Outside the hospital, Zhao Jin stood in front of a stationery store and picked up a black notebook.
The notebook was over ten centimeters thick, with faint brown patterns on its cover and greyish pages.
Zhao Jin looked at the owner. “I'll take this notebook, and give me two black pens as well.”
“Alright, young man, that will be ninety-six yuan in total!” The owner quickly took out two black pens and looked at Zhao Jin with a smile.
Just as Zhao Jin was about to pull out the money, his movements suddenly paused.
The Destiny Force in his mind had increased.
Destiny Force: 7 wisps
It seems Liu Wen moved very quickly. Although the investment was larger than with Xiang Ping, the return speed far exceeds his, Zhao Jin thought to himself.
He pulled a green thousand-yuan bill from his pocket, handed it to the owner, and turned to leave.
“Young man, I haven't given you your change yet!” Behind him, the owner stared at the thousand-yuan bill in his hand, then at the departing Zhao Jin, and quickly shouted.
“No need. My time is worth more than your change,” Zhao Jin replied without turning his head.
As he walked, he flipped open the notebook and began writing in it.
Xiang Ping
Race: Ghoul
Characteristics...
He wanted to record every existence that provided him with Destiny Force, both for easy reference in the future and to give himself something amusing to do.
“This is Ningcheng TV reporting. Five bodies were discovered this morning in the Yuankou District. The perpetrator's methods were extremely brutal; all the victims' internal organs were forcibly gouged out before their deaths.”
Zhao Jin, who had been writing with his head down, paused in his tracks and turned his head to look at a convenience store to his right.
The convenience store's television was facing outward. On the screen, a young man dressed in black was speaking with a solemn expression.
Pixelated footage of several bodies appeared on the screen as a woman standing next to the young man continued.
“According to the Ningcheng Inspector Bureau, the perpetrator in this case appears to be committing random acts of violence. Citizens residing in the Yuankou District are advised to avoid going out after dark. The Inspector Bureau is currently making every effort to solve this case.”
“Anyone with information regarding the suspect is urged to call 19...”
The convenience store owner was an elderly man. He had been organizing items but was also drawn in by the news.
Staring at the report, he said angrily, “Sigh, the world is truly in chaos. Why is it always us ordinary people who suffer? If that bastard has the guts, he should go kill the bad guys instead!”
Zhao Jin calmly turned his head and continued walking forward. This must be Xiang Ping's doing. However, a mindless monster like that will probably be captured or killed by the authorities soon.
Xiang Ping was merely an experiment to him; he did not expect the creature to accomplish anything grand.
Furthermore, judging by the expressions and words of the Liu father and son earlier, there were likely no supernatural elements in this world, or they were hidden so deeply that even the Liu family, who stood at the peak of Ningcheng, knew nothing about them.
But whether supernatural entities exist will soon be revealed. Once an existence like Xiang Ping clashes with the authorities, those above will definitely send people down, no matter what.
Zhao Jin pondered this as he walked off into the distance.
Afternoon arrived in the East District.
In this area stood a ten-story building, which was none other than the Ningcheng Inspector Bureau.
Slam!
Inside a conference room on the third floor, a middle-aged man slammed the report in his hand heavily onto the table.
“I don't understand why we haven't even found a trace of the killer after all this time! Are you all completely useless?!” a bald, middle-aged man in a black uniform roared in anger.
Seated in the conference room were over a dozen inspectors, all of whom were either leadership figures or elite members of the bureau.
Faced with the chief's fury, not a single one of them dared to make a sound.
It had been nearly nine hours since the case was reported this morning. Aside from finding four victims, they had not uncovered a single trace of the killer.
At this moment, an ordinary-looking inspector in his thirties spoke up. “Chief Wang, there are very few surveillance cameras in the Yuankou District. On top of that, the crime occurred at night, so there are absolutely no eyewitnesses. It's very difficult to locate the killer.”
“It's not entirely hopeless. Didn't we lift the suspect's fingerprints from the scene? If we start a thorough screening centered around the Yuankou District, we might still catch the killer,” a middle-aged inspector said, looking at Wang Pingcheng.
Listening to his subordinates, Wang Pingcheng's face showed a look of helplessness. “How long would such a screening even take? After killing so many people, if I were the murderer, there's no way I'd stay there. I'd probably have fled long ago.”
Knock, knock, knock!
Just then, a knock sounded on the wooden door of the conference room.
Wang Pingcheng frowned slightly. “Come in.”
The door opened, and a young man walked in with a stack of documents, a grim look on his face. “Chief, the number of victims has increased again!”
“What?!” Everyone present was shocked to hear this, not expecting the death toll to still be rising.
The young man placed the documents in front of Wang Pingcheng while addressing the inspectors in the room. “This was discovered in an urban village five kilometers away from the Yuankou District. There are three victims, and their identities are quite unusual—they are fugitives wanted by us.”
“Were they killed using the same method?” asked the ordinary-looking inspector in his early thirties who had spoken first.
Wang Pingcheng picked up the report and scanned it, his expression shifting continuously. “The three fugitives had guns, and there are traces of gunfire at the scene. How on earth did the killer manage this?”
Most importantly, there were no gunshot wounds on the deceased, which meant the killer had braved the gunfire to slaughter the three men.
While he was speaking, the documents had already been distributed to the inspectors present.
“Peng Fei, what do you think?” Wang Pingcheng looked at the young inspector in his early thirties.
This man was the captain of the bureau's criminal investigation unit.
Peng Fei's brow was tightly knit as he read the contents. He glanced around the room and noticed that many of his colleagues were already looking at him.
He stood up and looked at Wang Pingcheng. “If it were just the previous attacks on ordinary citizens, my guess at the time would have been that the perpetrator had some twisted fetish or was a lunatic. However...”
“Captain Peng, however what? Do you have a theory?” an inspector asked curiously.
Even Wang Pingcheng looked at him. If it were only one death a day, he could still suppress the news.
But with so many dying all at once, it had already attracted the attention of higher-ups, putting immense pressure on him.
“I suspect it might be a group crime, and the perpetrators are highly skilled. The fact that they could kill armed fugitives proves this,” Peng Fei stated his theory.
Wang Pingcheng, however, was not satisfied. “What does any of this have to do with finding the killer? After all, there's no surveillance in that area, so even if we have a theory, it's going to be very hard to track them down.”
“I just wanted to remind everyone to be more vigilant if they encounter the killer. Furthermore, I want to lead a patrol tonight, especially around the Yuankou District,” Peng Fei explained.
This kind of random killing was the hardest to handle. Only by increasing patrols and conducting door-to-door inquiries would they have any chance of finding a lead.
Wang Pingcheng pondered his words. After a moment, he looked at everyone. “To catch the culprit and give the public an explanation, everyone will have to work hard tonight. Put in some overtime and patrol the surrounding areas thoroughly.”
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