S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 150

Screen Murderer 46 – Big Purge

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Zhao Hu, holding binoculars, watched Viper crawl into the corridor and dismantle the trap he had set up. This kid looked very agile, not at all like someone who had been poisoned.

"That’s right," Qin Ou spat from the side. "Viper has been dealing with poisons for years, he must carry antidotes or serums with him. Even if he were poisoned, he could recover and save himself, rather than lying there waiting to die."

"Captain, people are coming up the mountain. It's Zhou Ping and Qian Fu." Zhao Hu reported over the phone. "Viper probably set the trap for us. Seeing that we didn’t take the bait, he knew we weren't falling for it, so now he's dismantling the trap and waiting for the others to come."

"So, is Wang Meiyun the one who hired Viper?" Zhan Zhao stroked his chin.

Jiang Ping asked the two, "Do you want to listen in on their conversation?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were both curious, "Can you hear them?"

"We just had a video call, didn't we?" Jiang Ping grinned mischievously, revealing he had kept a trick up his sleeve.

Sure enough, Jiang Ping quickly turned the phone Viper had used to connect with SCI into a listening device.

At the other end, Zhao Hu continued watching through the binoculars, giving Zhan Zhao and the others live updates on Viper's current status.

The doorbell rang.

Viper opened the door.

Zhou Ping and Qian Fu appeared at the entrance.

Zhou Ping was carrying a box and handed it to Viper.

Viper took the box and opened it.

Zhao Hu, looking through the binoculars for a long time, asked Ma Han, "Is it money?"

"Mhmm." Ma Han nodded, looking through the scope, "Green bills. If it’s not joss paper, it must be US dollars."

Zhao Hu chuckled, "So much money? Are they planning to flee?"

Ma Han glanced at Zhou Ping and Qian Fu, "This scene is what you’d call catching a hired killer red-handed."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang listened to the conversation on the other end.

Qian Fu stood at the door without entering, while Zhou Ping walked in and told Viper, "Take action tomorrow. It must succeed, no room for failure!"

"Heh." Viper seemed to find it amusing, "What counts as a failure?"

Zhou Ping, a bit impatient, replied, "Only kill Wang Meiyun and don’t cause any collateral damage. Also, make it look like a suicide."

Hearing this, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged glances – What’s going on? Kill Wang Meiyun? Weren’t they on the same side?

"Leave S City immediately after you’re done." Zhou Ping reminded.

"I’ve offended SCI, so I’ll naturally disappear. It’s just a pity, I wanted to give them a big gift, but it seems they didn’t take the bait." Viper shook his head regretfully.

Zhan Zhao glanced at Bai Yutang and pointed at the computer as if to say – Xiao Bai! Teach him a hard lesson later!

Bai Yutang, amused by Zhan Zhao, asked Jiang Ping, "Did you record it?"

Jiang Ping gave an "OK" gesture.

Zhou Ping and Qian Fu left after handing over the money.

Ma Han and Zhao Hu asked if they should apprehend them, but Zhan Zhao signalled, "Let’s wait and see."

At that moment, the phone rang again with another call request.

This time, Zhan Zhao answered the call.

On the other end of the video call, Viper sat in a chair, but unlike before when he looked unwell, he seemed to have given up the pretence.

"If I'm not mistaken, you should have recorded everything already.." Viper smiled faintly and nodded, "I thought you'd be easier to fool, but I underestimated..."

Bai Yutang frowned and asked him, "So, are you playing both sides?"

"Heh heh," Viper smiled faintly, "it's called survival instinct."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both looked at him coldly. This man was erratic and not trustworthy.

Viper sighed rather helplessly, "I did indeed try to lure you here earlier to test your strength. You see, I'm now caught between three factions, and if I bet wrong, it's curtains for me."

"What leverage do you have to bet with?" Zhan Zhao asked him.

Viper pointed to his head, "I'm considered an old player, I know quite a few secrets, and... are you sure you still have time? Tomorrow is going to be a big day."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both frowned – Tomorrow was the film festival, and it seemed like Viper wasn't the only one who had said that something was going to happen.

"So, what do you want?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"What I just told you guys about the stolen list is indeed true, a mid-level manager stole almost the entire list and some crucial data, which hasn't been recovered yet." Viper held up two fingers, "Now, both sides want that data, and you're the third party. But nobody knows where the data is, it's most likely in someone's hands."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang stared at him, urging him to get to the point, there was so much padding.

"Dong or Bai." Zhan Bai half expected Viper's answer, half surprising to them both.

"What does the Bai Group have to do with this?" They both asked.

"The list should be with Wang Meiyun, but she wouldn't keep it on her person. She visited the Bai Group once, for no apparent reason... So both sides suspect she hid the stuff in the Bai Group, which complicates things..."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang recalled that Wang Meiyun had indeed made an unexplained visit to the Bai Group before. They had assumed it was to admire the orchids, didn’t they?

Though Zhan Zhao didn't show it on his face, he stroked his chin in thought.

Bai Yutang caught his movement in his peripheral vision and knew he had figured something out.

Viper shook the box given to him by Zhou Ping. "They hired me to deal with Wang Meiyun at the film festival tomorrow. People from the Bai Group should be attending the festival too, and the film festival will be chaotic. It'll be the perfect opportunity to raid their place while they're away."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were speechless. Not only was their boss in trouble, but their house might also be burglarised...

"After considering it, I've decided to cooperate with you guys..." Viper was speaking when his expression suddenly changed. He reached for his throat, and a puzzled expression crossed his face.

Then his face contorted and his mouth opened as if to speak, but in the end, he couldn't say anything, collapsing headfirst to the ground... dead.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were stunned.

"Boss!" At that moment, Zhao Hu and Ma Han, who were monitoring, reported, "Zhou Ping and Qian Fu's car crashed into a tree!"

"No one has come out yet." After Zhao Hu finished, Ma Han, who was still looking at the Viper with his binoculars, said, "Viper also collapsed."

Qin Ou felt the situation with the car wasn't quite right. Bai Yutang instructed the three of them not to approach Viper's room and instead go to Zhou Ping's car while ensuring a safe distance. There might be gas-type toxins, so they should set up a protective perimeter and wait for the biohazard team to arrive.

The three of them squatting outside were also startled, unsure of what was happening.

Ma Han stayed there to monitor Viper's room, just in case he was playing possum.

Zhao Hu and Qin Ou went to their own car to get gas masks and then approached Zhou Ping's car.

Zhou Ping and Qian Fu were both in the car, seated in the driver's and passenger's seats, their eyes wide open, clearly deceased.

After Viper collapsed, his phone dropped by his side, and through the lens, his body could be seen.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were somewhat speechless and decided to go to the scene with the others.

On the way, Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao if he had figured something out earlier.

Zhan Zhao replied, "I suspect the USB drive in Boss Wang's possession is the one Chen Gui lost, and it probably contains the data list. Boss Wang died at the hands of Secretary Zhang, which made them suspect the data was with Wang Meiyun. But Wang Meiyun sent Secretary Zhang to go there, and Secretary Zhang was arrested before he could get the USB drive back. Moreover, Wang Meiyun couldn't have known the USB was in the orchids. Her high-profile visit to the Bai Group might have been intentional to create the impression she hid something there for self-preservation."

"I wonder if we'll find that USB drive." Bai Yutang found Zhan Zhao's analysis plausible but was also puzzled. "And what about Viper, Qian Fu and Zhou Ping?"

"It seems that the loss of this data has thrown both sides into chaos." Zhan Zhao said. "They're playing a game of mutual harm..."

Shortly after, the forensic and biochemical teams arrived at the scene.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang arrived as well.

Zhao Hu, Qin Ou and Ma Han underwent full-body disinfection and examination, and none were affected.

After some effort, the biochemical alarms were cleared, and no poisonous gas was found in Viper's room or Zhou Ping and Qian Fu's car.

The forensic team carefully removed the three bodies and took the box for analysis.

Everyone waited for the results, but they were unexpected – all three had died of acute poisoning.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang couldn't understand when they had been poisoned.

Finally, an autopsy by the medical examiner’s team found the cause of death.

Gongsun said, "Each of them had a microchip implanted in their bodies, containing a small amount of lethal poison."

"Like having a time bomb implanted in their bodies?" Zhan Zhao asked Gongsun. "Did they all undergo implant surgery?"

"Mhmm." Gongsun replied, holding a small black plastic chip the size of a pinky fingernail with tweezers, "The craftsmanship is quite refined."

"It's a locator." Jiang Ping observed. "Nowadays, many wealthy individuals implant these locators in their bodies to prevent kidnapping. However, this one has been tampered with, there is a small capsule possibly filled with a neurotoxin. It ruptures upon remote activation... causing instant poisoning."

"Could it be that everyone participating in the game has been implanted with these chips?" Zhan Zhao asked Gongsun to check Boss Wang's body.

Gongsun, along with Ma Xin and Xiatian, thoroughly examined Boss Wang's body but found no chip inside.

They then checked Dong Yuan and Dong Fei's bodies but found no chips there either.

Everyone found this rather strange.

After all this, night had fallen again, and the film festival was tomorrow. With a pile of dead bodies and a crowd outside, what were they going to do tomorrow?

Just as Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were getting anxious, Zhan Zhao's phone rang. The incoming call was from the number Zhao Jue had given him to find the USB drive.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were both somewhat surprised – Could it be that they had really found it?

Without daring to hope too much, they answered the phone, only to hear the lazy voice from earlier once again, "I'm downstairs, money in one hand, goods in the other."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang hurried downstairs.

Exiting the police station, they saw a black motorcycle parked by the roadside. A chubby girl wearing overalls and a helmet, looking like a student, was leaning against the motorcycle, scrolling through her phone.

Seeing the two of them approach, the girl waved the envelope in her hand, then displayed a QR code on her phone for Zhan Zhao to make the payment.

Zhan Zhao scanned the QR code, paid the money, and she handed him the envelope. Putting on her helmet, she mounted the motorcycle and rode off into the distance.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a glance, holding the envelope up to the light to examine it. Could it be real... or were they being scammed?

Regardless, they couldn't dwell on it. They rushed back to the police station, entered the office, and Zhan Zhao tore open the envelope... revealing a USB drive.

The surface of the USB drive was heavily worn, as if it had been run over by a vehicle, but from the design, it did indeed match the series they had found before.

Zhan Zhao handed the USB drive to Jiang Ping, feeling a bit apprehensive. What if opening it revealed just another string of characters...

But this time, as soon as Jiang Ping opened the USB drive, he said, "There's a lot of stuff in here."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang leaned in to take a look together.

The USB drive contained many videos and several documents.

Bai Chi, with keen eyes, immediately spotted a thumbnail of one of the videos showing Anna's face.

Jiang Ping immediately clicked on that video, and what they saw was horrifying.

The video seemed to have been taken when Anna was in her teens, judging by the quality, and it was secretly shot from a distance.

The footage clearly showed the entire process of the maid being murdered.

Two men subjected the maid to extremely cruel methods of dismemberment, and throughout this process, the maid did not move at all, indicating that she was already dead.

Next to her, Anna, dressed in a nightgown, lay on the ground. Blood splattered all over her body, but she showed no reaction, possibly in a state of unconsciousness.

After the scene was set up, the two men dragged Anna into the pool of blood.

Then, they ran towards the location where the video was being recorded.

Not long after, Anna woke up, sitting dazedly in the pool of blood, and her family was also alerted.

Jiang Ping sequentially opened the other videos, all of which were horrifying. The targets under surveillance were far more than just Anna.

Jiang Ping then opened the documents, and the results were uplifting.

The documents contained detailed lists, corresponding to each video file, with the names and identities of each victim, the names and identities of the participants in the game, and clear information about the identities of the perpetrators seen in the videos.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded at each other – This "big sum" of money was well spent!

Zhan Zhao really wanted to ask Zhao Jue who the person looking for the USB drive was, but there was no time for that now.

Bai Yutang immediately called for Bao Sir.

Bao Zheng instructed Jiang Ping to send the list and videos to police forces across the country according to the locations of the incidents. Those hunters instantly became prey for law enforcement agencies worldwide, and the end of this organisation had come.

‿︵‿︵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 17, 2024 by Angel

Edited: November 18, 2024 by Soojin