**Morgue.**
Qin Xuezhong and Jin An'an stood together in front of the corpse.
Due to the body of the killer being damaged beyond recognition, Jin An'an, as an autopsy expert, needed to be present to examine the state of the corpse and assess the risks of retrieving the memories from before death.
This was because some deceased individuals, before their death, had endured extreme injuries, and the pain and emotions experienced at that time could be transmitted to the one retrieving the memories, potentially causing them mental harm as well.
Despite the horrific appearance of the body, Jin An'an remained calm, donning gloves and a mask as she began her examination.
"There's open wounds all over, with signs of attempts to cut. The attacker likely didn't break the skin on the first strike and tried repeatedly. It's a mess; the emotions must have been very agitated."
Jin An'an carefully peeled back a layer of skin to examine further, then continued, "The main impact-resistant coating wasn't activated; the injuries must have occurred post-mortem."
Qin Xuezhong watched beside her, feeling a bit nauseous.
She somewhat regretted taking this case. At first, she had thought, "I need to keep working, or I'll just be slacking off and become useless," wanting to maintain her workload.
She hadn't expected to see such a terrifying and disgusting scene.
She silently reminded herself, "It's all training, it's all training."
Jin An'an quickly finished her examination and said, "It should be fine. The cause of death aligns with what the homicide team inferred; the killer intended to attack a puppet but accidentally got stabbed in the eye. Still, it's odd; a professional killer shouldn't have such an incident occur."
After finishing, she swiftly protected the corpse and flipped it over, exposing the neck.
"Do you want to do it, or should I?" Jin An'an asked Qin Xuezhong. "There shouldn't be much emotional stimulation; just remember to lower the pain sensitivity."
Qin Xuezhong didn't hesitate, "I'll do it."
One reason was that she indeed needed the training, and another was that connecting to the pre-death memories could unlock the original owner's memories.
This was very important to her.
Qin Xuezhong easily connected to the chip, adjusted the pain sensitivity parameters, and entered the pre-death memories.
As the darkness faded, she saw a simple, tidy room.
The decorations were arranged in a pleasing manner, creating a comfortable atmosphere, and a faint pleasant fragrance lingered in the air, adding to the warmth of the room.
However, in front of her stood a woman, trembling and holding a small knife.
It was clear she sensed her impending death—no matter how hard she fought, facing a professionally modified killer, she really had no chance at all.
The killer was silent as he walked straight toward the woman.
Qin Xuezhong felt in the first person that this killer didn't take an unnecessary step; every step was calculated based on how the woman might dodge and how he would respond.
Just like that, he easily grabbed the small knife the woman had thrust at him.
What followed sent a chill through Qin Xuezhong.
The killer, seeming like an emotionless robot, applied pressure with ease and directly broke the woman's wrist!
The woman let out a shrill scream, tears and sweat streaming down her face, completely overwhelmed by pain.
Under the intense agony, her body went limp.
The killer remained unfazed; holding her still-attached hand, he twisted the small knife in an impossible angle, aiming for the woman's throat.
From the current situation, the woman had no ability to retaliate against the killer; how could she possibly turn the tables?
Just as Qin Xuezhong's puzzled thoughts flashed through her mind, a change occurred.
The first thing she felt was a sudden interruption in the killer's memory, accompanied by a severe headache.
Qin Xuezhong immediately realized that this was the data frequency from when she cleaned the internal system virus of the Loner Dreaming's virtual dream system!
She recalled that this club used the virtual dream system of Loner Dreaming.
When she cleaned the virus, the virtual dream system terminal would emit data signals to detect and synchronize virus data cleanup.
This woman's chip was likely very clean, unaffected.
On the contrary, the killer, because of residual viruses in his chip, was forcibly isolated, suppressing the virus.
Thus, during the cleaning process, the internal chip became a tangled mess, directly affecting the killer's consciousness and actions.
The scene reappeared; the woman likely found an opportunity, enduring the pain, letting her broken hand droop, and with her other hand, she lunged at the killer with the knife.
Her fierce expression nearly frightened Qin Xuezhong.
However, the killer was still a killer; even in such extreme conditions, his reflexes and strength were intact.
Though his movements were distorted, he prevented the woman from hitting him and instead injured her.
The problem was, the void in his mind grew larger, the pain more intense, and the gaps in his actions widened.
When he briefly regained consciousness, he tried his utmost to take the woman's life, but ultimately failed.
The woman, covered in wounds, trembled all over, but her gaze never changed—eyes that sought to kill.
The two struggled, turning the room into chaos, blood everywhere.
After a few tense exchanges, she ultimately realized that with her strength, she could not harm the killer before her.
If this continued, she would die first!
The woman took a deep breath, looking into the killer's eyes.
When the killer's eyes opened once more, Qin Xuezhong saw a knife tip rapidly enlarging, filling her vision, before it stabbed in violently.
Qin Xuezhong's heart lurched, and in that instant, the scene went black.
The pre-death memory concluded here.
Coming out of the conscious space, Qin Xuezhong was silent for a long time.
Jin An'an asked with concern, "Are you okay?"
Qin Xuezhong shook her head, "Just... a bit scary."
Jin An'an curiously glanced at the pre-death memories Qin Xuezhong had retrieved, her eyes wide.
This truly was a first-person view of an ordinary person facing a killer; anyone watching would unconsciously identify with the woman, feeling the helplessness and fear.
At that moment, the morgue door opened again.
Zhang Yuan walked in.
"Hey, Officer Zhang?" Jin An'an greeted with a smile.
Having gone through the fight outside the machine room, the relationship between the analysis team and Zhang Yuan had become familiar.
Qin Xuezhong also nodded at him.
On the surface, Zhang Yuan seemed calm, but inside, he was extremely nervous.
He had to appear as a familiar colleague while also not overstepping, to avoid offending his superior in front of him.
He cautiously pointed to the corpse in front of Jin An'an and said, "This case requires us to investigate in detail as instructed by the leadership, so I came to take a look."
Jin An'an thought Zhang Yuan's caution stemmed from fear and reassured him, "Don't be afraid; we've already examined this corpse."
Zhang Yuan managed a forced smile.
Qin Xuezhong asked, "Why the detailed investigation?"
Zhang Yuan honestly explained the background of the case.
Jin An'an and Qin Xuezhong were both shocked.
Jin An'an was surprised that, in this era, there were still women who had been pregnant with their own bodies.
Qin Xuezhong, on the other hand, was astonished that, in this world, women didn't need to give birth themselves?!
For the first time, she felt a slight, clear fondness for this world.
This also made her very curious about what this woman had experienced.
First, she had given birth in an unprecedented way, and then she was pursued by a high-end killer—these two events could very well be connected.
If it hadn't been for her previous cleaning of the system virus, this woman would likely have vanished without a trace, becoming just another case of the many disappearances in Xigu Valley City.
She checked the work system and found that this case had a very low priority.
The tech department had also not submitted any requests to raise its priority.
Zhang Yuan vaguely guessed what Qin Xuezhong was doing and quickly explained, "The owner of that club is a friend of our leader, so they want us to help push things along. I… I'm also quite curious, so I came down to take a look."
Jin An'an asked, "This is a pregnant person, and there's an unknown killer involved; how can the mainframe's priority be so low?"
Zhang Yuan silently shook his head.
He didn't explain much because he knew that such cases often related to some consortium or secret organization. If it had been before, someone would have quietly suppressed the matter long ago.
But now, Xigu Valley City was undergoing drastic changes, and even the fifth consortium hadn't recovered yet, leaving other families and groups in chaos.
So, this matter that should have been buried underwater was now surfacing.
Perhaps influenced by Qin Xuezhong, Zhang Yuan felt his sense of justice reviving.
After seeing the killer's pre-death memory that Qin Xuezhong had retrieved, he was even more convinced that this matter had been exposed by their team leader!
It was very likely that the team leader discovered the killer was committing murder while cleaning the internal virus of the Loner Dreaming system, thus helping that puppet deal with the killer.
The claims about the system malfunctioning in Jingshan District and the system assigning staff were probably all part of the boss's design.
He aimed to personally take on this case and uproot the conspiracy behind it!
The more Zhang Yuan thought about it, the more excited he became.
He felt he was right to be here.
He immediately said, "No one submitted a request, so the mainframe's priority must be low. I'm quite curious; I'll go submit a request later, hoping to raise the priority of this case."
This statement answered Jin An'an's question but was actually a pledge of loyalty to Qin Xuezhong, indicating he would do his utmost to investigate the matter thoroughly.
Qin Xuezhong understood.
She smiled and replied, "Then it'll be hard work for Officer Zhang. If you need any assistance, just let us know at any time."
As she said this, Qin Xuezhong communicated with the mainframe and temporarily elevated Zhang Yuan's permissions for this case.
Hearing Qin Xuezhong say this, Zhang Yuan's face lit up with joy. He hurriedly responded, "It's the least I can do, the least I can do."
However, his smile instantly froze.
He had received a private alert from the mainframe.
[Officer Zhang Yuan, during the handling of this case, you have been granted temporary Level 8 permissions. You have the authority to discreetly mobilize the headquarters' special operations team, access the mainframe's Level 8 database, allocate special operation funds of up to 20 million credit points, and utilize safe houses, armories, security department vehicles, and aircraft throughout the East Continent Federation. Further details will be presented in an attachment.]
He was utterly stunned, turning his stiff neck to sneak a glance at Qin Xuezhong.
This was definitely the boss's doing!
He hadn't expected that the boss not only infiltrated the board of directors of the Fifth Consortium but could even… influence the mainframe? Could he even control it?!
He looked at Qin Xuezhong as if seeing the ultimate boss who controlled this world.