Chapter 179 Pei Hening: Protect me first if you encounter danger.
Sang Jincheng frowned: "I don't know if this counts as a clue, but I found Edward's medical record in the room."
Pei Hening asked, "Medical record?"
"To be precise, it's a case record."
"Psychological case records?"
Sang Jincheng: "Yes, Edward once consulted a psychologist. The psychologist wrote in the case record that the client had obvious depressive symptoms and needed to be monitored."
"What about the date of the case record?"
Sang Jincheng: "Three days ago."
As she spoke, she pulled a room key from the corpse's pocket—Room 26-02.
Sang Jincheng asked in confusion, "How does he have Field's room key?"
Pei Hening's gaze fell on the pile of gelatinous substance that had been burned beyond recognition, and the nausea of swallowing a fly alive had not yet disappeared.
She thought for a moment and then reached out her hand to Sang Jincheng.
Sang Jincheng thought the girl had finally had a change of heart and was about to help her up, preparing to take her hand. As he stood up, Pei Hening slightly raised her hand and took the room card from Sang Jincheng's hand.
Pei Hening glanced at her hand, which had a little blood on it, and said, "What I want is the room key."
Every reaction from Cui Bisi surprised Sang Jincheng, and she couldn't hold back any longer: "...Why didn't you say so earlier?"
Pei Hening looked over suspiciously and met her gaze: "I thought you knew."
Sang Jincheng was furious. She asked, "What do you need the room key for?"
Pei Hening put the room key in his pocket, as if it were the most natural thing in the world: "I'll go to the 26th floor to find Field later."
"I'm going too!"
Sang Jincheng felt that it wasn't so simple that the room key for room 26-02 was on this person.
Although Tribes is annoying, she's not stupid after getting to know her, and we might even be able to gather some clues from her past.
Moreover, after glancing at the corpse on the ground, Sang Jincheng guessed that Field might be the fifth victim.
Since Tribes had taken the room key, it proved that the thing was indeed valuable, and she didn't want to miss out.
Pei Hening asked seriously, "Are you sure?"
Should I be sure?
Seeing her serious attitude, Sang Jincheng hesitated. Should she be sure?
"There's a chance of getting into a fight if we go up to the 26th floor. Can you win?"
Pei Hening added, "Then you need to think it through. If I get to the 26th floor and encounter danger, I'll definitely take care of myself first."
Sang Jincheng fell silent. Cui Bisi was very frank and spoke quite bluntly. If she went with them and encountered danger, Cui Bisi might not be able to protect her.
"I understand. Let's go back to 25-03 and see if there are any other clues."
Sang Jincheng hadn't decided whether to take the risk yet; she planned to postpone it.
Pei Hening followed her to room 25-03. She was a little worried about Chu Xuange, but she was even more certain that with his strength and intelligence, he would be fine.
"This is Edward's case analysis."
Sang Jincheng eventually handed over Edward's case record.
Pei Hening took the case record, carefully read its contents, noted down the important information, and then returned it: "Edward's condition seems quite serious."
Just as Sang Jincheng was about to take it, Pei Hening withdrew her hand: "Wait, something's not right."
After careful observation, she noticed a faint dark brown color in the area marked with a red pen on the case record—the color of blood oxidized on the paper.
Seeing her strange reaction, Sang Jincheng asked, "What's wrong?"
Pei Hening organized her thoughts and said, "If I'm not mistaken, the counselor who provided psychological support to Edward should be dead."
Do you have any evidence?
Sang Jincheng pulled out a chair and sat down; she was genuinely curious.
"Psychological counselors adhere to the principle of confidentiality. Even when recording cases, they will not write down the client's name in a very casual way. They usually store the records according to the date of the visit, the number of visits, and the alphabetical order of the client's name. But this case record has Edward's name written down in a very casual way."
"I suspect this case record has been altered, and there is blood here."
Pei Hening placed the case record on the long table, lowered her eyes, and pointed to several locations: "There are bloodstains here, and here too, they've oxidized."
[Note: OOC value +2%, currently at 2%]
After Pei Hening finished expressing her guess, she heard an OOC (out-of-character) warning.
Sang Jincheng nodded: "Your observation is quite keen. Have you discovered anything else?"
Pei Hening looked annoyed. She said, "That's it. Let's look for clues. This is so annoying. It's definitely going to ruin my beauty sleep."
Edward's room layout was similar to Cromwell's, but the decorating styles were completely different.
Pei Hening searched every room and noticed that Edward was missing two sets of jewelry...
After she finished searching, she impatiently called out to Sang Jincheng, "Hurry up, I still need to go to 25-04 to look for clues."
Sang Jincheng came out of the study, holding a book that showed obvious signs of being read.
Let's go.
Pei Hening: "What book is that? Let me take a look."
Sang Jincheng handed over the book: "Hmm."
Pei Hening had always wanted to see Edward's handwriting, but unfortunately she had never been able to find it. She took the book, opened it, and there was indeed Edward's handwriting inside.
After she finished reading it, she returned the book.
"Let's go and see Prince Peter's room."
——
25-04 Luxury Suite.
Pei Hening discovered another yellow diamond cufflink on the black suit that Prince Peter had hung in the dressing room.
Afraid she might be mistaken, she even took out the cufflinks from her pocket to compare them. After confirming they were the same pair, she fell into deep thought again.
Prince Peter and Sofia may have both visited 22-01. What were their purposes?
Cromwell was killed before they entered the instance; none of the players had the opportunity to kill him and Edward, nor did Prince Peter and Sofia.
The clue Chu Xuange provided her was that Prince Peter was still alive. So where was he now? What task had the system assigned him? And where were his bodyguards?
Pei Hening pulled out a tattered page from her diary, which described an event from ten years ago that resulted in an explosion and the loss of millions of lives.
She took out her phone and searched on the internet—Nerna Port, 2961.
No information found online was related to the explosion and the millions of lives lost.
Pei Hening noticed one of the less noticeable pieces of information.
—The Joyful Circus, at the kind invitation of Mayor Valen of Nernás, will arrive in the city in three days for a five-day performance. Mayor Valen will also personally invite ten dignitaries to attend this grand show.
Pei Hening clicked on this news item, her brows furrowed. She wanted to know which ten celebrities the previous mayor, Warren, had invited!
Unable to find the list, she clicked into the comments section to see if there were any clues.
Is this how my taxes are used? If Warren doesn't want to work, he should quit; all he does is mess with us!
—According to inside sources, Warren is a member of the Happy Circus.
—Really? Be careful, Valen might sue you for defamation!