S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 147

Screen Murderer 43 – Destroyers

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Faced with a large group of attackers, everyone realised that some of the participants in the game had "gone astray", and if this continued, it was going to be a massacre.

Zhao Jue was clearly very unhappy that his peaceful life had been disturbed, and he blamed not Anna and Eugene, but Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang for not solving the case yet.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were actually quite apologetic; they hadn't been able to crack the case this time, which caused trouble for Zhao Jue.

After everyone was taken away, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang wanted to help Bai Ye tidy up the yard.

But Bai Ye didn't mind at all. He even told Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang not to worry about Zhao Jue, as he was just venting his frustration over his messy paperwork.

Zhao Jue glared at Bai Ye – Do you need to spoil the kids so much?!

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were touched – Sure enough, Bai Ye was the best!

After glaring at Bai Ye, Zhao Jue then glared at the two of them.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both ducked behind Bai Ye.

Meanwhile, Eugene was cleaning the glass on the side, thinking that choosing to live here was indeed the right decision, although he would probably have to pay for the broken glass.

Zhan Zhao asked Anna if they could have a chat.

Anna nodded.

Sitting together on the sofa, Zhan Zhao considered for a moment and said, "We might have misunderstood Dong Yuan."

Anna remained silent for a moment, then smiled faintly.

"We thought he was a monitor or something, but you never believed it, did you?"

Anna, however, shook her head, "I believe he was a monitor. He might have had other intentions when he approached me initially, but I also knew he didn't want to harm me, and that his love was genuine. Love is something that is only beautiful for a moment. As long as that moment is real, it's enough. No one can guarantee how it will start or end. After you explained to me that I was a part of the game, I pretty much understood. Dong Yuan wanted to end all of this for me. As long as I find out the cause of his death, everything can be put to an end, right?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, "Right."

Anna said somewhat regretfully, "But I still don't have any clues to help you."

However, Zhan Zhao shook his head, "I just wanted to tell you that Dong Yuan loved you, and that's important."

Anna paused for a moment, then smiled faintly, nodded, and continued holding her phone.

Zhan Zhao looked at Anna. This girl had been through so much tragedy from birth until now, nearly half her life. Perhaps because of this, she hardly ever expressed her emotions anymore. She had a high tolerance for sadness, and you could even say she had gotten used to it...

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both felt obligated to rescue her from this situation. After comforting her a little, they left to investigate the case at the SCI office.

Anna sat on the sofa, lost in thought.

Bai Ye and Eugene were cleaning the room, while Zhao Jue glanced at Anna on the sofa, furrowing his brows slightly. He didn't say anything and turned to go upstairs.

Eugene watched Zhao Jue go upstairs, then moved closer to Bai Ye and asked quietly, "Is he a bit angry?"

Bai Ye emptied the glass shards into the trash can and said, "A bit? How much of a misunderstanding do you have about 'a bit'?"

Eugene looked a bit frightened, "Are we going to be kicked out?"

Bai Ye glanced at him, "He's not mad at you guys."

"Then who is he mad at?" Eugene gossiped, "The two kids? Isn't Zhao Jue the one who spoils them the most?"

Bai Ye suddenly asked Eugene, "Do you believe in God?"

Eugene blinked and nodded, "Yes."

Bai Ye looked a bit speechless – You don’t have to answer so dryly.

"So what if I do?" Eugene was curious.

"If there really is a God, and yet there are still so many tragedies in the world, then that God definitely lacks empathy." Bai Ye chuckled helplessly, "Once God has empathy... that God would be very busy, busy punishing the wicked."

After saying that, Bai Ye took the trash can and left. When he reached the door, he turned back and asked Eugene, "Is glass recyclable?"

Eugene pointed to a nearby box, "Put it in after wrapping!"

......

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang returned to the SCI office, where the few team members who were resting had also returned.

After all, such a big case had happened, and since Bao Sir had given them leave himself, he had no choice but to call them all back.

Fortunately, everyone had woken up, had lunch with their partners, and were fully recharged, their spirits were good.

Upon returning, they found that progress was rapid. Everyone looked at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang – How could you two work overtime without calling us?!

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang sighed as well, this was all fate...

Bai Yutang gestured for the team to start the meeting.

As they sat down in the meeting room, Zhan Zhao said, "We made a mistake in our judgment halfway through."

Zhan Zhao wrote two names on the whiteboard – Dong Yuan and Boss Wang.

The SCI members looked at each other.

"We originally thought that Boss Wang was silenced because he mistakenly photographed some decisive evidence against the Dong Group, right?" Zhan Zhao asked, "The USB drive he hid contained the decisive evidence."

Everyone nodded.

"We should have reasoned this out differently, it’s not entirely wrong but definitely not what we thought." Zhan Zhao circled Boss Wang’s name, "He should also be a participant in the game."

Everyone was surprised.

"We all overlooked a key point." Zhan Zhao reminded, "All competitive games have a setup, what is it?"

Everyone was puzzled, and Bai Yutang suddenly asked, "Referees?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, "All games have rules, a soccer game needs three referees and now even a set of video referees, and marathon referees are dispersed at various points. The participants in the game will definitely be supervised by referees, and just like the game participants are anonymous, the referees must also be anonymous!"

Everyone nodded, feeling that Zhan Zhao's analysis made sense.

"Dong Yuan participated as a monitor. Referees are easy to notice as they are always around, so running a flower shop is a good cover. He could monitor various places in real-time, and the act of regularly repairing bonsai basically means freedom of movement, and he can stay as long as he wants."

Jiang Ping felt it was reasonable, "No wonder there are original game data and invitation codes... maybe it’s even a cadre!"

"What about Boss Liu, Chen Gui and Chen Fu?" Zhao Hu was curious.

"This involves coincidence." Zhan Zhao said, "The one who killed Boss Wang was Secretary Zhang, he was Wang Meiyun's person, which means he's on Qian Yu's side. If Qian Yu wants to participate in the game, why kill the referee?"

"It means the referee discovered something about them!" Hu Zi felt this reasoning made sense, "Boss Wang, as a referee, discovered the plans of Wang Meiyun's group, wanting to replace Dong Yuan and tampering with the game, so he brought disaster upon himself!"

"After Secretary Zhang killed Wang Mou, he should have wanted to find his USB drive but couldn't. He probably wanted to enter the game as a referee using his USB drive and invitation code. The data in his hands should be very important. And if the referee finds any violations, evidence must be provided..." Zhan Zhao continued his analysis, "As previously mentioned, Boss Liu separated from Chen Gui because of debts and married Boss Wang. It seems like Boss Wang didn't immediately hand the evidence of the violations over to the organisation, and the neighbouring orchid shop also said Boss Wang seemed preoccupied... could it be that he, like Dong Yuan, became a destroyer of the game for his partner?"

"Could they have used the evidence to blackmail Wang Meiyun?" Everyone speculated.

Zhan Zhao expressed that this was possible. They could ask Chen Gui and Chen Fu about it later. For now, they should put it aside and discuss it later.

The group continued to analyse Wang Meiyun and Qian Yu.

"Chen Gui and Chen Fu are completely sacrificial pawns." Bai Yutang said, "They deliberately let us catch them, which is essentially a trick from Qian Yu."

"One thing to note," Zhan Zhao reminded, "this game organisation definitely doesn't know the monsters living next door. These ignorant outsiders are trespassing on forbidden land, and I see Zhao Jue is already angry."

Bai Yutang nodded, he also had a hunch that Zhao Jue felt provoked because of Bai Ye or Anna.

Zhan Zhao sighed, "Bai Ye finally settled down and started living a normal life. As you've seen these days, he's been very happy. With this mess, Zhao Jue is definitely going to be angry. And then there's the matter involving Anna, which added fuel to the fire. Although Zhao Jue belongs to the category of extremely dangerous people, his empathy is actually very strong. Intelligent people can empathise with others' pain. Zhao Jue has a bottom line, and it’s that anyone who takes away his loved one becomes his enemy. If Dong Yuan didn't love Anna, he would have been indifferent even if she died. But Dong Yuan not only loved Anna but also intended to sacrifice himself for her, wanting to save her. Anna is now alive and well in front of him, and those reckless people keep running to his home... Zhao Jue told us to solve the case quickly, as he's annoyed, this means..."

Bai Yutang nodded as well, "An ultimatum... he's giving us a deadline. If we don't solve the case soon, he's going to clean up those people playing the game, just like he did with Viper."

"Zhao Jue has 'made many friends' over the years. Regardless, the organisation forced him into a corner, and anyone with a grudge against the organisation owes him. With one text message, he can summon so many top killers, indicating he has many friends. And not to mention the others, Eleven and Issel are not to be trifled with. Don't forget that there’s Leonard outside." Zhan Zhao said while twirling the pen in his hand, "Qian Yu's change in tactics is quite ruthless. His goal of killing with a borrowed knife has changed, and he wants to use Zhao Jue's hand to eliminate the game management. Needles managements to say, snakes have their own paths. No matter how well they hide in the dark web, they always feel that the places where the sun doesn't shine are where Zhao Jue's connections are. He took care of Viper in less than a day. It's true that those people playing the game are not good people, and it's good to get rid of them, but following Qian Yu's wish is irritating, they must be dealt with together!"

The group looked at each other, indeed – why should they clear obstacles for Qian Yu, only to replace one group of bad people with an even worse one? What's the point?

"We need to hurry, it's best if we can act together on both sides." Bai Yutang prepared to assign tasks, and it seemed that tomorrow's film festival was a key point.

As they were discussing, Zhan Zhao's phone suddenly rang.

Zhan Zhao took it out and saw it was a request for a video call from an unknown number.

After a moment's thought, Zhan Zhao accepted it.

On the other end of the call, there was someone wearing a hospital gown who looked quite familiar.

Zhan Zhao asked Jiang Ping to set up a screen projection.

On the big screen, the person in the hospital gown took a few steps back, sat on a chair beside the hospital bed, stared at the camera, and waved to them.

Everyone recognised this person and were just talking about them. It was Viper, the one who got a harsh beating after messing with the wrong people.

Viper looked very weak, his lips pale and his voice lacking strength.

"Hey," Viper wiped his nose, "I heard you guys are my only way to live?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both looked at him and asked, "Who hired you to kill Dong Fei?"

"Dong Fei ah..." Viper sighed, "I take orders placed online. The clients are all anonymous..."

Everyone was speechless. It sounded like running an online store, even ordering online...

"When I won that competition, I did a pretty good job, so people began to place orders for me to kill people. In the end, I made my debut as a killer, hehe... cough..."

Viper started coughing as soon as he laughed, his physical condition indeed looked terrible.

But his casual words caught the attention of everyone in SCI...

"You were a player before?" Zhan Zhao asked, "In what game?"

Viper answered nonchalantly, "New World..."

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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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: May 14, 2024 by Angel

Edited: November 12, 2024 by Soojin