The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 221 The Neuromaniac

Qi Fei's gaze fell to his fingers.

Zhong Kui is right. If the murderer stabbed Hao Weiwei in other parts of his body to torture him, then cutting off the tip of his right index finger seems to have a specific purpose.

“He revealed the thing he hates most about Hao Weiwei,” Qi Fei murmured, twitching his index finger. “He hates that Hao Weiwei clicked the report button instead of typing on the keyboard and hurling insults at him!” He gripped Zhong Kui’s slightly cool hands tightly, his eyes gleaming. “The Cyber ​​Killer’s motive was that Hao Weiwei reported him, not because of negative reviews of his work. If that’s the case, the list we’ve compiled so far isn’t accurate. Although Ji Peng was reported by Hao Weiwei, his work has already been sold for copyright, so there weren’t any serious consequences, not enough to warrant murder.”

Xu Liang received negative comments from Hao Weiwei, but was not reported, so this motive doesn't fit.

Zhong Kui pulled her hand away, picked up the mouse and clicked it twice. The screen lit up, and the computer opened the homepage of the platform where Hao Weiwei published her novel. She clicked the mouse on the announcement board and said, "Today I brushed up on the rules for publishing online novels. This announcement board will regularly publish works suspected of violating the rules. They have a term for this: 'taken down.' Once a work is judged to be in violation, it will no longer be visible."

If your speculation is correct, then Cyber ​​Killer's work should have already been taken down due to Hao Weiwei's report.

"If the works are no longer online, where do we track down suspicious individuals?" Qi Fei was perplexed.

Zhong Kui seemed to have anticipated his troubles. Her fingertip touched the mouse wheel, and the announcement board appeared for the first time: "This novel platform will periodically announce the novels that have been dealt with, listing the novel's name and author. Perhaps you can find the person you are looking for here."

A string of names of authors and works that violated the rules came into Qi Fei's view. In other words, once an author was dealt with, it would be virtually impossible for them to continue creating under that pen name.

"Moreover, I discovered that writing platforms have their own classification system. For example, Hao Weiwei's works belong to the male-oriented, modern, and rebirth genres. I studied their competition rules, and basically, the competition for readers and the opportunity for platform exposure are all within the same category. From the current perspective, whether Hao Weiwei gives other authors bad reviews or maliciously reports them, the purpose is to suppress emerging new authors through vicious competition. Therefore, the list of those who have been dealt with belongs to the same type of novel as Hao Weiwei's, and the possibility that the author is Cyber ​​Killer is very high."

Qi Fei listened intently, and said with some surprise, "I thought you didn't understand anything about the internet, but I didn't expect you to understand the rules of online novels so well."

Zhong Kui raised an eyebrow: "I never said I didn't understand the internet. Zhong Xiaoyu's perception of me is that of a human from twenty years ago. Don't forget that the internet and online novels were already very common back then. It's just that the medium for reading online novels has changed from computers to mobile phones. I just don't like smartphones, that's all."

Without further ado, Qi Fei took the mouse from Zhong Kui and began to carefully examine the works on the bulletin board.

Zhong Kui, standing nearby, seemed equally interested, moving closer and closer. Her thick, black hair occasionally brushed against Qi Fei's cheek, causing him to bite his lip, trying hard not to get distracted. "Hmm?" Zhong Kui gave a soft hum, then pressed herself even closer to Qi Fei.

Qi Fei hesitated, then his left hand restlessly wrapped around her shoulder.

Zhong Kui looked at Qi Fei with a mischievous smile, her red lips almost touching his nose. Suddenly, she leaned back and grinned, "Where are your principles?" Then she ran her finger across the back of Qi Fei's hand holding the mouse. "I just saw an interesting name. You'll have to scroll back."

Qi Fei awkwardly raised the hand that was around her, and with nowhere to put it, he could only scratch his head and stammer, "Which one did you see?"

Zhong Kui raised her hand, her fingertips landing on the computer screen, pointing to a novel that had been removed from shelves a year ago. The book was titled "After the Consciousness Anchor Failed, I Was Reborn in the Third Dimension," and the reason for the violation was that it was suspected of using AI writing.

Qi Fei read the awkward title back and forth twice, puzzled: "Is it because the title of this novel has the word 'rebirth' in it? Hao Weiwei's 'God of War' is also about rebirth."

“Of course not. I’ve read Hao Weiwei’s ‘track’ extensively. Nine out of ten of his books are about rebirth. What I’m interested in is this person’s pen name.” Zhong Kui said, sliding her finger across the name.

Qi Fei followed her finger and frowned slightly when he saw the name, because he still didn't quite understand: "Neuromancer? That's quite a neurotic name."

“A collective illusion experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators.” Zhong Kui suddenly recited a phrase Qi Fei had never heard before. “This is the definition of ‘cyberspace’ given by science fiction writer William Gibson in his novel *Neuromancer* in the 1980s.” As she spoke, she glanced at Qi Fei’s questioning face, as if anticipating his question, and answered preemptively, “That’s right. After I first heard the word ‘cyber’, I was very interested in understanding its origins. William Gibson wasn’t the first to use the word ‘cyber,’ but he was the one who popularized it. In his novel *Neuromancer*, he depicted a dystopian future of ‘high technology, low life’—giant corporate monopolies, humans implanted with mechanical prosthetics, consciousness accessing virtual ‘cyberspace’…” As Zhong Kui spoke, the smile that usually graced her face began to seep into a sinister chill. “This fantasy from forty years ago, doesn’t it sound quite familiar now?”

Qi Fei almost forgot why they were discussing this in the first place. After a moment of stunned silence, he finally managed to gather his thoughts: "You mean, this author has read William Gibson's novels?"

"At least judging from this pen name, he has a special affection for the cyber world, doesn't he? Think back to those cold, code-like words; no wonder it was judged as AI writing. Yet, he also published emotional texts in Hao Weiwei's novel to prove that he is not AI. Of course, a pen name doesn't prove anything. Perhaps we can ask the platform for the full text of this novel and compare it with the chapters published by Cyber ​​Killer."

Zhong Kui's suggestion reminded Qi Fei, who slapped his thigh and exclaimed, "I can ask those two online writers to help determine if it was written by the same person!"