Truth and Falsehood

"Unable to determine the level," Lu Ya replied.

"How could we not be able to judge?" Li Si asked doubtfully in the group chat. "Such a high-intensity battle would definitely reveal their strength, such as speed or power. If they are Awakened, they would also demonstrate their abilities."

In everyone's opinion, the incident on Xingshu Road was so big and involved so many casualties that it must have been extremely intense.

Lu Ya scoffed, "He used a sniper rifle, single-handedly crushing dozens of people, forcing them all to hide behind telephone poles. How do you tell me how to judge his strength? All I can say is that he fired from the rooftop of the Kailai Hotel, roughly 900 meters from the target. At that distance, with an anti-materiel sniper rifle, even B-Class sniper would die if they didn't dodge the bullets in time."

"Wait, you mean, he was all alone?" Li Si was stunned. "This photo posted by the Chuang Wang, was it taken by one person alone? One person killed so many people?"

"Yes," Lu Ya replied.

Li Si was shocked. "So no one came into close contact with him?"

"Yes," Lu Ya replied, "I saw someone sneaking towards the Kailai Hotel, but I haven't heard from them since."

"In other words, everyone who saw him is dead," Li Si concluded.

Lu Ya knew that Qing Chen had encountered enemies on the rooftop, but the problem was that he couldn't see them clearly at all.

He had just run up to the rooftop and was about to raise his binoculars when he was spotted by that terrifying sniper. If he hadn't reacted quickly, he probably would have died there too.

Every time Lu Ya thought about this, he felt a little upset...

At that moment, Lu Ya even thought the other party was an A-level expert, otherwise why would they be so sensitive to his gaze?

Only A-level experts possess such perception.

However, after thinking about it, he realized that it was unlikely that the sniper was an A-level sniper. After all, if he were truly an A-level sniper, why would he need such a long-range sniping technique?

However, the information revealed by Lu Ya was very important in itself: a sniper who can accurately hit a target at a distance of more than 900 meters is enough to kill a B-Class expert.

Whichever organization possesses such a sniper would be able to secure a place in the Time Walker's circle.

Because this is a skill that can kill with a single blow.

The question then Chuang Wang: "Are there any soldiers in this group? I'd like to know, how long does it take to train a sniper like this in the military?"

Three years.

In the group, an ID that rarely speaks, "Jingshan," said, "It takes at least three years to have this ability to suppress the battlefield. There are indeed such people in the Time Walker circle; as far as I remember, they should be in Jiuzhou."

For a time, many people speculated that Jingshan must have been a soldier, and such people are now mostly concentrated in Kunlun and Jiuzhou.

It's not surprising that there are people from Kunlun and Jiuzhou in the group.

The Chuang Wang asked, "Since snipers are so difficult to train, you should also know that we have only been here for a little over two months. Even if he started training from day one, he definitely wouldn't be able to make it. This narrows down the range of snipers considerably."

Given the current environment in China, what ordinary person would have the opportunity to become a sniper? Therefore, this sniper is most likely a member of the military and is relatively old.

Here, everyone missed out on one piece of information: Qing Chen's learning ability and the mysterious world of "Conquer by Virtue".

Therefore, everyone's guesses began to go astray.

Students like Qing Chen were prioritized for exclusion.

Li Si became interested. "Could it be that Kunlun and Jiuzhou have gone to war? Otherwise, why would they be using snipers!"

Jingshan replied again, "No."

The group fell silent.

Then, someone posted another photo.

Yue'er: "I also found a photo posted by a netizen. Luckily, I took a screenshot quickly, and it has already been deleted."

The so-called deletion means that there is no way to verify it, and it is unknown who filmed it.

In the photo, Chen Siheng, whom Qing Chen was controlling at the time, was attacked. You can vaguely see two blurry figures standing on the rooftop, one in front of the other. The person behind the sniper has raised his arm, and it looks like he has a gun in his hand.

The photo is blurry, but one thing is clear: the sniper was being controlled.

"The sniper is dead? That's too hasty. Didn't he have anyone protecting him? How could someone get so close?" Li Si asked curiously.

Then, something unexpected happened. Huan Yu took the initiative to say in the group chat, "He's not dead."

After saying those three words, the ID "Huan Yu" fell silent once again.

Everyone suddenly realized that one of the parties involved in the battle tonight was very likely Huan Yu!

And they are most likely to be the losing side!

The next moment, Zhang San, who hadn't spoken for a long time, asked, "Actually, you took all the photos yourselves, right? You pretended to be screenshots from netizens, but you were actually there at the time. Tell me what happened next."

Yue'er: "I really found this online, but as for whether it's from the time of the Chuang Wang, I don't know."

Chuang Wang's tooth aches. "What's the point of just clearing your name? Can't we have some love in this group? Aren't we discussing serious matters right now? Huan Yu is known to be the holder of the Demon Stamp. His sudden statement that the sniper isn't dead clearly indicates he knows the inside story. So, whoever has been fighting this holder recently is most likely to be the protagonist tonight."

"Ice Eye, A Little Duck, Liu Dezhu," Li Si concluded, "It seems that all three of them have a grudge against Huan Yu."

Lu Ya coldly sent a message: "There's no point in speculating without sufficient evidence. Anyway, just a reminder to everyone: with a sniper lurking in the shadows, don't be too arrogant, or you won't even know how you died. Anyone who was at the scene tonight should know very well that this sniper is extremely bloodthirsty."

In the small house on Xingshu Road, Qing Chen sat on the sofa and said to Nan Gengchen, "Ask He Xiaoxiao who was passing information to him yesterday."

Nan Gengchen recalled that He Xiaoxiao had given a warning last night, but the information she gave was incorrect. What should have happened tomorrow had already happened today.

Therefore, either He Xiaoxiao is cooperating with Huan Yu to spread false information, or someone is deliberately spreading false information to He Xiaoxiao.

A Little Duck asked in the group chat, "Group owner, your warning yesterday said that violence would occur in Los Angeles tomorrow. I want to know who gave you this information. This kind of information source that deliberately misleads others should be exposed to prevent others from being fooled."

After a moment of silence in the group, He Xiaoxiao said, "Zhang San."

Zhang San did not refute.

For a moment, everyone in the group felt that the group chat was too strange, and that behind each of those strange IDs were hidden secrets.

Qing Chen said to Nan Gengchen, "This Zhang San is very likely one of Huan Yu's men. There are more than twenty people in this group, divided into several organizations and factions."

At the crime scene, Lu Yuan stood on the rooftop, turned off his phone, and stopped checking the group messages.

He asked the Xiao Ying beside him, "Did you catch them all?"

"Yes, all the surviving participants from tonight have been apprehended," Xiao Ying said. "I think they were terrified. When we went to arrest them, they all hid behind telephone poles, afraid to come out, as if they were worried that there might be snipers killing them."

This sense of oppression can only be exerted by a sniper.

Lu Yuan then asked, "Did you measure the straight-line distance? How far is this rooftop from his target?"

"1040 meters in a straight line," Xiao Ying muttered. "Team Leader Lu, this isn't your average sniper. Look at his firing range, everyone he shoots is a one-shot kill. And at this extreme distance of 1040 meters, he once precisely broke the thug's lower leg between Nan Gengchen's legs. That's terrifying."

Lu Yuan knew what "Xiao Ying" meant.

A sniper's accuracy is considered to be around 800 meters, which is the level of most snipers. There are indeed very few snipers who can hit the target at a range of over 1000 meters.

Moreover, when engaging moving targets, the effective shooting accuracy is further reduced to 600 meters or 400 meters.

The sniper who appeared tonight is now hitting his target every time within 1000 meters. This ability to handle the situation with ease is enough to call him a sharpshooter.

Lu Yuan scratched his head. "Damn it, where did such a skilled sniper come from? Is this Liu Dezhu's boss? And after this sniper was found on the rooftop, he actually killed two people—one shot in the face, and the other had his throat slit. Logically, they should have died in the same way, so why slit his throat from behind when he had a gun?"

"The body has been disturbed, so we can't determine the cause and effect," Xiao Ying said. "It's likely that the sniper deliberately tampered with the scene before leaving, not wanting us to know the truth."

The one shot dead from the front was Chen Siheng, who was being controlled by Puppet Master.

The man who had his throat slit from behind was Zhou Yong, who had come here to find a sniper.

Qing Chen didn't want anyone to know that Chen Siheng had been controlled, so he messed up the scene before leaving.

Lu Yuan thought for a moment and said, "Let's go downstairs and check out the other scenes."

As he spoke, he turned and walked towards the stairs behind him, following in Qing Chen's footsteps as he descended the stairs.

Upon reaching the fourth floor, Lu Yuan picked up a spent cartridge case from the ground. "There are four spent cartridge cases in total. Judging from the position of this case, the sniper fired from here and hit the assassin downstairs... That sounds so strange. There's clearly more than half a floor between them, how could they have hit him?"

Lu Yuan, he suddenly noticed dents on the iron gate. "Are these gunshot marks? Holy crap..."

"What's wrong, Team Leader Lu?" Xiao Ying asked, puzzled as to why Lu Yuan was reacting so strongly.

Lu Yuan glanced at the iron gate, then at the spot where the assassin had died, and finally at the scattered bullet casings. "That sniper fired four shots from the floor above, then used the ricocheting bullets to hit the assassin?! Xiao Ying, take the door back for testing. I need to know if the dents on this door were made by bullets!"

"Captain Lu, what you're saying is a bit too far-fetched," Xiao Ying exclaimed in surprise. "Is there really such a thing as gun-fu? We're all gun enthusiasts, don't try to fool me."

Lu Yuan at him. "Have you ever heard of time travelers, Time Walker, Awakened, gene warriors, or cultivators before?"

"That seems to be true," Xiao Ying sighed.

"By the way," Lu Yuan remembered something, "When you came back this time, you mentioned to the boss that Qing Chen's marksmanship in the Inner World was excellent, and his learning ability was also very strong. Is that true?"

"Of course it's true. They say every shot hits the bullseye, and you can identify the weapon just by listening to the sound of the gun!" Xiao Ying said.

Lu Yuan pondered for a moment, "Then do you think he might have already mastered this gun-fu technique?"

"That's possible, but Captain Lu, he doesn't know how to use a sniper rifle," Xiao Ying said. "Old Nine told us that Qing Chen hasn't even had a chance to go to the sniping range yet. Even if he's a quick learner, he can't possibly be this good at it without ever having touched a sniper rifle before, right?"

Lu Yuan thought for a moment and said, "That's true, but we overlooked one thing: the sniper might not have come alone. You said Nan Gengchen was kidnapped tonight, and then the sniper appeared. Nan Gengchen and Qing Chen usually walk home from school together, so why was Nan Gengchen suddenly left alone today?"

Lu Yuan continued his analysis, "So, it's very likely that Qing Chen and the sniper were already lying in ambush here. You know, the purpose of having an observer next to a sniper is to prevent them from being ambushed at close range. Qing Chen is probably that kind of 'observer,' and the sniper is their boss. Someone in the group posted a photo of a sniper being controlled before, with the gun pointed at the back of his head, but Huan Yu said the sniper wasn't dead... In that situation, someone must have rescued the sniper nearby."

This is the most plausible guess.

Lu Yuan also found it hard to believe that Qing Chen, who had never even touched a sniper rifle before, could achieve the same suppressive effect as tonight.

The two eventually arrived downstairs, at the spot where Qing Chen had shot and killed C-Class.

Outside the safe passage, under the large tree where the C-Class expert had once hidden, there were eight bullet craters.

"Strange, there was clearly a battle here, so why can't we find any bodies?" Lu Yuan asked, puzzled.

What he found strange was that the deceased C-Class had been sacrificed by Qing Chen at great risk, because the boy wanted to know if sacrificing the corpse of a high-level superhuman would make the Puppet Master branch faster.