The Door Kicking Squad, Depart!

Snap!

In the cabin, Zhang Zhiyuan placed the crime scene photos on the table one by one. "The answer lies in the poses of these corpses."

"Stop beating around the bush, man, just tell us," the American said impatiently.

"It's the clock."

"A... clock?"

"That's right. The victims' hands and feet were positioned at corresponding angles, representing the three hands of a clock. Because some angles are difficult to bend or require overlapping, their bones were broken, making the bodies look extremely twisted and bizarre!" Zhang Zhiyuan explained. "This isn't because the killer has a special fetish, but because this group is deliberately foreshadowing their crimes!"

"Now that you mention it, it does have that feel," Anthony Chekhov mused. "So, it's a time hint?"

"No, all the crimes occurred at night, the only time public places are deserted," he shook his head. "The pointers only represent numbers, and the combination of these numbers is the answer."

"Wait, wait, wait... we need to confirm one thing first," Zhou Zhi interjected. "Does this game use the 24-hour format too? If they use a different time system, then these deductions won't hold up at all."

"Are you stupid, kid? This is a game made by humans, do you think it would use a different time system?" Joe Jam shot him a look.

"But..."

"Their clocks also have twelve hours on a circle," Taylor suddenly said.

"How do you know that?"

"I saw someone take out a pocket watch when I was out on the street earlier." He raised a finger, as if to push up glasses, but his body had no glasses. "It was from a distance, so I couldn't see very clearly, but one of the hands was pointing directly at 6 o'clock, which basically matched the dusk outside."

"How far away?" the Russian asked curiously.

"About thirty-five feet. The person was to my right front at the time."

"Heh!" Anthony clapped his hands. "If you were a hunter, you'd be top-notch."

Taylor smiled faintly. "I don't like killing for pleasure; humans and nature should coexist equally."

Anthony's smile vanished instantly.

Thirty-five feet. Zhang Zhiyuan was slightly surprised. That was over ten meters! How could this person capture such a detail from such a distance? Especially since they weren't deliberately staring at it at the time. Suppressing his surprise, he cleared his throat. "Mr. Taylor's observation is very accurate. In fact, when I asked for directions to the Yenie Holy Hall, I also inquired about this—of course, I asked what time it was."

"So you already knew the numbers indicated by those bodies?" Asahara Naruko asked, confused. "Then why did we still need to go to the scene ourselves?"

"Because we had to confirm the origin... or rather, the starting point." Zhang Zhiyuan pointed to a photo of a side hall of the Holy Hall. "Looking at the photo alone, we couldn't determine the direction. If we hadn't gone to the scene, we wouldn't have been able to tell which was the hour hand and which was the minute hand. Now I know: the origin is the victim's head, uniformly pointing north. The first thick limb counted to the left, whether it was a hand or a foot, represents the hour hand!"

"So that's how it is! I've learned something," Naruko said, looking closely and suddenly understanding. "This journey has truly been very rewarding."

"Using this photo as an example, the hour hand is 3, the minute hand is 35, which combines to 335," Zhang Zhiyuan picked up a case file and held it up for everyone to see. "And the next case after the Yenie Holy Hall was at the coffee shop on Maple Leaf North Street, and its address is precisely 335!"

This was the answer to the foreshadowing.

"However, Mr. Zhang, your deduction has an omission," Taylor pondered for a moment. "How do we read the second hand? If the thick limbs counted clockwise are the hour, minute, and the thinnest is the second hand, then it should also have a reading, like on this photo, the seconds are around 40."

"The second hand does have a reading, but it's not related to the address," Zhang Zhiyuan replied. "That's exactly what I'm about to explain. The second hand only indicates its position. For example, 40 seconds is around 8 on the dial, and the interval between the coffee shop case and the Holy Hall case is exactly eight days! As for why they did this, it's because having only the address isn't enough to determine the time of their crimes!"

"Whoosh--" Anthony whistled. "These guys are really bold, are they afraid the police won't find them?"

Undoubtedly, this was a blatant provocation to public safety.

"Man, how did you connect these photos to a clock?" Taylor seemed a bit curious. "Most people seeing these bloody scenes would either be too scared to look closely or stare at the details without moving. You managed to ponder the whole picture; you've got something."

"I used to..." Zhang Zhiyuan almost blurted out that he had handled similar cases before, but he stopped himself halfway. "I've read many detective and suspense novels, and downloaded quite a few unsolved case files online. It's a personal hobby. Whenever a killer wants to convey information, they mostly choose numbers as the medium. Things that can be linked to numbers are nothing more than a few items... like codes, clocks, patterns. The most exaggerated I've seen was an analytical solution hidden in geometric patterns..."

"Alright, alright, none of that is important," Zhou Zhi couldn't help but say. "Big brother, just tell us directly, what location does the latest case indicate?"

"958, and there are still two days left until this moment."

"Two days?" Joe Jam exclaimed. "We have to stay here for two days to pass? That won't do, I have other plans tomorrow!"

"That's what I wanted to ask too," Zhang Zhiyuan raised his voice. "Host, are you listening? You can definitely answer this question, right?"

"Of course, I've been paying attention to all of you." A figure slowly materialized in the air; it was Chaoyang, the guide of Paradise. "Please don't worry, this is just a game. I can adjust its running speed at any time."

"Running speed... what do you mean?"

"When you are normally active, the feeling of time flowing is consistent with reality, like now." Chaoyang paused. "But when you enter hibernation, I can instantly make you jump two days forward, just like—"

He snapped his fingers.

"—this."

Zhang Zhiyuan blinked. For a moment, his vision went black, but it was only for an instant. Before he could even react, all his senses returned to normal.

"Host, has it already been..."

"That's right, two days later," Chaoyang replied. "The specific time is... 9:25 PM. And the time outside the game is still the second before you jumped."

"Don't just jump like that! I still have a lot of preparations to do!" Zhang Zhiyuan stomped his foot. "Forget it, next time you jump time, remember to tell me in advance. Since it's already evening, we need to go to—"

"Ah! My finger is missing a piece!" the American suddenly cried out.

Everyone looked over simultaneously and saw him holding up a palm with his middle finger gone, groaning in pain.

"This... this is a minor glitch. My apologies, I'll fix it immediately." Chaoyang snapped his fingers again, and Joe Jam's finger was restored.

"What's going on!?" he asked, panting.

"Just a program bug. We'll fix it as soon as possible," Chaoyang explained.

"We don't have much time, we need to hurry!" Zhang Zhiyuan urged. "The time jumped too much. We still don't know which building 958 is..."

"Sinclair Theater, Gold Street, North City District," Chaoyang interrupted.

"..." Everyone was taken aback. It was the first time the Host had given such a direct hint.

"Consider it compensation for the earlier bug." Chaoyang's figure gradually faded. "Just a reminder, it's 10:11 AM now."

"We spent an hour just now!?" Zhang Zhiyuan's expression changed. "The killer could already be in position. We need to act immediately!"

"I've been itching to get started for ages. The theater, right? Let's go!" Joe James was the first to rush out of the cabin.

Watching the group surge into the night, Chaoyang let out a light sigh... He had to admit, having an expert handle this was effective, but he had still made a huge oversight regarding temporal continuity. The wish power required to create these bodies was calculated by the hour. To avoid a loss, he couldn't maintain these unconscious bodies for two full days. The most cost-effective method was to simply remove them and create a new batch later. However, these weren't like molding clay; the bodies created at different times were fundamentally unrelated. He had done his best to make them consistent, but the final result was only barely satisfactory, and he had even forgotten a finger.

This meant he had already paid double the cost just for the creation of the bodies, and this time there was even one more person than last time.

Chaoyang shook his head and followed—it was too late to turn back now. He could only hope that the wish power feedback would be as much as possible later on