Inside a large and brightly lit conference room, a dozen men dressed in formal wear were seated uniformly on both sides of the conference table.
The head of the conference table was unoccupied. Behind the seat was a large poster that depicted the logo of a silver-white hollowed-out Earth. A halo of light entwined with green leaves and red stars surrounded the picture of Earth.
This logo was the union emblem of the Earth Federation.
Below the emblem, the words “Central Continent Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation” was written.
Meanwhile, a middle-aged man with an imposing aura seated at the top right corner of the table said in a low voice while looking at the report in his hand:
“Following the six missing cases that occurred in dormitory building No. 1 of a school in Shangdu on 15 December, 110 additional missing cases were reported in the same building over the next two days. What do you guys think of this incident?”
The middle-aged man had a bed of gray hair but the roots of his hair stood upright. His temperament was as sharp as the tip of a blade. “The police report contains zero valuable information except for the fact that most of them disappeared in the dormitory.”
“Hold on.”
One of the members at the conference table suddenly interjected. “What do you mean when you said that most of them disappeared in the dormitory? You mean that not all of the students disappeared in the dormitory?”
“Of course not.”
The middle-aged man became grave as he said, “The six missing cases that occurred on the first day all occurred in the dormitory building. To be specific, they all occurred in Dorm 404 but two days later, the same incident occurred on a larger scale in the dormitory building. Some of the disappearances were in the toilets, some in other dormitories, the strangest cases are the ones who went missing in the school building during classes…”
“How is it that we’re now only hearing of such a shocking event?”
Seated opposite the middle-aged man was another elderly man who was in his mid-fifties. This man expressed with his brows heavily knitted together. “A grave event like this should’ve been reported to us as early as yesterday. Are the people in the lower organization a bunch of imbeciles?”
“That’s because their department still didn’t dare to pinpoint the exact nature of this incident due to how bizarre the entire event is.”
The middle-aged man answered with unchanging expression, “Only a handful of people were reported missing by last afternoon. Most of them were not written off as being missing yet since they were mostly students and could very well just be loitering around together.
“However, earlier this morning, most of the students in dormitory building No. 1 had disappeared from their beds. The number of cases also skyrocketed from double digits to triple digits. As we speak, this number is still continuously increasing and the cases aren’t restricted to the dormitory only.
“During the first day, it only happened in one specific dormitory. By the second day, the entire dormitory building was affected and it quickly spread into the entire school by the third day…”
Another man in his early forties with coarse skin suddenly thought of something and raised a point. “Is it just me or are these incidents slowly spreading outward like a virus?”
“It seems that way to me too.”
The middle-aged man tipped his head in agreement. “What’s even more worrisome is that the disappearing victims aren’t only students, even some of the police vanished…”
“What!”
“What!”
There was a sudden uproar in the conference room. The question was thrown around. “Is this information verified?”
“We’re very sure of it. So far, three police staff had gone missing. The one thing in common between the three of them is that they have all entered the dormitory at one point.”
The middle-aged man passed the report to his elder colleague. “Take a look and you’ll get what I mean…”
“Little Wang, print more copies at the office and hand them out to everyone here.”
The elderly man instructed before taking the report in hand and started going through it. When he started reading it, everyone immediately noticed sweat dripping down his forehead and along his back…
Was it cold sweat?
Everyone present was silently awed by this sight. This man had been second in command at the Federal Bureau of Investigation for many years. There was no spectacle that he had not seen before, but now he was reduced to such a state?
“I have to say, it doesn’t look good.”
After five minutes, the aged man struggled to lift his head back up. His expression had become incomprehensibly grave. “I’ve heard of contagious fever or pneumonia, but never such a thing as contagious disappearance. No matter how you look at this incident, all evidence points at the Dorm 404 as the source.”
“Have we properly investigated that dormitory?” one of them asked again.
“We have. Everything suspicious in the dormitory has been investigated. Even all of the folders in the four laptops inside this dormitory have been thoroughly investigated. We also went through the websites they frequented but there’s no notable discovery.”
The middle-aged man answered, “The only abnormal observation is probably a videotape we found under one of the beds.”
The young man they called Little Wang had returned to the conference room again. He lapped around the conference table and handed a copy of the report to each person before returning to his original seat.
“Videotape?”
Everyone was slightly surprised by this piece of information. Something like a videotape had been obsolete for at least two decades. Why would it show up in a dormitory housed by young university students?
“What are the contents of the videotape?” Some of the members could no longer bear the suspense and flipped to the end of the report. What they saw caught them off guard.
“Ring?”
“That’s right. Odd, isn’t it.”
The middle-aged man held up a report and tapped a paragraph written on the report. “The contents of the videotape is very similar to a Southeast Asian movie called Ring.
“After comparing them side by side, we found there are many similarities between the movie Ring and the videotape we discovered. They both contain elements such as ‘well’, ‘volcano explosion’, ‘combing lady’, it’s completely identical…”
“Maybe it’s just the graduation project of one of the students?’
Someone raised a valid point. “Considering the special effects technology these days, it shouldn’t be too hard for an academy student to recreate the same images.”
“The police have investigated the tape.”
The middle-aged man flipped to the next page. “Six members watched this movie and right after they finished the movie, their phones coincidentally rang all at the same time. The number of the caller was blank and when they picked up, the call was cut off.”
“Isn’t this the same as the plot of the movie?”
Some of them who were familiar with the movie suddenly murmured, “This is the plot of the movie. Anyone who watches this movie will receive a phone call and they’ll die in seven days, isn’t it?”
“That’s right.”
The middle-aged man nodded. “They even tried to track the source of this phone call but the local station reports that their phones didn’t receive any inbound call at that time.”
Everyone immediately descended into silence.
“Maybe we can try to contact the director of this movie.”
Suddenly, the elderly man suggested. “Not just the director, we should meet with the entire casting crew. They were the ones who filmed this movie, I believe that they should be able to contribute to this case.”
“I agree…”
“That’s right, that should be it.”
“Agreed!”
Many people vouched for the same idea.
“Hold on!”
It was then when the young man called Little Wang seated in the final row suddenly drew everyone’s attention and flipped to the final page. “Sudden disappearances aren’t the only abnormal activity reported in that school. There are also cases of people falling to their deaths and sudden deaths, all of them also originated from Dorm 404!”
As he said this, he shot up from his seat and pointed at the relevant article. “The first victim of these cases is a patient with epilepsy called Wang Wei. What’s odd is that he’s never had this syndrome in his medical history nor any of his family members! The method of his death warrants some suspicion as well. He snapped his neck on his own accord!”
Everyone was shocked by this revelation and flipped to the mentioned page.
“Our utmost priority now is to find the people involved. This report says that two people in Dorm 404 are still living. Even if they aren’t the killer, they must be the ones who can offer the most information!”
Chen Chen stood outside the school and observed the impeccably tranquil campus. He shook his head.
This was the third day since the incidents began occurring.
The curses began spreading on the campus two days ago. In this span, the number of people killed by Kayako had risen to the hundreds. Everyone on the campus decided that it was better to protect themselves and left the campus without notice. Some of them rented rooms in hotels while others bought tickets to return to their homes.
It was not so much a lack of action on the part of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was more so that this event was too bizarre.
Who would have expected an inconspicuous lot to be the spreader of a deadly curse?
Dormitory building No. 1 was no longer the only building that contained the strength of the curse. Some of the classrooms, toilets, even some of the offices on the campus…
All of these places had become the source of the curse.
Now, close to thousands of still-living people afflicted with the curse had evacuated from this place. Some of them came from the south, others from the north, some of them from the inland while others lived along the coast. There were even the occasional foreigners.
These people would speed the curse of Kayako across the globe. There was nothing that could stop the spread.
Even Li Bo chose to leave.
Chen Chen did not try to stop him. After all, the curse was already spreading. It made no difference even if he stopped Li Bo. Still, Chen Chen made sure to give him a stern warning: unless he wanted to bring ruin to his family, he better not return home. If he was going to die, at least die somewhere away from his family.
Although the time now was at the height of noon, the sky cast a depressing gray over the lands below. Thick dark clouds covered the sun and painted the sky with a gloomy haze. Not a trace of sunlight was allowed to shine through.
Chen Chen stood by the entrance of the school for a long time, watching both teachers and students alike fleeing the school.
Each one of them had fear written across their faces. They were afraid of disappearing if they even lingered in the school for a moment longer.
When a group of students passed by Chen Chen, he somehow managed to sense a faint, sinister aura stemming from them.
He knew that this could only mean that this group of people had been afflicted with the curse but were blissfully unaware of it…
If this supernatural event was portrayed as a viral infectious disease, this group of people would be at the height of the incubation period. The disease may not be infectious during the incubation period, but it would not be spread from the fate of the final stage of the curse.
The symptom of breakout would be when Kayako appeared to claim their lives.
The reason Chen Chen did not enter the school nor try to get away was that he was waiting for someone. Considering the dire state of the current situation, the ones above should be dispatching someone to look for him.
Chen Chen suddenly felt someone fixing their gaze on him. This was a queer sensation that could not be put into words. This would commonly be described as “instinct” or “sixth sense”.
However, as someone who was well versed in biology, Chen Chen was aware that the human body contained bioelectricity. The conduction of everything in the body from brain waves to body nerves was transmitted by electrical signals.
This was how some people with hypersensitivity could close their eyes and still sense someone approaching or the gaze of someone on them. This was not because they saw them, but that they could feel the bioelectricity of others.
This was the exact sensation Chen Chen was feeling at this moment.
This was no time to figure out where this acquired hypersensitivity came from. Chen Chen instinctively turned around and immediately saw a filthy beggar whose appearance he could not make out standing in front of a shop lot. This beggar was studying him silently…
Chen Chen felt an odd sense of familiarity when he looked at those eyes.
“You again?”
Chen Chen muttered to himself and turned into a frown. This was the second time he met this beggar. The first time was when he was leaving the Internet cafe on an evening two days ago.
For some unknown reason unknown, he felt a queer familiarity each time he looked at this beggar.
It was as if he was able to see the faint silhouette of another person — Aixen.
Impossible…
Chen Chen shook his head suddenly. There was no way that this beggar he was looking at would be the mysterious Aixen. They only carried a vaguely similar aura.
Arriving at this thought, Chen Chen decided to stop studying this person and turned the other way instead. He knew better than to get involved with any other strange phenomenon now.
After Chen Chen had walked only several paces, a black Chevrolet suddenly swept around the corner and screeched to a stop in front of Chen Chen. The screeching brakes even jolted Chen Chen a little.
The door quickly slid open and revealed two towering figures dressed in dark suits who hopped out of the vehicle.
“Are you student Chen Chen?”
One of them asked in a whisper as he took out his certification, “Zhang Qiang, Federal Bureau of Investigation, please come with us if you don’t mind.”
Chen Chen instinctively ducked backward. It only took a single large stride from one of the men in black to close off Chen Chen’s path of retreat.
“Finally here?”
To their surprise, Chen Chen heaved a sigh of relief before telling them, “Alright, I’ve been wanting to meet the higher-ups at FBI for some time now.”
Without waiting for an invitation, Chen Chen got into the car on his own.
The man in black chuckled softly when he saw this reaction coming from Chen Chen. The two men entered the car from both sides and kept Chen Chen seated between them.
The door shut swiftly after that as they drove off into the distance…