Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
At the beginning of the video, as usual, the Law Enforcer introduced himself. Then, we saw a scene in the footage where the victim was tied to an Iron Chain with a rope, which was still coiled in a Pulley, suspended about five or six meters above the ground. The Victim woke up from unconsciousness and began to scream, but at that moment, there was not a single figure in sight on the Mountain.
“Shh!” The Law Enforcer raised a finger to his lips and said, “Don’t do that. If you call for help, it will be troublesome. In that case, I’ll have no choice but to kill you directly.” As he spoke, he raised the scissors in his hand and said, “Look down.”
The Victim looked down at the hundreds of writhing snakes below and let out a terrified scream akin to that of a slaughtered pig. The Law Enforcer continued, “Right now, you’re only tied with this one rope. In a moment, I will cut this rope. But don’t worry; you still have a chance to escape.”
“Do you see the rubber on the chain?” The Law Enforcer tapped the Rubber Ball with his scissors and said, “When the time comes, you’ll bite onto this Rubber Ball and climb up. By the way, here’s a tip: even though I’ve tied your hands and feet, you can still exert a little bit of strength. This will help you climb up. Got it?”
The Law Enforcer looked at his empty wrist in surprise and said, “It’s already so late. No more nonsense. I’ve calculated that you have about an hour to save yourself. Now, dear, open your mouth; I’m going to cut the rope.”
The Victim was unwilling to obediently follow the Law Enforcer’s orders and kept dodging back and forth. Suddenly, the Law Enforcer grabbed the Victim by the neck, choking him until he could hardly breathe. But in the next moment, he told himself, “No, no! Everything must go according to the rules! This isn’t right!”
Then he spoke in a strange tone: “Please don’t force me; bite down hard. Good. Remember, you have one hour. If you can’t do it, then it’s just death for you.” Seeing that the Victim had bitten onto the rubber ball, he returned to his original tone and said, “Good boy; I’ll be watching you from the side. Good luck!”
The scene then shifted to the victim. The Pulley began to turn slowly as the Victim bit down hard on the rubber ball without daring to relax for even a moment. He knew he was gradually entering the Snake Pit, using his bound feet to rub against the Cave Wall, hoping to slow his descent.
At the same time, his hands moved like fish fins as they clutched at the Iron Chain, using whatever strength he had left to reach for another Rubber Ball. Before long, blood began to flow from his mouth as his teeth started to fall out; yet he couldn’t scream in pain because if he opened his mouth, he wouldn’t be able to support his entire body weight with just his tied hands and feet.
Gradually, he lost all strength to climb up; we could only watch as he slowly fell from the pit into its depths. Perhaps realizing that there was no escape from this calamity, he opened his mouth and gave up hope for survival as he fell into the Snake Pit. We all knew what would happen next.
“How unfortunate,” said the Law Enforcer, appearing before the camera. “So far, no one has survived; it’s such a pity. You see? Human life is so fragile; it crumbles under great power. Upholding Justice is my duty. I am the Law Enforcer. Until next time.”
After watching the video, we all felt a sense of obsession and madness from this Killer, even a kind of pathology. Yet from this, we could also infer that the Killer must have had a plan from the very beginning. Perhaps from the first case onward, he had already decided how many people he intended to kill and what methods he would use.
Early the next morning, Alley said to me, “Captain, we found detailed information about the Victim. His name is Sun Hao, a university student living alone in an apartment. The problem is we’ve searched through his classmates and teachers but found no reason for him to die; in other words, it doesn’t meet what this so-called ‘justice’ of the Law Enforcer requires.”
I furrowed my brow and thought carefully before saying, “This so-called ‘justice’ of the Law Enforcer is completely different from our understanding of it. So far there have been three cases: in the first case, if we say that victim White Biao was aggressive and often took advantage of others—free food and drinks might be understandable—then in the second case with Su Min, who deceived people for money… if that can be considered intolerable too… what about in this third case? What was the motive behind this crime by the Killer?”
“From your investigation findings, did you discover any personality traits about Sun Hao?” I asked while frowning deeply.
Alley touched his jaw, deep in thought as he spoke to us. "According to those around him, Sun Hao is a very humble and tolerant person. If I had to point out a flaw, it would be that Sun Hao is quite lazy. He usually prefers to stay cooped up in his little room, and when we entered, we found garbage strewn all over the floor."
"Laziness?" I said.
The word seemed to suddenly trigger something in my mind, a vague image flickering into my consciousness, but I couldn't quite grasp what it was. At that moment, Mary chimed in, "That's right! I know how Killer chooses his victims now. I had a feeling something was lurking in my mind before, and now I finally understand!"
In Catholicism, there are the Seven Deadly Sins, which we often refer to simply as the Seven Deadly Sins. The formal translation should actually be "the Seven Sins," as all human wrongdoing stems from these seven original sins. These sins are lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride (different translations may vary slightly).
In the first case, Liu Sanxi's original sin was gluttony; in the second case, Su Min's sin was lust; and in this case, Sun Hao's sin is sloth.
Correspondingly, Catholic doctrine prescribes specific punishments for these sins. For gluttony, the punishment is forced feeding of rats, toads, and snakes. Lust is punished by suffocation in sulfur and flames. Sloth is punished by being thrown into a Snake Pit. Pride is punished by Rending. Greed is punished by frying in oil. Wrath is punished by dismemberment.
The three cases correspond to three original sins and their respective punishments. If that's the case, Killer will likely kill four more people whose corresponding sins will be greed, wrath, envy, and pride. Given that Killer always leaves clues in the videos he posts, we should be able to deduce the punishment for the next victim.
The Snake Pit contained nothing but snakes; the only useful clue was that Pulley. If we looked at this Pulley from a different angle, we could see it as a wheel. Therefore, the next victim's punishment should be Rending, corresponding to the sin of pride.
Rending is not what we imagine as being torn apart; it involves fixing a person in a large mixer-like device that crushes them like vegetables being juiced. This requires a large factory to create such machinery capable of blending a person.
"When this case started, I mentioned that Killer must have a factory for mechanical modifications and processing. In the first case, we clearly saw that the victim was killed in a place resembling a factory; however, the body was discovered on a streetlight in the city," I said to Alley. "What progress has been made on this lead?"
Alley shook his head and replied, "This lead has been followed up by our team members; unfortunately, we have yet to locate this abandoned factory. We searched Cangtai City and even nearby counties but found nothing. It's quite perplexing."
I frowned; each time Killer committed a crime seemed flawless as if he had studied for a long time. Each time he left behind bodies without revealing any trace of himself. Moreover, after killing his victims, Killer managed to hide USB drives on their bodies—such crimes should leave behind numerous clues; yet so far, we had very little information.
At that moment, the Forensic Expert suddenly approached us with significant news. We hurriedly followed him to the morgue where he said, "When I lined up the three bodies together, I suddenly noticed an important detail that I previously thought was just coincidence; now it seems impossible for these three bodies to bear this mark by chance."
As he spoke, the Forensic Expert arranged the three bodies before us. He pointed at the first body and said, "Do you see? All three bodies have writing on them; judging by their positions, it seems they wrote it themselves."
We looked closely, and indeed, it was as we suspected. The number on the first corpse was written in a very small spot under the armpit, the second corpse had its number next to a tattoo, and the third corpse had its number written between its fingers. All were inscribed with a ballpoint pen; although the writing was tiny, the numbers were still discernible and had not faded.
"They're written so small," I remarked while observing. "This concealment must be to prevent the Killer from seeing them. So, these numbers are messages meant for us, perhaps left by Yan Junde."
The number on the first corpse: 35
The number on the second corpse: 16
The number on the third corpse: 24
"35, 16, 24?" Alley looked at these numbers and asked, "What do these numbers mean for us?"
Comment 0 Comment Count