Chapter 1 The Kidnapping

November 15th, 11:00 AM.

S City, in a certain residential building, a seventeen-year-old boy was gradually waking up from a daze.

After taking a few seconds to adjust to the light in the room, he could finally see his surroundings clearly.

The first thing that caught his eye were three figures...

They were three men wearing dark jackets, jeans, and ski masks on their faces. They were currently sitting around a table, smoking and playing cards.

Seeing the boy wake up, they merely glanced at him casually, without much reaction.

But the boy...immediately panicked.

Because he immediately realized...that he was tied to a chair, not only his hands, but even his waist and feet were firmly bound to the chair, almost unable to move at all. In addition...his mouth was sealed with tape, preventing him from speaking.

"Where am I? How did I get here?" the boy thought in alarm, "Who are these people? Is this a kidnapping?"

Soon, accompanied by a wave of dizziness, fragmented memories flashed through his mind...

"That's right! In that restroom!"

The boy's name was Ma Junxiao. A year ago, he was just an ordinary high school student with average grades, a love for video games, plain looks, and a worrying height. But now, he was a star-level professional gamer, and one of the top players in the industry's largest studio, with the ID--【Tun Tian Gui Xiao】(Devouring Heaven Ghost).

Recently, due to the matches, Gui Xiao was working the "night shift" every day. Of course, even though it was called "work," he actually spent most of his time sleeping in the gaming pod.

During the day, he didn't have to stay at the company. As long as he maintained more than three hours (real-world time, not sleep mode) of online time each day, he could work from home.

But at night...he still had to clock in at the Order Headquarters around ten o'clock, do some pre-match preparations, and then lie down in the company's equipment to compete.

At seven o'clock this morning, Gui Xiao left the company building as usual, bought some breakfast on the way, and took the subway home.

Although around seven o'clock was still the morning rush hour, and it was well known that the S City subway could squeeze people into juice, Gui Xiao wasn't going "to work" at this time, but "getting off work." The line he was on was the opposite of the crowded one, and on average, there were only about seven or eight people in each car.

Therefore, he was able to find an empty seat to sit in as soon as he got on the train today.

However...after only two stops, Gui Xiao suddenly felt unwell. It was probably because the breakfast he bought today wasn't clean...a sudden and severe abdominal pain came without warning.

Fortunately, the subway didn't take long to pass each station, and there was a restroom right outside the station. So, he quickly rushed out of the car at the next stop and headed straight for the public restroom in the subway station.

This trip...took nearly two hours.

Two hours later, Gui Xiao, his legs weak and almost collapsed, walked out of the toilet stall.

Actually, in the last twenty minutes...his diarrhea symptoms had basically subsided, otherwise he might have called an ambulance. But...he spent another twenty minutes massaging his legs to restore his numb legs' ability to stand.

After coming out, Gui Xiao went to the sink in the public restroom, took a deep breath, washed his hands, and then lowered his head to wash his face.

But as soon as he lowered his head...he lost consciousness.

He couldn't remember that last bit of memory, but he wasn't stupid...judging from the current situation, he was either knocked unconscious from behind or had his mouth and nose covered with anesthetic.

"My neck and nape don't hurt, but my head is a little dizzy..." After calming down a bit, Gui Xiao began to think, "I was probably knocked out with ether or something..." His gaze swept over the three men again, "These three...are obviously adults based on their size. It would be easy for them to carry me away."

Thinking of this, he looked around again.

The place he was in now seemed to be an unfinished room. The empty room had almost no furniture, but thick curtains had already been hung by the window. The walls and ceiling were simply painted with a layer of white paint, and the floor was concrete.

As far as he could see, the only furniture was a simple folding table, a few chairs with backs, and a fluorescent lamp in the corner of the ceiling. The lamp was on at the moment, indicating that the house had electricity at least. According to Gui Xiao's reasoning...there should also be water, otherwise, these guys couldn't possibly run outside to use public restrooms while holding a hostage, right?

"This is bad...these people are so calm after seeing me wake up..." Gui Xiao thought to himself after looking around, "According to what they show in movies...those who react like this are either desperate criminals or professional criminals, or both..." Cold sweat broke out on his forehead. "Speaking of which...what do they want from me by kidnapping me? I'm not a young girl, so abducting me for sex is unlikely..."

Indeed, it was unlikely...because if the other party really wanted to abduct him for sex, he probably wouldn't have "woken up naturally," but would have woken up in a different state.

"If it's for money...that's also wrong..." Gui Xiao continued to think, "My parents are both ordinary wage earners. Although my own annual salary isn't bad now, it's not so much that it would make people kidnap me..."

That's right, the "ransom" theory...was also unreasonable.

In terms of difficulty, kidnapping a child was obviously much easier than kidnapping a high schooler like him. And in terms of profit, if they really wanted to kidnap an adult...they should at least pick someone with more money, like Jin Fugui...

No matter how he thought about it, kidnapping Gui Xiao was a difficult and low-reward job. Clearly, these three people who had targeted Gui Xiao...had other motives.

"Wait...could it be..." After a few seconds, a more plausible idea flashed through Gui Xiao's mind, "Could it be related to my match at midnight?"

He had finally hit on the key point.

But...even knowing this, he had no ability to escape.

At this time, there were still...twelve hours and fifty-three minutes left until the match at midnight on the 16th.

…………

At the same moment, Order Studio, Headquarters office building.

"Hmm...still can't get through..." Meng Jingchan listened to the "The number you dialed cannot be reached" message from his phone, and a suspicious look appeared on his face.

Brother Chan didn't like to bring work home, so he didn't leave the company in the morning like the others on the team. Instead, he switched to non-sleep mode, completed his online requirements for the day, and then prepared to get off work.

"This is troublesome..." This was the fifth time Meng Jingchan had called Gui Xiao in forty minutes, but he still couldn't get through.

As luck would have it, Gui Xiao had forgotten to bring the key to his locker when he came to the company last night, so he borrowed Brother Chan's locker to use. As a result, this kid forgot to put the key back at the front desk when he went home this morning and took it away in a daze...

As for Brother Chan...his car keys, house keys, wallet, and other miscellaneous items were all in his coat, and his coat was in the locker...

Of course, the company definitely had a backup key for the lockers, but due to issues involving personal privacy and other matters, the administrative process for applying for this thing was very troublesome (there used to be a very casual period, but it was tightened up after a few cases of theft and invasion of personal privacy occurred), and it could take half a day.

Right now...Brother Chan had nothing but his phone, so he naturally had to call Gui Xiao...to ask this kid about it.

But...he just couldn't get through.

"Hmm...or maybe I should ask the team leader what this kid's home phone number is..." Brother Chan hadn't thought of the worst yet. His first thought was whether the other party had left his phone in a place with poor reception or had lost it.

…………

Afternoon, 4:49 PM.

There were still...seven hours and eleven minutes left until the match at midnight on the 16th.

Woo--woo--

Hearing the vibration, Feng Bujue glanced at the phone screen on the table and saw an unfamiliar number.

"Is this some kind of sales call or scam..." Brother Jue muttered, picking up the phone.

Although he thought it was likely to be a nuisance call, he would still answer it. Basically...Feng Bujue would answer these kinds of calls, listen to the other person for only five seconds, and he would know the general nature of the call. Then, he would hang up without saying a word and add the number to the block list.

"Hello, who is this?" Brother Jue said after picking up the phone.

"Uh...hello, is this Feng Bujue?" A familiar voice came from the other side of the phone.

Brother Jue quickly searched his mind for the source of the voice: "Chou He Tang (Smoke Drink Scald)?"

"Hey hey...even if you don't know my name, you can call me by my game nickname..." Brother Chan wasn't angry, just a little exasperated, "What the hell is Chou He Tang?"

"How did you find out my number?" Feng Bujue didn't respond to the other party's retort, but instead asked a question that he was more interested in.

"I'm at the Public Security Bureau right now. The police told me." Meng Jingchan's answer was quite surprising.

"Oh..." Feng Bujue responded casually and continued, "Did you get caught prostituting and want me to come bail you out?"

"Big brother...I really have to call you big brother..." Meng Jingchan said, "How did you come to that conclusion?"

"It's simple. From your Chou He Tang vibe, you give me the feeling of someone who frequents low-end pleasure places." Feng Bujue replied in a lazy tone, "And then you said you were calling me from the Public Security Bureau, so it's probably because you were unlucky enough to get caught in a crackdown on prostitution, right? In your situation...notifying your family is basically a dead end; asking your unit leader to pick you up or having a friend bail you out...not only will you never be able to hold your head up in front of people again, but the news will eventually leak out; so, you thought of me."

Hearing this, Meng Jingchan on the other end of the phone was silent for a full thirty seconds.

"Brother Feng...your reasoning is okay, but your prejudice against me is too severe..." Brother Chan squeezed out this sentence after a long time.

"Alright, then tell me, what's going on?" Feng Bujue said.

"Well...it's like this..." Meng Jingchan said, "Gui Xiao...seems to have been kidnapped."

"Huh?" Feng Bujue was stunned for a second upon hearing this, "Did you call the police?"

"We called the police at noon." Meng Jingchan said, "At first, we thought it was a missing person case, and since he's a grown man, the police didn't take it very seriously...but you also know that we have an important match tonight...so, our company leaders used some connections to 'push' the investigation's progress...An hour ago, the police had already..."

"Stop~ Thank you!" Feng Bujue interrupted the other party, "You can just answer me 'We called the police,' that's all...you don't need to tell me so much."

"Brother Feng..." Brother Chan continued, "The reason I'm calling you...is to ask for your help."

"Ask me for help?" Feng Bujue sneered, "Heh...what can I do to help?" He then said something extremely shameless, "Although I, this great writer, also possess the abilities of a famous detective...this kind of case is obviously more suitable for the police to handle, right?" He paused, "Don't worry~ Our country's public security officers are very capable 'when they get serious.' Their investigation ability and execution are all..."

"Brother Feng." At this moment, Meng Jingchan suddenly lowered his voice and said to Brother Jue in a very serious tone, "It's not that I don't trust their abilities...but there's something fishy about this."

"Oh?" Feng Bujue keenly caught something from the other party's tone, "What do you mean by that?"

"It's not convenient to talk about it on the phone...can you come to the Public Security Bureau?" Meng Jingchan replied.

"Hmm..." Feng Bujue considered for a few seconds, "I can..." Before the other party could respond, he continued, "Give me the address."

…………

Thirty minutes later, a silver Porsche stopped in front of a Public Security Bureau branch in S City.

Two men got out of the car, one was Feng Bujue, and the other was Wang Tanzhi.

Because they had contacted each other by phone beforehand, Meng Jingchan was waiting for them outside the reception hall.

"I say...you two, coming to the police station in a Porsche..." As soon as the three of them finished greeting each other, Brother Chan complained about this.

"You don't need to say it, I understand, we've always been so low-key." Feng Bujue responded calmly.

In a sense, he was right...compared to the other cars in Little Tan's family, this one was very low-key in both color and price...

"Hehe...okay...fine..." Brother Chan really didn't know how to respond to this, so he simply changed the topic and said, "Right, we're short on time, let's get down to business first..."

After saying this, he mysteriously pulled Brother Jue and Little Tan aside, standing in a deserted corner outside.

"I'm only telling you this..." Meng Jingchan was obviously a smart person. He knew that the content he was about to reveal must not reach the ears of Gui Xiao's family or any police officer, "Actually, I originally trusted the police very much, but...just before I called you, I accidentally overheard the deputy director here talking to someone on the phone in the restroom..." He said to this point, and cautiously looked around again, lowering his voice, "The sound in the restroom is relatively muffled, and I could hear the voices on the phone..." He paused slightly, staring into their eyes and said, "I don't know who the person on the other end of the phone was, but...I clearly heard him instruct that deputy director to try to delay the investigation...and said to delay it until at least after two in the morning."