"Today, at 6 AM in the morning, we received a case report at Irisa City 5th Lane 3rd Branch Road. A man reported that he smelled a thick burning smell from a 10-story building. He stated that he was running on his usual morning exercise route when he smelled a thick smoke from the building. Because there was no smoke to be seen, he thought it wasn't from there and tried to search for the source afraid that somewhere around him was caught on fire. But as he got closer to the building the smell became more intense, so he checked inside through the glass door. And this is what he saw," Yanyu showed the picture of the black and dreadful lobby on the screen.
"Until the team arrived, the man stated that nobody came in or out of the building and everything was locked from the inside. We checked the street surveillance and confirmed this," she changed to another picture, "We are still trying to find the exact number of victims, but for now, we can only assume these 3 victims. One of them is Lei Group's leader, Lei Weming. The other 2 are Li Da and Chao Yinghe his subordinates."
"They were found hung on the lobby as such with one of their organs cut out and put on their hands. All the victims died from loss of blood. Except for Lei Weming, the other 2 victims don't have any wound other than the cut on Li Da's abdomen where his kidney was and Chao Yinghe's empty eye socket. As for Lei Weming, according to Dr. Qin herself, Lei Weming was alive through all the torture except when his heart was cut out. The order is the crushed right foot, the cut on his chest, then left foot, then the lower leg, and lastly the bullet-filled arms. There is a hole on the table where his palm supposedly was. It was possible that the first wound is a stab wound on his palm by this scissor, which is also the tool that is used to cut his chest open, but it was overlapped with the gunshot wound. We reconstructed the scene as such,"
She played the video of the torture session on the screen. Thankfully, both the killer and Lei Weming was played out by 2 plain white models and no blood was shown or else all the Keepers inside would already grimaced from the free splatter movie.
After it was finished, Yanyu continued, "The whole building from first to tenth floor was burned with no spot spared except the half of Lei Weming's office. All surveillance cameras and furniture, including doors, were all melted or burned to ashes. The killer erased all information inside Lei Group's database and technical forensic teams are still trying to recover the deleted data from it as of now including the surveillance footage. If the data recovery failed, we can only estimate the victims from OPB's database on Lei Group's member list."
"There is one survivor found inside Lei Weming's office. We still can't determine his status as a survivor, witness, or suspect. For now, we temporarily labeled him as a survivor," Yanyu put up Tie Ningjui's profile and briefed it before continuing, "He is an acquaintance of Lei Weming. Their relationship is of debtor and creditor. He works at Pearl Jewel Hotel to pay off his father's debt that was inherited to him after his father's death. From his statement, he was brought back to the building by a man he called Mr. Frost. This Mr. Frost claimed that he was an acquaintance of Lei Weming, but when they arrived, Lei Weming himself didn't recognize the man. The last thing Tie Ningjui remembered was Mr. Frost saying that he would like to pay off his debt before he blacked out. Most probably, this Mr. Frost did something to him. When we found Tie Ningjui, he was in a state of unnatural deep sleep considering the situation."
"Tie Ningjui described Frost's appearance, but we suspect he was under hypnotism, or his mind has been tampered with. Here is Mr. Frost according to Tie Ningjui's description,"
Yanyu showed the face that has been reconstructed by Bai Linghua according to Tie Ningjui's description. On the screen was a face of a man with half of his face covered in burned marks. It was red, wrinkled, and unpleasant to look at. The eye on the disfigured side was blind with the other one has brown color and was slightly red from sleep deprivation or drugs. His lips were chapped, and his head was bald filled with stitches.
"Tie Ningjui stated before that anybody who saw Frost would not be able to forget him because of how beautiful he is not because of how hideous he is. We still don't know whether Tie Ningjui's mind was manipulated when they met or his memory about Frost was tempered with in the end. The recording function of the surveillance in Pearl Jewel Hotel was paused for a period of time and the street surveillances also got technical issues. We're likely to be dealing with a group of people here and it is highly likely that this is only the start."
"What we can deduce for now is that this is done by more than one people. One of them is suspected to be a modified human or android with super arm strength. They have a device capable to generate fire or any type of heat equal to or higher than an incinerator. They also have another to manipulate the mind. A hacker is among them capable to at least breach the Federation Traffic Control's network security. Their motive is still unknown, but we are investigating in the direction of artificial organs according to the state of the 3 victims. The killer and his group are labeled a level 2 threat and it can go higher depending on the development. Is there any question?"
"How did the group escaped if the building is locked from the inside?" A Keeper asked.
"There is a hidden emergency path in Lei Weming's office. Another way is after the group left the building, they hacked the system to lock everything from the inside. But the latter is unlikely because the building's system would be unfunctional after the building got incinerated." Yanyu showed the emergency path on the screen.
A Keeper raised her hand, "From Tie Ningjui's statement, it seems that Frost caused an incident in Pearl Jewel Casino. Isn't there any eyewitness who saw him at that time considering the situation?"
"Yes, we have interviewed the hotel and casino staff there, but they all gave the same description about Frost." Yanyu answered
"Is it possible to manipulate that many people? Did they also say that Frost is beautiful or is it only Tie Ningjui?" another Keeper asked.
"All of them said so. That is why in pursuing this case, all Keepers are to activate their pin camera and record their investigation activity from start to finish. We still don't know the scale of this mind manipulating device and how dangerous it is. It is possible that you can counter Frost without even noticing it. Everybody stay sharp!"
"Yes, Captain!"
"Now, for the task division…"
---
In the house, Lixue was counting the remaining number he needed to level up. As expected, 10,000 was a bit hard to accomplish in a short time. It was the same as killing a few battalions, around 2 or 3 brigades.
In this galaxy, the situation could be said peaceful. The relationship between countries were either friendly or neutral. Even if they were hostile with each other, they would only fight politically. There were only 2 enemies they were currently fighting, bandits and beasts.
It would be nice if the planets enter a galactic war now.
"Master, you have a visitor at the front gate." Lulu prompted.
Lulu showed the surveillance feed. The man at the front gate was about to ring the intercom when he paused and looked up with a smile. Lixue didn't recognize his face. The man lifted one of his arms and pointed at the gate with his other.
Lixue raised his eyebrows, "Let him in."
"Yes, Master."
The gate opened and the man walked in. Arriving at the entrance door, he politely knocked and entered when the door automatically slid open.
He immediately noticed Lixue who was sitting on the sofa basked in sunlight. He was leaning to his side lazily like a cat. He wore a black t-shirt and grey pants with a royal blue silk robe outside. There was a black choker necklace encircling his slender neck. His left hand was supporting his head and the sleeve slid down exposing his exquisite arm.
On his side was a child with long black hair sitting obediently. He wore a cute pair of shirt and short pants looking like a doll. The maid next to him seemed like she was teaching him something, but the boy only nodded or shook his head.