"My name is Marcus Erinson, I am an undercover agent for the local police department of Afton city, if you're listening to this, that means I'm dead. Murdered to be more precise, I won't get into details of how, why or when, not the last one for sure, if you were able to decrypt the files that contain this recording which is going to be my last, then you sure can investigate that by yourself, today is the 20th of september 2026, I'm on my way home, I live in 6328 st wilson, fourth house to the left, door number 24, now I know that wouldn't be relevant to the investigation, but it should give you a clue about the following; the dates that are associated to each and every recording in this file might or might not be the actual date it was recorded in, the question you might be asking now is which date is legit and which one isn't, the answer is in the date mentioned earlier and my home address. I have a USB drive in the drawer of my home-office's desk, the key is placed carfully with a magnet under the desk, and yes you guessed it right, the drive is encrypted as well, it contains crucial data and information about this whole street war, as well as project ERIKA, I'm running out of time, you will find every piece of information you need for the investigation in that drive. I am already there now, I would like to say that I don't regret anything, although this isn't the way I expected my life to end, I have to get somewhere, good luck with your investigation..."
This was the only audible piece of the whole recording alongside to the sound of mayhem that he skipped, the rest was distorted frequency for some reason, what he heard was too disturbing to him that he started shaking unwillingly as he kept fidgeting with the small recorder, often squeezing it in his hand until it's near breakage, thinking to himself; what would it feel like to know you're already dead, he entered a deep subconscious level of grieve that it was immediately translated into extreme physical pain. He was pulled out of that state of mind by his father, who knocked on the door of the room, asking the same question about the family's dog that his mother asked a day before, Paul was that kind of parents that always wishes to hear what he wants to hear, not just with his son, but with everyone at work too, at that time, filled with rage and despair, Marcus thought of yelling at the top of his lungs at his father, telling him that if he wanted to find the damn dog he can go to the graveyard, and it would be good if he just kills himself after finding it. He kept quiet and didn't answer, as he opened the drawer to take a glance at his glock, fantasizing about blowing his brains out, damn, he'd even use the silencer so that his body wouldn't be discovered until saturday morning, when his mother decides to clean his room.
"Are you there? I'll come in.."
"NO, I mean wait a second" Marcus fumbled, trying to keep all of this away from his father, as he turned off the computer's monitor and closed the drawer
"What's going on here?" Paul asked while he looked around in disgust
"What do you mean?"
"Your room is always clean, what happened here? you should clean that up, you can't study in an environment like that"
"Is that what you're here for?" Marcus asked, arguably in a rude way
"Why? did I interupt something?" Paul stared at his son, his tone expressed a desire to scold his son for talking to him like that, but he had other things to worry about at the moment, "I asked about Rocky, I haven't seen him in a while and I was wondering where he could possibly be, he never went out of the house like that"
"Well maybe he was released or stolen or whatever, I don't know..."
"Well I don't think any of these things are possible, unless you released it" maybe his father was somehow 'a loser', at least that's what Marcus always thought of him, but he was never as stupid as Emma, and he paid close attention to the details around him, and as an attorney, he was really good at pointing accusations, which he believes are the gates of confessions, in his words
"Did you really interrupt my study session because you don't know where the dog is?" Paul always had a weakness; his son's academic career, and Marcus knew that so well that he often used it to escape his chores and other obligations his dad might have set for him, Paul then walked out and closed the door, so that he wouldn't be the one to blame if his son ever gets a lower grade than Jin.
After this conversation, Marcus felt ashamed for his suicidal thinking, and guilt started to find its way to his core as he imagined how devastating it would be to his father, who only wants the best for him no matter what he does or says, to find out his only son took his life, as tears nearly conquered his eyeballs, he figured out what his future self meant in that recording;
"There are 203 recordings in here, all sorted sequentially, from the most recent, which is 20th september 2026 down to the oldest; 12th december 2019, he made a voice memo every 20 days, and as it's shown here, the gap between all of them is the same, 20 days, 20th september, 2026, 6328 and 24? maybe I missed something...6328...28? he mentioned that he messed with the dates, the only way to check the authenticity of them is by solving this problem, all of these numbers are even, no that's not the clue, all of them are more than or equal to 20, including the number of the street if I only consider 28, the gap between them isn't a part of the puzzle, as it was never mentioned in the recording, he never said what good would it be for to know which ones are legit so that's something I should be able to deduce, I wish Jin could help me, but he would demand to hear it as I promised him this morning, I don't need him I can think this through, 20, 26, 28, 24 what do these numbers refer to? I already know I will die at 24 does that mean all the recordings that he made at age 24 are legit? No that's just too stupid, maybe it means that only the ones recorded at 20, 24, 26 and 28 are the ones I should be looking for, but that will significantly decrease the number of the ones that I need, down to...63? Which is mentioned here too, now there's no doubt I'm right, the only thing that bugs me is what are the other recordings for? and why would he change their dates? it doesn't matter I'll start with what's important."
In an attempt to reveal any slight detail about his death, he put the 63 voice memos together in a folder labeled '1stRecords' and put the rest in another folder he named 'disposable' this way he can start with what his future self implicitly instructed him to listen to first, then move to the rest for some 'extra content' -if he ever made time for that-, or to get more details that could contribute to the prevention of his death, which is what he considered his life mission, often giving up his focus in class and his time with his family and friends to listen to the recordings, he made his mind to hunt down the ones who were reasons to his death, and that he believed will be mentioned in the voice memos, even if it meant doing it the wrong way.