My Healing Games

Chapter 753 The Gray Zone
The killing continued until dawn. As the sun rose, the anomaly in the mirror gradually disappeared, and it became an ordinary mirror.

Outside the abandoned hotel, sirens blared as Shanghai police entered the hotel's basement and met up with Han Fei. The members of the murder club were captured by the police, but unfortunately, the woman wearing the Grim Reaper mask escaped through a secret door.

"Han Fei, you are now Butterfly's target. You absolutely cannot be so reckless next time, and you must not leave our protection for too long!" The police officer in charge recognized Han Fei, but Han Fei did not recognize the officer. For an ordinary citizen to have achieved what Han Fei has done is quite remarkable.

"Today's situation was rather special, but I'll definitely do it next time," Han Fei replied earnestly.

Upon seeing the police enter, Shen Luo desperately wanted to cling to their legs. Terrified, he stayed close to the police, never leaving their side. Only those who have experienced this can understand his feelings at that moment.

"You're unlucky, stay away from the police."

"I do not."

After daybreak, Han Fei felt completely relaxed. He started his day full of energy with a playful banter with Shen Luo.

The police were busy from 6:30 a.m. until 9:00 a.m. before bringing Han Fei and Shen Luo back to the police station. The duty officer who had just met Han Fei yesterday was unmoved to see him being brought over so early in the morning, and even greeted him casually.

Shen Luo witnessed this incredibly harmonious scene: "You still say you're not an informant? They all know you!"

"Whatever you think."

Upon arriving at the police station, Han Fei and Shen Luo were separated and taken to different rooms, where the police questioned both of them.

Neither Han Fei nor Shen Luo had any reason to lie, so they honestly told the police everything that had happened the night before. Han Fei even produced the artist's and the barbecue restaurant owner's cell phones, as well as the relevant evidence he had found.

From the moment he entered the Death Club, Han Fei secretly recorded videos with the artist's phone. Unfortunately, the lighting was too dim, and he missed capturing many things. However, this had already greatly helped the police solve the case.

Around 11 o'clock, Li Xue and her supervisor entered the room where Han Fei was.

The leader asked everyone else to leave first, leaving Li Xue and Han Fei in the room.

"This is outrageous! Do you even know what kind of people you encountered last night?" The leader's expression was very serious. "We encourage acts of bravery, but only if it is done under the premise of ensuring one's own safety."

"I didn't know they were an organized crime group. I definitely won't go alone next time." Han Fei was very obedient, like the most honest student in the class.

“According to our analysis, Butterfly is very likely a core member of the killing club. It’s trying every means to kill you, and you just went to its lair. Luckily, Butterfly didn’t expect you to be so reckless. If it had made preparations beforehand, no matter how good you are at fighting, you wouldn’t have survived last night.” The old leader spoke earnestly, genuinely worried about Han Fei’s safety.

"The butterfly is a member of a murder club? No wonder many of its crimes are in the suburbs."

"Otherwise, why do you think we would go to such great lengths to hunt butterflies?" The leader sat opposite Han Fei after closing the door. "The Killing Club has many members and a wide reach. Many of them are ordinary people who work in various professions in the Smart City, but at night they unleash another side of themselves, revealing their true nature and going to the suburbs to kill indiscriminately."

"Is the suburbs really that chaotic?"

“It’s only been like this in recent years.” The middle-aged policeman nodded. “To be honest, it’s also related to the construction of the smart city. The smart brain uses a citizen information database, a dangerous psychological coefficient scale, and a criminal emotion observation station to reduce the crime rate in the smart city to almost zero. For ordinary people, the smart city is like paradise, very safe. But for those who are restless at heart or have abnormal brain secretions, the smart city is like an airtight prison. They have to manage their emotions at all times and can’t show any flaws. Over time, they become more sinister and extreme.”

"Aren't there psychological counseling centers in smart cities? And many therapeutic games like 'Perfect Life' for people to relieve stress?" Han Fei didn't quite understand. He always felt that smart cities were the most desirable places for all citizens, with the best services, the most advanced technology, and the most expensive housing in the country, where every inch of land was precious.

“Everyone has subtle differences in personality, shaped by their own different experiences. Normally, they could alleviate that pain through psychotherapy, but like your friend’s experience, Butterfly used various means to lead people who could have been healed down a different path.” The middle-aged policeman’s eyes were filled with disgust for Butterfly.

"My friend? Shen Luo was also seduced by the butterfly? Does he have anything about him that could attract the butterfly? Of course, I don't think he has no merits, I just think he's rather special." Han Fei was so eager to move to another city that the butterfly's subordinates actually went to seduce Shen Luo. This was truly like an old man drinking poison, courting death.

Thinking back, after Dr. Bai found Shen Luo, Han Fei followed closely behind, and both strongholds were wiped out. Although Shen Luo didn't exert any direct effort, it seems he did a great deal, albeit subtly.

"According to your friend, he searched for a psychologist online and met Dr. Bai from Sunday night school. Dr. Bai tricked him into going to the second floor of a barbecue restaurant, and then you took him to the murder club."

"I did it to protect him," Han Fei first clarified, "The situation was critical at the time, the clues were about to be cut off, and I couldn't leave him there alone."

“I understand your actions, but I also need to tell you that the ordinary and senior members of the Killer Club are all peripheral figures. They are merely passively controlled by the Killer Club and are unaware of its specific operations. We can only truly destroy it by capturing the real core members.” The middle-aged policeman looked at Han Fei: “They are a tightly organized criminal group. The only core member who has slipped up is Butterfly. This may also be a code name shared by the core members. You and Huang Ying are the only people in recent years who have not been successfully hunted down by Butterfly, so you two must be careful and absolutely must not wander off!”

After going through the series of talks, the leader still hoped that Han Fei would remain calm in the face of trouble and stay obediently in his room.

"Don't worry, I will protect myself." Han Fei nodded repeatedly, knowing that the other party meant well.

"You're just too opinionated." The middle-aged policeman knew that Han Fei was only agreeing on the surface; if something really happened, he would definitely run away again. He sighed softly and glanced at Han Fei's hands again: "Where did you learn these fighting skills?"

"I learned it online."

"Self-taught?" The middle-aged policeman looked at Han Fei, then at Li Xue, who was avoiding his gaze. "I thought she taught you, but that's impossible. Even if you put two of them together, they wouldn't be a match for you."

"If there's nothing else, can I go home first? I haven't slept all night, and my body is a bit exhausted." Han Fei felt that the middle-aged policeman had already figured something out, but the policeman didn't say anything.

"Don't rush off, there's one more small favor I need to ask you." The middle-aged policeman opened his computer and accessed the police's internal database: "Last night in Shi Shui Wan, you let a woman wearing a death mask escape. Her identity is very suspicious; she seems to be much more special than a typical high-level member."

“During our fight, I tore her mask and saw half of her face.” Han Fei knew his chance to make a contribution had come: “I can draw her face.”

With paper and pen at his disposal, Han Fei, relying on his exceptional memory, managed to recreate the appearance of the Grim Reaper woman.

"It's a pity I only saw half a face, but she looks familiar. She should have been on TV before." Han Fei handed his drawing to the middle-aged policeman, who immediately began big data comparison.

After several rounds of screening, the middle-aged police officer identified three candidates.

Wen Yu, President of the Student Union of Xinhu University; Li Wei, Vice President of Fukang Pharmaceutical; Ye Xian, a second-tier singer.

The most likely candidate among these three is Li Wei. Many years ago, Fukang Pharmaceutical and Yongsheng Pharmaceutical were known as the two major pharmaceutical companies in Shanghai, but now they are on the verge of bankruptcy. This vice president is very dissatisfied with Yongsheng Pharmaceutical and Smart New City, opposes new drugs, and advocates traditional and gentle treatments.

"Alright, leave the rest to us. You can go back now." The police immediately began to formulate a plan to investigate the three individuals.

Shen Luo hadn't come out yet, so Han Fei wasn't going to wait for him. He took a taxi home as fast as he could.

After a busy night, Han Fei returned home hoping to take a nap, but he couldn't fall asleep at all. His mind was filled with the woman wearing the Grim Reaper mask from the previous night.

"How could such a frail-looking woman possibly withstand my full-force knife strike?"

Han Fei turned on his computer and started searching online for information about the Murder Club, but all related terms were blocked.

The more this happened, the more Han Fei felt itchy inside. After learning of the other party's existence, he could no longer pretend not to see them.

Han Fei first tried calling Li Xue, who knew him very well. Before he could even speak, Li Xue directly refused.

Having no other option, Han Fei had to seek help from other friends.

After asking many people, Han Fei finally found the answer from Jin Jun.

As the most notorious paparazzi in Shanghai, Jin Jun does shady business, some of his transactions are not completed through citizens' accounts, and he knows a lot about gray channels.

After learning about Han Fei's needs, Jin Jun sent Han Fei a website for a housekeeping service. After Han Fei completed the tedious registration process, Jin Jun asked him to make some modifications in certain places.

After the review was approved, Han Fei saw another side of the website: it was an online gambling scam site.

After entering the VIP room using a virtual identity, an administrator will invite Han Fei to join the game. At this point, Han Fei will say the code given to him by Jin Jun, and the other party will lead Han Fei into the third layer of the website. After a strict review, they will give Han Fei a new web address.

After logging out and logging back in, Han Fei entered a public welfare website for elderly psychological care. On this website, which is dedicated to solving problems for the elderly, he followed the instructions and clicked on a gray online psychological clinic.

The room showed no one online, but Han Fei could still enter normally. He followed the automatic prompts step by step, and when he got to the sixth step, his computer screen went completely black.

"Have you been infected with a virus?"

A dozen minutes later, Han Fei's computer was restored, but all the screens had turned gray.

Lines of static text appeared on the screen, informing Han Fei that he had entered a gray area of ​​the internet, where he could directly search for information outside of the internet cocoon.

A countdown appeared on the screen; he only had ten minutes left.

Outside the cocoon, information is mixed and dangerous, filled with darkness and violence; the horror of humanity spiraling out of control is fully revealed here.

After a thorough investigation, Han Fei discovered something very serious.

Compared to Sunday night school and murder clubs, outside of the online cocoon, death-spreading group chats are the most insidious form of influence.

"These three seem to be a whole, originating from the same thing."

(End of this chapter)