Paradise's Invitation

It wasn't all that complicated.

Over the past six months, a mysterious serial killer had emerged in Glorious Fortress. The killer had been linked to as many as six cases, all of them murders, with more than ten victims in total. Each time, the killer had disemboweled the victims, leaving the scene drenched in blood. The police naturally hadn't been idle in the face of such horrific crimes. They had arrested several suspects over time, but the murders had never stopped. Every so often, they would start up again.

This had left the residents terrified and furious, and the public reward for information had kept climbing. Cote Dane had begun investigating the murders around that time.

Then, three days ago, he had suddenly vanished without a trace. The last time Judy had seen him was in this room.

"He said he'd found something and needed to verify it. If his suspicions were right, the killer was about to strike again!" Judy said urgently. "Cote must have discovered something, and that's why the killer targeted him. If so, he might become the next victim! Please, help me find him!"

As Judy spoke, Chaoyang studied her. She was the one who had bestowed the faint Wish Force he'd seen in the newspaper. The white pillar of light rising from her made it clear that she was willing to pay quite a high price to ensure Cote Dane's safety.

Judging by the size of the pillar, her Wish Force was even stronger than that of the guard captain.

Chaoyang guessed it was probably because the matter was more urgent.

In short, this was a profitable deal.

And that was important. If he had no money, he could always pick up odd jobs and sleep under a bridge. As long as he could still move, he wouldn't starve to death. But choosing the wrong person to make a wish could very well be fatal.

"Have you asked the police for help?" Chaoyang asked after a moment's thought.

"Of course, but those people don't care at all whether Cote lives or dies. They said it's perfectly normal for a reporter to be away for several days on an interview!" Judy said indignantly. "The truth is, they don't even care much about the murders themselves. Otherwise, the killer wouldn't have been at large for six months!"

"But you said they arrested quite a few suspects..."

"That was just to shut the public up!" Judy said with disdain. "They call it a string of serial murders, but every crime happened in the Lower District. The police won't put much effort into solving them. If some noble's child went missing..."

She pressed her lips together and said no more, but Chaoyang knew perfectly well what she'd meant.

"I see." He paused, then asked the question he was most curious about. "Why didn't you ask... a god to reveal where he was?"

"What are you talking about?" Judy looked confused. "If I had the means to get a priest to help, why would I go to all this trouble? Unless I knew someone who could find a Divine Emissary... But why are we even talking about this?" She shook her head as if mocking herself. "Divine Emissaries are rarer than princes. You can't just expect to run into one..."

So... she wasn't a nonbeliever?

Her answer stirred something in Chaoyang. It seemed that even prayer had a barrier to entry. If faith and making a wish could be kept separate, did that mean he might one day get the chance to poach from those "great beings"?

And the term "Divine Emissary"... It didn't sound like a religious office, but rather some kind of special person. Since asking more might arouse suspicion, he didn't pursue the question.

"I think I understand the situation." Chaoyang took a scroll of paper from his coat and slowly unrolled it on the coffee table. "I can help, but you'll have to pay a price..."

"How much money do you want? The newspaper will make sure you get it!" Judy replied without hesitation.

"It's not just about money." He smiled. "This is a contract. You can read it before deciding. But please note: once you sign your name, you can't take it back, and I will fulfill your request."

Chaoyang seemed calm on the surface, but inwardly he grumbled. He had no idea which Demon had come up with the rule that everything had to be done through a contract, with neither party's duties nor responsibilities allowed to be omitted. It was practically like tying his own hands. The one saving grace was that the contract only required him to explain the terms clearly. Whether the other party understood them was another matter. As long as he didn't lie, the contract was valid.

"Um..." Judy stopped halfway through reading and pointed to the payment line. "What does this mean?"

"Oh, these are the characters from my hometown," Chaoyang replied candidly. "It says 'Wish Force.'"

The words were written in Chinese.

"Wish Force?" She looked taken aback. "What's that? How do I pay it?"

"In your terms, you could think of it as mental energy, or conviction." Chaoyang smiled faintly. "You're quite worried about finding him, aren't you? That means this matter is taking a mental toll on you. Once we find Mr. Dane, your worries will drift away like smoke. That's equivalent to paying it out, so you needn't worry about it. It won't have any real effect on this contract."

Or rather, it was the contract itself.

The "five hundred Ceriel" payment listed on the next line was just an added bonus.

Judy blinked, then finally said, "I didn't expect you to be so... humorous."

Chaoyang shrugged without comment. He hadn't deceived her, only twisted the meaning a little—and that twist actually benefited them both.

Of course, the most important thing was that no one would nitpick the wording of a contract when they desperately needed something.

As expected, Judy didn't pay it much mind. She picked up the pen and signed her name.

"I can pay five hundred silver coins, but you have to find out where Cote Dane is!" she said firmly.

"Of course." Chaoyang held out his hand. "Your need is my mission."

Elsewhere, somewhere on Earth.

In a hall filled with screens, Zhang Zhiyuan was attending an important meeting. As members of the International Criminal Police, they had been tracking a criminal named Wayne Jams for a long time. He was suspected of multiple serious offenses, including international smuggling and the trafficking of weapons and prohibited chemicals, and had long been on the radar of security agencies in several countries. The problem was that Wayne Jams also held the title of ambassador. Even if he'd bought the position with donations, and even if he was merely the ambassador to an obscure African nation, it still wasn't easy to arrest him without solid evidence.

"According to the latest intelligence, he boarded the Heart of the Ocean cruise ship and met with several people in secret. He used the alias Qiao James," said Gao Wei, who sat at the head of the table. He was Zhang Zhiyuan's superior and the head of the Asian division. "We've also looked into the people he met with. The information in front of you is what we found on them."

"Russians, Japanese, and... Chinese?" Zhang Zhiyuan paused when he reached Zhou Zhi's file. He had to admit, it was an unusual combination. "I'm guessing he just happened to join in?"

"The investigation team didn't find many problems with him," Gao Wei said with a nod. "The key point is that they all took part in a game when they met. That's what we need to focus on."

"A game?" a woman asked curiously. "What kind of game?"

Zhang Zhiyuan couldn't help smiling. The woman was Cui Zhenen, from South Korea. One of her great passions was video games, and she was quite good at them.

"We don't know. The emails we recovered only said that the organizer called themselves Paradise, but they didn't mention what the game involved." Gao Wei shook his head. "These days, using the internet to commit crimes is common. We have to be on high alert. If they're using the game as a meeting place and agree on a code, they can get in touch anywhere in the world next time—and it'll be extremely difficult to crack."

"That'll be hard to investigate," Zhang Zhiyuan said bluntly. "The cruise ship belongs to Caribbean Company and operates legally. It'll be difficult for us even to get the recordings. Besides, there might not even be cameras in private suites..."

"Unless we could get into the game and take a look ourselves." Cui Zhenen licked her lips.

"Don't even think about it," he said dismissively. "This is obviously an exclusive gathering for the wealthy. Someone must have checked us out beforehand before sending an invitation. Do you think we're qualified?"

"Fine," Cui Zhenen said with a shrug. "Then we'll keep watching—"

Suddenly, a shrill ringtone interrupted them.

Gao Wei picked up the phone. "Go ahead."

His expression changed. "Are you sure? All right, patch the footage through."

After hanging up, the nearly fifty-year-old division head looked grave. "That was the Network Intelligence Section. They said an email just arrived in our internal inbox. The sender was Paradise."