S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 39

Inheritor of the Three Murderers 08 – Derivatives

---

Eleven provided a useful clue to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, leading the case to a clearer path.

However, all of the clues came together to point to one result – the inheritor!

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang walked towards their car, which was parked by the flower bed.

Bai Ye was leaning against the door of the car and lighting a cigarette. Looking up and seeing the two men coming over, he had the sense to get out of the way and stand a little further away to smoke.

Zhan Zhao glanced at Zhao Jue and A'Mo through the car window.

Zhao Jue smiled at him.

A'Mo turned his face, his white eyes staring in the direction of Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, and after a long time, he also smiled cheekily, waving his hand in the process.

Zhan Zhao ground his teeth.

Bai Yutang looked around and whispered to Zhan Zhao, "Cat, let's go back to the office first."

Zhan Zhao nodded.

Bai Yutang handed the scene over to the forensics department to collect evidence. Because it was an explosion case, it would take longer to collect evidence.

Ma Han, Zhao Hu and the others also got into their cars.

Half an hour later, the entire SCI staff was gathered in the SCI office.

Bao Zheng was leaning against the door frame with a dark face, looking at A'Mo who was sitting in a chair.

Zhao Jue had just sat down when he received resentful gazes projected from all sides.

Zhao Jue helplessly spread his hands, "It's not like I intentionally cooperated with him to cheat you guys, I only found out who he was later."

"How much later was later?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Erm... after seeing that his eyes were white..." Zhao Jue scratched his chin.

Everyone wanted to smack him. Wouldn't he have realised that A'Mo's eyes were white the first time he saw them?!

Bai Yutang showed Zhao Jue the list while saying to A'Mo, "Did you deliberately let us find you in order to seek protection from SCI?"

At this point, A'Mo no longer had the bewilderment and panic he had before and became calm and collected, which showed that his acting skills were top-notch!

Leaning against the sofa and crossing his legs, A'Mo nodded, "When I thought about it, this is the only place where I might be safe."

"Who exactly are you?" Zhan Zhao asked.

A'Mo was silent for a moment, "Zhao Jue already said before that I am an inheritor."

"What is an inheritor?" Zhan Zhao was puzzled and asked Zhao Jue, "There is no record of this in the information you gave me, could it be in an encrypted file?"

Zhao Jue shook his head as he asked Xiao Bai Chi for a milkshake and said, "No! They weren't even the main research project, they belonged to a side branch."

Zhan Zhao was a bit puzzled, "What does that mean..."

"Well, to put it simply, they're a successful product derived from a failed project!" Zhao Jue smiled faintly and said, "You've read so much information on the trial, did you find that the experiment had reached a dead end?"

Zhan Zhao looked at the sky, "These experiments were originally whimsical! People are always going to die of old age, and the dream of immortality has been around for thousands of years, who have you seen succeed? Spending so much money on experiments that harm so many people is not as good as exploring space to find aliens, alien civilisations may be able to help people prolong their lives."

"Hahaha..." Zhao Jue and A'Mo were both amused by Zhan Zhao's statement.

Zhao Jue said to A'Mo, "Right, why didn't you think to seek help from aliens back then?"

A'Mo nodded as he leaned on his cheek with one hand, "Mhmm! It's better to send you off the planet, maybe you can find a kindred spirit."

The crowd looked helplessly at the two who still had the heart to joke.

"Ahem."

At the door, Bao Sir coughed.

Zhao Jue and A'Mo both got serious and stopped laughing. Zhao Jue pointed a finger at A'Mo and said to Zhan Zhao, "I only know that there was the inheritor project back then, it's better to listen to him for the specifics."

The SCI crowd all looked at A'Mo.

After a busy day, no one had eaten yet. Ma Xin and Xiatian got takeout and came over, so the crowd simply gathered around a table and ate while talking.

Before eating, Bai Yutang, who had a serious cleanliness problem, didn't forget to ask A'Mo, "Does your story affect the appetite?"

The SCI crowd that was eating stopped with their chopsticks in their hands, as they were reminded of the various experiments – It really affects the appetite, doesn't it?

Fortunately, A'Mo shook his head and said, "There's nothing disgusting about the content, so don't worry about eating."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Just then, they heard A'Mo speak, "Our experiment started at the latter stage of the experiment."

"Later stage?" Zhan Zhao asked, "Was it before or after being able to push back the ageing stage?"

"After that." A'Mo said, "That group of scientists became intensely interested in inheritance. To evolve, the best experiments are actually those that start with nurturing an embryo... No amount of effort from scientists is as good as the mother shaping the foetus, and the wonders of nature can overcome all."

Everyone nodded, that was true.

"The main body of the experiment that wanted to evolve through the second generation still failed... However, a branch was accidentally spawned." A'Mo said, "Inheritors appeared!"

"Abilities that are hidden within human genetics but have never been explored!" A'Mo pointed at his eyes, "It can be described as a disease or it can be described as another ability! Do you guys think I'm blind? I am indeed blind, but I am not blind, I can even see more clearly than you guys."

Zhan Zhao held his spoon in his mouth and thought about it.

"Let's say, for example, there is a certain planet in the universe, the environment is similar to Earth and the same human beings were born. However, human beings, in the process of evolution, differed from those on Earth. The people of that planet collectively grew eyes like mine, they can also reproduce, and they can also create civilisations, but the direction of the civilisations that they create will be different from those on Earth."

A'Mo's analogy was not difficult to understand, indeed, human civilisation is in the end determined by human physiology. Human physiology is destined for such a civilisation, especially for the development of science and technology... Of course, to discuss this would be far from the point.

Zhan Zhao asked A'Mo to continue.

A'Mo said, "The experiment failed, the perfect second generation that was expected did not appear, instead a large group of deformities were cultivated."

Everyone frowned.

"But just when the failures were about to be destroyed, they realised... that we might not be failures after all!" A'Mo said, "There are eight other failures like me, there are nine of us in total, known as the inheritors. We have special abilities... Of course, it's not as exaggerated as superpowers, they're merely deformities in the eyes of the world. Some of us have physical disabilities, some of us are not sane, some of us have missing senses, and some of us are emotionally dysfunctional! However, some of our abilities are not eliminated, but changed! Instead of affecting our lives, it's more convenient than for others."

Gongsun was eating a box of spaghetti, he put down his fork and asked A'Mo with interest, "If you die unexpectedly, can I dig out your brain?"

"Ahem..." Zhao Hu choked and pounded his chest.

Ma Xin handed him a glass of water.

A'Mo smiled faintly, "I'm happy to provide you with research material, but even if you cut it open, you may not be able to find anything."

Everyone frowned.

A'Mo sighed softly, "There is nothing more magical than the human brain. Still, before the power of nature, human power is a molehill, and human intelligence is not worth mentioning. It is said that man is nature's favourite, and sure enough, it is true that a loving mother often loses her children. Of all the creatures, humans are the only ones who do not know how to respect nature."

"How did you guys escape from the experimental base?" Luo Tian was curious, he still remembered his own experience of escaping, it was a very difficult and dangerous experience. A'Mo didn't look like he had a strong ability to survive.

A'Mo replied, "Because we weren't the main experimental project, just a derivative, the research funding for my side was very small. We weren't held in isolation, we were locked up together."

Zhan Zhao understood, "So you guys joined forces to escape?"

A'Mo shook his head gently, "That was our original plan, it's just that before we did it, an accident happened."

"Accident?" Bai Yutang frowned, "Could it be another tsunami?"

At the mention of this, everyone tilted their faces, remembering that test subject Emilia who had escaped from the previous ghost ship case, and they couldn't help but shiver. Each of those test subjects was more frightening than the last.

A'Mo shook his head, "The lab was destroyed, all the researchers were killed, the distribution centre was destroyed, the doors opened and we easily got out of that cage we lived in for many years."

"And after that?" Everyone was curious.

"I couldn't see the specific scene, but I could smell the heavy scent of blood. The other eight experiments that were held with me escaped, and I was alone in the experiment centre making my way out, having more trouble, and I ended up falling in the doorway. It was at this time that I saw some people…"

Zhan Zhao froze, then glanced at Zhao Jue – Was that when he became a witness?

Zhao Jue shrugged indifferently and did not answer, only signalling for him to continue to listen.

"I "saw" that my original companions had fled."

"Your lab wasn't on an island or deep in the mountains?" Bai Yutang asked.

A'Mo shook his head, "It was just in an abandoned factory at the harbour. When I stepped outside, I could hear the sound of traffic on the road in the distance."

"And then?" Zhan Zhao asked, "You escaped as well?"

A'Mo nodded, "Mhmm, I escaped. In fact, I'm living a very normal life, I'm just disguising myself as a scavenger... The ones who cover for me at the dump are just ordinary friends who have been helped by me, so please don't mind them."

Bai Yutang and the others nodded.

"Have you finished your story?" Zhan Zhao, however, pursued, "It feels like you're leaving something out."

A'Mo looked at Zhan Zhao with interest, "Oh? Where do you think I left something out?"

"You said that the lab was destroyed and the researchers all died?" Zhan Zhao asked, "And there was the smell of blood?"

A'Mo nodded gently.

"Who killed those people?" Bai Yutang was also puzzled, "Were those the ones you witnessed?"

A'Mo, however, shook his head, "No."

Bai Chi then felt that this story inexplicably sent a chill down his back as he listened to it, "What's going on..."

"There was another person!" A'Mo raised a finger and whispered, "There should be another test subject! We've never seen him before, and he's not like any of us. He was held in solitary confinement, and with the lack of funding, he should have been a priority for research. I could hear footsteps every day, and the sound of the door of the next room opening and closing, but I never heard anyone talking... But I can feel that there should be ten of them, the real inheritors!"

"What about that person?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"When I fell in the doorway, there was a person who walked past me..." A'Mo said, "He was different from the others."

"Different in what way?" Bai Yutang asked.

"I couldn't see him!" A'Mo whispered, "I could only hear footsteps and feel someone walking past me, but, I couldn't see him!"

Everyone frowned – For the first time, they realised that a blind man who couldn't see could shock them like this.

"Where is that person?" Zhan Zhao asked, "Where did he go?"

"He left with those people." A'Mo said, "Perhaps because of my bad genes, I don't usually feel fear."

"But are you afraid of that person?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"I felt fear when that person I couldn't see walked past me." A'Mo said, "And I don't know why, but I think he smiled at me..."

"I have a question!" Zhan Zhao suddenly asked.

A'Mo raised his head and looked in Zhan Zhao's direction.

"When you were locked up, you could hear footsteps every day, right?" Zhan Zhao asked.

A'Mo nodded his head.

"His steps, were they the same for every step?" Zhan Zhao asked a surprising question. What does it mean that every step of his stride was the same?

A'Mo picked up the corner of his mouth, smiled, and nodded, "Yes! That's the reason why I couldn't see him, but I'm certain that he lived in the room right next to ours all year round! He's like a robot, every step is exactly the same! The sound, the distance, the speed, the timing of the feet touching the ground, and so on.

Zhan Zhao suddenly had a look of clarity on his face.

Bai Yutang asked him, "Cat?"

Zhan Zhao said, "The murderer who went on the black gold list and offered a bounty to kill those inheritors is that tenth inheritor!"

Everyone's spirits were lifted – The murderer had been found!

"But... we still don't have any clues about him other than knowing that he has the same stride." Bao Zheng reminded, "And he might be striking again soon."

"If we can't find the hunter, we can find the prey." Zhan Zhao looked at A'Mo, "Since you guys lived together, you should know who the other few inheritors who haven't been killed yet are, right?"

Zhao Jue looked at A'Mo.

"I don't know what they're doing right now," A'Mo smiled, "but I know the special features and characteristics they had as children, so I might be able to help."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other, elated that there was finally progress!

‿︵‿︵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: February 3, 2024 by Angel

Edited: May 5, 2024 by Angel