Three Ways to Read a Novel

So Vill-V was also assisting, but that was just work.

And coincidentally, her abilities are often directly proportional to her interests.

"Both the second and third assassinations concealed the bodies, and what they had in common was that the first crime scene was indoors." Einstein's fingers traced the smooth bridge of his nose to the tip. "The fortified defenses failed to prevent the murders from happening. It is certain that the killer has the ability to move freely within headquarters."

"Has the new medical report come out yet?" Vill-V asked Prometheus.

Prometheus Machines responded, "All checks have been completed, and the Honkai Energy erosion rate of everyone at headquarters is within the normal range."

"That's troublesome..."

"I think I now understand why the body in the second case was dumped in the artificial lake," Einstein said, lowering his hand.

"Hmm? The difference between you before and after is too big, isn't it?"

"The greatest lie of mankind is the embellishment, concealment, and distortion of history." Einstein crossed his arms and flicked two fingers at the tips of his hair, as if he were playing a musical string.

"The biggest difference between indoor and artificial lakes is that artificial lakes have many elements that meet the conditions for 'exposure,' the most obvious of which is the footprints in the mud."

"Smack."

Her snap was different from Vill-V's crisp snap; it was muffled and soft.

Prometheus projects the scene of the artificial lake from the second case.

Einstein walked to one of the most prominent footprints, pressed her finger on the intangible shape, and magnified the footprint with her finger, transforming it into a complete model that represented the calculated human figure.

A tall man, about 1.8 meters tall.

"Indoors, footprints can at most indicate height, while footprints left on soft soil can roughly indicate weight, which reinforces the idea that 'the murderer is male.'"

"But we overlooked one point: since there was an assassin and a bystander in the first case, why do we assume that the assassin in the second case is the same person? Couldn't he have been a bystander in the first case?"

"In fact, the information we receive can be erased and falsified to some extent, so I have reason to suspect that what we know is falsified information deliberately used to mislead us."

Women can wear men's equipment and use the same size clothing, so faking weight is a piece of cake for the Firemoth's technology.

Einstein's words caught Vill-V's attention. She propped herself up from the table and, after thinking for a moment, seemed to notice something strange as well.

"That's right...and there's a major problem. In the second assassination, a soldier accidentally witnessed the scene and was seriously injured. Judging from the wounds of the deceased, the killer definitely knew how to kill a human with one blow, but he 'missed' when attacking the soldier."

"So, what the soldier saw and what was left behind were all 'deliberate' actions by the murderer."

Based on this analysis, it can be basically concluded that the two people who carried out the assassination were a man and a woman, and it is very likely that the woman carried out the assassination, while the man was more likely to cover it up and fabricate the story.

Even so, they still couldn't find out who the killer was.

The check on the Honkai Energy erosion rate was to find out who might have used the Phase Transfer Device. Since nothing was found, it means that this report was also disguised.

This is too tricky.

It's like being led by the nose; even if you uncover more information, you can't use it to solve the case.

Einstein's gaze was unpredictable.

So, what should we do...?

It's late at night.

The soft sounds that occur in the darkness may come from a rat in the sewer, a fish in the ocean waves, or perhaps... from humans inside a tower of steel.

If one word could aptly describe the style of assassins, it would be "waiting for the right moment."

Opportunists are the most suitable people to kill. Skilled techniques are just icing on the cake; the key is to seize the right moment to strike.

When is there a better time to kill than when everyone is asleep and their guard is at its lowest?

No.

And so it began.

The High Council members of the Firemoth were all in a state of fear. They were afraid of dying at headquarters, and they were also afraid of dying outside of headquarters. In any case, they could only feel a little at ease when they were protected by the most elite soldiers.

The assassin, having moved through the void, easily bypassed the defenses and arrived before the High Council who was sleeping peacefully with his eyes closed. Seeing the man soundly asleep, the assassin calmly raised his weapon and brought it down in a single stroke—

"Bass!"

The dagger and claws collided in mid-air, the sparks failing to illuminate the darkness, but in that fleeting flash, the assassin saw the white-haired man standing before him, and Kevin saw the cold fox mask.

We've been discovered?

Neither the fox mask nor Kevin uttered a word; in this life-or-death moment, language was pale and slow.

In the second before the lights came on, Fox Mask and Kevin clashed weapons more than a dozen times in the darkness. Kevin's terrifying strength and insight forced Fox Mask to retreat repeatedly. After the lights came on, the lurking Scar appeared behind Fox Mask, also gripping a dagger and stabbing at Fox Mask's back.

The Phase Transfer Device on the fox mask's wrist activated, and after glancing at Kevin, it vanished into the void.

"What are you doing?!"

"..." Kevin frowned as he sheathed his dagger, glancing back at the High Council who had woken up and was shouting. He remembered that this person should be a fairly calm individual.

Are you overwhelmed by the fear that has been spreading lately?

He looked at Kevin apologetically. "Sorry, Kevin, I was too slow..."

"No, it's okay."

Kevin shook his head.

After all, it is already very difficult to predict the assassin's target and lay in ambush in advance.

"Indeed, as you said, He took action today, and that was indeed His goal."

Kevin looked at Einstein, who walked straight in from the door.

"It's just a simple categorization of the deceased. The first victim had the greatest influence, the second and third had varying degrees of influence, and the fourth was High Council with less influence. So today, it should be High Council with great influence. By further analyzing the High Council personnel, it's not hard to see who will be the next target."

"The danger of continuous use of the Phase Transfer Device is tantamount to suicide, so it is unlikely that it would target the next person after failing. We will now conduct a check on everyone at headquarters."

Kevin nodded in agreement. "Yeah... thankfully not today..."

"Drop--"

Einstein's communicator rang; it was Prometheus calling. She hesitated before answering—

"Doctor Einstein, another High Council has been murdered. The time of death was three minutes ago."

Swearing leads to power outage; moving tomorrow.

null

Chapter 41 Three Ways to Read Novels

"This is my duty; I made a mistake in judgment."

Einstein, unusually, showed an expression of helplessness and shame.

After a second emergency inspection, no trace of the killer was found at headquarters.

She had considered the possibility of two people committing the crime at the same time, but the traces from the first three murders showed that one person assassinated while the other watched. The artificial lake was a secondary crime scene used to mislead people. Moreover, if two people acted at the same time, they would leave more clues. Therefore, it was almost impossible for them to suddenly change their strategy without knowing about tonight's ambush.

Of course, there is an even smaller possibility: there were three assassins in total.

"The current High Council has already passed a majority vote to prepare for the transfer to the various branches." After hearing Einstein's apology, May calmly raised her head and said, "This is a helpless move; they have no other way to prevent themselves from becoming the next victim."

"So it has finally come to this..." Einstein sighed with a headache.

There were several reasons for not immediately relocating High Council, the most important being that there was a very high probability that the perpetrator was High Council.

Even though multiple pieces of evidence now point to Lin, they all agree that even if Lin is the killer, the mastermind behind it is most likely one of the High Council.

Mei turned to Kevin was deep in thought behind her, and said, "Kevin, you fought the assassin yesterday. Tell me about your experience."

"Ah... um." Kevin was interrupted from his thoughts and subconsciously responded. Only after seeing that everyone was looking at him did he realize what was happening and said solemnly, "I can confirm that it is not Lin. I have sparred with Lin. The assassin's moves and actions are very different from Lin's, and his strength is also far inferior to Lin's."

"Is that so..."

"Phew... I will continue to investigate; it is my duty," Einstein solemnly declared.

This was not originally her responsibility, but for Einstein, since she was investigating the matter, she was determined to find the culprit.

After a brief discussion, Mei was about to return to the Research and Development Department to begin new development work, but before she left, Kevin called her back.

"Plum."

"What's wrong, Kevin?" Seeing Kevin's hesitation, May smiled. "Just say it. Is there anything you and I need to hide?"

"...That makes sense." Kevin smiled with relief, but then asked with some concern, "Don't you need to transfer? After all, you are also..."

"I think if the assassin's target is me, then he will make his move sooner or later. Rather than going to an unfamiliar branch and facing an ambush that may not be there, it's better to meet the challenge at headquarters."

"..."

The attacks on the Fifth Branch Incident and Sakura have served as a wake-up call for Kevin. Even though the Speaker's Poisoned Cocoon has been eradicated and he himself faces the danger of assassination, he cannot let his guard down and risk being taken advantage of during this critical period.

"Is there anything else you'd like to say?"

Faced with Mei's smile, Kevin silently shook his head, but secretly clenched his fist.

He had one more question to ask.

Why did May use the seemingly detached term "they" when talking about the transfer of High Council?

Why did he feel that May was actually happy to see this happen, and even seemed to have guessed what would happen during the subsequent High Council transfer?

Maybe I'm just overthinking it.

"Xiaolin, I've noticed you don't seem to like reading."

After entering the room and seeing the exquisitely assembled models, the man remained silent for a moment before asking Zero, who was quickly assembling the models, a question.

It wasn't that he thought Zero was too playful; rather, he was happy to see Zero find his hobby. The problem was that Zero wasn't happy when assembling models; he just treated it as a kind of... job.

Meticulously polished and assembled, then placed in a corner of the room, mechanically opening the next box of models.

The book and the model were both bought for Zero by the man, and they were both things he liked. So when he saw that Zero neither liked reading books nor used model building as a pastime to pass the time, he always felt a subtle sense of frustration.

"... I've read a lot of books." Zero stopped holding the parts, having not consulted the instruction manual and relying solely on his understanding to assemble them blindly, and calmly said, "I've read most of the useful books."

"Um... you mean these books are useless...?"

Even he would feel a little disappointed to be belittled by Zero without making a sound.

The man dejectedly lit a cigarette, picked up a copy of "The Urban Strongest Young Master," flipped through a few pages, and then stood next to Zero with great interest as he began to read.

Zero glanced at the smiling man, ignored him, and continued assembling the model with more than a thousand parts.

Half a day passed, and as Zero was almost finished, the man also finished reading the novel.

The man nodded thoughtfully and remarked, "Indeed, novels are really interesting."

Zero applied the last decal, completing another perfect unpainted model. He said calmly, "... I don't think this novel is 'interesting' at all. The plot construction and character arrangement of most world-famous novels are far superior to it. The action logic of the characters in similar novels is sometimes too strange, especially... the women."

"Hehehe, Xiaolin, you don't understand. Not all novels have to reach the level of world renown." When talking about his area of interest, the man shook his finger, as if to say, "Besides, the significance of a novel is not just to become a great work of art or to convey lofty values to people."

"... But I really can't see the point of its existence."

"Its very existence is already very meaningful."

"It is meaningful to be born..."

"That's right. Perhaps for many people, its existence is irrelevant to them, but it is a work that someone has poured their heart and soul into. It brought me joy, and that's enough."

"..."

Upon hearing the man's description, Zero put down the model in her hand and looked at the novel in his.

"Want to see it?" the man asked, waving the book with a mocking tone.

Zero nodded. "We can give it a try."

"Haha, I knew you would try it."

The man, having successfully carried out his scheme, handed the book to Zero. Zero took it expressionlessly, flipped through a few pages, and then asked, "Why is the protagonist's identity set as someone who travels from one world to another? What's the point of that?"

"Perhaps, the way you give out cheat codes can be a little more reasonable."

"But the whole concept of time travel is illogical."

"Uh..." The man wiped his sweat and chuckled dryly, "That's probably just the author's hobby."