Tick.
Tick.
Time passed minute by minute as Arthur finally finished his bowl of beef noodles.
He mentally reviewed the entire deduction scene from earlier.
There was a faint sense of unease.
For some reason, he felt there was still a flaw in the deduction, yet so far, it hadn't fallen into the hands of the person pulling the strings behind the scenes.
[Continue the deduction!]
[The deduction speed is being automatically adjusted for you!]
In the video on the left, he was shown being called to the police station to give a statement. The summary on the right provided further details:
[Text commentary: Two days later, it was discovered that you were at McDonald's on the day of the accident. The police found your contact information through the transaction records and called you to the local station to provide a statement.]
[Text commentary: You went to the police station, and after a brief conversation, you explained that you were hungry late at night and had gone to McDonald's for food. The video footage confirmed that you were walking toward McDonald's at the time of the accident, with no indication of looking back. You were cleared of suspicion.]
[Text commentary: You left the police station, mistakenly believing the matter was behind you, and began preparing to find your next target for punishment on the "Dark Net."]
[Text commentary: Two days later, you were horrified to learn that the college student you had contacted had committed suicide by jumping from a building in the middle of the night, leaving behind a note about academic pressure. The incident caught the attention of local media. The student was the one who had picked up your package.]
[The deduction is suspended!]
Arthur felt a chill run down his spine, his eyes narrowing sharply.
"Good grief!"
"They actually killed him to silence him!"
He wasn't naïve enough to believe the student had truly committed suicide.
Someone had clearly pushed the student off the building, forged a suicide note, and covered up the murder.
He could easily picture what had happened: the group who had tortured him before must have interrogated the student about his involvement with Arthur.
Arthur's eyes became colder and more detached as he muttered to himself, "So that's where the flaw was. That student was pushed into the abyss."
The reason he'd asked the student to pick up the package for him was purely for safety. He hadn't considered that these people were ruthless enough to kill during their investigation.
Arthur shook his head, "Looks like they're forcing my hand."
He wasn't someone who got emotional over the death of a stranger, but it was different when the person had died because of him.
Of course, this was all just happening within the deduction—it wasn't real.
He didn't stop the deduction just yet; he still wanted to see if the mastermind behind the scenes would eventually reveal themselves.
[Continue playback...]
[Text commentary: You were shocked by the student's death and realized you might not be safe either. You immediately booked a plane ticket to leave the city overnight.]
[Text commentary: At eleven o'clock that night, you hailed a taxi at the intersection to head to the airport. However, a group of people kidnapped you, placing a black bag over your head. You were tied up and subjected to brutal torture.]
[Text commentary: During the torture, you overheard the kidnappers talking...]
[The speed of deduction slows down...]
Arthur's eyes darkened. On screen, his character was in a grim state—tied up, hooded, and unable to see anyone.
But he could still hear the conversation of his kidnappers.
A harsh voice sneered, "This punk really made us work for it!"
"Yeah!"
Another voice mocked, "And that college kid got caught up in this mess too!"
One of the men slapped Arthur's face and then kicked him, laughing, "Do you get it?"
"Because of you, we had to be rough with that college student."
"That kid was tough, kept saying he didn't know anything!"
"In the end, we had to hang him off the roof. He was so scared, he almost wet himself!"
"But at that point, we couldn't let him live."
A cold, unfamiliar voice interjected, "Alright, don't push him too hard. I've already contacted the boss on the Dark Net."
"The boss said he won't get involved. We'll handle it."
"Just make sure you record a video, torture him to death. The more brutal, the better."
The harsh voice laughed excitedly, "Fifty million bucks for this kid! I can't tell if I should envy or pity him!"
Arthur took a deep breath and sped up the deduction process again.
[Continue the deduction!]
[Text commentary: You were tortured for 12 hours, barely clinging to life. The kidnappers demanded the truth about the car accident, whether it was an accident or planned.]
[Text commentary: Before dying, you sarcastically revealed the truth, but the audience thought you were lying and boasting. They eventually placed you in an iron bucket, poured cement over you, and buried you alive.]
[Text commentary: After your death, your body was transported and dumped into the sea.]
[The deduction ends!]
Arthur realized that these men were highly experienced at disposing of bodies.
It was clear they were veterans who had killed many before. More importantly, the mastermind still hadn't revealed himself.
In truth, Arthur had always known the mastermind was the corrupt doctor's father-in-law, but knowing was one thing—actually meeting him was another. With his current connections, Arthur couldn't uncover the old man's real identity or even what he looked like.
Tick.
Tick.
The clock on the wall kept ticking.
Arthur licked his lips and whispered, "But that's fine."
"If it were too easy, it wouldn't be any fun."
"I'll play along with these merciless assassins first!"
He had already begun plotting how to deal with them.
The best course of action would be to set a trap to deceive these killers, making them experience the true art of assassination.
From this moment on, in this game, the roles of prey and hunter would be switched.
"Replay..."