Chapter 91: The Real Dead Water
The young man took out another betel nut and popped it into his mouth. He listened to the baby crying, and his breathing became heavier. Some people liked to torture kittens because their cries sounded like babies. The crying became louder. Gao Ming slowly walked out of the corner. He had confirmed the person’s identity through the forum. Even if he was not Dead Water, he must be connected to him.
Taking out the death portrait of the patients, Gao Ming promised to treat them. They only needed to help him capture people as a form of payment. Shadow spread. Before the young man could react, he was pushed into the wall. He then realised there were a few more ‘people’ around him.
Gao Ming covered the young man’s mouth. Gao Ming looked into the locker. There was no death portrait but a drawing. The black-and-white drawing was no different from a real death portrait. The portrait was of a beautiful woman. Her body was mature, but her intelligence appeared to stop at a baby’s age. She was crying like a baby. The painter was impressive. Just a look at the drawing and one could feel everything.
“The woman’s soul has been pulled out, and her shell is stuck inside the painting.” Gao Ming took out the drawing, “This drawing is too similar to a death portrait.”
Gao Ming put away the painting that was crying and removed the gag on the young man’s mouth, “Was it you who set up the Dead Water Forum?”
The young man’s expression twisted. He smiled, “I know what you want to ask, but I won’t tell you.”
“It looks like you’re a pervert with a backbone. Unfortunately, I’m a psychiatrist who has ways to make you speak.” Gao Ming touched his heart. The torture devices made from flesh trembled.
“Don’t waste your energy. So, what if I die?” The young man was like a snake. He memorised Gao Ming’s face. If he were given a chance, he would kill him immediately.
“Die? Do you think it’s that easy?” The torture device materialised in Gao Ming’s hand. “This is a flesh baller. Its edge is so sharp that you can easily gouge out a perfect sphere. This is a V-shaped carver…’
As Gao Ming continued his display, the young man’s face paled. What kind of psychiatrist worked like this?
The young man was not afraid of death, but he didn’t want to fall into Gao Ming’s hands. The knives looked very scary. They were all stained with blood. When Gao Ming introduced them, his eyes were red like he had personally tried all of the devices.
“I know how each blade feels on the body.” Gao Ming choked the young man, and his voice changed. “I hope you can persist and continue to use your earlier tone. Don’t stop. It’ll make me…”
“Ask me anything you want.” The young man didn’t dare to look at Gao Ming, “You didn’t even ask anything. How can I answer?”
“Is Dead Water your ID on the forum?”
“What is Dead Water?” The young man nodded with difficulty. “I am that user and the manager of the forum’s second hidden page.” “Take out your death portrait.” Gao Ming wanted to confirm it.
“That’s all I want…” The young man looked at the drawing Gao Ming took with greed.
“You don’t even have a death portrait?!” Gao Ming felt like he was closing in on the truth. “Who gave you this drawing?”
“It’s the real Dead Water.” The young man was scared. “I don’t know who he is. Building the hidden form, crafting the cryptic codes, and spreading the black-and-white drawings are all his ideas. I only follow his instructions to connect with the others who have experienced horror.”
“How do you normally contact him?” The more careful Dead Water was, the more Gao Ming wanted to capture him.
“He would message me using different accounts to give me orders. He would tell me to go to places to obtain stuff, including…” The young man bit on his tongue and then continued, “New drawings, people and corpses.”
“When was the last time he messaged you?” “If I tell you, will you let me go?” The young man probed.
“If you don’t tell me, you can’t even die.”
The young man surrendered. “He hid his latest drawing in the trash can at the Sixth Hall of Han Hai Art Convention Centre. I helped him deal with two corpses yesterday night. The new painting is my payment. He told me to grab it at noon today.” Gao Ming wanted to take a look immediately.
He sent the young man into the patient’s death portrait. He cleaned up the scene and left the factory.
“Dead Water cleared many games before I revealed the guides. He is cunning and intelligent. He knows how to control the players. He is playing a big game.”
After so many deaths, Gao Ming had no idea who Dead Water was and neither did the players. This was the scariest thing about Dead Water. Before 12 noon, Gao Ming arrived Han Hai North City’s Art district.
Han Hai Art Centre was a large event. The sixth hall mainly featured various drawings. As AI painting improved, the painters drew more abstract to differentiate themselves from AI. Gao Ming had no idea what most of the paintings were. He didn’t care. He was there for the trash cans.
“There are many trash cans here. If I rummage through them one by one, the security will chase me out. If Dead Water is still here, he might discover me and escape.” There were many people there. Gao Ming decided to head to the security room. Using a lost item as an excuse, Gao Ming followed the guard to examine the recordings of Hall 6.
At 9 am, the guests entered the hall. Most were very well-dressed. They looked at the paintings, and no one came close to the trash cans. The guard fast-forwarded the recording. At 9.10 am, a casually-dressed middle-aged man held a breakfast and entered Hall 6.
“Wait!” Gao Ming paused the video. He recognised the man. The man’s paintings were once on display at the art centre too. However, his style became too absurd. Some of the critics even thought the painter had truly lost his mind.
“Xia Yang? Why is Nightlight Studio’s main artist here?”
Gao Ming’s scalp numbed when he saw Xia Yang. Ge gad a very deep impression of this main artist who was always smiling and would always sneak a break during work.
Gao Ming stared at the video. In the video, Xia Yang studied the art pieces. After finishing his breakfast, he tossed the trash into the can at the entrance of the hall.
Many questions were answered in Gao Ming’s mind. He thanked the guard and ran to Hall 6. With others looking on with shock, Gao Ming opened the trash can. He found crumbled food packaging in the trash. He carefully opened the packaging. It had a black-and-white drawing on it. The drawing had a mature woman. Her eyes were lifeless and teary.
“Dead Water is Xia Yang?! We’ve worked together for so many years!”
Gao Ming put away the second drawing and calmed down. “It looks like I have to return to Nightlight. This should be a new start for me, but things are moving back to the original trajectory.” Many things were linked, but Gao Ming was in a good mood.
“Today, Xuan Wen will go for the interview. Including her and me, Manager Gou has a lot of talent. We might not be able to make a popular game, but we can topple the future of this world.”
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺