The work of the Go master

Nothing unusual was found. Instead, a masterpiece of British drama, "Yes, Minister," was discovered, which made me eager to watch it and pay the bill on the spot.

When the exploration path led to behind the counter, Ke Zhiguang discovered something.

A lucky cat, very similar to the one I found a few months ago at Lin Ying's Go club.

[Spiritual objects: Abundant wealth and prosperity]

The character "广" (Guang) is repeated seven times, as if implying that this lucky cat's ability to attract customers is seven times that of an ordinary lucky cat.

[Unemployed]

After thinking for a moment, Ke Zhiguang placed the lucky cat on the table.

[At work]

So that's how it is. Just putting it up turns it on, and putting it down turns it off. With a seven-fold lucky cat like this, there's no need to worry about not being able to rent out the goods here.

This indirectly shows that the owner really hopes that the things here can be rented out, rather than like a rich person with money to burn who rents a small shop here to kill time.

Ke Zhiguang thought of the demon registers in the Black Market. Every night, Brother Ze would go out late at night to distribute these demon registers to suitable people, in order to lure them into the Black Market.

They might be doing the same thing here, spreading poison everywhere.

What Zezi did was called targeted poisoning, but this place... could it be called the source of a plague?

The thought alone is terrifying.

The method of releasing the poison is naturally related to these videotapes. It's possible that something is hidden inside, or that the videotapes contain strange and cult elements.

Continuing to search under the counter, what was found was not videotapes, but a pile of vinyl records. Judging from the labels, they all seemed to be classical music, with various symphonies as the suffix.

The boss certainly seemed like the kind of person who would listen to this kind of music; it's a standard feature of successful people.

Ke Zhiguang shifted his gaze and noticed that there was indeed such a record player next to the counter.

A black, unidentified gas was wafting out of the record player in wisps; it was difficult to notice this strange phenomenon unless you looked closely.

To be precise, it came from a record on a record player.

Ke Zhiguang looked at the album's title, "The Erlking," composed in 1815 by Schubert. It's a narrative song about a father carrying his sick son on horseback through a forest, but the Erlking is tempting the son. In the end, the son's soul is taken by the Erlking, and the father is left holding only his son's corpse.

Both the title and the content are designed to be intimidating.

Most importantly, it's emitting black smoke.

No dialog boxes are displayed.

Like the boss, nothing is displayed; everything is shrouded in mystery.

Ke Zhiguang calmly turned on the record player and listened to a song.

He had no talent for composing and couldn't understand German, but he found some parts of the music rather frightening.

The demon king pressed closer and closer, eventually stealing the child's soul.

So here's the question: would the boss's symbolic spirit be called "Demon King"?

After thinking about it, it shouldn't be that far-fetched. Ke Zhiguang has never seen a Western-style symbolic spirit in all his years of experience.

Furthermore, if the boss's symbolic spirit is truly such an ultimate thing, wouldn't the existence of the Stone Heart be quite awkward? So who exactly is the ceiling, and who is the final boss?

The Demon King is probably just a metaphor.

The metaphor in this narrative song.

After some exploration, the visible areas were basically explored, and no further anomalies were found, nor were any guests visited.

Honestly, if a customer actually came, Ke Zhiguang would probably say on behalf of the boss that everyone could take whatever they wanted, and that it was free.

Regardless of whether it's poisonous or not, let's turn this place into a massive fire sale and make him lose a fortune.

Next, we come to the small room behind the noren curtain; this is where the real suspicion lies.

Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Season for Slaying Dragons Has Arrived Again

Lifting the noren curtain and stepping behind the mysterious curtain, a musty, damp smell assaulted my nostrils, as if I had stepped into a cheap hotel that cost 58 yuan a day, which was very unpleasant.

The surrounding temperature dropped a few degrees.

Although there are lights here, they are very dim, as if covered by a thick dark film, with some kind of dark matter devouring the brightness of the light.

What appeared before me was a wall made up of many drawers, and my first thought was of the medicine box behind the counter of a traditional Chinese medicine shop.

All the misfortune emanated from this drawer wall.

Clearly, what's inside isn't a legitimate stockpile of videotapes, but something far more sinister.

Even through the wooden wall, Ke Zhiguang could still sense the eerie aura emanating from it.

If each drawer contains a dark, spiritual object, then the place he's in now is probably... well, an SCP containment facility or something like that.

Ke Zhiguang tried to turn any of the drawers, but couldn't open them; they were all locked tightly.

It seems the boss usually keeps a tight rein on these things.

But soon, Ke Zhiguang noticed that one of the drawers hadn't been tucked in perfectly, with a small section sticking out.

This drawer has most likely been opened recently.

Ke Zhiguang went up and pulled open the unlocked drawer.

But it was empty inside; perhaps the contents were taken away not long ago.

Is it correct to say that a monster was released from SCP?

Ke Zhiguang didn't close the drawer immediately. Instead, he reached inside to see if he could find any clues.

The moment his palm touched the inner surface of the drawer, a sudden pain struck, causing Ke Zhiguang to immediately pull his hand back.

This is not frostbite or a bite, but an injury from a sharp object...

No, it wasn't a sharp weapon; it was more like a bite.

The kind where you get bitten by sharp teeth.

Ke Zhiguang suddenly noticed that a thin layer of black flame was burning on the inner surface of the drawer, like oil that had been poured on it, and the concentration was quite high.

The flames didn't originate from the drawer itself, but rather from something that was already inside. After being inside for a while, this thing spilled out some unidentified burning material, making the whole drawer look ominous.

Considering that this is a bite wound from teeth, it means there was a living creature inside.

Holy crap! Could an SCP monster have actually escaped?!

Ke Zhiguang imagined it this way.

The sense of unease intensified.

A living creature lives in this drawer like an object.

The place where it once resided also became ominous, burning with an ominous fire.

Then what it burns is probably not just simple black fire.

Ke Zhiguang glanced at his hand, which had just been touched, and actually found something like a wound.

Two red dots, no more than 1.5 centimeters apart, are the bite marks.

A slight sense of confusion arose in my heart: what kind of animal could have such bite marks?

If it were a cat or dog, the bite marks would be very simple, just a row of irregular teeth. But this kind of bite mark only has two points, which is something Ke Zhiguang really couldn't have imagined.

After a long pause, two somewhat alarming answers came to mind.

Snake bite marks.

Or it could be a bat bite mark.

Considering that there are almost no Western elements in this world, the possibility of it being a snake is higher. There is also a legend of the hammer snake in Japan, which makes the answer of snake even more obvious.

Another name for the hammer snake is the earth dragon.

Thinking of this, the memory of the demon dragon painting resurfaced.

And isn't a snake something that resembles a dragon?

Although the Earth Dragon sounds inferior to the Demon Dragon, the name Demon Dragon was ultimately given by Ke Zhiguang himself; its proper name is the Lord of the Swamp...

Okay, the title "Lord of the Swamp" sounds cooler than "Earth Dragon".

"It's that time of year again to slay dragons..." Ke Zhiguang muttered to himself, suddenly feeling like he had a new purpose in life.

Whether it's a hammer snake or an earth dragon doesn't matter; the point is that it's a snake that's transforming into a dragon.

As for the dragon's strength... the bite mark on the back of Ke Zhiguang's hand says it all.

Very strong.

If I'm not mistaken, a new task card has been added to my own quantum mechanics chessboard.

After a moment of clarity, Ke Zhiguang prepared to leave. The clues had all been gathered: the video store in the plague point, the owner listening to "The Demon King," the SCP containment-level storage room, and the final dragon-shaped boss.

Sure enough, being a high school detective is much more interesting than being an active male high school professional Go player.

"Hello, is anyone here?" came the voice of a guest entering the room.

"Welcome, take whatever you want, it's free today..." Just as he was saying this, Ke Zhiguang froze.

Because the person who came was none other than Inoue Seika.

"Senior Ke Zhiguang, what are you doing here?" Inoue asked him in confusion.

"I also want to ask you why you came to this godforsaken place?" Ke Zhiguang was filled with doubt and a ton of worry.

He naturally thought of Bai Meng that time, when she was also subjected to strange, seductive suggestions and walked into a strange shop, almost making a mistake... ugh, anyway, almost causing bad consequences.

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“I just came back from having dinner with my parents in the port area and was on my way back to the women’s dormitory when I happened to pass by here and was looking to rent some things to look at.” Inoue answered naturally, without the slightest hint of anything unusual.

But then she looked puzzled: "I can't really explain it either. How did I suddenly end up here? Maybe it's related to that..."

As she spoke, she pointed to the lucky cat on the counter.

Ke Zhiguang went silent.

He forgot to turn off the lucky cat figurine he had opened, and it's been sitting on the counter ever since.