S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 200

The Intelligent Killer 05 – Intention

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The following morning, four visitors arrived at the SCI office, three men and one woman. Everyone recognised the woman; she was the same Liang Xiaoyu who had met with them previously to search for the USB drive.

The three men were newcomers.

Zhao Jue helped to introduce them, explaining that these four were siblings, the same search team that had previously helped with the USB drive. The eldest brother was Liang Xiaojin, the second brother was Liang Xiaotian, the third brother was Liang Xiaoyu, and the youngest sister was Liang Xiaoyu.

The SCI team mused over the names of the four siblings – There's fish today?

Last night, Shi Zhu had slept in the living room of Big Brother Bai's villa next to Lisbon. He came along early this morning and, upon seeing the four visitors, immediately sprang up and ran to Liang Xiaoyu's side, calling, "Xiaoyu!"

The young woman glanced at him, "You ran out to do something stupid again, didn't you?"

Shi Zhu scratched his head and stood there grinning foolishly, greeting the three brothers, "Big Brother, Second Brother, Third Brother."

The three brothers collectively rolled their eyes at him – Who's your brother?!

Bai Yutang invited them in to sit and chat.

Shi Zhu pulled Liang Xiaoyu to the adjacent lounge. Today, Bai Chi had also brought Lisbon, who was napping in the lounge while Bai Chi spread out materials on the floor, flipping through them.

Shi Zhu proudly introduced Lisbon to Liang Xiaoyu, saying that he had a great temperament and didn't bite, and they had even slept together in the guest room last night without him being treated as a meal.

Liang Xiaoyu ran over, squatting down to pet Lisbon's mane like stroking a cat.

Lisbon yawned lazily, lying down and occasionally flicking his tail.

......

In the meeting room next door.

The three Liang brothers sat down with Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao to discuss Shi Zhu's situation.

When Zhao Jue and Bai Ye were investigating the organisation's case, the Liang family's search team had been of great assistance. Despite their obscure reputation, the search team was a family business, with three generations making a living from helping people find things. Their reputation in the industry was excellent. Having spent over a century finding things, they had accumulated a wealth of experience and were highly efficient. Their ability was evident from the quick recovery of the USB drive and the deduction that someone had deliberately planted it for them to find.

Shi Zhu's older brother had connections with the three Liang brothers, and since he worked abroad for extended periods, he had asked them to look after his younger brother.

According to the three brothers, Shi Zhu was a typical adolescent with delusions of grandeur, but he was a computer genius, skilled in coding and robot design.

Previously, Bai Yutang had been somewhat suspicious about how they were investigating Magic when clues conveniently showed up at their door. He wondered if there might be something fishy going on.

However, Zhao Jue introduced the search team as a long-term partner and reliable technical support. Shi Zhu had no connections with Magic and was merely a tech enthusiast competing for prize money... Hence, this time, the resources coming to them were indeed fortuitous.

The three brothers knew that Shi Zhu had likely caused some trouble, and they would cover the damages for the claw machine incident and give the boy a good scolding... However, breaking into Big Brother Bai's house was a flagrant offence. Since no valuable items were stolen, it wasn't a severe crime, so there was room for negotiation to allow him to make amends.

Liang Xiaojin proposed, "Including Shi Zhu, we can help with anything SCI needs to offset his mistake, giving him a chance to redeem himself."

Both Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao felt this was a fortuitous opportunity.

Bai Yutang brought up that they wanted to investigate Magic and, since Shi Zhu had signed up for the robotics competition, they wanted him to infiltrate the company.

The three brothers asked – What exactly do you want to investigate?

Bai Yutang explained, "We have a case where a serial killer used an AI to commit multiple murders, collecting data to upgrade the AI."

Being familiar with the Internet, Liang Xiaotian immediately understood, "You want to find the server room where the system is stored and the operation team?"

Bai Yutang nodded.

The three Liang brothers, having worked with Zhao Jue for a long time, were well acquainted with the organisation. Zhao Jue mentioned that the person behind this company might be a dangerous seventh generation.

The three brothers responded, "Seventh generation? That's not a big problem."

Both Zhao Jue and Bai Ye nodded in agreement.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a glance – So the seventh generation was being looked down upon...

"We will investigate this company," Liang Xiaojin said. "Afterwards, we'll have another meeting to devise a specific plan."

After reaching an agreement with the three brothers, Bai Yutang left Jiang Ping and Liang Xiaoyu in charge of staying in touch.

Afterwards, the search team took the troublemaker Shi Zhu away.

Once they left, SCI resumed their work. They had a lot to do, including the interrogation of a group of serial killers.

Zhao Jue and Bai Ye didn't hurry to leave either, they stayed to observe the interrogations.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang thought it over and decided to focus on Lin Tian and the Leapfrog Murderer.

Zhan Zhao assessed the mental state of the suspects and found Lin Tian to be the most coherent, so they decided to interrogate him first.

In the interrogation room, Lin Tian sat at the table, his wrists in handcuffs, looking somewhat dazed.

Although SCI was relatively calm, the situation outside had severely escalated...

The media had dug up all the cases committed by the Broken Spine Murderer, which were extremely brutal and random, drawing significant public attention.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang entered the interrogation room. Lin Tian remained silent, staring blankly ahead.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao had only one question, "Is Che Dongming really dead?"

Lin Tian stared into space and slowly said, "He achieved eternal life..."

Zhan Zhao asked him to recount the crimes he had committed.

However, Lin Tian's response was vague and confused, as if his memories were mixed up. He kept repeating, "I will also achieve eternal life..."

After spending over an hour with Lin Tian without gaining any useful information, they moved on to the Leapfrog Murderer. His mental state was even more unstable than Lin Tian's, and he too kept insisting that he would achieve eternal life.

They interrogated all the serial killers, but each one seemed mentally stuck.

SCI had captured numerous serial killers before, and typically, these violent criminals had strong self-awareness and often boasted about their crimes, remembering them clearly.

But this group seemed disoriented and lacking in self-awareness, which was very unusual.

Everyone realised that perhaps the collective value of these individuals was really less than that of a cell phone.

After working the whole afternoon without any breakthroughs, Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao took a break.

Bao Sir had come and gone once in the middle of the day and now returned.

The public was unaware of SCI's investigative challenges and believed they had cracked a major case. A crowd of journalists awaited a police press conference.

"How is it?" Bao Sir asked Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao spread his hands.

"Do you want to hold a press conference?" Bao Sir asked.

Zhan Zhao was quite displeased, "Why make such a fuss?"

Bao Sir laughed, "Then why weren't you low-key when you publicly arrested Lin Tian?"

Zhan Zhao flattened his mouth.

Bao Zheng said, "We've arrested so many people this time, but it feels less like hitting the jackpot and more like collecting junk!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang found Bao Sir's description quite fitting.

"But this company is up to something," Bao Sir reminded them, "sending all these killers to us means they aren't afraid of being investigated. Instead, we've ended up taking on a bunch of their liabilities."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang frowned – Indeed...

"Be careful," Bao Sir added. "They must have some plan behind this."

After giving these instructions, Bao Sir left, telling Lu Fang to gloss over the details at the press conference, saying the specifics were still under investigation.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang pondered Bao Sir's words – If the AI was only using these serial killers to collect data, wouldn't it be better to let them disappear without a trace once they were no longer useful? Why gather them all at the Bai Group?

After discussing with Bao Sir, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang returned to the interrogation room, where Zhao Jue was sipping milk tea.

Sipping the new milk tea developed by Bai Chi, Zhao Jue observed the mentally listless Lin Tian in the interrogation room.

Zhao Jue asked Zhan Zhao, "Don't you think he seems like a different person compared to yesterday?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both nodded.

Zhao Hu, who had been observing as well, suddenly asked, "Could they have taken some kind of drug?"

Everyone looked at him, "Drug?"

Zhao Hu nodded, "Like when unscrupulous seafood vendors drug fish, shrimp, and crabs to keep them lively at the market, but they wilt as soon as you get them home."

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue exchanged a glance, seemingly inspired by this idea.

Bai Yutang called Gongsun over.

Gongsun examined the suspects and found they exhibited similar symptoms: they had been hyperactive at the Bai Group yesterday, but were now listless and slow to respond.

Bai Yutang asked the SWAT and criminal investigation teams to take this group to the hospital.

After a series of physical examinations, Yang Fan reported, "They show signs of severe drug addiction. Besides that, brain scans reveal damage to their brain functions, causing their dazed and dull state."

"Why is their brain function damaged?" Zhan Zhao and Gongsun both examined the report.

Yang Fan brought in a neurologist to explain. The doctors said these individuals had varying degrees of brain damage, likely due to long-term drug abuse, causing irreversible damage.

Zhan Zhao was puzzled, "So, the drugs have fried their brains?"

The neurologist shook his finger, "Yes and no. More precisely, the drugs caused brain damage, and maintaining normalcy required continuous use and increasing dosages. Once the drugs were stopped, irreversible brain damage ensued, turning them into idiots over time."

"What kind of drugs?" Zhan Zhao asked curiously.

"Mild hallucinogens," the doctor said. "They must have been using them for about five years."

"Are these prescription drugs?" Zhan Zhao found it strange. "Taking them for five years? Where did they get so much drugs?"

"Probably from the black market," the doctor shook his head. "Many new hallucinogens are sold as non-addictive, but in reality, they cause irreversible brain damage. Young people need to be responsible for their bodies and stay away from unknown drugs."

Zhan Zhao pulled Zhao Jue aside and asked, "All the serial killers took the same drugs. We already thought the Leapfrog Murderer's mental state was odd. Isn't the AI supposed to collect data? Why drug the serial killers? Wouldn't the drugs affect the authenticity of the experimental data?"

Zhao Jue also felt something was amiss, "Maybe... they aren't collecting data on the killers but conducting drug trials?"

Bai Yutang frowned, "So, are they developing AI or drugs?"

"Er..." Zhao Jue couldn't answer immediately and looked at Bai Ye.

Bai Ye, uncertain himself, casually replied, "Selling drugs through AI?"

After he spoke, Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue froze. They thought for a moment, then both frowned simultaneously, "Right! That's also a possibility!"

‿︵‿︵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: July 9, 2024 by Angel

Edited: December 30, 2024 by Soojin