believe that we have people within the Seven, or that we have third-party informants.

Upon receiving news of the Special Investigations Bureau's operation, they immediately cancelled their plans.

This group is very cautious. We've been pursuing them for some time, but they never reveal much about their whereabouts. It's very likely they decided to leave on their own.

Chen Xi flipped the report back to the first page and glanced at the words "high-value player" again.

—The so-called high-value players are a classification system implemented by the Special Investigation Bureau to facilitate management of some registered players.

Song Mo was only a support-type player, but because she had two non-human players under her name, and had conducted silver-level or higher item transactions in a short period of time, and also possessed red-quality items...

That's why she and the psychic team received special attention.

"Have you made any progress with the people inside?"

Chen Xi rubbed his temples.

The operator lowered his voice:

"Yes. The information team has identified three operators, all of whom are capable of accessing player profiles."

One of them suddenly bought a new car last month, and his savings and income don't match up. Another one has financial dealings with Qian Fang and others.

The last one, the evidence hasn't been solidified yet, but he reviewed registration records from the late Song Dynasty about two weeks ago.

Chen Xi closed her eyes and slowly exhaled after a long while:

"Don't let any of them escape. Secure the evidence first. I need to see the list before dawn."

The operators all looked very grim.

Now this has happened... If it's not handled properly, players' resistance to the Special Investigation Bureau will only increase.

"Director Chen, if this gets out, it will look bad for the bureau."

Someone whispered a reminder, but Chen Xi didn't even open her eyes, only sneering, "It has to be done, even if it looks bad. Do you think you can just cover up the mistakes and pretend nothing happened?"

Someone in the Special Investigations Bureau provided information to "The Cleaners".

This is not something that a few grassroots officers could accomplish.

Data access control, confidentiality procedures, and operational rhythm—getting this chain running will involve more and more people.

It's estimated that the Special Investigations Bureau is about to face its first major purge.

Chen Xi lowered his head and quickly added a line to the report signature column: "I recommend a system-wide investigation, conducted strictly and swiftly."

……