Chapter 68: Classified Horror

The video continued to play. The man who ate his own fingers still wore a smile, but with his face bloodied and red, he resembled a ghastly specter.

After consuming all five fingers, he picked up the dagger and thrust it into his chest and abdomen, repeatedly stabbing himself.

One stab, two stabs…

Xiao Yu, his scalp completely numb, watched the scene unfold in silence. The man continued until he had delivered sixteen stabs. He didn’t stop because he wanted to but because his body could no longer sustain him, and he collapsed to the ground.

The video ended.

Xiao Yu closed his eyes, feeling overwhelmed. His mind struggled to process the flood of disturbing information. It was too much, too chaotic, too eerie. Attempting to analyze it was physically painful.

He first dismissed the video’s authenticity.

What kind of person could savagely slash their own face a hundred times? What kind of person could methodically chop off each of their fingers and eat them?

Most disturbingly, as they committed these acts, they did so calmly, without haste, and without any apparent pain.

It’s important to realize that the type of pain depicted was beyond what any normal person could endure. No normal individual could handle it.

An abnormal person?

This wasn’t some movie scene. The human body does have nerves that feel pain. Okay, perhaps there exists a rare individual born without the ability to feel pain. That could be understandable.

But to then introduce two such individuals? Was that even plausible?

Xiao Yu was truly astounded. His face froze, unable to believe that someone could actually do this. Because it was beyond the analytical capacity of his mind.

After a long pause to gather himself, Xiao Yu clicked on the third video.

Five minutes later, he almost vomited. He watched as the person in the video methodically cut off their own flesh and ate it leisurely… until death.

The fourth video featured another individual who cut off his own nose, eyes, ears, tongue, feet, and arms.

The fifth video showed someone kneeling on the ground, slicing open their chest and abdomen, removing their organs, and placing them inside.

After watching all five videos, Xiao Yu’s scalp was completely numb, and his eyelids twitched uncontrollably.

If the first two videos could be described as eerie or horrifying, the next three were beyond the endurance of any normal person. They were likely to cause psychological trauma and leave lasting mental scars.

Xiao Yu, with some expertise in criminal psychology, utilized psychological suggestions and adjustments to cope. It took him an hour to finally calm his mind and body from the terrifying content.

By then, Xiao Yu had lost all desire to examine the case files. Just from the five surveillance videos, he could make a rough guess.

One person acting in such a way could be understood as suicide. Two people doing the same exceeded comprehension.

Three, four, five people…

The answer was clear, it could not simply be acts of self-harm or suicide. There must be some method, some technique, or some force compelling them.

Xiao Yu reopened the videos to check their timestamps.

2022, 2021, 2020…

Did it happen once every year, starting five years ago?

With furrowed brows, Xiao Yu, at last, decided to open the dossier.

Special C, Secret A!

Xiao Yu, “???”

He was first stunned, then sharply inhaled a cold breath.

Extra-large Category C? Top-level Confidentiality A?

Extra-large cases had their classifications.

They are divided into S, A, B, C, D, and E.

For instance, Category E was the most common level among the most significant cases. It encompassed cases with at least three deaths, extremely large drug transactions, enormous amounts involved in the case, or those that had caused significant impacts.

For example, the family annihilation case that Xiao Yu had solved involved three tragic deaths, and the bodies were nearly reduced to ashes.

Yet, it was only classified as an E-level extra-large case.

The corpse smuggling case a few days ago involved a thousand corpses and was horrifying enough to barely qualify as a D-level extra-large case.

In the country, when extraordinarily large cases reached Category D, local authorities no longer had the jurisdiction to intervene. These were handled by national security, with local enforcement agencies providing assistance.

That the current case had been classified as Category C indicated that it had received greater attention from national security than the corpse smuggling case.

Those five videos alone had already explained the problem.

No wonder Wang Dong explicitly warned against leaking the contents when he handed over the USB drive. If these five videos were to be released, imagine the public panic they could cause.

Can even horror movies dare to portray scenarios as depicted in these videos?

Xiao Yu focused intently and proceeded to examine the case details.

In the summer of 2018, late at night in City C, a 911 call was made. The caller claimed he was jogging at night, passing through a certain park, when he witnessed a horrifying act of self-mutilation.

As the incident unfolded, the caller entered the open park and, upon hearing some strange noises, went to investigate. He encountered a woman dressed in white, resembling a spectral figure, who was holding a knife and slashing her own face.

Terrified, the caller fled the scene. Overwhelmed by fear and believing he had encountered something supernatural, he was too scared to report the incident for several hours.

By the time the police arrived, the body of the deceased was already cold. Subsequently, the police retrieved footage from the park’s surveillance cameras.