Slacker Assassin's Multiverse Daily

This is a truly cautious fellow.

Seeing Nishiki Ken in such a state, Jiang Hang wasted no time in addressing him directly: "I know someone wants to kill you. These two years you've been hiding at home haven't been easy, have they?"

"You... what are you saying? I have no idea what you mean."

Hearing Jiang Hang's words, a flicker of panic crossed Nishiki Ken's face, and he seemed about to shut the door to his house.

But this suddenly appearing strange fellow was far stronger than he had imagined; he pulled at the door with both hands, yet it didn't budge an inch.

Seeing the expression on Nishiki Ken's face, Jiang Hang confirmed his suspicions.

He was guilty as charged.

"Keiji Aso—that name should be familiar to you." As Jiang Hang spoke the name, the other man's face turned pale in an instant.

That expression said more than enough.

"If you don't want to be killed, let's have a chat. Of course... if you're unwilling, that's fine too."

Sweat began to bead on Nishiki Ken's forehead. After a moment, under Jiang Hang's calm gaze, he caved.

Perhaps two years of living in fear had worn him down enough.

He silently nodded, then opened the door for Jiang Hang.

"Come in."

Good, no need to put on a show of force and break the door down.

Thinking this, Jiang Hang picked up his Sword Cane and stepped inside.

The interior of the house looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a long time. Enduring the stench, Jiang Hang frowned and followed Nishiki Ken to the living room.

Even now, the expression on Nishiki Ken's face was still off.

After all, having a secret he'd hidden for years suddenly exposed by a stranger—how could he look anything but troubled?

"Just who are you?" Nishiki Ken looked Jiang Hang up and down, as if trying to figure out where this man had learned about his affairs.

"Just an ordinary detective. Please don't mind."

"De... tective?" This answer caught him off guard.

Jiang Hang pulled the invitation from "Keiji Aso" out of his pocket.

"I came here on his invitation. The Keiji Aso self-immolation case twelve years ago—it was the four of you working together, wasn't it?"

At the sight of Keiji Aso's name on the invitation, Nishiki Ken shot to his feet.

"It's him... he told you? He really isn't dead!"

If his face had only been pale before, now it was pure terror!

"Two years ago, on the night of the full moon, he killed Kameyama. Is he back now?! Is he coming back to kill us all this time?!"

So Nishiki Ken really believed Keiji Aso wasn't dead and was out for revenge—that was why he'd been holed up at home for two years, refusing to go out.

But you were the ones who did the deed back then. Don't you know whether he's dead or not?

Still, if Nishiki Ken's mind was this fragile, getting him to talk would be even easier. With that thought, Jiang Hang's expression remained unchanged.

"Then please, tell me everything about what happened back then. Maybe I can still help you."

Help you spend the rest of your life in prison, so you won't have to worry about Keiji Aso coming for revenge.

Jiang Hang thought to himself.

Chapter 52: From Today On, I Am the Three-Red Assassin

Jiang Hang waited patiently for Nishiki Ken to spill the truth about what happened back then.

But after a long wait, Nishiki Ken's mind still seemed tangled in hesitation.

"I can't say it. I can't say it. If I do, I'm finished..."

Clearly, a fierce battle was raging inside Nishiki Ken's heart. On one side, he felt that if he didn't speak, something might happen to him; on the other, he thought that if he revealed everything about that year, he'd truly be done for.

Jiang Hang watched as Nishiki Ken's expression shifted from fear to struggle, yet he still couldn't make that crucial decision.

Seeing the man's dawdling, Jiang Hang stood up, Sword Cane in hand.

"If you're unwilling to speak, then on the night of the full moon two days from now, Mr. Nishiki, you'll have to look out for yourself."

He wanted to put some pressure on Nishiki Ken. If the man kept hesitating like this, Jiang Hang didn't have that much time to waste with him.

Either talk now, or I'll have to beat it out of you.

And sure enough, at those words, Nishiki Ken broke out in a cold sweat.

Seeing Jiang Hang make as if to leave, panic surged even stronger in his heart.

"No... no, you can't leave! Stop right there!"

He suddenly shouted at Jiang Hang, and when Jiang Hang turned to look at him, Nishiki Ken had grabbed a fruit knife—one that looked like it hadn't been washed in ages—and pointed it at him.

"I can't say it. If I say these things, even if Aso doesn't come for me, I'll still be finished..." Muttering this self-consolation under his breath, Nishiki Ken's expression twisted into something savage.

"Tell me, where is Aso now? Tell me, how much more do you know about him?!"

The hand holding the knife trembled slightly, but his bloodshot eyes were fixed on Jiang Hang, as if the moment Jiang Hang showed any sign of fleeing, he would not hesitate to stab forward with the blade.

"You'd better not force my hand. Hurry up, hurry up and tell me about Keiji Aso!"

Seeing Nishiki Ken like this, Jiang Hang raised the unremarkable cane in his hand.

"Put that stick down, or I won't be polite!"

This guy seemed to be genuinely losing his grip on reality.

He probably thought he was holding a gun, not a fruit knife less than twenty centimeters long.

Jiang Hang not only ignored Nishiki Ken's words but deliberately took a step closer to him.

"How exactly are you going to be impolite? I'm quite curious."

This move only made Nishiki, who already had no confidence, even more panicked inside.

"Don't come closer! I'll do it, I really will!"

Facing Jiang Hang's advance, his face twisted into a ferocious expression, but his body unconsciously backed away.

When he retreated to the end of the room and hit the wall behind him, he nearly dropped the knife in his hand from sheer fright.

And at that moment, Jiang Hang moved!

He closed in on Nishiki Ken, extended the Sword Cane, and struck the back of his hand hard, making him involuntarily release the fruit knife from the pain. Then Jiang Hang grabbed his head with the other hand, stepped forward with his foot, and hooked Nishiki's leg.

With a twist of his hand, he threw the off-balance Nishiki Ken heavily to the ground.

Nishiki Ken was stunned by the fall. Before he could react, Jiang Hang stomped on his chest, spun the Sword Cane in his hand, flicked out the blade at its base, and pressed it tightly against his neck.

Feeling the blade already cutting into his skin, Nishiki Ken nearly wet himself in terror.

He was an extremely cowardly man; otherwise, after learning about Mayor Kameyama's bizarre death, he wouldn't have developed paranoid delusions and locked himself in his house, refusing to go out.

And now, with someone standing on his chest and a gleaming blade at his throat, Nishiki Ken promptly caved.

Almost weeping, he begged Jiang Hang for mercy: "I'll talk, I'll talk! Whatever you want to know, I'll tell you!"

Seeing that Nishiki Ken had scared himself into submission, Jiang Hang coldly withdrew the Sword Cane and gestured for him to stand up and confess everything about what happened back then.

Knowing Jiang Hang was a ruthless man, Nishiki finally became much more obedient.

Trembling, he got up from the ground, clutching his neck, standing to the side with his legs shaking, and began to tell Jiang Hang about the events of that year.

In fact, Jiang Hang had already found most of the clues. He had also deduced the motive and the murderer from back then, but because he couldn't crack the secret in Keiji Aso's sheet music, he was stuck at the final step of solving the case.

Now, hearing it from the actual culprit's mouth, he quickly pieced together the truth.

Back then, Moon Shadow Island was indeed secretly engaged in drug trafficking. This small island, only twenty kilometers from Tokyo but unnoticed by outsiders, was the perfect transit point.

Keiji Aso was not a member of the drug ring at the time, but for a long period, he had knowingly assisted the group in transporting drugs.

That was how the piano with the hidden compartment came to be.

But one day, Keiji Aso suddenly refused to continue helping and broke away from them. The other four, who had only recently entered the drug trade, feared that Keiji Aso would leak the secret in the future. So that very night, they locked the Aso family inside their own home and burned them alive.

Afterward, the four of them acted as witnesses, coordinating their story that Keiji Aso had a mental breakdown and committed suicide.

At the same time, for reasons unknown, Keiji Aso left behind only that handwritten sheet music, which the police at the time couldn't understand at all. After some investigation, his death was ruled a "suicide" by the authorities.

After Keiji Aso was declared dead, the four continued their operations.

Until two years ago, Kameyama Isamu's death made Kuroiwa and Nishiki feel something was off.

By then, they had been in the drug trade for over a decade and had made enough money. The four of them had jointly killed Keiji Aso, meaning they were all in the same boat.

Knowing that Kawashima Hideo wasn't planning to stop, the two of them handed over the entire drug operation to him.

After that, Kawashima Hideo found the village secretary, Hirata Kazuaki, and handed the drug transport task over to him, continuing until now.

That was what happened back then, and Jiang Hang easily got the code they used for communication out of Nishiki Ken's mouth.

The code invented by Keiji Aso back then was actually not complicated at all. It simply mapped the first 26 black and white keys on the left side of the piano to the 26 letters, converted the sheet music into letters one by one, and then read them out in Romanized pronunciation to get what Keiji Aso wanted to say.

After learning this, Jiang Hang couldn't help but rub his hair.

He had thought the code was much more complex, maybe even requiring a hidden cipher book. He never expected it to be just a simple left-to-right mapping of the 26 letters.

Yet, even though it was that simple, he had still racked his brains for half a day without finding the answer.

Sure enough, cracking codes was not something a third-rate detective like him could handle.

Thinking about how he had struggled for so long without figuring it out, and how the problem was solved so easily after he resolutely switched careers to become the Three-Red Assassin, Jiang Hang felt fulfilled and gratified.

Old Man of the Mountain truly was a Grand Assassin of his era. Learning his style was definitely the right choice.

Chapter 53: Chapter 53: The End of Moon Shadow Island

Today, Moon Shadow Island was unusually lively.

Nearly half the police force from the Public Security Serious Crimes Unit had been transferred to this forgotten little island to carry out the mission.

In just half a day, the entire order of the island had completely changed.

For suspected drug trafficking and intentional homicide, the current mayor of Moon Shadow Island, Kuroiwa, the village secretary Hirata Kazuaki, the island's richest man Kawashima Hideo, and the unemployed Nishiki Ken were taken back to Tokyo by the police for interrogation.

Meanwhile, at the homes of Kawashima and Hirata Kazuaki, the police found a staggering amount of illegal drugs without much effort. Barring any surprises, this was likely the largest case of drug possession and trafficking discovered in Tokyo in recent years.

Before the interrogation even began, faced with ironclad evidence, Hirata Kazuaki was the first to crack under police pressure, spilling everything from supply channels to buyer information all at once, saving the police a great deal of time.

He was still in a daze—how had the sky over Moon Shadow Island flipped after just one night's sleep?

Kuroiwa Tatsuji, on the other hand, seemed to want to keep arguing, since he hadn't been involved in the drug trade for two years and had kept his public image spotless all that time.

But once Shizuka Sakaki relayed the translated contents of the sheet music to the police, his excuses were completely useless. Murder and drug trafficking—both were written in Keiji Aso's score.

As for Nishiki Ken, after confessing the whole truth, he seemed to let out a sigh of relief. Before the police arrived, he even gave himself a thorough clean-up, and under Jiang Hang's watch, swept his own room.

In his own words, he had spent ten years pretending to forget what happened back then, living a hollow lie, and then two more years in fear of Keiji Aso's revenge after Kameyama's death, running from it all.

Now that he had confessed everything, the torment was finally over for him. He felt he should face the police in a somewhat better state.

To this, Jiang Hang made no comment.

"Jiang Hang, my friend, sorry to trouble you again. When Takagi told me you were looking into a twelve-year-old case, I wondered what you'd dig up. I never imagined Moon Shadow Island held such a big secret." Since this area still fell within Tokyo's jurisdiction, Inspector Megure appeared as usual.

The police had made a mistake twelve years ago on Keiji Aso's case, and now, twelve years later, a detective had uncovered the truth. That naturally hurt the police's reputation, but Jiang Hang kept a low profile this time and credited all the merit to Officer Takagi, their trusty tool.

A detective determined that a twelve-year-old suicide case might be suspicious, so he invited a police officer to investigate together.

In the end, the detective found the truth of that old case, while the young officer uncovered a massive drug trafficking ring. Doesn't that sound like a good look for the police?

In this incident, Jiang Hang said to only credit him with Keiji Aso's self-immolation case, and that the drug trafficking case should have nothing to do with him at all.

Seeing Jiang Hang once again unhesitatingly hand over most of the credit to the police, content to play a minor role, even Inspector Megure felt a bit embarrassed.

But Jiang Hang didn't care much about it. As always, he wasn't short on commissions or fame.

After the art gallery case, he could run four or five lost-item commissions in Tokyo in a single day, and from those clients, he'd even picked up a nickname—"Eagle Eye"—used to describe how fast and reliable he was at finding lost things.

Jiang Hang had no idea who started that nickname, but it was actually quite fitting.

Anyway, his reputation for finding things quickly had already spread all over Tokyo.