Luke's Life and Renewed Concern
The higher one climbs, the more complex the landscape they see.
The Hongmen had inextricable links to China, a blood tie that could not be severed by physical means.
Luke had actually met Wang Congxin two years ago. Wang had visited the family home, and the old man personally hosted him and made the introduction to Luke.
The two talked for fifteen minutes, and then Luke stood up to see the guest out. The old man, though visibly disappointed, didn't say anything. The times had changed; the ways of the older generation didn't align with the values of the youth, who had their own ideas.
What could an old man with one foot in the coffin do?
Let the children and grandchildren find their own fortune. He should walk his own path from now on!
Since then, the old man had severed his connection with that side, ceasing all contact.
Luke thought the matter was closed, but two years later, Wang Congxin showed up again, in this unbelievable manner.
"A honey trap?"
Luke shook his head with a laugh.
Qu Youran certainly qualified as a beauty. Her ethereal quality was instantly captivating—like a fairy descended from heaven, untainted by the mud, elegant and spiritual, meant only to be admired from afar. The problem was that Luke's psychological age was already over forty.
After settling that incident, Luke's life simplified: a three-point routine—he went to the research center in the morning, studied Zamarronian psychic technology in the base in the afternoon, and as for the evening... well, it was dark; what else was there to do?
While Luke was living a comfortable life, Coast City was in chaos.
In the past three days, dozens more desiccated bodies had been found by the police. To prevent panic, the FBI and the city government issued strict orders prohibiting investigators from leaking the news to the media. Under strict control from multiple parties, the situation was finally kept from deteriorating further.
But this was only temporary. As long as the killer remained at large, the death toll would continue to rise. A paper bag could only hold fire for so long!
Steven Martin, who was responsible for the dry corpse case, was under immense pressure. He had issued a military pledge to his superior, Walker Terrell, promising to catch the killer, but three days had passed with no progress, and five of his comrades had been lost as well.
Thinking of those five corpses, dry as mummies, Steven clenched his fist, feeling his heart bleed.
The Hunter and The Suspect
Inside the FBI Field Office in Coast City.
The case report meeting was underway. It was the same room and the same people, but the atmosphere had changed drastically. The successive deaths of police officers and FBI agents cast a heavy shadow over everyone.
They realized that the killer's goal was not merely murder, but hunting. There is a fundamental difference between murder and hunting. The former can always be attributed to various reasons, while the latter stems from a biological instinct. All organic life needs to hunt to survive; herbivores eat grass, carnivores eat meat, and the killer's target was human beings.
He was hunting, conducting a primal hunt in Coast City, a metropolis with millions of residents. To him, the poor, the rich, men, women, police, and FBI were all categorized as food.
This... was the most terrifying thing.
The atmosphere in the conference room was heavy. After a brief presentation, Walker took off his glasses.
"Headquarters called. They have started arranging personnel from the Paranormal Investigation Division." He paused. "They will arrive in Coast City to assist you by no later than the day after tomorrow. Before then..."
Walker's serious gaze swept across everyone in the room.
"You must determine the killer's identity."
"Listen up. I said 'must,' not 'as much as possible.' This is an order. Understand?"
He then looked at Steven on his right and snapped coldly, "I will apply to the higher-ups to give you two more days. If you still can't do it, this position will go to someone who can."
This was an ultimatum. Faced with the escalating dry corpse case, Walker's patience was exhausted. Steven knew that if things continued this way, he might really be forced out.
"Actually, we're not without clues."
He opened his laptop and projected a blurry video onto the main screen.
"This is footage captured by a camera outside a hair salon. The salon is less than 150 meters in a straight line from the crime scene. The time the man in the video appeared matches the time of death determined by the forensic examiner."
"We have reason to suspect that this mysterious male wearing a hood is the killer in the dry corpse case."
The video was shot late at night, the lighting was too poor, and the person was too far away. Not only could they not make out his face, but they couldn't even distinguish his physical features.
Walker growled, "This is what you call a clue?"
What could they possibly find with a short video where you couldn't even see the person's face?
Steven quickly said, "Please allow me to explain. This afternoon, we conducted a scene recreation based on the camera angle and obtained two very important pieces of information: the mysterious man is short, about 1.6 meters tall, and his head is very large, almost level with his shoulders."
"A male with these characteristics is uncommon. We can release this information and enlist the help of the public to find the suspect."
Walker was immediately tempted. The FBI had limited manpower, and trying to find a man with similar characteristics among millions of people was too difficult. If they mobilized the citizens...
To be cautious, he still asked,
"Can you be certain that the person in the video is the dry corpse killer? What if you are wrong?"
Steven stood up. "This is the only clue we have right now. Whether it's right or wrong, we have to pursue it. The dry corpse killer is unlike previous criminals; he is a hunter, feeding on humans. We cannot afford to wait another second."
Walker looked down in thought, not making a hasty decision. He then looked at Amanda, who had been silent the whole time.
"What do you think about this?"
Amanda looked up blankly. "What?"
Walker patiently explained, "Steven proposes publicly releasing the suspect's physical characteristics."
"Very... very good. That's excellent."
Amanda nodded repeatedly, her expression stiff, seeming slightly distracted. She then looked at her watch.
"Excuse me, I have an urgent matter to deal with."
With that, ignoring the surprised looks of everyone present, she strode out of the conference room.
Outside the office building, Amanda quickly pulled out her phone and called Hector Hammond. All she got was a busy signal.
"Fuck!"
She hissed in anger. The person in the video was all too familiar to her.
Hector Hammond!
Only that damn, useless, dwarf-like son of a politician in all of Coast City would be walking around with a giant head shaped like a bowling ball. There was no one else.
"Why him? Could it really be him?"
Amanda couldn't sit still. Hector was a cytology professor personally requested by the Vice President and an important core member of A.R.G.U.S. If he was now involved in such a huge problem, and it was confirmed that he was the dry corpse killer...
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