Chapter 1057: Prison Storm (2)
It's like watching a live-action movie.
Bohemia propped her feet up on the office desk, holding a bag of potato chips she obtained from her subordinate's office. She munched on them loudly while the Descartes Spirit lay on the armrest of her chair, tilting its head back to watch the live broadcast of the 'Final Exam' themed game.
After establishing voice communication with Lin Sanjiu, the entire wall of the office disappeared, revealing a brightly lit classroom. The camera was focused on Lin Sanjiu, who sat in front of a desk, staring at the exam paper with a troubled expression. From her perspective, rows of male and female students wearing white shirts could be seen, all bowing their heads in concentration, their pens scratching on paper. Lin Sanjiu seemed to be the only one who had no idea what she was doing.
She stared at her exam paper, looking completely lost.
"Did she never attend school?" the Descartes Spirit asked.
"How would I know if she attended school or not? Anyway, she doesn't seem to be educated," Bohemia replied.
Lin Sanjiu apparently heard them—her eyebrows furrowed, and she was about to raise her head when a female voice from afar stopped her: "Number 39! No looking around during the exam! Keep your head down!"
She bit her lip and reluctantly lowered her head again, staring at the exam paper without making any progress. She had no idea what the questions were about, and after a while, sweat started to bead on her forehead.
Bohemia couldn't see the content of her exam paper, and even if she wanted to help, she couldn't. Moreover, she didn't really want to help. After scanning the room, she swallowed a potato chip and complained to Lin Sanjiu, "There are no weapons in this classroom. How am I supposed to help you? Oh, right, check if there's a ceiling fan in the classroom for me."
Only a lazy killer like Bohemia would expect the victim to willingly subject themselves to harm. She looked at Lin Sanjiu, whose eyebrows twitched but ultimately didn't dare to raise her head. Bohemia couldn't help but chuckle, her voice filled with satisfaction. "Why do you look like that? Just think about it, if you actively cooperate with me in getting hurt, wouldn't that be considered suicide? It's killing two birds with one stone, and besides, you can still control the situation yourself. You won't really die."
Whether the act of 'cooperating in getting hurt' counted as suicide or not, it didn't matter to Bohemia as long as she achieved her goal. As for Lin Sanjiu—well, even if this person left the game, they would still be someone who planned to stride boldly toward the embrace of the truth. Bohemia couldn't be bothered with them.
Lin Sanjiu kept her head down and didn't indicate whether she agreed or not. She simply bit her pen and pondered over the exam paper.
In the 'Final Exam' game, she was a student under strict control, restricted from making any move beyond the boundaries. In Bohemia's game, the principle was 'what is not prohibited is allowed.' However, the 'Final Exam' game was the complete opposite—it followed a whitelist system. Lin Sanjiu could only do what the game NPCs instructed her to do, and anything beyond that was forbidden. Although she was just a student in an exam room, she seemed to have even less freedom than the prisoners under Bohemia's control.
After waiting for a while without a response, Bohemia became impatient. "Alright, here's what we'll do. Blink once if you agree, blink twice quickly if you disagree."
Lin Sanjiu bit her lip and hesitated for a few seconds before quickly blinking her eyes once.
"Very good! Is there a ceiling fan in the classroom? Blink once for yes."
She blinked her eyes again.
"Is it close to you? Blink once if it's close, blink twice if it's far away. If you don't know... if you don't know, just widen your eyes and stare for a while."
Lin Sanjiu stared wide-eyed for a long time, refraining from blinking. Bohemia slowly chewed on her potato chips, showing no signs of urgency. After half a minute, she finally said to Lin Sanjiu, whose eyes had turned red, "Oh, what a pity."
What should she do to influence the other game when she couldn't reach out her hand?
Just as she called out to the Pocket Dimension host, the square-faced voice immediately responded. Bohemia raised her voice and asked, "How can I interact with objects in the other game?"
"You cannot directly touch objects in another game, but you can come to me and exchange for the right to influence the environment of the other game."
"Exchange? What do I use to exchange?"
"There are two principles for exchanges: one is to harm others for your own benefit, and the other is to sacrifice yourself for others. Let me start with the second method—"
"No, just tell me about the first one," Bohemia wiped her mouth with her hand, making a quick decision. She turned her head and flashed a row of teeth at Lin Sanjiu on the screen. "You want to 'commit suicide' for me, right? Isn't that right?"
Lin Sanjiu lowered her gaze and nodded, seemingly filled with trust in Bohemia.
"When you successfully increase the difficulty of the other player's game, set up obstacles, or even make it impossible for them to complete the game, I will grant you certain permissions based on your achievements. With the corresponding permissions, you can request assistance from NPCs in the other game or bring items from the other game into your own... It's up to you how to make use of them. I call it 'commerce.'"
"How do I increase her difficulty?" Bohemia sat up straight, ready to take action.
"Are you sure?"
"Don't be ridiculous."
As soon as the words fell, the scene with Lin Sanjiu and the classroom disappeared with a snap, and the view returned to the white-walled office adorned with various certificates.
"Since the goal is to increase the difficulty, it wouldn't make sense for the person involved to hear it," the Pocket Dimension host explained. "Since the target game is the 'Final Exam,' you must obtain the right to commerce by answering questions."
"Just tell me what the question is."
The Pocket Dimension host seemed to snap their fingers, and the office door suddenly knocked. In the midst of the loud knocking, the Pocket Dimension host calmly explained, "Among the people who will enter your office next, there is a serial killer who has never been discovered. In a brief interaction with you or others, he/she has shown some suspicious signs. Please answer based on the clues: Which person is the serial killer?"
Bohemia swallowed a mouthful of saliva. "A... a serial killer?"
The knocking on the door continued steadily, evidently not stopping until she gave permission to enter.
"Yes. Let's consider this a small game between big games. However, I need to remind you that if you answer incorrectly in this small game, your onion won't be peeled... But this unidentified serial killer will officially remain in your game and interact with you. For example, someone who was previously just a background NPC could undergo a qualitative change in this small game."
"Wait a minute, this..."
"You asked me to hurry up with the question before I finished explaining." The Pocket Dimension host sighed. "You should listen to the rules properly from now on."
Bohemia slumped her shoulders. Even if she knew the punitive consequences, she couldn't refuse to play the small game. After much deliberation, it was all Lin Sanjiu's fault.
Her impression of a serial killer came from movies and TV shows. Although she had probably killed more people, the concept of a "serial killer" always sent shivers down her spine.
The knocking on the door remained calm and continuous.
Amidst the knocks, Bohemia mustered up her courage and called out, "Come in!"
"Miss Winters?" A woman she had never seen before poked her head in and smiled. "The results of the previous examination are out."
Bohemia had always longed for the scholarly demeanor, and this woman seemed to personify intellectualism. She was probably in her forties, wore a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, had fair skin, and neatly combed chestnut-colored hair. When she spoke, her pronunciation was soft and clear—clearly not a serial killer.
1
But Bohemia's gaze suddenly stopped at the woman's lab coat.
One side of her lab coat was stained with splattered dark red liquid, creating scattered spots. Although it was not a large area, anyone could easily recognize it as bloodstains.
The Descartes Spirit became excited and twisted its body, exclaiming, "It's too obvious! Blood appeared right at the beginning. All that glitters is not gold. It can't be her! Oh, but if the questioner anticipated that we would think this way and deliberately went against it, then she could still be..."
It was all just nonsense!
Bohemia, unable to tell it to shut up, used Higher Consciousness to squeeze it tightly. She then calmly asked a single word, "Oh?"
This was her strategy for not giving anything away—saying as little as possible.
"The results were not ideal," the woman with gold-rimmed glasses sighed. "I thought for sure I would be able to extract the victim's DNA from the vomit of No. 1702... but unfortunately, there was nothing. No matter how he disposed of the only piece of the victim's body, it won't be as the prosecutor believed, that he ate her. Now, his lawyer will have something to say during the appeal. After all, having cannibalistic videos on his computer doesn't mean he would actually do it."
DNA in vomit?
Bohemia felt like the potato chips from earlier were crawling up from her stomach. She quickly took a breath and pointed at the woman, who was likely a doctor, changing the subject, "Your clothes..." contemporary romance
"Oh," the woman doctor lowered her head to look and was also surprised. "Someone must have gotten injured in a fight this morning, and when they were brought to me, it accidentally stained my lab coat."
It seemed like a plausible explanation. As the warden, Bohemia could inquire to find out if anyone had been injured in a fight.
"By the way," the woman doctor suddenly smiled and nodded slightly at her. "I received the flower basket you sent. He was so young, not even a year old... thinking about it, the world seems so unfair. But don't worry about me, I... I've been mentally prepared since the day I carried him."
Her child had passed away?
Bohemia became suspicious and mumbled a few vague words. She accepted the large leather envelope and thanked the doctor. Just as the doctor was about to leave the office, two more people approached the partially open door.
"Miss Winters?"
These two men were both wearing identical black coats with the insignia of the Investigation Bureau stitched on the chest. One was tall and the other short, both with equally serious expressions. "Can we talk to you privately?"
Could it be that even officials from the Investigation Bureau could be the culprits?
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