S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 225

The Intelligent Killer 30 – Players and Resources

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The atmosphere in the police department's cafeteria was a bit strange.

The members of SCI were gathered in the cafeteria for a meal, and due to time constraints, they all sat at tables for two.

Bai Yutang and Bai Ye sat together, eating their sandwiches and occasionally glancing at the adjacent table.

At the adjacent table, Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue were sitting opposite each other. Each had a cup of coffee in front of them, and there was an unopened box in the middle of the table.

Zhao Jue provocatively raised his chin at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao frowned, staring at the box and deep in thought.

Passing officers were curious, watching... It was rare to see Doctor Zhan looking so troubled, what difficult problem was he thinking about?

After staring at the box for three minutes, Zhan Zhao snapped his fingers, "Wasabi honey flavour!"

Bai Yutang and Bai Ye both frowned.

Zhao Jue clicked his tongue, "Aiya, close, but unfortunately, wrong! You have one more chance!"

"Hmm..." Zhan Zhao continued to stare at the box, practising his X-ray vision.

The others at the adjacent table had finished their meals and were sipping coffee while watching the battle.

They had rushed to the cafeteria as soon as they got back, and Zhao Jue had arrived earlier, preparing sandwiches for everyone.

Although Zhao Jue's own taste was "unique," he seemed to have a perfect understanding of everyone else's "ordinary" tastes. Whether it was due to his good memory or keen observation skills... anyway, everyone received their favourite sandwich flavour.

However, the sandwich for Zhan Zhao was placed in a box.

Zhao Jue said it was a new product from his shop, with an exceptional and unique taste, and asked Zhan Zhao to help with a taste test.

Just as Zhan Zhao was happily about to open the box, Zhao Jue stopped him, saying that he couldn't eat it directly. He had to guess the flavour correctly to eat it, with three chances. If he guessed wrong all three times, he wouldn't get to eat it and would have to settle for bread with lettuce.

Initially, Zhan Zhao could have just bought one himself, but somehow, his competitive spirit was ignited, and he sat down to compete with Zhao Jue.

Relying on his sense of smell, Zhan Zhao first guessed wasabi peanut flavour, which was incorrect. The second guess of wasabi honey was also wrong.

Having guessed incorrectly twice, Zhan Zhao was now in a "desperate situation."

The spectators were also intrigued – This was the first time they'd seen Zhan Zhao unable to guess something! It was truly a clash of experts.

Bai Ye and Bai Yutang shook their heads – Can't they just eat properly?

With only one chance left, Zhan Zhao stared at the box, troubled. If looks could burn, the box might have been reduced to ashes by now.

Bai Yutang and Bai Ye, on the other hand, were a bit puzzled – Typically, in guessing games, don't you look at the other person's face? Perhaps he knew that wouldn't work on Zhao Jue?

Bai Yutang reached out, picked up the box, and sniffed it, then put it back down with a slight grimace... There was indeed a wasabi smell, which was quite strong, and there was also a hint of sweetness, a burnt scent, and some other strange aromas... it was difficult to describe.

As the stalemate continued, Zhan Zhao suddenly looked up at Zhao Jue.

Seeing that Zhan Zhao had guessed wrong twice, Zhao Jue was feeling a bit smug. But when Zhan Zhao suddenly looked up and stared at him, Zhao Jue was taken aback.

Zhan Zhao slammed the table and stood up, pointing at the box, "Wasabi honey coffee!"

Next to him, Bai Yutang and Bai Ye inexplicably felt that the coffee they were drinking had a wasabi flavour.

At the same time, Bai Yutang found it reasonable, the burnt smell did indeed resemble coffee...

Everyone else watched Zhao Jue curiously – Had he guessed it right? Zhao Jue suddenly seemed a bit dejected...

Sure enough, Zhao Jue sighed, slowly opened the lid of the box, and then a big smile appeared on his face. "Haha!" he laughed twice, pointing at Zhan Zhao, "Honey coffee wasabi onion!"

"Cough cough..."

Bai Yutang choked on his coffee.

Bai Ye shook his head and handed him a napkin.

Everyone else clicked their tongues and shook their heads, feeling that making this flavour was harder than guessing it.

Zhan Zhao sat down, pouting in frustration – Onions, of all things... completely unexpected!

Zhao Jue said that since Zhan Zhao had lost, he could only eat bread with lettuce.

Zhan Zhao replied that he wouldn't eat that and would go get some mango beef fried rice instead!

Bai Yutang thought... it might be better just to eat the bread with lettuce.

In the end, Bai Ye reached out and pushed the box on the table towards Zhan Zhao, telling him to eat and ignore Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue glared at Bai Ye as if to say – Want to play the nice guy?!

Bai Ye didn't care and said that since it was a taste test, if Zhan Zhao didn't eat it, he'd have to eat it himself – and he'd rather eat the bread with lettuce.

The others watched Zhan Zhao expectantly, what does it taste like? Can it be good?

Zhan Zhao picked up the sandwich and smelled it, a smile appearing on his face.

Zhao Jue was still talking about the development process of this sandwich, saying it was the new product to be featured next season.

Bai Yutang, however, was puzzled – How had this evil dessert shop not gone out of business yet?

......

After finishing their meal, everyone returned to the office to prepare for the next phase of their operation.

Bai Yutang asked Bai Chi how the preparations for the concert with Xu Lie and Zhao Zhen were going, and if anything had happened during rehearsals.

Bai Chi said everything was going smoothly and that the rumour about the woman in red had never resurfaced. Ever since they dispelled the rumour, it seemed like everyone had almost forgotten about it.

Bai Yutang nodded, was it suppressed just like that? That's a bit surprising.

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue took some time to prepare to interrogate the two dangerous players, numbers two and three, who had recently been captured.

After their capture, their phones rang a few times, with "customer service" continuously trying to contact them, but naturally, they couldn't get through.

Before entering the interrogation room, Zhan Zhao flipped through the criminal's diary that Zhao Hu had brought back.

After reading it, he almost burst out laughing, suggesting that all criminals should be encouraged to keep diaries, as it could greatly improve police efficiency.

Zhan Zhao selected a few pages to fold the corners of and handed them to Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang skimmed through them and found that the diary contained a lot of references to the "woman in red." It turned out that these so-called high level players participated in the game by completing tasks. And these "tasks" were actually fulfilling the "commissions" received by the woman in red.

"It turned out to be a system within a system." Bai Yutang found this somewhat unexpected but also logical... They had always been curious about where the woman in red got so many resources to complete so many commissions. It turned out she had so many "professional" people working for her.

"The scope of this investigation is expanding." Bai Ye wondered, "Aren't these just second and third-level game players? What does the first-level player do?"

Bai Yutang suddenly had a bold idea and asked, "Could it be... there's a connection to the test subjects you're looking for?"

Bai Ye was taken aback and looked at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang continued, "Didn't the murderer Lin Tian from the previous case have an AI daughter named Lin Zhenzhen living in his phone? Could this also be a kind of game? Isn't there a genre of games like this?"

Bai Ye thought about it and found Bai Yutang's hypothesis reasonable – They had always thought that the AI influenced people, but they hadn't considered that the AI might have been cultivated to be this way...

In the interrogation room, Zhao Jue and Zhan Zhao, who were wearing headphones, naturally heard the conversation outside.

The corner of Zhao Jue's mouth twitched slightly, revealing a faint, mocking smile as he muttered to himself, "Sure enough, some things never change."

Zhan Zhao looked at him – What never changes?

Zhao Jue shrugged, "Many things that benefit humanity were discovered by accident, and the same goes for things that bring harm."

"You think this was an accident?" Zhan Zhao looked at Zhao Jue.

For once, Zhao Jue adopted a serious tone and warned Zhan Zhao, "Curiosity killed the cat, curiosity kills people too."

Zhan Zhao struggled to restrain his desire to retort. He could argue with Zhao Jue, but the truth was that Zhao Jue might be speaking from experience... For those who haven't experienced it, saying anything is meaningless.

Numbers two and three watched the two of them chatting, a bit unsure of what was happening.

In fact, these two bungling thieves had been confused from the start. They were supposed to be tailing Yu Yang, and somehow, while following him, he turned into a police officer.

It seemed the two had received some "training," knowing how to play dumb when dealing with the police.

Before Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue could speak, they played innocent, saying they noticed their friend's car being driven by strangers and followed to check it out. They ended up at a construction site, and they got out with iron pipes for self-defence, but somehow they got arrested.

Zhan Zhao remarked, "You two are both wanted criminals and still managed to get caught accidentally?"

After saying that, he placed the diary on the table.

The two looked embarrassed and tried to play it off, claiming it was a novel, not a diary.

At the door, Bai Yutang shook his head, thinking they were stubborn.

Zhan Zhao laughed, "We can contact every victim mentioned in this 'novel.'"

Number two and number three exchanged glances and then couldn't hold it together, starting to argue.

"It's all your fault, writing that diary."

"You're the one who accepted the mission to catch low-level accounts for levelling up."

"It was the only chance to level up to a level one account!"

......

Zhan Zhao interrupted their argument and asked, "Is levelling up to a level one account that important? Are there any rewards?"

Seeing no other option, the two confessed that there were no rewards, but they would receive substantial funding.

"Funding?"

Bai Yutang, listening from the monitoring room, frowned. "So, it's all about money?"

"How substantial is this funding?" Zhao Jue inquired.

"There's basically no limit, and you can even operate games that you develop yourself."

"Self-developed games?" Zhan Zhao seemed to understand something.

Zhao Jue added, "So the Woman in Red is a game developed by Lin Tian?"

Numbers two and three nodded. They explained that as long as you can develop a game, you will receive unlimited funding and technical support, along with a dedicated witch.

"A dedicated witch..."

Bai Yutang frowned, "So Lin Zhenzhen, the virtual daughter that Lin Tian raised, was his dedicated witch?"

"So this company is actually a legitimate business." Bai Ye found it interesting and drew a pyramid structure on a piece of paper.

"This Magic Company appears to be a gaming company on the surface, but it's actually a criminal organisation. They first select a portion of players, like Yu Yang, to play the trial game. These novice hunters hunt the 'prey' provided by the company. It's like an internship for new employees, cultivating a habit of cooperating with 'witches,' who monitor them and decide their fate based on their potential. After this phase, some novice users are promoted. Players at the second and third levels mainly complete game tasks, and these tasks may be managed by level one or higher-level users..."

Bai Yutang nodded, "It's a cycle."

"And what's the purpose?" Bai Ye analysed. "Could it be to accumulate resources?"

Bai Yutang agreed that the company wasn't creating results but rather methods. These methods were the games designed by the level one players, while the second and third levels continuously practised and perfected these methods.

Take the recent incident with the woman in red as an example: the woman in red could resolve minor disputes among students, eliminating those cursed while controlling those who cursed them. Some people were killed for participating in the woman in red's events, serving as a warning and threat to all game participants, making them obey the game's rules, and becoming resources or props.

Since the woman in red could resolve student disputes, she could also solve other issues... even disguising unrelated tasks as woman in red incidents.

Bai Yutang wondered how this game system could be monetised.

If someone wanted to eliminate another person, they had two options: do it themselves or hire someone.

But both methods carried risks that would come back to haunt them.

But if they gave the money to a company like Magic to invest in game development, the funds would go to the game's developer... The game's players would remove the target as part of the game, using various resources accumulated over the years to achieve the goal.

Once such a case is completed, it would be challenging to investigate.

Let's make a simple analogy.

Person A from City A steals a fruit knife while visiting City B and leaves it behind.

Person B, on a business trip to City B, finds the knife and takes it to City C.

In a small alley with no surveillance, Person B stabs Person C with the knife and quickly flees...

Meanwhile, the one who really wanted to kill Person C, Person D, invests in a game in City D.

How could the police trace the murder of Person C back to Person D? And this is based on the fact that there are only two "resources" involved in the case, A and B. The more participants and the more complex the structure, the harder the investigation becomes.

Many A's and B's might not even know they're involved in a murder.

And C, who successfully eliminated D, not only paid money but also became part of the web, potentially becoming a future A or B...

"If a level one player like Lin Tian is eliminated..." Bai Yutang felt he was onto something. "Then he and his witch would be discarded, but the game could continue to operate, just under the ownership of Magic. Since the game already has substantial resources accumulated, a new project leader could continue running it."

Bai Ye reminded Bai Yutang, "Wasn't Lin Tian's encounter with Cha Dongming in the hospital?"

Bai Yutang frowned and nodded, "Right, and coincidentally, Li Hedu, who worked as a receptionist at the game company, also worked as a caregiver in the hospital before."

‿︵‿︵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 6, 2024 by Angel

Edited: December 30, 2024 by Soojin