DA chapter 7

 

However, there was a small blessing in the misfortune: Lin Jia did not completely waste today’s three safety questions.

After his needs for hygiene and food were met, he paused for a moment and asked the third question of the day.

Lin Jia asked the Fishman, “Is the person watching the surveillance footage blogger Xiao Wu?”

Perhaps because Lin Jia did not die during the Fishman’s mission, he had a poor attitude toward Lin Jia. After putting away his ferocious grin, malice filled his face toward Lin Jia. “Yes.”

The cat could not reveal anything, so it could not respond immediately to this answer. It tilted its head to look at Lin Jia and saw a momentary depth reflected in his eyes. It quickly returned to calm and unruffled, leaving the cat unable to guess what he was thinking.

Three questions — and Lin Jia wasted two.

It was hard for the cat not to suspect that this was intentional. It must have been intentional. The cat had known from the beginning that Lin Jia wasn’t a good person. After all, “evil capitalist” is a well-known phrase.

Why did these people have to provoke Lin Jia of all people?

Really, what were they doing provoking Lin Jia for no reason?

At that moment, the cat was crouched on Lin Jia’s shoulder. It noticed it had wrinkled Lin Jia’s clothes and carefully smoothed out the creases with its little paws. Then, it lifted its head to look at the increasingly chaotic scene.

Shi Luo could no longer fight against so many people. His dagger had been taken, and he couldn’t move. He had exhausted all his strength in the commotion, leaving him stuck to the concrete floor like mud. He could only glare at Lin Jia, determined to stab him.

But Lin Jia gave him no response. After all, there was no rule requiring the audience to interact with the performing clown.

After taking the dagger from Shi Luo, the guy with the buzzcut put it away. Following Shi Luo’s gaze, he looked at Lin Jia. Then, he said in a complicated tone, “Stop thinking about harming him.”

Shi Luo no longer had the strength to shout. He glared at the buzzcut guy, then at the others.

Finally, panting heavily, he cursed, “A bunch of damn bastards.”

“Curse all you want.” The buzzcut guy said indifferently. “You heard him. He knows three things we don’t. There’s nothing we can do. We need to survive.”

“Bah.” Shi Luo spat at the guy with the buzzcut. “If I can’t live, none of you should think about living.”

The tall guy couldn’t help but say, “You framed Lin Jia first. Can’t you let Lin Jia get back at you?”

“Also, if you can’t live, why drag us with you?” Before he could finish, Shi Luo’s furious glare made him shrink his neck, cutting off the rest of his accusation.

The buzzcut guy kicked the tall man. “Who told you to talk? Get lost.”

The tall man didn’t dare make a sound, only muttering the rest of his thoughts to himself.

“Hey, Lin Jia.” The buzzcut guy called out to Lin Jia, signaling for him to look at Shi Luo, who was surrounded. “He can’t touch you now. What were your three questions?”

Being addressed directly, Lin Jia’s role shifted from bystander to participant.

However, he showed no awareness of being involved nor any emotion at being protected by the group. He remained as cold as an unbreakable stone. “Do I look like an idiot to you?”

Of course not. The idiots were all of them.

The guy with the buzzcut understood his role well. Irritated, he ran a hand through his hair, smearing the blood across his forehead.

It wasn’t just him; the other veterans also understood that Lin Jia wouldn’t easily give up his leverage and that this newcomer wasn’t easily fooled. Still, the buzzcut guy wanted to find a way to make Lin Jia reveal his leverage. In the fish’s belly, passivity was never a good thing.

Just as he was about to speak, Lin Jia glanced at him, seizing the initiative, and said, “You can let him go and let him kill me right now.”

Buzzcut Guy: “…”

“Fine, you win.” He turned to the others. “You all heard him? If you want to survive, you’d better ensure his safety first.”

The group exchanged complicated looks and sent all sorts of glances toward Lin Jia.

Lin Jia accepted them all without concern.

The guy with glasses spoke up nervously. “Then… then what do we do now?”

They didn’t know what questions Lin Jia had asked, what clues he had received, or what had resulted from it. Frankly, Lin Jia had them completely in his grasp. Their next move depended on his instructions.

Lin Jia: “Aside from the white shadow, there’s no new manifestation. Do whatever you want.”

They thought he was trying to control them, but he wasn’t interested in doing so.

“No new manifestations?”

Everyone looked at each other and saw hints of surprise on each other’s faces.

Did all three questions result in no new manifestations? Or… was Lin Jia hiding something?

The group hesitated.

The guy with the buzzcut thought it over. He recalled how Lin Jia had deliberately avoided certain subjects in his earlier questions. So it was possible that no new manifestations appeared. More importantly, even if one did appear and Lin Jia didn’t mention it, they wouldn’t know.

After thinking this through, he compromised. “Fine, keep your three questions hidden. But at least tell us how you survived last night. That much you can say, right?”

Even if Lin Jia completed the mission, the things that could kill them wouldn’t disappear.

Lin Jia kept it brief: “Surveillance.”

He had no intention of pushing them too far. They were bodyguards who were dedicated to protecting his life and didn’t need a salary.

Out of mercy, Lin Jia added, “The blogger’s eyes were behind the surveillance.”

The two newcomers didn’t understand and looked confused. Despite having no strength left, Shi Luo still sneered at Lin Jia.

The others lowered their heads and thought. The buzzcut guy said, “You mean…”

Glancing at the Fishman, he asked, “Can we talk somewhere else?”

The Fishman was in the first-floor lobby. Their conversation might produce questions that the Fishman would have to answer.

“No need.”

He spoke those words and headed straight for Room 103. Room 103 contained the food that had been materialized, and it was mealtime now.

The others wanted to follow him, but Lin Jia shut the door with a loud “bang,” leaving them outside.

Silence finally returned, and Lin Jia tilted his head to look at the black cat on his shoulder.

The cat understood and jumped down.

Lin Jia patted his shoulder and saw two black cat hairs on his black jacket. He frowned and pinched the hairs between his fingers.

The cat pretended not to see anything and commented on Lin Jia’s behavior: “You really don’t play by the rules.”

Lin Jia answered the question the cat thought he wouldn’t. When the cat thought he would say more, Lin Jia went silent again.

“What else should I say?” Lin Jia went to the bathroom to wash his hands.

The cat followed closely behind. “Behind the surveillance are blogger Xiao Wu’s eyes.”

The cat remembered that, after receiving this answer, Lin Jia paused to think. The cat wanted to know what Lin Jia was thinking at that moment.

Lin Jia pulled out a chair, sat down, and slowly unwrapped the toast. The toast was the materialized food.

The cat stared at the toast. “So basically, if you show up under surveillance, blogger Xiao Wu kills you. Blogger Xiao Wu is not good!

Lin Jia didn’t eat the edges of the toast. He tore them off and set them by the table, saying to the equally hungry cat, “Yours.”

Black Cat: “…You’re actually kind of nice.”

The cat had been Lin Jia’s pet long enough to know that he never ate the edges.

But the fact that Lin Jia gave them to the cat instead of throwing them away made the cat feel like Lin Jia was being generous. Starving, the cat jumped onto the table to eat the toast edges that Lin Jia didn’t want.

After eating, the cat said, “So now you can talk about what you’re thinking, right?”

“Next?” Lin Jia looked at the table. “Clean up your crumbs.”

Cat: “… ”

It scraped at the crumbs with its paws, brushing them all onto the floor.

A vein twitched on Lin Jia’s forehead. Letting the cat eat on the table would not be happening again.

But the cat was right; if blogger Xiao Wu had discovered him last night, he would have been killed. Lin Jia had previously leaned toward the idea that the neighbor was monitoring the blogger through the surveillance, but after this answer, that assumption fell apart. Instead, a new urgent question emerged: In the video, blogger Xiao Wu claimed he was being watched. The surveillance outside Room 303 could serve as evidence of that—but the surveillance came from blogger Xiao Wu himself. Why?

Why did he install surveillance at his own door? And why will anyone who steps into the surveillance area and falls under the monitoring be killed by the blogger Xiao Wu?

These questions weren’t hard to answer. Lin Jia’s villa had plenty of cameras as well—at the end of the day, surveillance is for warning and safety.

Therefore, the surveillance in Room 303 was Xiao Wu’s way of protecting himself.

In that case, who was he protecting himself from?

There were white shadows and neighbors in this apartment building. Was the threat to the blogger coming from the white shadow or the neighbors?

Lin Jia wasn’t in a rush to solve the mystery. He could ask the Fishman tomorrow.

For now, the priority was to lock the door so that, if Shi Luo couldn’t complete the mission, he wouldn’t rush in and die with Lin Jia.

Not that Lin Jia feared dying together. It would simply cause unnecessary trouble.

Lin Jia locked the door and took off his watch.

He hadn’t rested properly last night and now planned to sleep for a while.

The cat saw him getting ready to sleep and quickly jumped toward the bed, but Lin Jia blocked it. It could only squat by the bedside and complain: “Are you really going to sleep without doing anything?”

The day had barely begun, and the Fishman’s mutation rate was fast—there wasn’t much time to waste.

Lin Jia closed his eyes and replied, “Do you want me to go out and get killed by the White Shadow?”

The cat fell silent.

Someone had triggered the Fishman Mission. The mission to verify the White Shadow’s existence clearly indicated that the White Shadow had already materialized. With a six-hour time limit, the danger during those six hours didn’t come from Shi Luo alone—it was just that, under the pressure of the Fishman task, Shi Luo had no choice but to take the initiative and walk straight into it.

Lin Jia turned sideways. “Who said I’m doing nothing?”

He spoke calmly. “Six hours later, I’ll check if the old man verifying the white shadow is dead or alive. If he’s dead, I’ll find out how he died.”

The black cat stared at Lin Jia.

Although his body temperature was thirty-six degrees, his words were freezing cold.

And he wasn’t the only one who thought so.

Veterans of the Fish Belly knew the Fishman Mission was dangerous. Yesterday’s mission said the danger was in Room 303, so they avoided the third floor. However, Shi Luo’s mission was to verify the white shadow. Who knew where it would appear?

The white shadow had materialized and would remain in the apartment. During these six hours, running into it was highly likely they would run into it.

Everyone hid in their rooms.

Yile Apartments became eerily quiet.

After some time, a hesitant creak sounded from Room 203 on the second floor.

Lin Jia lived in Room 103, right below Room 203, and he and the cat heard it.

The cat lowered its voice, saying, “He started his mission. I thought he’d just hide in his room and wait to die.”

Then, the cat remembered something. “No, that’s wrong. I almost forgot. He has to complete the Fishman Mission. Being killed by the Fishman is even more painful.”

“Explain,” said Lin Jia.

“The Fishman will eat you alive, one bite at a time,” the cat replied.

Those sharp teeth… Indeed, that would be a painful way to die.

“And also…” The cat lifted its head and was caught off guard by Lin Jia’s gaze—black and white, clear and calm on the surface yet hiding sharp scrutiny underneath.

The cat instantly tensed up. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Lin Jia said in an unreadable tone, “Looks like you really need reminders before you can remember.”

Cat: “I don’t like lying.”

Lin Jia gave a humorless smile.

The cat felt a chill. “Why bring this up suddenly?”

“Because…” Lin Jia looked at the cat. “I’ve been thinking about what you actually are.”

“You’re not a cat.”

“You can speak human language. Are you human?”

“You know everything about this place, yet you need reminders to recall it. Are you someone who escaped from here? Someone who is gradually forgetting the rules?”

“The living dead want to eat you… Is that meteor shower related to you?” Lin Jia asked casually. “What’s your name?”

The pressure on the cat skyrocketed.

Just then, a sudden howl exploded from outside the door.

“Damn! I figured out what the White Shadow is! Damn! I figured it out!”

“Hahahahahahahaha—”

It was pure, desperate ecstasy. Shi Luo banged on the tightly shut doors of the apartment and shouted smugly into the rooms, “I know what the white shadow is! I know it!”

The nature of the white shadow was the key to the broth base. The guy with glasses carefully cracked open the door and peeked at Shi Luo, who was overwhelmed with relief. He asked quietly, “Shi Luo, what is the white shadow?”

“Pf—” Shi Luo spat on him, his saliva hitting the man’s glasses. “You’ve got the nerve to ask? Have you forgotten how you followed that little brat and harmed me?”

Shi Luo had no intention of sharing the life-risking clue he received during the mission. He returned to his room and slammed the door shut.

The six-hour mission time hadn’t elapsed yet. Fearing the white shadow, the man in glasses didn’t dare to follow.

Only after the six hours were up did the man with glasses and the man with a buzzcut—who both lived on the second floor—go to Room 203 to find Shi Luo.

They knocked, but there was no response.

When Lin Jia and the others arrived on the second floor, they saw the buzzcut man kick the door to Room 203 open.

A wave of bloodstench hit them.

Upon seeing the scene inside Room 203, the two newcomers mentally collapsed and screamed uncontrollably. “Aaaahhhhh—”

Shi Luo was dead.

His skull had been pried open, and his brain was gone.

Along with his brain, his eyeballs had also vanished, leaving only two bloody holes.

“How… how did Shi Luo die?” someone asked tremblingly. “Didn’t he finish the Fishman Mission?”

“Did he fail?”

“Was he killed by the Fishman?”

The buzzcut glared at those discussing it. “Do Fishman leave bones behind when they kill someone?”

The man in glasses retched a few times and said, “He…he was killed by the white shadow.”

The question about the Fishman mission had been: Is the white shadow human?

The answer: No.

Only a non-human white shadow could cause such a horrific death.

Just when everyone had accepted this conclusion, the Buzzcut noticed Lin Jia and asked, “What are you looking for?”

Lin Jia didn’t stop searching. “The thing that actually killed him.”

The buzzcut froze. “What do you mean?”

Lin Jia continued searching. He removed the cat from his shoulder because it was slowing him down.

Searching alone was too slow, so Lin Jia explained to the group, “If he hadn’t figured out the white shadow, he wouldn’t have dared to shout. That would only attract danger. I believe people cling to life. They wouldn’t make themselves more of a target if they were already in danger.”

“The only possibility is that he saw the white shadow, recognized it, and realized it wasn’t dangerous, which is why he shouted.”

Lin Jia glanced at Room 203. “But he still died.”

“For the mission ‘verify what the white shadow is,’ there are two ways to die. The first is getting killed by the white shadow. The second is dying in the process of looking for it. Dying in the process means he encountered something else.”

Glasses Man said, “But Shi Luo came right back to Room 203 after finding the white shadow. He didn’t run into anything else.”

He had seen it with his own eyes.

Lin Jia: “That means even he didn’t know that thing existed. That thing is hiding in the dark.”

“I’m new, so I don’t fully understand the rules.” Lin Jia faced the group. “The purpose of the Fishman Mission is to cause death. This time, it succeeded. So, I have a question for you experienced people: Will the Fishman retrieve that thing?”

Everyone’s face instantly turned pale.

 

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