Chapter 907: A Game Within a Game

His mind was in utter chaos; under Lin An's violent threat, he instinctively followed his survival urge, stammering as he replied:

"I am Xiao Hui's boyfriend..."

"She... she went missing... I couldn't contact her, so I thought... I'd come over to check..."

As he spoke, the young man's gaze kept fixed on the slowly rotating compass, his mind flashing with chaotic legends.

Could it be... that what I'm thinking is actually true!?

His eyes flickered; under the enveloping mental power, Lin An could sense that the other wasn't deceiving him, and couldn't possibly do so.

He glanced at the young man's flip phone and, without courtesy, snatched it away.

Combining the young man's evasive gaze and his jumbled emotions, Lin An flipped open the phone and casually asked:

"When did she go missing?"

"Did you call her?"

The missing girl, the man who came looking for his girlfriend, the empty room...

It looks just like the clichéd opening of a horror film.

The young man heard the words, froze a moment, as if recalling an unpleasant memory, swallowed dryly and nodded in reply:

"Are you... a Daoist?"

"Is it... really there's something unclean!?"

"When I called Xiao Hui, she said she's been seeing lately..."

"That pair... of shoes."

He didn't answer the question; his thoughts were somewhat confused.

Lin An lifted his head, glanced at the young man, and gave no answer.

Beep-beep-beep

Keys clacked; Lin An swiftly operated the phone, as expected finding the call log.

Looking at that string of numbers, he casually asked:

"Is there a recording?"

In response, the young man shrank his neck, staring at the phone Lin An had taken, and dazedly nodded:

"Yes..."

"The last time had..."

"Beep"

One second later, Lin An dispersed the Arcane Torrent, his left hand lightly resting on the young man's head, his right hand holding the phone as he opened a recording.

After a moment, the recording played:

"Chen Yong... I'm Xiao Hui..."

"Whimper..."

"She's here again... she's here again!"

"I saw her again in my dream!"

"Xiao Hui, calm down! I'm here, you don't need to be afraid."

"Who is she? Speak clearly!"

The recording is somewhat noisy; besides the young man named Chen Yong anxiously comforting his girlfriend on the call, the other end, Xiao Hui, seems only to know how to cry.

His brows slightly furrowed, listening to the recording, Lin An quickly filled in the picture in his mind.

The girl hiding at home, after waking from a nightmare in the middle of the night, then anxiously called her boyfriend.

In her unease, the girl curled up in a corner of the bedhead, sobbing softly.

As the recording neared its end, Lin An suddenly heard a crackling electric sound, through which came the girl's suppressed cry:

"She's getting closer!"

"Shoes!"

"Xiao Hui!?"

"Beep--"

The recording ended; Lin An held the phone thoughtfully, furrowing his brow slightly:

"When did it start, and where did you go before?"

"Your girlfriend... how long has she been missing?"

The key question.

As he pondered the general course of events, Lin An subconsciously filled in the details.

If following the usual horror-movie opening, Chen Yong should have gone somewhere with Xiao Hui, encountering a supernatural incident—like that pair of shoes.

The place where they encountered the supernatural incident might have been an outing, or a house in the countryside.

After the two returned to the city, the girl was haunted by the supernatural incident, continually seeing phantoms until the incident erupted, and then she disappeared.

Of course, she might also be dead.

As expected, Chen Yong looked at Lin An, at a loss, somewhat unaccustomed to Lin An's questioning style.

It was the first time he'd encountered something so strange; he also subconsciously framed it as a movie, thinking Lin An might be the rumored Daoist or something.

After all, that compass looked too much like it.

But, why doesn't this person comfort him like in the movies? Instead, he's somewhat scary...

"Four days ago.."

"I and Xiao Hui went to our rural hometown; after returning, she began having nightmares."

"She kept saying that in her dreams she always sees a pair of shoes..."

Every day that passes, the shoes get a little closer to her.

She said, she felt that once the shoes really walked up to her, something terrible would happen...

I originally thought she was just having a nightmare, and that keeping her company would help. But lately I've been too busy with work, I haven't had time to keep her company.

I never expected...

The youth's gaze darted back and forth between Lin An and the compass, his face filled with fear:

I never expected that after she called me yesterday and said those shoes had appeared under her bed, she actually went missing!

After hearing the youth's account, Lin An nodded slightly, letting out a slight sigh of relief.

Pretty much what he had guessed.

Within the Thought Space, the Second Will neither agreed nor objected.

Using this point of the Special Event to stop the enemy actually carries great risk.

Lin An's advantage is only one thing: to act before the Supernatural Incident strengthens, find the key point, and set up a killing.

The fear is that this Supernatural Incident is too difficult; if Lin An fails to find the key point and uses the Supernatural Incident to attack the opponent, he might instead plunge himself into a desperate situation.

But this Supernatural Incident, hearing it, sounds rather ordinary; one would think it shouldn't be hard to 'utilize'.

Of course, putting together the current information still leaves many doubts.

For example, if Xiao Hui has been living in the house these four days, why is there so much dust?

Also, the difference between inside and outside the house.

However, Lin An also didn't intend to study this point in detail.

Having experienced many incidents, he clearly knows that the key points of such events often lie at their origin.

The cause of this incident is likely eighty percent originating from the hometown Chen Yong mentioned.

An old manor, perhaps a broken curse or something?

Just as Lin An was about to leave with Chen Yong, his gaze swept over the interior again.

Huh?

No.

Lin An frowned, his gaze quickly locking onto an old-style desk telephone.

The lacquer-red old-style phone clashed with the room's décor.

(The phone had been dialed out.)

Within the Thought Space, the Second Will suddenly spoke.

At first, neither of them paid attention to this phone, after all, a living person's information is definitely far greater than others'.

Moreover, phones can record, but old-style desk phones cannot.

But upon close observation, Lin An nodded slightly, noticing that there was no dust on several of the phone's buttons.

Without further ado, he quickly walked over and picked it up.

It felt slightly cold to the touch; after picking up the receiver, he pressed the redial button without hesitation.

Beep—

A busy signal sounded; Lin An glanced at the frayed, peeling telephone cord, lost in thought.

The redial failed; likely the line had a problem.

Dust, clean, telephone, mobile phone...

After a brief moment of thought, Lin An put down the receiver.

Behind him, Chen Yong stared with his mouth open, watching Lin An's actions, also realizing something.

He hurriedly spoke as if making an excuse:

I also redialed the phone.

That redial button was pressed by me...

Before I came, Xiao Hui never answered the phone; after discovering she was missing, I wondered if her phone might have died, so I used the desk phone to call before leaving.

His expression somewhat downcast, Chen Yong gave a bitter smile and continued speaking:

I think Xiao Hui definitely called, but couldn't redial, and I don't know who she last called...

Lin An nodded slightly, indicating he accepted Chen Yong's explanation.

But after he lowered his head to think for a moment, he let out a light laugh.

I know who she last called...

The man heard this and was stunned, not knowing how Lin An would find the number.

You see, this old-style desk phone has no caller ID function.

Standing before the phone, Lin An glanced at the dust on the buttons; under the fine observation of the True Eye, he quickly pieced together which buttons had been pressed.

The redial doesn't work, but that doesn't matter.

Three numbers, two of them repeated.

Almost without thought, Lin An stored those shoes in his Space Ring, grabbed Chen Yong, and turned to leave.

Within the Thought Space, the Second Will gave a light chuckle and slowly spoke with deep meaning:

("Kind of interesting…")

Gripping the stunned Chen Yong, Lin An gave a subtle nod without changing expression.

Indeed, upon seeing the old desk phone, he instantly overturned his previous line of thought.

Under hyper-effective thinking, he clearly realized.

There probably isn't much more information here; the useful information lies at the next location.

But it's not the hometown Chen Yong mentioned.

Just as he was about to leave, he added another layer of Mental Power Barrier at the spot where he had appeared.

If anyone appears here, that fragile mental power mark will instantly shatter, giving an early warning.

Leave.

Outside the old apartment building, a line of wet footprints stretched from the exterior wall, all the way into the room where the curtains had been drawn, up to the ceiling.