The Beginning of the Honkai / Shrouded in Mist

Lin thought of Qianqi she had passed by in a hurry that morning, once again.

Her distraught expression at that time was as if she had done something irreversible.

However, someone should be investigating these matters. Prometheus's reminder was probably to warn him to be careful, as something similar to the Cleansing Incident might happen at headquarters recently.

But this time, it was Mei who was in charge.

"Dr. Vill-V hopes you can participate in the investigation."

Vill-V...?

Just as Lin was about to leave after accepting the information, he heard Prometheus's mechanical voice say this.

"I will also participate in the investigation."

Lin had anticipated that Prometheus would be involved in the investigation. AI is an aid in these kinds of events that require clues. If she had been involved in the last Cleansing Incident, even if she didn't know the inside story, she should have been able to find some information quickly.

But why would Vill-V let him...?

"... Where is the crime scene?"

Lin ultimately didn't think too much about it; Vill-V had her own plans, and her thought process was always peculiar.

At that moment, that strong premonition struck again.

Chapter 129 The Beginning of Honkai

Lin found it hard to describe his feelings. He wasn't the type of person who experienced strong emotional fluctuations; he couldn't bring himself to cry or laugh.

When he heard that there were corpses inside headquarters, he believed that he still had a blank, expressionless face under his helmet.

Whether the deceased was someone you knew or someone you didn't, it wouldn't change this face in the slightest.

Yes, it is a wise choice to send a cold-blooded doll that neither cries nor laughs to investigate the dead.

"The body was discovered four hours after the time of death." Prometheus reported some routine information. No autopsy was needed; her analytical skills made it easy for her to determine the cause and time of death. "The body was discovered at 9:11 a. m."

That is to say, he died around 5 o'clock.

To facilitate the investigation, the scene was kept exactly as it was. This was nothing to the Fire Moths' technology; if they wanted, they could keep a death scene intact for a year without it being destroyed.

Erwin's body was found on the deck. According to the first eyewitness, when he saw the body, the blood had already congealed on the deck. The inconspicuous fatal wound did not immediately make him recognize that it was a corpse. It was only when he got closer that he noticed that the young man's pupils were already dilated in his open eyes.

Prometheus did not report the cause of Erwin's death, and Lin understood why she hadn't said anything after seeing the body, what the "inconspicuous fatal wound" mentioned by the first eyewitness was.

Erwin's stiff expression after his death revealed a hint of confusion, as if he hadn't expected to die so suddenly.

There is no such thing as a farewell before death; everything happens so quickly, abandoning romance and extinguishing life.

Lin Mo shifted his gaze from the man's face to the neck of Erwin's corpse.

As soon as he stepped onto the deck, he saw the "Black Spring" that filled his vision, a deep, dense black in his colorless world.

He died from a ruptured carotid artery, massive blood loss, and shock.

The killer acted cleanly and precisely, cutting the trachea and artery without altering the trachea by even a millimeter. Therefore, this was not an accidental homicide, but a premeditated murder.

One can imagine that as Erwin stood on the deck gazing at the sunrise, the instant he turned his head, his life was wiped out by a sharp blade that attacked from the darkness.

Apart from that, no other clues could be found.

Fingerprints, footprints, murder weapon, surveillance footage... all meaningless. Moth Chaser possesses the most advanced technology, so Lin doesn't need to do these routine investigations. The fact that the killer could commit murder at Moth Chaser's headquarters shows that the murderer was confident that no clues would be discovered.

Even if Lin didn't know how to profile, he could tell that this was a calm, rational, and cold-blooded killer.

"A vendetta?" Prometheus uttered the most likely guess.

The ambitious man who plotted the coup is long gone, and it's almost impossible for someone to reappear in the short term who wants to change the Moth's system. Moreover, Lin sees no connection between Erwin's death and the Moth.

But a revenge killing is also impossible.

"The body and the wounds were intact."

Lin imitated the killer's movements, walking over with his head down, naturally holding a dagger in his hand, making no attempt to hide it, and swaggering to Erwin's side.

Before Erwin could react, he cleanly and decisively slashed Erwin's throat.

He sidestepped the blood spurting from the artery, and without glancing again at Erwin, who was kneeling on the ground clutching his neck, he slowly walked into the darkness.

There was no hatred, no emotion, and not even a motive.

Erwin was standing here, so he died.

In a revenge killing, it's generally impossible to remain so calm, killing a human being as if slaughtering an animal. Even the most indifferent person, upon seeing their enemy about to die, should stand at a distance and watch them slowly pass away.

The lack of a motive is the most crucial factor in finding the real culprit.

It's even impossible to determine whether the person who killed him had ever met him.

Who did Erwin see last night?

As Lin looked at that frozen young face, he realized that his sense of taste seemed to have returned.

The tip of my tongue seemed to taste bitterness.

He thought he had bitten his tongue, so he stuck out his tongue and brought up the monitor inside his helmet to take a look.

No, the tongue was perfectly intact.

Like rotten meat, it reeks of foul odor and attracts flies and mosquitoes; a meaningless lump of flesh.

"..."

When Lin was conveying the information to her, he watched as her expression changed from a smile to a moment of bewilderment, and finally she froze and remained motionless.

It's as if he died along with Erwin.

He hadn't expected the first person he'd meet to be Elysia, just as she hadn't expected him to come to her to investigate Erwin's death.

Why?

What should Lin say? Why was Erwin killed? He's investigating too.

However, he thought that wasn't what Elysia wanted to ask.

She wanted to ask Erwin why he died.

Why would a boy who survived three major Honkai die in the land of humanity's hope?

I can't find that suffocating reason.

No, it's not that you can make excuses.

"So you only chatted for a little while before parting ways." After listening to Elysia's story, Lin no longer showed her usual smile, remaining silent like Lin's alter ego.

Lin had anticipated that he would not get any clues.

At five in the morning, there was no one on the deck. Erwin may have just wanted to see the sunrise on a whim, and the murderer may have just seen him on a whim and killed him.

The headquarters was as quiet as a graveyard. Erwin, lying in a pool of blood, wailed, but his own blood blocked his way. After a silent struggle, he stopped moving.

So what's the point of asking?

I don't know. Maybe Lin just wanted to try his luck. Since he had nowhere else to start, he could only use every method he could think of.

It's also possible that he wasn't actually expecting to get any answers.

"Lin, what will you do after we find the murderer?"

Elysia seems to love asking these questions, and Lin usually answers them without hesitation.

"What will you do.

In normal circumstances, prisoners would be imprisoned in the Deepest Place, and those with serious offenses might be executed.

But no matter how it's handled, it's not up to Lin to decide; he will only follow the rules.

He cannot represent his own will; he cannot say what "I" will do.

However, Lin Cong kills anyone; he simply adheres to this principle and is certain that he will not do anything he shouldn't.

"I'll do what I'm supposed to do," he replied.

As Lin turned to leave, he heard a sneer.

A crisp laugh, clearly mocking, came from behind.

But when he turned around, he only saw Elysia with her head down, looking lost and dejected.

Chapter 130 Enveloped in Fog

There was once a question: when Gian bullies Nobita, you can choose to help Nobita, help Gian, or do nothing. What is the best way to avoid being a perpetrator?

There is only one answer: help Nobita.

Becoming a bystander makes you a perpetrator.

Then another question arises: when Nobita retaliates against Gian, he can choose to help Nobita, help Gian, or do nothing. How can he avoid being the perpetrator?

There are two answers: help Nobita or remain a bystander.

Because it is the bullied person's "retaliation" against the bully.

Even when both are bystanders and hold the same position, their identities can change drastically in different events.

So there's one more question.

When Nobita is about to kill Gian, what is the identity of the bystanders?

The answer is also quite simple.

Accomplice.

Because this is not a bullying issue, but a case of people killing each other.

The essence of murder is much simpler than bullying.

After knocking on Qianqi's door, Lin waited for her to open it, imagining what kind of expression she would have.

Micro-expression analysis is widely used in interrogations; even if it cannot be used as decisive evidence, it can be a way to break through impasses.

Was he hoping that Qianqi would show even the slightest bit of panic?

In that case, wouldn't we be able to use her as a clue to catch the real culprit?

Unfortunately, or perhaps not, the moment her blank expression appeared behind the door, all of Lin's despicable schemes came to naught.

She was abnormal, but not in the way he thought she was abnormal.

Someone died.

"Oh."

Their conversation was as dull and tedious as drinking plain water. Lin Ping asked Qianqi some questions, and Qianqi answered them with her face, which was as thin as if her skin was peeling away.

I only exchanged two sentences with Erwin last night. Erwin asked her if she knew where Lin was, and she said she didn't know. We haven't seen each other since.

Just as Elysia said, Erwin wants to see him. Erwin was one of the two people Elysia said she wanted to see last night.

Perhaps Qianqi's unusual behavior had nothing to do with Erwin's death, but Lin didn't want to overlook any details, so he sat upright and asked, "What happened to you today?" while Qianqi remained expressionless.

"..."

A suffocating loneliness.

If a singer's high note can last as long as ten breaths, then even ten of the best high notes cannot fill that gap.

It was impossible to respond to the investigators' questions with silence, and Qianqi had also thought of this. She integrated into the Fire Moth very quickly. Even as a newcomer, she understood that people in the Fire Moth had no right to remain "silent".

If necessary, the Fire Moths would interrogate people with Truth Serum, but almost no one does that; it's impossible to drag everyone into the interrogation room and inject them with Truth Serum.

Of course, there are always exceptions.

Lin glanced at Qianqi's right arm, which she had covered up. She had originally been wearing a short-sleeved jacket, but now she had changed into a long robe.

This morning, he also didn't see her right hand; she had hidden it in a blind spot where he couldn't see it.

It's probably because there are pinholes on it.

Preconceived suspicions are foolish, even among the elites at headquarters.