Fourth PerspectiveCh54 - It’s been planned for a long time~

It took a full seven days for the User Committee to locate all the users who had been in Haidu City in November and conduct in-depth investigations.

For users below Level 3, the Extermination Team members visited them in person, rigorously questioning their whereabouts and activities throughout November. SiMtWT

For Level 4 and 5 users, Captain Luo Sheng and Vice-Captain Xu Qi personally paid visits, using a more cooperative approach to investigate their movements in November.

Among advanced users, none of them were folly.

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All the users became aware of the motives behind officials’ actions:

Something had happened in Haidu City! mA5d9t

And it was something extremely significant.

Some users even connected the abnormalities in Haidu City with the recent two crashes of the Grow Some Brains APP, suspecting that the pollutant in control of the app might be having issues.

Of course, advanced users knew that Pollutant 004 was stored in Zhongdu, not Haidu. However, there had been too many unusual events in both cities in November.

At one point, many cautious users even chose to leave these two cities.

In seven days, except for a few deeply hidden users, the government had managed to identify all the users who had been in Haidu and unearth their movements over the past month. However…

“No problems at all.” Xu Qi looked at the thick stack of files in his hand, his expression grim. He reported, “There were a total of 1,844 users who appeared in Haidu in November. Among them, when Zhang Haixiang attempted to escape, 343 were not in Haidu during that time. Here are their alibis.”

“Other than that, there were no oddities found with the 1,501 users,” Xu Qi grumbled, “But because of this extensive census, we did manage to locate 19 fugitives and more than 30 users who committed crimes such as murder, robbery, and using logic skills for illegal activities.”

He looked up at his team leader and the person in black beside him. “That’s all there is.” MDEdbR

Luo Sheng remained composed.

Colonel Su Jiuzhou, who had arrived in Haidu overnight seven days ago, had already reviewed all the video footage from Zhang Haixiang’s prison break when he first arrived. Luo Sheng had also watched the same footage with her team shortly after Zhang Haixiang’s escape, but now, Su Jiuzhou was reviewing it again.

Xiao Jinyu’s guess was correct; the user was no ordinary prisoner. Even a Level 2 user like Zhang Haixiang was placed under the watchful eye of twenty-one cameras from different angles, monitoring his every move nonstop every day.

For someone like Zhang Haixiang, a serial killer with heinous crimes, the User Committee had no intention of granting him human privacy rights. t3NYmc

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Users possessed logic skills, which gave them more powerful criminal abilities than ordinary people. If they violated the law, their baseline of punishment was lower.

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This abusive behavior was halted on certain days, but most of the time, Zhang Haixiang was too injured to get out of bed.

Including the day he escaped. kNt9Ww

Twenty-one high-definition surveillance cameras recorded the events.

In the footage, a badly bruised and battered man lay curled up on the cold iron bed, whimpering in pain.

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Luo Sheng had just finished torturing Zhang Haixiang. He had cried and screamed in agony for a while before going into convulsions, claiming that he wanted to die. However, after Luo Sheng left, the excruciating pain in his body prevented him from speaking loudly. He could only emit faint gasps from his throat.

Then. fjw89V

Suddenly, he disappeared.

Everyone replayed the video of Zhang Haixiang’s escape hundreds of times, frame by frame, but found no peculiarities.

In the previous frame, the man was still on the bed, whimpering in pain; in the next frame, he had suddenly vanished!

Colonel Su Jiuzhou paused the video and checked the timestamps on the surveillance cameras. 3m1hDZ

November 29, 2046, 5:19:31 AM.

—The exact time the Court of Judgment was stolen.

The room fell into utter silence.

After some time. dvmWV4

“Is he Zhang Haixiang?”

The man squinted as he looked at the huddled figure in the video footage.

Xu Qi immediately understood what he meant. “Yes, he is. The User Committee investigated Zhang Haixiang’s general information, including his photos. He has no friends or family, but both his external data and logic skill can confirm that he is indeed Zhang Haixiang.”

Xu Qi explained, “Appearance can be altered, but the logic skill cannot. After he was sent to the research institute, Dr. Xu used him as an… experiment and tested the effectiveness of his logic skill. His logic skill is exactly the same as the one recorded by the committee under the name ‘Wind Blowing Fart.'” IaK6ps

“Are you absolutely sure?”

“Absolutely.”

Colonel Su Jiuzhou contemplated for a while with his long brows slightly furrowed.

“Have you tested his DNA?” 0QIdKx

Xu Qi: “…?”

Xu Qi: “DNA? We have over twenty thousand users in all of China, and users are not criminals, Colonel. We don’t have Zhang Haixiang’s DNA…”

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Colonel Su Jiuzhou’s gaze lingered on the hunched figure in the video. After a long moment, he finally spoke with a calm tone, “There’s a ninety percent chance that Zhang Haixiang didn’t steal the Judgment Court. He was taken away together with the real culprit who stole it. There’s a ten percent chance that he stole it. However, I am quite certain that when he was at the coffee shop, his logic skill was at Level 2.”

Wind Blowing Fart was a Level 2 user. aMFf4D

This Zhang Haixiang was as well.

…

“So, Zhang Haixiang was brought in to facilitate the theft of the Court of Judgement?”

A deep, hoarse female voice suddenly spoke. hufexI

Dr. Xu quickly realized, his eyes brightening. “I see! Just like criminals scout ahead before committing a crime. They send someone to scout the area, making it easier to steal. Although we don’t know what kind of logic skill the thief who stole the Judgment Court has, it’s highly likely that it requires a ‘locator,’ and with this locator, the theft can be carried out. This locator is Zhang Haixiang. Zhang Haixiang was in the underground prison, and the Judgment Court was in the underground warehouse. In other words, Zhang Haixiang intentionally committed murder, was discovered by us, and then deliberately allowed himself to be taken into the Logic Research Institute…”

His voice abruptly stopped.

Xu Qi froze, a deep, chilling sensation shot from the soles of his feet straight to his brain.

The air instantly became sticky, and heavy moisture pressed against the man’s eyelashes. Dr. Xu couldn’t help but blink, and a drop of water rolled off his eyelashes and splashed onto the ground. dWoqkf

“…Zhang Haixiang,” the woman laughed. Her voice was soft, but Xu Qi felt an extreme coldness.

An eerie, bone-chilling cold.

Gritting his teeth, Xu Qi, with the cold water droplet on his eyelash, said, “Captain…”

The impending heavy rain that was about to fall on the Extermination Team’s headquarters vanished in an instant, hidden without a trace. Xu Qi’s words of persuasion were stuck in his throat, and he stared blankly at the gray-haired woman who seemed indifferent. I 6C9s

Luo Sheng lowered her deep black eyes and said lightly, “So, killing him wasn’t done in ignorance, nor was it a random choice. It was premeditated. It had to be done, and it had to be him. Because only by killing him would I discover it immediately and arrest him as quickly as possible. He would inevitably be sent to the underground prison of the Logic Research Institute.”

Not all users would be sent to the underground prison.

For a user with a relatively low ranking like a Level 2 user, the authorities had a small chance of opting for a simple trial rather than deliberately placing them in the Logic Research Institute to avoid wasting resources.

However, only by killing the Meat King, would Luo Sheng go insane, and Zhang Haixiang would become a special Level 2 user sent to the underground prison. ENA5jQ

Colonel Su Jiuzhou sighed lightly, speaking with a sense of helplessness. “This scheme was set up quite cleverly. When was it planned? When did Zhang Haixiang commit his first murder?”

Before killing the Meat King, Zhang Haixiang had killed several innocent users. It was because he had used the Pearl Necklace for murder and robbery more than once before. This allowed him to deceive everyone, making them believe that he was unaware of the Meat King’s identity, leading to the mistaken killing.

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In the entire Haidu City, no user dared to provoke Water Punishment.

“The next time I see Zhang Haixiang, I will definitely kill him.” 5ctEY0

The woman’s cold and indifferent voice suddenly rang out. She stared fixedly at the black-clad man in front of her, enunciating each word with force between her teeth. “Su Jiuzhou, if you try to stop me… I will definitely kill you too.

“Definitely.”

Colonel Su Jiuzhou’s gaze shifted slightly.

He smiled silently, his thin lips curving with a trace of icy coldness. PEwcer

“Mn.”

The author has something to say:

This chapter is a transitional chapter as I’m organizing the content for the next mini-arc. This story has many foreshadowing elements in each mini-arc, so make sure your little detectives are connecting the dots to prevent any plot holes or misunderstandings. For a better reading experience, you can wait to read this chapter along with the next one. It will be more rewarding.

Before I go, give a little kiss to our cute baby! 💋🐏-V- HN4ecl