Chapter 281: Clue
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
In the suburbs west of North Borough, in a soon-to-be-abandoned three-story house.
It originally belonged to the Backlund Medical School, but the latter’s main campus had now moved to a better and more suitable location, leaving behind only a small number of teaching staff and students who were left “guarding” the area after failing to graduate.
Audrey was wearing a white gown and white mask. Her smooth blonde hair was also coiled up and stuffed under a cool-colored surgical cap.
She darted her eyes to the side and looked at Fors Wall who was dressed in the same way. She always felt that Fors had a special temperament that seemed to make her more suited to such attires than herself.
Eh… It’s the kind of temperament that allows her to pick up a scalpel and cut open a patient’s stomach at any moment… Audrey didn’t say anything. She followed half a step behind Fors as they entered the cla.s.sroom in front of them.
She was startled by the information she had received from Fors because Mr. Fool had said it was a simple task.
Considering that the simplicity of said task might be from Mr. Fool’s point of view, Audrey took advantage of the moment when she was alone, changing into a disguise, to recite his honorable name and silently pray, so as to report everything that had exactly happened.
However, she had yet to receive a response.
After pa.s.sing through the door and entering a room, Audrey instinctively looked around and found that this wasn’t an ordinary cla.s.sroom. There were actually four skeletal specimens and four coffins made of gla.s.s. The coffins were filled with pale naked corpses that were soaked in preserving agents.
At the very top of the cla.s.sroom, there was a transparent gla.s.s pillar that was also filled with a liquid. Floating inside was a male corpse that wore a black scholarly robe.
The corpse’s clothes stuck tightly to its body, giving off an extremely heavy feeling. He didn’t relax and simply floated upright in the middle.
It’s as if he had died by drowning instead of being placed in there after his death…Audrey made a preliminary judgment based on her att.i.tude as a Spectator.
In addition, she saw a number of men in white coats, white masks, and surgical caps sitting around the long tables in the room. None of them said a word, just like the bodies and bones around them.
Looking out at the crimson moon which had finally peeked out of the gloomy darkness, Audrey turned her head back to look at the scene inside the cla.s.sroom. For a moment, she couldn’t help but shudder as this place instilled an instinctive fear.
But at the same time, she felt excited and agitated.
This is what the life of a Beyonder should be… Audrey silently muttered to herself as she followed Fors to a corner before sitting down.
After waiting for a while, the floating black-clothed male corpse inside the upright gla.s.s pillar at the front of the cla.s.sroom suddenly opened his eyes. His voice transmitted through the layers of obstructions.
“Let’s begin.”
…
East Borough, Dharavi Street.
In his dusty grayish-blue worker uniform and cap, he walked along the dark streets that only had a few gas lamps that were still working.
There was candlelight s.h.i.+ning down from the various apartments on both sides of the street. This was combined with the crimson moonlight that pa.s.sed through the clouds with great difficulty, and they barely outlined the silhouettes of the pedestrians.
Klein encountered people with old, tattered clothes, their faces numb with despair. They were the homeless who had been chased away by the police.
They had no place to sleep, so they wandered aimlessly through the streets. Occasionally, they would find some inconspicuous corner or park bench to rest at for a while, but they were soon chased away again.
In the cold and dark night, Klein felt that they were more like zombies than the zombies he had seen, and the entire East Borough was more like an abyss than the legendary abyss.
He hurriedly took a quick breath which hurt his throat, causing him to cough involuntarily. He quickly gathered his thoughts and looked through the corner of his eyes at the apartment on the corner of the street. It had obviously suffered from an explosion and hadn’t been repaired yet.
The best place to monitor the crime scene is the apartment across the street. The third and fourth story and the roof all meet these requirements… Klein a.n.a.lyzed the situation with the knowledge he had learned as a Nighthawk.
Throughout the whole process, he didn’t slow down his pace to avoid arousing suspicion.
At the end of the street, Klein smoothly crossed the apartment building numbered 1 and entered the building across the street from the crime scene.
The one-bedroom apartment he had rented in East Borough was similar to this apartment, and he had also lived in an apartment of slightly higher cla.s.s with his brother Benson and sister Melissa in Tingen City for quite a long time. It was Klein’s personal experience, but it also came from the memory fragments of the original Klein.
As his thoughts raced, Klein lowered his cap, lowered his head, and without rus.h.i.+ng, he walked up the creaking stairs to the third floor.
Due to his unlucky encounter in the evening, he no longer had a revolver, so all he could do was stick one hand into his pocket and hold a few tarot cards in between his fingers.
There was no light other than the faint moonlight in the corridor of the third floor. Klein was in no hurry to move forward, so he carefully observed the layout.
The spot directly across the crime scene is on the left. The one with the best view for surveillance should be the third room from here… Klein began to walk slowly and carefully.
After walking past two rooms, he also inserted his right hand into his pocket and gently opened the iron cigarette case.
After a split-second, his fingers touched the All-Black Eye, and the murmurs resounded in his ears as they attempted to tear his mind apart.
At the same time, with the help of this corrupted item, Klein saw many strange black lines.
These thin lines floated in the air, and although they were intertwined and entangled a little, he could still distinguish who they belonged to if he traced them back to the source.
The corresponding figures were reflected in Klein’s soon-to-be-cooked brain. There were men, women, and children sleeping in the bunk beds, and several tenants lying in bed on the floor.
Other than that, there were no other special spots, nor were there any hidden figures.
The illusion in front of him and the auditory hallucination in his ears slowly improved as Klein quickly retracted his hand from the All-Black Eye.
He endured the pain as he continued to move forward. Once he felt some relief, he would immediately observe the other room.
Unfortunately, his efforts of “searching” the entire apartment to see if there were any places that allowed the observation of the crime scene was in vain.
Phew. Phew… Klein cowered in a corner of a balcony, his hands were on his knees as he panted heavily.
Tears streamed from the corners of his eyes, and from time to time, his nose would run as if he had fallen sick.
This was the result of his repeated contact with the All-Black Eye within a short period of time. Even with Klein’s resistance in this area, he wasn’t completely immune to it.
The only thing that satisfied him was that it only agitated him and didn’t corrupt him. Otherwise, he would’ve given up long ago and wouldn’t have dared to try again. That would’ve led directly to devolving into madness.
After resting for a while, Klein finally calmed down and switched to a different apartment that didn’t have the same view as this one, but it was still for naught.
Did I interpret it wrong? The clues are at the scene of the crime? When Klein returned to the street, he looked suspiciously out of the corner of his eye at the apartment with traces of an explosion.
With the mindset of just giving it a try, he put his hand back into his pocket, pushed the metal cigarette case open, and stuck his hand inside.
He wanted to see if anyone was hiding in the apartment where the crime scene was located.
With a hum, Klein’s head suddenly felt like it was being smashed as his body wobbled a little.
Like a drunkard, he staggered forward and looked at the apartment which had signs of an explosion.
As he was too far away, he couldn’t “clearly see” the black lines, nor could he trace the source of the black lines. He could only barely distinguish where the black lines had gathered, and this indicated that there was someone present.
No, no, no… Klein quickly swept the area and made a rough judgment.
Suddenly, he noticed a black line floating out from the crime scene on the third floor which merged into the air!
This… Klein’s pupils shrank, and he made a confirmation before quickly withdrawing his hands so as to stop being in contact with the All-Black Eye.
There’s someone in the destroyed room!
That murderer is actually crazy enough to wait for investigators to come to the crime scene?
Isn’t he afraid that official Beyonders will take over the case?
I made a wrong judgment and failed to find him because I shared a different sense of logic from that of a lunatic…
Many thoughts flashed through Klein’s mind as he slowly exhaled and pretended that nothing had happened whilst he walked in a circle until he reached the entrance of the apartment building.
By then, all the negative effects he had suffered from the All-Black Eye had been quelled.
Controlling his facial expression and body language, Klein headed up to the third floor as if he were going home, his footsteps quick and heavy with fatigue.
In the darkness of the corridor, he caught sight of the doorless room which had half its walls collapsed. Then, he “casually” headed for the public bathroom.
As he neared the room, his hand, which had been in his pocket, touched the All-Black Eye.
Again, the mind-wrecking murmurs and the blurred hallucinations a.s.saulted him. Through the corners of his eyes, Klein saw a black, illusory thread spread out from the crime scene.
As he traced the source, he found a man who had completely merged into the shadows. His aura was the same color.
The man was extremely tall, almost two meters in height. The corners of his mouth drooped slightly, making him appear rather eccentric.
His cold eyes were like those of a wild beast’s, possessing a ferocity that couldn’t be hidden.
It’s not Lanevus… Klein withdrew his fingers, relaxed his body, and avoided the likelihood of staring. He entered the public bathroom at the end of the corridor without stopping. Nor did he alarm the man.
The public bathroom and the crime scene weren’t on the same side. He wiped off his cold sweat, and after quelling the negative effects, he directly jumped out the window, climbing down skillfully before leaving with brisk steps. He didn’t stay a moment longer.
He knew that in a few minutes the man would be alerted to the absence of someone who had gone to the bathroom, so he had to get as far away from the street as possible.
It wasn’t that Klein didn’t want to walk back the way he came from, but if he didn’t know which room he could go to, it would similarly expose him.
The Clown quickly ran and circled around a huge area before entering that one-bedroom apartment he had rented in East Borough. He then went above the gray fog to confirm that there was no danger of him being caught.
That fellow must have had some sort of deep connection with Lanevus… After a moment’s thought, Klein conjured a portrait of the man from earlier, sending his thoughts to the crimson star that represented Miss Justice.
Soon after, he said solemnly in a tone of authority, “This is a clue.”