S.C.I. (Volume I) - Case 2: Chapter 14

The Killer Training Camp 14: Child of God 

Zhan Zhao rushed back into his own office at the S.C.I. and began ransacking the room, searching through cabinets and drawers.

Bai Yutang and Bai Chi, who had followed him, watched his frantic behavior with confusion.

"Cat, what are you looking for?"

"Xiao Bai, do you remember that batch of old English newspapers I bought last time?" Zhan Zhao asked while he continued his search.

Bai Yutang thought for a moment: "You mean the ones you bought by the pound?"

"That’s right... I remember they were around here somewhere." The longer he searched, the more anxious Zhan Zhao became. "Did I throw them away?"

"No! They are in the second-to-last cabinet on the right side of your filing cabinet," Bai Yutang stated with certainty.

"...? ...Really?" Zhan Zhao was somewhat skeptical.

"Absolutely!" Bai Yutang nodded, walking over to block Zhan Zhao as he reached for the cabinet handle. "I’ll do it; this is a potentially hazardous operation." He stepped to the side, then pulled the door open abruptly. Whoosh! A "tide" of old, yellowed newspapers poured out...

"How did this happen?" Zhan Zhao stared at the mountain of paper, stunned.

Bai Yutang shrugged. "When you were jamming them in there like your life depended on it, I knew it would erupt one day!!"

"Quick, help me look!" Zhan Zhao rolled up his sleeves and charged into the heap, frantically digging through the pile. "Help me find an article titled 'The Son of the Gods.' It should be in a newspaper from the seventies."

"'The Son of the Gods'?" Bai Yutang was baffled. "What is it? A novel?"

"No, it's a psychology report." Zhan Zhao flipped through the papers rapidly.

"Bai Chi! Come and help!" Bai Yutang grew dizzy just looking at the yellowed pages covered in dense text, so he called over Bai Chi, who was munching on a piece of bread.

Putting down his bread, Bai Chi wiped his hands on his pants and dove into the mountain of newspapers.

The three of them searched quickly. Suddenly, Bai Yutang tapped Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao was delighted and hurried to look at him. "You found it?"

Bai Yutang shook his head and gestured toward Bai Chi. He was currently scanning the papers at a non-human speed.

Zhan Zhao smiled and whispered, "With his IQ, he can read at least ten thousand words per minute, and believe me, he can recite anything he’s scanned once."

"For real?" Bai Yutang’s eyes widened. "Isn't that even more impressive than a computer?"

Zhan Zhao winked at him. "The Bai family finally produced someone with a functioning brain."

"Mm~~~" Bai Yutang nodded in agreement, then realized what he said. "Dead cat, are you saying I have well-developed limbs but no brain?"

"I didn't say anything."

"You~~~"

"Ah!!" Just as the two "older brothers" were about to start bickering, little Bai Chi called out: "I found it!!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at him simultaneously.

Bai Chi was struggling to crawl out of the papers surrounding him. He held his face up and handed the newspaper to Zhan Zhao, asking, "Brother, take a look and see if this is it."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao both caught their breath. It's here! It's here!! The ears were perking up, and the tail was starting to wag!! — So cute~~~

Zhan Zhao took the paper and looked. It was from '76, on the third page in the academic section; there it was: "The Son of the Gods." Although it was only the size of a bean curd cake, Bai Chi hadn't missed it.

"This is it." Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Chi, pleasantly surprised.

Seeing the smile in Zhan Zhao’s eyes, Bai Chi squinted in satisfaction. Zhan Zhao reached out to pat his head. "Good boy~~~ you’re so capable."

Watching Bai Chi get praised to the point that his ears drooped in happiness and his tail wagged even harder, Bai Yutang helplessly held his forehead. Is this kid really a member of the Bai family?? This is a genetic mutation!!!

Zhan Zhao was already focused on reading the report.

"Cat, what does this report have to do with the case?" Bai Yutang leaned in curiously, and little Bai Chi leaned in, too.

"This is an early research report on split personality disorder. The article describes people with split personalities as a population possessing special abilities bestowed by the gods—a species that transcends ordinary humans—and thus grants them the title 'Sons of the Gods.' I have a deep impression of this article because the author touts these 'Sons of the Gods' as the ultimate and most high-end weapons for humanity." Zhan Zhao pointed to a sentence in the text. "Look, it says here: 'Whoever possesses the ability to control these ultimate weapons will become the King of the future world.'"

"Whoa~~~" Bai Yutang laughed. "That fits the logic of this case too perfectly. Could this author be a prophet??"

"Come to think of it, Cat," Bai Yutang seemed to have thought of something. "~~~Have you read all these newspapers? And you remember them?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Chi both turned to look at him, asking in confusion, "Is there a problem?"

............Bai Yutang chuckled dryly and shook his head. "No~~~ no problem." He coughed and said with a straight face, "Continue! Continue with the case!"

Bai Chi pointed at the author’s name beneath the title. "Who is this Vincent Brown?"

"Vincent Brown?" Zhan Zhao murmured, repeating the name. "Vincent... Brown... Ah!"

"That’s Professor Wilson’s real name!" Zhan Zhao whispered in shock.

"What?" Bai Yutang was also quite startled. "Cat, are you sure? Didn't that old man say that split personality disorder doesn't exist? How does this article make him look like a die-hard proponent of it??"

Zhan Zhao furrowed his brows tightly. "I can't figure that out either."

"Could it be that he believed in it thirty years ago, but doesn't anymore?" Bai Chi asked. "Just like how I believed in Santa Claus ten years ago, but don't anymore..."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao turned to look at him, and Bai Chi obediently shut his mouth. "J-just, just pretend I didn't say anything."

Sitting down on the papers, Bai Yutang stroked his chin. "Cat, I suddenly thought of a few things."

"Oh?" Zhan Zhao looked at him with great interest. "What a coincidence, I thought of a few things, too. You go first."

Bai Yutang nodded and said, "Look, the cause of this case was Professor Wilson being assassinated with a sniper rifle. Although it was a close call, he coincidentally escaped. This time, at the banquet he hosted himself, he was stabbed by his own wife, and coincidentally didn't die again."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Chi nodded.

"On the surface, he appears to be a total victim, but if you think about it carefully, it feels very suspicious." Bai Yutang summarized.

"Mm." Zhan Zhao agreed, stood up, and took a sheet of paper and a few pens from the table.

"Let's clarify the relationships between all the characters in this case first." He picked up a pen, drew a circle on the paper, and said: "First, the several people who were manipulated in the case. Look: Qi Lei, Yang Feng, and Jon."

"Qi Lei and Jon have an intersection, which is the sniper rifle." Zhan Zhao drew the circles for the two overlapping and wrote "Gun" in the center.

"And these two people both have a connection to Pang Yu!" Bai Yutang said. "Qi Lei learned to shoot at his shooting club, and Jon is his friend."

"That’s right!" Zhan Zhao continued. "In other words, both of these cases are pointing directly at Pang Yu."

"Qi Lei and Yang Feng don't actually have a relationship, but there is another link between them: Jia Zhengyan!" The clever little Bai Chi analyzed according to Zhan Zhao’s logic. "There is an intersection between Jia Zhengyan and Jon; it's the drugs!!"

"Very good!" Zhan Zhao reached out to pat his head. "By analogy, the case is linked ring by ring. A complete crime must eventually be a closed set! This means that between Jia Zhengyan and Pang Yu, there must exist one or more links connecting them to each other."

"In other words, what we need to find next is a person—or a network of relationships—that is connected to both Pang Yu and Jia Zhengyan!" Zhan Zhao concluded. "These two people have vastly different statuses and very different jobs, so there shouldn't be many such people."

"Don't forget!" Bai Yutang added suddenly. "It is very likely that Qi Le has met this person!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Chi looked up at him in surprise simultaneously.

"What’s wrong?" Bai Yutang asked with a strange expression. "Otherwise, why would they need to kill Qi Le?"

Zhan Zhao asked blankly: "Xiao Bai, has anyone ever told you..." He paused here.

"Told me what?" Bai Yutang was confused. Did he make a fool of himself somewhere??

Suddenly reaching out to vigorously ruffle Bai Yutang’s hair, Zhan Zhao gritted his teeth and said, "You are sometimes as dense as a microorganism, and sometimes even more of a genius than a genius!!!"

Bai Yutang stood there with messy hair, looking dejected. "A microorganism?? Cat... I’ve been demoted again~~~"

Inside the shooting range at the Guanglong Shooting Club in S City:

Mahan finished the last round, and a whistle came from the side.

The shooting instructor clapped his hands, looked at the target, and said, "My God, you could go to the Olympics!! You are definitely not an amateur!!"

Mahan put down the gun, shot the instructor a cold look, and turned to leave.

"Hey! Wait! Do you want to be an instructor?" The instructor chased after him and followed Mahan into the locker room.

While Mahan was taking off his training gear, the instructor struck up a conversation. "You’re so cool. I haven't heard you say a word. Seriously, are you a pro?"

"I'm a police officer," Mahan said coldly.

"..." The man was clearly stunned. "You... Oh! You must be a sniper!!"

Mahan was sensitive to the fact that since he’d arrived, someone seemed to be watching him from the dark—perhaps hiding in a corner, or perhaps through a surveillance camera... However, he was a sniper with many years of combat experience; when it came to sensitivity, no one in the entire police force could compare to him except for Bai Yutang.

Success or failure may depend on this one move... Mahan made up his mind. He hadn't revealed his true colors for so many days, so today, he would put on a crazy performance for them to see.

The instructor was about to say something, but he suddenly felt that the atmosphere around him was off. He looked up at Mahan... just one glance and he was so startled he almost collapsed to the floor.

At this moment, Mahan’s eyes were opened wide, his pupils seemed to be dilated, the veins on his forehead were popping, and his nostrils were flaring slightly. Different from his usual cold expression, there was a somewhat eerie smile hanging on his lips. He looked down at him like this, as if he were another person.

Mahan slowly squatted down, reached out, and gently gripped the instructor’s neck, staring at the blood vessels in his throat as if he might open a mouth full of fangs at any moment and bite down.

"You... what are you doing..." The instructor’s voice trembled.

Mahan seemed to have heard the breathing of that hidden peeper become more and more intense—the next part was the key point.

His fingers tightened, the strength shockingly great.

The instructor frantically reached out to slap Mahan’s hand, but it felt like an ant trying to shake a tree. Mahan smiled coldly, looking almost bloodthirsty.

"No... save... save me~~~ help me~~~" the instructor screamed hoarsely.

In an instant, as if Mahan had been pricked by a needle, he jerked violently.

He let go in a daze, looking at the instructor who had finally managed to break free.

The instructor clutched his neck, where bruise marks had appeared, and ran away, screaming in terror.

Mahan just knelt there blankly, staring at his own hands. They were still trembling slightly. He pounded his head in agony, emitting dull thuds, and then, like a madman, slammed into the metal locker next to him again and again, letting out low growls like a young beast from his throat—filled with pain and endless despair.

He performed every key point Zhan Zhao had emphasized to him to the fullest, making every look as precise as possible... Finally, the locker was covered in blood. Only then did Mahan look at his hands blankly, stand up trembling, and flee in a soul-lost state...

Not long after Mahan left, a person strolled into the locker room. Having enjoyed the show quite well on the monitor, he felt quite satisfied. He walked up to the blood-stained locker, touched the still-sticky blood with his fingers... Another excellent one—a Child of the Devil.

Back home, sitting in front of the computer, Mahan finally came to his senses and felt indescribably exhausted.

"Brother, you're back?" His younger sister walked in. "...Brother!! What happened to your hand?" Ma Xin shrieked. "Mom~~~ Mom..."

"Shh~~~" Mahan hurriedly pulled his sister inside and closed the door. "Don't let Mom know, or she’ll nag me to death!!"

"Your hand is bleeding!!" Ma Xin angrily dug out the medical kit from the cabinet to treat Mahan’s wound.

"How’s school?" Seeing his sister’s unhappy face, Mahan asked with a grin. "Future great doctor!"

"I'm only a freshman!! Detective!!"

Carefully helping Mahan bandage his hand, Ma Xin said: "Mom cooked the red bean soup that someone likes, but someone wouldn't dare go out looking like that."

Mahan looked at his bandaged hand, which rivaled a mummy’s, and made a bitter face: "Xinxin, aren't you being a bit dramatic?"

"I'll go bring it in for you~~~ seeing as you're so pitiful." Ma Xin walked out happily and soon brought in a full bowl of red bean soup.

With the sweet and delicious red bean soup in his stomach, Mahan’s bad mood for the day was officially over. He suddenly thought of Qi Le; her age seemed to be about the same as Ma Xin’s... He wondered what her feelings were when Qi Lei died. If it had been him who died, Ma Xin would probably have collapsed...

"Heh~~~" He looked down at the thick bandages on his hand. "Killer training camp? ...Damn it..."

Ding~~~ The screen flashed...

Mahan couldn't believe his eyes as he looked at the computer. It indicated that an email had arrived... The hand he reached out to grab the mouse was trembling uncontrollably.

He clicked on the email with difficulty. What met his eyes was a short sentence: "Listen to the devil in your heart; use your gun to clear away the waste that shouldn't exist."

The sender was actually: Killertrainingcamp.

Mahan froze for three seconds, then jumped up violently. "Phone... phone..."

Bai Yutang was sitting on the sofa, lost in thought.

Dididididid~ The sudden ring of the phone startled him. He took out his mobile phone—Mahan?!

Bai Yutang nearly jumped up and hurriedly pressed the answer button: "Hello, Mahan?!"

"Boss! It’s here!!"

"What?" Bai Yutang felt that Mahan’s voice was trembling... or perhaps his own voice was.

"The... the Killer Training Camp sent an email. Quick, quick, call Dr. Zhan, reply to the email..." Mahan was somewhat agitated.

"Ah... oh, okay!" Bai Yutang rushed to the bathroom with the phone and pulled the bathroom door open.

"Cat! Cat, phone! Pho..."

Mahan, on the other end of the line, had been waiting for a long time without hearing a response and was just wondering what was going on, when he heard a earth-shattering shout: "Ah~~~ Dead mouse! Get out!!!"

……………

Zhan Zhao stood in front of the computer and pressed the speakerphone button. "Mahan, forward the email to me."

"Okay." Mahan quickly forwarded the email to Zhan Zhao.

He clicked open the letter and scanned it once. Zhan Zhao thought to himself that Mahan had done a great job. "You don't need to reply to the email now!"

"I don't need to reply?" Mahan asked.

Zhan Zhao typed on the keyboard rapidly and sent him three letters: "Mahan, look, I’ve sent you three letters labeled with serial numbers. You might not be able to sleep tonight."

"No problem! How do I reply?"

"They will send you that email many times. When they send it the second time, you reply with the first letter I gave you. When they send it the fifth time, you reply with the second. After that, you can go to sleep, and then tomorrow morning between five and six o'clock, regardless of whether they have sent you a letter or not, you send the third letter to them."

"Okay..."

Hanging up the phone, Zhan Zhao felt a surge of excitement. It seemed that Mahan’s action had achieved great success; at the very least, it confirmed that the shooting club had a direct connection to the Killer Training Camp.