The serial killer case or, rather, the monster murderer case that had tormented Moses University and a police commissioner for a whole of seven days was solved by a high school student.
This sounded incredibly inconceivable.
But be it the actual dead bodies or the numerous witnesses, all of them were solid proof of this.
When everything was over and the female commissioner got Tang Qi's guarantee of "All the monsters are dead", she informed higher management with extremely high efficiency to come over to collect the bodies of the monsters. In fact, before the authorities even arrived, she had already finished her report and submitted it on the spot.
Although the one who played the most important role at the scene was Stana, the female sergeant.
When it came to handling politics and efficiency, the female commissioner was indeed very diligent.
At the same time, because of the female teaching assistant and head security guard's "mutation", Moses University had no choice but to conduct internal investigations.
Several on-site and follow-up reports were generated one after the other.
In all of these reports, the high school student Tang Qi was described as an incredibly clever and extremely knowledgeable genius teenager.
As for abilities pertaining to the supernatural realm?
The answer was — none.
Most of the credit for slaying the monsters went to Stana, the female sergeant.
This was, of course, an outcome deliberately crafted by Tang Qi. It wasn't that he wanted to shirk from the credit.
It was just that he wanted to create a certain "character setting" for himself — one of a genius teenager who didn't have much combat ability but possessed an impressive database of knowledge and was, at the same time, very clever.
With such a character setting, perhaps there might be areas in which he couldn't show off, as well as some credit that he couldn't claim.
But during critical moments, it would be of tremendous use.
Additionally, aside from a big part of the credit being taken away from him, it wasn't like there weren't any benefits in it for Tang Qi.
In truth, all the actual benefits were his.
After slaying the two monsters, Tang Qi had devoured the two vengeful spirits while giving an explanation to the stunned audience.
The fake letter of appointment was also authorized by the female commissioner on the spot.
From the next day onward, Tang Qi would be considered a consultant specially engaged by the Moses City Police Department. Not only would he be given authority, he would also receive a handsome salary.
Other than that, when Tang Qi returned to Thorns High with Stana, he also took some things along with him — things from Professor Rick Kassel's office. Under the excuse of having an interest in history, Tang Qi brought all of Professor Kassel's notebooks back home.
Before leaving, Tang Qi also gave the bounty hunter team who was mildly scammed, especially the leader Ryan, a small suggestion.
"If you don't wish to throw away your life as well as other people's in the not-so-distant future, your best bet is to put that compendium away and learn only the things listed on the page about sleep-talking. Maybe you can become an outstanding Spirit Medium in the future, since you have the potential for it."
After leaving behind these words, Tang Qi got into the police car and left without any concern whatsoever as to what impact his words might have.
…
There was naturally a lot of following up to be done after a murder case was solved. However, that had nothing to do with Tang Qi.
At this point, the only thing he wanted to do was to return to his little brick house with his spoils.
Compared to their journey there, Stana's driving speed was naturally a lot slower now. Perhaps because of the fake letter of appointment, the female sergeant looked somewhat embarrassed. She drove in silence and didn't say anything to Tang Qi, despite all the questions on her mind.
However, Stana was still the same Stana who was full of drive and vigor in her actions. She stayed quiet for only half the journey. Seeing that they were already nearing Moses City, the female sergeant ultimately couldn't keep herself from breaking the silence.
"The thing that made those two monsters reveal themselves…?"
Her first question already made Tang Qi, who was currently using his magic powers to untangle the Fascinating Hair Knot, lift his head and glance at her.
He had thought that Stana's first question would be about how those two had turned into monsters.
He didn't expect Stana to have such keen perception.
Tang Qi didn't have any intention of keeping it a secret either. He replied straightforwardly, "It's my blood. I snuck it into the potion while all of you weren't paying attention.
"I wasn't lying to that Ryan guy. In that so-called team of theirs, other than himself who has some potential to become a Spirit Medium, the others can only be considered normal humans. Without a special lucky opportunity, it's best that they do not enter the realm of the supernatural.
"Their potions and firearms aren't of any use."
Stana nodded in comprehension. Then, she asked, "What about those bullets? Are they from the previous time…?"
"That's right. They are a new type of bullet that I created using that bag of sea salts. They are sea monster bullets and contain curse-dispelling and exorcism effects. They aren't as powerful as the furnace bullets, but they present more of a threat to curse-type monsters."
Seeing that Tang Qi didn't take the matter about the fake letter of appointment to heart, Stana quickly resumed her usual mature lady style and attempted to use her advantage in age and identity to suppress Tang Qi because the female sergeant had suddenly realized, to her horror, that when she was interacting with Tang Qi, a high school student, she was actually the one on the losing end.
The mature lady sergeant had never conceded defeat even when facing the throngs of big brawny men in the police academy and police department, as well as clever co-workers and sly criminals. How could she allow herself to be pushed over by a high school student?
Especially in this situation right now where Tang Qi was nonchalantly untangling that strange hair knot while in the passenger seat, as if he was the boss while she, Stana, a well-known female sergeant in the Exquisite Phoenix Prefecture, was just a chauffeur. Stana found this extremely unbearable.
The training she went through in the past and her own intelligence told her that when facing someone like Tang Qi, she should be pushing back with an even more haughty and aloof attitude, and not what she was doing right now, constantly asking questions like a curious kid.
But Stana, who had just stepped into the mystical realm, was indeed finding it very hard to resist this urge.
And Tang Qi could tell too. That was why he was deliberately waiting for Stana to ask when he could very well have taken the initiative to say it himself.
That casual and relaxed demeanor of his made Stana gnash her teeth in annoyance.
It was at this point that the female sergeant thought back to how she had actually thought that this young fellow here was a kind and bashful mysterious genius back when she first met him.
Looking at it now, she had clearly been duped. This was totally a wolf in sheep's clothing and a high school student with a terrible personality.
Stana could tell that Tang Qi was being cheeky with her. To prevent herself from falling for his tricks, she could only suppress the urge to ask him questions time after time. At the same time, she ramped up the speed of the car to the max and once again at a terrifying speed, sent Tang Qi from the beautiful and serene little town of Moses back to Thorns High before the first light of dawn.
Just as Tang Qi was about to alight from the car with a strange withered plant in his arms and a pile of notebooks and papers in his hands, behind him, Stana seemed to finally be unable to resist any further. In a rather complex tone, she asked, "Are there going to be more and more of those weird things in the future?"
Upon hearing her question, Tang Qi paused for a moment. He didn't look back but walked directly to his house.
His passive voice reached her ears. "There aren't just going to be more and more of them. They are also going to become more and more powerful. The kind of power that is beyond your imagination.
"The world is about to change."
…
Thud.
Tang Qi closed the door along the way. He didn't ask whether Miss Stana wanted to come in for a seat.
The timing wasn't right.
Besides, both of them, especially Stana, needed a good rest right now.
Today, she felt the impact brought about by those supernatural monsters again. Furthermore, she was in charge of blowing their heads apart this time. Other than instantly killing the spider monster, the two sea monster bullets also allowed Stana, the one holding the gun, to feel the uniqueness of these bullets.
However, with her personality, she probably wouldn't really rest even after she got home. Instead, she would probably go straight for shooting practice after letting her imagination run wild for a while.
To be honest, she still had a few questions that she didn't ask.
But Tang Qi also had an idea what she would ask next. Even if she did ask, he had no plans of answering her.
Tang Qi placed the withered plant casually on the coffee table in front of the sofa. Then, in an act of extreme favoritism, he carefully placed the notebooks and papers at the side. After making himself a pot of coffee and getting some snacks, he picked up a notebook about Professor Kassel's research on the ruins of a certain tribe.
Judging from his behavior, he might just burn midnight oil to read through the notebook.
Unfortunately, perhaps because he was too tired, he hadn't even gone past half of it before he fell asleep on the sofa.
A minute!
Half an hour!
An hour later, there was still no sign of him waking up. From the looks of it, he was really dead asleep.
One couldn't tell whether this was just an illusion, but right at this point, the plant that Tang Qi had casually placed on the coffee table suddenly… shifted?