"The third assassination occurred indoors, but there were signs of concealing the body."
Vil-V's interest only lay in things she found intriguing. Some might mistakenly think she was a genius mad scientist who treated human lives like toys, but she clarified that she wasn't particularly keen on such matters.
So, Vil-V was assisting with the investigation, but it was just a job.
Coincidentally, her abilities were often directly proportional to her interests.
"Both the second and third assassinations involved concealing the body, and their common point is that the initial crime scene was indoors." Einstein's finger traced down her smooth nose and landed on its tip. "Strengthened defenses didn't prevent the murders, confirming that the killer has the ability to move freely within the headquarters."
"Have the new medical reports come out?" Vil-V asked Prometheus.
Prometheus responded mechanically: "All checks are complete. The Honkai corruption rates of everyone at the headquarters are within normal levels."
"That's troublesome, then..."
"I think I already know why the body in the second case was dumped in the artificial lake," Einstein said, lowering her hand.
"Hmm? You've changed your tune completely, haven't you?"
"The biggest lie of humanity is the beautification, concealment, and selective omission of history." Einstein folded one arm, flicking the tip of her hair with two fingers, as if plucking a string.
"The biggest difference between indoors and the artificial lake is that the artificial lake has many elements that satisfy the conditions for potential exposure, the most obvious being muddy footprints."
"Snap."
Her finger-snap was dull and quiet, unlike Vil-V's crisp sound.
Prometheus projected the scene of the artificial lake from the second case.
Einstein walked to one of the most visible footprints, pressing her finger onto the intangible image. As she magnified the footprint, a calculation-derived model of the person's figure was displayed.
A tall man, about 1.8 meters in height.
"Indoors, footprints can at most deduce height. But footprints left on soft mud can roughly estimate weight. This reinforces the idea that 'the killer is a male'."
"And we overlooked one point: Since the first case had both an assassin and an observer, why do we assume the identity of the assassin in the second case is the same person? Couldn't he be the observer from the first case?"
"In fact, the information we receive is, to some extent, subject to deletion and fabrication. Therefore, I have reason to suspect that the information we know is deliberately fabricated to mislead us."
A woman could also wear men's gear and use the same size clothing. Fabricating weight would be a trivial task for the technology of the Fire Moth.
Einstein's words caught Vil-V's attention. She propped herself up from the table and, after a moment of reflection, also noticed some strange inconsistencies.
"You're right... And there's one major problem: In the second assassination, a soldier accidentally witnessed the scene and was severely wounded. However, judging by the victim's wounds, the killer definitely knows how to kill a human with a single blow. Yet, the attack on the soldier 'missed'."
"Therefore, what that soldier saw and what was left behind were both 'deliberate' by the killer."
Analyzing this far, it could basically be concluded that the assassins were a male-female duo, and it was highly likely that the woman was the assassin, with the man primarily responsible for cover-up and fabrication.
But even so, they still couldn't find out who the killer was.
The Honkai corruption rate check was intended to find out who might have used the Phase Transfer Device. Since nothing was found, it meant that this report was also disguised.
It was too tricky.
It was like being led by the nose. Even when deeper intelligence was excavated, it couldn't be used to solve the case.
Einstein's gaze was moody and uncertain.
What exactly should they do...
...
Night fell.
The sounds in the dark might be those of rats in the sewers, fish in the waves, or... humans in the steel tower that had been constructed.
If one were to use a fitting word to describe the style of assassins, it would be opportunistic.
Opportunists are the most suitable people to be killers. Veteran skill is just the icing on the cake; seizing the right moment to strike is the key.
When is a better time to kill than deep at night, when everyone is asleep, and defenses are at their lowest?
None.
And so, it began.
The high-ranking officials of the Fire Moth were all on edge. They were afraid of dying inside headquarters and afraid of dying outside headquarters. Regardless, they only felt slightly at ease when guarded by the most elite soldiers.
But after moving through the void, the killer easily bypassed the defenses and arrived in front of a high-ranking official who was sleeping soundly, lightly snoring. Watching the person sleep peacefully, It calmly raised the sharp weapon in Its hand and brought the blade down—
"Clang!"
The dagger and the claw collided in mid-air. The sparks that flew did not illuminate the darkness, but in that flash of light, the killer saw the white-haired man blocking Its path, and Kevin saw the cold fox mask.
Had It been discovered?
Neither the fox mask nor Kevin spoke a word. In this moment of life and death, language was pale and slow.
In the second before the lights turned on, the fox mask and Kevin clashed more than ten times in the dark. Kevin's terrifying strength and insight drove It back repeatedly. When the lights came on, Hen, who was lying in wait, appeared behind the fox mask, also gripping a dagger and stabbing towards the killer's back.
The Phase Transfer Device on the fox mask's wrist activated. After taking one last look at Kevin, It vanished into the void.
"Wh-What are you doing!"
"..." Kevin frowned, retracting his dagger. He looked back at the high-ranking official who had awakened and was shouting. By memory, he recalled this person should have been quite calm.
Had he been overwhelmed by the pervasive fear recently?
Hen looked apologetically at Kevin: "I'm sorry, Kevin, I was too slow..."
"No, it's alright."
Kevin shook his head.
After all, it was already extremely difficult to predict the killer's intended target and set up an ambush in advance.
"It is indeed as you said. It struck today, and It was indeed this target."
Kevin looked at Einstein, who walked straight in from the doorway.
"It was just a simple categorization of the victims. The first victim had the largest influence. The second and third had a mix of large and small influence. The fourth was a high-ranking official with slightly less influence. Therefore, today should have been a high-ranking official with large influence. By analyzing the high-ranking personnel, it's not hard to figure out who the next target would be."
"And the continuous use of the Phase Transfer Device is equivalent to suicide, so It wouldn't possibly strike at the next person after failing. We will now conduct a check on everyone in the headquarters."
Kevin also nodded in agreement: "Yes... Fortunately, today didn't..."
"Beep—"
Einstein's communicator rang. It was Prometheus calling. She answered it hesitantly—
"Dr. Einstein, another high-ranking official has been killed. Time of death was three minutes ago."