Fourth Perspective
“I die every night and revive again the next morning.”
—Dialogues of the Carmelites, Francis Poulenc
“China currently has a total of 20,035 users and according to the User Committee’s observation of all the existing logic skills, as well as the information in ‘Grow Some Brains’ APP manually entered by the users themselves, a total of 1318 users have logic skills that are related to ‘necks’.
“Among them, there are 177 users that are related to ‘broken necks’.
“According to the rankings in the ‘Grow Some Brains’ APP’s leaderboard—
“The first, B04, is a level three user ‘Surfing Scum Bag’. Logic skill: If surfing, waves, or beach related elements appear within a radius of 50 meters with the affected party as the center and the other party does not reject the love of ‘Surfing Scum Bag’ within those 50 meters, then they enter ‘Surfing Scumbag’s’ logic skill…
“The second, B388, level three user ‘Knocking on the Wall’…”
The tanned man took out a thick stack of documents and spoke quickly in the examination room on the first floor of the hospital.
Zhao Hen just came from Zhongudu City’s User Committee, bringing with him five team members from the extermination team and the information the User Committees from all over China had complied urgently.
There were more than twenty thousand users in China and 177 of them had logic skills where ‘broken necks’ had appeared on, in their causes, results, or forking points.
177, this number was too big.
Wang Tao’s expression became cold and he snatched the file from Zhao Hen’s hand.
Zhao Hen’s voice stopped.
Wang Tao quickly looked through the file. He took out his phone and made a call: “There is too much useless information. Li Xiaoxiao, let your people filter out the 177 people to only those who’ve been to Zhongdu or Haidu City!”
There was a brief moment of silence on the other end.
Li Xiaoxiao: “Okay, but there might be some users who have come to Zhongdu or Haidu City secretly.”
Wang Tao: “Find the ones that have definitely come, first. We’ll talk about the secret ones when it comes to it.”
“Okay.”
Not wasting any time, Wang Tao divided the information into seven groups. 177 people, so about 25 user profiles each. He gave these profiles to Zhao Hen’s group of six. As for the last group, Wang Tao paused for a second, then looked at Xiao Jinyu, and seriously placed it into his hand.
“Among these 177 people, perhaps one of them is the head-picking murderer.
“What we have to do now is the find the logic skill that is most similar to Chu Wenting’s head-picking incident.”
The team members shouted in unison: “Yes!”
Wang Tao looked at Xiao Jinyu: “You’re very strong, Xiao Jinyu. I hope you can help look as well.”
“Alright.” Taking the information distributed by Wang Tao, Xiao Jinyu nodded slightly and looked through it.
If Wang Tao didn’t take the initiative to invite him, Xiao Jinyu would have also thought of a way to join. He had to know what this logic skill had to do with his mom.
The 177 files given by the User Committee were definitely incomplete.
No user would fill out every aspect of their logic skill on the ‘Grow Some Brains’ APP. Concealing their logic skill is something every user does.
Of course, these files also included what the User Committee had privately observed of the user. That is to say, even if the user did not fill out that their own information was related to the ‘neck’ but was observed by the User Committee on some task, then it would be recorded down.
This would then greatly improve their accuracy.
But when he was in the coffee shop in Haidu City, Xu Qi said that if he wasn’t at level three, then the User Committee wouldn’t invest too much energy into observing his logic skill.
In China, there were only slightly more than eight thousand users above level three.
This means that there were still more than ten thousand users who were not observed by the User Committee.
However, they were now treating a dead horse like it was a live one.
At least this head-picking logic skill’s user should be very strong. Their only hope was that they had already reached level three and had been observed by the User Committee.
Xiao Jinyu quickly looked through the files.
Ten minutes later, Wang Tao’s phone rang again.
Li Xiaoxiao, the director of the maintenance department of the Zhongdu User Committee, whispered in a concise and experienced manner: “Filtered out twenty-three users who have come to Zhongdu or Haidu City in the past year. Captain Wang, the information has already been sent to your APP, please check it. In addition… there’s something else.”
Wang Tao: “Hm?”
This robust Captain was standing next to Xiao Jinyu and hearing Wang Tao’s questioning tone, Xiao Jinyu subconsciously looked at him.
Zhongdu City’s User Committee, Maintenance Department.
In the moving crowd, Li Xiaoxiao held her phone in one hand and a thin piece of paper in the other. She looked at the black and white photo of a man in the top right corner of the paper, her eyes complex and thoughtful.
This was a malicious-looking man. Because of his eyebrows being furrowed all year long, there were three deep wrinkles. He had a cold aquiline nose and a pair of downturned triangular eyes, and through the photo, those apathetic eyes seemed creepy, producing a mean and distant impression from the depth of the heart.
“My subordinates found a logic skill that conforms with this head-picking incident. All parties that enter this logic skill will have two different ‘results’. First, the user removes the head of the other party and the other party dies; second…
“The other party can take off their own head themselves, and then they die.”
Wang Tao froze and before he could ask, Li Xiaoxiao continued: “Captain Wang, this person was also used to be a Zhongdu City user.”
“Who is it?”
Li Xiaoxiao was silent for a long time.
“Li Xiaoxiao?”
“‘Pope’s Crown’.”
A minute later.
In the examination room, everyone received a copy of a user’s profile in their ‘Grow Some Brains’ APP.
[User ID: Pope’s Crown]
[Logic Level: Three]
[Logic Skill: All physically and mentally pure parties that enter this logic skill’s logic factor’s scope of influence and say a certain phrase, are considered to have entered the logic skill.
*It was not ascertained which phrase it was but after twenty-three observations whenever the user ‘Pope’s Crown’ used persuasive language, it was found that he must hold a conversation with the target before each use of his logic skill, but a repeating phrase was never found.
After entering the logic skill, the target or ‘Pope’s Crown’ can pull off the target’s head.
If the head is not pulled off, the target can live like normal and would not be able to notice the abnormality of their neck being broken.
But after twelve hours, if ‘Pope’s Crown’ still hasn’t pulled off the target’s head, the target will pull off their own head themselves and make a sacrificial pose, holding their head up high, kneeling on one knee, and face the direction where ‘Pope’s Crown’ is located.]
Pull off their heads themselves…
If they don’t pull off their head, they can live normally and won’t notice the abnormality of their neck being broken…
Seeing the words on the file, Zhao Hen hurriedly looked up: “Captain, isn’t this the logic skill we’re looking for?!”
Wang Tao didn’t respond, his expression turning bad.
Zhao Hen realized the abnormality: “That’s not right, all the people who were killed by ‘Pope’s Crown’, even if ‘Pope’s Crown’ didn’t move, they all still pulled off their head after twelve hours. But a lot of time has passed already, much more than twelve hours. Doesn’t that mean that it’s not ‘Pope’s Crown’ that’s killing people?”
Wang Tao: “Don’t pay too much attention to ‘Pope’s Crown’, just use him as a reference.”
A team member interrupted: “Captain?”
Wang Tao: “The maintenance department didn’t mention ‘Pope’s Crown’s user ranking. Zhao Hen, under which circumstances will the User Committee ignore the user’s ranking and not provide it?”
Zhao Hen froze.
This was something Xiao Jinyu didn’t know. He was extremely curious. He’s heard Qi Simin talk about the user information of White Garden and Xu Qi talk about the information on Wind Blowing Fart and Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf and they all mentioned the other’s user ranking.
But the information sent over this time didn’t include Pope’s Crown’s user ranking.
Zhao Hen’s happy expression from finding the information quickly darkened. “After three days after the user’s death, the ‘Grow Some Brains’ APP will clear the user’s account by itself and no longer give the user a ranking.”
After three days?
The examination room fell into a dead silence.
After the shock, Xiao Jinyu quickly calmed down. He analyzed: “Three days is enough. ‘Pope’s Crown’ died three days ago, before he died he might’ve secreted promoted to level five and hid underground, causing him to be undetected by Polluter 004. Dirt can block radiation and can also block pollution from polluters. Of course, this is just my speculation, I don’t know if it’s accurate, maybe hiding underground would prevent the fact that you’ve been promoted from being detected by the ‘Grow Some Brains’ APP. Once ‘Pope’s Crown’ advances to level five, he can change the ‘result’ of his logic skill and the maximum survival time of the target may exceed twelve hours.”
First, use dirt to block 004’s detection so that the level data of Pope’s Crown on the ‘Grow Some Brains’ APP wouldn’t be updated. Then, quickly and quietly advance to level five and change his logic skill to be more powerful…
This all sounded unimaginable and was very difficult to achieve, but if Pope’s Crown really did all of this, he really would seem like the culprit behind this head-picking incident.
However, faced against Xiao Jinyu’s analysis, Wang Tao’s heart was full of admiration, yet his expression stayed heavy.
“What you said was very reasonable. Xiao Jinyu, what you guessed was correct. Dirt can block the magical effects of polluters to a degree. The Logic Research Institute has experimented before, as long as the person hides 1018 meters underground, Polluter 004 will have a lot of difficulty detecting. But ‘Pope’s Crown’ did not die three days ago.”
Wang Tao shook his head in disappointment, looking at Xiao Jinyu: “The former B26, ‘Pope’s Crown’, was confirmed dead half a year ago due to a logic skill collapse. He died in his apartment in the Xiaoqiu Community, where he lived for many years. His body was also verified to be his. After he died, it just so happened that Qi Simin and Li Xiaotong, the ones you know, took on the task of checking whether his collapsed logic skill turned into a logic factor storm and collecting any logic factors left in the air.”
After a moment, Wang Tao: “Li Xiaoxiao has already sent the task report Qi Simin and Li Xiaotong wrote, over.”
Everyone’s phones rang again.
Xiao Jinyu opened it and looked.
[C Rank Task
Kjrx Pcobgwjalbc: Jifjc eq atf ibulm ojmabgr ifoa yftlcv ys j ifnfi atgff erfg. Ktf erfg gjcxfv jybnf D100 yfobgf tlr vfjat tjr jigfjvs yffc mbcolgwfv ys atf Itbcuve Jlas’r Szafgwlcjalbc Kfjw ab tjnf vlfv ogbw j ibulm rxlii mbiijqrf, sfa tf vlv cba rtbk rlucr bo ublcu bea bo mbcagbi jcv qbiiealcu. Ktf mifjcfg cffvr ab ub ab atf rmfcf jcv mbiifma atf erfg’r ibulm ojmabgr jcv mbcolgw ktfatfg j ibulm rabgw tjv bmmeggfv.
Task Reward: 15,000 Cash, 50 Contribution points.
Prerequisites: Level two or higher user.]
[Task Report
Task Objectives:
Collect all residual logic factors, completed;
*This level three user ranks above B100 but the collected logic factors are only about the amount of a level two user’s or a top-level level one user’s residual amount.]
Qi Simin elaborated on the abnormal findings at the end of the task report.
Three days later, Zhongdu City’s Logic Research Institute replied to Qi Simin’s findings and completely sealed the task.
[For the C Level task “Collection of ‘Pope’s Crown’s Logic Factors”, the logic factors collected were relatively low and the following reasons are given:
‘Pope’s Crown’ has less logic factors because it was naturally consumed when the logic skill collapsed.
This is normal.]
Putting his phone down, Wang Tao looked at the silent people in the examination room and muffledly said: “‘Pope’s Crown’s corpse was personally confirmed by me half a year ago. I can confirm that his logic skill didn’t go out of control and wasn’t polluted. I can also confirm… that when he died, he was at level three.”
They were back at square one again.
The Third Examination Room.
Wu Yuan and Officer Wang waited anxiously.
The bright and wavering light shone on the young police officer’s tanned neck and Officer Wang’s mind couldn’t help but wander. The scene of Chu Wenting holding her head in her hands came into his mind. Chu Wenting’s miserable smile when she died couldn’t be forgotten by Officer Wang for a long time.
He didn’t dare think that Xiao Wu’s neck was broken.
How could it be broken?
There wasn’t a single opening on Xiao Wu’s neck and because he was young, there weren’t any wrinkles to be seen either.
Xiao Wu was definitely different from Chu Wenting, his neck was certainly not broken!
He was just thinking when the door to the examination room suddenly opened.
Wu Yuan and Officer Wang froze and they both looked out the door. Seeing Xiao Jinyu, Wu Yuan let out a breath. After all, Xiao Jinyu was an expert he had met before, so there was a sense of security, just like when he had just come to the hospital and seen Brother Wang, he was more at ease.
“Expert, what is the situation now? If there’s anything I need to do, I’ll do it!” Wu Yuan walked to the front.
A total of two people had entered the examination room. One was Xiao Jinyu and the other was Zhao Hen.
Xiao Jinyu pursed his lips: “We cannot determine how this ‘illness’ is transmitted or its cause of death right now.”
“I’ve said before, I can try and be like Chu Wenting and pull my head off!”
Zhao Hen suddenly opened his mouth: “Are you really willing to conduct this experiment?”
Wu Yuan said with difficulty: “I’m willing.”
“But maybe when the experiment starts, you’ll die. You can ask the officer behind you, he personally saw Miss Chu die.” Xiao Jinyu quietly looked at the small police officer in front of him.
But Wu Yuan didn’t even think: “I’m a police officer, if I don’t volunteer, should I let others volunteer? And have any new patients been found yet?”
No new patients have appeared.
Wu Yuan looked at the silent expressions on the two people in front of him and he clenched his fist: “Experts, this is what I should do.”
Wu Yuan’s voluntary action was the only good news at present.
The User Committee mobilized their forces to find all the logic skills related to ‘broken necks’ in China and also contacted those users; on the other hand, they searched for other victims with similar symptoms in Zhongdu City, Haidu City, and even in the entire country.
At the same time, at the hospital doors, the tall body of an extermination team’s Captain stood at the foot of the steps, and from the darkness of the night emerged a short woman in a black robe.
Xiao Jinyu accompanied the police officer, Wu Yuan, in waiting in the Third Examination room.
Officer Wang was asked to leave temporarily and Wu Yuan sat nervously in the plastic chair, not knowing what experiment he was going to face. Perhaps in the next second, he would die, but for now, he has to sit here. This was a mission, he can’t run away.
“Click, clack—”
Heavy footsteps came from outside the door.
Xiao Jinyu was slightly stumped and he closely listened to the footsteps. With the dull footsteps of Captain Wang, was another light voice.
The two footsteps came closer and closer.
“Click—”
The door to the examination room was pushed open from the outside.
Xiao Jinyu and Wu Yuan looked up.
Wang Tao stood outside the door, his solemn gaze falling on the young police officer who was sitting up straight. After a white, he said: “This is the hypnotist who will hypnotize you. Later she will make you think that your neck is broken. I need to emphasize once again that her hypnosis is very deep, at that time, you will think that your neck is really broken.”
Wu Yuan looked at the girl in the black robes.
“I know!”
Wang Tao’s expression was complicated: “Officer number 0071442, Wu Yuan, do you confirm that you know what task you are about to carry out and do you know what you will be facing? At present, we do not know how this illness transmits, perhaps you don’t have to pull your head off and all you have to do is ‘realize your neck is broken’ in order to die!”
Wu Yuan: “I know! The expert has told me and has emphasized it three times already.” He looked at Xiao Jinyu, then looked back at Wang Tao, his eyes firm and unshakable: “Please start the experiment.”
“Then you have to know that my hypnosis is irreversible~.”
A crisp voice sounded and under the black robe, the girl raised her quick-witted eyes, looking curiously at the little police officer in front of her.
Xiao Jinyu asked: “What does ‘irreversible’ mean?”
Her gaze paused and the black-robed girl looked up at Xiao Jinyu. Four eyes faced each other. After a moment, she looked at the dazed police officer again: “Irreversible means that, from now on, even if you don’t die today, for every day after today you will think that your neck is broken. If you look in the mirror, your neck in the mirror is broken; if you touch it, your hand will also tell you that it’s broken. You will try smelling and your sense of smell will tell you that there is a slight smell of blood. Your head and shoulders are no longer together.
“Such hypnosis… are you ready?”
Wu Yuan stood foolishly where he was.
After a few seconds.
“Ready!”
The girl slightly froze, then smiled lightly.
November 19th, 2046. Zhongdu City, overcast.
At six in the morning, the gray fog spread the chill of the morning. The faint morning light peaked through the heavy morning fog as if a flashlight was faintly visible in the thick night. Part of it was illuminated, and the area around it was deep darkness.
At six-fifteen, Xu Qi walked out of Zhongdu City’s subway station.
The User Committee member had been waiting outside the station for a long time.
This vice-captain of Haidu City’s Extermination Team rushed to the hospital as quickly as possible. When Xu Qi ran into the examination room, he was out of breath.
As soon as he arrived, he placed the large file of information onto the table while discreetly pulling out the pearl necklace pollutant from his arms.
Xu Qi glanced at the clock on the wall.
It was exactly 7:01.
“All the relevant information and evidence in Meat King’s case are all here. The body of Meat King is still frozen in Haidu City’s Logic Research Institute, to study the pearl necklace’s killing method. But last night, they’ve already made some progress.”
Xu Qi began to talk about what Haidu City’s Logic Research Institute had discovered.
First, was Meat King’s cause of death.
Meat King died of a logic skill suspected to be ‘Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf’. But ‘Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf’, Wang Tao was long dead. He can’t come back from the dead to kill Meat King. According to the investigation of the Logic Research Insititute, the truth is likely to be what Zhang Haixiang said: Wang Tai suddenly advanced before his death and became a level four user. The despair from dying made his logic skill go out of control and this out-of-control logic skill hadn’t had the time to mess around and pollute anything before it polluted Zhang Haixiang’s polluter—the pearl necklace.
The out-of-control ‘Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf’ and the pearl necklace. One was an out-of-control logic skill that can contaminate people and the other was a polluter that also had a polluting effect.
Surprisingly, the two reached some sort of equilibrium with each other.
The out-of-control ‘Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf’ was tied to the pearl necklace and the special effect of the pearl necklace polluter was changed from a single effect of ‘slightly changing the logic skill of a person’ to an additional effect of: killing.
“In the past, when Wang Tai used ‘Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf’ to kill people, he had to make the other party make contact with him multiple times. But when Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf and the pearl necklace combined, the ‘cause’ was changed.” Xu Qi sighed and explained: “The ‘cause’ of its killing changed to becoming the owner of the necklace!”
No one would have thought that the way Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf killed people was actually: “become the necklace’s owner”.
Haidu City’s Logic Research Institute spent a week of sleepless research and found in an experiment with twelve death row inmates that once someone became the owner of the pearl necklace, they would be hanged by Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf after twelve hours.
Their cause of death was exactly like Meat King’s.
Perhaps when Wang Tai contaminated this pearl necklace, he wanted to kill Zhang Haixiang, who killed him. He believed that Zhang Haixiang was the owner of this necklace, so to kill the owner would mean killing Zhang Haixiang.
But he would have never thought that his out-of-control logic skill would think that ‘the one who offers the money in a transaction would be the owner’.
Every person who ‘bought’ the pearl necklace from Zhang Haixiang’s hands, as long as there was a money transaction, was invisibly locked on by Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf and killed.
Xu Qi: “This is the truth behind Meat King’s case. But what cannot be explained is the fissure in Meat King’s neck after his death. This had nothing to do with Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf or the pearl necklace.”
The broken neck had nothing to do with Meat King’s case and was instead closely linked to the head-picking incident in Zhongdu City.
Xu Qi concluded: “This is the information I brought. How is it going on your side?” He looked at Zhao Hen and Xiao Jinyu. He wasn’t familiar with Wang Tao, but with Zhao Hen and Xiao Jinyu, he had already met them, so he subconsciously asked the two.
Haidu City’s Logic Research Institute had already identified the killing method of the pearl necklace, this was an unexpected gain that surprised everyone.
However, this also proved that the head-picking incident had nothing to do with the pearl necklace.
Compared with the information found in Haidu, there wasn’t much progress on Zhongdu City’s side. After all, Chu Wenting’s head-picking incident had only happened for six hours and they were still groping around in the dark.
But it wasn’t like there weren’t any findings.
Zhao Hen: “We have determined the head-picking logic skill’s killing method.”
Xu Qi: “Hm?!”
Zhao Hen: “It’s head picking.” This sentence alone seemed like nonsense, but Zhao Hen quickly explained: “It’s known that the victim’s necks have been broken since long ago, but this wound cannot be found by the naked eye or by any machines and the victim can also live normally afterward. As for what caused her to stop living normally and die suddenly, there were two possibilities—
“First, pull off the head; second, realize that the neck was broken.”
Zhao Hen continued: “We found A77, ‘Dreamer’.”
Xu Qi was surprised: “You guys actually got Dreamer? Wait, I understand now. You guys wanted to let ‘Dreamer’ create an illusion and let a victim who had entered the logic skill but hasn’t died yet, ‘see’ that his neck was broken?”
Xu Qi directly guessed correctly and he asked: “Is this test subject… still alive right now?”
If the test subject was dead, then that means that there is no need to remove the head. As long as the subject realized their neck was broken, they would die.
If the test subject was still alive, then that proves that the head must be removed for the logic skill to be completed.
“He’s still alive.” Xiao Jinyu’s clear and calm voice sounded.
Xu Qi opened his mouth: “So that means the head must be pulled off.”
If they look for logic skills related to broken necks, then they would find the murderer.
If they look for people who feel like their heads were always teetering, they would find the victims.
The former looked for the murderer until noon, yet the User Committees in China found nothing. The most similar logic skill was ‘Pope’s Crown’, but ‘Pope’s Crown’ died half a year ago. People cannot be resurrected from the dead and his ashes were still lying in his grave.
The latter looked for victims and half a day later, there wasn’t any effect.
The stepdaughter said “little aunt is strange” so many times, yet Chu Wenting didn’t realize her neck was broken.
After being brought to the hospital, if he hadn’t personally seen the surveillance video of Chu Wenting’s death, Wu Yuan wouldn’t have believed that his neck was broken.
They really were unaware.
The body itself sometimes seems to catch its head subconsciously, but just like breathing, this behavior was deeply ingrained in the depths of the body. The body can act unconsciously, but the brain wouldn’t detect it.
This created a huge resistance against the User Committee, who were trying to find potential victims.
In addition to finding the murderer and victims, everyone also began to look for similarities between Meat King, Chu Wenting, and Wu Yuan.
Xu Qi brought all the surveillance footage of Meat King, starting from three days before his death, from Haidu. The security footage from his home, the company, and the coffee shop to the road were all brought the Zhongdu.
Spending an entire afternoon, they watched all of the footage from Meat King’s company. Xu Qi then clicked opened the two videos from the coffee shop.
“November 10th, at nine-thirteen, fifteen seconds in the morning…” Xu Qi said as he adjusted the video to the correct time, “Here. Meat King entered the coffee shop.”
Everyone there looked up.
In the black and white shot, a huge body leaned to the side and entered the coffee shop. Meat King walked over to a table by the window and pulled out a chair. A waiter quickly stepped over and inquired about his order. There weren’t any sounds in the video, but Xiao Jinyu knew that he ordered a latte.
He ordered a cup of coffee and sat by the window for a long time.
Xiao Jinyu quietly watched him.
At exactly ten, Meat King suddenly stood up and walked to the bathroom.
Xu Qi explained: “At the agreed time, Zhang Haixiang passed in through the back window and was already waiting in the bathroom. Meat King went to go see him.”
After five minutes, Meat King left the bathroom and lowered his head to wash his hands.
Everything was still reasonable.
After drinking coffee for another ten minutes, the large man silently sat by the window.
10:15:03.
Meat King stood up and walked to the front desk.
He went to pay.
There were two cash registers at the front desk of the coffee shop and Meat King was standing by the one on the inside. He took out a card from his wallet and handed it to the cashier.
Xu Qi had already seen this recording three times.
For users who had an excellent memory and observation skills, three times wasn’t a small number. Every move of Meat King was incredibly familiar to him.
Xu Qi said: “Soon, a group of nuns will enter the coffee shop.” Just as he finished talking, four, five young women dressed as nuns walked into the coffee shop. They stood in front of the outside register and several of them talked as they ordered directly from the front desk. Obviously, they weren’t going to sit down, just planning to take their coffee and leave.
Xu Qi: “The day after Meat King’s incident, I sent someone to check the Catholic church where those nuns were from and there weren’t any problems. They often came to this coffee to get coffee, after all, no one ruled that nuns couldn’t drink coffee.”
Saying this, he seemed to have realized something. He thought: so that bell tower belonged to this church…
The coffee shop where Meat King and Zhang Haixiang agreed to meet was close to Haidu’s Subway Station. Around the corner from the coffee shop was a Catholic church.
Xu Qi’s sense of direction wasn’t very good and it was only now that he connected the Catholic church with the bell tower he had seen early this morning.
In the black and white, soundless scene.
Meat King paid the bill and left, pausing on the steps of the door.
Xu Qi continued: “This is the second surveillance angle of the coffee shop and only the legs of Meat King can be seen. Later, we watched from the road surveillance. Meat King paused for two seconds to get his car keys.”
The video switched and the group looked at the road surveillance.
Everything was exactly as Xu Qi said. After getting his car keys, Meat King walked to the Lamborghini on the side of the road.
Soon, the car started and left.
Zhao Hen: “When Meat King left, did two of the nuns leave too?”
Xu Qi nodded: “Yes. A total of five nuns came to the coffee shop and after they ordered their coffee, two of them went back to the church, leaving three of them at the coffee shop.” He said this very clearly since this information had been found by Haidu’s Extermination Team almost immediately after Meat King’s incident had happened.
“When Meat King was paying, he seemed to have glanced at the nuns for a second?” Xiao Jinyu suddenly spoke.
Xu Qi looked at Xiao Jinyu. Meat King only glanced at the nuns for a short moment, less than half a second, but Xiao Jinyu was able to notice it. The level four user, Xu Qi, also didn’t ignore it.
“He glanced at them.” Xu Qi said, “But there aren’t any problems. If I met a group of nuns outside, I’ll also look at them for a moment longer.”
Everyone nodded.
Indeed, when you see a group of nuns on the street in China, normal people would look at them in surprise. This wasn’t strange.
Xiao Jinyu slightly bowed his head in thought. He also agreed with Xu Qi’s point of view, it was very reasonable.
Xiao Jinyu’s mind kept repeating the scene of Meat King in the coffee shop and it really seemed that there wasn’t anything unusual. They had already dug into all the abnormalities they found, which was Zhang Haixiang, who had hid in the bathroom and wasn’t caught by the surveillance.
Xu Qi was just about to change the surveillance video.
Suddenly, Xiao Jinyu’s pupils shrank and he looked up: “Wait, replay the scene just now.”
Xu Qi froze, then glanced at Xiao Jinyu: “Alright.” He replayed the footage of Meat King paying the bill.
Xiao Jinyu’s eyes were wide-open and he leaned into the computer: “Right, this second. Replay it.”
The young man’s nervous and focus appearance made Xu Qi’s heart waver. He controlled his expression and hurriedly asked: “What did you find?”
“Look here!”
Xiao Jinyu pointed to the top of the nun’s heads.
As an ordinary coffee shop, they certainly won’t get professionals to arrange their camera positions so there would definitely be blind spots. The cash register the nuns were located was one of them. In the video, you can see the cashier collecting the money, not letting them steal, but you cannot see the faces of these nuns.
The video missed their faces and only caught the top of their heads.
Meat King was 180 centimeters tall and his face was completely shown.
“When Meat King looked at the nuns, three of the nuns also turned and looked at him.”
So it was this! Xu Qi smiled: “I also noticed this. My team happened to find one of the nuns. She had an impression of Meat King. She said that was because Meat King was a big man of more than two hundred jin, so when she was buying her coffee, she looked at him in curiosity.”
“DId your team ask all three of them?”
Xu Qi froze: “No. Two of them were on vacation that day.”
The action of turning one’s head was very normal in Xu Qi’s eyes. After all, the shape of Meat King was indeed a bit burly in the eyes of ordinary people. Just as Meat King would look at the nuns, the nuns might also be curious about the man who was as wide as three people.
There might not be any discriminatory views, but subconsciously looking was also a common action of people.
Xiao Jinyu didn’t answer. He took the mouse and watched the half second scene of them turning their heads, five times, watching each frame in detail.
Suddenly, he stopped.
“Of the three nuns, this one!”
“Which one?”
Xu Qi and Zhao Hen immediately extended their necks and looked at the head Xiao Jinyu was pointing at.
This nun was so short that they couldn’t see her face and could only see the top of the dark veil.
The handsome youth looked down and his tone was calm: “The other two nuns also looked at Meat King. But only the shortest nun, the timing of her head turning…” Xiao Jinyu showed the scene frame by frame.
Zhao Hen and Xu Qi watched carefully.
Xu Qi’s eyes widened: “She and Meat King are in the same frame, they turned their heads at the same time and looked at each other?”
The next second, Xu Qi said: “This camera’s framerate is sixty per second. That is to say, the nun and Meat King looked at each other in the same sixtieth of a second. This might just be a coincidence, it’s still very reasonable.”
Xiao Jinyu controlled the computer: “In fact, what I felt was strange at the beginning was this road surveillance video.” Clicking open the video, Xiao Jinyu calmly stared, “Within two seconds, Meat King got the keys from his pockets. This seems very normal, but there are two doubtful points.”
At the same time, Wang Tao also came over.
Xiao Jinyu: “First, why did he have to stop walking to get his keys? And he didn’t stop on flat ground. Meat King suddenly stopped next to the flower bed outside the shop, in the middle of the steps. Of course, this can be explained as him just stopping to find his keys. But this brings us to the second point.
“The second point is after Meat King took out his keys and looked up… He didn’t look straight ahead.”
On the computer, the video played frame by frame.
It was difficult to detect the movement of Meat King’s head moving to the side with the naked eye. Even when it played frame by frame, it was hard to see.
However, after looking at it for a while, Captain Wang’s face became cold: “Did the other road surveillance capture the scene of the two nuns leaving?”
Xu Qi: “Yes!”
Wang Tao: “Look at the two videos together.”
One road surveillance was aimed at Meat King’s face and the other surveillance was aimed ahead of Meat King, at the two nuns walking hand in hand to the church.
After a short moment, Xu Qi’s eyes widened: “It’s that short nun who turned her head at the same time as Meat King? After Meat King looked up for 0.3 seconds… He glanced at that nun?”
“Yes.” Xiao Jinyu looked at Xu Qi thoughtfully and said: “But these clues might now be real clues. No matter if it was in the coffee shop, when Meat King and that nun looked at each other at the same time, or when Meat King left the coffee shop and looked at her again, there aren’t any problems. Maybe Meat King just took another look.”
Normal people walking on the street might also take another look at another pedestrian.
Meat King’s actions were very logical.
However.
Xiao Jinyu looked up at the several high-level users in the room. His long eyebrows furrowed for half a second as if he was pondering something, then he said: “That’s right, Captain Wang, Captain Xu. I’ve always been a person who likes to make bold assumptions. For many things, I like to first give a hypothesis, then guess from that premise. Sometimes, everything that seemed unreasonable or coincidental will naturally be connected into a line.”
Hearing this, Wang Tao looked at him: “If you have any speculations, please say it.”
Xiao Jinyu’s eyes were calm: “The day I awakened my logic skill, Qi Simin told me— logic skills attracted each other. Suppose, this is only a hypothesis, why Meat King and this nun looked at each other, if not because of a sixtieth of a second coincidence, but instead at the moment when the distance between them shortened, they noticed each other—
“Logic skills attract each other.
“This person next to me… is a user.”
Once he said this, the examination room fell silent.
Xiao Jinyu’s expression didn’t change and he continued: “The reason why I thought of such a hypothesis is that under this premise, the reason why Meat King stopped for two seconds to find his keys, can then be explained. Because when he walked out of the coffee shop, he was always thinking. While thinking, he also needed to get his keys and walk. He had to do three things at once, which was a bit distracting to him. So he stopped walking and just thought while getting his keys.
“Then, he looked at that short nun because she was a user.”
After a moment, Xiao Jinyu said: “Of course, this is only my hypothesis.”
After a while.
“But this is a very logical hypothesis. And Haidu’s Extermination Team cannot let go of any small possibility.” Xu Qi’s expression became cold and took out his phone, dialing a number quickly: “Immediately send someone to the Catholic church in the old French Concession to find a short nun!”
Xu Qi walked out of the examination room with his phone and kept on giving instructions to his team members.
After Water Punishment, Luo Sheng was imprisoned in the detainment room, he became the temporary leader of Haidu’s Extermination Team.
On the other side, in the silent examination room.
Zhao Hen was still stunned and after a long time, he looked at Xiao Jinyu and subconsciously asked: “Are you level two yet?”
Xiao Jinyu: “…”
“Not yet.”
Zhao Hen was shocked: “How can you not be at level two yet?!”
Xiao Jinyu: “…”
Just as he was about to open his mouth, a large, powerful hand gently tapped his shoulder. Xiao Jinyu turned around.
Wang Tao looked at him seriously: “You’re very good. You must have gotten your logic skill wrong at some point, so you didn’t advance. I’ve only seen this type of thinking ability in a couple of people and they are without an exception, a level five user at minimum. Even two of them are level six users.”
This type of praise was already very high.
However.
Under the cold light, Xiao Jinyu looked down and just whispered: “Thank you.”
After a moment of modesty, Xiao Jinyu raised his hand and inadvertently pointed to the vague face of the nun on the screen: “Captain Wang, there’s actually something else I haven’t been able to figure out. If this nun is really a user and the fissure in Meat King’s neck was caused by her, then she must have come to Zhongdu City and the head-picking incident must also be related to her. But… she had no reason to kill Meat King. She and Meat King met by chance.”
Xiao Jinyu asked: “Captain Wang, if you met another user on the streets, as logic skills attract each other, and you discover that they were a user, would you think about killing them?”
“Of course not.”
“Yes. So as for why she used her logic skill on Meat King, I think is another doubtful point. I think either she recognized Meat King and had some kind of past with him, or she thinks… Meat King recognized her.”
“Meat King recognized her? What kind of bold hypothesis is this?” Xu Qi just finished the call and walked back into the examination room.
Xiao Jinyu’s thinking really moved too fast, so fast that even Xu Qi felt it was incredible.
Xiao Jinyu was silent for a moment, then calmly spoke: “It’s only a speculation. Otherwise, I really don’t know, when they only met by chance, why she killed Meat King. If this nun was the owner of the head-picking logic skill, then she must have a purpose. Why she wanted to kill Miss Chu and Officer Wu, we don’t know for the time being, perhaps its because she knew Miss Chu and Officer Wu. Then what about her killing Meat King? She didn’t know that he already entered ‘Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf’s logic skill, predetermining his death. She used the head-picking logic skill to kill Meat King. The reason why she killed Meat King… was perhaps because Meat King knew her?”
Xu Qi immediately denied this speculation: “If Meat King knew her, its impossible for him to just glance at her. The memory of a level three user is very good.”
Xiao Jinyu nodded: “I’m not too familiar with level three users.” He was modest and he showed a thoughtful expression, not appearing arrogant from making so many reasonable speculations.
Xiao Jinyu also asked: “Perhaps Meat King didn’t recognize the nun herself, but maybe something on her? For example, she had a polluter?”
Wang Tao was stunned. He narrowed his eyes and looked at the place where Xiao Jinyu had just pointed at.
“There’s a pattern on this cross?”
Xu Qi and Zhao Hen immediately rushed to the computer.
In front of the computer, a level five user and two level four users observed carefully. In the blurry frame, the short nun was wearing a long black veil. The heavy veil covered the majority her face, only revealing her smiling lips.
In front of the nun’s pure black robe, a silver cross necklace hung.
The palm-sized cross gently swayed on the nun’s chest and the golden sunlight shone on the cross, the pattern of the carving swaying with the light, reflecting a bright glow.
“It looks like an antelope?” Wang Tao said coldly: “Zhao Hen, contact Li Xiaoxiao and see if the technicians of the maintenance department can restore the pattern on this cross.”
“Yes!”
What exactly was the pattern on the cross?
Xiao Jinyu stood to the side, quietly looking at the three high level users who were constantly observing the screen. If someone had seen this pattern before, it would be like finding the cause from the effect, and they would be able to easily recognise what it was.
That wasn’t an antelope.
It was a blood elk.
It wasn’t some bold and wild hypothesis. From the very beginning, what Xiao Jinyu found wasn’t that sixtieth of a second coincidence nor that second glance of 0.3 seconds.
Instead, it was the blood elk on the nun’s neck.
He had seen that same elk in another place.
It was the family crest of the Howard family.
The author has something to say:
Everybody: How are you not at level two yet?! [Shocked Face]
Little Goldfish: ………
[[Stop scolding, stop scolding, the child will go home and reflect right now!]]
Chapter 29: CH 29
—Dialogues of the Carmelites, Francis Poulenc
“China currently has a total of 20,035 users and according to the User Committee’s observation of all the existing logic skills, as well as the information in ‘Grow Some Brains’ APP manually entered by the users themselves, a total of 1318 users have logic skills that are related to ‘necks’.
“Among them, there are 177 users that are related to ‘broken necks’.
“According to the rankings in the ‘Grow Some Brains’ APP’s leaderboard—
“The first, B04, is a level three user ‘Surfing Scum Bag’. Logic skill: If surfing, waves, or beach related elements appear within a radius of 50 meters with the affected party as the center and the other party does not reject the love of ‘Surfing Scum Bag’ within those 50 meters, then they enter ‘Surfing Scumbag’s’ logic skill…
“The second, B388, level three user ‘Knocking on the Wall’…”
The tanned man took out a thick stack of documents and spoke quickly in the examination room on the first floor of the hospital.
Zhao Hen just came from Zhongudu City’s User Committee, bringing with him five team members from the extermination team and the information the User Committees from all over China had complied urgently.
There were more than twenty thousand users in China and 177 of them had logic skills where ‘broken necks’ had appeared on, in their causes, results, or forking points.
177, this number was too big.
Wang Tao’s expression became cold and he snatched the file from Zhao Hen’s hand.
Zhao Hen’s voice stopped.
Wang Tao quickly looked through the file. He took out his phone and made a call: “There is too much useless information. Li Xiaoxiao, let your people filter out the 177 people to only those who’ve been to Zhongdu or Haidu City!”
There was a brief moment of silence on the other end.
Li Xiaoxiao: “Okay, but there might be some users who have come to Zhongdu or Haidu City secretly.”
Wang Tao: “Find the ones that have definitely come, first. We’ll talk about the secret ones when it comes to it.”
“Okay.”
Not wasting any time, Wang Tao divided the information into seven groups. 177 people, so about 25 user profiles each. He gave these profiles to Zhao Hen’s group of six. As for the last group, Wang Tao paused for a second, then looked at Xiao Jinyu, and seriously placed it into his hand.
“Among these 177 people, perhaps one of them is the head-picking murderer.
The team members shouted in unison: “Yes!”
Wang Tao looked at Xiao Jinyu: “You’re very strong, Xiao Jinyu. I hope you can help look as well.”
“Alright.” Taking the information distributed by Wang Tao, Xiao Jinyu nodded slightly and looked through it.
If Wang Tao didn’t take the initiative to invite him, Xiao Jinyu would have also thought of a way to join. He had to know what this logic skill had to do with his mom.
The 177 files given by the User Committee were definitely incomplete.
No user would fill out every aspect of their logic skill on the ‘Grow Some Brains’ APP. Concealing their logic skill is something every user does.
Of course, these files also included what the User Committee had privately observed of the user. That is to say, even if the user did not fill out that their own information was related to the ‘neck’ but was observed by the User Committee on some task, then it would be recorded down.
This would then greatly improve their accuracy.
But when he was in the coffee shop in Haidu City, Xu Qi said that if he wasn’t at level three, then the User Committee wouldn’t invest too much energy into observing his logic skill.
In China, there were only slightly more than eight thousand users above level three.
This means that there were still more than ten thousand users who were not observed by the User Committee.
However, they were now treating a dead horse like it was a live one.
At least this head-picking logic skill’s user should be very strong. Their only hope was that they had already reached level three and had been observed by the User Committee.
Xiao Jinyu quickly looked through the files.
Ten minutes later, Wang Tao’s phone rang again.
Li Xiaoxiao, the director of the maintenance department of the Zhongdu User Committee, whispered in a concise and experienced manner: “Filtered out twenty-three users who have come to Zhongdu or Haidu City in the past year. Captain Wang, the information has already been sent to your APP, please check it. In addition… there’s something else.”
Wang Tao: “Hm?”
This robust Captain was standing next to Xiao Jinyu and hearing Wang Tao’s questioning tone, Xiao Jinyu subconsciously looked at him.
Zhongdu City’s User Committee, Maintenance Department.
This was a malicious-looking man. Because of his eyebrows being furrowed all year long, there were three deep wrinkles. He had a cold aquiline nose and a pair of downturned triangular eyes, and through the photo, those apathetic eyes seemed creepy, producing a mean and distant impression from the depth of the heart.
“My subordinates found a logic skill that conforms with this head-picking incident. All parties that enter this logic skill will have two different ‘results’. First, the user removes the head of the other party and the other party dies; second…
“The other party can take off their own head themselves, and then they die.”
Wang Tao froze and before he could ask, Li Xiaoxiao continued: “Captain Wang, this person was also used to be a Zhongdu City user.”
“Who is it?”
Li Xiaoxiao was silent for a long time.
“Li Xiaoxiao?”
“‘Pope’s Crown’.”
A minute later.
In the examination room, everyone received a copy of a user’s profile in their ‘Grow Some Brains’ APP.
[User ID: Pope’s Crown]
[Logic Level: Three]
[Logic Skill: All physically and mentally pure parties that enter this logic skill’s logic factor’s scope of influence and say a certain phrase, are considered to have entered the logic skill.
*It was not ascertained which phrase it was but after twenty-three observations whenever the user ‘Pope’s Crown’ used persuasive language, it was found that he must hold a conversation with the target before each use of his logic skill, but a repeating phrase was never found.
After entering the logic skill, the target or ‘Pope’s Crown’ can pull off the target’s head.
If the head is not pulled off, the target can live like normal and would not be able to notice the abnormality of their neck being broken.
But after twelve hours, if ‘Pope’s Crown’ still hasn’t pulled off the target’s head, the target will pull off their own head themselves and make a sacrificial pose, holding their head up high, kneeling on one knee, and face the direction where ‘Pope’s Crown’ is located.]
Pull off their heads themselves…
If they don’t pull off their head, they can live normally and won’t notice the abnormality of their neck being broken…
Wang Tao didn’t respond, his expression turning bad.
Zhao Hen realized the abnormality: “That’s not right, all the people who were killed by ‘Pope’s Crown’, even if ‘Pope’s Crown’ didn’t move, they all still pulled off their head after twelve hours. But a lot of time has passed already, much more than twelve hours. Doesn’t that mean that it’s not ‘Pope’s Crown’ that’s killing people?”
Wang Tao: “Don’t pay too much attention to ‘Pope’s Crown’, just use him as a reference.”
A team member interrupted: “Captain?”
Wang Tao: “The maintenance department didn’t mention ‘Pope’s Crown’s user ranking. Zhao Hen, under which circumstances will the User Committee ignore the user’s ranking and not provide it?”
Zhao Hen froze.
This was something Xiao Jinyu didn’t know. He was extremely curious. He’s heard Qi Simin talk about the user information of White Garden and Xu Qi talk about the information on Wind Blowing Fart and Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf and they all mentioned the other’s user ranking.
But the information sent over this time didn’t include Pope’s Crown’s user ranking.
Zhao Hen’s happy expression from finding the information quickly darkened. “After three days after the user’s death, the ‘Grow Some Brains’ APP will clear the user’s account by itself and no longer give the user a ranking.”
After three days?
The examination room fell into a dead silence.
After the shock, Xiao Jinyu quickly calmed down. He analyzed: “Three days is enough. ‘Pope’s Crown’ died three days ago, before he died he might’ve secreted promoted to level five and hid underground, causing him to be undetected by Polluter 004. Dirt can block radiation and can also block pollution from polluters. Of course, this is just my speculation, I don’t know if it’s accurate, maybe hiding underground would prevent the fact that you’ve been promoted from being detected by the ‘Grow Some Brains’ APP. Once ‘Pope’s Crown’ advances to level five, he can change the ‘result’ of his logic skill and the maximum survival time of the target may exceed twelve hours.”
First, use dirt to block 004’s detection so that the level data of Pope’s Crown on the ‘Grow Some Brains’ APP wouldn’t be updated. Then, quickly and quietly advance to level five and change his logic skill to be more powerful…
This all sounded unimaginable and was very difficult to achieve, but if Pope’s Crown really did all of this, he really would seem like the culprit behind this head-picking incident.
However, faced against Xiao Jinyu’s analysis, Wang Tao’s heart was full of admiration, yet his expression stayed heavy.
“What you said was very reasonable. Xiao Jinyu, what you guessed was correct. Dirt can block the magical effects of polluters to a degree. The Logic Research Institute has experimented before, as long as the person hides 1018 meters underground, Polluter 004 will have a lot of difficulty detecting. But ‘Pope’s Crown’ did not die three days ago.”
Wang Tao shook his head in disappointment, looking at Xiao Jinyu: “The former B26, ‘Pope’s Crown’, was confirmed dead half a year ago due to a logic skill collapse. He died in his apartment in the Xiaoqiu Community, where he lived for many years. His body was also verified to be his. After he died, it just so happened that Qi Simin and Li Xiaotong, the ones you know, took on the task of checking whether his collapsed logic skill turned into a logic factor storm and collecting any logic factors left in the air.”
After a moment, Wang Tao: “Li Xiaoxiao has already sent the task report Qi Simin and Li Xiaotong wrote, over.”
Everyone’s phones rang again.
[C Rank Task
Kjrx Pcobgwjalbc: Jifjc eq atf ibulm ojmabgr ifoa yftlcv ys j ifnfi atgff erfg. Ktf erfg gjcxfv jybnf D100 yfobgf tlr vfjat tjr jigfjvs yffc mbcolgwfv ys atf Itbcuve Jlas’r Szafgwlcjalbc Kfjw ab tjnf vlfv ogbw j ibulm rxlii mbiijqrf, sfa tf vlv cba rtbk rlucr bo ublcu bea bo mbcagbi jcv qbiiealcu. Ktf mifjcfg cffvr ab ub ab atf rmfcf jcv mbiifma atf erfg’r ibulm ojmabgr jcv mbcolgw ktfatfg j ibulm rabgw tjv bmmeggfv.
Task Reward: 15,000 Cash, 50 Contribution points.
Prerequisites: Level two or higher user.]
[Task Report
Task Objectives:
Collect all residual logic factors, completed;
*This level three user ranks above B100 but the collected logic factors are only about the amount of a level two user’s or a top-level level one user’s residual amount.]
Qi Simin elaborated on the abnormal findings at the end of the task report.
Three days later, Zhongdu City’s Logic Research Institute replied to Qi Simin’s findings and completely sealed the task.
[For the C Level task “Collection of ‘Pope’s Crown’s Logic Factors”, the logic factors collected were relatively low and the following reasons are given:
‘Pope’s Crown’ has less logic factors because it was naturally consumed when the logic skill collapsed.
This is normal.]
Putting his phone down, Wang Tao looked at the silent people in the examination room and muffledly said: “‘Pope’s Crown’s corpse was personally confirmed by me half a year ago. I can confirm that his logic skill didn’t go out of control and wasn’t polluted. I can also confirm… that when he died, he was at level three.”
They were back at square one again.
The Third Examination Room.
Wu Yuan and Officer Wang waited anxiously.
The bright and wavering light shone on the young police officer’s tanned neck and Officer Wang’s mind couldn’t help but wander. The scene of Chu Wenting holding her head in her hands came into his mind. Chu Wenting’s miserable smile when she died couldn’t be forgotten by Officer Wang for a long time.
He didn’t dare think that Xiao Wu’s neck was broken.
There wasn’t a single opening on Xiao Wu’s neck and because he was young, there weren’t any wrinkles to be seen either.
Xiao Wu was definitely different from Chu Wenting, his neck was certainly not broken!
He was just thinking when the door to the examination room suddenly opened.
Wu Yuan and Officer Wang froze and they both looked out the door. Seeing Xiao Jinyu, Wu Yuan let out a breath. After all, Xiao Jinyu was an expert he had met before, so there was a sense of security, just like when he had just come to the hospital and seen Brother Wang, he was more at ease.
“Expert, what is the situation now? If there’s anything I need to do, I’ll do it!” Wu Yuan walked to the front.
A total of two people had entered the examination room. One was Xiao Jinyu and the other was Zhao Hen.
Xiao Jinyu pursed his lips: “We cannot determine how this ‘illness’ is transmitted or its cause of death right now.”
“I’ve said before, I can try and be like Chu Wenting and pull my head off!”
Zhao Hen suddenly opened his mouth: “Are you really willing to conduct this experiment?”
Wu Yuan said with difficulty: “I’m willing.”
“But maybe when the experiment starts, you’ll die. You can ask the officer behind you, he personally saw Miss Chu die.” Xiao Jinyu quietly looked at the small police officer in front of him.
But Wu Yuan didn’t even think: “I’m a police officer, if I don’t volunteer, should I let others volunteer? And have any new patients been found yet?”
No new patients have appeared.
Wu Yuan looked at the silent expressions on the two people in front of him and he clenched his fist: “Experts, this is what I should do.”
Wu Yuan’s voluntary action was the only good news at present.
The User Committee mobilized their forces to find all the logic skills related to ‘broken necks’ in China and also contacted those users; on the other hand, they searched for other victims with similar symptoms in Zhongdu City, Haidu City, and even in the entire country.
At the same time, at the hospital doors, the tall body of an extermination team’s Captain stood at the foot of the steps, and from the darkness of the night emerged a short woman in a black robe.
Xiao Jinyu accompanied the police officer, Wu Yuan, in waiting in the Third Examination room.
Officer Wang was asked to leave temporarily and Wu Yuan sat nervously in the plastic chair, not knowing what experiment he was going to face. Perhaps in the next second, he would die, but for now, he has to sit here. This was a mission, he can’t run away.
Heavy footsteps came from outside the door.
Xiao Jinyu was slightly stumped and he closely listened to the footsteps. With the dull footsteps of Captain Wang, was another light voice.
The two footsteps came closer and closer.
“Click—”
The door to the examination room was pushed open from the outside.
Xiao Jinyu and Wu Yuan looked up.
Wang Tao stood outside the door, his solemn gaze falling on the young police officer who was sitting up straight. After a white, he said: “This is the hypnotist who will hypnotize you. Later she will make you think that your neck is broken. I need to emphasize once again that her hypnosis is very deep, at that time, you will think that your neck is really broken.”
Wu Yuan looked at the girl in the black robes.
“I know!”
Wang Tao’s expression was complicated: “Officer number 0071442, Wu Yuan, do you confirm that you know what task you are about to carry out and do you know what you will be facing? At present, we do not know how this illness transmits, perhaps you don’t have to pull your head off and all you have to do is ‘realize your neck is broken’ in order to die!”
Wu Yuan: “I know! The expert has told me and has emphasized it three times already.” He looked at Xiao Jinyu, then looked back at Wang Tao, his eyes firm and unshakable: “Please start the experiment.”
“Then you have to know that my hypnosis is irreversible~.”
A crisp voice sounded and under the black robe, the girl raised her quick-witted eyes, looking curiously at the little police officer in front of her.
Xiao Jinyu asked: “What does ‘irreversible’ mean?”
Her gaze paused and the black-robed girl looked up at Xiao Jinyu. Four eyes faced each other. After a moment, she looked at the dazed police officer again: “Irreversible means that, from now on, even if you don’t die today, for every day after today you will think that your neck is broken. If you look in the mirror, your neck in the mirror is broken; if you touch it, your hand will also tell you that it’s broken. You will try smelling and your sense of smell will tell you that there is a slight smell of blood. Your head and shoulders are no longer together.
“Such hypnosis… are you ready?”
Wu Yuan stood foolishly where he was.
After a few seconds.
“Ready!”
November 19th, 2046. Zhongdu City, overcast.
At six in the morning, the gray fog spread the chill of the morning. The faint morning light peaked through the heavy morning fog as if a flashlight was faintly visible in the thick night. Part of it was illuminated, and the area around it was deep darkness.
At six-fifteen, Xu Qi walked out of Zhongdu City’s subway station.
The User Committee member had been waiting outside the station for a long time.
This vice-captain of Haidu City’s Extermination Team rushed to the hospital as quickly as possible. When Xu Qi ran into the examination room, he was out of breath.
As soon as he arrived, he placed the large file of information onto the table while discreetly pulling out the pearl necklace pollutant from his arms.
Xu Qi glanced at the clock on the wall.
It was exactly 7:01.
“All the relevant information and evidence in Meat King’s case are all here. The body of Meat King is still frozen in Haidu City’s Logic Research Institute, to study the pearl necklace’s killing method. But last night, they’ve already made some progress.”
Xu Qi began to talk about what Haidu City’s Logic Research Institute had discovered.
First, was Meat King’s cause of death.
Meat King died of a logic skill suspected to be ‘Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf’. But ‘Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf’, Wang Tao was long dead. He can’t come back from the dead to kill Meat King. According to the investigation of the Logic Research Insititute, the truth is likely to be what Zhang Haixiang said: Wang Tai suddenly advanced before his death and became a level four user. The despair from dying made his logic skill go out of control and this out-of-control logic skill hadn’t had the time to mess around and pollute anything before it polluted Zhang Haixiang’s polluter—the pearl necklace.
The out-of-control ‘Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf’ and the pearl necklace. One was an out-of-control logic skill that can contaminate people and the other was a polluter that also had a polluting effect.
Surprisingly, the two reached some sort of equilibrium with each other.
The out-of-control ‘Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf’ was tied to the pearl necklace and the special effect of the pearl necklace polluter was changed from a single effect of ‘slightly changing the logic skill of a person’ to an additional effect of: killing.
“In the past, when Wang Tai used ‘Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf’ to kill people, he had to make the other party make contact with him multiple times. But when Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf and the pearl necklace combined, the ‘cause’ was changed.” Xu Qi sighed and explained: “The ‘cause’ of its killing changed to becoming the owner of the necklace!”
No one would have thought that the way Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf killed people was actually: “become the necklace’s owner”.
Haidu City’s Logic Research Institute spent a week of sleepless research and found in an experiment with twelve death row inmates that once someone became the owner of the pearl necklace, they would be hanged by Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf after twelve hours.
Their cause of death was exactly like Meat King’s.
But he would have never thought that his out-of-control logic skill would think that ‘the one who offers the money in a transaction would be the owner’.
Every person who ‘bought’ the pearl necklace from Zhang Haixiang’s hands, as long as there was a money transaction, was invisibly locked on by Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf and killed.
You are reading story Fourth Perspective at novel35.com
Only Zhang Haixiang escaped again and again.Xu Qi: “This is the truth behind Meat King’s case. But what cannot be explained is the fissure in Meat King’s neck after his death. This had nothing to do with Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf or the pearl necklace.”
The broken neck had nothing to do with Meat King’s case and was instead closely linked to the head-picking incident in Zhongdu City.
Xu Qi concluded: “This is the information I brought. How is it going on your side?” He looked at Zhao Hen and Xiao Jinyu. He wasn’t familiar with Wang Tao, but with Zhao Hen and Xiao Jinyu, he had already met them, so he subconsciously asked the two.
Haidu City’s Logic Research Institute had already identified the killing method of the pearl necklace, this was an unexpected gain that surprised everyone.
However, this also proved that the head-picking incident had nothing to do with the pearl necklace.
Compared with the information found in Haidu, there wasn’t much progress on Zhongdu City’s side. After all, Chu Wenting’s head-picking incident had only happened for six hours and they were still groping around in the dark.
But it wasn’t like there weren’t any findings.
Zhao Hen: “We have determined the head-picking logic skill’s killing method.”
Xu Qi: “Hm?!”
Zhao Hen: “It’s head picking.” This sentence alone seemed like nonsense, but Zhao Hen quickly explained: “It’s known that the victim’s necks have been broken since long ago, but this wound cannot be found by the naked eye or by any machines and the victim can also live normally afterward. As for what caused her to stop living normally and die suddenly, there were two possibilities—
“First, pull off the head; second, realize that the neck was broken.”
Zhao Hen continued: “We found A77, ‘Dreamer’.”
Xu Qi was surprised: “You guys actually got Dreamer? Wait, I understand now. You guys wanted to let ‘Dreamer’ create an illusion and let a victim who had entered the logic skill but hasn’t died yet, ‘see’ that his neck was broken?”
Xu Qi directly guessed correctly and he asked: “Is this test subject… still alive right now?”
If the test subject was dead, then that means that there is no need to remove the head. As long as the subject realized their neck was broken, they would die.
If the test subject was still alive, then that proves that the head must be removed for the logic skill to be completed.
Xu Qi opened his mouth: “So that means the head must be pulled off.”
If they look for logic skills related to broken necks, then they would find the murderer.
If they look for people who feel like their heads were always teetering, they would find the victims.
The former looked for the murderer until noon, yet the User Committees in China found nothing. The most similar logic skill was ‘Pope’s Crown’, but ‘Pope’s Crown’ died half a year ago. People cannot be resurrected from the dead and his ashes were still lying in his grave.
The latter looked for victims and half a day later, there wasn’t any effect.
The stepdaughter said “little aunt is strange” so many times, yet Chu Wenting didn’t realize her neck was broken.
After being brought to the hospital, if he hadn’t personally seen the surveillance video of Chu Wenting’s death, Wu Yuan wouldn’t have believed that his neck was broken.
They really were unaware.
The body itself sometimes seems to catch its head subconsciously, but just like breathing, this behavior was deeply ingrained in the depths of the body. The body can act unconsciously, but the brain wouldn’t detect it.
This created a huge resistance against the User Committee, who were trying to find potential victims.
In addition to finding the murderer and victims, everyone also began to look for similarities between Meat King, Chu Wenting, and Wu Yuan.
Xu Qi brought all the surveillance footage of Meat King, starting from three days before his death, from Haidu. The security footage from his home, the company, and the coffee shop to the road were all brought the Zhongdu.
Spending an entire afternoon, they watched all of the footage from Meat King’s company. Xu Qi then clicked opened the two videos from the coffee shop.
“November 10th, at nine-thirteen, fifteen seconds in the morning…” Xu Qi said as he adjusted the video to the correct time, “Here. Meat King entered the coffee shop.”
Everyone there looked up.
In the black and white shot, a huge body leaned to the side and entered the coffee shop. Meat King walked over to a table by the window and pulled out a chair. A waiter quickly stepped over and inquired about his order. There weren’t any sounds in the video, but Xiao Jinyu knew that he ordered a latte.
He ordered a cup of coffee and sat by the window for a long time.
Xiao Jinyu quietly watched him.
At exactly ten, Meat King suddenly stood up and walked to the bathroom.
After five minutes, Meat King left the bathroom and lowered his head to wash his hands.
Everything was still reasonable.
After drinking coffee for another ten minutes, the large man silently sat by the window.
10:15:03.
Meat King stood up and walked to the front desk.
He went to pay.
There were two cash registers at the front desk of the coffee shop and Meat King was standing by the one on the inside. He took out a card from his wallet and handed it to the cashier.
Xu Qi had already seen this recording three times.
For users who had an excellent memory and observation skills, three times wasn’t a small number. Every move of Meat King was incredibly familiar to him.
Xu Qi said: “Soon, a group of nuns will enter the coffee shop.” Just as he finished talking, four, five young women dressed as nuns walked into the coffee shop. They stood in front of the outside register and several of them talked as they ordered directly from the front desk. Obviously, they weren’t going to sit down, just planning to take their coffee and leave.
Xu Qi: “The day after Meat King’s incident, I sent someone to check the Catholic church where those nuns were from and there weren’t any problems. They often came to this coffee to get coffee, after all, no one ruled that nuns couldn’t drink coffee.”
Saying this, he seemed to have realized something. He thought: so that bell tower belonged to this church…
The coffee shop where Meat King and Zhang Haixiang agreed to meet was close to Haidu’s Subway Station. Around the corner from the coffee shop was a Catholic church.
Xu Qi’s sense of direction wasn’t very good and it was only now that he connected the Catholic church with the bell tower he had seen early this morning.
In the black and white, soundless scene.
Meat King paid the bill and left, pausing on the steps of the door.
Xu Qi continued: “This is the second surveillance angle of the coffee shop and only the legs of Meat King can be seen. Later, we watched from the road surveillance. Meat King paused for two seconds to get his car keys.”
The video switched and the group looked at the road surveillance.
Everything was exactly as Xu Qi said. After getting his car keys, Meat King walked to the Lamborghini on the side of the road.
Zhao Hen: “When Meat King left, did two of the nuns leave too?”
Xu Qi nodded: “Yes. A total of five nuns came to the coffee shop and after they ordered their coffee, two of them went back to the church, leaving three of them at the coffee shop.” He said this very clearly since this information had been found by Haidu’s Extermination Team almost immediately after Meat King’s incident had happened.
“When Meat King was paying, he seemed to have glanced at the nuns for a second?” Xiao Jinyu suddenly spoke.
Xu Qi looked at Xiao Jinyu. Meat King only glanced at the nuns for a short moment, less than half a second, but Xiao Jinyu was able to notice it. The level four user, Xu Qi, also didn’t ignore it.
“He glanced at them.” Xu Qi said, “But there aren’t any problems. If I met a group of nuns outside, I’ll also look at them for a moment longer.”
Everyone nodded.
Indeed, when you see a group of nuns on the street in China, normal people would look at them in surprise. This wasn’t strange.
Xiao Jinyu slightly bowed his head in thought. He also agreed with Xu Qi’s point of view, it was very reasonable.
Xiao Jinyu’s mind kept repeating the scene of Meat King in the coffee shop and it really seemed that there wasn’t anything unusual. They had already dug into all the abnormalities they found, which was Zhang Haixiang, who had hid in the bathroom and wasn’t caught by the surveillance.
Xu Qi was just about to change the surveillance video.
Suddenly, Xiao Jinyu’s pupils shrank and he looked up: “Wait, replay the scene just now.”
Xu Qi froze, then glanced at Xiao Jinyu: “Alright.” He replayed the footage of Meat King paying the bill.
Xiao Jinyu’s eyes were wide-open and he leaned into the computer: “Right, this second. Replay it.”
The young man’s nervous and focus appearance made Xu Qi’s heart waver. He controlled his expression and hurriedly asked: “What did you find?”
“Look here!”
Xiao Jinyu pointed to the top of the nun’s heads.
As an ordinary coffee shop, they certainly won’t get professionals to arrange their camera positions so there would definitely be blind spots. The cash register the nuns were located was one of them. In the video, you can see the cashier collecting the money, not letting them steal, but you cannot see the faces of these nuns.
The video missed their faces and only caught the top of their heads.
Meat King was 180 centimeters tall and his face was completely shown.
So it was this! Xu Qi smiled: “I also noticed this. My team happened to find one of the nuns. She had an impression of Meat King. She said that was because Meat King was a big man of more than two hundred jin, so when she was buying her coffee, she looked at him in curiosity.”
“DId your team ask all three of them?”
Xu Qi froze: “No. Two of them were on vacation that day.”
The action of turning one’s head was very normal in Xu Qi’s eyes. After all, the shape of Meat King was indeed a bit burly in the eyes of ordinary people. Just as Meat King would look at the nuns, the nuns might also be curious about the man who was as wide as three people.
There might not be any discriminatory views, but subconsciously looking was also a common action of people.
Xiao Jinyu didn’t answer. He took the mouse and watched the half second scene of them turning their heads, five times, watching each frame in detail.
Suddenly, he stopped.
“Of the three nuns, this one!”
“Which one?”
Xu Qi and Zhao Hen immediately extended their necks and looked at the head Xiao Jinyu was pointing at.
This nun was so short that they couldn’t see her face and could only see the top of the dark veil.
The handsome youth looked down and his tone was calm: “The other two nuns also looked at Meat King. But only the shortest nun, the timing of her head turning…” Xiao Jinyu showed the scene frame by frame.
Zhao Hen and Xu Qi watched carefully.
Xu Qi’s eyes widened: “She and Meat King are in the same frame, they turned their heads at the same time and looked at each other?”
The next second, Xu Qi said: “This camera’s framerate is sixty per second. That is to say, the nun and Meat King looked at each other in the same sixtieth of a second. This might just be a coincidence, it’s still very reasonable.”
Xiao Jinyu controlled the computer: “In fact, what I felt was strange at the beginning was this road surveillance video.” Clicking open the video, Xiao Jinyu calmly stared, “Within two seconds, Meat King got the keys from his pockets. This seems very normal, but there are two doubtful points.”
At the same time, Wang Tao also came over.
Xiao Jinyu: “First, why did he have to stop walking to get his keys? And he didn’t stop on flat ground. Meat King suddenly stopped next to the flower bed outside the shop, in the middle of the steps. Of course, this can be explained as him just stopping to find his keys. But this brings us to the second point.
“The second point is after Meat King took out his keys and looked up… He didn’t look straight ahead.”
It was difficult to detect the movement of Meat King’s head moving to the side with the naked eye. Even when it played frame by frame, it was hard to see.
However, after looking at it for a while, Captain Wang’s face became cold: “Did the other road surveillance capture the scene of the two nuns leaving?”
Xu Qi: “Yes!”
Wang Tao: “Look at the two videos together.”
One road surveillance was aimed at Meat King’s face and the other surveillance was aimed ahead of Meat King, at the two nuns walking hand in hand to the church.
After a short moment, Xu Qi’s eyes widened: “It’s that short nun who turned her head at the same time as Meat King? After Meat King looked up for 0.3 seconds… He glanced at that nun?”
“Yes.” Xiao Jinyu looked at Xu Qi thoughtfully and said: “But these clues might now be real clues. No matter if it was in the coffee shop, when Meat King and that nun looked at each other at the same time, or when Meat King left the coffee shop and looked at her again, there aren’t any problems. Maybe Meat King just took another look.”
Normal people walking on the street might also take another look at another pedestrian.
Meat King’s actions were very logical.
However.
Xiao Jinyu looked up at the several high-level users in the room. His long eyebrows furrowed for half a second as if he was pondering something, then he said: “That’s right, Captain Wang, Captain Xu. I’ve always been a person who likes to make bold assumptions. For many things, I like to first give a hypothesis, then guess from that premise. Sometimes, everything that seemed unreasonable or coincidental will naturally be connected into a line.”
Hearing this, Wang Tao looked at him: “If you have any speculations, please say it.”
Xiao Jinyu’s eyes were calm: “The day I awakened my logic skill, Qi Simin told me— logic skills attracted each other. Suppose, this is only a hypothesis, why Meat King and this nun looked at each other, if not because of a sixtieth of a second coincidence, but instead at the moment when the distance between them shortened, they noticed each other—
“Logic skills attract each other.
“This person next to me… is a user.”
Once he said this, the examination room fell silent.
Xiao Jinyu’s expression didn’t change and he continued: “The reason why I thought of such a hypothesis is that under this premise, the reason why Meat King stopped for two seconds to find his keys, can then be explained. Because when he walked out of the coffee shop, he was always thinking. While thinking, he also needed to get his keys and walk. He had to do three things at once, which was a bit distracting to him. So he stopped walking and just thought while getting his keys.
“Then, he looked at that short nun because she was a user.”
After a moment, Xiao Jinyu said: “Of course, this is only my hypothesis.”
“But this is a very logical hypothesis. And Haidu’s Extermination Team cannot let go of any small possibility.” Xu Qi’s expression became cold and took out his phone, dialing a number quickly: “Immediately send someone to the Catholic church in the old French Concession to find a short nun!”
Xu Qi walked out of the examination room with his phone and kept on giving instructions to his team members.
After Water Punishment, Luo Sheng was imprisoned in the detainment room, he became the temporary leader of Haidu’s Extermination Team.
On the other side, in the silent examination room.
Zhao Hen was still stunned and after a long time, he looked at Xiao Jinyu and subconsciously asked: “Are you level two yet?”
Xiao Jinyu: “…”
“Not yet.”
Zhao Hen was shocked: “How can you not be at level two yet?!”
Xiao Jinyu: “…”
Just as he was about to open his mouth, a large, powerful hand gently tapped his shoulder. Xiao Jinyu turned around.
Wang Tao looked at him seriously: “You’re very good. You must have gotten your logic skill wrong at some point, so you didn’t advance. I’ve only seen this type of thinking ability in a couple of people and they are without an exception, a level five user at minimum. Even two of them are level six users.”
This type of praise was already very high.
However.
Under the cold light, Xiao Jinyu looked down and just whispered: “Thank you.”
After a moment of modesty, Xiao Jinyu raised his hand and inadvertently pointed to the vague face of the nun on the screen: “Captain Wang, there’s actually something else I haven’t been able to figure out. If this nun is really a user and the fissure in Meat King’s neck was caused by her, then she must have come to Zhongdu City and the head-picking incident must also be related to her. But… she had no reason to kill Meat King. She and Meat King met by chance.”
Xiao Jinyu asked: “Captain Wang, if you met another user on the streets, as logic skills attract each other, and you discover that they were a user, would you think about killing them?”
“Of course not.”
“Yes. So as for why she used her logic skill on Meat King, I think is another doubtful point. I think either she recognized Meat King and had some kind of past with him, or she thinks… Meat King recognized her.”
“Meat King recognized her? What kind of bold hypothesis is this?” Xu Qi just finished the call and walked back into the examination room.
Xiao Jinyu was silent for a moment, then calmly spoke: “It’s only a speculation. Otherwise, I really don’t know, when they only met by chance, why she killed Meat King. If this nun was the owner of the head-picking logic skill, then she must have a purpose. Why she wanted to kill Miss Chu and Officer Wu, we don’t know for the time being, perhaps its because she knew Miss Chu and Officer Wu. Then what about her killing Meat King? She didn’t know that he already entered ‘Beauty’s Fragrant Scarf’s logic skill, predetermining his death. She used the head-picking logic skill to kill Meat King. The reason why she killed Meat King… was perhaps because Meat King knew her?”
Xu Qi immediately denied this speculation: “If Meat King knew her, its impossible for him to just glance at her. The memory of a level three user is very good.”
Xiao Jinyu nodded: “I’m not too familiar with level three users.” He was modest and he showed a thoughtful expression, not appearing arrogant from making so many reasonable speculations.
Xiao Jinyu also asked: “Perhaps Meat King didn’t recognize the nun herself, but maybe something on her? For example, she had a polluter?”
Wang Tao was stunned. He narrowed his eyes and looked at the place where Xiao Jinyu had just pointed at.
“There’s a pattern on this cross?”
Xu Qi and Zhao Hen immediately rushed to the computer.
In front of the computer, a level five user and two level four users observed carefully. In the blurry frame, the short nun was wearing a long black veil. The heavy veil covered the majority her face, only revealing her smiling lips.
In front of the nun’s pure black robe, a silver cross necklace hung.
The palm-sized cross gently swayed on the nun’s chest and the golden sunlight shone on the cross, the pattern of the carving swaying with the light, reflecting a bright glow.
“It looks like an antelope?” Wang Tao said coldly: “Zhao Hen, contact Li Xiaoxiao and see if the technicians of the maintenance department can restore the pattern on this cross.”
“Yes!”
What exactly was the pattern on the cross?
Xiao Jinyu stood to the side, quietly looking at the three high level users who were constantly observing the screen. If someone had seen this pattern before, it would be like finding the cause from the effect, and they would be able to easily recognise what it was.
That wasn’t an antelope.
It was a blood elk.
It wasn’t some bold and wild hypothesis. From the very beginning, what Xiao Jinyu found wasn’t that sixtieth of a second coincidence nor that second glance of 0.3 seconds.
Instead, it was the blood elk on the nun’s neck.
He had seen that same elk in another place.
The author has something to say:
Everybody: How are you not at level two yet?! [Shocked Face]
Little Goldfish: ………
[[Stop scolding, stop scolding, the child will go home and reflect right now!]]
You can find story with these keywords: Fourth Perspective, Read Fourth Perspective, Fourth Perspective novel, Fourth Perspective book, Fourth Perspective story, Fourth Perspective full, Fourth Perspective Latest Chapter
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