On a rain-drenched night, an eerie old farm. A crazed, brutal man wielding an axe chases the guests seeking shelter.
It's a typical horror movie scene, the atmosphere right on point. But unlike the panicked protagonist, Jian Jing is remarkably composed.
The mission outline already hints at the case from years ago - the deaths of five teenagers related to this farm. However, Reid's investigation shows Frank has an alibi.
Even if the boys didn't die the night they went missing, with Frank away from the farm, how did he abduct and confine them? Little Frank was under 10 back then.
Unless they sneaked onto the farm themselves, got trapped somewhere, and were brutally murdered days after they went missing. But that would raise questions.
The 1992 autopsy reports state the boys died either the night they disappeared, or at dawn at the latest.
Yet Frank only returned to his farm around noon.
There are clearly strange things about this case.
Jian Jing dodges Old Frank's axe with a backward kick - considering America's security situation, she upgraded her fighting skills before coming here.
Her fighting skill card is now Advanced level.
[Name: Advanced Fighting Skill Card]
[Description: Your fighting technique is very skilled, enough to take on thugs alone]
[Note: Fists win fights!]
This is her first Advanced card, upgraded using 25 hard-earned courage points.
Worth it.
Without the Advanced fighting card's skills, she can't handle the berserk Old Frank despite her strength and agility.
Clang! Her makeshift iron shovel and his axe collide, both deforming.
Jiang Baiyan raises his gun, tries to aim but lowers it again. He's only learned shooting for a month or two, his only real combat experience was shooting birds in the woods yesterday. His poor aim means shooting is too risky.
"Ah!" Old Frank growls hoarsely like a beast, axe-wielding arms bulging, face purple, resembling a boiled lobster.
This degree of combat consumes huge strength.
Jian Jing wants to conserve her energy, not going all out, just blocking and retreating, slowly luring him toward the dining room. She uses tables and chairs as cover, waiting for an opportunity.
"Why attack us?" she probes.
Old Frank roars and charges, axe swinging.
Jian Jing kicks a chair at his legs to trip him. "Who are you?"
Old Frank just laughs cruelly.
Just then, hurried footsteps sound from the other end of the corridor.
Jiang Baiyan quickly hides around the corner.
"Stop!" Little Frank runs over in his pajamas, distraught. "What are you doing, let go!"
He tackles Old Frank from behind, hugging him tightly. Jian Jing seizes the chance to grab the axe and tie his limbs with rope to immobilize him.
Knowing he can't resist, Old Frank stops struggling after a while, collapsed limply on the floor, panting heavily.
Little Frank helps him up, apologizing profusely, "Sorry, my father had another episode. Did he hurt you?"
Jian Jing looks shaken. "What happened to your father? He attacked us on sight, is he crazy?"
"My father has paranoid schizophrenia. He often hallucinates he's being chased." Little Frank sighs. "I'll lock him in his room, absolutely won't let him out again."
Jian Jing reasonably doubts, "He seemed fine before, why did he suddenly have an episode?"
"Maybe seeing strangers triggered him," Little Frank says matter-of-factly. "He doesn't like strangers. It scares him."
Hardly convincing without proof, but she can't refute it either.
"Curse this rain," Jian Jing pretends to believe him and helps lift Old Frank. "Let me help you."
"Thanks," Little Frank relaxes visibly and releases one hand to lift a trapdoor under the kitchen. "The basement here should restrain him safely until he recovers."
"Isn't it too unpleasant?" Jian Jing feigns concern and signals Jiang Baiyan with her eyes as she descends.
He understands and holds his position.
The dingy basement's dim light reveals a small, sparse room.
It does look like a normal basement, with electrical wiring, piping, a soft mattress, and iron rings on the walls.
Little Frank drags his father onto the mattress and fumbles with the rope knots. But Jian Jing tied an unbreakable special knot. After struggling unsuccessfully for a while, he asks embarrassedly, "Jian, could you..."
"Of course." She deftly undoes the knots, subtly activating her X-ray Glasses as her hand brushes his face in passing.
No hidden mechanisms or passages, just an ordinary basement.
She frowns inwardly but stays expressionless, asking "With your father so sick, do you plan to..."
Before she finishes, things take an unexpected turn.
She was just wary of Little Frank's sneak attack, but the floor moved instead.
The uneven earth under their feet suddenly scatters, clouds of dust rising as the floor swiftly liquefies outward like melting oil.
Prepared for anything, who could expect the inspected floor to be abnormal?
Jian Jing blanks for a second, about to fall into the sinkhole. But she is open cheat after all. At the last moment she activates White Kitten State, springs up, rebounds off the wall onto Old Frank's mattress.
Though her response is nearly instant, the entire basement floor continues sinking.
The jolting mattress descends rapidly until Jian Jing finally sees what the floor actually is.
No wonder the X-ray Glasses found nothing odd. The basement floor is a several-feet thick pad woven entirely from those strange black tendrils.
Unless she suddenly becomes a gecko to climb the ceiling, escape topside is impossible. But do the tendril traps only fill this basement? Might the entire farm's floor be dominated by the weird root system?
Thoughts flashing meteor-quick through her mind, Jian Jing decides to wait and see.
She stops running.
The tendril "elevator" soon halts, revealing the true underground chamber.
"My father's condition is very serious," Little Frank doesn't flip his face, still explaining earnestly to his guest. "He's too strong when sick. I can only restrain him deeper down."
Not pretending ignorance, Jian Jing is happy to keep up the act: "What is this place?"
Little Frank: "Secret space."
It resembles an underground room composed entirely of thick tree roots, walls, ceiling and floors dense with dark tendrils.
Jian Jing has seen the curtain-like aerial roots of large banyan trees. But this network dwarfs those, motionlessly root-like yet forebodingly snakelike when active.
"What plant do these roots belong to?" She cuts to the chase.
Little Frank: "Giant tree."
"I didn't see any big trees on the farm." She plays confused.
Little Frank just smiles silently. He drags Old Frank over and flings him in a corner. The active wall-roots swiftly bind the old man against the wall, his earlier anguished expression now serene.
This, Jian Jing notes uneasily, reminds her of the dead boys.
"I've answered many questions," Little Frank says. "How about you answer some of mine?"
Jian Jing laughs. "I like fair trades. Go ahead."
Little Frank: "Why did you come to Twilight Town?"
Jian Jing: "Tourism."
Little Frank states slowly, "Tourists don't normally ask about 30-year-old cases."
"Feel free to ask." Jian Jing countered, "If I remember correctly, this was a sensational major case at that time. What's wrong with me making some inquiries?"
"Nothing wrong, but no meaning." Little Frank's tone was subtle, with imperceptible mockery, "That was a long time ago."
"Maybe so." Jian Jing was worried that she wouldn't be able to get him to talk after offending him, so she hurried to interrogate him, "But indeed, investigating cases is the police's job. What I'm curious about is another matter."
Little Frank asked: "What matter?"
"Have you seen a man," she asked, "who calls himself Qi Tian, meaning sky or god?"
Little Frank changed color abruptly: "Is it him? Are you his accomplice?"
"Enemy." Jian Jing denied immediately, "Have you seen him?"
"He's already dead." Little Frank said coldly, "Blasphemers must die without a doubt."
"Blasphemy?" Jian Jing felt averse inside.
Compared to violent murderers, those who engage in sinister cults are even more inhumane.
Little Frank looked at her and said calmly, "You have seen the servant of God. Now there are two choices: accept the grace and become a servant of God, or become a lamb offered to God."
Jian Jing smiled, "What if I choose neither?"
"Sorry." He apologized insincerely, and picked up the knife on the workbench.
The blade was stained with blood stains, having slaughtered countless animals. One could still vaguely smell a bloody odor. He swung the knife and hacked at Jian Jing head-on.
At the same time, the ubiquitous roots writhed and shoved, throwing her towards the enemy.
Jian Jing took out her prepared gun and shot Little Frank directly. With her aim assist card, the bullet accurately hit the femoral artery in his thigh.
The bright red blood gushed out abruptly, like a fountain.
However, the next moment, a root as thick as a finger drilled into the wound, blocking the damaged blood vessel. In just the blink of an eye, the blood spray visibly diminished, and actually stopped in less than five seconds.
What is this stuff?
Jiang BaiYan waited for fifteen minutes on the ground, but still did not see Jian Jing and Little Frank come down. He tried to pull up on the underground room's trap door, but it did not budge at all, as if it had fused with the ground.
He hesitated no longer, and immediately ran to Old William's room.
"Bang bang bang." He pounded on the door.
The snoring inside stopped. Ten seconds later, an angry Old William opened the door and burst out cursing, "F*ck! Don't you dare disturb me again! Otherwise I'll throw you into the woods to feed the wolves!"
Jiang BaiYan: "Something happened. Little Frank has abducted my companion."
Old William frowned, doubting his ears: "What?"
