"This place is more realistic than I imagined."

Walking through the corridors of the Truth Corporation headquarters campus, Baron Coleman watched the researchers chatting about various matters as they passed by, each with different expressions, and sighed with emotion once again.

"Indeed, Professor Dort's words were not mere modesty... his development and utilization of the [Ancient Notebook] truly amounts to less than five percent."

Lin Yu was also secretly astonished.

This place was indeed real, so real that it didn't feel like they had entered Baron Coleman's memories, but rather as if they had truly traveled back eight years in time!

Some of the researchers passing by him and the Baron were engaged in conversations, and just the fragments Lin Yu overheard covered various aspects like gossip, research topics, and more, all with an incredibly strong sense of authenticity.

However, while these things made Lin Yu marvel, they wouldn't make him change his objective.

Soon...

Under Coleman's guidance, he arrived at the employee residential area in the southeast corner of the campus.

A large number of Truth Corporation employees lived here—generally only management and retired senior scholars could reside in this area.

At the edge of the residential area, there was a place similar to a cargo hold.

The warehouse stored a large quantity of discarded metal components.

Coleman led him through various twists and turns, finally reaching a corner of this warehouse.

"This place is quite remote."

"Of course, after all, it's a 'hidden' laboratory. It can't be placed right out in the open."

Coleman sighed, then began pulling on a tall shelf in the corner.

"Vrrrm—"

Metal scraped against the ground, emitting a teeth-grating sharp sound, revealing a security door behind it.

This security door wasn't completely concealed within the wall, leaving no traces whatsoever.

On the contrary, it simply had a seal pasted on it with the words "This Door Abandoned."

One could even vaguely see there was a door here through the gaps in the shelf just moments before.

But Lin Yu had to admit...

This disguise method was much more effective than completely hiding the door within the wall.

"Truly a genius concept."

If he saw something like this, he would never have guessed this door was the entrance to some secret laboratory.

This kind of disguise precisely exploited human inertial thinking—its principle was similar to how someone wearing a maintenance worker's uniform could freely enter and exit various places.

"When I first investigated the location and came to this warehouse back then, I almost overlooked this door."

Baron Coleman sighed with emotion, then pulled open this door.

Looking at the passageway behind the door that still appeared abandoned, old, and uncleaned, Lin Yu spoke after some thought.

"Don't we need to meet up with Pang Kedo and that detective?"

As they walked all the way here, they hadn't encountered those two.

After all, this place was quite large.

"To be honest... I don't know how to find them either. It's better to come here first and take a look."

Baron Coleman replied.

"And, if that detective is truly smart enough..."

Baron Coleman didn't explicitly say it, but Lin Yu already understood his meaning.

The two walked into the staircase behind the abandoned door, turned two corners, and then encountered a suddenly bright and clean corridor.

On the corridor stood an access control gate.

And in front of that access control...

Fu Luo was squatting there with Pang Kedo.

"You two are quite slow," Fu Luo said boredly. "What, did you have a disagreement outside?"

Just as Baron Coleman had hoped...

Fu Luo had already arrived here first.

Without Coleman telling Fu Luo the specific location, Fu Luo had accurately found the exact crime scene from eight years ago within this vast campus.

Even though he had expected it, seeing Fu Luo actually accomplish this, Baron Coleman couldn't help but ask.

"How did you find this place?"

"Although this campus is large, there aren't many possible locations that can accommodate a hidden ghost laboratory."

"Just by investigating the floor plan slightly, you can discover where a piece is 'missing,' or where the mapping deliberately violates standards."

"And... you mentioned that the researcher was found in his own 'home.'"

Fu Luo said calmly, knocking on the access control of this metal door. "So, how do we open this door?"

Although they were currently "consciousness" and "soul," the [Ancient Notebook] faithfully restored everyone's state before entering—Lin Yu checked and found that his various items were still usable.

This naturally included Vale Valetti's identity card.

"Try swiping the card."

He said, taking out the privilege card from his chest.

Baron Coleman nodded: "Back then, I got in smoothly with A-level privileges—that was also one of the main pieces of evidence for my conviction."

"I don't know if B-level privileges will work or not."

Answering Baron Coleman was a crisp "beep—" sound.

The metal door automatically opened, and Lin Yu shrugged.

"Seems like it works."

The four entered this mysterious "ghost laboratory" area, and soon, under Baron Coleman's guidance, arrived at a door.

He pushed open this door, revealing another long passageway.

Pang Kedo looked somewhat confused: "Where does this lead to?"

"To Reed Christopher's home."

Baron Coleman said in a low voice.

By now, besides Pang Kedo, both Lin Yu and Fu Luo had vaguely realized the full picture of the entire case.

After Coleman opened the door at the end of the passageway...

What they saw was a laboratory about the size of a classroom.

They had emerged from a hidden back door disguised as a freezer in the laboratory.

The entire laboratory was filled with various instruments, and on the experimental table in the center, Reed Christopher lay in a pool of blood with a sharp blade stabbed into his back.

This was...

the murder scene from eight years ago!

Fu Luo quickly scanned the surroundings, noticing that aside from this hidden door, the entire laboratory had only one tightly closed and locked main door.

There were no windows, the ventilation duct grilles were welded shut and equipped with alarms.

And this hidden door behind them...

"If I'm not mistaken, the access control at the entrance showed only your passage record afterwards, right?"

Fu Luo asked coldly. Coleman nodded helplessly.

"Yes, this was also one of the important reasons I was suspected of being the murderer..."

"Whether it's that passageway or Reed's home, only my traces appeared during the time of Reed's death—in fact, according to the forensic reconstruction, Reed's time of death was precisely after I entered this passageway."

"Because I didn't go to Reed's home immediately... I lingered in that passageway for about fifteen minutes."

"Plus that knife was one I had lost a few days earlier—so although the company didn't convict me immediately, I completely offended Reed's faction. They firmly believed... no, even my friends thought that I had killed Reed!"

Fu Luo nodded.

"I see. If we firmly believe you're not the murderer, then the current situation..."

"Is a standard locked-room murder case."