S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 232

The Intelligent Killer 37 – Look for Differences

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Chen Youfu's death was extremely suspicious. So far, all the criminal information and all the people involved with Magic had been arrested.

However, those who had solved the case were not happy at all. They felt like they were not catching criminals but rather collecting garbage, essentially helping to dispose of bad assets.

Magic was just like the old and decaying King organisation from years ago. Since the tail was too big to be dropped, they had to discard the entire body along with the tail. The truly valuable part of the organisation was all the experimental data up to this point, and the only valuable thing about Magic was a single program.

Everything else was a burden, difficult to destroy and hard to organise, so it was left to SCI to handle.

It felt as if someone had been conducting an illegal business in a factory that generated a lot of hazardous waste, and when the police discovered it, the person took all the money and technology accumulated over the years and left the factory full of pollutants for the police. Although the production and sales lines were completely dismantled, they still had to deal with the hazardous waste and subsequent dangers, and the main culprit wasn't even caught.

The root of the problem wasn't resolved. Whoever took the program and data could potentially start another Magic anytime, anywhere in the future. Moreover, with the experience from this incident, they would become more cautious, making it even harder to track them down.

It was even possible that they would relocate to avoid SCI's investigation range and continue their evil deeds.

This feeling of having solved a case but leaving a loose end made everyone very unhappy.

In the forensic lab, Gongsun examined Chen Youfu's body based on the personal information provided by Jiang Ping.

The result was that the deceased was indeed Chen Youfu himself.

Upon hearing the autopsy result, a sense of anxiety permeated from the forensic lab to the office and along the entire corridor.

"There were some doubts found on the body," Gongsun told everyone about his findings. "First, the cause of death was electrocution."

Everyone nodded – They had seen it.

"Second, there were multiple broken bones in the body."

Everyone continued nodding – It should have been caused by falling into the artificial lake, which was quite high.

"Additionally," Gongsun pointed to the neck, "there were strangulation marks on the neck, but they weren't obvious. There were no bruises, only some minor abrasions."

Bai Yutang frowned, sensing something was wrong.

Logically, Chen Youfu had been strangled in the basement for at least thirty seconds to a minute, and he had struggled fiercely. The marks on his neck should have been very obvious.

"What about the person who attacked Chen Youfu in the basement?" Bai Yutang asked Bai Chi.

"He's in the hospital. His identity has been confirmed, he's also a wanted criminal." Bai Chi took out the person's information. "He belongs to the game trial group of Magic, a certain type of user."

"Like those two men in red who went to kill Xu Lie?"

"Right," Bai Chi nodded.

Zhan Zhao checked the information while Bai Yutang examined the marks on Chen Youfu's neck.

Indeed, they seemed lighter than expected, they should have been more severe.

Bai Yutang recalled the entire process of rescuing Chen Youfu in the basement and suddenly realised something was off. He turned to look at Bai Ye.

Seeing Bai Yutang looking at him, Bai Ye pointed at Zhao Jue.

Bai Yutang remembered that when Bai Ye had dragged the attacker out, he had stopped at the door of a storage room and stared at it for a long time. It was only after receiving a phone call that he left... Before taking the call, Bai Ye's aura had been extremely dangerous, but after the call, it improved somewhat.

"Was that call from you?" Bai Yutang asked Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue made a nonchalant "Mm-hmm" sound.

Bai Yutang looked at the corpse and then at Bai Ye. "So, the Chen Youfu who got off the bus initially wasn't this person?"

"What's going on?" Gongsun was a bit confused and pointed at the body. "Is he Chen Youfu or not?"

"He is," Zhao Jue and Zhan Zhao both nodded.

Everyone else was in a state of confusion.

"Luo Tian retrieved the recording of the video call from earlier this afternoon and compared the customer service representative in the video with the body, the faces were identical, it was the same person..."

"Plastic surgery?" Qin Ou asked.

Gongsun shook his head. "This person hasn't had plastic surgery."

"Could it really be triplets?" Bai Chi was shocked, then thought, "No, quadruplets!"

Zhan Zhao waved his hand. "The person who video-called us was indeed the customer service representative, and the body lying here is also that of the customer service representative. But the person who got off the bus and was followed by you wasn't."

Everyone felt they needed to sort out these lines of confusion. Who was who, and why was everything so chaotic?

Bai Yutang understood. "Using a borrowed knife to kill? The customer service representative wanted us to take away someone who looked very much like him, rather than himself?"

Zhan Zhao nodded. "Or rather, he hoped that another person would be lying here. Didn't he say he'd be killed if he tried to escape?"

"He did look very similar," Luo Tian and Qin Ou both recalled. The person who got off the bus earlier and the body now lying here looked almost identical, was it because they were dressed the same?

"So, the sequence of events is that the customer service representative called us to track and 'rescue' someone who looked very much like him. When we arrived at the complex, we followed that person, who quickly ran into the basement of the apartment and hid in the storage room?" Bai Yutang looked at Bai Ye.

Bai Ye continued pointing at Zhao Jue – I don't know, he just said "ignore it, catch whoever you catch."

Everyone looked at Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue, who seemed to have had something planned from the beginning.

"Are there any other doubts about the body?" Zhan Zhao didn't answer but instead asked Gongsun.

"Oh, there's one more rather strange point," Gongsun and Ma Xin turned the body over to lie on its side, then pointed to the deceased's ear, indicating for everyone to look. "There are injuries inside the ear."

Gongsun took out the blood-stained earphone in an evidence bag. "The front end of the earphone had a connector, which was nailed into the ear like a thorn."

Gongsun grabbed a magnifying glass, showing everyone the ear, where there was a tiny pinhole near the injury.

Bai Yutang finally understood why the earphone hadn't fallen off despite the intense struggle and running, it had been fixed to the ear.

"It must have been fixed to the ear after he was injected with anaesthesia, so there was no pain or foreign sensation," Gongsun explained and nodded to Zhan Zhao, indicating there were no other doubts.

"Chen Youfu acted like he was completely out of his mind, right?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Bai Yutang, Luo Tian, and Qin Ou all nodded, especially about the part where he escaped and jumped into the artificial lake, it was utterly baffling.

"We can roughly infer what happened," Zhan Zhao began to explain his deduction. "First, Chen Youfu, believing he was in a safe environment, contacted us via video, intending for us to rescue – or more precisely, take away – someone who looked almost identical to him."

Everyone nodded, feeling that this was how it started...

"But by the time he contacted us, he had already been discovered," Zhan Zhao continued. "He calmly returned to his workplace, perhaps had a cup of coffee or some other drink, and then fainted. When he woke up, he found himself lying in a dark basement, with an eerie voice in his ear, speaking things that terrified him. As he stood up and tried to run, someone suddenly strangled him. In the panic, a few people appeared to save him... At that time, he was either completely confused or realised he had been found out. Combined with the voice in the earphone, he was terrified and ran out in a frenzy."

Bai Yutang thought about it and felt that this explanation was quite reasonable and actionable for now.

"He obviously knew that he couldn't escape. After leaving the apartment building, he kept avoiding your pursuit and tried to flee, and he succeeded each time. That indicates someone was directing his escape through the earphone. He almost couldn't resist the commands coming through the earphone, and at that time, he might not have realised he was wearing it because the anaesthesia might have numbed the sensation."

Everyone signalled Zhan Zhao to continue. So far, everything seemed logical.

"The USB drive he gave you might not have been prepared by him. Instead, he was following orders, taking out a USB drive that someone else had put in his pocket and handing it to you. When he fell into the artificial lake, he was backing away from you, right?"

Bai Yutang thought back and nodded. "That's right..."

"He must have seen something or someone terrifying."

Bai Yutang frowned. At that moment, everyone's focus had been on saving Chen Youfu and the electrocution, no one had paid attention to whether there was anyone behind them.

Luo Tian and Qin Ou were puzzled. "Since the person was hiding in the garage at that time, why not catch him then?"

"Is that person the real mastermind?" Gongsun also asked.

Zhan Zhao pointed to the corpse on the autopsy table. "In his mind, perhaps."

"And in reality?"

"Like the previous twins, they were all disposable stand-ins." Zhan Zhao smiled. "Even if we caught him, it would be useless. Not catching him gives us a direction to continue investigating."

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao again. Continuing the investigation would still require catching the person, wouldn't it? But now the person had escaped.

Zhan Zhao blinked. "It's useful if he escapes, it's useless if he's caught."

Bai Yutang glanced at Bai Ye – What did he mean?

Bai Ye seemed uninterested and was already zoning out.

"Why switch the two? If they look alike, why does this Chen Youfu have to die?" Zhan Zhao asked. "If they hadn't switched the two, and we followed Chen Youfu's plan, caught that person, found the USB drive on him, and then found the information at his home, would the result be any different from now?"

Everyone pondered this. It seemed there wouldn't be much difference, in fact, it might even make more sense. Because as of now, the strangest thing was Chen Youfu's death, which made the conclusion of the case seem more suspicious. If Chen Youfu had been caught and helped take down Magic, it would have taken more time and been more complicated, making it less suspicious.

"Is there any reason why this one had to die and the other couldn't?" Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao.

"It depends on what differences there are between them," Zhan Zhao looked at Gongsun.

Gongsun pointed at himself, "Me?"

Bai Chi asked Gongsun, "Are there any differences?"

Gongsun's eyes widened. "No... are there any differences?"

As he spoke, he picked up a screenshot from the video on his tablet and compared it to Chen Youfu's face. "It's the same person!"

"Was the switch made to avoid us discovering that the two customer service representatives were different?" Bai Yutang asked.

Zhan Zhao nodded – That's correct.

Zhao Hu felt they were going in circles. "So how do we catch the culprit from this point?"

Zhao Jue shook his head from the side – The husky still hadn't caught on.

"Perhaps we should ask the other way around," Zhan Zhao suggested patiently. "How do we find four people who look so similar?"

Everyone frowned, this...

Jiang Ping raised his hand. "Big data screening?"

Zhan Zhao pointed at Jiang Ping and asked the others, "Do you know what the difference is between him and AI?"

Everyone looked at Jiang Ping.

Jiang Ping said, "I don't need to be plugged in, and AI doesn't need to eat, drink, or sleep...

Zhan Zhao waved his hand. "The difference is, Jiang Ping knows what AI doesn't, and Jiang Ping knows what AI knows."

Everyone continued looking at Jiang Ping, who scratched his head – How did I not know about this?

Bai Yutang thought for a while. "The person who was switched and rescued wasn't found by AI using big data?"

Jiang Ping suddenly clapped his hands. "Ah! That was a first-generation model?!"

‿︵‿︵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 18, 2024 by Angel

Edited: December 31, 2024 by Soojin