A Familiar Beginning

"Mr. Chen, your heart rate is rapidly increasing. Do you need a sedative to control your emotions?"

From his memories, Chen Yuanguang knew that this robot had served in this body's home for many years. It was the latest household robot 20 years ago, and of course, it wasn't considered old even now.

"Thank you, but no. I need to be alone for a while. You can go attend to other matters first," Chen Yuanguang said.

He felt that his top priority now was to sort through his memories and figure out exactly what had happened.

"Chen Yuanguang? This body is also called Chen Yuanguang. Is this transmigration or alien black technology?" Chen Yuanguang mused.

"AI taking over the world? Alpha, is it the Alpha I know?

Or did the AI name itself after developing emotions?"

This was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

After the great war, an AI named Alpha gradually took over the entire world.

Under the AI's leadership, post-war reconstruction was faster than any previous period.

People began migrating to Mars, mining asteroids, and even mining Venus. The infinite abundance of materials meant that welfare alone was enough to sustain daily life.

With advanced technology and an explosion in productivity, it was simply paradise for an industrialist like Chen Yuanguang.

Bringing back even a little bit of black technology from this world would allow him to command the wind and summon the rain in his original timeline.

The worst of times referred to this body. After the AI took over the Da Ma government, he lost his job as a police officer and then opened a detective agency. Calling it a detective agency was a stretch; he basically did only odd jobs.

His parents were killed. If he were also killed, Chen Yuanguang was afraid that being killed here would affect him in his original timeline.

"Having both parents dead is truly a classic protagonist's beginning. To encounter this start the moment I open my eyes, I don't know if it's luck or misfortune," Chen Yuanguang grumbled.

The original owner tried every possible way to find the murderer, but what did that have to do with him? Chen Yuanguang thought, I am not the Chen Yuanguang of 2477, I am the Chen Yuanguang from 2018.

After converting the new calendar to the solar calendar, it was now 2477. Chen Yuanguang glanced at the old calendar, which was the solar calendar, displayed in the house.

Working as a detective was bound to lead to trouble sooner or later, especially in the chaotic environment of Kuala Lumpur. It was already quite remarkable that he lasted seven years before something happened.

With the cooperation of the AI and the city's surveillance system, over ninety-nine percent of crimes had nowhere to hide. Economic crimes were even more impossible to conceal; what could be faster than an AI handling that?

So, the detective work Chen Yuanguang's father could do was limited to certain specific areas. Relying on social welfare, most people didn't need or couldn't afford a detective. Only the upper class could afford detectives, and the most common scenario was finding evidence of infidelity.

The AI wouldn't use the city's surveillance to help with this, which gave Chen Yuanguang's father a place to use his skills.

To gain the upper hand when dividing property, people needed someone to help find evidence of the other party's infidelity. The AI would have a certain bias when making judgments for property division, ranging from a few points to dozens of points. This percentage, in a wealthy divorce case, would be at least nine figures.

Of course, immense wealth brought hidden dangers. His parents were killed when a truck hit them on a small road leading to Kek Lok Si Temple. They were found ten days later.

Because Kek Lok Si Temple was one of the few temples remaining after the Third World War, his parents went there on behalf of the Chen Family to attend the completion ceremony for the temple's renovation. The surrounding surveillance system was upgraded along with the temple's renovation, but it hadn't been activated when his parents were hit.

The truck was an old model. After Alpha took over Da Ma, this truck had been kept in villages and towns around Kuala Lumpur. It hadn't been modified by the AI and wasn't included in the city's surveillance management system, which was why it drove straight into people.

The truck driver had also been found and confessed to his crime, but Chen Yuanguang's predecessor believed that the matter was not over. This was definitely not a crime that a so-called truck driver could commit.

Just the act of driving from the surrounding villages and towns, bypassing the city's surveillance, and entering Kek Lok Si Temple was not something an ordinary truck driver could do.

Chen Yuanguang rubbed his chin, went to the study, and looked at the walls covered with photos. These photos were all of the people his father had offended.

Among them were local Da Ma tycoons, executives of multinational giants in Da Ma, and former government officials. Anyone could be a suspect.

One of them, a middle-aged man with black-rimmed glasses and a scholarly appearance, was circled in red by him.

Chen Yuanguang found that the information he received was only a part of it. The amount of information was too vast, and much of the extra information would only be triggered when he saw related things.

Like the man circled in red, he had no impression of this person in his mind before. Now he knew who the other party was.

Lin Ran, a Chinese national, was sent to Da Ma by Huafeng Group. After marrying into a local Da Ma family, he was promoted all the way and became the actual person in charge of Huafeng in Da Ma.

Alpha replaced the original government functions and at the same time controlled a large number of giant enterprises.

To be precise, Alpha controlled almost all giant enterprises, because all giant enterprises that did not cooperate with it were eliminated by direct commercial competition.

Lin Ran's wife suspected him of cheating and then found Chen Yuanguang's father to investigate. This was also the last case Chen Yuanguang's father handled before his death.

And coincidentally, Chen Yuanguang's father was hit and killed on the way from Kek Lok Si Temple, and that day happened to be the first day the temple reopened its mountain gate. Lin Ran was at Kek Lok Si Temple praying at that time.

With various coincidences overlapping, Chen Yuanguang believed that Lin Ran was the most suspicious.

"Chen Yonglin is visiting, open the door?"

"Yes/No"

Chen Yuanguang then realized that a screen had appeared in front of him, indicating that someone was visiting.

After he remembered who Chen Yonglin was, Chen Yuanguang clicked yes, then got up, moved his gaze away from Lin Ran, and walked into the living room to wait.

A tall, thick-browed, big-eyed middle-aged man walked in quickly. The only regret was that his bald head ruined his overall demeanor.

"Yuanguang, I suggest you think carefully and don't be too impulsive. You only suspect that Lin Ran is related to your parents' death, but there is no evidence.

Rashly initiating a Truth Trial may not yield the result you want.

If Lin Ran did it, that would be best, of course. But if Lin Ran didn't do it, and he was even completely unaware of it, then you would be giving up the family trust for nothing." Chen Yonglin advised.

"Uncle, I will think about it carefully," Chen Yuanguang said.

The father of this body of Chen Yuanguang was named Chen Yongqi, and like Chen Yonglin, he belonged to the Yong generation of the Chen Family. The Chen Family is a large family in Da Ma and has remained standing after the Third World War.

It was this background that allowed Chen Yongqi to work as a private investigator without being retaliated against.

The Truth Trial is a mandatory requirement for the other party to accept a polygraph test. The polygraph with an accuracy rate of up to 99.9999% was the method thought of by Chen Yuanguang's predecessor.

This kind of Truth Trial cannot be initiated by just anyone; it requires a huge price. Chen Yuanguang himself cannot afford this price, so he hopes the Chen Family will pay for him, and he will use the family trust in their hands as an exchange.

In Chen Yonglin's view, Chen Yuanguang was completely making a presumption of guilt. Currently, there is no evidence to prove that Lin Ran is related to the car accident driver.

The car accident driver drove a large truck. After Da Ma was taken over by Alpha, he lost his job, and the truck had been kept at his home in the countryside and had not been modified by AI, so it could bypass the surveillance of the city's sky eye.

Rashly going for a Truth Trial, if the result is not as expected, the family trust will be gone, and Lin Ran will be completely offended.

It's not a big deal for the Chen Family to offend Lin Ran; if they offend him, they offend him. The problem is that after Chen Yuanguang loses the family trust, it also means he can no longer receive the family's protection. Lin Ran is a big trouble for him.

Chen Yuanguang completely didn't want to deal with this matter. Chen Yonglin is not my father, so if he died, he died.