Things weren't complicated.
In the past six months, Magnificent Castle had seen a mysterious serial killer involved in as many as six cases, all of them homicides, with over ten victims. Each time the killer struck, they would disembowel the victims, leaving the scene bloody and gruesome. With such heinous crimes, the police naturally weren't idle; they had arrested several suspects one after another. But similar cases never stopped occurring, reemerging every so often.
Residents lived in fright and complained vehemently, and private bounties rose significantly as a result. It was during this time that Kort Dane began to track the killings.
Then, three days ago, he suddenly vanished without a trace. The last time Judy had seen him was in this room.
"He said he had found something and needed to confirm it. If his guess was correct, the killer would soon commit another crime!" Judy said urgently. "Kort must have discovered something, which is why the killer targeted him. If that's the case, he might become the next sacrificial victim. Please, help me find him!"
As Chaoyang listened to Judy's statement, he also observed her—this person was the provider of those faint wishing powers mentioned in the newspaper articles. This could be seen from the white column of light rising from her, which clearly showed she was willing to pay a considerable price for Kort Dane's safety.
By the size of the column of light, her wishing power was even stronger than the captain's.
Chaoyang guessed that this might be due to the urgency of the matter.
Simply put, there was profit to be made.
And that was significant—being penniless one could still do manual labor or sleep under bridges; if you could move, you wouldn't starve to death, but choosing the wrong person to make a wish with could be fatal for him.
"Have you sought help from the police?" Chaoyang asked after pondering for a moment.
"Of course, but those guys don't care whether Kort lives or dies," Judy said indignantly. "They say it's common for a journalist to be out for several days on interviews! In reality, they don't care much about the murders themselves either, or the killer wouldn't have been at large for half a year!"
"But you said earlier they have arrested quite a few suspects..."
"That was just to silence the public!" Judy said with disdain. "They say it's a serial killing, but the crimes all occurred in the downtown area. The police won't put much effort into solving the cases. If it were some noble's child missing..."
She pursed her lips and did not continue, but Chaoyang understood the implication even without her saying anything further.
"I see." He paused, then asked the question he cared most about, "Why don't you seek... divinities to inquire about his whereabouts?"
"What are you talking about?" Judy gave a puzzled look. "If I had the ability to call upon a Priest, why would I go through all this trouble? Unless I had connections to meet a Divine Envoy... But why talk about that?" she shook her head as if in self-mockery. "Divine Envoys are rarer than princes. It's not like you can just meet one whenever you want..."
So...she wasn't disbelieving?
This answer slightly stirred Chaoyang—he realized even in prayer, there was a barrier to entry. Since faith and wishing could be separated, did that mean he might someday have a chance to undermine these "great beings"?
And the term Divine Envoy... it didn't sound like a clerical position, but rather some kind of special person. Considering further questioning might raise suspicion, he didn't continue to express his doubts.
"I think I understand the situation." Chaoyang pulled out a scroll from within his clothes and slowly unrolled it on the coffee table. "I can help, but you will need to pay a price..."
"How much do you want? The newspaper will pull together the money for you!" Judy said without hesitation.
"It's not just about the money." He smiled. "This is a contract; you can have a look and then decide. But please note, once you sign your name, you'll no longer be able to back out, and I will certainly fulfill your request."
Chaoyang appeared calm and collected on the surface, but internally he was full of scorn. He didn't know which Demon had made it a rule to accomplish goals via contracts, and even mandated outlining the obligations and responsibilities of both parties—it was practically the same as tying his own hands. Fortunately, the contract only required clear communication; whether the other party understood was another matter. As long as he didn't deceive, the contract would be legitimate.
"Um..." Judy indeed paused halfway through reading it, pointing to the line about payment. "What does this mean?"
"Oh, that's the writing from my homeland," Chaoyang replied honestly. "It's called 'wishing power'."
This term was written in Chinese.
"Wishing power?" The other party seemed somewhat bewildered. "What is that? How am I supposed to pay for it?"
"In your terms, it could also be understood as spiritual power, or conviction," Chaoyang said with a slight smile. "Look, you're quite worried about finding him, aren't you? There's also a mental cost to this concern. Once we find Mr. Dane, your worries will dissipate like smoke in the air, which is akin to having paid the cost—so you really needn't worry about it. It won't have any substantial effect on this contract."
Or rather, it was the contract itself.
The "five hundred Serir" written as compensation in the next line was nothing more than a supplementary detail.
Judy blinked, half a day passing before she finally said, "I didn't expect you to be quite... humorous."
Chaoyang simply shrugged, neither confirming nor denying. He hadn't deceived her, he had just slightly twisted the meaning, and this reinterpretation was actually beneficial to both parties.
Of course, the most crucial point was that no one really cared to nitpick a contract when they were in dire need.
Judy indeed didn't pay it much mind; she picked up the pen and signed her name.
"I can give five hundred silver coins, but you must find out the whereabouts of Kort Dane!" she stated decisively.
"Of course," Chaoyang extended his hand to her, "Your need is my mission."
...
Elsewhere on Earth.
In a hall lined with screens, Zhang Zhiyuan was taking part in an important meeting. As a member of the international police, they had been tracking a criminal named Wayne James for quite some time. This individual was suspected of transnational smuggling, arms dealing, and trafficking prohibited compounds, among other serious crimes, and had long been under surveillance by various national security departments. However, what made the case difficult was that Wayne James also held a diplomatic passport, even if it was one bought with money, even if it was from an obscure small country in Africa, it wasn't advisable to arrest him without concrete evidence.
"According to the latest intelligence, this person boarded the Heart of the Ocean cruise ship and met secretly with several individuals, using the alias Joe James," stated the head of the meeting, who was none other than Zhang Zhiyuan's superior and the head of the Asian department, Gao Wei. "We have checked the individuals he met with, and the information you have in your hands pertains to them."
"Russians, Japanese, and... Chinese?" Zhang Zhiyuan paused as he flipped to the page with Zhou Zhi's information. He couldn't help but note that thiscombination was quite rare. "I guess he just happened to join in?"
"The investigative department indeed hasn't found many issues with him," Gao Wei nodded, "The key point is that they all took part in a game during their meeting, and that's what we need to focus on."
"A game?" a woman asked curiously, "What kind of game?"
Zhang Zhiyuan couldn't help but smile. The woman, named Cui Zhen'en, was from Korea, and one of her passions happened to be video games—and she was quite good at them.
"Don't know. The emails we intercepted only mentioned that the organizer of the game claimed to be Paradise, but there was no explanation of the game's content," Gao Wei shook his head. "Nowadays, it's common to see crimes committed with the aid of networking technology, and we must remain highly vigilant of this—if they are using the game as a place to negotiate, once they have a secret code agreement in place, next time they can make contact anywhere in the world, and it'll be incredibly hard to crack."
"That's not going to be easy to investigate," Zhang Zhiyuan stated bluntly. "The cruise is owned by the Caribbean Company, which is legitimate and lawful. It's hard for us to request surveillance footage, not to mention private boxes might not even have cameras..."
"Unless we can also get into the game to take a look," Cui Zhen'en licked her lips.
"Forget about it," he dismissed, "This looks like an exclusive gathering for the wealthy elite. Definitely, someone would have vetted the guests before giving out invites, do you think we qualify for that?"
"Alright," Cui Zhen'en shrugged, "then we continue to keep watch—"
Suddenly, a series of urgent ringing interrupted their conversation.
Gao Wei picked up the phone. "Yes?"
His expression changed immediately afterward. "Are you sure? Okay, then patch the feed through to us."
After hanging up, the nearly fifty-year-old man's demeanor became extremely grave, "That was a call from the network intelligence department. They said our internal email received a message just now, the sender is Paradise."