S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 150

Special Files – Collector 35 – Incompetent

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"Who's the collector?" Bai Yutang didn't quite understand how Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue had found the collector by flipping through the information.

"Tian Ming!"

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue answered in unison.

Bai Yutang, as well as Zhao Hu and Ma Han, who had leaned in to hear the result, were all stunned.

Zhao Hu asked Ma Han, "The name sounds a bit familiar..."

"Was he the specialist in adolescent psychological problems who treated Xiaoxue?" Bai Yutang remembered the name rather clearly, because when Issel had described the details of Xiaoxue's case to them, he had thought that the psychologist's death was rather suspicious.

Bai Yutang had not been suspicious about the case itself, but he had instinctively paid it a bit of attention, purely out of the intuition built up over many years of handling cases.

Tian Ming and his wife had been killed by Xiaoxue and hidden in the tank used for making dried flowers. Xiaoxue had then disguised Tian Ming's disappearance as him transferring to a school overseas, so the bodies had never been found until Xiaoxue was arrested.

The most suspicious point in the case was that it had been too perfect.

Every serial killer has a developmental period; usually, the first case contains the most flaws, and only after gradually gaining experience will their methods become more sophisticated.

But Xiaoxue's first case had been a bit too "perfect".

Yet the process of Xiaoxue's arrest had been far too "imperfect".

To carry out the first case almost as a perfect crime, but to be discovered midway through the last one... such a contrast would make one feel that the two cases had not been committed by the same person.

Based on the progress of the case so far, if Tian Ming had not died back then, it would indeed have been a very good way to "clear his record"...

"Then Xiaoxue's subsequent killings..." Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, "Was she controlled by Tian Ming? Her suicide too? Why did she suddenly kill herself...?"

Zhan Zhao quietly glanced at Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue clicked his tongue, looking rather displeased.

Zhan Zhao handed the documents he was holding to Bai Yutang.

Professor Wu Wen's student group had had quite a long series of conversations with Xiaoxue beforehand, but because the students lacked experience, they had basically been controlled by Xiaoxue.

Xiaoxue had once tried to control the students into letting her go, but she ultimately failed, and then killed herself in a very bizarre manner.

"Did Tian Ming discover it, so he made Xiaoxue kill herself?" Although Bai Yutang didn't understand how it had been done, if Xiaoxue had wanted to escape... that meant she had known she was being controlled. Had she been unable to break free? Why had she not sought help? After all, there had been so many psychiatrists in the T Zone.

"Ai." Zhao Jue sighed, gesturing towards Wu Wen, who was walking at the front surrounded by his students as if to say – I told you he misled his students.

"When Wu Wen chose Xiaoxue as the subject for the students' project, he gave her a drawing test, and Xiaoxue indeed asked for help." Zhan Zhao pointed at several doodles in the corner of the case file, the ones he and Zhao Jue had found. They looked like they had been drawn casually: two clusters of flowers, a woman, and two tanks... all "elements" that had appeared in the cases she had committed.

"Oh..." Bai Yutang understood as well. "When these images are combined, they're all cases she committed... but she drew a woman here and not a man... yet her main targets were clearly male."

"Especially since the flowers, the woman, and the tanks were all there, only the man was missing." Zhan Zhao was so anxious he kept scratching his chin... Wu Wen should have examined these drawing tests carefully, but he hadn't noticed anything at all.

Previously, because there had been too much case material, Zhan Zhao had not looked closely at the teaching material Wu Wen had given him. Zhao Jue had collected a lot of material from an inside source at the university, but he had not examined it either. Yet the moment they flipped through it just now, the two of them immediately made the connection. Although they had already deduced that Tian Ming was likely the collector, Wu Wen, as a professional, had not noticed anything at all... No wonder Xiaoxue had only asked for help once and never left any further messages, choosing instead to control the students to save herself.

"Did Tian Ming kill her because she was about to succeed?" Bai Yutang felt that something didn't quite add up.

But Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue both shook their heads.

"Xiaoxue's escape was probably part of his plan. He might originally have wanted to use her to find that collection, but unfortunately, someone who shouldn't have appeared showed up in the T Zone." Zhan Zhao tilted his head towards Zhao Jue.

Bai Yutang also looked at Zhao Jue, puzzled – Wasn't Tian Ming the one you had recommended to Kalin for treating Xiaoxue? Does that mean you hadn't noticed he had a problem before?

Zhao Jue, for once, looked a little embarrassed. He reached up to scratch his chin and muttered, "Didn't they say fourth-and-a-half generation types were all harmless bookworms... He actually mutated..."

"Hah?" Zhan Zhao turned to look at him. "Tian Ming was fourth generation?"

Zhao Jue made a tiny hand gesture. "Fourth-and-a-half, a transitional type between fourth and fifth generation... Usually anything with a 'half' is harmless."

Both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang stared at Zhao Jue – Why didn't you say this earlier!

Zhao Jue pouted – I told you, half-generation types are basically harmless, this one just turned perverted by himself!

But Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang continued staring him down, refusing to let it go.

Zhao Jue grew annoyed and rolled his eyes at them – Haven't I always been the one with the villain persona? Why are you two still expecting things from me?

"Which teaching assistant is he targeting?" Bai Yutang felt that the priority now was to find the collection that so many parties had their eyes on.

However, when it came to this, both Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue looked a bit troubled.

"Who do you think it is?" Zhan Zhao asked Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue spread his hands – None of them look the part.

Zhan Zhao nodded, he felt the same.

All the way up the mountain, Zhan Zhao had been observing. These students, the two teaching assistants, plus Wu Wen, how to put it... they all seemed completely normal. Judging from how deranged both collectors were, the collector should be some top-grade super-villain. But Wu Wen's students were nothing more than extremely ordinary people.

Thinking of "villains", Zhan Zhao suddenly glanced at Zhao Jue, then took out the documents again and flipped through them, his thoughts beginning to churn... A genius so exceptional that so many criminals would fight over them? Wouldn't that have to be someone like Zhao Jue?

Then Zhan Zhao suddenly remembered something... Years ago, when artificial intelligence had just begun to rise, Wu Wen had once proposed using Zhao Jue's records to train an AI model for teaching and so on, but X University had rejected it.

Zhan Zhao still remembered how the senior professor in charge of X University's psychology department had complained to him at the time, saying Wu Wen couldn't even hold onto a horse yet still wanted to release a dragon, calling him ignorant and fearless... He had cursed him viciously.

But Wu Wen was a man of great ambition but little talent, and exceptionally stubborn. Although he didn't have much ability, he certainly had courage, and he was especially proactive. Could it be that he had actually...

Zhan Zhao counted the number of documents in his hand, which matched the number of students, but the thickness of the material... seemed to exceed what the students were capable of producing.

Zhan Zhao had taught before, and these students already carried heavy academic loads. The psychology department didn't study psychology alone, they had many other modules. With so much data, had it really been produced by just these six students?

Thinking about it the other way round, these students were all very ordinary. Which of them would need Wu Wen to use cases from the T Zone to train and cultivate? Or... were the students merely a cover, and what he truly wanted to train was something else? Then this assessment... who was it actually assessing?

Bai Yutang noticed how unusually quiet Zhan Zhao had become, so he glanced at Zhao Jue beside him.

Zhao Jue was sending messages on his phone. Bai Yutang didn't know whether he was talking to Bai Ye or someone else... but he seemed rather focused.

By this point, they were already close to the top of the mountain, and the small testing cabin was faintly visible.

The students were excited and ready to run up.

Zhan Zhao called one of the students over and borrowed his tablet, saying he wanted to look at their assessment tasks.

The boy handed his tablet to Zhan Zhao. Following the method Jiang Ping had taught him earlier, Zhan Zhao held the tablet against his wristband.

The Luban avatar in the wristband spun in circles, and shortly afterwards, it showed – Implant successful.

Zhan Zhao returned the tablet to the boy, patted Bai Yutang, and climbed down from his back.

At this moment, Bai Yutang's thoughts were simpler: since they had deduced that the collector was Tian Ming, where was he? He was certainly not among the students, but with so many people at the foot of the mountain, it would be difficult to pick him out from the crowd, and he should be using another identity.

While Bai Yutang was thinking this through, Zhan Zhao had his eyes fixed on his phone.

Zhao Jue wandered over, glanced at the screen, and said nothing.

"Oh..."

After reading it, Zhan Zhao suddenly let out a sigh.

Bai Yutang looked at him.

Zhan Zhao muttered, "'Got You,' although right now it's somewhere between artificial intelligence and artificial idiocy..."

Before he finished speaking, a middle-finger emoji popped up on the wristband.

Zhan Zhao curled his lip. "But one day in the future, it might replace the current policing system and become an omnipotent detective."

Bai Yutang looked ahead at the group of students who had already reached the small cabin and were listening to Wu Wen explain the assessment content. He asked Zhan Zhao, "That doesn't really count as a bad thing, does it..."

"It's very difficult for humans to compete with this kind of intelligent system, because it's a dimensionality-reduction attack. In other words, the villains of the future may also be a type of intelligent system."

Bai Yutang was amused by Zhan Zhao and asked, "What system? An intelligent crime system?"

But when Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao after saying this, he found that Zhan Zhao wasn't laughing. Instead, he was looking at him quite seriously.

"Why do you think the collector collected so many criminals?" Zhan Zhao asked. "Personal interest?"

Bai Yutang frowned. "What is he trying to do?"

"These recent account-deletion incidents are the best example of system versus system. Exploiting the bug in the police facial-recognition system to pull off a cicada-shedding-its-shell... it's a business." Zhan Zhao muttered to himself, "Some people want to be the king of solving cases, some want to be the king of war, so there must also be someone who wants to be the king of crime. In today's world, the most important thing is resources. Even the incompetent can become kings if they control the resources... If the top-tier resource is a dragon, then they need vast amounts of lower-tier resources to feed the dragon."

As he spoke, Zhan Zhao handed his phone to Bai Yutang.

On the screen was the 'Got You' interface with a piece of software running, the real-time record of the students' assessment tasks.

That in itself wasn't unusual. Schools rarely use paper for assessments these days, a tablet usually solves everything.

But the problem was...

"The students' every step is scored?" Bai Yutang skimmed through the students' past assessment projects, puzzled. "Who's doing the scoring?"

"This assessment system," Zhan Zhao said with a small smile. "Or rather, the collection the collectors have been looking for."

Bai Yutang was stunned. "You mean the collection the collectors are fighting over isn't an actual person but this assessment system?"

"The assessment system is just a skin." Zhan Zhao shook his head and pinched the corner of Zhao Jue's jacket as he gestured for Bai Yutang to look. "This is the essence of the assessment system, a dragon in the hands of the incompetent."

‿︵‿︵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 12, 2025 by Angel

Edited: January 20, 2026 by Angel