Criminal Psychology Chapter 80

Published at 3rd of January 2023 05:50:01 AM

Whether one believed it or not, there were always people who were particularly good at making up stories. The stories they created seem bizarre, but they could make a three-year-old believe in them until they got much older.

So starting from the Yongchuan University campus, where two terrifying mass suicides occurred, a mysterious rumor began to circulate throughout University City.

At first, the rumor only appeared on the public forum of Yongchuan University City, and the entire topic post was decisively deleted by the administrator after a few minutes. If it weren't for the good people who quickly took screenshots, it was likely that most people wouldn't be able to see the content of the entire post.

History was made through gossip.

The time was 1:13 a.m. on April 14th.

Most of the school's dorms had turned off their lights, but a majority of the students were still hiding under their blankets, glued to their phones as they browsed the internet.

Therefore, when the students saw a blood picture in their Moments, it wasn't too late.

From the small picture, it seemed to be a wall under dim lighting. The overall tone was as dark as the picture. The photo unfolded smoothly, and the bright red font caught the eyes of the students. It was just a wall that was covered in bright red paint.

Countless numbers and unknown characters covered the entire wall, seemingly forming a collection of formulas, making the scene quite miserable.

Where was this?

What was going on?

What kind of psychopath was doing math on the wall?

Many students thought of this and naturally turned off the picture and continued to chat about school gossip in their smaller friend groups, discussing topics such as which certain department's grass was having an affair with which school flower or whether a certain celebrity was cheating again.

Nevertheless, the unresolved question didn't disappear immediately.

When the second photo appeared, it quickly swept through the student's circle.

Someone shouted in the group: [Hurry up and look at Yongchuan University City BBS. Something happened to Phoenix Pedestrian Street!]

Soon, the entire message with the address of the same forum was quickly copied and pasted into different WeChat groups.

Even though the tone of the message was exaggerated, many students still followed the link and found the situation to be far less serious than what it was made out to be.

It looked as if a shop in the underground pedestrian street of the Phoenix Book Mall was vandalized with a bunch of mathematical formulas.

The glass door was smashed to pieces, covering the original clean wooden floor with glass and a hammer. Bright red characters were oozing under the green fluorescence of the “Emergency Exit” sign. Other than that, it didn't seem to be a big deal.

Therefore, students who were hoping to see gossip felt disappointed, and the replies below expressed their boredom.

[Shit, who's painting someone else's shop red? Are they sick?]

[The probability of those mentally ill in the mathematics department is pretty high.]

[I thought it was a Uniqlo*. Uniqlo…]

*Japanese clothing retail company. Most likely the commenter is jokingly referring to their logo, which is all red and white characters (based on the picture being posted).

[LZ*, go to hell. This post should just die.]

*Internet slang referring to original poster (of the thread).

[Don't always post shit and try to blow it up!]

Most people were too lazy to reply to the post, and those who were idle enough to fart, replied to the post and then closed the page.

The first person to find the situation abnormal was the administrator of Yongchuan University City BBS.

When he clicked to delete the post, he found that the forum system gave him an error, prompting him that there was a problem with the administrator account and kept reminding him that he didn't have the permission to do so. As a responsible forum administrator, he quickly called the school forum maintainer and reported the problem.

However, just when he called, a “marked red”, “highlighted”, and “refined” subject post floated swaggeringly on the homepage. The content was also ostentatious—please don't delete my post. If you try again, there will be consequences.

The ID of the poster was the same as the owner of the poster in the photo building.

Occasionally, some students returned to the homepage of the forum, saw the pinned post, and became confused about the situation for a while. When they clicked back to the “building photo post” again and went down to the very last reply, they found that someone had summarized the key points of the entire thing.

It was roughly as follows:

[The poster with the ID SF9706 posted a bloody wall photo on the BBS of Yongchuan University City. After the post was published, it was quickly deleted by the administrator. This act of deleting the post seemed to have angered the poster, so the person went and posted another post of the same photo and arrogantly pinned a subject post on the home page, warning the administrator not to make any small moves.]

Naturally, this wasn't something the administrator themselves would do—to pin a post to the top—so the only one who would do this was SF9706 himself.

The “building photo post” was still there, and the “warning post” was pinned at the top. It seemed that the administrator of Yongchuan University City BBS was either asleep or had been hacked out of his permission.

[The SB* administrator deleted my post a minute ago. It seems that someone has really removed their permission?]

*Slang referring to “dumb cunt”.

A new reply soon appeared in the “building photo post”. It was a screenshot of the time of deletion, which proved the fact that the administrator had lost their rights.

If this had been an ordinary shop that had been smashed and vandalized, it might make the news, but now that the school forum had been captured by the enemy, things didn't seem to be so simple.

The conclusion could only mean that behind this incident, there was a tech powerhouse that could kill the administrator's permission on the school forums in seconds.

The question then arose, why did this technical powerhouse hack into Yongchuan University City BBS in order to post and prevent these two photos from being deleted?

What was written on the walls? What did the person who wrote those things want to do? What did the person who posted the photo want to do?

Everyone had different questions in their hearts, so the comments under the “building photo post” immediately flooded in.

[Holy shit, who's the landlord trying to fight with?]

[LZ, what happened to that store? What are you doing?]

[It seems that it's really the underground pedestrian street under Phoenix Book Mall. When I passed by after 9 tonight, it looked fine?]

[Did LZ hack the forum?]

[The Emperor of Mathematics and the Emperor of Computers have made a move?]

[Does anyone understand what's written on the wall?]

[Can LZ speak human language? My low IQ can't afford it!]

The number of replies increased at a rate visible to the naked eye, and the onlookers gradually realized that cracking the content on the wall seemed to be key to understanding the entire gossip.

[I can't see it very clearly, but it seems to be solving something?]

[Reconsidering LZ, is this really cracking some kind of code?]

[People still use codes? Is this espionage?]

[It feels like some big news is about to spill!]

It wasn't just the Yongchuan University City Forum that was lively.

The police force of the second division of Yongchuan was also brightly lit all night.

“Dare to delete laozi's post. Hmph! Truly brave…” In the office, comrade Wang Chao opened another can of energy drink. After taking a sip, he refreshed the page again and reviewed the new comments.

Sure enough, they didn't need to guide public opinion. The conspiracy theories in the picture post were already running rampant. The brains of the students had expanded from the mathematics department to an alien invasion of Earth, and they were still expanding.

Though time was getting late, the number of people watching was increasing.

“You must hold on for a while! Don't go to bed so early!” The teenager, who was controlling the entire situation in front of the screen, murmured to himself.

Before he could speak again, he heard someone ask, “How's traffic?”

“The number of people online is 973, but the increase has slowed down,” Wang Chao replied. He thought for a while and then said, “A'Chen, do we have enough time?”

After listening to Lin Chen's fully laid-out plans, Wang Chao, as the executor, wasn't worried that it wouldn't work. What he was worried about was the time it would take for it to take effect.

After all, they were now using the Yongchuan University City forum to deliver the information they wanted to deliver to over 200,000 students in entire University City. In this process, the most uncontrollable thing was the time required for the transmission of this information.

“Large-scale information dissemination depends on accumulation and sudden outbreaks, which we often call the tipping point. As long as the tipping point is controlled, we still have enough time.” Lin Chen pinched the teenager's worried face and said, “The number of online visitors has reached 1,000. Post the next content.”

The students who frantically flocked to Yongchuan University City BBS probably wouldn't have thought that every reaction they had was the result of being artificially manipulated.

The midnight blood letters not only kept gossip going all night, but they even alarmed the big shots in various fields in University City.

The account of the most famous mathematics department on the BBS lit up, and the homepage of the forum was instantly swept with admirers.

[Fuck, is Xuan Ge online???]

[Xuan Ge, Xuan Ge, solve the problem!]

[Xuan Ge, I love you. I love you. I love you.]

[Xuan Ge is here to decode. What does the picture say?]

Questions flooded in, but the account named CXUAN quickly went dark after being lit up and didn't leave any replies.

Even so, the speculation of onlookers didn't stop there.

There were rumors that CXUAN, the most talented student in the mathematics department of Yongchuan University, was Chen Xuan. The reason why Chen Xuan was so famous wasn't because of the dozens of math trophies he had won, but because of his face.

Chen Xuan was incredibly handsome; the type that could be on the front page of a magazine.

Soon, Chen Xuan's fanatical fans began to tout Xuan Ge's glorious deeds to onlookers who didn't know much about him. Of course, while praising him, it was also necessary to attach his speech as the president of the student union at the opening ceremony.

Until the big shots of the fine arts department went online, most girls were focused on licking* their screens.

*Slang basically referring to drooling over someone (they're so hot you can help but lick the screen of their picture).

It was almost 1 in the morning, but the number of people online was as stable as a mountain.

Naturally, the fine arts department's big shot was far superior to the icy department grass. She had deliberately clicked on the “building photo post” that was covered with comments and then replied: [This signature… I seemed to have seen it somewhere before?]

Like digging a ditch to guide the water, the eyes of onlookers fell on a small area in the lower right corner of the wall.

It was a strange figure composed of three semicircles with small marks on the front and back, like unfinished wavy lines, but after careful observation, it was found that, compared to the scribbled writing of the formulas, the three semicircles seemed to be drawn more seriously. Since the big shot of the fine arts department had identified the wavy lines as a signature, a person who would leave their signature on such a bloody work must be extremely arrogant.

[I seemed to have seen this signature as well?]

[LZ is it a code? SF???]

[Can you stop being so mysterious upstairs? Is this a coded message? Give it to us straight.]

[I don't think I need to sleep tonight…]

The issue of signatures once again brought the discussion in the comments to a climax. Various speculations emerged in an endless stream in the increasing number of floors*, and soon someone asked the most critical questions.

*Clarity: Floors refers to the replies under a comment. The original comment and the replies under it make up the “building”. When someone refers to upstairs, it's referring to a previous comment above them.

[The code the girl upstairs is referring to is talking about three graves?]

It was as if dry wood had been ignited by fire or water had dripped into a pan full of oil.

With everyone speculating what was in the post, a pattern and a simple keyword could instantly inspire many crazy associations, and even without deliberate guidance, the association Lin Chen wanted would naturally appear.

[Shit, it's not related to the three corpses dug up at Yongchuan University, right? I'm getting goosebumps!]

Finally, someone said it.

Kinky Thoughts:

For those who read YRILGPED, which I translated, you know how much disdain I have for translating online comments. It just gives me a headache because there's so much slang, and it's also a pain. This chapter is giving me PTSD from those days again.

Chapter end