S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 222

The Intelligent Killer 27 – Fishing

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The members of SCI had a good night's sleep and arrived at the police station the next day feeling refreshed.

Everyone gathered in the office for breakfast. Zhan Zhao checked the time and glanced at the door.

Bai Yutang, standing next to him, asked, "What's the matter? Nervous?"

Zhan Zhao snorted dismissively – Who was nervous...

Bai Yutang took out his phone to show him something.

Zhan Zhao was curious – What is it...

It turned out to be a photo sent to Bai Yutang by Bai Ye, showing Zhao Jue lying on a sofa with a face covered in scribbles like a tabby cat...

"Wow!" Zhan Zhao quickly checked his own phone and found that Bai Ye had sent him the same photo, which he hadn't seen because he hadn't checked his messages that morning.

"Amazing!" Zhan Zhao was admiring the photo when he heard the sound of the elevator door opening.

The two of them looked towards the door and saw Zhao Jue and Bai Ye stepping out of the elevator.

Zhan Zhao tiptoed to look at Zhao Jue, who was walking behind Bai Ye. Zhao Jue was wearing big sunglasses, with a plaster on his forehead, and faint marks of marker pens could be seen on his face.

Zhan Zhao hid behind Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang looked back at him – Scared now?

Zhan Zhao whispered, "I only drew the king character! The rest wasn't me!"

Bai Yutang nodded, "In collective mischief, the leader is usually caught first."

Bai Ye and Zhao Jue walked into the office. Bai Chi and Jiang Ping avoided looking at Zhao Jue, trying to act innocent.

Zhao Hu, passing by, was startled and curiously asked Zhao Jue, "Master Zhao, what happened to your face?"

Zhao Jue smiled slightly at Zhao Hu and said enigmatically, "Do you know that The Art of War by Sun Tzu is actually a psychology book?"

Zhao Hu blinked and tilted his head with a silly husky expression, "Is it?"

Zhao Jue put his arm around Zhao Hu's shoulder and pointed into the distance, "All novels about revenge in the world are also psychology books."

Zhao Hu looked at Zhao Jue suspiciously, wondering if he had eaten something bad for breakfast...

"What do you think is more terrifying about the saying 'a gentleman's revenge is never too late', the revenge itself or the ten years?" Zhao Jue continued talking about something incomprehensible to Zhao Hu.

Zhao Hu thought for a moment, "The ten years, right... because you never know which day within those ten years the revenge will come..."

"Correct!" Zhao Jue gave Hu Zi a thumbs up, "The greatest pleasure of revenge is watching your opponent suffer in anticipation of the hammer falling!"

Hu Zi nodded, half-understanding, and clapped his hands – Impressive, impressive...

Zhao Jue, satisfied, strolled over to Zhan Zhao, who was "diligently" watching the surveillance screens at his computer.

"Ahem." Zhan Zhao cleared his throat and glanced at Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue took off his sunglasses and squinted at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao observed closely and found that the marks weren't very obvious, they had been cleaned quite well, and Zhao Jue's skin even looked better, somewhat smoother...

Zhao Jue pulled out an electronic receipt from his pocket and handed it to Zhan Zhao, "Reimbursement!"

Zhan Zhao took the receipt and saw it was filled with purchases of various face washes and skincare products...

"Why are these so expensive?" Zhan Zhao was shocked, "What did you put on your face?"

Zhao Jue patted his own face, "This handsome face is priceless!"

Zhan Zhao picked up the hand lotion Jiang Ping had left on the table, "Just use this, don't waste money!"

Zhao Jue picked up the lotion and flicked it in a perfect arc... it landed in the trash bin with a plop.

Jiang Ping quickly went to rescue it, while Zhao Jue picked up a marker from the table, removed the cap, and turned to Zhan Zhao...

Zhan Zhao quickly hid behind Bai Yutang.

Zhao Jue reached for Bai Yutang's face, "Drawing on you is the same!"

Bai Yutang hurriedly blocked him, and Zhan Zhao tried to grab the marker...

Luckily, Bai Ye stepped in to separate them and pointed at the surveillance screen, "That kid is awake."

As soon as Zhao Jue turned his head, Zhan Zhao took the opportunity to snatch the marker. Everyone else instinctively hid the markers on their desks.

Xiao Bai Chi even stuffed the whiteboard markers into a drawer.

......

In the surveillance footage on Jiang Ping's desk, Yu Yang, lying on the bed in the hotel, finally woke up.

"Does this count as waking up from hypnosis?" Bai Yutang asked.

Zhao Jue glanced at the screen showing Yu Yang sitting on the bed, patting his head, and gave a dismissive laugh, "The real show is just beginning."

......

Yu Yang's state at this moment could be described with one word: "confused."

He had no idea where he was, and when he tried to recall, he only had fragmented memories.

Getting out of bed, he felt sore all over and noticed some inexplicable bruises and scrapes on his hands and feet.

He walked to the door and opened it, finding himself in an unfamiliar hotel corridor... he had vague memories of checking into a hotel, and had seen a witch beside him.

The SCI members watched through the surveillance screen as Yu Yang, looking as if he had lost his mind, walked back into the room, occasionally twitching and patting his head.

"It's like he's possessed!" Zhao Hu found it fascinating.

At this moment, Yu Yang saw the laptop on the desk.

This laptop was Yu Yang's own... After it had been taken by SCI, Jiang Ping had done some work on it and returned it to him.

Yu Yang stared at the laptop, falling into further confusion. He distinctly remembered that the laptop was missing, so how did it appear here?

He opened the laptop, and the game's login screen appeared. He entered his ID and password.

All of Yu Yang's actions were under Jiang Ping's surveillance... everything he did on the computer could be seen and remotely intervened by SCI.

As the game login succeeded, they entered the mysterious beta game for the first time.

However, due to a previous report by Yu Yang, the game account was still in an error-locked state.

As he logged in, a chat window with the game administrator popped up.

The administrator seemed to have been waiting for a long time and contacted him immediately, asking about his current location.

Yu Yang didn't know where he was, but in his memory, he seemed to have "fought" with two helmeted men yesterday.

"Yesterday, two investigators were attacked by you."

Yu Yang stared blankly at the line sent by the administrator.

"It wasn't me..." Yu Yang replied.

The administrator immediately sent over a video, which was the recording from the investigators' helmets the previous night.

The video was short, showing the investigators arriving at Yu Yang's refuge, their vision going black... followed by a long period of murmuring, which was Yu Yang's self-talk.

Upon hearing those murmurs, it was as if a switch had been triggered in Yu Yang's mind.

His vision cleared, and the image of the witch appeared, inciting him to kill the targets, inciting him to attack the investigators...

The fragmented memories, coupled with the chaotic murmurs, pieced together a reason in Yu Yang's brain for his current situation – it was the witch's suggestions in the game!

"What have you guys added to the game?" Yu Yang angrily typed on the keyboard, "You made me a murderer!"

Bai Yutang looked at the dialogue on the screen and asked Zhan Zhao, "Does this mean we've achieved our goal?"

Zhan Zhao nodded and asked, "Does it look real?"

Bai Yutang was also a bit emotional, "It feels like he's really gone mad, rather than just thinking he's mad..."

Zhao Jue gave a satisfied smile, "That's exactly the effect we wanted."

After saying that, he glared at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao took a piece of chocolate from the table and handed it to him – Don't hold such a grudge...

Zhao Jue accepted the chocolate, unwrapped it, and popped it into his mouth, suddenly lowering his head, covering his mouth, and stomping his foot.

Everyone looked at him in confusion.

Bai Yutang picked up the candy wrapper and helplessly clicked his tongue – wasabi chocolate...

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, who was smiling happily on the side – Cat, aren't you afraid of his revenge?

Zhan Zhao shook his head indicating – I'm trying to cheer him up, okay!

Zhao Jue stomped his foot, then looked up and said, "So refreshing!" He then reached out to Zhan Zhao for more. 

Zhan Zhao handed him the whole box of chocolates.

Zhao Jue took it, his expression showing that his mood had significantly improved.

Jiang Ping was curious – Are these chocolates really tasty?

Zhao Jue handed one to him – Try it?

Jiang Ping unwrapped one and put it in his mouth, only to dash out of the office in tears three seconds later.

Zhan Zhao took out a package that had arrived that morning, containing several boxes of chocolates.

Bai Ye glanced at the packaging – all wasabi and chilli flavoured... and showed a slight look of distaste.

Bai Yutang tore off a sticky note, drew a poop emoji on it, and stuck it on the package.

At this moment, a reply from the game administrator appeared on the screen – asking Yu Yang to come to a safe house for a physical examination.

However, Yu Yang had clearly lost trust in the game. He demanded they first clear his murder charges, or he would report the game's secrets to the police!

"Wow, he's starting to threaten them!"

Jiang Ping, wiping his "tears," returned to his computer with a bottle of water. The conversation between the two parties had started to become heated.

At this moment, a program running on the nearby computer finished processing, displaying an IP address on the screen.

Jiang Ping rubbed his hands together, "Got it..."

Bai Yutang asked, "Found the administrator?"

"Mhmm!" Jiang Ping displayed the location on a map... it turned out to be an address very familiar to everyone.

"Isn't that the headquarters of Magic Company?" Bai Chi pointed at the blinking red dot within the technology park.

"It's inside Magic Company." Jiang Ping found it both logical and surprising, "The customer service number was the same, just different extensions... who would've thought it was all in one building... is this a case of 'hidden in plain sight'?"

Zhan Zhao asked Jiang Ping if he could send this IP address to the administrator from Yu Yang's computer, without appearing on Yu Yang's screen.

Jiang Ping assured him it was doable...

Soon, the administrator received this IP address from "Yu Yang."

Sure enough, this action visibly made the administrator nervous...

But Jiang Ping blocked both parties' communications... meaning after Yu Yang saw the administrator's threats, there was no further response, and similarly, the administrator saw the IP address sent by Yu Yang, but no further messages.

Both sides kept trying to contact each other, but there was no response...

The situation mirrored Zhao Jue's earlier phrase "a gentleman's revenge is never too late," where the real fear lay not in the moment of revenge, but in the long, uncertain period waiting for it.

Both sides were plunged into deep uncertainty.

Yu Yang scratched his head at the desk, imagining all sorts of possibilities – the most likely being that they would kill him to silence him.

Meanwhile, the game developers were probably experiencing a different kind of anxiety...

This wave of provocation could be considered quite successful.

Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue, "What next?"

"Since we know where the thieves are hiding, there's no need to wait, right?" Zhao Jue said.

Bai Yutang asked, "Infiltrate Magic's headquarters?"

Jiang Ping rummaged through a drawer and handed a USB drive to Bai Yutang, "If you can find the server and plug in this USB drive, in about three minutes, it'll steal all the data and plant a virus."

"How should we infiltrate? Overtly or covertly?" Bai Yutang asked.

"Data theft is best done covertly, but... going in directly is too risky," Zhan Zhao remarked, "A combination of overt and covert is better."

"How do we combine them?"

"You guys go in secretly, while Yu Yang goes openly," Zhao Jue suggested. Just let Magic Company see that Yu Yang is nearby."

"Wouldn't that make them more vigilant?" Zhao Hu asked, "Wouldn't it be alerting the enemy?"

Zhao Jue wagged his finger, "This isn't alerting the enemy, this is baiting them."

Saying this, Zhao Jue and Zhan Zhao simultaneously pointed at the screen, where Yu Yang was still scratching his head at the desk – Use this bait well!

‿︵‿︵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: August 4, 2024 by Angel

Edited: December 30, 2024 by Soojin