A Core Ship From The Start Chapter 688

Chapter 688: Chapter 510 Case Investigation_1 Chapter 688: Chapter 510 Case Investigation_1 Although he had cleared himself of suspicion, the culprit had not been found yet, so naturally, Duanmu Huai began the most standard procedure for a detective – investigating the crime scene.

Returning to the smoking room, Williams's body still lay face-down, in the center of the mysterious array. Seeing this, everyone couldn't help but shudder.

Following Duanmu Huai this time were Williams's bodyguard, Dort, Doctor Rose, and a girl named Aelita from Masters College. They were representatives accompanying Duanmu Huai, acting as mutual surveillance and witnesses. The others were kept in the viewing platform, supervised by Lorena herself.

As for Lorena's combat power, Duanmu Huai naturally trusted her. Indeed, his arrangement for Lorena to supervise had a bit of a baiting intention. If the idiotic murderer thought Lorena would be easy to deal with and planned to attack her, then Duanmu Huai was convinced that she would let him taste the weightiness of the Holy Canon in her hand.

“How long have you been his bodyguard?”

While staring at the body in front of him, Duanmu Huai asked. Dort hesitated for a moment before answering.

“Not very long, actually. He hired me not too long ago. Therefore, I'm afraid I do not know much more than you do.”

“Oh?”

Hearing this, Duanmu Huai turned to Dort. He had initially thought he was Williams's personal bodyguard, but it seemed that wasn't the case?

“Why did he hire you?”

“I'm not entirely sure.”

Dort sighed.

“He only mentioned that his past was constantly plaguing him, and something about a hidden dark threat… In fact, as you've seen, ever since he boarded the airship, he's kept himself locked in his room. He wouldn't open the door for anyone but me. I don't understand why he would leave his room and come here.”

“Maybe he was craving a smoke and couldn't stand it?”

“I don't think so, he doesn't smoke. He has asthma, which is one of the reasons he hired me; he needed someone who doesn't smoke at all.”

“So there's no reason for him to come to the smoking room.”

“Yes.”

At this point, Dort seemed to remember something.

“Right, he kept a diary. He was always writing in it. I remember him once saying that a certain cult needed his blood to fulfil a dark purpose. He told me he chose to hide and evade in order to prevent some indescribable terror from being unleashed onto this world.”

“But even now, I haven't seen anything that could destroy the world… Can I see that diary?”

“I think so, let me go find it.”

Having said that, Dort turned and left. Duanmu Huai, on the other hand, stepped forward and grabbed the collar of Williams's corpse, lifting it like he would a cat. From his inspection, he couldn't fail to see the large gash in his throat, with black blood gushing out like viscous oil onto the floor.

Well… Alright, I see. The truth is one, the criminal is the U.S. military.

“…Sorry, what did you say?”

“Nothing, just talking to myself.”

Duanmu Huai sneered, then coldly swept his gaze over the floor. Perhaps no one else had noticed, but the fact was that when Duanmu Huai first entered the warehouse, he had indeed felt a dark, chilly, and ominous presence. But it was no use, whatever that idiotic cultist had plotted, at the time Duanmu Huai entered, his magic had already been dispelled by him. Now only a very ordinary post-modern abstract-style magic circle pattern remained here.

In fact, not only the array, the entire room was covered in runes drawn with blood, which was why people didn't dare to enter.

“How much blood do you think was used here?”

Duanmu Huai asked Doctor Rose who furrowed her brows and looked disgustedly at the blood runes inside the cabin.

“Truthfully, I don't know. One litre? Two litres? I must remind you that the depiction in movies and television is incorrect. Normally, even if one's throat is slit, you wouldn't bleed out so much blood in a short span of time, let alone the fact that this man's blood is exceptionally thick…”

“That makes sense indeed.”

Duanmu Huai nodded. However, at that moment…

“Meow!”

The black cat, which was initially lying on Duanmu Huai's shoulder, seemed to have discovered something. It softly mewed, then leapt off his shoulder and landed gracefully on the body. The cat then circled around the corpse's neck and pressed down on it with a paw, signalling to Duanmu Huai. He leaned over to look in the direction indicated by the black cat and saw a small scorch mark on the collar of the deceased's neck, with ashes still adhered to it.

Duanmu Huai extended a finger to gently swipe the ashes then placed it up to his nose. Swiftly, a bitter smell of tobacco wafted over.

At this moment, Duanmu Huai's consciousness suddenly fell into a trance.

The world before his eyes suddenly became distorted and twisted. Next, Duanmu Huai felt as if his perspective had changed – from standing upright to being sprawled on the ground, as though he was the corpse breathing heavily. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't draw in even a bit of air, only despairingly feeling the blood flowing out from his neck.

Before him stood a blurred shadow. He could only see a faint spark in the figure's hand. Then the shadow raised the spark, and Duanmu Huai felt a burning pain around his neck – and then everything returned to normal.

Duanmu Huai regained his senses, frowned, and stared at the traces in front of him.

Just what was that?

Could it be that he had awakened a new ability?

He scanned the system, but just like the corpse in front of him, the system was cold, silent, and unresponsive.

It might be truly dead.

Duanmu Huai shook his head, refocusing his thoughts to gaze upon the corpse in front of him again.

If the illusion he just saw was correct, it means that Williams was murdered by the culprit. The latter stood in front of Williams' corpse, watching him die, then took a puff of a cigarette, its ash falling on the back of Williams' neck?

Alright, the criminal is male, and a smoker.

The suspects' range was further narrowed down as, according to previous testimonies, the captain, the navigator, and Arthur had gathered together to smoke around 5 o'clock. This indicated that these three smoked. Whether the other two male students at Masters College also smoked, Duanmu Huai didn't know.

Dort's words had also given Duanmu Huai a hint: the victim had asthma and wouldn't be able to smell cigarette smoke, which is why he hired Dort, a woman, instead of a male bodyguard. Similarly, one of the reasons he locked himself in his room was probably to avoid smelling cigarette smoke on others and triggering his asthma.

So, the question is, as the culprit was a male smoker, and the location was a smoking room, in other words, this was probably the last place the victim would willingly go.

However, the fact is he came here and died here.

Hmm…
“I've brought the diary.”

As Duanmu Huai was pondering, Dort brought back a diary.

“I found this under his pillow.”

“Hmm, let me see.”

Taking the diary, Duanmu Huai flipped it open — it's well known that normal people don't write diaries, therefore, those who write diaries must not be normal.

And indeed, this was the case.

The diary covered a great span of time, but fortunately, Duanmu Huai quickly skimmed through it and understood the contents without spending a lot of time.

Simply put, Williams was originally a naive rich kid. He had money, status, property, everything. So, he joined a small private club in high society through introductions. This kind of private club is very common in upper society, and initially, Williams didn't suspect anything.

However, as he spent more time in the organization and became more involved, he felt something off about the organization. — Well honestly, when a group of rich kids gather to have a party with booze and drugs while dressed in black cloaks like wizards and offering deer heads as sacrifices to a grotesquely shaped monster statue, any normal person would realize this is not a normal social activity.

So, Williams chickened out, he wanted to leave the club, but they didn't want to let him go. They even sent someone to assassinate him once, but Williams managed to dodge that and fled to another place. However, things didn't end there, not long ago, Williams learned that these people planned to perform another terrifying ritual, summoning a 'demon beast' with his blood, and so, he decisively chose to run…
Sigh…what a wasted assignment…

Reading this, Duanmu Huai sighed regretfully. Clearly, this was an assignment prepared for him. If only Williams had seen his advertisement, his death wouldn't have been so miserable… alas, it's too late now.

According to the contents of the diary, the killer who murdered Williams and conducted the ritual here should be a member of that Cult Organization. And the name of that Cult Organization? Well, it's not entirely unfamiliar, nor entirely familiar.

After all, Duanmu Huai had only finished dealing with them a few days earlier.

Yes, it's Silver Dusk Cottage again.

These damn bastards are like cockroaches, getting everywhere. Isn't it?

Duanmu Huai sighs quietly and closes the diary.

“Alright, we're done with the investigation here. Let's check out other places.”

Chapter end

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