Chapter 1: The Killer Who Cannot Be Caught

When I got home from work, I found my seven-year-old daughter wasn’t at the door to greet me—in her place sat a stranger on the sofa.

He sprang up instantly, a knife pressed against my neck, claiming to be a kidnapper, and told me to guess where he’d hidden my lovely daughter.

Panic drove me sprinting toward the bedroom closet—the only hiding spot in the house.

The kidnapper smiled and congratulated me on guessing correctly.

I opened it and saw my daughter’s head.

Only then did I understand—no matter where I guessed she was, it was always the right answer.

Every room in the house held a part of my daughter.

………………

“This is the fifth case this month! A mother and daughter were killed in a residential building right in the heart of the city! If we don’t catch the killer, the public will be pointing fingers at our backs!”

“Captain Li, one case might be a camera glitch, but five in a row with nothing captured… could the killer be using some special device to interfere with the surveillance?”

In the Major Crimes Unit meeting room, Captain Li Guoqiang glared with bloodshot eyes, teeth clenched, his expression like a wrathful golden statue that no one dared meet.

Hearing his subordinates’ speculation, he shot them a look of bitter disappointment and roared: “Do you think no one else has thought of this? The real question is—how exactly is he interfering with the cameras? Tell me what device can disable surveillance without damaging its normal operation?”

At these words, the room fell silent.

Because it was simply too absurd.

All five cases followed the same pattern—

Surveillance footage showed the cameras running smoothly, with no signs of tampering, operating normally the entire time; no one entered the victims’ homes, yet the victims still vanished without explanation!

Even the mother and daughter killed last night had surveillance—when reviewed, the footage showed the mother walking in after work, then vanishing instantly.

An entire hour passed before her figure reappeared.

But by then, she was already scattered across every room, just like her daughter.

Her severed head hung before the living room camera, dripping thick blood, her hollow, despairing eyes and the grotesquely forced smile on her face like a taunt from the killer to the police.

Vanishing into thin air, then reappearing out of nowhere.

It was like something out of a ghost story—haunted houses, supernatural phenomena.

Even members of the Major Crimes Unit couldn’t help but drift into thoughts of the occult.

But they dared not voice such ideas in front of Captain Li Guoqiang.

They’d be screamed at without mercy.

“Sigh… Alright, that’s enough for today. Everyone go home, think harder about leads, and watch your step on the way.”

Li Guoqiang let out a heavy sigh and waved his team off to rest.

After all, since the crime was discovered last night, no one had slept—now it was already 1 a.m. the next day.

“Captain Li, you should rest too.”

“Yeah, don’t get sick before we catch the killer.”

“… ”

As the team left the meeting room, they each offered Li Guoqiang words of concern—they genuinely respected their captain, for he’d led them to solve countless difficult cases.

Once everyone was gone, Li Guoqiang packed up the case files, bound them, and prepared to head home.

The summer night wind at 1 a.m. on the street wasn’t cold—it was stiflingly hot.

Li Guoqiang frowned as his body sent him urgent hunger signals.

His gaze instinctively drifted toward a lonely alley where a barbecue stall, still without customers, stood open.

He was starving.

Both body and mind screamed for food, for release, for relief.

Driven by instinct, Li Guoqiang walked straight toward the stall without hesitation.

But just before entering, he forced himself to suppress his hunger, frowned, and pulled from his pocket a palm-sized spirit tablet caked in damp soil, placing it squarely at the stall’s entrance.

“Boss, grill me something.”

“I’ll take brain, one heart, and a pair of kidneys—wash them clean, I’ll grill them myself.”

“Huh? I’m not joking. I have to grill these myself—after all, you’re the ingredient, not the chef.”

………………

An hour later, Li Guoqiang left the stall.

His earlier grim expression had vanished, replaced by a faint, mad, cruel smile that clung to his face and refused to fade.

He wiped the speckles of blood from his lips.

Bent down, picked up the damp soil-covered spirit tablet, slipped it back into his pocket, and walked off humming a light tune.

Yes…

What device could make someone vanish from surveillance without disrupting its operation?

Only something beyond human understanding—some kind of power.

That spirit tablet could do it all!

Place it at a doorway, and everything done inside becomes unobservable; even the trace of having entered the place is silently erased, leaving no clue whatsoever!

Even setting aside the tablet’s eerie power that ensures no evidence can ever be found—

No one could ever suspect that the captain leading this case was a serial killer, ravenous for slaughter and blood.

No one could catch him!

Since acquiring this spirit tablet, this city—once a fiery, passionate woman—had been stripped bare by him, revealing the succulent flesh beneath its glittering facade.

He could now indulge his wild, cruel desires without restraint in the city’s night.

To Li Guoqiang, this city had become his personal playground!

Killing had become his perverse craving, a game to satisfy his inner hungers!

“The more I think about it, the hungrier I get… Should I break my rule and have a second meal tonight?” Li Guoqiang felt the barbecue hadn’t filled his spiritual void.

He now craved a pure, unrestrained game of slaughter—not the crude, hunger-driven act he’d just committed.

Thinking this, Li Guoqiang scanned the alley for other targets.

It was 1 a.m. now.

Finding a secluded shop still open would be difficult.

Though with the spirit tablet, he could simply break into any home—he’d rather not waste energy.

And besides, it didn’t suit his taste for the art of killing.

“Oh? This is perfect… Escape room? Hmm, let’s see if you can really escape.”

Li Guoqiang found a horror-themed escape room still open, its staff cleaning up for the night.

The area around the shop was deserted.

He expertly placed the spirit tablet and stepped inside.

Inside, only one young man, around twenty, remained—his face blank with utter exhaustion, his dead fish eyes devoid of any spark, slowly sweeping the floor and wiping tables.

Hearing Li Guoqiang enter, he didn’t turn, slumped and lifeless: “I clocked out a minute ago. Not welcome here. Come back tomorrow.”

“Sorry to disturb your off-time,” Li Guoqiang smiled politely, like a gentleman. “I just wanted to ask—how long does one escape room session usually take?” His eyes, however, glowed with excitement, his breathing quickening.

“About two hours. Mind lifting your foot? I haven’t swept that spot yet. Thanks.”

The boy bent over, absorbed in cleaning, completely unaware of Li Guoqiang’s growing cruelty, or the baton and knife slowly drawn from his pocket.

Clearly, this was a soul crushed by work.

Judging by his age, he probably hadn’t even gone to college—just finished the college entrance exam…

Or maybe he’d dropped out before even finishing school.

His tone dripped with lazy irritation—how could anyone tell a customer they weren’t welcome?

Even as a part-timer, he’d surely be disliked by coworkers.

Li Guoqiang loved observing his prey’s mental state.

Now he was delighted—this boy radiated the kind of simmering resentment, the kind ready to scream at anyone about how unfair life was, perhaps even shout, “Born in the wrong time!” as if death were preferable.

Humans are always hypocrites.

Though he looked utterly defeated, how desperately would he fight to live when death loomed?

Those thin, frail arms and legs—how violently would they thrash when the blade pierced them?

Li Guoqiang had become addicted to this sensation when he killed the mother and daughter—give them hope, then crush it. The power over another’s fate was intoxicating!

“Two hours? I’m looking forward to it.”

I hope this boy truly enjoys the next two hours of his escape game!

The spirit tablet had another ability—anyone inside the affected space, except himself, could not leave.

Even if they somehow escaped through the door, they’d only find themselves trapped in a ghostly loop, bursting out another window or door back into the room.

This was true escape room horror!

Li Guoqiang grinned, twisted with madness, and drove the knife deep into the boy’s back!

………………

Ten minutes later.

Plop—

Wu Wang pulled his hand from the still-warm chest of the stranger who’d suddenly attacked him, the man’s heart now still.

He felt the warm, lifeless organ in his grip, then tossed it into the trash with a soft thud; blood dripped steadily from the bin’s edge onto the floor.

His face remained the same blank, lifeless mask—as if crushed by work.

His dead fish eyes glanced at the middle-aged man’s corpse, then at the blood pooling on the ground.

He sighed.

The easiest task of tonight is done.

The only problem now is—the floor just cleaned is dirty again.