Mad Detective
[Author: Kuang Hai Wang Hu]
[TL: Spades]
[PR: Blitz]
[QC: Lumi]
Chapter 15 — Elusive as a Ghost
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That afternoon, around 4 p.m., the Adventure System in Zhao Yu's head pinged with a completion notice, stating the current adventure was done, with a 72% completion rate, granting him another invisible item.
Checking it, he found, ugh, another invisible tracker, identical to the last one!
What's this?
Can't we get something fresh, fun, or exciting?
Slightly disappointed, Zhao Yu finally had time to ponder the Adventure System. He'd used it three times now, and though he hadn't cracked its pattern, he was starting to get a sense of it.
He pulled out his notebook and began analyzing.
First, the system could only activate once a day, but the end time varied. Zhao Yu guessed this tied to the completion rate, the faster you finished the adventure, the sooner it ended, and vice versa.
Second, adventures were random, not tailored to his wishes. Today, he'd hoped the system would help with the Hand-Chopping Case, but the main events were meeting Yao Jia and chasing a thief on a camel!
Third, the cryptic hexagram texts at activation might hold clues. For instance, the third adventure's talk of "mortal world" and "ties of fate" seemed linked to Yao Jia, while "颠簸" hinted at his camel ride.
Could the hexagram texts foreshadow the upcoming adventure?
The hexagram titles seemed significant too. He vaguely recalled terms like Gen-Dui or Kan-Gen. Kan (water), Gen (mountain), and Dui (lake) matched the I Ching's eight trigrams. A quick online search confirmed their meanings aligned with the system's texts. Zhao Yu sensed that mastering these titles and texts could make the system more effective, boosting completion rates.
Looks like I need to study up, master this system, and bend it to my will!
System aside, Zhao Yu had to focus on the Hand-Chopping Case. Despite having the system, it might not directly help solve the case.
Worse, it could sidetrack him with unrelated adventures, like today's, potentially wasting time.
Fine then…
After much thought, he made a bold decision, from now on, he'd rely on his own skills and go all out to crack the Hand-Chopping Case!
This was a bet, after all. Losing 1,800 yuan was minor, the real issue was losing face. To avoid being mocked by Liu Changhu and his ilk, he had to give it his all.
Though a transmigrated outsider, his days hunting traitors in the gang gave him confidence in his abilities!
That night, Zhao Yu printed more Hand-Chopping Case files and brought them to his rental to study.
The rental was great, except for one thing, no Wi-Fi. Jiang Dafeng, stingy, used mobile data instead of installing a line.
He did it to keep his daughter, Xiaoqing, from playing on her phone and neglecting studies.
But he didn't know she was a hacking prodigy. Xiaoqing had long cracked the neighbor's password, using their Wi-Fi without issue.
Zhao Yu, sly as ever, got the password from her on move-in day. Now both were piggybacking off the neighbor girls' signal.
Spreading the files on the table, Zhao Yu reorganized the case details, aiming to clarify the Hand-Chopping Case's big picture.
On April 22 last year, the first victim appeared in an underground passage at Qinshan City's stadium.
Gao Tian, a white-collar worker from the capital, had returned to Qinshan for a concert. She said she was walking through the passage with the crowd when she was knocked out. When she woke, her right hand was gone.
The culprit, after severing her hand, bandaged her to prevent fatal blood loss.
The oddity was, the culprit left no trace. None of the stadium's cameras caught anything suspicious.
Though Gao Tian was knocked out in a crowded area, the passage was packed, dimly lit, and it was late, with people tired, so no witnesses or useful statements emerged.
As police scrambled, no one expected another Hand-Chopping Case five days later, on April 26.
The victim was Yuan Lili, whom Zhao Yu and Li Beini visited. Her case was even stranger, she was attacked in her own bed!
There were no signs beforehand. Yuan Lili washed up, went to bed, and woke up without her right hand, the terror unimaginable.
She wasn't living in her current upscale complex then, but her old neighborhood had plenty of cameras. Yet, no matter how thoroughly police searched footage, no suspicious figures appeared. They even reviewed a week's worth of video, finding nothing.
Files showed her apartment's security door had pry marks, but technical analysis revealed it wasn't forced, the culprit had a key.
Yuan Lili was home alone, having kicked her husband out after a fight days earlier. Naturally, police suspected him.
But he was on a business trip with a solid alibi. Their marriage was already rocky, and this incident sealed their divorce.
After Yuan Lili's case, the Hand-Chopping incidents stopped for a full year.
Then, the third case hit, again on April 22, a year later.
The victim, Luo Meina, was a typical housewife with a wealthy husband. After a banquet, she was knocked out while driving home. By morning, her right hand was gone.
She was still in her BMW, parked in an alley on Jiuhe Road. Terrified, Luo Meina ran to a nearby KFC for help, where she was found.
Like the others, aside from traffic cameras catching the BMW, no trace of the culprit was captured.
Investigators believed the culprit hid in Luo Meina's car, knocked her out after she got in, drove to the alley, chopped off her hand outside, and placed her back in the car.
Then, the culprit vanished.
Damn it…
Reading his case summary, Zhao Yu recalled Li Beini's words, this culprit was so elusive, it was almost ghostly!
Could this case really be unsolvable?