S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 144

Special Files – Collector 29 – Genuine vs. Counterfeit

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The corpse of "Three Flowers" was clearly right in front of them, yet the AI showed him appearing in the city centre.

Zhan Zhao showed it to Bai Yutang.

"Is it a mistake?" Bai Yutang went to look at Three Flowers' body again. Gongsun had just carried out a preliminary examination, there were no traces of cosmetic surgery, and Bai Ye and Zhao Jue had also said that the man should be real.

"Then is the one running outside a fake?" Zhan Zhao was puzzled. Suddenly, another alert appeared, Three Flowers had also shown up at the stadium on the west side of the city.

But the red dot that had appeared in the east of the city earlier was still there, which meant...

"How are there two Three Flowers at the same time?" Zhan Zhao wondered. "Is there a bug?"

Bai Yutang spread his hands – Who knows? We'll have to go back and ask Jiang Ping.

Zhan Zhao dragged Bai Yutang and ran back, bristling with indignation and muttering, "I told you machines aren't reliable! Of course it won't work properly when its brain's been electrocuted!"

Bai Yutang didn't know whether to laugh or cry. This cat really is vindictive. He just had his moment stolen earlier by 'Got You', and it stayed on his mind...

When they returned to the front of the manor, Zhan Zhao dashed into the surveillance vehicle and showed the alert to Jiang Ping.

Jiang Ping had already seen it and also found it strange. He had just retrieved surveillance footage, and it was fairly clear.

One video was from the commercial district in the centre of S City. A man was walking along a pedestrian street, seemingly shopping. He was caught on camera, and his face looked quite similar to the Three Flowers from earlier, facial recognition also identified him as the same person.

The other video was captured by the surveillance at the entrance of the stadium on the western side of S City. A football match was currently taking place, and Three Flowers should have been one of the spectators... Facial recognition again matched him as the same person.

"They don't look exactly the same, so why is the facial recognition result identical?" Zhan Zhao pointed at the computer screen and asked Jiang Ping. "Is it makeup?"

Jiang Ping rubbed his chin as he examined it and asked the AI, "Got You, run a disguise analysis on the individuals in both captured frames."

The AI began processing the data. The result – Probability of disguise, zero.

Zhan Zhao drew a sharp breath. "What does that mean? They're real people? Two people with identical facial recognition? They don't... look the same!"

The AI provided its conclusion, "The possibility of twins cannot be ruled out."

Zhan Zhao fumed. "How do they look like twins? They're just a bit similar! And besides, there's another one up in the mountains!"

AI continued its conclusion, "The possibility of triplets cannot be ruled out."

"How many triplets are there in the whole country? Aren't you able to look up identities? Go on then, check! Does the birth record list triplets?"

The AI ran another round of analysis. "There is a possibility that the identity information has been tampered with."

Zhan Zhao let out an exasperated laugh. "Isn't it your system that has a bug?! Your data is obviously inaccurate, even the naked eye is more reliable than your electronic eye!"

The AI instantly responded, "Personal attacks rejected!"

"Who's personally attacking you?! It's clearly a machine-body attack."

"You have no manners!"

Bai Yutang and Jiang Ping stood aside, dumbstruck, watching Zhan Zhao argue with the AI.

In the middle of the argument, a new red dot suddenly appeared on the screen, indicating that a fourth Three Flowers had shown up, and he had been caught on camera in a subway station in the neighbouring K City.

"So it's quadruplets then?" Zhan Zhao crossed his arms and asked the AI.

After analysing for a moment, the AI replied, "The possibility of quadruplets cannot be ruled out."

Zhan Zhao pointed at the screen and told Jiang Ping, "Turn it off! It's a waste of electricity! It's an idiot! As stupid as the robot vacuum at home! It can't even dodge a cat and just keeps saying 'Please move aside' to Luban."

A middle-finger emoji immediately appeared on the screen.

Zhan Zhao gave the screen the middle finger in return.

Jiang Ping hurriedly exited dialogue mode. Good grief, if the AI had hands, it would probably be throwing punches by now...

Behind them, Bai Yutang shook his head. If a man–machine war ever broke out one day, it would probably be this cat who started it.

Zhan Zhao stood to the side, stroking his chin as he watched Jiang Ping enlarge and compare the four faces captured by the surveillance cameras.

The high-definition footage was very clear, and it really didn't look as though any of them was wearing a mask.

Jiang Ping looked from the screenshots to the machine, and he, too, felt that Dr Zhan was right. Even the naked eye can tell they didn't look exactly the same, so why does the facial recognition match? Is there really a bug?

Bai Yutang stared at the four different, living versions of "Three Flowers", and by now he could no longer remember what the real one looked like.

Zhan Zhao wasn't actually angry with the AI, he stroked his chin as he looked at the screen. "They're clearly different, yet it insists they're the same, it's like being hypnotised..."

Bai Yutang and Jiang Ping both turned to look at him. "Hypnotised? Can an AI be hypnotised?"

Zhan Zhao smiled. "Artificial intelligence has always mimicked human thinking patterns, hasn't it?"

Jiang Ping nodded.

"The more advanced an artificial intelligence is, the more human it becomes... It can argue with me, so why couldn't it be hypnotised?" Zhan Zhao countered.

While Jiang Ping was still scratching his head, the AI suddenly activated and responded, "This possibility cannot be ruled out."

Jiang Ping frowned at the screen. "Didn't I tell you to exit the dialogue?"

"You told it to exit, I didn't..." Zhan Zhao asked, "Got You, have you detected a similar situation?"

The screen displayed a "Yes", and at the same time, a large number of markers appeared on the map, almost covering the entire city.

"Are all of these Three Flowers?" Jiang Ping exclaimed.

The AI gave a negative response and then displayed a large batch of photographs on the screen, the faces of the "collections" Zhan Zhao had scanned earlier in the warehouse using his wristband, the ones preserved in formalin.

The AI had matched these to the identities of the people on the wanted list.

After its "argument" with Zhan Zhao just now, the AI had applied the same location-tracking method it used for Three Flowers to the heads in the glass jars, and discovered a situation almost identical to Three Flowers'.

Each "collection" was marked with a different coloured dot, and the result was a map full of dots. Some dots of the same colour were even moving simultaneously in different places.

"How could this be?" Jiang Ping found it unbelievable.

The AI ran a rapid analysis, "The likelihood that all of these individuals are triplets or quadruplets is zero. Conclusion – facial recognition system data has been tampered with. Do you want to proceed with a system self-check, upgrade, and recalculation?"

Jiang Ping pressed confirm, and the AI began upgrading.

Bai Yutang thought for a moment, it seemed that Zhan Zhao was teaching the AI a certain way of thinking.

Soon, the system displayed that the upgrade was complete.

The AI placed a "?" mark on all the wanted notices corresponding to the heads in the glass jars and gave the conclusion, "Comparison result uncertain."

Jiang Ping and Bai Yutang exchanged a glance, then both looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao took out a photo of Laughing Bird and had the AI scan and compare it again. The AI was unable to confirm Laughing Bird's identity or location, every result showed "Uncertain".

"Ah..." Jiang Ping grew anxious. "What's going on?"

"It's been hypnotised," Zhan Zhao said with a mischievous smile. "It's much simpler than hypnotising a person."

"How is that possible? Is it that stupid?" Jiang Ping tapped furiously at the keyboard. "You're artificial intelligence, not artificial idiocy..."

And once again, a middle-finger emoji appeared on the screen.

Jiang Ping turned back to look at Zhan Zhao. "Doctor, you've broken Got You!"

Zhan Zhao shook his head. "Try using an ordinary person's photo."

Jiang Ping did as he was told and found the function worked normally. He then tried photos of other criminals from the police database and those from the wanted notices, none of them had any issues.

"Huh?" Jiang Ping was baffled.

Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, "What's going on?"

"The collection..." Zhan Zhao smiled. "Most of the 'collections' displayed in museums aren't real, they're replicas."

Jiang Ping seemed to understand. He turned back to the computer, where the AI was still processing.

Before long, it listed several rows of names, each category marked in a different colour.

"This is..." Jiang Ping examined it carefully and finally understood. "Facial recognition mainly depends on facial data. How can all of these people have identical data? In theory, no two people should be the same... Moreover, they only looked similar, not identical... How can there be so many?"

"How is that possible?" Bai Yutang asked.

Jiang Ping frowned. "Someone tampered with the data... but because Dr Zhan made the AI notice the problem, it sorted out all the similar cases." Jiang Ping began counting how many groups there were...

Suddenly, a table popped up on the screen.

"Huh?" Jiang Ping felt that it looked familiar, it was the table he had compiled earlier, showing the patterns among the victims related to Laughing Bird. All the victims' names appeared within the grouped lists...

After that, the AI began computing again.

Bai Yutang asked, "What is it doing?"

"Didn't it just upgrade? Jiang Ping said. "It's fixed the bug and is re-running the comparisons."

Soon, the results displayed: only three of the heads in the glass jars perfectly matched their wanted notices, and Han Li's father was one of them. The rest, including Laughing Bird, did not match the wanted notices or the archived photos. And those identical "lookalikes" caught on the street earlier had all disappeared from the system.

"So Laughing Bird isn't dead?" Bai Yutang frowned. "What about Three Flowers?"

"There's no matching data for Three Flowers, and no original photographs," Jiang Ping said.

"And among the lookalikes caught on surveillance just now, were there any that matched the wanted notice?" Bai Yutang asked.

Jiang Ping shook his head. "The search shows none. It's now expanding the search range, not just geographically, but temporally as well. It may take a bit of time."

After waiting patiently for a while, the AI finished all comparisons, and it had not found a single match.

"That's bizarre. So many people that look similar, and not one of them matches?" Jiang Ping couldn't understand. "They can't all be dead, right? Or all in hiding?"

On the screen, the AI answered – Both possibilities are extremely unlikely.

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment. "Even if the ones on display are all counterfeits, the genuine ones wouldn't be placed casually. They'd likely be kept safely stored away."

Bai Yutang couldn't quite make sense of it. "Why kill so many people and then tamper with the system to make forgeries? What's the point? If it's to let the real culprit shed their identity, then the culprit already has a new identity, why not use it?"

"There's only one possibility," Zhan Zhao said. "The genuine ones may be alive."

"Alive? So they're all being held somewhere?" Bai Yutang frowned. "Doesn't that mean we need to find a whole prison?"

"It would be extremely difficult to hide so many dangerous individuals, keep them from escaping, and avoid being discovered... unless there's an uninhabited island."

As soon as Zhan Zhao finished, the AI immediately listed a series of coordinates for possible uninhabited islands, which made Zhan Zhao laugh.

Bai Yutang nudged him – Cat, stop teasing the AI. We've got no solid leads in this case, and so many people have died...

"The killer seems to enjoy collecting serial killers," Zhan Zhao said. "And he himself is a serial killer."

"But this whole operation is massive, it doesn't feel like something one person could execute." Bai Yutang asked, "Could it be an organisation? Is it related to white label?"

"An organisation with an obsession for collecting?" Zhan Zhao blinked and rubbed his chin. "You know... maybe it really could be some kind of society of like-minded enthusiasts."

Bai Yutang and Jiang Ping both widened their eyes, this was getting more and more absurd...

"At the moment, we can only start from two angles," Zhan Zhao said. "First, tampering with facial recognition, not everyone can do that, right?"

Jiang Ping nodded. "Yes, you'd need the technical skills and the access privileges!"

"So there's a mole?" Bai Yutang sighed – Back to hunting for moles again, and he felt annoyed just thinking about it.

"And the second angle?" Bai Yutang asked.

Zhan Zhao waved the photo in his hand. "Laughing Bird!"

‿︵‿︵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: December 3, 2025 by Angel

Edited: December 4, 2025 by Angel