His heart surged with shock, but Li Xu forced himself to remain calm.
“Yes, this is the Raven Agency. How can I help you?”
Bai Youyou took out a photograph showing three people standing together.
“Do you recognize them?”
“A few days ago, these three fixers' vital signs disappeared. Based on preliminary investigations, the Association has determined that they have been murdered.
“Every fixer’s life is under the protection of the Association. When something unfortunate happens during the execution of a commission, rest assured, I will investigate this matter thoroughly.”
Li Xu was about to speak when he recalled what that man had said to him earlier.
Having lived in chaotic areas for years, he possessed a keenness that surpassed ordinary people.
This matter was definitely not that simple; it even involved a three-winged investigator.
That was a three-winged investigator!
Even in the more developed hive cities, their status was an existence that stood above the vast majority of people.
Unless this matter truly involved those at the top of the Corrupt Hive City’s power pyramid, he couldn't think of any other possibility that would make a three-winged investigator so concerned.
If a small fry like him wanted to survive, he had to follow the laws of the city; he had to know how to read the room and sniff out the approaching danger in the air.
No matter what it was, he could not allow himself to be pulled into the vortex, or he would end up crushed to pieces.
With that thought, his expression remained unchanged. “I recognize them, but we only met once. They used to live in this alley, but I haven't seen them for several days.”
Bai Youyou seemed a bit surprised. “Is that so...?”
“Were they killed?”
“But Miss Investigator, those three fixers weren't exactly good people.”
“In this slum, they often engaged in illegal organ trading and human trafficking. Many families’ children fell victim to their hands.”
“Actually, people like that are better off dead.”
“Is that so?” Bai Youyou nodded. “Then they indeed deserved to die.”
“If it were me and I knew they did such things, I certainly wouldn't have let them go either.”
It seemed this investigator could still be reasoned with.
Li Xu secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
“However, that has nothing to do with my investigation into the criminal who killed them,” Bai Youyou said. “Can a criminal be forgiven just because they did one right thing?”
“But...”
“All I know is that those criminals are unstable time bombs. If left alone, they will explode.”
“Perhaps they are ‘punishing evil and promoting good’ today, doing the right thing, but can they continue to be right every tomorrow?”
“Heh.” Li Xu suddenly let out a cold laugh.
He looked around at this alley where he had lived for so many years. At the very top layer of the slum, the only place where sunlight could shine directly, there were still countless corners shrouded in shadow.
Every moment, illegal smuggling and organ trading occurred in the shadows. If one walked toward the lower layers, they could see a starved corpse every few steps.
Gangs ran rampant, and various forces were entrenched—mobs, the government, corporations, the Association—pressing down like massive mountains on every person at the bottom, using countless illegal means to extort and plunder, sucking the marrow from people’s bones.
People kneeling in the black market to dig out their own body parts just to fill their bellies were everywhere.
Those living in the darkest regions lived worse than livestock. Male slaves and the girls in the moon shops might not see the sun once in their entire lives.
And this was only what he, a person living in the upper layers of the slum, could see.
He hated idealists like this the most.
They had heads full of empty talk but had never experienced even a fraction of the suffering.
“There is so much crime in this world; why don't you go and arrest those in power as well, Investigator?”
“I’m too lazy to talk to you,” Bai Youyou said. “Before coming here, I investigated your agency. Those three fixers received commissions from you more than once.”
“Regardless of why you want to hide the facts, I don't have time to waste with you.”
“I'll give you one last chance, Li Xu, Director of the Raven Agency. What exactly is your relationship with those three grade 1 fixers?”
“I don't want to use unnecessary means.” Bai Youyou’s eyes changed.
“I’ll say it again, I’m not familiar with them...”
Before he could finish his sentence, Li Xu felt his heart skip a beat. His entire body jerked violently, and countless purple tentacles seemed to crawl from the edges of his irises, shifting and changing.
The girl’s silhouette became eerie, and the world began to spin.
In moments, he collapsed to the ground as countless hallucinations surfaced before his eyes. The sky turned blood-red, and all the white clouds streaked across the horizon as if they had been set on fire.
A shadow fell over Bai Youyou’s face, turning it chillingly cold.
The girl seemed to have suddenly turned into a monster. Countless cracks appeared on the surface of her body, and when they opened, they were clearly rows of hideous eyeballs!
A giant cross fell from the sky, piercing through Li Xu’s chest and pinning his body to the ground.
Before he could figure out what was happening, blazing flames roared up from the cross, as if roasting his very soul. The indescribable burning pain caused his vision to tear:
“AAAAAAHHHHH!!”
Countless chains pierced his body, and his skin tore inch by inch until he was stained bright red, with not a single part of him left intact.
“I’LL TALK!!! I’LL TALK!!”
He howled at the top of his lungs.
“Those three fixers were members of my Raven Agency!”
The scenery before him returned to normal. He was still standing in the same spot. The soul-roasting pain receded, and Bai Youyou appeared before him.
He hurried to check his body and confirmed he hadn't suffered any actual physical damage. Only then did he realize that everything just now was nothing more than a hallucination.
No, it was the ability of this three-winged investigator!
“What did you do?” Li Xu asked, his face pale.
“My profession: Mind Investigator,” Bai Youyou said. “If you don’t want to experience that pain again, tell me everything you know.”
Li Xu swallowed hard. The only thing the girl before him inspired now was terror.
After what just happened, he discarded his previous thoughts. This girl investigator couldn't be reasoned with at all! She was a paranoid lunatic!
That kind of soul-burning agony was something he didn't want to experience a second time for the rest of his life.
That feeling was like having every torture in history inflicted upon him at once, and then having his senses magnified ten thousand times; every second felt like a year.
It was impossible for anyone to withstand that kind of pain. In less than ten seconds, their mind would surely collapse; they would go insane.
“I’ll talk...” Li Xu’s voice was unsteady. “Someone was just here. About one hundred and ninety centimeters tall, a man, very muscular.”
“Mm, continue.”
“He came to find me and said you would be coming here to ask about them. He told me I had to deny any relationship with them...”
“That’s all I know.”
Li Xu seemed to remember something suddenly. He fumbled through his clothes and finally pulled out a yellowed slip of paper, handing it to Bai Youyou.
“Oh right, that person gave me a contact method! He said, said to call him if anything happened.”
Bai Youyou took the paper skeptically. After seeing the handwriting on it, her fingertips suddenly clenched the paper tight, and veins bulged on her hand.
‘Investigator Bai, what a coincidence. Should I say...’
‘Good afternoon?’
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