Light was right

Shrimp stared at the computer screen, his eyes bloodshot. He had not slept a single minute since last night.

The names in the brown notebook had already reached the thirtieth page.

"You dare screw with me."

Shrimp gritted his teeth, dragging the pen so hard across the paper that he nearly punctured it.

He no longer limited himself to drug lords with dark web bounties. His targets began expanding indiscriminately.

Lindsey's press conference had enraged him. He wanted revenge on everyone who dared question him.

A famous North American talk show host joked on his show that "Kira is a coward who won't even show his face."

Shrimp wrote down his name.

A legislator in a European country issued a public statement calling for the world to unite against these extrajudicial killings.

Shrimp wrote down his name.

In just twelve hours, fifty people fell.

The cause of death was the same in every case: cardiac paralysis.

Politicians, media figures, gang leaders, even ordinary social media influencers who had merely insulted Kira on Twitter.

Global panic rose exponentially.

"Gah, gah, gah." Ryuk munched on an apple, rocking with laughter as he watched Shrimp descend into madness.

"Light was right. You're nothing but a complete waste of space."

Ryuk spat out the apple core. "You don't even have time to sleep anymore."

Shrimp could not understand what Ryuk was saying.

He stared fixedly at the rising number of followers on his screen and the comments scrolling past in a frenzy. He relished the thrill of ruling over everything.

He would make everyone who looked down on others kneel at his feet.

The pen never stopped. The list grew longer.

London.

In a windowless basement, densely packed data nodes flickered across a huge screen.

L crouched on a chair, biting his thumbnail.

"The frequency of deaths has surged," L said, staring at the screen. "Fifty people have died in the past twelve hours.

"The targets have expanded from international criminals to public figures."

A suited agent behind him handed him a consolidated report.

"The activity schedule analysis model is complete."

L took the report and glanced through it. "Kira's killing schedule has lost all regularity. He has remained active for twenty-four consecutive hours."

L picked up a sugar cube and put it in his mouth.

"Taken together with our earlier press conference test," L said, chewing the sugar cube, "Kira is extremely immature. He is easily provoked and lacks long-term planning. This high-frequency killing is a stress response to a setback."

L typed rapidly on the keyboard.

"Retrieve the electricity consumption data for Linhai City's South District and West District over the past forty-eight hours," L ordered.

Two heat maps appeared on the screen.

"Kira's high-frequency killing must be accompanied by frequent online information searches and device use."

L pointed at several anomalous red spots on the heat maps. "Cross-reference these areas of abnormal power consumption with active network nodes."

Data cascaded down the screen.

"Exclude commercial establishments and businesses with regular night shifts," L said, crunching the sugar cube. "Narrow it down to seven private residential nodes."

Seven precise geographical coordinates appeared on the screen.

"First, Kira is unemployed or a freelancer, with no need to follow a conventional daily schedule."

"Second, he desperately craves attention and has low social standing in real life."

"Third, he is hiding at one of these seven coordinates."

L swiveled his chair around.

"Send this profile and the coordinates to the police in Linhai City, China. Make the arrest immediately."

Linhai City Public Security Bureau.

Chen Lei stood before his desk, clutching the encrypted profiling report and seven addresses L had sent.

Deep creases formed in the paper.

Unemployed. An extremely irregular schedule. Mentally immature.

Kannazuki's face surfaced in Chen Lei's mind.

A Delivery Worker at the bottom of society. He delivered meals on time every day and came home on time. His schedule was extraordinarily regular, precise to the second. When customers provoked him, he always lowered his head and apologized, his emotions perfectly steady.

He was the exact opposite of L's profile.

And none of L's seven coordinates pointed to the Happy Home residential complex.

"Captain Chen." Xiao Li pushed the door open, holding several newly retrieved surveillance stills.

"Following L's instructions, we investigated these seven locations. The Red Star Abandoned Slaughterhouse on the outskirts of the South District is the most suspicious.

"Its basement has records of abnormal electricity consumption, and the area is uninhabited."

Chen Lei did not take the images.

He walked to the window and gazed at the gray sky outside.

"Is anyone still watching Kannazuki?" Chen Lei asked.

Xiao Li froze for a moment.

"We pulled them out.

"After L took over, the bureau chief gave strict orders to direct all resources toward L's profile.

"And..." Xiao Li opened another report.

"We checked Kannazuki's movements over the past two days. Every day, he goes out on time to buy groceries, returns to the Rental Apartment to cook noodles, and reads old books. Nothing unusual.

"While Kira was killing people like mad, he was asleep."

Chen Lei closed his eyes.

His instincts told him something was wrong with Kannazuki.

But the evidence, the data, and L, who was worshipped like a god, were all telling him he was wrong.

The garbage data generated by the stand-in had perfectly contaminated the world's greatest detective's analytical model.

"Assemble the team," Chen Lei said hoarsely. "Target the Red Star Abandoned Slaughterhouse. Full tactical gear. Prepare to breach."

Xiao Li snapped to attention, saluted, and ran out of the office.

Chen Lei opened his eyes and stared at the list on his desk. He was trapped in a logical dead end.

The Happy Home residential complex.

Kannazuki sat at the table. Before him was a freshly prepared bowl of braised beef instant noodles.

He picked up his chopsticks, lifted some noodles, and brought them to his mouth.

He chewed. Swallowed.

An old, yellowed book lay at the corner of the table.

There was no phone, no computer.

He rose and walked over to the table.

He disconnected the miniature terminal's hard drive, took out the strong acid solution he had prepared, and dripped it onto the storage chip.

White smoke rose. An acrid smell spread.

The data was physically destroyed.

He smashed the remains of the motherboard, tossed them into a garbage bag, and mixed them with food waste.

He put on gloves and carefully wiped the tabletop, doorknobs, and bedside cabinet with alcohol, removing every fingerprint and flake of skin.

He severed every connection to the digital and physical worlds.

The clock on the wall ticked.

Six in the evening.

Two hours remained until the death time he had set.

Kannazuki walked to the window and opened a narrow gap in the curtains.

The unfinished building opposite remained empty. Shrimp had completely diverted Chen Lei's attention. However powerful L's computing capacity was, he could not calculate a variable that did not exist.

Kannazuki turned and picked up a black backpack.

Inside were only a few changes of clothes and the black Death Note.

He took nothing else. Every trace in this room would be reduced to ashes in a fire.

The underground parking garage.

A van without license plates stood outside the basement door.

Liu Jianguo moved yellow woven sacks with an expressionless face.

One sack. Two.

The final four hundred kilograms of ammonium nitrate were all stacked beneath the load-bearing pillars.

His task complete, Liu Jianguo turned, left the basement, and sat in the driver's seat.

He did not start the vehicle. He simply sat there blankly, waiting for his prescribed fate to arrive.

Seven forty-five that evening.

A man in a black jacket and baseball cap slipped into the underground parking garage, avoiding the complex's surveillance cameras.

Zhao Qiang.

He was wanted for murder, and the province-wide warrant left him nowhere to hide. He needed somewhere completely concealed to evade tonight's manhunt.

He had scouted the abandoned Air-Raid Shelter long ago.

Zhao Qiang pushed open the half-closed iron door and slipped into the Air-Raid Shelter.

Inside, it was pitch-black.

He felt his way to a corner and sat against the wall. He had no idea that five hundred kilograms of high-purity ammonium nitrate lay piled just a few meters away.

Breathing heavily, he pulled half a crumpled cigarette from his pocket and put it between his lips.

He took out his lighter.

Inside the basement.

Following the conditions set in the notebook, Liu Jianguo detonated the gas cylinders arranged in advance at precisely the appointed time.

Zhao Qiang had just pressed his lighter.

A spark flared.

The gas concentration had reached the critical threshold.