Life Dungeon Game

He Ao suddenly asked out of the blue.

"Hmm?" Thorne paused for a moment upon hearing the question, then nodded. "It is indeed in the second half of the year."

He glanced at He Ao and realized that He Ao might have other sources of information that he was unaware of.

Heo looked at him, signaling him to continue.

He didn't know this time through other intelligence; he guessed it.

Because Jayce met the Mystic around the middle of the year, and given the Mystic's caution, he wouldn't get a reply from Jayce immediately, so he would definitely start making other preparations.

So He Ao guessed that the time would be in the second half of the year.

Of course, he was just guessing, and also trying to trick Thorne.

His guess turned out to be correct.

Judging from Thorne's sudden expression of surprise, the timing should be accurate, and Thorne has no reason to lie about it.

However, He Ao was still somewhat surprised that the mysterious person had started preparing so early, arranging the commission, and finding a detective agency.

This means that the mysterious figure began plotting against Jess after their first meeting.

"I helped that mysterious man find several detective agencies, but he wasn't satisfied with any of them. In the end, he chose the Norbeck Detective Agency,"

After composing himself, Thorne continued, "And the reason the mysterious man chose this detective agency is quite simple."

"Because Norbeck is greedy and ruthless enough, he has no moral constraints as a detective."

He Ao slowly replied.

"Yes,"

Thorne nodded.

“Other detective agencies have some real detectives to some extent, and they have their own principles. Even detective agencies that are involved in the underworld will care about their reputation. Only the Nobeck detective agency was completely transformed from a gang. It has the strength and will do anything, no matter what.”

Then he glanced at He Ao and continued, "You know what happened next. I arranged for my informant to lead you to the Norbeck Detective Agency, and then I introduced you to the agency. The secret drugs you drank were also passed on to the agency by a mysterious person through me, and then to you."

Thorne stopped speaking at this point.

"there is none left?"

He looked at him.

"You should already know all this information. I've told you most of it, but I've omitted some minor details."

Thorne said slowly,

"Some seemingly minor details are actually quite important. Do you need me to remind you of them?"

He Ao gazed at him calmly, his brown eyes as still as a deep pool. He slowly took out the pendant from his clothes, his tone even, each word deliberate, like a lion controlling its rage.

"Four years ago, my wife died in an 'accident'."

Chapter 554 Breaking the Net (Long Chapter, Requesting Monthly Tickets)

If there's anyone in this world who could stop Jayce from becoming obsessed, it would be his wife, Tiny.

After his parents passed away, Jess once fell into a state of obsession with investigating the truth behind their deaths.

It was during that state that Jess met the old professor who was later murdered and began his research on gene-based drugs.

During that time, the mysterious man approached Jess for the first time, hoping to fund Jess's research.

And what finally made Jayce stop was his wife, Tini.

After seeing his wife's haggard face, Jess chose to let go and return to his family, so that the living would not continue to be hurt.

After that, he sold all the information to the mysterious man cheaply and withdrew from the center of the vortex.

Although he has not given up investigating the cause of his parents' deaths, he is no longer fixated on those indescribable, unknown, and mysterious facts.

After returning to his family, he did indeed live a peaceful and happy life for a time, but this life was soon ruthlessly shattered.

His wife, Tini, has passed away.

He was attacked by a mentally ill gunman during a conference speech and collapsed in a pool of blood.

After that, the mysterious man found Jess again and invited him to participate in the development project of the gene serum.

From that moment on, Jess suspected that his wife's death was related to the mysterious man.

Even his wife's death was a warning shot from the mysterious man.

A death threat: if you don't cooperate, you will die.

But he has no evidence.

Similarly, in his interactions with the mysterious man, Jess also realized that his parents' deaths were related to the mysterious man.

Similarly, he had no evidence to support this speculation.

However, the mysterious man had used words to more or less imply that the deaths of Jess's parents and wife were related to him.

However, this kind of suggestion was actually provocation. It did not cross any actual boundaries, but it kept affecting Jess's mind, causing him, who was already mentally unstable, to fall further into madness.

The mysterious figure added deeper psychological implications to the various hints, suggesting that the deaths of Jess's parents and wife were related to his "upper class," and that he was merely a mouthpiece.

The mysterious man used this to instill Jess's hatred for his "upper echelons," and then used this hatred to create a goal for Jess that would allow him to meet even higher echelons by developing a gene serum, thus driving Jess to work for him.

Clearly, the mysterious man's actions were aimed at cultivating a raging fire of hatred, and using this fire to help him overcome obstacles in his research on gene-based drugs.

This is dangerous, but the mysterious man is confident. He is confident that this flame, which he cultivated and is completely under his control, will eventually be extinguished by him.

Until the flames got out of control at the last moment.

Putting aside the identities of those involved, from an outsider's perspective, the Mysterio man's control over Jess was actually quite perfect.

Jess never escaped his scheme from the beginning; the people he could trust either died unexpectedly or were informants for the mysterious man.

Looking back at the whole picture now, perhaps when Mystic directed Jess's hatred towards his 'upper echelons,' he had already laid the groundwork.

Alright, the plan to kill Jess is complete.

This was a dead end from the start. The moment Jess made contact with the mysterious man, a web of death was already being woven.

The net was so strong that Jess didn't even have a chance to struggle before his final end came.

Of course, He Ao's appearance tore through this net and broke this seemingly solid situation.

But even now, the frantic murmurs still echoed in He Ao's ears.

This was a trap hidden in Jayce's secret medicine. He took the problematic medicine from the mysterious man before fully mastering the talent sequence, which caused Jayce's mental state to be constantly on the verge of madness.

This madness did not subside with He Ao's advancement to C-level. On the contrary, as he entered the extraordinary world more deeply, his mad thoughts combined with the delirious murmurs that C-level beings could hear, greatly amplifying the mental influence of the delirious murmurs.

If He Ao hadn't possessed some mental resilience, he would have gone insane by the time he was promoted to C-level.

This is also the 'thunder' that the mysterious person planted in Jess's body. With this insane state present, even if Jess advances to C-rank, he will go insane and become a twisted monster.

The future that the mysterious man planned for Jess was a dead end.

Of course, with He Ao's advancement to C-level and the control of the insane ramblings within his body, the deadly arrangements left behind by the mysterious man have basically become ineffective.

Now that He Ao has completely broken free of the net, he can finally stand outside this large net and see what the people behind the scenes who wove it look like.

The first key question is whether the deaths of Jess's parents and wife are related to the Mysterio man.

Setting aside Jess's delusions during his madness, after roughly recalling the scenes from his memories, Heo believed it was related to the mysterious man.

One obvious piece of evidence is that many of the things the Mysterio hinted at to Jess were spot on.

For example, there are hints about some details of the chemical plant explosion that Jayce's father committed years ago, as well as hints about the time when Jayce's father went to the chemical plant. There are also hints about the topic of Jayce's wife's last speech, her state of mind during the speech, and even some details about the appearance of the mentally ill gunman.

Of course, this information is conveyed through metaphors and hints. The mysterious man never said these things in person, but rather provoked Jess through similar things and key words.

Stripping away the psychological pressure, all this information reveals one thing—the mysterious man is very familiar with the deaths of Jess's parents and wife, so much so that it seems as if he arranged them himself.

To be able to achieve this level,

Alternatively, the mysterious person may have thoroughly studied the case files of Jess's parents and wife, and collected a large amount of related intelligence.

Either the mysterious person is the murderer himself, or one of the masterminds behind it all.

He Ao leans more towards the second guess.

The reason is simple: Jess is a purely good person. After his wife's death, it was easy to get his help to research the gene serum. He could simply help Jess investigate the causes of his parents' and wife's deaths and create a common enemy.

Jess would gladly help and be very grateful; that's essentially the kind of working relationship he has with the old professor, except the old professor isn't willing to let him...

They got involved.

There's basically no risk in doing this, and Jess will work hard.

Mystic abandoned this lower-risk approach and instead chose the more difficult and dangerous path of cultivating hatred. This proves that there is an irreconcilable conflict between him and Jayce, a conflict so acute that even the kind-hearted Jayce would be unable to cooperate with him once he discovers the truth.

The only remaining contradiction is that he is either the murderer or the mastermind behind Jess's parents and wife's deaths.

Of course, Mysterio could also pretend to be a good person and trick Jess into working for him, but judging from Jess's memories of his interactions with Mysterio, Mysterio doesn't seem to be someone who likes to pretend. Rather than pretending to be a good person and facing the risk of being exposed at any time, Mysterio prefers to be a pure villain.

Of course, He'ao's guesses weren't entirely unfounded. Information she received from Saran, a student working at the Huiermei Medical Foundation, helped her complete some of the puzzle in her reasoning.

Saran once mentioned that about six years ago, the Huiermei Medical Foundation launched a secret project related to biological genes.

This timing coincides with the time when Jess sold his genetic serum-related information to the mysterious man.

Now, He Ao has basically confirmed that there is some kind of connection between the mysterious person and the Huierme Medical Foundation.

The facts at the time were probably this: after Jess sold his research data to the mysterious man, the mysterious man used the resources of the Huierme Medical Foundation to set up a secret laboratory, attempting to develop a gene drug on his own.

Saran said that this secret project lasted for two or three years, which corresponds to the period when the mysterious man did not contact Jess and Jess lived a peaceful and stable life.

The final turning point was that this secret project failed.

The mysterious man realized that he couldn't develop the gene serum on his own, so he chose to return and cooperate with Jess.

However, Jayce refused to cooperate from the very beginning and chose to return to his family, so it was impossible to directly ask Jayce to come out of retirement.

So what's the best way to get Jayce, who's been focusing on his family, back into action?

It's very simple: make him have no family.

Intelligence from Saran indirectly confirmed that the mysterious man had a strong motive to kill Jess's wife.