Life Dungeon Game

Its methods are so gentle, like a slow-acting poison.

In the short term of one or two days, even ordinary people would not notice the problem.

These tentacles didn't just arrive here recently; they've always been here.

They were here after Jess's father died, or even before Jess's father died.

They were like pairs of eyes, filling every corner of the house, spying on Jess's parents' lives, spying...

Explore their thoughts, peer into their memories.

This is the method the mysterious person used to plant in Jess's house to spy on the secret knowledge that Jess's parents possessed.

He Ao shut down the super memory, and the whole world instantly returned to peace and quiet.

His hand rested on the dusty bookcase door, the quiet bookcase seemingly frozen in time.

He Ao was all alone in the empty house.

But the forces that kept invading his consciousness reminded him that the tentacles hadn't disappeared; they were just invisible to him. They were still wrapped around him, 'watching' him.

However, these tentacles are not triggered all the time, and the power of that hidden being seems to be limited, so the mysterious person probably only set up trigger points in the most critical locations.

The trigger point is the bookshelf. Anyone who opens the bookshelf will be spied on by these tentacles. The longer they stay in this room, the longer they will be spied on.

However, from this perspective, since the mysterious person would use the bookshelf as a trigger point, it proves that he believes the bookshelf is most likely to contain those hidden knowledge.

However, this raises a question: how did the mysterious person pinpoint the location of the bookshelf so precisely?

Are these shadow tentacles inherently designed to locate targets?

He looked out at the living room, where the tentacles had also drooped down, like dense vines hanging down in a forest.

Or was it a mysterious person who entered this house in some identity?

He looked away. He was still missing some crucial clues. The mysterious man's abilities were really affecting his thinking. In Jess's memory, there was no one suspicious.

Of course, it's also possible that a mysterious person cracked the smart lock and sneaked in.

He opened all the cabinet doors, his fingers tracing the books in the bookcase. He temporarily suppressed his doubts, took a few steps back to create distance, and activated his super memory again.

The dense, shadowy tentacles reappeared in his field of vision. He Ao's gaze passed through the tentacles and landed on the bookshelf behind them.

All the books and their arrangement appeared in He'ao's mind.

Then He Ao deactivated his super memory, took a step forward, and looked closely at the books.

The details recorded by hyperremembering are compared with the vague memories in Jess's mind.

After his mother passed away, Jess cleaned the room and looked through every book, but found no clues.

The current arrangement of this bookshelf is very similar to how Jess arranged it after he finished reading it.

Although his memory was a little hazy, He Ao was still fairly certain that these were the books Jess had flipped through and put back, not one more and not one less.

After a moment's thought, He Ao reached out and took all the books down, leaving only an empty bookshelf. He scanned the bookshelf with his super memory, but there was nothing on it.

There were no special markings or hidden symbols, only traces of natural wear and tear. From those traces, He Ao could not discern any deliberately left codes.

However, this situation was not unexpected for Heo. If the things left by Jess's father were so easy to find, it would be impossible that neither Jess nor the Mystic had been found.

The key to this event

The key is that Jess's father must ensure that the knowledge can be seen by the enemies of the mysterious man who comes to seek it, but not by the mysterious man himself.

The mysterious person is also a superhuman, with bizarre abilities and the help of tentacles from these hidden beings. Ordinary superhumans may not be as observant and perceptive as the mysterious person, so what ordinary superhumans can see, the mysterious person should also be able to see.

He looked at the tentacles thoughtfully.

He temporarily left the study and went into other rooms.

The house that Jess's father bought was a small three-bedroom apartment, consisting of a master bedroom, a secondary bedroom, and a study.

The master bedroom is Jess's parents' room, located on the other side of the living room, while the study and the second bedroom are on the other side.

This time, He Ao did not enter the master bedroom. Jess had already thoroughly searched Jess's parents' master bedroom, inside and out.

Especially after finding his mother's last letter, he even disassembled the wardrobe and bed to carefully search for any gaps.

Jess has already searched through everything that can be found physically.

So He Ao went first into Jess's second bedroom.

Jess's second bedroom was very clean. After marrying his wife Tini, Jess moved out and bought a small house on his own. Most of the things he could use had been moved out, and what remained in this second bedroom were some things from his childhood.

The decor of the second bedroom remained almost unchanged. After his parents died, Jess also rummaged through his second bedroom, but not very thoroughly, because many of the things were things he had left in the room.

Jess's parents rarely touched Jess's things, so apart from regular cleaning and tidying, the second bedroom was almost exactly as it was when Jess left it.

There were still a few old clothes in the wardrobe, some of which were already rotten and damaged, and the whole wardrobe was filled with a stuffy, musty smell.

When his mother was still alive, she would clean out Jess's wardrobe every now and then.

Back then, his mother would often take pictures and send them to Jess, telling him how much dust had accumulated on the wardrobe, how many clothes hanging in it hadn't been worn in a long time, and whether Jess had gained weight.

Jess knew that it was because his mother missed him.

He Ao gathered up the tattered synthetic fabric scraps, tidied up the wardrobe, and put it in order.

Then he opened the small bookcase next to the wardrobe.

The bookshelf contained only a few simple books; most of the space was filled with various game consoles and electronic toys.

Jess wanted to study hard, but who could resist the temptation of a game console?

He was scolded by his mother a lot for this when he was a child.

Every time he was scolded, his father would laugh beside him, and even take out his phone to record it, saying that he would play it at his wedding when he grew up.

Then, the mother, who was in a fit of anger, would grab the father as well and scold him together.

Ultimately, the father did not play those videos at Jess's wedding. When Jess was sorting through his father's belongings, he could not find those childhood videos in his father's cloud storage.

Perhaps the father was just trying to scare the child at the time.

He picked up the game consoles; some were completely out of power, while others were still functioning perfectly, containing some of Jess's favorite childhood games.

A game.

The game console's dynamic music played in the empty room, while a faint glow flickered in the darkness.

He Ao remained silent for a moment, then turned off the game console.

He picked up those books.

These books are not serious popular science books, but rather several storybooks with fantasy elements, similar to 'unsolved mysteries'.

Jess couldn't remember anything about the book anymore. Heo opened the book, glanced at it, and saw that it contained only simple tales of the strange and supernatural.

However, he paused for a moment when he opened the last book.

There was a small chip tucked inside this book.

He Ao was stunned for a moment, and it took him a while to realize that this was a virtual receipt storage card.

Most tourist attractions and transportation tickets in the Federation are electronic, but travel always has commemorative value, and many people like to collect their travel receipts, which led to the creation of devices for storing these electronic receipts.

Jess's parents are among those who like to keep electronic receipts.

Most of the time, people download an application to store receipts online and can update them directly online.

However, for some people who don't have high-performance wristbands, or for children whose parents don't want to buy them high-performance wristbands for the time being, there are some inexpensive hardware devices that can be used as 'ticket holders' for storing electronic tickets.

This storage card is essentially a customized memory card; all electronic tickets need to be imported using software.

However, once stored inside, any smart device can read the tickets, such as a game console.

This card was tucked into a book by Jess when he was a child; it contains souvenirs of Jess's trips with his parents.

Jess had found this card while rummaging through his things earlier, but he didn't pay any attention to it and went to look for other things.

More than a decade has passed, and it's unknown whether this card can still be used. Theoretically speaking, the Federal storage chip can be stored for a relatively long time as long as it is not broken.

He picked up the game console, turned it on, and inserted the virtual ticket card into it.

Accompanied by a lively piece of music, the receipts inside were read out.

The most recent ticket was a ticket from Jess's parents to an amusement park, but that was more than 20 years ago.

Jess hasn't used that receipt card since then, because his parents finally bought him a high-end smart bracelet.

There doesn't seem to be any problem.

He pulled out the ticket card and turned off the game console.

He picked up the card and held it up to his eyes, trying to see if he could find any clues.

This card is rare, and Jayce's parents often manipulate items belonging to Jayce.

Because they need to import the prepared invoices into the computer software.

The card's exterior structure is very simple, with a slightly faded plastic casing and conductive contacts exposed to the air.

Conductive contacts are metal pieces with high conductivity. Data exchange can occur when the metal pieces in the slot of the reading device come into contact with these conductive contacts.

Under the terrorist's 'Night Eye' ability, He Ao could clearly see what appeared to be many tiny vertical scratches on the conductive contacts.

It seems to have been caused by frequent insertion of the game console, but these scratches are too shallow to be clearly seen.

After thinking for a moment, He Ao took the card and rummaged through the locker next to him, finding an electronic magnifying glass.

He turned on the magnifying glass and pointed it at the conductive contacts of the card. Details of the conductive contacts appeared on the screen of the magnifying glass.

He then discovered that most of these dense vertical scratches were quite long, but among these long scratches, there were also a few shorter ones.

Game consoles and computers have deep slots, so unless you insert it a little and then suddenly pull it out, it won't cause these short scratches.

The scratch appears to have come from another device.

Just as He Ao was pondering, his bracelet vibrated; it was a message from Hai Xi:

[It seems there's a lead on the matter you asked me to investigate. Recently, someone has been buying up those extraordinary materials you mentioned in large quantities, but the other party's identity is very mysterious. My informant doesn't have any information about him. However, I have an 'old friend' in Plant District who works for the largest materials smuggler in Wetland. He might know something.]

He thought for a moment, holding the card in his hand, and replied: [Is there anything I can do for you?]

Hai Xi immediately replied: [No need, I'm going to Plante right away to see that friend. I'll contact you as soon as I have any information.]

Okay, thank you for your help.