S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 3 Chapter 19

Smiling Murderer 18 - The Dangerous Game

---

In the eyes of Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, the way Eugene took out the CD was a bit too arrogant.

Eugene chuckled and said, “Let’s talk about it after watching it. After dinner later, I will take you to a place you will love.”

“Can we go too?” The twins asked with a grin, “How much will we love it?”

Eugene raised both eyebrows and said, “There are a lot of R rated things inside.”

“Oh.” The twins’ eyes glazed over and they immediately began to nod in agreement. They went to change their clothes, ready to go hunting for a beauty.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were somewhat helpless. Bai Yutang reached out and took the CD that Eugene handed over, and walked over to Bai Jintang, “Brother, can I borrow the computer?”

Bai Jintang turned the laptop around and gestured for him to use it.

Eugene came over and asked, “Jintang, aren’t you afraid of getting a virus?”

Bai Jintang raised both his eyebrows, “If the computer is broken, I’ll stuff it into your brain.”

Eugene coughed and touched his head, “Recently, you are all so violent, Leonard is also very bad tempered… Alas, it is so difficult to be a little brother, only you know the warmth and coldness of life.”

The twins hurriedly echoed, “Yeah, yeah… “ and were glared at by Bai Jintang.

Zhan Zhao stuffed the disc into Bai Jintang’s computer and opened the playback program… he saw a chaotic mess, as if there was a fire or something.

“What’s this video of?” Bai Yutang went over to look, and he realized that it wasn’t a fire, but rather the inside of a room with campfires burning all around. There were several people having private fights, a circle of people on the outside watching, and dogs… there were also women, and there was chaos.

“Is this what you call R rated?” Bai Jintang asked.

“It’s just a low-level fight club.” Eugene said, suddenly pulling away and saying, “Alas, did you see this recording of the fight club? It’s so good.”

The group looked at him helplessly – get to the point!

Eugene shrugged, “Just continue watching, the details come later. It’s brilliant!”

The group patiently continued to watch. As it was underground fighting, all of the gambling was handled by underground banks. The scene was noisy with applause and cursing, and it was endless. Bai Jintang rubbed his temples and frowned. (Angel: An underground bank is a type of organization that engages in underground illegal financial services.)

“Huh?” Zhan Zhao suddenly reached out and pointed at one of the spectators, “He has a strange expression!”

The group looked again… and saw that person suddenly smiling strangely before falling on his back… then a second… then a third.

Until finally, almost all of the spectators collapsed with weird smiles on their faces and died… This kind of death was all too familiar to Zhan Zhao and the rest of them; it was exactly the same symptoms as being poisoned by the death smile poison.

At the same time, someone was filming the video, sweeping over each face in detail, and the sound of laughter came from them.

Then someone hung up a Nazi flag while someone else poured gasoline and lit a fire… The camera recorded the bodies on fire, then the group left.

Bai Yutang frowned, “At least dozens of people died here, right? How come such a big case was not reported?”

“It’s from abroad, isn’t it?” Xiao Ding came over and said, “It looks like all of them are foreigners. Maybe the domestic media didn’t report on it or the news was blocked.”

Zhan Zhao suddenly reached out and rubbed his chin, saying, “It’s not that it hasn’t been reported… It was reported that an underground entertainment hall in a small Italian city burnt down because of poor fire fighting facilities… In the end, more than sixty people died, most of them burned to death.”

Eugene smiled and nodded, “En, worthy of being called artificial intelligence, ah, remembering it so clearly. As they say, a genius is a genius, what do you need a computer for?”

Zhan Zhao gave him a blank look and Eugene smiled evilly.

“Who did it?” Bai Yutang asked.

“Take it easy,” Eugene said, “there’s more, the best is yet to come!”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang frowned at each other and continued to watch.

It then switched to another video, and they could see a screen on the screen; it was a recording of a film. A movie appeared on screen, and it felt like watching a pirated version of the movie, as heads would cross over the bottom of the screen.

The movie was a Thai film, which could be identified by its language. There were no subtitles, so it was shown in a Thai cinema.

Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin and said, “This is the latest horror film.”

Bai Yutang looked at him and asked, “Cat, you know about this too?”

“En.” Zhan Zhao nodded his head and smiled, “It’s about a murderous demon. It’s said to be quite scary, I was thinking of watching it one day when I have a break.”

Bai Yutang was helpless… Watching horror films is one of Zhan Zhao’s favourite hobbies. When it’s late at night, he likes to close the curtain, wear headphones, nestle into the blanket, and laugh while watching horror films such as Saw or The Exorcist. While eating snacks and watching, he holds the little lion in his arms so he can watch with him. When he sees the scary scenes, he hides under the covers, not daring to show his head.

Bai Jintang frowned slightly and muttered to himself, “Another horror movie.”

Bai Yutang froze as he listened, then asked in realization, “By the way, Gongsun likes to watch them too, right?”

“Heh.” Bai Jintang gave a dry laugh. Gongsun never watched films that weren’t thrillers. As soon as he saw intestines and corpses, he was exhilarated.

Thinking of this, Bai Jintang rubbed his chin, thinking that maybe they should just get a large TV for the living room in a few days and simply let Zhan Zhao and Gongsun watch it together.

“Tsk.” Eugene shook his head and said to Bai Yutang and Bai Jintang, “They are so bold, do you not feel pressured? Feel that you don’t have a presence, ah? I feel very nonexistent every time I'm with my big brother ah.”

Before Bai Yutang and Bai Jintang could say anything, Da Ding and Xiao Ding shook their heads, “Don’t, don’t.”

Eugene looked at the two of them and heard Zhan Zhao say, “What’s wrong with feeling happy while watching a horror movie?!” With a dissatisfied face, he looked at Bai Yutang, “Someone who starts snoring in the middle of watching a horror movie is the one with a problem!”

All of them looked at Bai Yutang speechlessly.

Bai Yutang shrugged his shoulders, and Zhan Zhao muttered dissatisfiedly, “What's wrong with strong nerves, some people don't have nerves!”

Eugene dryly laughed twice and went over to Bai Jintang’s side, speaking warily, “Jintang, at least you’re still normal.”

The twins mischievously laughed beside him and said, “Big Brother’s dream is to do that with Gongsun on the autopsy table…” 

Eugene’s eyes widened and he ducked to the side, “Is not there a normal person here?!”

As they were talking, the group was interrupted by a scream coming from the video.

The group was startled and looked back at the screen. They saw that it was the audience watching the movie who were scared and screaming.

A smile appeared on Zhan Zhao’s face as he said, “Well, is it really that scary?”

“Cat,” Bai Yutang pointed at one of them and said, “look at this guy, he’s not moving.”

“The one over there isn’t moving either.” Xiao Ding said, reaching out and pointing…

Soon, the movie was over.

People started to leave… but several audience members just sat frozen in place and didn't move.

The camera then slowly moved up to those people, and as the camera advanced, it showed those people frozen in their seats, with smiles on their faces.

“Also dead?” Bai Yutang said, “Is it death smiles again?”

“Look.” Zhan Zhao said, gesturing for Bai Yutang to look at the screen. They saw that behind the two men, two more masked men had put up a Nazi flag.

The group frowned.

Then there were two more videos, one in Japan and one in Africa, both with some kind of celebration happening or crowd gathering, and both had people who died with a death smile and had not been found by anyone.

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment, then said, “I’ve seen reports of all these events.”

“Hmm?” Everyone looked at him in confusion, and they heard Zhan Zhao say, “The newspaper article for that horror film said it was so horrific that some viewers were scared to death and even had a heart attack. They used it as a gimmick to earn more money at the box office. The one in Japan was a marathon where it was reported that someone who was too old died suddenly from over-exertion, and the one in Africa was some kind of celebration where it was reported that a stampede killed them… In any case, they were all reported as accidents.”

“Why is it that none of the official autopsies found anything unusual in the deaths?” Bai Jintang frowned slightly.

“There must be a reason for this.” Bai Yutang nodded, “But the strangest thing is why this organization created these incidents secretly. Generally, aren’t terrorists afraid that others don’t know about their existence?” 

“They’re not exactly terrorists, right?” Eugene asked, “Just a group with strange intentions.”

“What intentions?” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked in unison.

“I don’t know.” Eugene shook his head bluntly.

The group was helpless.

“So that means we need to test them.” Eugene smirked.

“Where can we test them?” Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other and both asked Eugene with interest, “You have somewhere to test them?”

“Uh huh.” Eugene nodded with a smile and said, “You guys who are cops know that drugs, sex, gambling, and all that can be addictive… Do you know that killing can actually be addictive to?”

Both Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao’s brows furrowed.

Bai Jintang rubbed his chin and asked, “Not everyone is addicted to sex. Is there a way to get Gongsun addicted to it?”

Da Ding and Xiao Ding looked at Bai Jintang with admiration and said, “Big Brother will be short-lived eh.”

Bai Jintang gave them both a blank look, then looked at Eugene and raised one eyebrow, gesturing – speak quickly.

With a helpless expression, Eugene continued, “It is said that some people are naturally more dangerous and like to hunt. However, hunting has become increasingly difficult in modern society. With the regulation of firearms and the prevalence of animal protectionism, as well as the shrinking forests, there are fewer and fewer opportunities for humans to hunt. On the other hand, hunting animals has never been much fun – Humans are, after all, at the top end of the intelligence hierarchy, and it's no fun for people at the top of the hierarchy to hunt animals at the bottom… therefore, the most interesting thing is still hunting people.”

Zhan Zhao rubbed his nose and said, “Has fight club turned into hunt club?”

The group looked at him, unable to laugh or cry, as Zhan Zhao actually told a cold joke. (Angel: A cold joke is a bad pun or dry humour.)

“Is there such a place in S City?” Bai Yutang asked in disbelief.

“We don’t know what the main intentions of that group of so-called neo-Nazis are,” Eugene said, “but we have asked around and got some clues suggesting that these people are having meetings all over the world so they can recruit new people. When the time comes, everyone will gather to play a dangerous game… it’s all about hunting people.” As he spoke, he reached out and took out a few tickets, “This game is played by many people, and those who achieve something get into the organization… I have seven tickets here.”

“But there’s only six of us.” Da Ding counted the number of people in the room and said, “One person short, should we call someone to come with us?”

Bai Jintang frowned, “Call two, I'm not interested.”

“Well I am interested.” At that moment, they saw Gongsun walk in from outside.

The group froze as Gongsun spoke to Bai Yutang, “The autopsy is over, I’m here to find someone to eat with.”

“So we found another one?” Eugene asked, and Bai Jintang gave him a blank look and said, “Just the right number of people.”

Gongsun laughed, and the group sighed, sure enough, everything has its conqueror.

Afterwards, the group ate first, and of course, mooched off of Bai Jintang. After the meal, the group followed Eugene to play that so-called dangerous game.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

  Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter

Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: August 24, 2021