Chapter 033: Qin River + New Dungeon (Three Chapters in One)

As she exited, Ye Sangsang announced her departure to the audience, telling them she would see them in the next dungeon.

Compared to Ye Sangsang’s swift logout, the audience had clearly not yet recovered. They remained immersed in the text logs of the dungeon, which detailed the punishment Xu He was destined to receive. In the rapidly unfolding plot, Xu He had requested a legal aid attorney. He was not seeking to absolve himself of guilt; he wanted the lawyer to inform his family of everything he had done for his brother. He hoped to see his parents before he died. The lawyer politely declined, stating it was outside his scope of duty; he would only provide the best possible defense, and the details of the case could not be shared with others. Although Xu He had never been educated, he had learned enough to know his rights, so he chose to request a new legal aid attorney. After a long wait, a new lawyer arrived. She told him she could not do it either. Until his death, Xu He never received the validation he so desperately craved. Just like the ending of a film, everything concluded with that single gunshot, ending his life of sin.

The livestream did not stop with Ye Sangsang’s departure. Once everything had evolved, there was a final result. Ye Sangsang was unaware of this. She opened her eyes to the buzzing of her phone beside her. She picked it up to see an unfamiliar number. Few people knew her phone number, so she hesitated for a moment before answering.

"Hello, Ms. Ye. My name is Ning Hao. Perhaps the name is unfamiliar to you... *cough, cough, cough*." A frail, aged male voice came through. Perhaps due to poor health, he coughed for a while before continuing: "But we have met, in the game. I had a name you are very familiar with: 'Kill-a-Mat'."

Ye Sangsang’s lips parted slightly, sensing the strange power of time. The marvel of holographic games was that people who had never met in reality could become acquaintances in an instant. She asked, "What is it?"

"Aren't you curious? Can we meet?" he continued after two more coughs.

Thinking of Qin Jiang, Ye Sangsang agreed, but paused to add, "I think you should be the one to come see me. Hai City Stable Hospital."

"I cannot leave."

The person on the other end was stunned for a long moment before agreeing.

Ye Sangsang got up to wash. The hospital facilities were comprehensive, and she was barely mobile enough to manage on her own. She changed into loungewear, finished her breakfast, and went outside to read and walk. They had not set a specific time, as she was there, and always would be.

The visitor arrived faster than expected. She had only finished a third of her book in the garden when he appeared. However, like her, he arrived in a wheelchair. At first glance, it looked like a support group meeting for patients.

The octagonal pavilion in the hospital garden was quite large. The man’s assistant pushed him in. Ning Hao said with a wry smile, "I didn't know you would be... like this." He was over thirty years her senior, yet his tone held respect and gratitude.

Ye Sangsang looked at him. "When one cannot walk, one walks more in the game."

The man, clearly not yet sixty, looked like an elderly person. He appeared to be suffering from some illness, with little time left. Ning Hao waved his hand, and the assistant bowed slightly and left. He looked at Ye Sangsang. "I think you must be curious about everything that happened in reality. As it happens, I have a strong desire to unburden myself."

"Yes, I am curious," Ye Sangsang said, closing her book.

Ning Hao lowered his eyes, his words punctuated by occasional coughing, as he recounted the events of thirty years ago. In truth, Xu He had been just as he was in "Cruel Carnival"—he had designed everything flawlessly. Over ten years, he had woven a massive web that led to the deaths of Qin Jiang’s wife and child, leaving Qin Jiang disgraced and lying in a bed, critically injured.

"They couldn't find the truth because every piece of evidence... *cough*... was laid out right before them. Qin Jiang had a motive. By the time they discovered the inconsistencies, it was already too late." Ning Hao’s eyes were filled with pain. He was not the only one who had tried hard, but unlike the dungeon game, the ending in reality had not seen Xu He brought to justice.

Ye Sangsang asked the question she cared about most: "What about Qin Jiang?"

Ning Hao remained silent for a long time. Seemingly lost in thought, he coughed for a while before saying, "He is in a sanitarium I arranged. He woke up sixteen years ago. *Cough, cough, cough*... After he woke up... he was insane."

"That's not so bad. He didn't die. Being insane is fine, as long as he's alive." Ye Sangsang actually offered a faint smile. After all, punishing a madman after so many years had passed was unrealistic. Being kept in a sanitarium meant he was still alive. He could wait for a resolution.

Ning Hao had intended to ask if she really thought that was "not so bad," but remembering where she was, he felt a sense of relief. He straightened his expression and continued: "The case had its suspicions back then, and it was shelved while waiting for Qin Jiang to wake up so a verdict could be reached. But the files pointed definitively to Qin Jiang as the killer. It was suppressed largely because Qin Jiang could not be put on trial. When he woke up insane, he couldn't be judged, so it dragged on until now."

"Did you provide the case to 'Crime Archives,' the official Star Ring game?" Ye Sangsang asked.

Ning Hao nodded, suppressing a cough that rose to his throat. "Captain Chen went through me, and after many twists and turns, gave it to Star Ring Game, authorizing the super-intelligence to create the game content. *Cough, cough, cough*... We authorized many things, and many minute details were added in."

Ye Sangsang looked at them, puzzled. "Then you didn't apply to experience the game dungeon? Didn't you try to find clues privately? Or did the super-intelligence not evolve them? Wouldn't it have been possible to just check the game's evolution?" Before the beta test, it must have been playable; they should have tried the dungeon themselves.

"Star Ring Game said it was impossible. It wasn't just about confidentiality; it was because someone had to break the deadlock—that is, provide clues—to proceed to the next stage of evolution. It only evolved based on the minute details we provided. It essentially built a scene identical to the one back then, and in the underlying settings, Qin Jiang was still the killer. In essence, we still had to explore it ourselves, slowly adding suspicious clues so the system could derive further evolution based on that. Simply put, it lacked a core to push it forward. That is the meaning of your existence. The super-intelligence is indeed powerful, but they told us not to mythologize it; it is, at its core, man-made."

After finishing, he coughed for a long time before stopping and smiling bitterly. Ye Sangsang thought for two seconds and understood. In reality, even a super-intelligence could not create something from nothing; it could only simulate based on what was provided. To gain more, one had to ask questions or report errors. That was exactly what she had done. Only after reporting the errors could the system combine the previous details to simulate a reasonable killer whose motive, personality, and history matched the crime.

"So, you didn't enter the game dungeon to try and find clues about the killer?" Ye Sangsang repeated the question he had not answered earlier.

Ning Hao looked at Ye Sangsang. "I tried 313 times. I changed different people, and tried so many times."

Ye Sangsang’s fair, slender fingers rested on the dark pages of her book. "Your memory is good," she praised sincerely.

"Thank you. You’re just like you were in the game—very sharp-tongued with me," Ning Hao remarked. He looked at Ye Sangsang, who truly did not look like someone who belonged in a sanitarium. Even though they hadn't met long ago, it already felt as if they had known each other for a long time. Ye Sangsang did not speak; she was lost in thought.

Ning Hao continued, "Do you want to know what happened to the case after you successfully completed the mission perfectly this time?"

Ye Sangsang tilted her head to look at the talkative Ning Hao. His urge to confide was indeed exactly as he had said on the phone. She decided to play along, so she asked, "What happened?"

"Xu He is dead. I thought he would live on to be a scourge for a thousand years, but he died. He died twenty years ago, sentenced to death for killing his parents." When Ning Hao spoke of this, a genuine, satisfied smile appeared on his lips. "Until his death, he never got what he wanted." Affected by the emotion, he began to cough again.

Ye Sangsang asked, puzzled, "Can the case still be overturned?" In reality, the case had not been closed.

Ning Hao smiled. "You provided clues to the Chennan City police. They went to search carefully and found DNA evidence of him kidnapping Qin Jiang’s wife and child. They compared it with the DNA left behind by the investigators when he killed his parents. Barring any accidents, it must be him. Also, Feng Lian’s missing phone was found in his home. Based on technical restoration, the data obtained and the existence of the phone are enough to prove he was the one who did it."

Ye Sangsang nodded. The victim Feng Lian’s phone being in his possession, combined with the chat logs, counted as ironclad evidence.

Ning Hao wore a look of ecstatic relief. Even as he coughed incessantly, his eyes shone with excitement. "You don't know how much I wanted to laugh when I saw Xu He kill his parents. It proved that no matter how hard he tried, he could never gain their approval, and in the end, he died in despair."

He had sought what he could not have and lost the last people who cared for him. But as he laughed, he began to cry. He sobbed, losing all composure, venting decades of pent-up emotion. In his heart, Qin Jiang, who had saved him, was finally clean, no longer burdened by the stigma of being a murderer. He also felt the injustice for Qin Jiang: a man who could be called perfectly good, yet because of one person's malice, his life and everything he cared about had been destroyed.

The truth came too late; they had waited too long, far too long. He had thought he would go to his grave with regrets, but then Ye Sangsang appeared. The case was being reinvestigated, everything was reaching a conclusion, and the long wait was over. His weathered face held a sense of release, and tears streamed down uncontrollably.

Ye Sangsang looked at the trees in the courtyard. Spring had arrived, and the branches were covered in fresh buds. She understood his excitement but could not deeply experience that feeling herself. Therefore, she felt somewhat detached from the atmosphere.

They sat for a while longer. Perhaps because Ye Sangsang had experienced it all, or perhaps because she was an excellent listener, the talkative Ning Hao shared more stories of the past—about the people he had saved and the people who had saved him.

As he left, he asked Ye Sangsang, "Do you want to get out of here? I can help you. You helped me, and I will do my best to help you in return."

"That is my own business now," Ye Sangsang said with a light smile.

Ning Hao nodded. "If you change your mind, you can contact me."

"Goodbye," she said.

Ning Hao was pushed away by his assistant, turning to leave. Out of courtesy, Ye Sangsang saw him to the door.