Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
"If it was Yan Junde who left us this message, then it certainly won't be too straightforward." I looked at the numbers on the paper and said, "Otherwise, the information would be difficult to decipher, and things would backfire. Moreover, since these numbers are in a very secretive place on the victim, if the Killer looks at them, they would definitely notice something."
Alley nodded and then said, "When I saw the numbers, my first reaction was to compare them with letters, but the first number is 35. There are only twenty-six letters in the English alphabet, right?"
I pointed at the corpse and said, "The first corpse should have two separate digits: 3 and 5, not 35. If you look at the other corpses, their numbers form a continuous sequence. The digits on the first corpse have slight gaps; I believe this must have been arranged intentionally rather than by coincidence."
"Then according to this correspondence, it would be..." Mary said as she wrote down the corresponding letters on a piece of paper: "CEPX." After finishing, Mary frowned and said, "That's not right; it's neither a Chinese pinyin nor an English word. Could it be an abbreviation?"
Mary began writing on another sheet of paper while saying, "If it's an abbreviation for English words, that could be troublesome. Besides 'X,' which has very few words starting with it, the other letters correspond to commonly used beginnings. What information could Yan Junde be trying to convey?"
I shook my head and said, "If I were Yan Junde, I wouldn't convey such a complex message, but I also wouldn't make it too simple for someone to figure out at a glance; that would be too dangerous. Alley's line of thought is good, but the corresponding numbers shouldn't be as straightforward as decimal."
"Binary is clearly impossible. If it were hexadecimal, having letters in the last code wouldn't make sense either," I pondered what base Yan Junde might have used if not decimal: "In fact, the number of digits indicates how many bases there are, but most of those are impractical. The commonly used bases are binary, octal, decimal, and hexadecimal."
"What if we remove the symbols from the octal ASCII table and then correspond them forward?" I calculated in my mind using the standard ASCII Table: "If that's the case, then the letters would be T and T. There are only three corpses here; it seems like this is an incomplete word."
Mary quickly added a few letters after the word and said, "If that's true, there are quite a few possible combinations. We need to find at least one direction to work with."
I nodded; what Mary said was correct. If we could determine a direction, we could quickly pinpoint this word. So we needed to guess how much information we could derive from one word. "Could it be that they want to tell us about the Killer's identity?" Alley tentatively suggested upon hearing Mary's words.
I rubbed my temples with my fingers and dismissed that idea: "No way; one word won't convey too much information. From what we see on the corpses, Yan Junde could only spell out one word, and that information must be the most important one. Even if we knew who the Killer was, we couldn't quickly find them."
I closed my eyes and then said, "A location! One word pointing to a location is most likely and can guide us quickly and succinctly!"
"If it's a location," Mary snapped her fingers and said excitedly, "this place—TER! The city center! Yan Junde wants to tell us that this place is right in the city center; it must be so!" After saying that, Mary looked at me with an excited expression.
I nodded and asked, "Is there a place in the city center where they could build such machinery?"
Alley slapped his forehead and said, "Blame me! I only thought about checking factories in the suburbs but didn't consider that there might be places in the city center that manufacture watches or high-precision machinery. Although these factories may not occupy large areas, they specialize in precision instruments. Wouldn't those machines made by the Killer fall into this category?"
"Let's head to that place immediately!" I commanded.
The entire Police Force was deployed as we quietly made our way to the city center, refraining from using the sirens for fear of alerting the Killer. Moss City, a hub of commerce and entertainment, was the most bustling area of Cangtai City. We had always believed that the Killer would strike in quiet, secluded places, overlooking one crucial point: the most dangerous locations often served as the safest havens. The noisy streets provided the Killer with the perfect cover.
Alley handed me a gun, but I waved my hand and declined to take it. Since the day Captain Shi and Wang Gang went missing, that gun had felt unbearably heavy; I could no longer hold it. Alley looked puzzled as I raised my dagger and whispered, "First team, prepare. In one minute, we split into two groups and charge in through the front and back doors. Be careful not to harm any hostages."
Everyone nodded, and the first team began moving toward the windows. A minute later, they burst through a window while one team member quickly reached the factory's locked main door to open it. The Second Team rushed in simultaneously. The factory appeared small, divided into two sections: an inner and an outer room.
As we entered, we heard a mechanical buzzing sound; outside, there had been no noise at all, indicating how well soundproofed it was inside. In the center of the factory stood a massive machine resembling a meat grinder, and we simultaneously realized that what was being mixed inside was a living person.
On the second floor, a shadow flashed by wearing a mask—there was no doubt it was the Law Enforcer!
"Alley, leave a few people to stop the machine!" I shouted. "The rest follow me!"
A few members responded by searching for the switch to turn off the machine while the others followed me in pursuit of the Law Enforcer. Glancing up at the second floor, I caught sight of what remained of the person in the Mixer—mangled beyond recognition, reduced to nothing more than ground flesh; they were dead beyond any doubt. Gritting my teeth, I rushed into the room where the Law Enforcer had disappeared.
The second floor of the factory consisted of interconnected rooms that looked quite eerie. As we chased after him, we found ourselves facing two doors without knowing which one he had entered. Alley and I exchanged glances before heading into different rooms.
It seemed that this factory had also been modified by the Law Enforcer; the second floor resembled a maze where opening one door led to another door—one door nested within another. Perhaps from the very beginning, he had anticipated this moment and planned his escape route for when we finally caught up.
After wandering around for what felt like ages without seeing any sign of him, I was about to use my radio when I turned it on only to be met with chaotic static. It seemed this place was equipped with jammers; communication was impossible under these circumstances. We were like headless flies buzzing around on the second floor.
I don't know how long we searched before finally returning to the first room we had entered. Suddenly, a door swung open in front of us, and our team members raised their guns only to find Alley leading another group out. Alley and I exchanged glances and shook our heads in frustration.
"Damn it!" I couldn't help but curse as Alley punched the wall in frustration. We were just one step away from capturing the Law Enforcer, yet he managed to slip away! Outside lay the bustling city center filled with people; once he removed his mask amidst that crowd, we would never find him again!
"Hu Team!" several detectives rushed over and said, "The victim is already dead."
"Seal off the area!" I commanded.
When we went to examine the body, it could hardly be called a body anymore; it had been completely reduced to a pile of ground meat in that mixer, with only occasional large bones protruding from what remained. While ordering the Forensic Team to conduct a thorough investigation of this factory for evidence, I instructed my team to search through the second floor and determine its escape routes.
At this point, even retrieving what remained of the body proved difficult for the Forensic Team due to its extreme dismemberment; it seemed impossible to piece together any semblance of a corpse. Without needing their expertise, everyone already understood how this person had died. From what we could see so far, there were already four bodies accounted for.
The corresponding representatives of lust, gluttony, sloth, and pride have already perished, leaving behind only greed, wrath, and envy. Fortunately amidst the misfortune, we have found the factory of the Killer. Following this lead, we can unearth more information and take another step closer to discovering the true identity of the Killer.
“Alley, immediately investigate everything about this factory!” I commanded.
“Understood!” Alley replied.
About two hours later, the criminal investigation team finally clarified the structure of the second floor. It turned out that hidden doors were concealed within several rooms in this densely packed area, leading down to an underground passage that extended to a shopping mall in the city center. Crowds thronged above, yet not a single person noticed anyone emerging from the hidden doors or where they disappeared to.
The Forensic Expert said, “We found many fingerprints in the factory. The Killer couldn’t have worn gloves while working on such precise instruments. Moreover, it’s clear that this factory must belong to him personally; otherwise, how could he commit murder here without being detected?”
“Don’t worry,” the Forensic Expert patted my shoulder and reassured me. “The Killer won’t be able to escape.”
I knew that the Forensic Expert had seen the fatigue on my face and the anxiety in my heart. It was frustrating; we were so close. If only we had resolved Yan Junde's information ten minutes earlier, the Law Enforcer would surely have been caught! But now, all we could do was speed up—faster and faster.
“He won’t escape,” I nodded firmly.
Comment 0 Comment Count