An Dui frowned and sat down on a chair, his hands crossed as he stared at Song Qingxiao.

He still remembered this newcomer who had just joined the security team yesterday. She was a recent graduate, introverted and not very talkative. The people who went out on patrol from the security department were all rough and tough, but she had left a deep impression on Captain An.

But for some reason, after just one day, this newcomer gave him a different feeling.

“I don’t know why they called you in,” Captain An said. Some things he couldn’t figure out, so he didn’t bother.

Originally, he had called Song Qingxiao over to ask her to leave.   When she joined the security team, they didn’t investigate her background. It was only later that they discovered her father had a criminal record. But now, seeing Song Qingxiao, Captain An changed his mind. “But we don’t keep idlers in the security team.”

As he spoke, he took a stack of documents from the drawer and threw them at Song Qingxiao:

“Someone has been assigned a task recently to find a missing girl.”

When the documents landed on the desk, there was a ‘snap’ sound. After hearing Captain An’s words, Song Qingxiao pursed her lips and couldn’t help but think of the name she overheard her colleagues discussing outside the changing room: Gao Linlin.

This name was the same as the Number One girl who died in the trial space. She was actually very curious about this matter.

Now, the task assigned to her by Captain An happened to align with her interests. Her expression changed, and she reached out to take the documents on the table.   Captain An, seeing her action, turned his face away with a hint of impatience: “The team can’t spare anyone else to handle this simple matter. Take a look and see if you can find any clues.”

He didn’t even bother to hide his disdain. After saying this, he gestured for Song Qingxiao to leave.

The patrol guards and the investigation department of the security department had always had clear responsibilities. In the case of Gao Linlin’s disappearance, other teams must have been unable to find out the whereabouts, so even the Security Department got involved.

Thinking of this, even before she opened the document, Song Qingxiao was almost certain that the missing Gao Linlin was the Number One girl who died in the trial space.

In today’s rapidly advancing technology, as long as a disappearance was caused by human intervention, there would always be some clues. Unless it was like the trial space, where it had surpassed human understanding, it was possible to achieve such a thing.

She took the documents and left Captain An’s office. She found a place to open the folder, and inside were two documents with a photo in between. She bent down to pick it up, and the smiling face of the Number One girl appeared in front of Song Qingxiao. She instinctively clenched the photo tightly.

Gao Linlin had disappeared three days ago. She was a student at the Capital City Middle School. Before the incident, she was on the phone with a classmate when the signal suddenly cut off. The search for her had yielded no results.

After her classmates realized something was wrong and reported it to the police, they investigated the surveillance footage. She mysteriously disappeared from the camera, but did not appear in any nearby surveillance footage.   Attempts to locate her through her phone’s GPS also failed, as if this person had disappeared from the face of the Earth.

She was a student from a wealthy family, with a simple background and no financial disputes or conflicts with anyone. Her information had already been reported to all districts in the capital city. After all, the longer a missing person stays missing, the higher the possibility of them being harmed. So, the case eventually ended up in the hands of Captain An from the West District Security Team.

After confirming that the missing Gao Linlin was the Number One girl, Song Qingxiao put the documents back.

Number One had already died in the trial space, and the final result of this case would only be left unresolved.

But this incident served as a warning to her. The trial space was not an ordinary game. If you died inside, you were truly dead. Even your bones couldn’t be found. You would become a missing person, buried in the archives like Number One.

At the same time, it also confirmed one thing for her. Number One disappeared three days ago, and Song Qingxiao entered the trial space just last night. In reality, when everyone was calculating the time, Number One said that Song Qingxiao had only entered the space ten minutes after her.

This proved that the people chosen by the trial space did not enter at the same time or in the same location, but randomly.

A game without fixed rules meant that she couldn’t prepare in advance.

With this understanding, Song Qingxiao became even more cautious about the trial.   She naturally couldn’t tell Captain An the news of Gao Linlin’s death.   During these few days, she used the excuse of investigating the case to practice the “Lin” technique from the Nine Word Secret Command. She also shortened her sleeping time, spending a lot of time running and exercising every morning and evening, trying to strengthen her physical fitness and prepare for the next trial that might come.

Half a month passed, and everything was calm. Song Qingxiao didn’t let her guard down.

The investigation into Gao Linlin’s disappearance didn’t uncover any new clues or progress. Fortunately, Captain An didn’t have much hope for her either; he just intended to ask her to leave after her two-month probation period ended.

The wound on her neck had already scabbed over but still left a mark. She had figured out the rules for using her mental power and, after diligent practice, felt a clear improvement.

Her sparse mental power had become much more solid than before, bringing obvious benefits. The sea of mental power that ran through her mind, which used to be as thin as a strand of hair, had now expanded several times over.

This result meant that after she formed the hand seal, at least people wouldn’t feel nothing like before.

To make such progress in just a few days, she was already quite satisfied.

A month later, her consciousness didn’t receive any summons from the trial space. It seemed that Song Qingxiao’s worries were unnecessary.

But the more peaceful it was, the more fearful Song Qingxiao became.   She slept later, exercised her mental power more diligently, and bought two daggers, sewing a simple strap to hide them close to her body.

As usual, she returned home after work. Her mother, Tang Yun, rarely didn’t wake up from her drunken state.

Song Qingxiao prepared easily digestible food for Tang Yun and sat in front of her.   Due to years of alcohol abuse, Tang Yun had lost most of her hair and looked much older than her actual age. Her hands could barely hold the chopsticks steady.

She stared at Song Qingxiao for a long time, as if unable to recognize her own daughter.

In Song Qingxiao’s memory, Tang Yun rarely had such clear moments of sobriety, so the time the two of them sat facing each other was scarce. She didn’t know how to start a conversation with her mother, and even calling her seemed difficult.

The two remained silent for a long time. Just as Song Qingxiao was about to speak, she heard a long-lost notification sound in her mind:

“About to enter God’s trial!”

Song Qingxiao’s face changed. The sudden notification of the trial came too suddenly. At this moment, she couldn’t care about Tang Yun.   Instinctively, she stood up and walked towards another room. She didn’t have time to see Tang Yun’s reaction or explain to her.

The next moment, Song Qingxiao took a step forward, and the scene in front of her changed. It was no longer her old house or the dim light, but the familiar coldness of the trial space: “Welcome to the trial space of the gods.”

She blinked, and in the foggy clearing, a black gun was pointed at her face, the cold barrel pressing against her forehead with such force that she took several steps back.   A man’s mocking voice sounded: “Welcome!”