DA chapter 8

Glasses was stunned. The high school boy, having just witnessed a death scene for the first time in his life, and now suddenly hearing that they had also fallen into the lingering danger of the Fishman task, could no longer hold himself together and clutched his hair as he wailed.

The newcomer, Xiao Mei, was affected by him. Her face turned pale, and she quietly asked Sister Fang, “Sister Fang … are we all going to die? Like… like Shi Luo?”

Xiao Mei didn’t dare look toward Room 203.

Sister Fang’s expression wasn’t any better. She was frozen in place by Lin Jia’s words, and everyone present felt a chill run through them.

Lin Jia had a point. He was right, so…

They remained rooted to the spot, stunned. Knowing that something deadly might be lurking in the shadows, no one dared to move out of sheer fear.

Lin Jia assessed that their overall quality still needed urgent improvement.

Fortunately, there was still a cat. It was searching for the “thing” Lin Jia had mentioned, sparing him from looking too embarrassed.

Lin Jia was just about to resume the search he had left unfinished.

“Even if what you said is true,” the buzzcut man said hesitantly as he stared at Lin Jia, “knowing that thing kills people and you still insist on looking for it—aren’t you basically asking to die?”

Lin Jia: “You’re not dead yet.”

Leaving that behind, Lin Jia headed toward the corridor.

Other than a few rooms on the second floor, the hallway had already been searched. There was no sign of the thing that killed Shi Luo. It couldn’t be inside the rooms.

Glasses stared at Lin Jia’s back. “That’s right, we’re not dead yet, so why should we go looking for death?”

“Search!” The guy with the buzzcut looked at Lin Jia’s back for a moment. “He means that while we’re still alive, we need to find it quickly. Maybe there’s still a way out.”

Glasses was startled by his tone. “Why?”

“Why?” The guy with the buzzcut cursed. “Did Shi Luo die immediately after running into that thing?”

Glasses broke out in a cold sweat. He had seen Shi Luo return to Room 203 with his own eyes, and afterward, he occasionally heard noises coming from that room. The noises only stopped after quite some time.

This was terrible news. Sudden total annihilation inside a Fish Belly was common.

Liu Ying, one of the older members who was usually barely noticeable, glanced at Room 203, clinging to his last glimmer of hope. “Could that thing be in the room?”

“Stop dreaming.” The guy with the buzzcut crushed his hope mercilessly. “The Fishman’s exact words were: ‘Why don’t you go check for yourself and see what the white shadow really is?’ There’s a ‘go’ in there! Do you think that thing is in Room 203?”

Liu Ying had no words to refute this.

Behind him, Sister Fang patted his shoulder. “Search.”

They had no choice. If they didn’t find it, they might all die like Shi Luo.

Lin Jia had already gone to the corridor, and the remaining six hurried to follow.

The high school boy mustered his courage and ran to Lin Jia’s side. He asked, “Brother Lin Jia, what is that thing?”

“No idea.” Lin Jia raised his head and looked at the corridor wall.

On the wall of the stairwell connecting the second and first floors was a built-in electrical breaker cabinet.

The high school boy hadn’t expected that answer. His hard-won courage froze under Lin Jia’s cold tone. He stammered, “Th-then… how do we find it?”

“Think of something that kills.”

After answering, Lin Jia lowered his head to look for the cat. The cat was searching near the first floor. Lin Jia opened his mouth to call the cat back—

but realized that he didn’t know the cat’s name.

His cousins thought he was too lonely, so they sent him this cat from far away.

One holiday, his younger cousin brought the cat to his door. “Brother Jia, do you like it? My older cousin and I picked it out together.”

The cousin wanted to surprise him, even covering the cat’s eyes beforehand.

Lin Jia, who had noticed the group outside long ago, paused in silence. “Come in.”

The cousin happily turned around and called his upperclassman boyfriend, another cousin, and his cousin’s wife inside. “Brother Jia didn’t refuse, so Brother Jia must like it.”

Lin Jia: “Your logic skills are incredible.”

They were already calling the cat ‘Big Black’ or ‘Little Black’ when they brought it. Lin Jia never gave the cat a real name, so he didn’t know what the auntie and assistant who looked after the cat called it. Was it Big Black or Little Black?

Lin Jia drew back from the memory and stared at the cat. “Mimi.”

That’s the default name for all nameless cats.

But this cat didn’t recognize it, and Lin Jia wasn’t surprised. He didn’t consider this cat to be real anymore.

After a moment, he said, “Toast.”

The cat, searching carefully and trying not to be too obvious, froze.

It turned back suspiciously.

In its line of sight, Lin Jia beckoned. “Toast, come.”

Cat: “… ”

How shameless. It only ate the edge of the toast.

Still, the cat went over. Lin Jia lifted his chin and pointed at the electrical panel embedded in the wall. “Open the cabinet door.”

The panel was a bit high, but Lin Jia could reach it with his hands raised—he simply didn’t want to.

Hearing Lin Jia call the cat, the others hurried over.

The cat wasn’t afraid of the stage. Despite its wide, chubby body, it leapt onto Lin Jia’s shoulder with agility. It stretched its body out long and scratched at the door of the electric box with its paws.

Among the onlookers, Sister Fang said, “This cat is pretty spiritual.”

Lin Jia said lightly, “Mm.”

The cat’s claws scratched the door, producing a sharp, piercing sound. Everyone’s bodies trembled as if the cat were scratching not the door, but their scalps.

All gazes focused on the cat’s paws. No one spoke. The hallway slowly sank into an eerie silence.

Feeling the cat’s leg stiffen as it stepped on his shoulder, Lin Jia’s mind cleared, and he spoke. “Take it out.”

He had held a high position for a long time. When he gave orders, he inevitably carried an aura that made the others so tense, they didn’t know what to do with their hands and feet.

Their expressions grew even more nervous. They looked up anxiously.

They saw the cat’s paw open the box door. Inside, it was pitch black, like an unfathomable abyss.

Was there something inside?

If so, was it the same thing that killed Shi Luo?

Would that thing kill them next?

The cat extended its arm and put its paw inside the electrical panel. It scraped twice. A cat’s paw isn’t like a human hand; it can’t grab objects. Something fell out.

Lin Jia caught it quickly.

It was a pinhole camera.

Lin Jia had mentioned earlier that there were issues with the surveillance in Room 303. Now, with a camera found inside the breaker box, there was no need for discussion. Everyone looked at the camera as if they had seen a ghost. Their expressions were even more severe, and they all instinctively backed away.

Lin Jia fiddled with the camera and found that it had no power.

Buzzcut came closer, looked at the camera in Lin Jia’s hand, and asked, “Is this the thing? The one that killed Shi Luo?”

Glasses said, “Th-th-this, how does a camera kill someone? It’s more like the thing behind the lens kills people.” After speaking, he thought of something. He suddenly sucked in a cold breath, looked nervously up the hallway, and whispered in shock, “Was it blogger Xiao Wu who killed Shi Luo?”

“Shi Luo didn’t let out a single cry for help. It should have been instant death.” Buzzcut said, “It wasn’t the blogger Xiao Wu. That way of dying isn’t something a human could do.”

Shi Luo’s brain and eyes had been dug out.

He asked Lin Jia: “What do you think?”

Lin Jia was still staring at the camera. Buzzcut spoke again: “If you’re looking for this thing, then Shi Luo must have fallen into the lens and triggered something that caused his death.”

“That death method.” Buzzcut looked grim. “Why were the brain and eyes dug out? Why not other organs? Why specifically the brain and eyes?”

“I don’t know about the brain.” Lin Jia finally spoke. He looked at Buzzcut. “But the eyes…”

He raised the camera in his hand and continued, his tone murky, “In a certain sense, isn’t this also considered a kind of ‘eye’?”

“Hiss—”

Even the cat, who had been listening, sucked in a cold breath. Fortunately, everyone else also inhaled sharply at Lin Jia’s words, so no one noticed the cat’s odd reaction.

The cat covered its mouth with its paw and secretly warned itself to be more careful and not slip up.

Buzzcut: “So, what exactly are you thinking?”

Lin Jia: “More or less.”

“More or less what?” Buzzcut pressed anxiously.

If things were really like he said, who knew when the camera would run out of power? If it lost power just one second ago, then they had all already been recorded, and none of them could escape a horrible death.

“The only difference is that I plan to go to Room 303.” Lin Jia glanced at him. “Coming?”

Buzzcut went silent instantly.

“Wait, something feels off.” The man in glasses felt like his brain was about to overheat. He counted on his fingers. “In the Fish Belly, the things that can kill are manifestations. We’ve manifested the video, the blogger Xiao Wu, and the white shadow. But you’re saying Shi Luo wasn’t killed by the white shadow or Xiao Wu, so who killed him? The video? Or…”

Glasses suddenly looked at Lin Jia. “Your three questions today actually have new manifestations.”

Lin Jia admitted openly: “Mm, one appeared.”

Everyone was shocked. After Glasses’s reminder, Buzzcut said, “Shi Luo is already dead. What are your three questions today?”

“First, whether the apartment has toiletries.” Lin Jia replied calmly. “Second, whether the apartment has food.”

Buzzcut: “…”

He gritted his teeth. “And the third?”

Lin Jia: “I already said it.”

Buzzcut thought back. When Lin Jia had reminded them that there were issues with the surveillance in Room 303, he had also told them that the person behind it was the blogger Xiao Wu.

“What the—?!” Buzzcut ruffled his hair in disbelief. “You wasted two questions?”

“Wasted?” Lin Jia showed no hint of remorse. “If I can’t wash up and there’s no food, I’ll die.”

He let out an emotionless laugh. “If I die, who will find this camera?”

No one could refute him.

Buzzcut looked at Lin Jia with mixed feelings, then lowered his head and glanced at the wound on his palm.

“Damn.” He laughed at himself. He’d been the most desperate while protecting Lin Jia.

Glasses coughed dryly a few times and changed the subject: “So, what actually killed Shi Luo?”

Lin Jia: “The second question on the first day.”

The second question of the first day: Is there something outside the camera?

This was the question the guy with glasses muttered to himself. The Fishman answered it negatively.

What the guy with glasses really wanted to ask was whether there was something outside the camera view in the clarification video where blogger Xiao Wu kept glancing toward the camera.

Although the answer was negative, that didn’t mean that nothing had manifested.

In hindsight, nothing happened and nobody died because a trigger was missing.

This hidden camera was one of the conditions that triggered those events.

Suddenly taking the blame, the guy with glasses opened and closed his mouth, not knowing what to say, managing only a couple of awkward laughs.

Buzzcut asked Lin Jia: “Since you believe the ‘thing outside the camera’ killed Shi Luo, why go to Room 303? Do you think blogger Xiao Wu is connected to this camera? What’s your reason?”

Lin Jia glanced at Buzzcut’s wound, which counted as acknowledging his courage. Then, he answered one by one: “This manifestation appeared on the first day, yet the killing occurred on the second day, even during the Fishman mission to ‘verify the white shadow.’ In this building, who is tracking the white shadow?”

Buzzcut froze. “Blogger Xiao Wu.”

“Right, the camera belongs to Xiao Wu!” The guy with glasses remembered—there was a clip where the building’s power tripped and shut off, and Xiao Wu opened the electrical box. Xiao Wu understood the structure of the power box and knew how to place a camera to capture the white shadow.

Lin Jia continued, “The camera that filmed the white shadow may have also captured Shi Luo, and maybe even us.”

“Shi Luo is dead. You and I are probably next.” Lin Jia said coolly. “If we don’t go to Room 303 and find out what’s going on, are we just going to wait for death?”

Everyone suddenly understood.

Once Buzzcut reacted, he said, “The 303 surveillance has issues, too. Even if you aren’t caught on camera, Xiao Wu stays in his room. How are you getting in?”

Lin Jia: “The camera has no power. He’ll come retrieve it.”

Buzzcut: “Do you know when he’ll get the camera?”

Lin Jia was concise: “We wait.”

The surveillance at Room 303’s door didn’t cover Rooms 302 and 301 on the same floor. Lin Jia chose Room 302, which was closer to Room 303.

Understanding the circumstances leading to their deaths was crucial to everyone. Buzzcut, the guy with glasses, and Liu Ying hid in the corner of the first-floor corridor. They planned to drag Xiao Wu down the moment he came to retrieve the camera, which would give Lin Jia more time.

The high school boy stayed in room 301, next to room 302, because he knew how to pick locks.

Everyone waited anxiously as the sky shifted from daylight to sudden darkness.

After an unknown amount of time, the door of Room 303 finally opened with a click.

Lin Jia picked up the cat that was squatting by the door, listening for movement, and set it aside. He stood calmly in the doorway. Through the thin iron door, he heard hurried footsteps coming from Room 303 toward the corridor.

At that moment, Lin Jia stepped out.

His movement was light and almost soundless. Just as he exited Room 302, he saw Xiao Wu heading downstairs. Looking up toward Room 303, he noticed that Xiao Wu hadn’t closed the door, meaning there was no need for the high school boy to pick the lock.

The high school boy was too nervous; something would probably go wrong if he tried.

Lin Jia turned on his flashlight and headed toward Room 303.

He didn’t enter immediately. As he had the previous night, he first swept the interior with the light. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he stepped inside.

Once inside, he raised his phone and walked straight to the desk.

The computer on the desk was on, its screen glowing faintly.

His eyes moved to the monitor, which displayed one webpage in one window.

The window displayed a live feed of the surveillance camera outside Room 303’s door.

After glancing at it, Lin Jia handed his phone to the cat and let it hold the phone up to illuminate the room. Then, he focused on the webpage.

It was the personal homepage of a video platform. The account ID read: “Don’t Ask TV, Xiao Wu.” Clearly, the account belonged to Xiao Wu.

Lin Jia scrolled through and saw that the account had only three videos, all of which were uploaded today and titled “White Shadow Documentary,” but with different numbers.

Lin Jia clicked on “White Shadow Documentary (1).” The video started:

The camera first pointed at Xiao Wu. He held the phone and sounded weary as he said, “Some people came into the building. One of them knocked on my door last night. I don’t know what he wanted. They all seem very suspicious. I’m very scared. I feel like they’re here to monitor me.”

After rambling for a while, the shot switched to the rear view. Xiao Wu carefully placed the hidden camera inside the electrical box. “The white shadow is about to show up again, but with these people around, I can’t reveal myself to record it. This is all I can do. It sounds like there’s shouting downstairs. I’ll secretly go take a look.”

As he walked, the footage shook, finally stopping at a concealed spot.

On screen, Lin Jia saw Shi Luo being restrained by Buzzcut.

Xiao Wu lowered his voice, saying, “They’re using knives. Looks like they’re going to kill someone. Someone got cut.”

“I can’t keep watching. If they find me, it’ll be bad.”

“White Shadow Documentary (1)” ended here.

Lin Jia saw that the video had 17k likes and 892 comments.

He casually browsed a few of the top comments:

[I notice most murderers have triangular eyes.]

[Being pinned down and unable to move yet still trying to kill is hilarious.]

[One second: I’m going to kill you! Next second: Huh? Where’s my knife?]

[Why did this guy try to kill someone? Any backstory?]

[Don’t Ask TV, Xiao Wu replied: Because he was afraid of finding the white shadow.]

Reply to [Don’t Ask TV, Xiao Wu: LOL, he’s scared of finding the white shadow, but not of killing people? Streamer, make a sequel. I want to see how pathetic he looks when he tries to find the White Shadow.]

So, White Shadow Documentary (2) became a full showcase of Shi Luo.

In the footage, he trembled and fell every few steps. When the white shadow appeared, he froze completely. A dripping sound followed—it was Shi Luo losing control of his bladder.

Right after that, Shi Luo began shouting,

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

“Hahahahahahahaha—”

Shi Luo started pounding on the second-floor doors, but the camera didn’t capture it. Only the sound could be heard. Then, the video ended.

Lin Jia scrolled back to the frame where the white shadow appeared. As in the other videos, it flashed by—vague and indistinct.

White Shadow Documentary (2) had over 100k likes and 7,524 comments.

Lin Jia scanned the top comments:

[That’s it? That’s it? THIS is the guy who dared to kill someone?]

[I can smell the piss through the screen. If you can’t control your urine, you might as well die. You bring shame to men everywhere.]

[No wonder he can’t control his bladder—his brain clearly doesn’t work. I’m so disgusted that I threw up my New Year’s Eve dinner.]

[Does anything he does look like someone with a functioning brain?]

[This is what you call a true brainless killer.]

Lin Jia paused, scanning the top comments and focusing on key phrases such as “brain doesn’t work,” “functioning brain?” and “true brainless killer.”

In an instant, he understood what the materialized “thing outside the camera” was.

He continued watching the remaining White Shadow Documentary (3). As expected, the footage showed the moment after Shi Luo’s death, when the others went to Room 203 and accidentally entered the camera’s view.

Because the pinhole camera’s battery was nearly dead, the video was short and lacked content. White Shadow Documentary (3) had fewer than a thousand likes and barely any comments.

[These people rushing around look kinda funny.]

[That black cat looks unsettling.]

[The guy in black carrying the cat on his shoulder—what’s his name? He’s so handsome!]

Lin Jia clicked to expand the comments about himself.

[Don’t Ask TV, Xiao Wu replied: Seems like his name is Lin Jia.]

Reply to [Don’t Ask TV, Xiao Wu: Can you make a series about him?]

*Clack*

—The cat failed to hold the phone properly and dropped it onto the computer. The phone landed facedown, covering the flashlight. Coincidentally, the phone hit the computer’s power button, and the monitor went black.

Everything around them became a murky darkness.

Lin Jia’s pupils contracted and his breathing became heavy. “Light—”

He reached for the phone, but the cat’s paw pressed on his hand. The cat said, “No—it’s the wardrobe. There’s—”

The shock of the darkness prevented Lin Jia from fully understanding the cat. He frantically searched for light, pushed the paw away, and grabbed the phone.

The flashlight blinked back on. With light hitting his eyes again, his breathing steadied slightly.

What did the cat say?

Wardrobe.

The wardrobe was behind and slightly to the side of the desk. Lin Jia lifted the phone and scanned it with the flashlight.

The wardrobe stood quietly. Its doors were shut. However, it was a cheap wardrobe; its two doors didn’t close fully, leaving a narrow gap.

As the light swept across the gap, a reflective point became clearly visible.

Round and glossy.

Lin Jia paused for a moment and asked the cat, “What did you just say?”

Cat: “There’s an eye in the wardrobe. It’s watching you!”

Xiao Wu hadn’t returned yet. He was the only living person in Room 303.

How could there be an eye in the wardrobe?

Suddenly remembering something, Lin Jia stood up. “Go!”

The cat bared its teeth at the wardrobe and followed immediately.

The wardrobe trembled and an eyeball rolled out from the gap.

The eyeball faced the direction in which Lin Jia and the cat had fled. It was the eye that had been gouged out of Shi Luo.

 

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