"Boss, the investigation results are out," a police officer said swiftly as he approached Jack in the bustling New York precinct that was still busy despite the early morning hour. He spoke in a low voice.
"What are the results? What about Jamie, Michelle's son?" Jack gathered the coat that had been draped over him and rubbed his weary brow before looking at his subordinate.
Lawrence Mitchell had called 911 three days ago to report an emergency, and then again this very morning, residents of his apartment had called to report another incident involving the Mitchell family; neighbors had heard gunshots and the dreadful screams of Mrs. Mitchell.
Ordinarily, such matters wouldn't fall to him, the Captain of Police—after all, it was just a shooting and not hearing gunshots in New York would be the real oddity.
But Jamie Mitchell's disappearance meant the case landed on his desk.
The boy was a student at the New York French Academy and rumored to be favored by a world-renowned artist, potentially poised to become the artist's student.
High-profile cases like this one required attention, regardless of whether it was merely for show or something else; minimum effort was expected at the very least.
"Boss, according to Lawrence, his son Jamie is nowhere to be found. We conducted a luminol test in the Mitchell's home and only found traces of Olena Mitchell's blood," the officer reported promptly.
"Then we conducted questioning. Olena's wound was inflicted by fishing line, and according to what we've found out so far, both Mitchell and his wife claim Jamie did it," he relayed the interrogation results quickly to Jack.
Jack immediately sensed something off about the situation, given that, according to the officer's assessment, Olena's injury was likely sustained early this morning. So, did Jamie cut his own mother's neck with a fishing line during that time?
Then Lawrence fired shots and Jamie ran out, but the person who reported the incident heard another man's voice in the corridor and heard Jamie urging the other man to run fast.
So, who was the person outside?
"Did the Mitchells mention seeing any strangers?" Jack felt like the figure in the corridor could be the crux of the case.
The subordinate looked a bit bizarre, but he honestly answered Jack's question.
Asian, claimed to be an exorcist; he had taken Jamie hostage with a revolver, and even fired shots? But then why didn't the room show any reaction to the luminol test?
Jack was puzzled.
Luminol testing was a common forensic procedure. To clean a room well enough to pass this test would be quite bothersome and time-consuming, and they had been quite swift in their response, leaving insufficient time for such thorough cleaning.
Moreover, according to Mrs. Mitchell, the man had been shot in the head, and with the volume of blood that would entail, it was improbable that it wouldn't show up in tests.
"This is interesting…" Jack continued to look through the transcripts.
After fainting and waking up, Olena found herself guarded by the NYPD in the hospital, hence she naturally had no knowledge of what transpired afterwards. However, she did indeed assert that her neck was cut by Jamie.
This also indirectly corroborated Lawrence's statement; Jamie indeed used fishing line to slash his own mother's neck.
Jack picked up the questioning transcript he held. Lawrence had said some bizarre things, like Jamie was already dead, and the man named Yu had killed a demon, with the demon's blood on the carpet.
"The substance on the carpet—have the lab results come back?" Jack was curious.
He had seen many cult murders, and those bewitched by the cults were deeply convinced by the charlatans' claims. However, according to the current intel, it seemed like the Mitchell couple had met that Asian for the first time.
"Tested, though not completely finished, but the conclusion so far is that the blood is not human," a subordinate passed over a test report.
The Asian, Yu Chen?
Jack thought about the case that had occurred earlier today; the Bloods' Victor had also mentioned an Asian, and the name seemed to be Yu Chen as well. Could it be the same person?
Jack became interested.
"A thousand Energy Points? Isn't that amount a little too little?" Chen Yu was sitting in a fast-food restaurant with a burger and a cup of hot coffee in front of him.
However, seeing the harvest this time, Chen Yu was still a bit disappointed. Although he had guessed that the reward wouldn't be much since he presumed the other party was pseudo-human, this was still too little.
Compared to evil spirits, pseudo-humans were an even weaker existence. After all, unless using specially enchanted bullets, evil spirits can't be destroyed by ordinary physical means, and they can also use illusions to torment their targets.
Pseudo-humans are pretty weak; they rely more on imitation and verbal attacks, taking advantage of people's reluctance to harm their own relatives to attack their targets. Of course, they would also directly attack their targets in special cases.
But he hadn't expected that killing a pseudo-human would only yield a thousand Energy Points. To exchange for the Radiance's self-repair device template, he would need to kill at least ten pseudo-humans.
What a hassle.
"Nevermind, let's see if there is something I can exchange for..." Chen Yu picked up the burger and took a bite; the hot food slid down his throat and filled his hungry stomach.
[Military - Individual Combat - Small-sized Nuclear Bomb Launcher - 120,000 Energy Points]
Chen Yu immediately noticed an item that looked familiar: a small-sized nuclear weapon launcher, equipped with a hydrogen bomb, portable shoulder-fired with an effective range of a thousand kilometers. The hydrogen bomb's explosion could kill a large number of minor demons and injure low-level demons, but it wasn't much use against mid-to-high-level demons.
However, those were for use against demons; now, even if Chen Yu could exchange for it, he would never do so.
"Filter what I can purchase at the moment," Chen Yu added a condition, and immediately, the number of exchangeable items decreased significantly.
Glancing at the products before him, Chen Yu's gaze settled on an item.
[Civilian - Antique Collection - Thermobaric Grenade - 1,000 Energy Points]
The thermobaric grenade, due to its low explosive power and unclear lethality, was not cost-effective in terms of input and output and was therefore abandoned by the federal military as an old-fashioned level military product. Due to low production rates, it was treated as an antique collection.
Some federation military enthusiasts collected these.
Chen Yu knew about this 'antique' only because he had read the federal military internal magazine.