Paintings of Terror

13 kg.

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13000 grams. 

They didn’t know what weight, what size, or even what form the so-called crimson beast existed in.

Chu Zhiyong refused to say anything more about this, and instead, changed into civilian clothes and left the work unit.

 

 

“Let’s go back to each work unit to see our working environment and accommodation first, and then we can gather together for dinner?” Everyone approved Qin Ci’s suggestion, and they unanimously set the dinner place to the family buffet next to the police station.

So Qin Ci took his new “apprentices” Zhi Chun, Su Benxin, and Yu Ji to the central hospital. 

Zhao Yanbao took Chi Lei and Zhu Haowen to the Choujian Detective Agency.

 

The remaining police officers were Ke Xun and Mu Yiran from the Criminal Investigation Department, Lion and Xiao Qinxian from the Forensic Department, and Wei Dong from the Household Registration Department.

At this moment, these five people looked at the “homeless” Luo Wei blankly.

“He forgot about you? Why didn’t you speak up earlier?” Wei Dong even began to think about using his position in the Household Registration Department to get his partner a temporary job.

 

Luo Wei took out his permit and saw the words in the job column: Freelancer.

Different from the circular red stamp of everyone’s ‘Central Police Station in Xincheng District,’ Luo Wei’s work permit was stamped with an eye-catching, elongated rectangular stamp and had red letters that read: Outside the Xincheng Area.

“What does this mean? Why didn’t you ask earlier?” Wei Dong was a little anxious.

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Ke Xun also found it quite strange that when the old policeman was assigning work for them earlier, he had counted their numbers with his fingers, and even though he had counted to 13, he still left Luo Wei out. 

Mi Yiran pondered for a moment and said, “It seems that, in this game, Luo Wei is a special character.”

What this specialness signified, no one could speculate at this moment.
Luo Wei himself also said that it wasn’t good, but what he said later turned everyone’s mood a bit heavy, “Chu Zhiyong didn’t tell us whether the so-called crimson beast is in the city or outside the city.”

“Since our work is arranged in the city, the crimson beast should naturally be within our scope of work.” Ke Xun looked at his companions.
“Even if the beast ran out of the city, it’s not like you are freelancing outside the city, right?”

Xiao Qinxian stood to the side, holding her arm.
“If this is really an unlimited flow game, the prey is likely to be hidden among us, and it would have hidden characteristics that are different from everyone else.” 

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection.
If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

These words seemed to be hinting at something.

“Verqlmlbc lr cba mbcvemlnf ab afjwkbgx,” Ze Tlgjc vlvc’a ibbx ja Wljb Hlczljc, yea tlr rfglber abcf tjv jigfjvs rlifcmfv atf batfg qjgas.
“Ofa’r jii ub ab atf vbgwlabgs olgra.”

Ktfgf kfgf atgff vbgwlabglfr jii abufatfg, vlnlvfv jmmbgvlcu ab vfqjgawfcar.
Sjmt vbgwlabgs tjv akb rlcuif yfvr.

“Dgb, vb sbe wlcv tjnlcu atgff qfbqif lc j gbbw?” Qfl Gbcu jrxfv Olbc, qijcclcu ab wbnf lc j yfv ab wjxf la j atgff-qfgrbc gbbw. 

Lion said with a slight foreign accent, “It’s all good.
I once slept in an ice field with a group of snow-horned deer.
Compared to that, this is heaven.”

Xiao Qinxian pursed her lips, since just moments ago, she’d just been complaining that these rooms were too shabby and smelled of smoke.

 

So, Mu Yiran and Ke Xun, both from the Criminal Investigation Department, lived in one room, while Xiao Qinxian lived in one room, and the other three men lived in one room.

Ke Xun looked at the police uniform hanging on the wall of the dorm.
At some point in time, a bronze work medal with his name and a string of code had been pinned on it.
He tried on the uniform and the size was just right. 

Unfortunately, there was no full-length mirror in the room, so Ke Xun fastened his buttons and looked at himself.
“This is the first time I’ve worn a police uniform.
It’s a dream I’ve had since I was a child, ya’know.”

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When Mu Yiran didn’t say anything, Ke Xun turned around and saw that he was staring at him.

“You also put yours on and show me.” Ke Xun couldn’t help but drape the other uniform on the wall over Mu Yiran’s body.
Even though he wasn’t neatly dressed, it instantly added a rare heroic spirit that made Ke Xun’s heart skip a beat.

Mu Yiran’s hand stopped Ke Xun from continuing to dress himself, and he said in a slightly hoarse voice, “There will be business in a while.” 

Self-restraint had always been one of the qualities that attracted Ke Xun to Mu Yiran.
Now that Ke Xun was wearing a police uniform, Mu Yiran’s eyes were clearly full of desire, but he spoke forbidding words in an unquestionable tone.

Ke Xun touched his waist, wanting to “coerce” the other party with the action of pulling out a gun, but who knew that he would actually pull out a pistol.
The cold and hard touch was a wake-up call.

Mu Yiran also pulled out a gun and took a closer look.
“The gun even has live ammunition.”

“Is it more exciting with a gun?” Ke Xun touched the gun, softening the slightly tense atmosphere. 

There was a knock on the door, and then Wei Dong entered, covering his eyes as he walked in.
“Whatever the two bad policemen are doing, I didn’t see anything.”

Ke Xun stood up and said, “We have guns.
Put your hands up.”

Wei Dong looked through his widely-splayed fingers.
“It’s so fucking unfair.
Why do you have a gun while I only have a ballpoint pen! And even the ink is almost out.”

Only then did Ke Xun find out that Wei Dong was also wearing a police uniform.
“You have the temperament of Xiao Zhang.” 

“Which Xiao Zhang?” As Wei Dong was thinking about whether he meant Zhang Dongjian or Zhang Yixian, he heard the other party say, “That policewoman from the Household Registration Department, her surname is Zhang.”

Alright.
He’d managed to put on a police uniform with great difficulty and actually ended up wearing the temperament of a police woman of the Household Registration Department.
No one could beat that.

Lion, who was standing at the door, interjected, “Compared to you both, I’m just wearing a white robe.
All “I” need is just a pair of powderless latex gloves.”

Wei Dong nodded.
“The “girls” have earned it.” 

Afterward, everyone changed back to their previous casual clothes and went to the family buffet next to the police station.

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“After some careful analysis, many things here aren’t set up properly,” Luo Wei said.
“For example, in this police station, the institutional settings inside are very chaotic.
The emblem isn’t quite right either.”

 

“This is Xincheng, which cannot be measured by normal standards,” Ke Xun said.

This was inside a painting, and that was enough to explain any unreasonable things. 

Luo Wei recalled the unrestrained cartoon setting in the previous painting, but at this moment, the sense of being in a real city made it difficult to focus in a specific direction.

“I think I’m still in China,” Lion looked at the restaurant’s Chinese-style decor.
“I want to eat snail noodles with soy milk.”

“You have heavy tastes.” Wei Dong patted his international friend on the shoulder.

A few minutes later, the other two groups of people arrived.
Qin Ci looked at the cash register and said, “We have no cash and only have a card in our pockets.” 

It was the same for everyone, so they took out their cards to spend.

The waiter took Qin Ci’s card and swiped it.
“Your card has 40 consumption limits, and now there are 39 left.”

39.
Starting from tomorrow morning, if they each ate three meals a day, they could eat for a total of 13 days.

“Have you discovered it? There’s no price tag here, it’s all consumed by card,” the Mori girl Chi Lei whispered.
“That is to say, after 13 days, our consumption limit will be exhausted, and it will be impossible to do anything.” 

Mu Yiran waited at the cash register, and it wasn’t after he’d heard that Luo Wei’s consumption limit was the same as everyone else did he finally walked to the tables.

Now that it was past meal times, there were very few people dining, so everyone found the largest table, sat down, and talked while eating.

Although the current situation was a bit bizarre, these newcomers had not experienced real danger after all, so everyone was still quite hungry after working hard.

When Xiao Qinxian heard that the hospital’s dormitory was a high-end apartment, and the detective’s dormitory was located on the second floor of a garden villa, she sighed a little.
“Our place is small and overcast, and it smells bad.” 

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“We’d better stay here and find some clues before it gets dark, even if it is a tiny clue.” Qin Ci went straight to the topic.

Although it was often the newbies who died on the first night, the veteran members also didn’t want to speculate on the rules using actual deaths.

“At present, our occupational scope is very concentrated: police station, hospital, detective office,” Luo Wei said.
“Obviously there would be cases there, and these criminal cases would involve criminal investigation and forensics.”

His words made sense, and so Xiao Qinxian was the only one who smiled lightly and said, “Those are just guesses.
The task we must accomplish is quite clear, and that is to find the crimson beast.” She unceremoniously turned her gaze to Luo Wei.
“I didn’t understand why the police spoke to one of us in secret until I understood that a certain someone isn’t local, and with this person present, some words can not be said clearly.” 

The people not assigned to the police station were stunned by this revelation.
Zhao Yanbao said, “I went back to check and only 12 people were assigned to work.
What about the other one?”

Xiao Qinxian sneered.
“I don’t know either.
I do know that these people are hiding it for him.
His document showed that he is an outsider, and I really don’t know which organization he belongs to, or why an outsider is present in our conversation today.”

 

Luo Wei wasn’t annoyed.
Instead, he generously put his certificate on the table for the others to see.

Zhao Yanbao carefully looked it over.
“Outside the Xincheng area? A freelancer? Does this mean that once the beast leave Xincheng, we can still go out to hunt them down? Luo Wei is this person with a special identity.” 

Xiao Qinxian interrupted Zhao Yanbao’s words.
“Do you really think that the crimson beast is a physical beast like a tiger or a leopard? I think this is a game similar to Xman, and we need to figure out the one that is out of place.”

Ke Xun and Wei Dong felt unhappy after hearing this, and they were about to fight back, but Zhu Haowen said slowly, “At present, we do know for certain that the crimson beast is 13 kilograms.
That is, 26 catty.
If what this lady said is true and this beast is really among us, its weight shouldn’t be too heavy.
In fact, it should be the lightest one among us.”

Xiao Qinxian looked down at her thin body, stunned with anger.

Everyone’s expressions were mixed for a while.
They no longer spoke and focused on burying their heads in their own meals. 

Mu Yiran turned his attention to Su Benxin, who was sitting opposite him, and finally broke the silence.
“Is Boss Su familiar with the painter Yu Beiguo? There should be a reason why the painting The Crimson Beast isn’t for sale, right?”

Su Benxin didn’t answer immediately.
Her eyes dimmed slightly.
“This painter has already passed away, and so The Crimson Beast was his last work.”

“Dead?”

“Yes, Yu Beiguo committed suicide two months ago.”