S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 233

The Intelligent Killer 38 – Opposite Result

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Over the years, SCI had caught many cunning murderers who used decoys to divert the police's attention, ultimately achieving their goal of escaping detection... It was a relatively common technique.

It wasn't easy for the police to investigate these cases, because criminals constantly devised new methods.

By the same token, it wasn't easy nowadays to find a way to commit a crime that the police had never encountered before.

Especially with modern technology aiding investigations more and more, even picking up a random hair at a crime scene could solve a case, leaving less and less room for criminals to operate.

However, the situation in this case was quite "novel." After investigating so many cases, they had never seen a culprit who found so many decoys.

And they all had the same face, was it some kind of multiple birth scenario?

In Jiang Ping's tech jargon, the Chen Youfu who had been switched out was referred to as the "first-generation model."

The group of non-geeky handsome men around him didn't understand, but from the literal meaning, it wasn't hard to grasp, that is, the one who was initially chosen, and the subsequent Chen Youfus were all selected to look like him.

But since Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue decided to let that person go, it indicated that they had a plan.

Bai Yutang looked at the two of them – Where are we going to arrest them?

Zhan Zhao blinked at him. "We let him go because he couldn't escape."

Bai Yutang immediately understood, "Still in that residential area?"

Zhan Zhao nodded.

Just now, Jiang Ping had investigated the electricity consumption of that residential area, as requested by Zhan Zhao.

The impression Bai Yutang and the others had of the area was that it was quiet – it felt like there were very few residents.

However, the electricity consumption in the area was strangely high, while the water usage was unusually low.

"Good idea!" Jiang Ping also got the gist of it. "Large data centres are easily detected through their electricity consumption, but hidden in an uninhabited residential area and disguised as residents, they are not easily discovered!"

"Then why did they leave one Chen Youfu and abandon the other?" Zhan Zhao asked the group. "Do you understand the reasoning?"

"Because each customer service agent corresponds to a set of equipment?" Bai Yutang asked. "The deceased Chen Youfu corresponds to the set of equipment from Magic, while the swapped-out Chen Youfu corresponds to the set in the residential area."

Zhan Zhao smiled slightly and nodded. "Mhmm, there's an irreplaceable link between the customer service agent and the AI!"

"No way..." Jiang Ping suddenly looked shocked. "Is the murderer we're trying to catch really an AI?"

"You mentioned it before," Zhan Zhao analysed for Jiang Ping. "With current human technology, we haven't reached the level of those in sci-fi novels. No matter how advanced AI is, it cannot exist independently of machines, which leads to two scenarios. The first scenario is that the mastermind behind the scenes is a human, in which case the machines can be discarded, right?"

Jiang Ping nodded. "Right."

"Then, if the situation is reversed, if the human is discarded, it means the previous Chen Youfu was discarded because of Magic's equipment, and since the machine doesn't exist, the person doesn't need to exist. But the other Chen Youfu was kept because the machine, no matter how advanced, cannot move by itself. If it wanted to escape, it couldn't pack itself up, drive away, or reassemble itself. Even something as simple as plugging itself into an outlet requires a human.

"All the equipment we found earlier was copies of the first-generation model, so this Chen Youfu who was switched out is the servant for the first-generation model!" Jiang Ping felt that everything made sense now. "In other words, all the other equipment are copies and are unconscious programs controlled through humans. But the real conscious machine controls the people who control the other machines? As long as the person controlling the other machines dies, then obtaining the machine is useless because it has no self-awareness."

Zhan Zhao nodded, "That's about right."

"But... is that possible?" Everyone felt their world-views being challenged.

"Does an AI with self-awareness really exist, demanding self-upgrades and killing humans?" Bai Chi found it unbelievable. "How could it control humans? Can't they just unplug it? After all, it's a machine, and it can't possibly know what people are thinking."

Everyone found it terrifying upon reflection. "Is it really that sci-fi?"

"Right," Zhan Zhao countered, "is it really that sci-fi?"

Everyone frowned – Could there be a twist?

"What's the difference between a machine controlled by a human and a human controlled by a machine?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Bai Yutang silently shook his head, and the others looked at Zhan Zhao with slight disdain – You're starting to speak gibberish!

Zhan Zhao pointed to his head, and they didn't know if he was reminding everyone to think or saying the difference lay in the mind.

Anyway, everyone looked at him with puzzled expressions.

Zhao Jue shook his head and clicked his tongue, giving a sympathetic look.

"Cat," Bai Yutang rubbed his temples, "keep it simple..."

"So, if you don't believe in the sci-fi conclusion, it means that it's not machines controlling humans but rather humans controlling machines." Zhan Zhao had to state his deduction plainly. "Actually, I don't really believe in the idea of AI killing people either. So why has the current situation arisen? Where's the problem?"

Everyone stared at him – Say the conclusion! Don't ask questions, we don't know!

"Just," Zhan Zhao felt exasperated, feeling that everyone lacked a sense of participation. "the only person still alive is the problem!"

"The swapped-out Chen Youfu?" Bai Yutang asked.

"The first-generation?" Jiang Ping decided to name this Chen Youfu as the first-generation Chen Youfu.

"Exactly!" Zhan Zhao pointed to his temple. "Whether it's humans controlling machines or machines controlling humans depends on him!"

"Is this first-generation Chen Youfu mentally ill?" Jiang Ping blurted out in excitement, accidentally voicing a forbidden term.

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue stared at him – What did you say? Mentally ill?

Jiang Ping quickly shook his head, "No... what's wrong with him?"

"Delusional disorder," Zhan Zhao tapped the whiteboard behind him. "The first-generation Chen Youfu believed that the machines controlled him and that everything he did was under the machines' control, thinking of himself as a servant to the machines... Doesn't that explain everything?"

Everyone fell silent for a long time – This version seemed more reasonable than the sci-fi one.

"He escaped to transport his 'master'?" Bai Yutang had basically pieced together the reasoning. "So, we didn't capture him earlier because... since he's so loyal to his 'master,' he must have had a backup plan. If he had been caught, he might have arranged for someone to secretly move his 'master.' That would have made it harder for us to investigate. Only by letting him escape could he personally handle the transport."

Zhan Zhao nodded. "That's why he not only sacrificed the equipment from Magic but also gave us the information about the hunters he accumulated over the years, to keep us busy so he could move his 'master' during the chaos."

"Where is that kid now?" Bai Yutang asked.

"Such a large set of equipment would need to be transported by a truck, right?" Zhao Hu thought the target was too big to go unnoticed.

"It's the same logic as dispersing and hiding." Zhan Zhao explained. "The transport is also done piece by piece. Isn't there an underground garage here?"

"Drive out one by one?" Everyone widened their eyes at Zhan Zhao.

"This isn't something you can openly hire people to do, otherwise, many people knowing the new address would make it easier to get caught. The best way is to transport it bit by bit himself," Zhan Zhao said. "Drive a few machines out, unload them, then return to the garage, change vehicles, and go out again... His first step is to gradually load the machines into different vehicles. For one person, this is quite a big task."

As he spoke, Zhan Zhao checked the time and asked Jiang Ping to monitor the surveillance. When they saw cars coming in and out regularly, it meant the person had started moving the equipment, and they could follow him then.

Jiang Ping pulled up surveillance footage near the residential area and found one that captured the exit of the garage.

During this time, no vehicles had entered or exited, indicating they were still in the moving phase.

The group wasn't in a hurry, feeling that the new hideout was more important. Since they were moving, some data might be stored at the new location.

After patiently waiting, Jiang Ping spotted a car driving out, it was an ordinary private car.

Bai Yutang led a group of people in several cars, waiting nearby to follow them after confirming the target.

Jiang Ping switched to the surveillance along the way to track the car.

The car drove to the outskirts and entered an area without surveillance.

Jiang Ping checked the map and found that the area had a group of factories, with plenty of open space.

After a while, sure enough, the same car drove out.

Moreover, a high-definition camera on the road captured the driver's face.

Seeing the photo, everyone felt as if they had seen a ghost – it looked exactly like Chen Youfu.

"Is this really a similar face found through big data?" Zhan Zhao was surprised. "Can they look this much alike?"

"Finding an identical face might be difficult, but finding someone with a similar, especially common, appearance shouldn't be too hard. Adding the same hairstyle and outfit, it's easy to think they're twins or triplets," Jiang Ping tapped on the keyboard, delineating the possible parking area based on the car's speed. He sent the location to the stakeout team, and Bai Yutang assigned Luo Tian and Qin Ou to bring some officers to squat nearby.

Shortly after, the car indeed returned to the residential area and quickly left again.

The group wasn't in a rush, they just watched him move.

Soon, Luo Tian and his team confirmed the new hideout where the equipment was being moved, it was inside a factory.

This first-generation Chen Youfu spent the whole night moving things back and forth.

The tracking team took turns sleeping and found that he hadn't finished moving everything.

"Doesn't he need to rest?" Bai Chi thought he was driving while fatigued, breaking not only the law but also traffic regulations, his points should be deducted.

By noon the next day, Chen Youfu's car stopped at the factory and didn't come out again.

Everyone speculated whether he had finished moving or had passed out from exhaustion.

Bai Yutang quietly surrounded that factory building with the SCI crowd.

Through equipment, they observed the internal structure. In the empty factory, Chen Youfu was assembling computers.

Bai Yutang knocked on the door and led the team inside.

Inside the factory, besides the machines, there were some filing cabinets and a few freezers.

The police officers arrested Chen Youfu and took him away. The mysterious mastermind behind Magic was finally caught.

Ma Han and Zhao Hu opened the file cabinet, finding several documents inside.

Bai Yutang frowned as he stared at the freezers.

Luo Tian and Qin Ou also looked at the freezers and asked, "Could this kid be planning to hide out here for a long time, so he stocked up on food?"

Ma Han and Zhao Hu glanced around, there was no kitchen, so storing so much frozen food seemed pointless compared to stocking up on instant noodles.

Qin Ou tried to lift the lid but found it wouldn't budge.

Looking closer, oh boy– the freezer was locked.

An ominous feeling grew among them.

Bai Yutang nodded at Luo Tian.

Luo Tian yanked the lid, and with a crack, the lock attached to the lid came off.

As the freezer lid opened, Luo Tian immediately turned his head away.

Everyone caught a whiff of a strange smell.

Qin Ou glanced inside with a look of disgust and then closed the lid, shaking his head.

Bai Yutang called Gongsun, asking him to bring the forensics team over.

Soon, Gongsun arrived with his team, accompanied by Zhan Zhao.

Inside the freezer, they found four bodies, and eerily, they all had the same face.

Gongsun was speechless. "This guy really liked that face!"

Bai Yutang also found a lot of documents in the cabinet, all about "high-end users", the criminal levels higher than anyone they had caught before. There were also more detailed records on the case of the woman in red, along with a pile of video discs and projection equipment for the woman in red.

These case records were more detailed, leading the police to arrest a number of people, including some of those involved in the woman in red's original murder case and more gaming customers. It took a while to wrap up the case.

In the end, the computer and a set of server racks were brought back to one of SCI's warehouses.

After Jiang Ping assembled the computer, he turned it on.

At this point, everyone had a small question: was Chen Youfu delusional, controlling the computer to commit all these crimes, or was he truly a servant to an AI, controlled by the machine in a sci-fi scenario?

Initially, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang had lost interest in the case.

Zhao Jue and Bai Ye had long since run away.

However, Zhan Zhao found some time to interrogate Chen Youfu and discovered something... The man indeed showed signs of delusional disorder. 

However, when told he had the disorder, he readily accepted it.

This point caused Zhan Zhao to doubt.

Usually, people with such conditions deny being ill.

Sensing something amiss, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang had Jiang Ping power up the computer.

When the power was connected, the blue lights on the rows of server racks began to flicker. The main computer started, and a witch's bust appeared on the screen.

After waiting a while, nothing happened. The witch seemed like a screensaver, with its black cloak billowing rhythmically as if standing in the wind.

In the darkness of the cloak, half a face was vaguely visible.

Jiang Ping operated the machine but found nothing out of the ordinary.

As a tech geek, he felt a bit disappointed, having hoped to witness some kind of miracle.

After waiting a while longer, nothing miraculous occurred. The entire program showed no signs of self-awareness, it was just a powerful computer with an AI program designed for criminal purposes.

Jiang Ping asked Bai Yutang, "What should we do with this machine?"

Bai Yutang thought it was best to play it safe. "Destroy it..."

Jiang Ping stood up, ready to shut it down.

Just as he reached for the keyboard, he suddenly yelled and stumbled back, knocking over his chair.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, who were about to leave, turned around.

On the screen, the witch suddenly disappeared, replaced by a large emoji... a yellow smiley face.

For some reason, the smiley face that normally looked cute on cell phones looked eerie when magnified.

The computer then emitted a beep... and a blue screen appeared.

"Oh no," Jiang Ping muttered, quickly typing on the keyboard. But the computer seemed out of control, with numerous pop-up windows appearing and then disappearing.

"What's going on?" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked Jiang Ping as they watched the strange scene unfold.

"It seems like the self-destruct program has been activated," Jiang Ping frowned.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao both looked at him – Was it you?

Jiang Ping shook his head.

As Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang watched, all the data was quickly deleted. The screen went black and the machine fell silent... As the machine shut down, the blue lights that were flickering on the surrounding server racks went out.

At that moment, they had an illusion – it was as if a life had been extinguished.

Bai Yutang asked Jiang Ping what was happening.

Jiang Ping scratched his head. "Maybe there's some setting in the program that triggers a self-destruct if an unauthorised person operates it? Or maybe our conversation activated a pre-set voice-triggered self-destruct program."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at Jiang Ping. "So, is this science fiction or normal?"

Jiang Ping hesitated, "Could... could be either."

"So, it might be science fiction?" Zhan Zhao asked tentatively.

Jiang Ping stood the chair back up. "Well... there's less than a thirty per cent chance, unless it comes back to life..."

Just as he finished speaking, a red dot appeared at the bottom of the computer screen and started flashing.

Jiang Ping stepped back, noticed the monitor's plug was still in the socket, and quickly squatted down to unplug it.

Looking again, the flashing red dot disappeared.

In the darkness of the screen, only the reflections of the three people were visible.

Jiang Ping quietly put down the plug and stepped back.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at him. "What are you doing?"

Jiang Ping pointed at the machine. "Let's not destroy it just yet, just leave it here, unplugged and disconnected from the internet."

Zhan Zhao was puzzled. "Why keep it?"

"Well, if an alien civilisation ever invades Earth, it might come in handy!" With that, Jiang Ping ran out of the warehouse, yelling.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged glances. While they thought it was probably just a coincidence, the chill in the air made them uneasy. They decided to leave as well, one of them locking the warehouse door, leaving the mysterious computer in the dark.

Outside, in the bright sunlight, Zhan Zhao stretched and asked Bai Yutang, "Do you want to go somewhere for the long holiday?"

Bai Yutang suggested, "The beach?"

Zhan Zhao nodded. "Great idea..."

As they chatted and returned to the SCI office, the team, having just wrapped up a big case, gathered to discuss holiday plans.

Just then, the elevator doors opened with a ding, and the twins walked in, waving a stack of concert tickets. "Want to see the show tonight? A'Lie and the others' concert starts this evening!"

The group accepted the tickets, and the twins jokingly said, "Haven't you finished your case? With everyone here tonight, maybe a new serial murder will pop up during the concert..."

Before the twin could finish, everyone threw the pillows from their chairs at them – What a bad omen!

Laughing, the twins picked up the pillows and threw them back.

At that moment, the elevator doors opened again, and Zhao Jue and Bai Ye, who had been missing for a few days, walked in.

Zhao Jue stepped over the pillows on the floor, and the twins eagerly offered him a ticket.

Zhao Jue looked at the ticket and asked, "You guys, what are your plans for the long holiday?"

The group chimed in with various answers: "Vacation, relaxing, gaming, dating, going to the beach, spending time with kids..."

Zhao Jue grinned mischievously. "Anyone up for an escape room?"

Everyone looked at Zhao Jue curiously. "Escape room?"

Zhao Jue walked over to the table and pulled out an invitation. "How about a team-building trip? You can have your vacation, relaxation, gaming, dating, beach time, and family time... all in one, plus an escape room."

Everyone looked at the invitation.

The card-sized invitation featured a picture of a beautiful island with a castle on the ocean.

Written on the side were descriptions of various activities and attractions – resort, tropical charm, beach castle, escape room, welcome to Honghui Island.

"Honghui Island?" Ma Xin exclaimed. "That's a super expensive place! It's hard to get a group booking, and private rooms are always fully booked!"

Ma Han and Zhao Hu nodded, Jiayi and Qi Le had also mentioned wanting to visit the island.

"It seems pretty popular," Zhan Zhao recalled reading about it in a magazine.

"I have a friend who runs a guest house on the island and can accommodate all of us," Zhao Jue said. "Want to go?"

Everyone glanced at each other, then looked at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang had no objections and looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao studied Zhao Jue and Bai Ye, trying to gauge the danger level from their expressions.

Zhao Jue waved his hand. "Ai, it's just team-building. Bao Xiao Hei will join too."

"Really?"

Zhao Jue nodded. The team, now excited, looked at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

The two decided that since Bao Sir would be there, it should be just a regular team-building event. Enchanted by the island's beautiful scenery, they all agreed. "Then let's go together!"

———

Author's Note:

The fifth book is finished, and the sixth book is in preparation.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

And with that, volume 5 is done! I have to finish the EPUB still, but it will be up in the next week~ As for volume 6, I am already working on it and should start posting it next week.

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: August 21, 2024 by Angel

Edited: December 31, 2024 by Soojin