The Labyrinth of the Monsters

At 10 o'clock in the evening, in the inpatient building of Shanqing District Third Hospital.

Gao Yang sat on a bench outside the ward, eating a delicious hot spicy soup. It was brought by Officer Huang, who heard that Gao Yang's father had been hospitalized after a car accident and came to visit him on the way home from work.@@novelbin@@

There was no one else around at the moment. Gao Yang held a cigarette in his mouth and asked, "How is my dad doing?"

"He woke up for a while this afternoon, said he was thirsty, drank some water, and then fell asleep again," Gao Yang answered truthfully, biting into a beef ball and splashing juice everywhere, burning his tongue.

"Alright, let's get to the point." Officer Huang flicked the cigarette ash and asked, "Did the people from the Zodiac come to find you today?"

"The Zodiac, White Rabbit. At that time, Qing Ling and I were together," Gao Yang answered honestly, briefly recounting what happened at the KTV in the afternoon.

"The person who came from my side is called Tengu," Officer Huang said calmly. "The assessment content is similar to yours. First, I was asked to kill a robber, a Lost One. I didn't want to kill, and then I was asked to kill my wife. Of course, I refused, but I unexpectedly passed the assessment."

"Why didn't you kill?" Gao Yang was curious. Did Officer Huang also realize that it was a trap, just like him?

"Oh, under normal circumstances, I would definitely kill. It just so happened that the robber is the nephew of my wife's cousin. My wife has a good relationship with her cousin and they talk on the phone every day. My wife is pregnant now, and I don't want this to affect her mood. I didn't expect to pass the assessment by accident."

So he's a doting husband. Gao Yang couldn't help but laugh.

Officer Huang looked over and said, "Tengu said that the hint for the third assessment is with you."

"Okay." Gao Yang took out a brass key from his pocket. "This is it. It says to find the door that this key opens and explore inside. Even if the assessment is passed, the search range is limited to our Shanqing District."

Officer Huang took the key and examined it carefully with his fingertips. His eyes lit up. "This shouldn't be difficult. Leave it to me. You two wait for my message."

"Alright."

After Officer Huang left, Gao Yang finished the hot spicy soup and returned to his father's ward. He opened a folding chair in the aisle next to his father's bed and covered himself with a blanket.

Closing his eyes, he couldn't fall asleep at all.

Gao Yang entered the system and checked his lucky points.

Sure enough, there was no double profit during the time period when White Rabbit appeared in the afternoon. It seemed that he had to experience real danger to activate the double profit. The more dangerous the situation, the greater the profit from lucky points, but it also increased the possibility of death. It was fair.

...

The next day at noon, his mother and sister came to take over.

Gao Yang went home to freshen up, had dinner, and then caught up on a few hours of sleep. In the evening, as he walked out of the community gate, he saw a familiar police car. Officer Huang was standing on the side of the road smoking a cigarette and waved to Gao Yang when he saw him.

Gao Yang walked over quickly. "Officer Huang? Why are you here?"

"I found the place," Officer Huang said.

"So fast?" Gao Yang was surprised.

"Finding things is not a big deal for me." The police officer patted the roof of the car. "Get in and I'll tell you."

Gao Yang approached the car and saw Qing Ling sitting in the passenger seat. He then opened the back door and was stunned. Wang Zikai and Chubby Jun were also in the car.

"Brother, did you miss me?" Wang Zikai was very excited. He pulled Gao Yang into the car. "Let me tell you, I've made a breakthrough in my cultivation recently! I'll show you some moves in a secluded place later. It's absolutely amazing... "

Gao Yang's head started buzzing again.

After the car started, Gao Yang asked Officer Huang, "Why are they here too?"

"I've been observing Chubby Jun for a while, and there hasn't been any arm mutation since then," Officer Huang said.

"Yes, that's right, not even once." Chubby Jun eagerly assured, patting his plump chest. "Yang ge, don't worry, I'm very confident in my body now!"

"Why panic? Even if Chubby really gets sick, I can easily handle it with one hand!" After not seeing each other for a few days, Wang Zikai had become even more arrogant, showing off his big brother demeanor.

"We're going for a test, right?" Gao Yang asked again.

"There's no rule that says we can't ask for help during the test," Officer Huang said meaningfully, glancing at Gao Yang in the rearview mirror. "Wu Dahai secretly contacted me and asked me to bring more people. He said this time it's not just for fun, it might... involve casualties."

Gao Yang's heart sank. White Rabbit had also said the same thing. It seemed that this test was truly dangerous, and he didn't know what he would be facing. Although Wang Zikai and Chubby Jun were both unstable factors, one had combat power and the other was a nanny. Overall, the benefits of bringing them outweighed the disadvantages.

After about half an hour, the police car arrived southwest of the mountain.

The mountain was located outside the city, spanning Shanqing District and Dongyu District, belonging to Shanqing District.

It was a well-known tourist attraction near the city, with an altitude of over 300 meters and an area of 5,000 square meters. The mountain had a wide variety of plant species and beautiful scenery. There was even an observatory on the mountaintop, where one could stand on the high platform and have a panoramic view of the city. The most visitors climbed the mountain in the early morning and evening, and the South Gate and North Gate were always crowded with people.

Officer Huang obviously didn't bring a group of people to climb the mountain because there was no road up the mountain in the southwest. They parked the police car on a country road and followed Officer Huang through a field, entering a small forest.

"Where are we going?" Qing Ling asked first.

Officer Huang walked at the front. "We're almost there, just ahead."

"Is the door here?" Gao Yang asked."Correct." Officer Huang continued to lead the way, "The brass key that White Rabbit gave you two, judging from its style, should be the door key of an old house. There aren't many places in Shanqing District that still have such houses. One is the antique pedestrian street, but although all the buildings there are old-style, the door locks have been replaced with modern ones. There's also Lotus Lane, which had many old houses, but they were all demolished last year..."

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Officer Huang stopped, took a breath, habitually took out the pistol from his waist to check the bullets, and then continued to walk forward: "After thinking about it, where else in our Shanqing District are there old houses that require this kind of brass key? There's only one place left..."

"Could it be... Ancient Village?" Chubby Jun, being too fat and slow, always lagged behind the group. After saying the words "Ancient Village", he shivered all over and quickly moved up to walk side by side with Gao Yang. After thinking about it, he still felt uneasy, so he caught up a few more steps and walked shoulder to shoulder with Qing Ling, who had the highest combat power.

"Oh," Officer Huang was a bit surprised, "You actually know about it. Counting it, this year is exactly the thirtieth year, isn't it?"

"One of my high school classmates' father is a newspaper reporter, who specifically did a special interview on this matter. It's so weird, my classmate used to tell us this story as a ghost story every day." Chubby Jun looked nervous, his eyes darting around.

"What exactly happened, you're being so mysterious." Wang Zikai became interested.

"First, there was a family massacre. In Ancient Village, a family of five was brutally killed overnight. The bodies were divided into many pieces and appeared in various corners of Ancient Village." Officer Huang said, "The person who took the case at that time was my master, I heard him talk about it."

"Was the case solved?" Gao Yang asked.

Officer Huang shook his head: "No."

"Why?"

"Less than half a month after the crime, all fifty-three people in Ancient Village disappeared."

"Disappeared?"

"Yes, vanished without a trace. My master almost dug three feet into the ground of Ancient Village, but still found no clues. He couldn't solve this mystery until he retired."

Everyone fell silent, waiting for what would come next.

As dusk fell, the light in the forest became dim, and the cold wind rustled the leaves, making the atmosphere suddenly eerie.

Officer Huang took out the brass key, his voice low: "The door this key opens is in Ancient Village."