The car came to a halt at a red light. Brother Song reached into his pocket and pulled out a slightly crumpled pack of cigarettes. He lit one for himself and offered another to Jason in the passenger seat. "Smoke?"
"Thanks." Jason took the cigarette but didn't light it, merely twirling it between his fingertips.
"Back to what we were talking about," Song said, exhaling a cloud of grayish-white smoke. His eyes looked somber through the haze. "You asked how to investigate if the killer wasn't tiptoeing. What's your take?"
"Well..." Jason brought the cigarette to his nose and sniffed. With his vampire constitution, he could discern the precise ratio of nicotine and tar in the tobacco.
Suppressing his inner disdain, he adopted the thoughtful expression of a trainee. "Based on the data I measured, the range for the suspect's height calculated from shoe size and stride length has a margin of error of up to twelve centimeters. I suspect the killer was intentionally deceiving us."
"Go on."
"The killer might have purposefully worn Nikes one or two sizes too large. After the crime, or while searching the premises, he could have deliberately taken longer strides to create a 'smokescreen' for the police. He wants us to look for a tall man over 180 cm, when in reality, he might only be 170 cm."
The light turned green. Song steered with one hand while smoothly shifting gears and accelerating with the other.
"Isn't there a fine for smoking while driving, Brother Song?" Jason remarked, watching the veteran's practiced movements.
"One hundred and fifty credits and two points off the license. Can't help it, the craving is too strong," Song chuckled self-deprecatingly. He grabbed a portable ashtray from the door compartment and stubbed out the cigarette. "Your analysis is interesting. But you focused so much on the data that you missed the most fatal flaw: the gait. That's why I say you're not flexible enough, Xiao Qi. If the data itself is forged by the killer, the resulting calculations are naturally meaningless."
"I stand corrected," Jason nodded humbly.
He knew the data was fake, of course, because the "killer" wasn't walking with human feet at all.
After a pause, Song's tone shifted abruptly, cutting into the heart of the case like a scalpel. "So... have you thought about why the suspect would bother playing a game with you?"
Jason's heart skipped a beat.
He had pondered the mimetic vampire's motives at the scene, but now he had to provide a perfect lie that fit "mortal logic."
"I have, but it's contradictory," Jason frowned. "Initially, I thought the killer was buying time to delay the discovery of the crime. But on second thought, that doesn't make sense. Duan Kun had been dead for twelve hours. If the killer wanted to destroy the scene or evidence, he had plenty of time; there was no need to hop online and play with me in the middle of the night."
"Fair point. Anything else?"
"I also wondered if the killer was just nervous. Maybe he happened to be at the victim's computer when my voice call came through, and he reflexively tried to hide the crime by pretending to be Duan Kun. But that's even more far-fetched—if it was a split-second reaction, how could he mimic the voice so perfectly? It's as if... he had practiced it for a long time, or he has some kind of innate 'talent' for mimicry."
At this, Jason feigned a sudden realization, putting on a look of horror. "Brother Song, do you think it's possible... that this was a long-premeditated murder? The motive wasn't robbery at all, but... to replace him?"
Screech—!
Song slammed on the brakes. The tires let out a piercing shriek on the wet asphalt, and the police car stopped less than half a meter from the vehicle in front.
The air in the cabin froze.
It took several seconds for Song to let out a long breath and restart the car. "Alright, enough blind guessing. We have too few leads; overthinking it will just make you lose your mind. We'll have a better idea tomorrow when the forensics report comes in."
Jason scratched his head appropriately, looking troubled. "Then what do you think the motive was, Brother Song?"
"I don't know," Song shrugged. "That's why we investigate the victim's social circle. For the suspect to mimic Duan Kun's voice so perfectly, he must have known him intimately. This is a classic 'acquaintance crime.' Did Duan Kun mention offending anyone lately during your gaming sessions? Or anyone who had the prerequisite skills to mimic voices?"
"I really don't know. We only reconnected a few days ago, and we never even met in person." Jason sighed, turning his gaze back to the dark, rainy night.
An acquaintance crime? Jason sneered inwardly. The police would never understand what kind of bloodthirsty monsters lurked beneath the calm surface of the Earth Federation.
Half an hour later. Yuqiao Municipal Public Security Bureau, Criminal Investigation Detachment.
The police car pulled into the courtyard, and the harsh glare of a searchlight swept across Jason's pale face.
"Let's go, get inside," Song patted his shoulder. "Captain Su probably beat us here and is waiting."
They walked through several long corridors and pushed open the doors to a brightly lit briefing room.
Captain Su Ping was standing at the end of the conference table, listening intently to a low-voiced report from a plainclothes officer. As Jason sat down next to Song, he felt Su Ping's gaze graze him like a blade.
Thump.
Su Ping checked his watch and rapped the table sharply. "Song, you lead the scene investigation summary. As for the trainee—"
Su Ping pointed directly at Jason. "You, come with me."
"Me?" Jason acted out the fluster of a rookie, pointing at his own nose.
Su Ping had no patience for explanations and turned to leave. Song gave Jason a quick shove. "Go on, the Captain has a short fuse. Don't keep him waiting."
Jason grabbed his notebook and hurried after him.
"Captain Su, where are we going?"
"Forensics," Su Ping said without looking back, his voice as cold as ice. "There's something you need to identify. And while we're at it, let's test that 'elaborate theory' you had in the car."
Jason's pupils contracted slightly.
How did Su Ping know about his conversation with Song? Was the police car bugged? It seemed this Captain was going to be more troublesome than he had anticipated.
During the walk to the forensics lab, Jason's mind didn't stay idle. He split his consciousness, diving into his encrypted mobile phone.
As a top hunter holding a [Licensed Private Investigator] credential, Jason lived a double life. Beyond his role in the police force, he frequented a highly secretive dark web forum: the Federation Anomalous Incident Detective Forum.
At the bottom of this website—accessible only to high-level detectives and protected by heavy encryption—was a section that usually saw very little traffic.
It was titled: [The Inner Cases].
Everything recorded here defied the laws of physics—supernatural tragedies suppressed by the Federation's top brass. The female vampire he had locked in Cell 0001 was a "prey" he had scouted from these dusty files.
Now, to fill the five skill slots on his [Calamity Constraint Glove], he needed to lock onto his next target.
"Hmm... Furonghe City? The rate of 'Inner Cases' there is unusually high."
A miniature holographic screen flickered at the edge of Jason's retina. His gaze locked onto a fragmented file uploaded by an anonymous detective just three hours ago.
[File Number: FRH-094][Location: Furonghe City, Green Source Middle School, Dormitory Building 2.][Summary: At midnight, three students were playing cards illegally in their dorm. One student, surnamed Li, went to the restroom and found the dorm supervisor standing outside the door, his face pale and body extremely rigid. When Li returned to the room, his two roommates looked at him with eyes full of terror—because attached to Li's back was a headless torso... no, a head with no eyeballs and blackened hands.][Outcome: The three students suffered severe psychological trauma; one also had severe frostbite. The dorm supervisor stood outside all night; his leg muscles suffered severe necrosis. He is currently in the ICU.][Danger Level: Low (No direct fatalities).]
"Midnight cards, a head without eyes, and extreme cold that causes necrosis..."
Jason chewed over these keywords, the curve of his lips widening.
This was a classic supernatural haunting! Furthermore, the lack of direct fatalities suggested that the "thing" in the school was either weak or restricted by certain rules. It was the perfect prey for a novice keeper like him, who had just gained a basic vampire constitution and needed practice.
"Furonghe is only a four-hour high-speed rail ride from Yuqiao. Once I finish my statement for Duan Kun's case, I'll find an excuse to take two days off and head there."
Jason quickly finalized the plan in his mind.
"We're here."
Su Ping's cold voice broke Jason's train of thought.
They stopped before a heavy, blast-proof isolation door labeled [Evidence Identification Center].
Su Ping swiped his keycard, and a pungent mix of formalin and blood wafted out. With Jason's heightened sense of smell, the odor nearly made his head spin.
There were no bodies on the autopsy table; instead, several transparent evidence bags were laid out.
"Xiao Qi, right?" Su Ping stepped forward, donning gloves, his eyes sharp as a hawk as he stared at Jason. "You said the killer took something from the shop, but not for money."
"Yes... that's right, Captain Su," Jason replied warily.
"When you were searching the scene, did you miss the hidden compartment under the cash register?" Su Ping picked up an evidence bag and slammed it onto the stainless steel table.
Jason's gaze fell on the bag.
Even with his mental preparation, his pupils constricted violently when he saw the contents.
Inside the bag was an ancient bronze fragment, its surface covered in dark red, dried blood.
The pattern on the edge of that fragment was a perfect, startling match for the [Calamity Asylum Star Badge] hanging around his neck!
"We found this in the hidden compartment. What's even weirder is the DNA extracted from this fragment," Su Ping said, his voice dropping as he locked eyes with Jason. "Half belongs to the victim, Duan Kun. The other half... doesn't belong to any known carbon-based organism on Earth."
A deathly silence filled the room.
A cold sweat instantly broke out on Jason's back.
He finally understood why the female vampire had killed Duan Kun. She wasn't just a common mutant; she was looking for relics related to the [Calamity Asylum]!
What kind of terrifying abyss had that fat b*st*rd Duan Kun been involved in without telling him?
"Now, trainee," Su Ping leaned forward over the table, his presence suffocatingly oppressive. "Tell me, when you were gaming with Duan Kun, did he ever mention this piece of scrap metal? Or can your 'brilliant detective brain' use your so-called 'flexible logic' to explain to me... exactly what a non-carbon-based organism is?"