Roddy opened his mouth and looked at Jennifer with some surprise, the last time he saw her was in the police station's lounge, when she was also in a poor mental state but overall she was relatively normal, in sharp contrast to her appearance at this time.

"Sorry ma'am, I'm a private investigator, can we go in and talk?"

Jennifer looked at Roddy suspiciously, the exaggerated beard that seemed to be glued, the round-rimmed glasses without frames, and the cheap burlap robe that covered her body enough were enough to show that the man in front of her was lying.

But she recognized Roddy, even if it was just a meeting without any communication.

"You're Mr. Issad's assistant?"

Roddy hurriedly stretched out his index finger and pressed it to his mouth.

"Can we go in and talk about Rick!"

As soon as he entered the room, Roddy smelled a pungent smoky smell, and all the windows were closed, which made the smell even more pungent throughout the room.

"Only then can I see Rick, you'll trust me!"

Jennifer seemed to be talking to Roddy, and as if she was talking to herself.

"Just wait a minute!"

Roddy watched Jennifer quickly crouch into the fireplace, some neurotic behavior giving him the idea that his guess might be wrong.

Patient with the pungent smell of smoke, Roddy crouched down in front of the fireplace to keep himself at Jennifer's eye level.

"Ma'am, is Rick still here?"

Jennifer raised her head instantly, stared at Roddy with blazing eyes, and said incoherently:

"Yes! Yes! Rick is not dead! He's still here, he needs help, trust me! Just wait a minute, wait a little and you'll see him!"

Roddy nodded and sat down on the spot, at this time Jennifer's state was between normal and abnormal, sometimes acting normally, such as she saw through Roddy's disguise at a glance, but sometimes acting quite crazy, completely ignoring Roddy's existence.

After waiting for an unknown amount of time, Roddy almost got used to the smell of the room, during which Roddy asked Jennifer many questions about her sighting of Rick, but Jennifer kept repeating the same thing throughout.

After another hour or so, Roddy had completely given up on his intention to stay and was about to leave to reorganize his thoughts, when the kerosene lamps placed in the room flickered on and off.

Jennifer's mental state instantly became agitated and high, and she quickly climbed out of the fireplace and grabbed Roddy by the sleeve.

"Here! Rick is here!"

At the same time, Roddy did feel a strange aura and immediately used the ability to snoop.

Immediately it became apparent that the whole room was shrouded in a strange ritual, and the kerosene lamps placed here and there were actually nodes of the whole ritual, and this smoke was a mixture of dust produced by the burning charcoal when it met with water.

Most importantly, Roddy could clearly feel that the core of the ritual was Jennifer herself, who was slowly and silently providing life to it.

Roddy couldn't imagine that Jennifer, who had been in this environment for a long time, was still alive.

"Rick! Oh, my Rick!"

Jennifer suddenly fell to the ground, and in front of her a figure did appear, a silhouette simply formed by mist, which was swaying slightly with Jennifer's movements.

Roddy felt a cold breath, and this breath was approaching him, Roddy subconsciously began to retreat, until he hit the sofa behind him, and at this time, the breath was passing in front of him and spreading towards the second floor.

Along with this breath was Jennifer, who began to appear more and more wooden, her eyes hollowly outstretched and her hands following the figure formed by the smoke.

Roddy hesitated for a moment, choosing to follow.

The environment on the second floor is completely different from the first floor, the air here is much cleaner, there is hardly any fog to be seen, and the eerie ritual seems to envelop only the first floor.

The figure formed by the smoke dissipated at an almost visible rate, but it still carried Jennifer and Roddy to Rick's room.

By this point, the figure had basically left only an indistinguishable silhouette, and Jennifer was even more wooden, her face pale as if she had been sick for many years.

Obviously, the figure needs to consume a lot of energy to move here, and the source of the energy is Jennifer.

Just as Roddy pondered whether to stop and dispel the ritual that was draining Jennifer's life, the figure came under the bed, stretched out an illusory finger and pointed under the bed, then got up and walked to Rick's desk and pointed to the words carved on the table.

After doing all this, the figure quickly dissipated, and at the same time Jennifer fell silently.

Roddy hurriedly stepped forward to help Jennifer and placed Jennifer on Rick's bed, which could be seen to be very expensive, and then turned to the window and opened the curtains to let the sunlight in.

The figure just now may really be Rick, and it hints something for Roddy.

With this, Roddy found some similar dry moss under Rick's bed, which was very rare, and sniffed some with his hand on the tip of his nose.

"I think I've smelled this somewhere..."

The moss-like thing was indeed moss, and he remembered the last time he went to the clinic to get a hanging bottle, when Hepburn was wearing a pair of obviously male leather boots, so he gave Roddido a few looks.

The leather boots had something moss-like on the hem, and Hepburn's sewer dwellings had a similar smell.

After thinking for a while, I got up and walked to the desk, and looked at the three words "I was wrong" on the table, and fell into deep thought.

In Atana's diary, there is a less friendly memory of Atana being ostracized by his friends who had been involved in the research after Atana closed the lab, and even gradually turned into violence involving multiple people, especially Rick.

The two are connected as if Rick was telling Roddy that the killer was Atana.

But it's actually a lot more complicated, as Roddy's current speculation itself comes from Atana's research journal and Atana's mother's anomaly.

If Atana is the murderer and assuming he is still influencing reality in some form, then why would he give himself clues to pull himself into the world of his diary?

There is a clear contradiction between the two.

Roddy rubbed his forehead with some difficulty, then looked at the frail and unconscious Jennifer who came to the first floor and opened all the windows, erasing all traces of the ritual at the same time, just as he had erased Mr. Em's restraint ritual in the first place.

Ten minutes later, Roddy looked at his masterpiece with satisfaction, the whole room was much more airy, Rick was indeed dead, and the effect of this unknown ritual was actually a similar ability to record, it was generated by Rick, and then the same thing was played over and over again.

It's like a supernatural phenomenon that occurs because Rick can't look at it.

Roddy could understand Jennifer's grief over the loss of her son, just like his parents on Earth must be grieving his disappearance, but Roddy knew that the deceased was gone, and that those who were still alive still had a reason to continue living, not only for themselves but also for the sake of the dead.

This paranormal phenomenon should not be Jennifer's sustenance.