Maybe that pose had been too blatant, since it left K a little embarrassed. Before Li Pan even had the chance to suggest sparring with her, she used the excuse of being "busy" to kick him out.
So, having exchanged the Yagyū clan's Ōdenta for Catherine's knight's sword, Li Pan felt he hadn't lost out. He left the vampires' nest grinning from ear to ear.
What was that saying again? Four hundred years later, even you become valuable. How much more so a holy sword from another world?
He tried channeling his qi into the blade, and the sword lit up like a fluorescent lamp. He didn't even need to hack at passersby to test it—he was confident that, with the accumulated weight of four centuries, this weapon's power was no less than that murderous Ōdenta.
He didn't know what material it was made of, or how it had been maintained, but its edge was still as keen as new. Fortunately, the silver cross guard on the hilt didn't affect him in the slightest—apparently, he wasn't rabid after all.
In short, it had been a busy night, but he had advanced the plot with every "conquerable character," and pocketed a million to boot. Not a wasted trip.
At dawn, Li Pan returned to the company, where Eighteen gave him a report.
"Miss Orange has already moved the goods to a temporary warehouse in the Ghost District for interrogation. No surveillance systems nearby. So far, no one has tracked her."
"Oh? Night Konzern hasn't reacted yet? They should've noticed the cargo was missing by now, right?"
"The cargo wasn't exactly a true-blood vampire, so within the Konzern it doesn't rank very high in priority. When the life-monitoring alarm triggered, the protocol was for the security unit to initiate emergency rescue.
I've already nullified his cybernetic implants. As long as Miss Orange doesn't beat him badly enough to cross the life-sign threshold, it won't trigger alarms to draw Night Konzern's security division."
"Well done, Eighteen. Same as usual—the take is split half to me, the rest divided between you and Orange. Have her file a Panlong contract later for your payment."
For now, Konzern attention should be tied up with East Castle Society, so it was relatively safe. Let Orange vent for a day, and he'd check in on Campbell that evening.
Eighteen hesitated. "Making money is good, boss, but if you keep profiting off the lives of the yakuza, won't they eventually retaliate?"
Li Pan laughed heartily, tapping the sword.
"Their blades are sharp, but mine is no less! I'd be thrilled if they all came knocking just to give me more to cut down!"
Seeing him so confident, Eighteen didn't press further and moved on to company updates.
Arci and Rama were still stuck at customs. The main snag was paperwork—Rama had missed filing a form, and now the shipment was held at the stargate checkpoint.
In the old days, you'd treat someone to a meal or slip a bribe, and your cargo would sail right through.
But after too many companies smuggled nukes, pathogens, or bioweapons—leading to a space elevator explosion that killed seventy-five million and sparked a corporate war—the interdimensional customs systems had been upgraded. Now, everything was fully automated, with layers of checkpoints and every form traced to a responsible company officer.
If something slipped through, Security Bureau could send a fleet straight to your doorstep.
That's why companies kept so many "dogs" on payroll—to sign forms in peacetime, and go to prison when it all went wrong.
Naturally, the signature had to be Rama's, not Arci's—after all, Arci wasn't human…
Still, no big deal. Rama had to get some real-world training anyway.
Yamazaki Ayato, meanwhile, had gotten addicted to exploration. He'd scouted endlessly, climbing mountains and crawling through caves. With the help of the pocket watch, he had even located signs of prehistoric civilization underground and filed for Spider-type drone support to mount a ruin expedition.
Li Pan waved it through without hesitation. Let the kid play.
He had bigger troubles today.
The problem was Goldshine Academy. Another case had erupted—this time inside the school itself. The dead: a Security Bureau agent assigned to accompany Shiranui Kiri during her campus investigation. And now, not only had Kotaro disappeared, but Kiri herself had gone missing!
That was serious. Losing Kotaro was one thing, but a senior jōnin vanishing? What kind of "Urgent undercover investigator missing!" B-movie script was this? Onmyō ninjas were proving remarkably unreliable.
With both corporate staff and Security Bureau casualties, the Academy could no longer resist a formal search. Li Pan, as company consultant, now had an official pretext to enter and assist the investigation.
After Uncle Chen confirmed the schedule, the company left Arci and Rama to hold down the fort, while Li Pan packed his handkerchief and knight's sword, boarding a Bureau transport straight to Goldshine Academy.
Uncle Chen was too tied up to come along, so the Bureau assigned a female agent with glasses—Agent T—to accompany Li Pan and handle coordination.
"The deceased, Agent Y, was a rookie from Security Bureau Section Three. She was assigned to pose as a maid alongside your company employee, investigating student dormitories and interviewing staff about the perfume leads.
Last night, her signal was lost. With the East Castle riots, the city was under lockdown and campus exits sealed. This morning, she was found dead in the swimming pool."
Li Pan kept a straight face, feigning ignorance of why East Castle Society had erupted.
On arrival, he saw shuttles and float-cars constantly taking off. He sighed.
"Wait, is this an evacuation?"
Agent T nodded. "A death inside the campus, rumors of a Konzern offensive—word can't be contained anymore. Families are pulling their daughters out."
Li Pan raised an eyebrow. "And you don't stop them? What's the point of investigating if the suspects just walk away?"
Agent T only sighed.
Alright. If you can't stop it, don't. No good dog blocks the path.
Li Pan didn't press, especially since it was his company's agents who had botched the job and spooked the quarry. Instead, he asked to see the pool.
"Wow. Impressive."
Agent T glared.
"What? I didn't carve her up like this."
The victim hung in an emptied pool, strung up in an X by her own intestines, ribs splayed open like angel wings.
Li Pan circled the scene. "I'm guessing the cameras caught nothing."
"This is a noblewomen's academy," Agent T replied coldly. "No surveillance in the pool or changing rooms."
Li Pan shrugged. "Figures. Huh, I didn't know human intestines were this long. All hers?"
"Six to eight meters," Agent T snapped. "All hers."
He crouched by the dried blood. "And the blood? Drained? Clothes?"
The marks suggested she had ripped out her own organs in a state of frenzied ecstasy. Other fluids confirmed she had died mid-climax—just like A-ko before her.
But who had strung her body up afterward?
"No evidence of drainage in the sewers. Her clothes were found in the locker room, uniform in the dorm. Likely arranged postmortem. We're scanning surveillance around the pool and servant quarters for transport evidence."
Or maybe not transported at all, Li Pan thought, noting the lingering white qi in the pool. This was the true death site.
"Alright, let's see the clothes."
The servant changing rooms were separate communal areas. Agent Y's uniform and underwear were neatly folded. No foreign DNA.
Li Pan leaned in, sniffing. "Apples? Her perfume?"
Agent T narrowed her eyes. "Shampoo."
He shrugged, then asked about her last movements.
"After dinner, she and your colleague cleaned dorms, conducted interviews. Nothing suspicious. During upload, the signal dropped. Now, all servants they contacted are detained for questioning."
Li Pan chuckled. "Students gone, servants stayed behind waiting to be arrested? Convenient."
Agent T said nothing.
Fine. The scapegoats were already lined up.
Instead, Li Pan let her escort him around campus. Eventually, they came to Greenfield Manor.
At Goldshine Academy, there were two tiers of housing. "Gilded" students lived in lavish shared apartments—"shared" meaning luxury penthouses with staff. "Pure Gold" students resided in private villas with gardens, drones, and their own maids, often joined by close friends.
The villas split between the Student Council—usually Tokugawa princesses or the Dean's daughters—and the Greenfield Society, exclusive to Pure Gold heiresses, historically linked to the Oda clan.
When Li Pan tried to enter Greenfield Manor, Agent T stopped him.
"This is Oda family territory. No entry without permission."
Li Pan eyed the blooming cherry trees, thick with qi. He already understood.
Beneath those blossoms lay fertilizer made of missing girls.
He turned back to Agent T. "Let me guess—disappearances and suicides are an old tradition here?"
She reluctantly admitted, "There are rumors. The Greenfield Society recruits promising 'Gilded' girls, subjects them to cruel initiation rites. Some never return. Families rarely complain—the Tokugawa compensate them in wealth or favors."
Li Pan smirked. "And your Bureau buries the evidence under cherry blossoms, right?"
She looked at the trees, but said nothing.
"Fine. But this time, even your own people are dead. That means someone else is moving. Retaliation? Families of Gilded girls, perhaps?"
Still silence.
Li Pan exhaled. "Whatever. So, any Pure Gold heiresses still alive? I need to find my missing people, and you'll need a survivor to save face."
Agent T hesitated, then glanced at Greenfield Manor. A door clicked open.
Inside, Bureau agents had already gathered. She showed Li Pan photos of three sisters—their mother an Oda princess, killed in the recent civil wars. Tokugawa guardians had left them here.
Meeting them was forbidden; their custodian, Executive Hashiba, allowed no visitors.
So Li Pan prowled the manor instead, looking for anomalies. He found relics—Oda heirlooms displayed under glass—but nothing monstrous.
Finally, he shrugged. "If I can't see it by day, I'll stay the night. A good sleep usually solves everything. Two sleeps, if necessary. Meals included, right?"
Agent T looked baffled, but relayed his request.
In the end, the Bureau agreed. Cooks and maids were released to serve dinner.
The agents then watched, dumbfounded, as Li Pan ate from dawn to dusk, patted his belly, and went to bed.
If two-and-a-half grand a month meant this kind of job every day… maybe it wasn't such a bad deal after all.
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⚠️ 30 CHAPTERS AHEAD — I'm Not a Cyberpsycho ⚠️
The system says: Kill.Mercs obey. Corporates obey. Monsters obey.One man didn't.
🧠💀 "I'm not a cyberpsycho. I just think... differently."
💥 High-voltage cyberpunk. Urban warfare. AI paranoia.Read 30 chapters ahead, only on Patreon.
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