chapter 1

At first, it was just a spot-the-difference mini-game.

My best friend Jiang Ning played it constantly and had the time of her life.

After an upgrade, it turned into a three-hundred-level detective game where players examined pictures for evidence.

As it grew harder, she brought her phone to me.

“People in the game chat say there’s a special reward for clearing it. They’ve made me so curious.”

This tiny game had its own chat group?

Fine. She liked it.

“Hardly anyone has cleared it yet,” Jiang Ning said. “You can’t even pay to win…”

It wasn’t that difficult. I played on and off for three days and beat it.

Jiang Ning rubbed her hands together excitedly. “Cheating feels amazing! Special reward, here I come!”

[Ding! Congratulations on completing the game challenge. You will now enter the personality screening. Begin the questionnaire now?]

Jiang Ning eagerly tapped [Yes].

Then she discovered there were three hundred questions.

Jiang Ning: “…”

I took the phone from her. The very first question read:

[If you were a serial killer who had captured three people and intended to murder them, how would you kill them?]

Oh?

Now that was interesting.

“I’ll answer.”

Jiang Ning was furious. “If there’s another gimmick after the questionnaire, or if they ask us for money, we’re quitting.”

I smiled. “All right.”

I finished quickly.

“Ningning, the results are in.”

Jiang Ning came flying over.

[Ding! Congratulations. You have passed the personality and intelligence screening.]

[Please confirm receipt of your gift package.]

[Confirm.]

The delighted anticipation on Jiang Ning’s face slowly twisted into horror.

The so-called special reward was a “death file.”

First came photographs of the death scene. They showed a teenage boy who appeared to have died after jumping from a building.

The pictures were extraordinarily clear and had been taken from several different angles.

They showed not only the boy’s limbs, distorted by the impact, but close-ups of his face.

My first thought was that the death looked remarkably… fresh.

Then came his file.

[Name: Zhao Chong. Age: 14. Height: 166 cm. Weight: 60 kg.]

[Time of death: June 1, 2013, 2:15:47 p.m.]

Everything else aside, the precision of the time unsettled me. It felt as though the photographer had been watching Zhao Chong for a long time—perhaps even waiting for him to kill himself so they could take the pictures.

Jiang Ning was still too stunned to react.

I was studying the camera angles when another prompt appeared.

System: [Open detailed file?]

I tapped [Yes].

System: [Select a level: A. Basic, B. Intermediate, C. Advanced.]

I selected [Advanced].

[Pay 500 yuan to purchase the advanced file. Confirm/Cancel.]

I chose [Confirm].

Jiang Ning exploded. “Yingying! We agreed we wouldn’t spend money!”

“I went back on my word,” I admitted readily.

This game seemed custom-made for me.

I simply could not resist pressing Next.

Once I confirmed the payment, the boy’s detailed file appeared.

It included his date of birth, the hospital where he had been delivered, the kindergarten he had attended, his personality, grades, family circumstances…

Dense columns of information reconstructed an entire life.

As a “new-user benefit,” we also received a free photo album. It contained pictures of him from childhood onward.

An entire human life, priced at five hundred yuan.

Jiang Ning still had not recovered from the shock when the system prompted us again.