After giving Stana, the mature and stunning female sergeant, a reminder, Tang Qi left the crime scene with Sally.
After turning around, he was back as that ordinary Asian student again.
As if the teen who had calmly provided clues just a moment ago wasn't him at all.
Just that next to him, under those exaggerating black-framed spectacles, Sally's eyes shone brightly whenever she directed her gaze at Tang Qi.
Toward this, Tang Qi could only smile helplessly. His first friend might just be a silly sweetie pie.
The reason why Tang Qi kindly helped Stana to solve the case wasn't to show off, of course. Neither was it because he was too full of justice and kindness. Rather, it was because he had spotted signs of the supernatural at the crime scene.
To be specific, four supernatural objects.
Although he had only cast a quick sweeping glance, his special ability managed to spot a few things nonetheless.
[Mysterious Object: Sea Monster's Seashell]
[Information Fragment: This is a seashell originating from the Aegean sea. It contains the mark of the sea monster. At the same time, it is also a part of an evil ritual.]
The simple and crude information let Tang Qi know straight away that the murderer behind this grisly case was not a normal human.
Of course, the information other than this came from the memory of the original Tang Qi.
Although the original Tang Qi was just an ordinary Asian teen — in fact, even his grades weren't as good as the other Asians — what was very surprising was that when it came to some strange knowledge, he was totally an ace.
Just that all that knowledge was now Tang Qi's.
But even so, it didn't get in the way of Tang Qi hungrily absorbing more knowledge.
Unfortunately, because of this scary murder case, even though the whole of Holy Thorns High School was still functioning, everyone — be it students, teachers, or other teaching personnel — was rather preoccupied with their own thoughts.
The students, in particular, were even more restless.
All of them were at the age where they held extremely strong curiosity. With such a case happening right next to them, all the students couldn't help but speculate enthusiastically.
Tang Qi was probably one of the rare few who still attended lessons properly.
But even so, Tang Qi still directed a bit of attention to the various speculations around him.
He automatically shut out an enormous amount of irrelevant rubbish information.
But over the course of the day, a substantial amount of useful information was still quietly filed away by Tang Qi.
When the last lesson of the day ended, other than those who were still undergoing questioning — such as the staff living on campus, students who lived in the same building, etc. — all the other students dispersed right away. Most of them were in a hurry to get home and share the news of the "shocking case" with their parents or friends.
If this had been an ordinary high school, perhaps the students might have been warned not to reveal anything or things like that.
But in Holy Thorns High School, this was impossible.
Tang Qi could pretty much foresee that before the night was even over, the entire Moses City would be in a hoo-ha over this huge case.
As a city in a remote state, Moses City's presence was extremely low in the Federation.
With this case, perhaps it might increase a little.
Just that the leaders of Moses City probably wouldn't be happy to gain the attention of the rest of the world in this way.
Unlike the agitated and excited students, Tang Qi didn't have anyone whom he could pour his woes to or share the news with, and neither did he need any.
However, he didn't return to his little brick house immediately either. He had plans for the night too.
After bidding farewell to Sally, Tang Qi left school grounds. He hopped onto a bus and went straight to Central Avenue in the Midtown district.
Amidst flickering neon lights, that widely accessible and incredibly bustling avenue entered Tang Qi's sight once more.
A lot of the residents of Moses City considered Central Avenue to be one of the signature beautiful landscapes here.
But to Tang Qi, someone who had seen one too many bustling nightlife sceneries in his past life on Earth, there was nothing especially outstanding about it.
But of course, there were also many other aspects that amazed and astonished Tang Qi.
After all, this was an alternate world. It had its own unique characteristics too.
For example, this moment where Tang Qi alighted from the bus.
Unlike the others here at Central Avenue, he didn't head towards Food Street that sold all sorts of delicious delicacies. Neither did he head to Fashion Street. Instead, he specially went to the street which sold strange oddities. The things being sold there were naturally also weird stuff that looked completely useless.
An hour later, Tang Qi entered Firearms Street once more. When leaving the street, there was an additional toolbox in his arms.
By the time he boarded the bus again, there was already a huge stack of small and large packages in his hands.
Fortunately, due to his Chaga Fighting Technique entering the elementary stage, Tang Qi's physical condition had also improved, even if it wasn't as exaggerated as to the point of entering the supernatural realm.
But the current Tang Qi could be considered a very strong and muscular teen.
Carrying a huge stack of things, he stepped into school grounds again. Holy Thorns High School was undoubtedly enveloped in an antiquated and sacred aura in the day. All the various traces and details left behind by the church made this high school unique and special.
But for some reason, this sense of sacredness weakened significantly at night.
He couldn't tell if this was just his imagination. Perhaps because of the murders in the day, the enormous school campus actually seemed rather foreboding to Tang Qi at this moment.
Just as Tang Qi was heading toward his little brick house, the sharp wail of police sirens suddenly rang out in the night.
A series of faint moving lights passed right through a street in another direction of Thorns High and headed toward the blocks of buildings adjacent to the school campus.
The lights came from police cars.
Taking a look from afar, Tang Qi suppressed the ominous feeling at the bottom of his heart. With a frown, he muttered, "They found the murderer this quickly?"
"I hope nothing bad happens. And hopefully, she keeps my warning in mind."
Muttering, Tang Qi looked away and continued on his way back to the house.
Did he have any desire to take part in the action?
There was indeed a small part of him that did, but fortunately, Tang Qi was well aware that he hadn't reached a point where he could casually make enemies yet.
Especially when that unknown murderer could very well be a supernatural monster.
The clues and the warning at the end.
These were already the best that Tang Qi could do. He was just a high school student right now, not a police officer.
By the time the thoughts flashed past his mind, Tang Qi had already locked the gates behind him. He placed the huge stack of things in his hands on the wooden table in the living room on the first floor.
Tang Qi went straight to the kitchen after that.
After a series of smooth and well-practiced movements, by the time he came out, there was already a plate of appetizing golden fried rice in his hands.
He used expensive Golden-Toothed Rice for the dish. This was an ingredient considerably well-known in the Federation, just that most chefs used it for baked rice and risotto dishes that the nobility loved instead.
On a whim, Tang Qi had decided to make fried rice instead.
When he shoved the first spoonful of fried rice into his mouth, Tang Qi's eyes lit up immediately.
What followed was a swift and clean sweep of the entire plate.
He put the spoon down and sighed. "To think the dishes made from the ingredients in this world don't actually sparkle. This doesn't make any sense."
After making a dig about the ingredients, he quickly cleaned up the table and brewed a pot of coffee.
As the strong aroma of coffee wafted in the air, Tang Qi finally took a seat in front of the wooden table and opened the huge bag of things.
Other than that firearms toolbox.
What entered his sight was a huge mess of strange and odd objects.
Pearl powder, acorns, silver chloride, garlic essence, the seeds of four o'clock flowers… After taking a quick stock of the items, Tang Qi turned and retrieved a few small wooden boxes. He opened them and emptied the contents onto the table. Amidst the "thuds" of objects falling onto the table, a large pile of yellowish-orange bullets laid in front of Tang Qi.
This was what Tang Qi was intending to do for the night.
Blood Python No.1, the supernatural gun, was Tang Qi's strongest offensive power now.
Based on the tips provided by the information fragments, Tang Qi intended to strengthen its might further.
The first step was to modify bullets.
A supernatural gun needed supernatural bullets.
Although Tang Qi was equipped with the related technical knowledge, this involved the supernatural realm after all. In that aspect, he was still a newbie.
"Phew~"
By the time he released a pent-up breath, Tang Qi had already quickly taken a seat. His deft hands opened that heavy firearms toolbox.