At 6 a.m., an encrypted email suddenly appeared in the public mailbox of the city's police command center.
The email subject was simply four words: "Deadly Game."
The attachment was a video. The screen started black, then gradually became clear after a few seconds. The camera swept across an empty warehouse. Dozens of blindfolded hostages were bound to chairs, with unknown devices suspended above their heads. Red lights blinked on the control panel, and a countdown timer was barely visible.
Then, a masked man appeared in the center of the frame. His voice, altered by a voice changer, was cold and mechanical:
"Lu Chenzhou, Su Wanqing. Welcome to the game designed just for you by the 'Dark Abyss' organization. You have six hours to solve six riddles. For every wrong answer or failure to answer within the time limit, one hostage will die."
"You can choose not to participate, in which case we'll start the countdown now."
With that, the video abruptly ended, leaving only the blinking numbers: 05:59:59.
The chief immediately ordered the message to be sealed and formed a special task force from the criminal investigation unit, led by Lu Chenzhou and Su Wanqing.
Su Wanqing quickly extracted background information from the video: "There's faint background noise in the video, like wind and metal scraping... It might be near the old docks in the port area. The lighting frequency and exterior wall structure can be analyzed by image enhancement technology."
Lu Chenzhou, meanwhile, retrieved the suspicious activity data for "Dark Abyss" over the last three months, trying to deduce the location of the target warehouse.
In less than forty minutes, the tech team identified a potential target—the G Zone of the Southeast Old Goods Warehouse, which had been rented by an anonymous company last month with no further records of entry or exit.
At the same time, the second email arrived, this time with the first riddle:
"I existed before your birth, and I will still exist after your death. No one can see me, but I control everything—what am I?"
Su Wanqing stared at the riddle: "This is a logic puzzle... 'I' am invisible, yet control everyone's life... It's 'Time'."
She quickly typed Time in the reply box and hit send. The moment she did, the countdown on the hostages' heads stopped flashing, and the red light briefly went out.
First riddle completed.
The subsequent puzzles gradually escalated, involving code breaking, spatial logic deduction, and reasoning traps.
The third riddle was particularly bizarre:
"There are four doors, leading to: A. Burning flames, B. A killer with a gun pointed at you, C. A lion that hasn't eaten for a hundred years, D. A deep-sea whirlpool. Which door is the safest?"
Su Wanqing thought for a few seconds, then her eyes lit up: "C! The lion that hasn't eaten for a hundred years would have starved to death."
Lu Chenzhou smiled at her: "You're quick to respond."
Before the fifth puzzle began, an encrypted message suddenly popped up with coordinates: "Countdown reset failed. You now have 45 minutes. There is only one puzzle left. Solve it, and the hostages will be saved."
At the same time, the special operations team completed their deployment around the target warehouse.
"We'll split up," Lu Chenzhou said in a low voice. "You continue solving the last riddle. I'll lead the assault team to get close to the target. If necessary, we'll force entry."
Su Wanqing nodded: "Remember, when time's up, I'll act too—don't wait for my signal."
The final riddle seemed simple but dangerous:
"The key is in the hand of the dead. Find it."
Su Wanqing instantly realized this might not just be a linguistic puzzle, but an actual installation clue. She immediately contacted the tech team: "Pause all footage from the first three puzzles—check if any of the hostages has remained 'motionless'."
Within two minutes, the tech team responded: "One person hasn't moved since the first frame, with abnormally low body temperature. He might have been dead for some time."
Su Wanqing immediately ordered the position to be locked, deploying drones with thermal imaging to locate the "cold spot," and quickly generated map coordinates based on the frame's scale.
Meanwhile, Lu Chenzhou led his team to approach from the east side of the warehouse. Inside, the red lights began flashing again, and the hostages started emitting terrified groans.
There were only six minutes remaining.
Su Wanqing spoke through the communication channel: "Target locked. The dead person's right palm has an unlocking chip. Use the portable decoder to scan it!"
Lu Chenzhou quickly approached, scanned the data, and uploaded it in real time. The warehouse control system emitted a brief buzzing sound, and the alarm stopped. The chains on the chairs automatically loosened.
All hostages were safely rescued.
Lu Chenzhou walked into the middle of the hostages and discovered that the dead man was a private investigator who had gone missing six months ago. At the time, he had been investigating the asset flow of a peripheral member of "Dark Abyss," and the clue ended here.
This "Deadly Game" was the gamble "Dark Abyss" had set using his shattered life.
Su Wanqing looked at the final message on the computer screen:
[Game over. You won, but we're still here. —EYE]
"EYE..." Lu Chenzhou muttered softly, "This isn't the first time we've seen this name."
Su Wanqing thought for a moment: "It might be the core code name for 'Dark Abyss,' or it could be someone's name."
She slowly stood up, tired but determined: "But as long as we're alive, we won't let this game continue."
Lu Chenzhou patted her shoulder: "It's our turn to set the next move."
Outside the warehouse, police lights flashed, and the sky was still dark, but at that moment, they both knew—the real final showdown was quietly approaching.