When I got home from work, my seven-year-old daughter didn’t come to the door to greet me. Instead, a strange man was sitting on my sofa.

He shot to his feet, held a knife to my neck, and told me he was a kidnapper. Then he told me to guess where he had hidden my lovely daughter.

Terror seized me, and I sprinted for the bedroom wardrobe. It was the only place in the house big enough to hide someone.

The kidnapper smiled and congratulated me for guessing correctly.

I threw open the door and saw my daughter’s head.

It was then I finally understood. No matter where I guessed, it would have been the correct answer.

Every room had a part of my daughter.

“This is the fifth case this month! A mother and daughter dead in their own apartment! If we can’t catch the murderer, the public will be calling for our heads!”

“Captain Li, a surveillance malfunction might explain it once, but this is the fifth time we’ve captured nothing. Could the murderer be using some special equipment to block the cameras?”

In the Major Crimes Unit conference room, Captain Li Guoqiang gritted his teeth. His eyes were bloodshot, and he glared like a wrathful deity, daring anyone to meet his gaze.

Hearing his subordinate’s speculation, he roared in exasperation.

“You think we haven’t thought of that? The key is how! What kind of equipment can make itself invisible to surveillance without damaging the system’s normal operation? You tell me!”

“The on-site investigation found no trace of a break-in or struggle. The entire gruesome scene just appeared out of thin air!”

The room fell silent.

It was a truly unimaginable situation. All five cases were the same.

The surveillance footage was always smooth, the timestamps correct. There were no signs of tampering, and the systems had been operating normally the whole time. No one had entered the victims’ homes, yet the people inside were brutally murdered.

The mother and daughter from last night even had a camera inside their apartment. Reviewing the footage, the police watched the mother walk through her front door and simply vanish.

A full hour passed before her figure reappeared on the camera.

By then, she was like her daughter, her body parts scattered throughout every room.

Her head was hung directly in front of the living room camera, dripping with thick, viscous blood. Her hollow, despairing eyes stared out, her mouth forced into a grotesque smile. It was an arrogant provocation, a taunt from the murderer to the police.

Disappearing into thin air and then suddenly reappearing.

None of the neighbors heard any unusual sounds or saw any suspicious people. Even the bloodstains and severed limbs at the crime scene seemed to have materialized from nothing, offering absolutely no leads.

It was like something out of a ghost story, a tale of the supernatural.

Even the hardened members of the Major Crimes Unit couldn’t help but let their minds wander toward ghosts and monsters.

But none of them dared to voice such thoughts in front of Captain Li Guoqiang.

If they did, they knew they would be roared at and berated.

“Sigh! Forget it. Let’s stop here for today.”

Li Guoqiang sighed heavily, waving a hand to dismiss his team.

“Everyone go home and get some rest. Think it over and see if you can come up with any new ideas. Be safe.”

After all, no one had slept since the case broke last night. It was already one o’clock in the morning.

“Captain Li, you should get some rest too.”

“That’s right, Captain. Don’t work yourself into the ground before we bring the killer to justice.”

The team members chimed in with their concerns before leaving. They trusted their captain; he had led them through countless difficult cases.

After everyone had left, Li Guoqiang packed up the case files and prepared to go home.

The one a.m. summer air on the street was hot and stuffy.

Li Guoqiang frowned as his body sent a dissatisfied warning. Hunger.

His gaze subconsciously drifted toward a barbecue stall in a deserted alley. It had no customers.

He was starving, both physically and mentally. He desperately needed to eat, to relax. Driven by instinct, Li Guoqiang walked toward the barbecue stall without hesitation.

But just as he reached the door, he paused. Frowning, he suppressed the hunger and took out a palm-sized Spirit Tablet from his pocket. It was stained with sticky, wet mud. He placed it upright at the entrance.

“Boss, grill something for me.”

He stepped inside.

“I want an order of brains, one heart, and an order of kidneys. Remember to wash them clean. I’ll grill them myself.”

He chuckled darkly.

“Hmm? I’m not joking. I must grill these things myself. After all, how can you, an ingredient, also be the cook?”

An hour later, Li Guoqiang left the shop.

His previous gloomy expression was gone, replaced by a cruel, crazed smile that lingered on his face.

He casually wiped a speck of blood from the corner of his mouth.

Bending down, he picked up the muddy Spirit Tablet and slipped it back into his pocket. He hummed a light-hearted tune as he strode away into the night.

That’s right.

What kind of equipment could make a person disappear from surveillance without affecting its operation?

It would have to be something beyond human understanding. A different kind of strength.

The Spirit Tablet could do all of that.

Once placed at the entrance of a building, it prevented anything inside from being observed by the outside world. It even silently erased all traces of his entry, leaving no clues behind.

But even without the Spirit Tablet’s strange power, who would ever suspect him? Who could imagine that the captain of the Major Crimes Unit was a murderous maniac, one who craved slaughter and fresh blood?

No one could catch him.

Ever since he obtained the Spirit Tablet, the city had become like a passionate woman, stripped bare before him, revealing her delectable body. He could wantonly vent the wild and cruel Desire that burned in his heart.

To Li Guoqiang, this city was his personal playground. Slaughter was a game to satisfy his perverse cravings.

“The more I think about it, the hungrier I get. Why not make an exception and have a second meal today?”

The ‘meal’ at the barbecue stall hadn’t been enough to satisfy his spiritual hunger. That had been a barbaric act to fill his stomach. Now, he wanted a game, a pure enjoyment of slaughter.

Thinking of this, Li Guoqiang scanned the alley for another target. It was past one in the morning, so finding a secluded, open shop wouldn’t be easy.

He could just use the Spirit Tablet to break into any house, but that felt like too much effort. It lacked the thrill he was seeking.

“Oh? This place isn’t bad.”

His eyes landed on a horror-themed secret room escape that was still open, a lone figure cleaning inside.

“A secret room escape? Hehe, let me see if you can really escape.”

The area was deserted. He skillfully placed the Spirit Tablet at the entrance and walked in.

Only one person was left in the shop, a young man of about twenty. He had an expression that said he had nothing left to live for, his dead-fish eyes utterly devoid of motivation as he listlessly swept the floor.

Hearing someone enter, the young man didn’t even turn around.

“We’re closed. Please come back tomorrow.”

“Sorry, I don’t mean to hold you up,” Li Guoqiang said with a gentlemanly smile. The excitement in his eyes made his breathing quicken. “I just want to ask, how long does a game here usually take?”

“About two hours. Could you lift your foot, please? I haven’t swept there yet. Thanks.”

The young man bent back over his work, completely oblivious to Li Guoqiang’s increasingly cruel expression, or to the telescopic baton and small knife he was slowly pulling from his pocket.

Clearly a part-timer, tortured by work until he’s completely lifeless, Li Guoqiang thought, observing his prey. Probably a college dropout. No social skills either. Who tells a customer they aren’t welcome? No wonder he’s alone.

Li Guoqiang loved to analyze his victims. He was deeply satisfied with this one’s state. The boy seemed so weary of life, he probably felt that living was worse than death.

But humans were hypocrites. Though he looked like he had nothing left to live for, how strong would his will to survive be when he was truly faced with death?

When the knife sank into those frail limbs, how much strength would he find to struggle?

Li Guoqiang had become infatuated with this feeling while killing the mother and daughter. He loved to give his victims a glimmer of hope, only to snuff it out. The sensation of controlling another’s fate was intoxicating.

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

I truly hope this young man can enjoy the escape game for the next two hours.

The Spirit Tablet had another ability. Inside the affected room, no one besides Li Guoqiang could leave. Even if a victim managed to run out the front door, they would find themselves inexplicably re-entering through a window or another doorway, as if caught in a ghost wall.

This was a true secret room escape.

Li Guoqiang grinned, a perverted smile spreading across his face. He raised the knife and lunged at the young man’s back.

Ten minutes later.

Puchi.

Wu Wang pulled his hand from the still chest of the man who had just attacked him.

Feeling the warm, silent heart in his grasp, he casually tossed it into the trash can, where it landed with a wet smack. Blood began to drip from the rim onto the floor.

His face still wore that same lifeless expression, as if he’d been tortured by endless work.

His dead-fish eyes glanced from the corpse to the growing puddle of blood on the floor.

He let out a sigh.

The easiest part of the night was over.

The only problem now was that the floor he had just finished cleaning was dirty again.