Chapter 328: 328

Chapter 328 Elimination Process

Zhang Heng browsed several other hot posts and registered an ID called Saturn 5 . He then shut down the computer, and left the Internet cafe . The whole process only took him less than twenty minutes, and when he returned home, Tian Tian was alone jumping on a rope in the backyard . Grandpa was leaning against the courtyard door, looking at her . He looked a little worried .

Sensing unrest, Zhang Heng put on his slippers and walked to his grandfather .

“Do you remember taking Tian Tian with you last summer holidays?” Zhang Heng nodded .

“At that time, she was very lively, running around the house behind you . In fact, when I saw her a month ago, she was still very normal, jumping up and down all the time . But after that, she somehow became terrified of communicating with other people . ”

“What happened in between?” Zhang Heng asked .

“No one knows . A child her age usually has a regular life . She spends most of her time in school every day, and on Saturdays and Sundays, she’s either with her parents or attending classes . Her parents suspected that it was the school’s problem at first . After all, she spends most of her time there . You know, sometimes, children in school get bullied…”

“What happened after that?”

“As a result, her parents went to talk to her class teacher . They even sought her substitute teacher and the rest of the kids in the class, hoping to find out a little more about their daughter’s peculiar behavior . They all told her the same thing . Tian Tian is good at learning, beautiful, well-behaved, and she’s the class monitor . She is very popular among teachers and classmates . A kid like her is unlikely to become the target of bullies . Later, her parents brought her to a psychologist . Since then, the situation has improved to some extent, but…”

“But?”

“But the good times didn’t last long, and soon, her condition began to deteriorate again . Now, she seems to have social anxiety, not knowing how to communicate with others . Her mother will apply for a school leave in two days . After that, she will bring her to the city to meet a specialist for treatment . In fact, if it weren’t for Old Chen’s injuries, they would have already contacted the hospital over there . ” Grandpa shook his head . “I hope everything ends well this time . ”

Zhang Heng was left in silence .

The current situation showed that there should be two possibilities for what happened to Tian Tian . Either she had come into contact with monsters like Moresby and Zavilcha, or she had unintentionally obtained some game items . The psychiatrist, though an experienced expert, wasn’t equipped to deal with supernatural phenomena like this, so Zhang Heng decided to investigate the matter himself .

He intended to start with the latter possibility, where many game items were circulating among players at the moment . It wouldn’t be too surprising if one of them lost an item or someone accidentally took it . That was why Zhang Heng initially intended to deposit his game items at the game checkpoint .

Right now, Zhang Heng needed to focus on locating the game item .

Although the environment in the quests was more dangerous than reality, it had its own advantages . For example, when the players laid their hands on a game item, they would hear a notification from the system . This method could also be used to quickly identify whether the item the player was holding was a game item or not . So far, the system had been very accurate except for extreme cases like an auction .

On the other hand, Zhang Heng couldn’t rely on the game’s system in the real world . There was also no character panel for him to review the items as well, making things a lot harder .

Judging by Tian Tian’s current state, it would be difficult to communicate with her .

Zhang Heng pondered for a while, went out of the house, and went to a nearby mall where there was a large Disney stationery counter . He bought a series of stationery, including notebooks, a pencil case, a pencil sharpener, and a school bag . These were all popular items among school kids, and he hoped to do an exchange with Tian Tian .

Tian Tian was moved after seeing the Frozen backpack, but when Zhang Heng told her that the exchange included the workbook in her hands, she seemed a little hesitant . In the end, though, she still failed to resist the temptation of a Disney stationery set . She handed everything over to Zhang Heng, except the textbook .

Zhang Heng patted the girl’s head and took her old backpack along with its contents back to his room .

He then contacted the bartender lady and asked her for the address of the game’s checkpoint in his current city . He was, however, not in a hurry to get there as a hefty amount of game points would be needed for item identification . Besides, his membership card was invalid at other checkpoints, which meant he had to pay the full price for the service .

That night, Tian Tian’s mother returned from the hospital and thanked them for the trouble . She also specifically thanked Zhang Heng for his assistance with Old Chen . Soon after, she collected Tian Tian, now sitting quietly in a corner, back home .

At dinner, Zhang Heng had mentioned that he wanted to retire early tonight . He went back to his room right after that . Once he had his privacy, he proceeded to go through Tian Tian’s old backpack . For now, the two most suspicious items were the pencil and the workbook, especially true for the workbook . Being part of a generation influenced by “Death Note”, it was difficult not to notice such an obvious target .

After rechecking it, though, the workbook seemed to be like any other . The date that was on her previous work was a month ago . Tian Tian still behaved normally at that time . There was, of course, the possibility that she had not found the conditions to trigger the item at that time . As for the pencil…

Zhang Heng picked it up, placing it under the light of a lamp . Just as he was about to take a closer look, there was a knock on his door . He was greeted by grandpa’s serious face when he opened it .

“Something untoward happened to Old Chen again . The drip stand next to his bed fell, and it happened to hit his head . His forehead now has two stitches . I am going out to visit him now . Thought I’d inform you about it . ”

Retribution for the interrupted curse?

Zhang Heng was surprised . When he went to the hospital, he chatted with Tian Tian’s mother about the recent happenings in his family and found that the accidents seemed to run on a schedule, where one would take place every three days . This was the ninth time, and each time it happened, it wasn’t a fatal accident . According to the pattern, the next accident should be three days since he had interrupted this one . Now that Old Chen got into another accident again, it appeared that this was the replacement for the accident that Zhang Heng stopped . Zhang Heng frowned, extremely curious if this time, Tian Tian had drawn any stick figures in advance . However, he couldn’t just knock on her door right now . Fortunately, the young woman sent her to grandpa’s house again the very next day . It was then that Zhang Heng saw a stick figure of a falling drip stand scribbled in the new Disney workbook .

He had personally purchased the pens and notebooks . In other words, the possibility of game items being hidden in the pile of stationery could almost be ruled out .

Could it be the work of a monster? Zhang Heng was lost in thought as he stared at Tian Tian lying on the coffee table .

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