—This is an unknowable mystery.—

After the interrogation ended, Ranen couldn’t go straight back; instead, he stayed behind to help Archie sort out the interrogation records, assess the suspect’s psychological state, and even conduct personality tests based on the interrogation.

Although he wasn’t sure why these tasks were necessary, he felt that since he was getting paid, he should see it through. Ranen maintained a strong sense of professionalism.

While doing the tests, Archie took the initiative to chat with Ranen, leaving him quite flustered and somewhat overwhelmed. 

It was well known in the previous players’ community that Dr. Archie was notoriously indifferent. Unless he was with his patients, he rarely engaged in small talk, often responding to players’ attempts at conversation with harsh rebukes.

Now, to Ranen’s surprise, Archie was actively seeking him out to chat. Ranen speculated that this might be related to the recent interrogation.

Strangely, Archie didn’t mention the interrogation at all. Instead, he dragged Ranen into various casual topics. Ranen was puzzled but seized the rare opportunity to engage in a conversation with a colleague.

By the time they finished organizing the materials, Ranen couldn’t help but feel that Archie might not be as indifferent as he was portrayed in the past forums—perhaps it is because his friend is still around?

“Is it over?” Albert asked as he opened the door and entered.

“Yeah, it’s over. I can handle the remaining work myself,” Archie said flatly.

Albert immediately understood and smiled at Ranen. “Well then, Ranen, let me give you a ride home.”

“No need, I can walk back on my own.”

“That won’t do. It’s already dark outside, and I’d worry about you and won’t be able to sleep tonight if you walk back alone,” Albert joked. “Besides, you’re the hero of the day, so let me drive you.”

Ranen didn’t insist further. Who wouldn’t take a ride when offered? He nodded and got into Albert’s car.

“Here’s your payment for today.”

As soon as they got into the car, Albert handed over the payment. Ranen took it, counted, and was surprised to find there were two more bills than originally agreed upon.

“Albert, you’ve given too much.”

“It’s not too much; it’s what you deserve,” Albert said, keeping his gaze forward. “Without you, this interrogation wouldn’t have gone so smoothly, and we wouldn’t have obtained so much valuable information.”

Ranen shook his head and handed back two of the bills. “I can’t accept this. What you’ve given already exceeds the market rate.”

However, Albert refused to take it back. “You’ve worked all day. Look, it’s already dark. Even if it’s just overtime pay, the bureau will reimburse it anyway.”

Ranen insisted on stuffing the bills into Albert’s pocket. At this moment, Albert needed to steer the wheel and had no free hand to refuse, so he could only protest with his eyes.

“Albert, I know you’re very considerate, but the bureau won’t reimburse this money,” Ranen said. He wasn’t foolish; his previous self had no medical experience, and given that his expertise was irrelevant, the police department would never let him try out, as indicated by Archie’s initial attitude.

The only explanation was that Albert was finding excuses to give him money.

Earlier, Albert had mentioned at the hospital that if Ranen needed to borrow money, he could ask him. However, Ranen was preoccupied with evening matters at the time and didn’t react, which might have led Albert to misunderstand something. After that, Albert never brought up borrowing money again.

Perhaps Albert had learned about Ranen’s difficulties through other channels, which could explain his surprise and delight at Ranen resolving the criminal issue.

Albert didn’t expect him to succeed, and no matter how well Ranen performed, Albert would likely find a way to make him accept the money in the end.

But Ranen couldn’t easily accept the other’s kindness.

Because he wasn’t really ‘Ranen.’

“I appreciate the help you’ve given me, but I can’t accept more with a clear conscience.”

The vehicle came to a sudden stop. Albert turned to Ranen with a serious expression. “I’m not offering charity. You’re receiving this payment because you’ve earned it.”

“I know,” Ranen said, his tone softening. “But it’s no longer an issue. I have a way to keep the treatment room running.”

“Are you sure?” Albert seemed surprised. Clearly, he had already inquired with Archie and knew that someone like Ranen, who had just graduated, lacked connections, and had little experience, would find it almost impossible to sustain a psychological therapy practice.

“Not a hundred percent sure, but at least I don’t think it will close immediately,” Ranen said with a smile.

He had actually thought of this unexpectedly when he last saw Archie. In reality, he should have anticipated it earlier. As one of the most popular NPCs in the player forums, with the game’s launch inevitable, many players would likely visit him once they were in the game.

After all, he was a psychologist who charged by the hour for conversations!

Wasn’t this a prime opportunity to take advantage of the players?

Moreover, Ranen was also curious to see if his psychological treatment would have an effect on the players.

“Still, thank you.”

Regardless, he truly appreciated the roundabout concern and help he received and was genuinely grateful. Meeting Archie after arriving here was an added bonus.

He had given Ranen hope—a hope to survive in that inevitably doomed future. Since Dr. Archie was able to survive the great disaster to come, as long as Ranen kept a close watch on his movements, he could find the right moment to leave the city with his friends.

The hope of survival had greatly increased, which greatly lifted Ranen’s spirits.

Sitting in the passenger seat, the young man’s eyes curved with a smile. He often smiled, but a truly heartfelt smile was different. At this moment, Ranen was filled with confidence about surviving in this world. That vibrant hope made his gem-like eyes shine with brilliance.

Albert was completely absorbed in that smile, his expression slightly out of control. He reached out, seemingly wanting to touch Ranen’s face, his eyes briefly flashing with complex emotions.

*Beep beep—

Both of them were jolted, realizing only then that another vehicle had followed them, likely due to Albert’s abrupt stop causing a near traffic jam.

Albert quickly started steering, and the momentary ambiguous atmosphere in the car dissipated.

The atmosphere in the car fell into silence, as if both were reflecting on the awkwardness of the moment. Albert was frustrated with his earlier distraction and reckless behavior, while Ranen silently sighed in relief and pondered the fleeting emotion he had seen in Albert’s eyes.

He seemed to be feeling guilty, but what was he feeling guilty about?

“By the way, Ranen, you should be careful recently. If possible, try to avoid going out.”

Albert’s words made Ranen turn to look at him. “Why?”

“Just as a precaution. The bald man you interrogated today revealed a lot of information about the Black Poker, which might provoke a backlash,” Albert said with a frown and a hint of helplessness.

“Sorry, I didn’t expect you’d go this far, but now that it’s come to this, if they find out about you, they might cause you trouble. Of course, I’ll protect you. Your phone has my number. If you’re in danger or notice anything unusual, make sure to contact me.”

Albert’s serious expression made Ranen nod in agreement. “I understand…”

Speaking of contact methods, Ranen remembered Dr. Archie and asked, “Are you close with Dr. Hayes?”

“Well? We’re okay. We grew up on the same street, so we’re childhood friends, though we’ve had some disagreements recently,” Albert said, a bit nervous. He thought Ranen was still upset about the trouble Archie had caused him earlier. “Actually, Archie is a good person; he’s just a bit cold.”

“Yes, I know. He’s a good person,” Ranen said with a slightly embarrassed smile. “Could I have his contact information?”

Albert: “…?”

—-

Archie was alone in his office, sorting through the interrogation materials. He set aside the bald man’s personality test and compared it with another personality test that had been quietly conducted during the chat.

As he compared the results, he sighed with relief. According to the results, Ranen didn’t show any signs of mental disorders or common PTSD from trauma. In fact, his personality appeared to be mild, stable, and unlikely to cause problems.

It seemed that the previous impression had been a mere illusion.

Feeling more at ease, Archie made himself a cup of coffee and, while sipping it, pulled out another file prepared by Albert. This file contained similar test questions from Ranen’s student days.

Although he felt Albert might be making a bit too much of it, as a professional psychologist, Archie meticulously reviewed the tests inside.

As he looked through them, his eyebrows furrowed.

Wait a minute.

He took the earlier personality test again, set down his coffee, and frowned as he compared the two.

Cold sweat began to seep down his back.

It is different.

The two sets of similar personality tests, done by the same person, had so many differing answers.

It was as if they were two different people taking the tests.

But how could this be possible…

Archie sat in his office for a long time, lost in thought. By now, night had fallen, and some on-duty police officers glanced over at him. Before they could say anything, they saw Dr. Archie stride out of the office.

“Hey, Dr. Archie, heading home?”

Archie, hurrying along, didn’t even spare them a glance. The officers shrugged at each other. “He’s professional, but he’s so arrogant.”

“Maybe he had an urgent matter,” another officer suggested.

“What urgent matter? He just doesn’t think much of us small-time officers,” the first officer replied.

But they were mistaken this time; Archie really did have an urgent matter. He drove at breakneck speed, his rented apartment being quite a distance from the police station. He nearly ran a red light but managed to get home within an hour.

By the time he got back to his apartment, it was nearly midnight.

Without even taking a sip of water, he checked the time on his wrist, hurriedly set up the candles and a water cup on the table, then lay down on the couch fully dressed.

He was very familiar with this process, so as he lay on the couch, he quickly calmed his inner emotions, closed his eyes, and sank into the depths of his consciousness in a state of extreme calm, almost asleep.

At this moment, the clock was just about to strike midnight.

In his dazed state, he found himself standing in a space shrouded in gray mist, holding a candle. The candlelight flickered weakly in the air, barely illuminating the small area around him.

It was a tiny platform, only a few square meters in size. Below was an abyss, and everything around was covered in mist, creating an eerie silence. Archie held the candle high and found a staircase leading downwards at a 45-degree angle to the northeast.

The stairs appeared out of thin air in the gray mist, their destination unclear, and the depth of the staircase was even harder to discern. Archie focused intently, holding the candle steadily, and began to descend the stairs step by step.

The stairs in front were quiet, but after the fifth step, Archie began to hear familiar voices calling out. He kept his head down and focused on each step.

The voices behind him grew more urgent, followed by indistinct whispers that seemed to be right next to him. Cold sweat began to bead on his forehead, and he clenched his teeth, quickening his pace. After descending ten flights of stairs, the scene in front of him suddenly changed.

He found himself on a platform similar to the previous one, but much larger—about the size of a room. In the center of the platform was a table, and on the other side of it sat a shadowy figure draped in a black coat.

If he walked closer, he would see that the person under the black coat had no face.

Archie Hayes was an ordinary psychological consultant, but he had a secret that set him apart.

At midnight, he could enter a special space to communicate with a faceless, heartless entity through a question-and-answer game to obtain intelligence.

So far, the information acquired through this method had never been incorrect, not even once.

The difficulty of the question-and-answer game fluctuated based on the content of the previous intelligence, and answering incorrectly would come with a cost.

Archie silently sat down at the table.

“I want to know something.”

“Ask your question,” the faceless figure said with a mouth that wasn’t there. “A man frequently took his girlfriend to the hospital, and in the end, the man committed suicide. Why? You have ten chances.”

Archie: “Is the man’s death related to his girlfriend?”

“Yes.”

“Was the woman ill?”

“No.”

…

After using up the ten chances, Archie gave his answer: “The reason the man frequently took his girlfriend to the hospital was because she was pregnant, but their family disapproved, so they didn’t get married. The child in the girlfriend’s womb had a genetic disease that required expensive treatment. Unable to bear the pressure and the despair of falling in love with his own sister, the man committed suicide.”

“Correct,” the faceless figure said. “Next question.”

The faceless figure asked a total of five questions, each with varying chances and difficulty levels. Archie answered four correctly, but missed one question.

As a result, he lost his left ear, while the faceless figure gained a left ear on its own.

However, Archie sighed with relief; losing the hearing in his left ear for 24 hours was a price he could bear.

“Ask your question,” Archie said eagerly after the faceless figure finished asking the five questions. “What is Ranen’s true identity?”

However, the faceless figure did not respond.

Archie frowned and was about to ask again when the faceless figure raised its arm and, with a stiff motion, extended its index finger.

The finger was held up in front of where a mouth would be, a universally understood gesture indicating silence.

— Unaskable, unmentionable.

This was the mystery of the unknowable.