It's time to become an evil god.

Bai Ge walked into the warehouse with a stern face, glanced around at the group of guys gathered together, and said coldly, "Good grief, are you trying to play games with me?"

The panicked paper effigy quickly shook its head in denial.

Bai Ge stomped on the corpse's skin, picked up a brick and pressed it against the Picasso-like portrait, pointing at the portrait and demanding, "Still dare to say there isn't one?"

The paper effigy quickly shook its head, indicating that it wasn't Bai Ge he had drawn, but Chen Rui.

"..."

However, at that very moment, another line of bloody words appeared on the corpse's skin.

I just saw that person enter some kind of folklore research association. Should we take action now?

Don't worry, I'm a professional.

"..."

The paper effigy quickly covered its head with its hands and obediently squatted in the corner. It even raised its head, blinked its starry eyes, and tried to charm Bai Ge, asking if he would believe that this ghost was called over to celebrate Bai Ge's birthday.

"I don't believe you!"

The little fox, transformed into a little girl, stuck out her tongue and spoke in human language, "Eeeeeeeee."

They expressed that they didn't believe the nonsense about paper effigies at all.

Bai Ge placed the paper doll in the warehouse, then dragged it out by its ears, just as he heard a system notification in his ear.

Bai Ge opened the system and saw a familiar name displayed on the friend request screen.

[Nishizawa Ryo has requested to add you as a friend]

"Why is this guy..."

Bai Ge temporarily shelved the punishment of the paper effigy. After a moment's thought, he accepted the friend request. Although he didn't want to get involved with the officialdom, there was no need to deliberately reject the Bureau's offer.

After adding each other as friends, Xi Zeliang tentatively asked Bai Ge if she would be willing to join forces to solve the dungeon quest.

Although the Special Affairs Bureau is dedicated to handling various unusual events, with more and more anomalies breaking out, it is clearly feeling stretched thin and short of manpower. Attracting new players to join the bureau has become an urgent task for the bureau.

"Instance quest?"

Bai Ge vaguely remembered that dungeon missions were generally divided into two types: real-world dungeons and theatrical dungeons. Real-world dungeons were completed in the real world, while virtual dungeons would impose certain restrictions on the hunter player's strength, abilities, and items, depending on the type and difficulty of the dungeon.

Currently, all he has on hand are the dead fishing line for making bait and the substitute doll; he still needs more tools for the mission.

Bai Ge's gaze shifted to the little girl, then turned to the several ghosts in the warehouse who were frightened and studying a world map. He asked, "Wait, I'll give you one more chance. Do any of you have any special abilities?"

The little girl rested her chin on her hand, thought for a long time, then puffed out her cheeks and asked, "Does being cute count?"

"Not counting."

The expectant gaze shifted from the little fox to the others present.

The paper effigy hopped and skipped, eagerly raising its hand to signal.

Bai Ge was stunned for a moment, not expecting that the paper effigy, which seemed to be the least useful, was actually the most enthusiastic one.

What special abilities do you have?

The paper effigy blinked its innocent, big eyes, indicating that it was incredibly skilled at playing Yasuo.

"..."

Then it was forked away by Bai Ge.

After asking around and finding no reliable people, Bai Ge took a deep breath and finally understood what it felt like to be carried by a Bronze player when playing games with friends.

"can."

Bai Ge tentatively sent a message: "In exchange, I want to know the truth about the disaster in Yaotai Town."

However, the other party remained silent for a long time. Just when Bai Ge was about to give up, the other party suddenly sent a message.

"The files on the Yaotai Town disaster require advanced access, which I cannot access. However, there will be a related quest coming soon, and you might receive a system invitation to complete it. As for how much information you can obtain, that depends on your own abilities."

Bai Ge suddenly clenched his fists, his breathing became heavy, and he suppressed his excitement as he agreed to this dirty deal.

"make a deal."

Chapter Seventeen: Who's Lying?

Over the next two days, Bai Ge paid the "broker" another sum of money, hoping the broker could help collect information about recent urban legends in Xu City. However, ten minutes later, he received an anonymous email containing a folder of files listing various urban legends. The "broker" stated that only files with actual eyewitness accounts were included, and that Bai Ge wasn't the only one collecting urban legend files.

Out of professional ethics, the broker did not investigate the purpose of these files.

Bai Ge sat in front of the computer, flipping through the contents of the files.

File 1: The Bone Tower Incident

On April 17, 2021, a multi-eaved pagoda made of piled-up bones suddenly appeared in the rear meditation courtyard of Wanfo Temple. Several tourists who were lingering there took pictures and uploaded them to the internet, but the photos were deleted five minutes later. On April 18, the official Wanfo Temple announced that the temple had fallen into disrepair and was undergoing renovations, and was now closed to the public.

File Two: The Water Monkey Incident

On April 21, 2021, a popular online program for identifying water monkeys received a high-definition video taken by a mobile phone user. The video showed a creature with a blue face and fangs, resembling a ghost or monster, appearing in Qianwu Lake, leaving biological identification experts speechless. The video was removed from major video websites an hour after the program aired, and the production team announced that due to unforeseen circumstances, the program would be permanently shut down.

File Three: The Dead Man's Inn

On March 6, 2012, a group of lost hikers discovered an old and eerie inn deep within Linshan National Forest Park. The inn was filled with fireflies and ghostly figures, and someone inside beckoned to the hikers. When the rescue team arrived the next day, they only found this short video clip at the scene.

File Four: Floating Corpse in the Reservoir

The video footage first appeared on February 27, when several anglers discovered dozens of swollen and pale bodies in Baihu Reservoir. The bodies then mysteriously disappeared, and the police searched for them all day without success.

……

Many of the files were accompanied by eerie videos and grotesque photos. The densely packed files made Bai Ge increasingly terrified, his scalp tingling, and he wished he could find a truckload of bread-bread men and beat them up.

What kind of hellish things are these?

It's a real waste that the Classic of Mountains and Seas didn't use these guys as its cover.

Despite her complaints, Bai Ge still meticulously marked all the locations where urban legends appeared on the Xuzhou map, classifying them in detail.

The strange entity must be linked to the system, but its current level and permissions are insufficient to view more information.

To ordinary people, these might be forbidden and shrouded in mystery, but to players, they are tempting experience packs!

Just as he was considering which easy target to pick, there was a slow knock at the door.

Bai Ge gestured to the people still playing cards in the warehouse to quickly return to their original positions, then walked to the door and opened it.

A haggard-looking middle-aged man appeared before her, appearing tired and listless. Bai Ge immediately recognized him as the driver who had given her his address and phone number a couple of days ago.

"Mr. Bai, I'm the driver who brought you back the night before last. My surname is Zhang, do you remember me?"

Bai Ge suddenly remembered the conversation from that day, nodded, and said, "I remember."

"that……"

The taxi driver hesitated, then asked tentatively, "I... I seem to be in a bit of trouble. I wonder if you could help me?"

"Why do you look so upset? Did you get angry while helping your child with their homework? It's okay, come on in and let's talk."

Bai Ge brewed a pot of tea for the taxi driver, who stared uneasily out the window. Suddenly, he paused, vaguely seeing a pale, lifeless face flash by inside the frosted glass window, instantly triggering a flood of terrifying memories in his mind.

"Here's what happened. Remember when my daughter said she saw her deceased grandmother? At first, I thought my daughter was joking, but last night when I got up to use the bathroom, I saw the back of an old woman standing in my daughter's room, secretly putting something under my daughter's pillow."

The taxi driver continued, "At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me because that figure looked so much like my mother. I rushed into the room, turned on the light, and found nothing there. However..."

The taxi driver pulled an envelope from his pocket and poured out an old paper gold ingot. With a bitter expression, he said, "I was both shocked and angry at the time. My daughter was also woken up by the noise I made. She rubbed her eyes and said something that still makes me feel uneasy to this day."

Old Zhang's hands trembled, a bead of cold sweat rolled down his cheek, and he looked up, his lips pale, and said, "She said, 'Dad, where did you take Grandma to play in the middle of the night?'"

"I was so scared that I didn't sleep a wink all night with the lights on."

Taxi driver Lao Zhang, as if grasping at a last straw, grabbed Bai Ge's hand and said excitedly, "Mr. Bai, do you know any experts in this industry? Could you introduce me? The price is negotiable!"

"Take me to your daughter first."

Bai Ge didn't make a decision immediately, but decided to observe the situation first. He took the paper gold ingot from the other person's hand and prepared to go out.

Old Zhang followed behind Bai Ge, asking suspiciously, "Mr. Bai, if you were to take action, would it be effective..."

Do you know what my nickname is?

Bai Ge suddenly said something without any apparent reason.

"what?"

The question that Lao Zhang was about to blurt out was swallowed back down.

Bai Ge glanced in the direction of the warehouse, and the guys who had been sneaking around peeking out from behind the windows all immediately shrank back.

He coughed and said slowly, "Back then, I was a special guest on the 'Approaching Science' program, and my nickname was 'Devil's Bane'."

"..."

Old Zhang stood at the door for a while, then saw Bai Ge carrying a lifelike paper effigy out the door. For some reason, Old Zhang felt that the paper effigy's eyes were constantly staring at him.

"Mr. Bai, what's going on?"

"fine."

Bai Ge explained, "This is called 'losing the battle but not the moral high ground.' If the other side doesn't play by the rules and brings over a bunch of ghosts, we can burn paper money and shake the ghosts."

For some reason, Old Zhang had a feeling that something bad was going to happen, because he had heard from the older generation that you shouldn't draw eyes on a paper doll after it's made, because if you do, it will come to life.

What Mr. Bai held in his hand was less like a paper effigy and more like some kind of evil spirit.

After getting into the taxi, Bai Ge headed towards the driver's home when he heard a system task notification.

You have a new task order, please check it.

[Normal Mission: Who's Lying?]

Chapter Eighteen: The Head in the Refrigerator

[Task Difficulty: Easy]

[Mission Objective: Investigate the strange events at Zhang Xiaomeng's home]

[Quest Reward: 200 Experience Points, 1 Small Recovery Potion (Normal)]

[Postscript: What should you do when you can't tell who's lying?]