S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 17

A Requiem for a Murderer 17 – Gun

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As soon as Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang heard that Liu Ying had disappeared, they roughly guessed that the situation was not good; this kid, drooling at the sight of a beauty, ran to go to the powerful beauty. He was afraid that people would fight with him in order to keep the secret, but this was a disaster that was mistaken for a blessing. If the girl is really the 'ghost', she will definitely kill Liu Ying to silence him. Since she is known as the strongest killer, it would be effortless to kill that unsuspecting foolish boy.

When Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang left the gymnasium, their first priority was to find Liu Ying. Bai Yutang took out his phone and asked Jiang Ping if he had found any surveillance data near the basketball court. Jiang Ping looked for it, and the football was captured, but not the person; the girl, very cleverly, had avoided all the cameras.

“Sure enough, she's not an ordinary person." Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, "Cat, guess!"

"Guess?" Zhan Zhao raised his eyebrows.

Bai Yutang was anxious, "Or use your superpowers, where would that kid be right now?"

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment, "Which parts of the school are the most secluded, which would then be best to dispose of the body, or put the body..."

"Put it in the dark without anyone noticing?" Bai Yutang then began to give examples "A rooftop? Abandoned arenas? Or, hidden in a bush..." After he finished, he took out his phone and called Jiang Ping, "Check all the rooftops in the school, look for a boy named Liu Ying and see where he has gone before."

Jiang Ping said "Roger" and started searching, and soon replied that there was no activity on the rooftops.

"Where do we go first?" Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao was lost in thought.

"Cat?" Bai Yutang called out to him.

"Hm?" Zhan Zhao came back to his senses and asked Bai Yutang, "If Ghost has been hiding for so long, why would she reveal herself because of a soccer ball? How much does she love playing soccer?"

Bai Yutang was slightly stunned, it seemed a bit unreasonable for a good assassin to kick a soccer ball away because of a mistake or not controlling herself well.

"And it just so happens to be Zhao Xueyan's class..." Bai Yutang's heart moved slightly, "Could she have done it on purpose?"

"Zhao Xueyan left just now after hearing Liu Ying say that it was a young girl who kicked the ball. If she really is the killer and is lurking at the school for the same purpose as us, to find Ghost, then she may have already made her move." Zhan Zhao frowned, "Their next objective is to kill each other, and the boy..."

"The little boy is a potential problem no matter what and needs to be removed, whether it's Zhao Xueyan or Ghost, they will both kill to silence him." Bai Yutang thought for a moment, "There is another place that is probably empty normally, and... even if there is a loud noise coming from it, it will not arouse suspicion, even if it is a gunshot...

The two looked at each other at the same time – the firing range!

"Did you notice earlier that there is a small forest at the back of the firing range?" Bai Yutang quickly walked in the direction of the firing range, while telling Zhan Zhao, "The shooting class includes practical and field training in its content."

"Once you're done there, just find a tree to hang the body on, and you can dispose of it anytime, anywhere. There is a highway behind the forest, so no one would discover what you are doing." Zhan Zhao frowned, "Is Xiao Ma Ge near the shooting range?"

“Let’s have him check it out first." Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao quickly ran towards the firing range. Bai Yutang called Ma Han's phone but there was no answer.

"Strange, why isn't he answering the phone?" Bai Yutang frowned slightly, "It's not like Ma Han's style."

Immediately afterwards, Bai Yutang called Zhao Hu, as the PE classroom was near the shooting range. Bai Yutang told him the situation, saying that they would be there soon and told him to go find Ma Han.

Zhao Hu hung up the phone and rushed off to the shooting office.

The door to the office was open and no one was inside. Zhao Hu walked in and frowned slightly... His phone was still on the desk and his teacup was still hot. Touching the teacup, Zhao Hu felt that something was wrong; Ma Han seemed to be in a hurry to leave, why didn't he even bring his cell phone with him?

Zhao Hu took an extra look, picking up the phone and opening it to see… and was instantly depressed, Ma Han set a password for his phone.

Zhao Hu thought about it and dialled Zhan Zhao's phone.

"How is it?" Zhan Zhao was running forward behind Bai Yutang, and the result of his usual neglect of exercise was that he was out of breath.

Zhao Hu didn't have time to explain the situation, "Xiao Ma Ge's phone is locked, six digit password or something..."

Zhan Zhao paused for about three seconds, "234567"

The corners of Zhao Hu's mouth twitched, wondering if there was any basis for this? But he typed it in anyway, and by some miracle... it opened.

Zhao Hu felt a chill rise up the back of his neck.

"Look at his text messages." Zhan Zhao didn't wait for Zhao Hu to reply before urging.

"Looking." Zhao Hu opened the text message and found the most recent one sent just about five minutes ago, "Ghost appeared, hunting time, come to the forest."

Zhao Hu frowned, "The sender is Eleven."

Zhan Zhao frowned then, "Did Eleven call Xiao Ma Ge today?"

Zhao Hu had already flipped through the communication records, "Yes..."

Zhan Zhao immediately understood why Ma Han seemed to have something on his mind.

Soon, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang arrived near the firing range.

"Xiao Bai." Zhan Zhao grabbed Bai Yutang and whispered to him, “Eleven and Ma Han are both inside."

Bai Yutang faintly stared, "Now?"

“Eleven messaged Xiao Ma Ge five minutes ago, guess what it was for?"

Bai Yutang's brow furrowed then, "He's hunting ghosts too?"

"Even if he is, that's no reason to put Ma Han in danger."

"Head."

At this time, the two went near the office building and saw Zhao Hu on the second floor coming out of the office and waving at the two.

Bai Yutang told Zhan Zhao, "You go up and stay with Hu Zi, I'll go into the forest."

Zhan Zhao pulled him back, "Wait."

At that moment, Zhao Hu held a long empty briefcase and waved it at the two of them, "Xiao Ma Ge's case for his gun is empty."

Bai Yutang became slightly annoyed, "Is he really doing this? Why didn't he say anything to me?"

Zhan Zhao felt that there was something unusual about Ma Han's actions, could there be some reason for him to do so?

At this time, there was the sound of footsteps coming from the forest.

Zhan Zhao and the others all subconsciously looked into the forest, and heard laughter coming from it. Not long after, two girls appeared at the entrance of the small forest.

"I'm dying of thirst, those few don't know how to get tired."

"I think Brother is probably irritated by that new teacher who came today."

"Yeah, but he's really good at it, I've got it right quite a bit."

Both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were stunned; they saw that coming out of the woods were Liu Meng and Chen Lu, who were sharply dressed and carrying guns.

The two girls were even more surprised to see Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, who looked like they had seen a ghost, "Eh? They called you here to finish the combat game?"

"Where's your equipment?" Chen Lu saw that the two came empty-handed, "How can you fight empty-handed, why don't you use mine?"

Bai Yutang took the gun and looked at it, and found that it was a soft capsule BB gun. This kind of gun was commonly used for playing combat games, and the original hard capsules had been changed to soft capsules in order not to hurt people. These capsules are made of a special material that spreads out when it hits the body, just like Play-Doh, and can be torn off in one go without hurting or getting dirty... but the gun is indeed made to be very realistic and light.

"Who else is in the woods?" Bai Yutang asked.

"Uh... my brother, Zhou Yi and the others are all here." Chen Lu was a little confused when she saw Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang's nervous faces.

"When did you guys go to play?" Zhan Zhao was anxious.

"Half an hour ago I think..." Liu Meng finished.

Bai Yutang reached out and pointed at the entrance, "Didn't you see the no entry sign?"

Chen Lu's eyes were red with fear, so Liu Meng pulled her behind her and glared at Bai Yutang, "Why are you so mean? We know that we are not allowed to go in except for classes, so it's our fault for sneaking in, but we are using the soft capsule guns. Just now Zhou Yi and the others asked the shooting teacher, and he checked the bullets and found that they were perfectly fine, so he agreed to let us play for a while."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other; no wonder Ma Han was in a hurry to go into the forest, there were three professional killers in the forest, Zhao Xueyan, Ghost plus Eleven. The students didn't have any markings on their bodies, and were carrying guns that were no different from real guns. In case of a narrow encounter, wouldn't they be sure to die? The reason why Ma Han was in such a hurry was to save them.

"How many people are there in total?" Zhan Zhao asked Liu Meng.

"In total, four people, Chen Xi, Zhou Yi, and two of Zhou Yi's little followers, I don't know their names..."

Bai Yutang nodded to Zhan Zhao, gesturing for him to take the two girls farther away while he went in to help Ma Han.

"Yutang, be careful." Zhan Zhao was worried.

Bai Yutang nodded and went into the forest with his gun.

“Ai, I'll go too." Liu Meng didn't know what had happened, but it looked as if he wanted to call those people out, so she wanted to go in and help.

Bai Yutang turned back to her and said, "Stay away from this forest." After saying this, he turned and went into the forest, his tone very stern.

Liu Meng stood in the place and felt wronged, crossing her arms and looking at Zhan Zhao, "This guy's temper is too stinky, I hate this kind of boy the most!"

Zhan Zhao laughed dryly, but he was still worried and didn't bother to say anything more.

At this moment, his phone rang. He picked it up, and Zhao Jue's eerie voice came from the other end, "This is Ghost..."

The corners of Zhan Zhao's mouth twitched, he didn't have the heart to mess with him at this moment and was about to hang up the phone.

"How's the situation?" Zhao Jue, however, changed his tone of voice and asked him.

"What can I do? It's critical." Zhan Zhao was displeased, thinking that if anything happened to Bai Yutang and Ma Han in there, he would not spare Zhao Jue, the one who started it all.

"Don't be afraid," Zhao Jue said grimly, “backup has arrived."

"What backup?" Zhan Zhao was slightly stunned.

"The backup that made it impossible for those two sticks to be arrogant..."

"The two sticks..." Zhan Zhao was speechless, was that a reference to Eleven?

Zhao Jue finished, lowered his voice and said, "About that corpse, want to know who it is?"

Zhan Zhao was coldly slapped by his sentence, somewhat unable to switch tracks as he was still struggling with the issue of back up. At that moment, there was a ‘ping’ sound from the shooting range.

The crowd froze.

"Did a gun go off?" Zhao Jue heard it too, but before he could ask, Zhan Zhao had already ended the call.

"What's that sound?" Chen Lu grabbed Liu Meng and asked.

Liu Meng also panicked, "The soft rubber gun doesn't make a sound ah..."

"Go upstairs." Zhan Zhao saw that Zhao Hu seemed to be able to see the forest from upstairs, so he whisked the two pale-faced girls upstairs.

"Zhan..." Zhao Hu almost blurted out Dr. Zhan, but frowned once he saw that there were two girls there.

Zhan Zhao reached out and pointed to the office, "Go in and sit down, you are not allowed to come out until you are told to."

"Why should I listen to you?" Liu Meng was much harder to control than the honest Chen Lu, so Zhan Zhao had to reach out and give her a gentle tap on the shoulder, whispering something in her ear.

Liu Meng then assumed a slightly dumbfounded state, obediently pulling Chen Lu into the room and closing the door, sitting down and waiting motionlessly.

Zhan Zhao walked to the end of the hallway and looked out, asking Zhao Hu, "What's the situation?"

"The forest is a bit dense, but I think I saw someone just now." Zhao Hu took out the locator that Zhao Jue had given them earlier, "Xiao Ma Ge's button is still on him, he is now in the middle of the forest, and Captain is approaching him."

When Zhan Zhao saw that Zhao Hu looked a little strange, he asked, "What's wrong?"

"It's been about three minutes, and Xiao Ma Ge hasn't moved from his place." Zhao Hu said with slight concern.

"Is this a good situation or a bad situation?" Zhan Zhao knew that Zhao Hu knew more about Ma Han than he did.

"There are only two situations where Xiao Ma Ge will not move." Zhao Hu pursed his lips, "Shooting or shot."

Zhan Zhao frowned; so far only one gunshot had been heard, and it was evident that neither was a good situation.

"I think it should be fine though." Zhao Hu reached out and pointed to the display, Bai Yutang had already reached the area around Ma Han, and Ma Han moved a little.

Both of them let out a long sigh of relief.

"Don't worry, the two of them should be fine together." Zhan Zhao said, mumbling to himself in general, "Besides, it is said that there is backup."

"Backup?" Zhao Hu looked at Zhan Zhao and suddenly seemed to remember something, “Right, Dr. Zhan, how do you know Xiao Ma Ge's password?"

Zhan Zhao was stunned by his question, then laughed, "Hehe."

"Tell me how?"

"With a personality like Ma Han's, the likelihood of setting a password for his phone is almost zero, so..." Zhan Zhao asked, "who could control his phone?"

Zhao Hu bristled, "It must be Chen Jiayi!"

"No, love Jia Yi equals 2+1, so Ma Han's password is love Jia Yi Jia Yi Jia Yi Jia Yi Jia Yi..." Zhan Zhao shrugged.

Zhao Hu's eyelids twitched, "So it's 234567?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, “En, love is +1, OK!"

Zhao Hu took a step back, "Then… can you guess what my phone password is?"

Zhan Zhao blinked, "You don't have a password for your phone, but the password for your email is 5S5S52S."

Zhao Hu's mouth opened wide, "How do you know that?!"

Zhan Zhao patted him on the shoulder, "I'm handsome, I'm handsome, I'm the most handsome, Hu Zi, I understand!"

Zhao Hu leaned over the balcony and punched the wall, "I want to change my password!"

Zhan Zhao cautioned, "Do you want to change it to 2ZC8D?"

Zhao Hu took a deep breath and opened his mouth wide. The possibility of ‘Zhan Zhao can't guess' is non-existent, resign yourself to fate!

Zhao Hu wept and trailed off, "You de~vil~"

Zhan Zhao smiled back and joked with Zhao Hu, and his nervousness was slightly relieved. Looking at the small woods ahead, for the first time, Zhan Zhao had a sense of powerlessness that he could not help; the strongest killer and the strongest sniper were inside, but Zhan Zhao had faith in Bai Yutang and Ma Han, they will be safe...

No sooner had Zhan Zhao's prayers ended had he heard a ‘ping' sound.

Zhan Zhao was stunned and looked at Zhao Hu, "Why was it so loud?"

Zhao Hu frowned and said in a low voice, "It wasn't a shot."

Zhan Zhao did not answer, "What does that mean?"

"Four or five shots that went off at the same time." Zhao Hu said, looking in a certain direction in the distance, revealing a puzzled look, "Strange, there was one shot which seemed very far away... very far away."

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Zhan Zhao and the passwords broke my brain when I was working on this chapter.

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

Translated: January 24, 2023 by Angel

Edited: February 6, 2023 by Angel