The police officer nodded slightly at my question, but answered cautiously, "At least, that's what the current clues indicate."
No wonder a police officer handling a case related to Maza had appeared here.
If I accepted the officer's testimony in full, then Maza was both the serial killer who had appeared over the past two or three months and the culprit who had killed the previous tenant eight months ago.
According to Maza's own testimony, she had accidentally traveled from the Doomsday era to the present yesterday. That point in time also served as her "alibi."
It wasn't impossible to come up with a line of reasoning that allowed these two seemingly contradictory claims to coexist, but I wouldn't go into detail for now. Besides, it would have to be based on fully believing Maza.
I had to admit that I did harbor a desire to see the world thrown into chaos, longing for an apocalypse powerful enough to crush the existing order.
That wasn't to say I wanted the "result" of "human civilization being destroyed in an instant." What I truly wanted was the "process" in which everything around me collided head-on with a catastrophe capable of bringing about that result, while I joined in as well. In this earth-shaking process, I might be scared out of my wits and laugh at my own naïveté, or perhaps come to know another side of myself.
But from a rational standpoint, I still remained skeptical of the future Maza had described. In other words, I still believed it was possible that she was the serial killer.
For one thing, the police even had a photograph of Maza.
It was a proper headshot, not a photo accidentally captured on the street. Unless there was some specific need, ordinary people wouldn't deliberately take that kind of picture. This evidence further weakened the credibility of Maza's claim that she had only traveled to this era yesterday.
Maza indeed didn't strike me as someone who would slaughter people recklessly, but if everything could be judged through vague impressions, then what need was there for reasoning or evidence?
"Can we leave now?" Chang'an immediately became restless after learning that the killer was still committing crimes in the city.
"Don't leave yet. Come over and give a statement."
The police officer adopted a businesslike attitude and brought us to the pavilion in the residential complex.
"Don't we need to go to the station to give our statements?" Chang'an asked.
"No need," the police officer answered curtly.
Seeing that Chang'an still looked confused, I added, "We aren't suspects, so there's no need to take us to an interrogation room. Statements can be taken outside too."
Chang'an had encountered the police several times back when he used to cause trouble everywhere, but he had gained not the slightest bit of insight in this regard. He was even less knowledgeable than a law-abiding citizen like me.
Though by now, the title of "law-abiding citizen" had become rather humorous in my case.
The police officer asked seemingly offhandedly, "You seem to know quite a lot. Have you given a statement before?"
"I've just read a lot of novels," I replied.
The police officer sat down in the pavilion, took out paper and a pen along with a recording device, then looked at me. "In that case, we'll start with you."
I sat rigidly across from him, but I was actually feeling somewhat guilty.
It wasn't just because I had a guilty conscience. There was also a real gun hidden in my backpack. At that moment, I felt as if the gun were burning hot, scorching my back through the backpack's fabric.
The statement consisted only of some simple questions and answers. In the end, there wasn't much complicated information he could ask me about. I wasn't the tenant of the Fifteenth Floor room, so most of the questioning would be directed at Chang'an.
When I found an opening, I asked, "The 'Magic Circle' in that house was left behind by the killer when they committed the crime eight months ago, right? Didn't the police conducting the forensic investigation discover it at the time?"
It was one thing if an ordinary tenant failed to discover the Magic Circle hidden beneath the carpet for a while, but if the police specifically responsible for investigating murder scenes had failed to find it too, that was difficult to explain.
Judging from the current officer's attitude, they had clearly only realized the Magic Circle existed today, eight months later.
There was most likely some important clue hidden here that I had yet to grasp.
"That's something you'll have to ask the person responsible for that work at the time." The police officer first parried the question, then said, "Also, don't interrupt. I'm the one asking questions right now."
As expected, I couldn't get an answer so easily. After all, I was merely an ordinary citizen, and he had no reason to disclose case-related clues to me.
I could only verbally agree for now, then change direction and try to ask about Maza indirectly.
Last time, the police officer had directly referred to Maza as a "serial killer." Procedurally speaking, however, no matter how abundant and conclusive the evidence of a culprit's crimes was, they could only be called a "suspect" before any trial, not a "criminal."
Of course, that was merely the strict procedural terminology. In ordinary conversation, no one would likely complain if someone with overwhelming evidence against them was directly called a criminal.
What I wanted to know was whether the official forces had already obtained irrefutable evidence that Maza had committed murder.
Yet the officer before me remained tight-lipped about the case, and I couldn't extract even a single useful clue.
Soon, the police officer finished questioning me. He then glanced at Chang'an before saying to me, "Next, I have some questions to ask him alone. You can leave first."
"Huh?" Chang'an was puzzled.
I vaguely guessed what the police officer intended to say to Chang'an next.
"I understand." I rose first, then said to Chang'an, "I'll wait for you outside the residential complex, then."
Although I had said I would leave, how could I be that obedient?
As I departed, I secretly placed a Firefly beside the pavilion and covertly watched the entire process of the police officer taking Chang'an's statement.
As expected, Chang'an insisted that he had truly encountered strange events in the Fifteenth Floor room, but he could never produce evidence to prove what he had experienced. Most of the police officer's questions were also based on common sense.
But were the official forces truly ignorant of those "existences beyond common sense"? This world had superpowered people like me, as well as strange things like the basement beneath the Fifteenth Floor. Even if many extraordinary secrets remained unknown to the public, the official forces should have been aware of them.
Besides, the public's ignorance of strange things was itself enough to prove that some "invisible hand" was preventing information related to them from flowing into society. To impose information controls on that scale, the force behind it would have to be an organization with a sufficiently large number of members.
The question was, why did the official forces impose information controls? Were they worried that the existence of strange things would cause social panic? That explanation was far too inadequate.
Or did there exist strange things capable of spreading harm through human cognition, forcing the official forces to resort to such measures?
Of course, there was another possibility. Though I considered it unlikely, perhaps things beyond common sense like me and the basement beneath the Fifteenth Floor really were so rare that no one knew about them.
"Officer, why did you want to speak with me alone?" Chang'an finally couldn't resist asking. "Is there something you don't want my friend to know?"
The police officer apparently hadn't noticed the Firefly I had secretly set up. Under my watchful gaze, he answered, "You could say that, but mainly, it's to warn you."
"Warn me?" Chang'an didn't understand.
"That serial killer has taken the lives of five victims over the past two or three months. Their common trait is that they're either rich or powerful. They're either tycoons with vast fortunes or officials in important positions. Although you're neither an entrepreneur nor an official, you also come from an extraordinary family background, so..."
I had already read about this in the news, but Chang'an knew nothing about it. He wore a horrified expression. "You think I'll be the next victim?"
"I'm only saying that we can't rule out the possibility. Later, we'll send people to protect you in secret." The police officer reassured him in a firm tone.
Chang'an panicked, then suddenly displayed a flash of quick thinking and noticed a blind spot. "Wait, that doesn't seem right. Was my previous tenant also one of those rich or powerful people you mentioned?"
The Fifteenth Floor room was located in an ordinary residential complex, and according to my previous investigation, the previous tenant indeed had no rich or powerful background.
"No. He was merely an ordinary employee at a company, and the sole exception among this string of incidents. We're still investigating his potential connection to the other victims." The police officer first shook his head, then urged him, "Even so, you can't let your guard down. Didn't your parents or elders tell you about the recent situation?"
At that, Chang'an's expression darkened. "That..."
Others might not know, but I did. Things weren't exactly going well for Chang'an in his own family.
The police officer didn't know the details, but seeing his reaction, he skipped over the topic and continued, "In any case, pay attention to your surroundings, stay away from deserted places, and beware of suspicious people. Especially if you discover traces of a large wild animal, you must not linger there."
"A large wild animal?" Chang'an asked cautiously.
"The previous five victims, as well as the previous tenant of that house, all had extensive tearing and bite marks on their remains. There were also fallen animal hairs at the scenes." In front of Chang'an, the police officer revealed a clue he hadn't mentioned earlier. "Although no ferocious animals have escaped from Xianshui City Zoo, and there have been no eyewitness accounts or surveillance footage of such animals appearing in the city, it's always best to stay alert."
Tearing and bite marks... So the victims' cause of death really hadn't been gunshots?
But according to what he had said last time, the serial killer was supposed to be a rebellious girl who had accidentally found a handgun and used its power to wreak havoc.
I recalled what had happened when I first encountered Maza. The patient's gown she had been wearing had also been severely torn in several places, so much so that I had initially thought it had been done by a thug wielding a sharp weapon. But if I said she had been attacked by a wild animal instead, that seemed more fitting.
In other words, Maza was a victim of the incident. She had encountered the serial killer and been gravely injured by some means? But judging from the result, beneath Maza's blood-soaked appearance, she had been completely unharmed. How had that happened?
Why had Maza instead been accused of being the murderer?
"That's all for now. Remember to contact your landlord later and terminate the lease on that house. Also, hand the house keys over to me for now. We still need to preserve the scene."
"Oh, all right." Chang'an took out the keys and handed them over.
"My colleague will call you later. I have other important work to attend to, so I'll be going."
With that, the police officer put away the paper, pen, and recording device, then stood and left.
I was somewhat puzzled. If he intended to protect Chang'an, shouldn't he have taken him to the station or some other safe place first, then had his colleague come over? Wouldn't it be awkward if the killer attacked during the gap in between?
The more deeply I thought about it, the more suspicious this police officer seemed.
I couldn't even help wondering—was he really a police officer?
I controlled the Firefly and began tailing the mature-looking man.
Before you continue