Chapter 84 [Western City Mystery] Final Reasoning and Adventure

When Gao Yi first entered Deli High School and sat down in the office, he was actually taught a lot about the history of this school.

The kind-hearted math teacher once said this:

[Oh, I heard that the land of the school used to be a mine. It was abandoned because many people died in a big mine accident. It is very gloomy. Don't stay for a long time at night...]

This kind of words that seemed to be just to create an atmosphere were completely ignored by Gao Yi at the time.

But as the exploration of the copy became more and more in-depth, these subtle clues gradually took shape and were slowly pieced together.

After a certain key point appeared, everything was sorted out.

First of all, what is the clown, or "disaster" in this copy?

The clown called himself "Bill" in the illusion, which is exactly the same as the colored pencil drawing that Gao Yi found in the haunted house.

Based on the timeline and the date of the painting, the clown could not be the boy Bill, but it was indeed related to him.

Before the battle in the swimming pool began, the things that Wang Wuzhou brought actually included case files of specific dates.

What Gao Yi wanted to confirm was Bill's fate.

As expected, the boy Bill also disappeared in 1967, and the witnesses of the case mentioned the word "clown" for the first time in West City.

And the eyewitness reports of the image of "clown" all appeared after that.

Based on this, it can be inferred that the clown is just one of the images of "disaster" in this copy, and it is an image that appeared after 1967.

The appearance of the court clown is not the main body of "disaster", and it has never been the key.

Although I don't know why, the nature of all cases has changed since 1967.

[In 1956, the family of the then mayor, 17 people, all died on Halloween Eve. The coroner said that the cause of death was all "excessive fright"]

[In 1945, shortly after the end of World War II, a war orphanage was set on fire, and the death toll...cannot be counted]

In cases before 1967, most of the children and teenagers who were victims died on the spot.

After that, the nature of the cases changed from "death" to "missing".

[In 1978, students of a children's choir disappeared collectively, and all 23 boys were missing]

Of course, the missing also included the boy Bill and Chris's brother Matt.

The missing person notices that Gao Yi had seen on the playground, which filled a wall, were also a perfect example.

After 1967, the death rate in West City declined, but the disappearance rate increased rapidly.

The existing information cannot infer the reason for this change in behavior, but one thing can be confirmed-these missing children cannot disappear out of thin air.

So where did they go?

The conjecture formed in his mind, and [Armchair Detective] played its role again, and several maps that had been seen in Chris's room suddenly overlapped.

In order to find his missing brother Matt, Chris kept the topographic map and pipeline drawings of the entire West City.

While resting in his bedroom, Gao Yi took the time to browse through them all, and now they all came in handy.

What are the places of disappearance?

Churches, parks, sewage outlets beside streams, dilapidated old houses in the city center...

They all have one thing in common, a commonality that is so subtle that it has not even been noticed by the West City police for decades.

The location of each missing child is just above the complex and winding pipeline system in West City.

So that's the truth.

The clown, or the "disaster", has been catching prey through the pipeline system at the bottom of the city. This is the truth behind the extremely high rate of missing teenagers in West City.

Hidden in the sewage underground, using illusion and hypnosis to control the target and bring it into the pipeline for transportation.

No one would think of searching the dark and narrow pipelines. In fact, those pipelines are not suitable for adults to pass through.

On this basis, the fact that the West City police have not gained anything for decades is not surprising.

And the last question is, where did the missing children go?

In the previous contact between Gao Yi and the clown Bill, it was confirmed that the other party would drag the prey into the illusion and feed on "fear".

It is highly likely that the clown will not really eat the children's flesh. If the guess is correct, there must be a place to store this huge number of missing people.

Do you remember the words of the teacher of Delhi High School mentioned before?

[Oh, I heard that the school land used to be a mine. It was abandoned because many people died in the big mine accident. Don't stay there for a long time at night...]

Guess where the sewer intersection in West City will be?

Where is it? There is a huge underground space that can store hundreds of missing teenagers without being discovered.

Before entering the dark swimming pool, Gao Yi got the final confirmation from the signalman.

The other party conveyed the key news brought by a soldier who ran back to the black and red fog.

"Chris and his expedition team found an entrance to the underground cave after encountering the clown."

I didn't expect that the exploration degree of this group of junior high school students actually exceeded myself. I underestimated them...

In any case, the information and intelligence have been summarized, and the story should come to an end.

With his eyes slightly closed, in just a few seconds, the reasoning has been completed in his mind.

Gao Yi took a deep breath, fell backwards into the dead water like a black mirror, and dodged Zhang Tu's close-range slash.

The cold sewage instantly enveloped his whole body, and the continuous pain and fatigue subsided, replaced by a strong sense of crisis.

Gao Yi slid his limbs, which were already somewhat out of control, and endured the increasingly strong discomfort, trying his best to swim deeper, looking for the source of the crisis.

The pain that had been experienced three times appeared again. If nothing unexpected happened, the phantom outside the swimming pool would appear again, and Zhang Tu had completed the "quadruple kill".

The pain this time exceeded the sum of the previous ones, and the body that was already overwhelmed was on the verge of collapse.

In this swimming pool, Gao Yi naturally no longer had the opportunity to drink a bottle of physical healing potion.

In fact, with the decreasing effect of continuous use, it is questionable how much effect the potion can still have.

Now, he can only rely on willpower.

Gao Yi forced his eyes to open in the water, and with the help of the five senses of [Armchair Detective], he tried his best to explore the way out.

The dark brown dirt almost deprived the water of its transparency, leaving only indescribable stench and dirtiness.

The sound of splashing water sounded behind him. If nothing unexpected happened, Zhang Tu had already caught up, although he was a few beats slower.

The other party was very good at swimming, and his movements in the swimming pool were almost unhindered. Gao Yi had already known this when they first fought.

Time was running out.

Where, where exactly, if his reasoning was correct, this swimming pool must be connected to an entrance to that cave.

His eyes were bloodshot, and his stiff body was shaking due to the cold and fatigue, but he dared not slow down the movements of his limbs.

Faster, faster.

The paddling sound behind him was getting louder and louder. Zhang Tu had caught up, and Gao Yi could even feel the kitchen knife wielded by the other party.

If the murderous aura could condense into a solid entity, then there must be a pair of big hands in the water, tightly grasping Gao Yi's ankles and dragging him into the abyss of destruction.

So tired, so painful, I can't breathe... If I die in this cold water, I can rest.

Unexplained thoughts appeared in his mind, Gao Yi hurriedly bit the tip of his tongue until it bled, and used the stinging pain to forcibly interrupt this inexplicable wandering.

There was no other way, so he forced his consciousness to focus and activate the active effect of [Armchair Detective].

These were the last few trump cards, but now there was really no way to save them.

The situation around him suddenly became clear, and he slightly retracted his legs to avoid another slash from Zhang Tu behind him in the water.

Resisting the discomfort in his eyes, Gao Yi used his hands to push away the dirt in front of him and looked around again.

Found it!

Finally, in the lower right corner of the swimming pool, he found the exit.

A similarly dark hole was slowly emitting dense black and green bubbles.

Holding the last breath in his lungs, Gao Yi kicked his legs and rushed towards the cave entrance.

Rushing towards the end of the story.

....................