It was late, and the power had gone out. I was just about to step out and check the breaker. Suddenly, a few lines of comments appeared before my eyes. [Don’t go out, lady! You’ll be dead if you do.] [Isn’t this the last victim of the S City serial murders 15 years ago?] [Yep! Experts said the killer was seven foot ten; so terrifying…] 1. My hand snapped back from the doorknob. Words in front of my eyes? Was I working so much overtime I was hallucinating? What was this about the last victim of a serial murder case? Were they talking about me? It was true that over the past three years, our city had seen six murders. All the victims were killed by the same perpetrator, and the case remained unsolved. More comments floated into view. [Whoa, this lady’s got a brain.] [Exactly! The power suddenly goes out at home; you can’t just rush out to check the breaker! My mom always told me that’s a trick bad guys use, and I’m just a middle schooler.] [Right, right, this lady’s not even as smart as the kid upstairs.] Their words made me uneasy. This was a new apartment complex; there was no way the circuits were old. Why would the power trip suddenly? I peeked through the peephole, but the hallway was pitch black. [What’s she doing? What can she see through a peephole?] [The killer’s staking out the electrical room right now!] Seeing them say the killer wasn’t outside my door, I felt a slight sense of relief. I double-locked the door, then quietly retreated to my bedroom and checked my phone for my electricity balance. Initially, I was skeptical of these strange comments. Until I saw my phone screen—it showed I still had over fifty dollars worth of electricity. That left only one possibility: the killer had tripped my breaker, luring me out to murder me. 2. I now fully believed what the comments were saying. [Don’t stall, lady! Get the hero to save you.] [Hope she succeeds in calling for help and changes her fate.] Reading the descriptions, it seemed I had died before because I went to check the electrical room myself? I quickly grabbed my phone and messaged my boyfriend, Kevin: [Power’s out at home, and I’m scared to go out alone.] Kevin quickly replied: [Baby, wait for me at home, don’t go out. I’m on my way.] [Woohoo, she finally messaged the hero! As expected, it has to be the handsome hero.] [I’m shipping them, shipping them! When she died, the hero cried hysterically and kept helping the police find clues.] [This killer is utterly cruel, always luring and killing women living alone on rainy nights. Just watching the AI documentary makes me shiver.] [Too bad this serial murder case still hasn’t been solved to this day.] Through their conversation, I quickly realized two things. My boyfriend, Kevin, was the so-called hero in the AI reconstruction documentary. And I was the last victim in the city’s recent serial murder case. Furthermore, this case remained unsolved even fifteen years later. The killer was also seven foot ten? Shouldn’t a person that tall be easy to identify? 3. Rain pattered outside the window. I curled up in bed, waiting for my boyfriend. About ten minutes later, I heard a sound in the hallway. My phone screen lit up with a message from my boyfriend. [I’m here, baby, open the door.] Only after seeing Kevin through the peephole did I dare open the door. “Baby, are you okay?” The house was dark. By the faint moonlight, I saw Kevin’s anxious expression. [The hero is so handsome!!!] [Right, the hero in the documentary is handsome and smart, and most importantly, deeply devoted.] [I really want to see them happy together. Hope she doesn’t bite the dust, thank you.] Looking at Kevin’s face, I couldn’t deny his good looks. I’d agreed to date him precisely because of his appearance. “Baby, you wait for me here. I’ll go check the electrical room.” I nodded, and Kevin stepped out. The comments in front of me hadn’t updated for a while. Just as I wondered why, they reappeared. [Oh no, the hero went out. The lady’s in danger.] [Lady, run! The killer is on their way.] Seeing the comments, I quickly ran back to the bedroom and locked the door. [Huh? How did she know the killer was coming?] [She can’t hear us talking, can she?] [What are you thinking, upstairs?] I heard a “shuffling” sound outside the door, like something rubbing. Heavy footsteps drew closer. The doorknob rattled, then began to be violently smashed. Before long, the door was broken open. Through the crack in the closet, I saw a towering, seven-foot-plus black figure standing there, clad in a long raincoat. He seemed to have no face; where his head should be, there were only two deep, dark holes… In his hand, he held a curved blade, its silver edge glinting in the moonlight. [This killer is so terrifying! So tense! She must be scared to death!] [So scary. I’d just pass out on the spot.] After a quick scan of the room, he turned towards the closet, a deep voice saying, “Found you!” [It’s over, it’s over. She’s done for.] Then, like a demon, he lunged at me. I had no time to dodge. The closet door flew open, and the curved blade slashed at my throat. I was dead. I still couldn’t escape the fate of being the last victim of the serial murder case. 4. A flash of white light. The next second, my hand was back on the doorknob. I was back? It was like a game, dying and then restarting? I pulled my hand away and again turned into the bedroom. [She didn’t go out, great! She’s got a brain; she’s savable.] [But her health bar is so low! Ridiculous, I suspect her lifeline is only a centimeter long.] [Useless. Her boyfriend came, but she stayed in the room alone and was killed by the killer again.] [Right, the killer is so brutal. He cut off her head, and her body was chopped into pieces.] These comments updated, but unlike last time, it felt like progressing through the main storyline. I realized that the changes I made would affect the development of the plot. Just like last time, after Kevin arrived, the story took a turn, and the comments started updating. I took out my phone and messaged Kevin: [Power’s out at home, and I’m scared to go out alone.] Kevin, just like last time, replied instantly: [Baby, wait for me at home, don’t go out. I’m on my way.] I hid under the covers, trying to piece together the whole situation. From what I remembered, I hadn't provoked anyone. I hadn’t even met anyone over seven feet tall. When did the killer start targeting me? Remembering the killer’s seven-foot-plus figure, grinning menacingly in the moonlight, a chill ran down my spine, and I broke out in a cold sweat. Nervously, I touched my neck. Good, it was still there. 5. Last time, Kevin went out to fix the breaker. That left me alone, giving the killer an opportunity, and that's why I was murdered. I’d read news reports that the killer only targeted women. So, Kevin, as a man, wasn’t within the killer’s scope. Kevin knew martial arts; he could protect me, and the killer likely wouldn't succeed. Together, we might have a fighting chance. I heard a sound at the door, and my phone lit up. I knew it was Kevin. I walked over and opened the door. Kevin came in and hugged me tightly, clearly anxious. “Baby, are you okay?” I shook my head. Kevin’s dialogue was exactly the same as before. After confirming I was okay, he prepared to leave. “Baby, you wait for me here. I’ll go check the electrical room.” This time, I held onto him. “Don’t go, I’m scared to be alone.” Kevin ruffled my hair. “Then what are we going to do about the darkness? It’s so late, the building management won’t send anyone to check.” “It’s fine. If you stay with me, I won’t be scared.” I locked the door, turned on my phone’s flashlight, and led Kevin into the bedroom. [Hahaha! What to do about the darkness? Go to sleep, obviously!] [This lady’s getting smarter. If she doesn’t leave the hero, maybe she can live.] If Julian and I went to the electrical room together, the lurking killer might kill both of us. I didn’t know if Julian could respawn here, and I couldn’t easily alter the path of others in the storyline. The best way to avoid danger was for neither of us to leave the apartment and simply wait for the night to pass. 6. [Oh my god! The killer’s at the kitchen window.] [No way, are they both going to die?] [Nooo! My ship just sailed!] When the comments appeared, I also heard movement outside. Damn it, my kitchen window connected to the fire escape corridor. The killer had already scouted the location; of course, he knew about it. “Someone’s outside.” I turned to warn Kevin. He shushed me, signaling me to be quiet. Kevin pushed me, slowly inching under the bed. He then tiptoed out to investigate. [No, I’m crying, is the hero really that brave?!] [So rational, so brave, and most importantly, so handsome. I want to date him!!!] I lay under the bed, watching Kevin leave the bedroom. A crash of breaking glass came from the kitchen, followed by sounds of a struggle. I couldn’t help but worry about Kevin. [I don’t understand, why isn’t this lady calling the police?] [Yeah! Why isn’t she calling the police? Maybe she’s too scared to think straight.] The comments jolted me awake. I truly had been too scared to think. I only remembered Kevin could protect me, forgetting to call the police. I pulled out my phone from my pocket and immediately sent a distress text. Taking a long shot, I also sent a help message to the residents’ group chat, hoping some neighbors were still awake at this hour. [Why does whatever she says come true? Can she hear us talking?!] [Impossible, she’s been dead for 15 years. How could she see us?] About ten minutes later, accompanied by a muffled groan, someone fell heavily to the ground. My heart seized with fear that something had happened to Kevin, and a vague unease settled over me. Then, I heard something moving into the bedroom. I held my breath, staring intently at the bedroom door. A pair of shoes slowly stepped in. 7. I was trembling all over. These shoes weren’t Kevin’s at all. So the person who fell outside must have been Kevin; he might have been killed. Tears instantly streamed from my eyes. The killer, as if having top-tier foresight, stood directly by the bed. He let out a low chuckle, like a soul-reaping demon. “I’ve got you!” I shrank further back under the bed. The killer was seven foot ten; he definitely couldn’t fit under the bed. Hiding here, I was relatively safe. I didn’t know how long it would take for the police to arrive, so I had to find a way to stall him, to buy myself a sliver of a chance to survive. The killer circled the bed for a while, then walked out of the bedroom. From the sound of his footsteps, he seemed to be heading towards the kitchen. [What’s this killer doing in the kitchen? Why is he even picking up a pot?] [Maybe he’s halfway through killing and got hungry, so he’s cooking something?] [Upstairs, don’t be funny. Didn’t you see him putting oil in the pan? He’s going to…] And then? Why did the comments go silent? At crucial moments, the comments always failed, blocking important information. As I was still pondering, a sudden blast of heat hit me. My skin hissed, emitting a burnt smell. Then came piercing pain; my eyes, mouth, and throat crumpled from the scalding. [Oh my god! This killer is too twisted! I’m in so much pain watching this, I can’t even breathe through the screen.] [So terrifying, to scald someone to death with hot oil!] Spoonful after spoonful of hot oil was thrown at me. I curled up, unable to move, scalded beyond belief. I endured it for who knows how long, on the brink of fainting multiple times from the pain, until finally, my last breath escaped me. 8. I was back again, at the moment I opened the door. The torture before death left me numb, standing dazed in front of the door. I had died twice already; was I destined to never escape the devil’s clutches? [This is the cruelest murder case I’ve ever seen. It’s hard to imagine how much pain she must have been in.] [Being scalded to death with hot oil. If I get a little splatter of oil on my hand while cooking, I’ll howl for ages.] [But it’s so strange! Why didn’t the killer kill the hero? The hero just fainted from a fall.] [This twisted killer, he only kills women. Besides, if the hero dies, who will help the police find clues later?] Seeing that Kevin was unharmed last time, I felt relieved. At the same time, I found it somewhat unbelievable. First time I’d ever seen a killer with such principles. Since going out would kill me, and staying home would also kill me, I might as well fight for more chances to escape. I turned and walked towards the kitchen. Last time, the killer came in through the kitchen balcony. This time, while the killer was still lurking in the electrical room, I would preemptively escape through the fire escape corridor, creating a time difference. [This lady’s getting smart again. How does she know the killer will come in from here later?] [I’m starting to admire this lady’s intelligence. She even knows to create the illusion that she’s in the bedroom.] [That’ll keep the killer busy for a while.] After climbing through the window, I crouched low and slowly moved towards the fire exit of the adjacent unit. I took off my shoes and walked up the stairs. After reaching the top floor, I entered the fire escape again and hid in the corridor. I pulled out my phone, dimmed the screen, and sent an emergency distress text. This time, I should be able to buy more time for rescue. I messaged Kevin: [Come save me, there’s a killer at home, I’m hiding.] Kevin quickly replied: [Where are you hiding? I’m coming to find you now.] 9. I told Kevin I was hiding on the 30th floor fire escape corridor. About 15 minutes later, I heard footsteps in the hallway. Kevin was coming to save me! But why was he making so much noise? What if the killer heard him and my position was revealed? I was about to message Kevin to warn him when the fire exit door swung open. I froze in terror. How could this be? It was impossible! The towering black figure stood before me, emanating a chilling aura. How did the killer pinpoint my location so accurately? [Huh? Did I miss something?] [How did this creep find her so fast?] [I’m wondering too! When did she expose herself?] I died again, thrown from the 30th floor by the killer. This time, I didn't resist or struggle; I needed to respawn. I found myself in a white light again, a space like a projection room, mapping out all my previous memories. There was definitely something wrong here. Several times, I’d missed something. What was it? 10. My three previous death experiences flooded my mind. No, too many anomalies. In the repeated terror, I had completely overlooked many details. Each time I faced death, Kevin was either not by my side, or, all of this was a smokescreen. What role did Kevin play in this? Was he a key figure, or an accomplice? Why wasn't he killed the second time? Was the killer really so principled? Why did he directly ask for my hiding place last time? And how was my location exposed? A string of questions made my scalp tingle. My boyfriend of three years might be trying to kill me. All of this seemed to be a trap; Kevin’s appearance only hastened my death. Time, it was time. I finally remembered—the timing was off! It should take at least half an hour to get from Kevin’s place to mine. But the first two times, he arrived in less than twenty minutes. It was raining outside, yet Kevin’s hair was dry both times, indicating he hadn’t just come from outside. The second time, in such a dark environment, how would the killer know where my oil container was? And the third time, I didn’t even tell the police my specific location, only Kevin, yet the killer found me so quickly. All signs pointed to Kevin being the twisted killer. No, still not right. Kevin is five feet eleven, but the killer is seven foot ten. Even on stilts, he couldn’t move that nimbly. Besides, I saw the killer’s shoes under the bed—a pair of black rubber rain boots. Shoes! I know! It’s the shoes! The killer’s shoes looked like a men’s size 8.5 (US), which, if calculated by shoe size to height, would be around five feet eleven. The comments said the killer was seven foot ten, which would mean a shoe size of at least a men’s 16 (US). That’s a difference of 7.5 sizes. How could that be? Height proportion wouldn’t lie, unless the killer had a physical deformity. If it was a men’s 8.5 shoe, then the killer could be Kevin. But then, who was the killer outside the window? Could it be that there wasn’t just one killer?
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