Chapter 231: Forensic Lady
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang spent the entire morning visiting the four sewer workers and got the same answers from all of them. They did not know much as the sewer was dark, hence they could not identify the genders of the deceased, let alone see the dead bodies clearly. The only thing they knew was that the first body was that of a man. They knew nothing about the rest. However, Lin Huang was glad that the four of them kept the secret pretty well, not even spilling a word to their wives, so it was unlikely that the news would leak to the public.
It was almost 12 noon when Lin Huang left Little Wang's house. He was the last sewer worker that he visited. After lunch at a random store, Lin Huang summoned the Viridian Wolf and headed to the Union Government division. He was brought to the forensic department after the staff checked his license and investigation ID. When the door opened, there was a lady in black-framed glasses watching videos while eating snacks at her desk. The lady seemed young, about 17 or 18 years of age. Her face was small with sharp features. However, the glasses, which occupied half of her face, covered most of her features. She was indulging in a battle video that seemed like the Hunter Arena. As she watched, she was grabbing a box of food that was covered in red chili oil with her gloves.
Lin Huang knocked on the door. The lady looked at him uninterestedly. "You're at the wrong place, this is the forensic department."
"I'm looking for the forensic department." Lin Huang smiled and walked over to the lady's desk.
"Hi, my name is Ye Xiu. I'm an investigator sent by the Hunter Association."
"Give me a second, let me finish this video." The lady waved her hand at him.
As the background of her video was set to be semi-transparent, as he walked closer, Lin Huang could clearly see that it was the battle of himself defeating Yu Moli. It was his 90th battle. Lin Huang frowned as he watched the screenplay. Since the battle was ending soon, Lin Huang pulled a chair and sat across the lady while waiting for her to finish the video. Two to three minutes later, a golden glow flashed across the video. Soon, the arena announced Sword Genius's victory.
"My prince charming is the best!" the lady screamed and paused the scene where Sword Genius was disappearing. She then kissed the screen with her oily lips. Lin Huang could not bear to see her disturbing actions. After turning off the video, the lady looked at Lin Huang who sat across her. "You're from the Hunter Association? Show me your ID."
Lin Huang projected his hunter license and the investigation ID from the Union Government.
"Following the protocol, I should check your work ID as well."
"Go ahead then." The lady projected her work ID from her left hand in an apathetic manner.
Her name was Liang Yin and she was 17. It showed that she graduated from the advanced medical school of the Union Government majoring in forensic science. She was not wearing glasses on her working ID and she looked much prettier in her picture.
"Alright." Lin Huang nodded after checking thoroughly.
Liang Yin then turned off the projected and said while eating, "Just ask whatever questions you have. If you'd like to see the dead bodies, we can do that after I finish eating this bowl of red chili lung slices."
"What's the investigation result of the four bodies? Was it done by Brain Eater?" Lin Huang asked directly.
"99% was done by the Brain Eater," Liang Yin replied while eating.
"How about the remaining 1%?" Lin Huang asked.
"The remaining 1% would probably be a lunatic who mimics brain eating cases. If that's so, the person must have drilled a hole on top of the head and sucked the brain out using a straw." Liang Yin proceeded to eat while she explained, her appetite not at all affected by the gruesomeness of what she was saying.
"Were all of the victims men? Besides that, are there any similarities among them?" Lin Huang asked.
"All of them were strong men and there were a couple of similarities. First of all, all of them were naked when they were found. Secondly, all of them were…having…intense sex before they died. Thirdly, all of them were well trained. Two of them were at bronze Level while another two were at silver level. The Hunter Association has confirmed that the four of them held Regular Hunter licenses." Liang Yin was checking out Lin Huang as she spoke. As she was also a silver level, she could sense that Lin Huang was on the same level too.
From the sewer workers, Lin Huang already knew that they were all naked and Liang Yin had just confirmed it. After listening to her explanation, Lin Huang could confirm that the flesh of the Brain Eater was at least a silver level.
"Is it possible to determine which rank both the silver level victims were?" Lin Huang asked.
"One was silver level rank-1. while another was rank-2. We could tell that they did not struggle before they were killed. They should have been attacked when they were having sex," Liang Yin explained.
"Since it could pierce through a silver level rank-2's skull, the Brain Eater should at least be a silver level rank-3 or even higher," Liang Yin added.
What she said at the end implied that Lin Huang would not be able to fight such a monster.
"Were there any wounds on the bodies?" Lin Huang ignored her insinuation and continued to ask.
"There were light wounds including scratches and whipping. Those should have been caused by the sex since they were just light surface injuries which were not fatal." Liang Yin explained with her eyebrow raised.
"The only fatal injury was the hit on the head which pierced through the skull into the brain."
"What was the time of death?" Lin Huang asked.
"The earliest one was four months ago while the latest one was a month ago. That's about one body per month. Looking at the Brain Eater's hunting habit, it would be doing it again within these couple of days." Liang Yin answered.
Lin Huang noticed that she had finished her food so he said, "I guess you could bring me to the dead bodies now."
"Sure, give me a second." Liang Yin then threw the box filled with red chili oil into the trash can together with her gloves.
Lin Huang thought she was ready to go. However, she walked to the refrigerator and took out a few boxes. After a pause, she decided on one and kept the rest in the refrigerator again. With the box in hand, she then waved to Lin Huang. "Let's go!"
"That's food, isn't it?" Lin Huang was speechless.
"It's intestine gravy, would you like some? It's delicious, you may try, but you can only have a piece," Liang Yin said.
"It's okay, thanks," Lin Huang rejected her right away.
Chapter 232: My Prince Charming Is The Hottest!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang followed Liang Yin to the morgue and she pulled out the cold chambers containing the four bodies for him before she opened the cover of the bowl of intestine gravy on an empty bed.
"You can take a look for yourself. Let me know if you have any questions." Putting on a surgical glove, Liang Yin used her fingers to pick up a slice of intestine into her mouth. She was humming happily with her legs swinging.
Ignoring her, Lin Huang took a look at the first body. It was the body of a young man. Since he was soaked in the silt for a long time, his body was well preserved; it looked as it did when he was alive.
The body was clean, just like what Liang Yin said earlier, and completely naked. He was a good-looking man in his early 20s. He was about 1.8 meters tall with a nice, muscular body. He was not the bulky type, a closet hunk.
"I think this man has the best body among the four of them. Although he's not the tallest, but he has a nice body. Just look at his legs. He has the perfect ratio with a girthy penis. I bet the girls must have gone crazy for him when he was alive," Liang Yin commented casually as she ate.
Lin Huang did not say a word. It was odd for a 17 year old to talk about a man's penis with another man that she had just met. Lin Huang could not imagine what kind of things she would say if they became friends.
However, Lin Huang could tell that the disturbing comment had nothing to do with sex but was simply a biological observation. He thought that it was inappropriate to carry on with the topic anyway. After some observation, Lin Huang noticed that there really were not many wounds on the man's body. There were light scratches on his chest and back that seemed like the work of fingernails. The only fatal injury was the hole the size of a thumb on top of his head. Though the hole, Lin Huang could even see the structure of the hollow skull. There was no brain left.
"I bet you guys cleaned the inside of the head as well?" Lin Huang asked.
"Of course we did, or else how are we supposed to see what happened in there?" Liang Yin replied.
"I have kept the silt inside their skulls and did an extraction. There was no brain tissue left at all."
"How about their internal organs?" Lin Huang noticed that the chests and the abdomens of the bodies had been cut opened and stitched back.
"Nothing odd. We have extracted the residue inside their stomachs, it was just normal food." Liang Yin shrugged while putting another piece of intestine into her mouth. Such a topic did not seem to affect her appetite at all.
"How about their blood? Is there any trace of poisoning?" Lin Huang asked.
"We have done that too, but they were not poisoned. Can you stop doubting our professionalism? Do you think I wouldn't think of the possibility of poisoning? I'm much more experienced than you. Whatever you can think of, I have already covered that." Liang Yin was unhappy with Lin Huan's probing.
"I managed to graduate from the advanced medical school with Honors. I have also been authorized to work in the forensic field even before I graduated. This must be done by Brain Eater, I have no doubt about that."
"I'm not suspecting you, I just wanted to confirm with you all the possibilities." Lin Huang did not mean to judge her. He was merely voicing out all the likelihoods that he had in his head.
Liang Yin did not say a word. She thought about it and realized that Lin Huang was just asking questions like a normal person would and that he did not have a suspicious tone. She was being too sensitive.
"I have checked the organs, blood, and even the spinal cord. There's no residue of poison that we know of, neither is there any trail of Ecstasy," Liang Yin added after giving it some thought.
"Hmm, there seems to be nothing wrong with this body. Let me take a look at the rest." Lin Huang walked towards the second body.
It was a hunk of 1.9 meters with tanned skin and he looked like he was 27 or 28. As Lin Huang was observing, Liang Yin spoke up, "This man was the oldest among all of them and he has the highest rank. Although his Life Wheel was broken, we could detect from the remaining force wave that he was a silver level rank-2. He was the tallest and the strongest one with the largest penis. From the color of his penis, we could tell that he had the most sex among all of them…"
Once again, Lin Huang was speechless by her casual comment about the man's penis. He decided to focus on the body instead. Soon, he noticed that there were many scars on the back of this body.
"What's with the scars on his back?"
"Nothing, those are scars of whipping. If you look closely, he has quite a lot of similar scars all over his body. Most of them were healed, but those that we saw were new. Looking at the severity of the marks, they don't look like punishment, they seem more like a fetish," Liang Yin explained. Although she was young, she seemed to know a lot about the non-vanilla aspects of the bedroom.
Lin Huang did not ask further after hearing her explanation as it was just skin surface, which was unrelated to how this man died. Just like the previous man, there was a hole in his head.
"Was this man of silver level rank-2 killed in one hit as well? How could you tell that he did not fight back?" Lin Huang asked.
"You can tell from his facial expression. If he struggled or fought back before he died, his facial expression would be ferocious. After the body stiffened, the facial expression would stay. Look at him, he looked happy. This means he was killed without knowing that it was coming since he was relaxed," Liang Yin said while putting another slice of intestine into her mouth and chewing it hard.
"You know what I meant when I said he was relaxed…"
After keeping the second body, Lin Huang proceeded to check the remaining two bodies. Liang Yin answered all his questions. They then left the morgue and headed to Liang Yin's office.
"Do you have any more questions?" Liang Yin finished the bowl of intestine gravy as they arrived at her office. She then threw it away and looked at Lin Huang with her eyes eagerly wide.
"I would like to look at the complete post-mortem report," Lin Huang requested.
Liang Yin then projected the post-mortem report to him. After flipping on the screen, she showed it to Lin Huang. "You can take a look at it yourself."
Lin Huang then spent more than 40 minutes to finish the report and he had no suspicion on the cause of death anymore. Turning off the report page, Lin Huang looked at Liang Yin. "What do you think about this case?"
"I'm just a forensic scientist, what kind of thoughts am I supposed to have?" Liang Yin had her arms wide open.
"From my professional observation, it was done by a Brain Eater monster or a Brain Eater that was disguised as a woman."
"How much do you know about a Brain Eater?" Lin Huang asked.
"I studied forensic science, not monsters or monster biology," Liang Yin replied curtly.
"Alright then. No matter what, thanks for your help." Lin Huang left.
Just when Lin Huang arrived at the entrance, he was stopped by Liang Yin.
"Wait, I thought of a senior who is a monster expert. I could give you his contact details. However, whether he would be willing to help you is a different matter."
"Sure, give me his number. I will try contacting him." Lin Huang nodded.
After adding him as a friend and forwarding him the contact details, Lin Huang left while Liang Yin proceeded to watch other Sword Genius battle videos in her office.
As she watched, she mumbled, "No matter what, my Prince Charming is the hottest. No man can compare to him…"
Although she could not see Lin Huang's face under the silver mask, that did not stop her from idolizing him…
Chapter 233: Awkward Encounter
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It was past four in the afternoon when Lin Huang left the Union Government building. He did not expect time to past so fast as he was focused on investigating the dead bodies. He rode the Viridian Wolf back to the hotel. As he entered the hotel, he ran towards the elevator which was closing and held the doors open using his hand. Lin Huang was stunned when he saw the couple in the elevator. The lady was one in the pink bathrobe in the room of the other hotel where he and Mr. Fu were transported to that morning.
Now that they were standing closer to each other, Lin Huang was surprised to find that the lady was a gold level rank-3. The tall man beside him was of the same level too. After hesitating for a heartbeat, Lin Huang decided to enter the elevator anyway. He realized that the lady did not recognize him as he had changed his features earlier. There were three of them in the elevator and coincidentally, they were going to the same floor, level 76.
Lin Huang thought it was awkward but fortunately, his back was facing them so he could not see their facial expressions. Soon they arrived at level 76. As Lin Huang walked out, the couple followed too. Lin Huang was staying in Room 28 while the duo was in Room 26 and Room 27 respectively, just next to him. Lin Huang figured that the lady had probably transferred to this hotel instead due to the morning's incident.
Although it was awkward, Lin Huang did not plan to change his stay in this hotel as it was unnecessary. Since the lady did not recognize him anyway, he could just pretend that it never happened. He then called Liang Yin's senior to whom she had given the contact details earlier. Within two rings, the phone was picked up.
"Hello, who are you looking for?" It was the voice of a young man.
"Hi, are you Liang Yin's senior, Han Ji?"
"Who are you?" the man asked guardedly.
"My name is Ye Xiu, I am an investigator from the Hunter Association. I have been investigating on a case that involves the Brain Eater and I got your contact details from Liang Yin. She told me that you are a major in monsters, a professional in this field," Lin Huang explained.
The man was silent for a moment before he started speaking, "I am Han Ji, is Xiao Yin...alright?"
Hearing his tone of voice, Lin Huang could tell that there was something between them.
"Erm…from the way she ate her snacks, she seemed great. We're not close, it was our first time meeting this afternoon." Lin Huang did not know how to answer that question, so he answered honestly.
"She must still be a huge fan of heavy food, am I right?" Han Ji asked.
"I suppose red chili lung slices and intestine gravy are considered heavy." Lin Huang nodded in certainty.
"Oh, I see that she has been eating much lighter food compared to two years ago…" Han Ji chuckled to himself.
What he said puzzled Lin Huang. "If this is considered light, what kind of food did she use to eat?!"
"I still remember she used to love raw heart slices. I enjoyed watching her eating until her face was all bloody. She looked cute like that…" Han Ji indulged himself in the 'beautiful' memory of Liang Yin.
"Raw heart slices…Bloody face…Which part of that is cute?! Can you guys eat something normal and have some normal judgment of beauty!?" Lin Huang screamed in his heart.
"I'm sorry, I was distracted. I hope I didn't scare you," Han Ji said softly.
"It's alright, let's talk business." Lin Huang attempted to get Han Ji back on track.
"You want documents about Brain Eater, am I right? I will send you a copy of my research document later. However, it's confidential. If not for Xiao Yin, I would not send it to you. Therefore, please do not forward it to anyone else. After you are done with it, delete it right away, don't keep it anywhere," Han Ji warned Lin Huang.
"I understand. I'm only using it for the case and I will destroy it after using it. Don't worry," Lin Huang promised.
"Oh yeah, would you know what is Xiao Yin's current favorite thing?" Han Ji deviated from the topic again.
"I'm not sure, how would I know that? I just met her this afternoon…" Lin Huang said and then he recalled something.
"Wait, I think she likes Sword Genius. I saw her watching videos of him when I entered her office."
"What is this Sword Genius?" Han Ji was puzzled.
"He's a participant in the Hunter Arena." Lin Huang understood that researchers like Han Ji did not keep himself updated with the Hunter Arena.
"Alright then, I'll look into it on the network later." Han Ji seemed to be satisfied with the answer Lin Huang gave.
"If you have any doubts, you can always ask me. As long as I'm not working in the lab, I will try my best to answer you."
"Thanks in advance then. I shall contact you if I have any questions then." Lin Huang did not expect that naming a random hobby of Liang Yin's would earn Han Ji's promise easily.
After they hung up, Han Ji sent the documents over almost immediately. Lin Huang looked at it right away…
The documents were detailed whereby most of the experiments came with many photos and complete lab videos. Lin Huang thought Han Ji was kidding when he said the documents were confidential and that he would only send some ordinary research documents. After flipping through the documents, he was shocked to find that it was indeed some confidential information from the Union Government which was not to revealed to the public. As there were many experiments that included human testing, such experiments were prohibited for the Union Government on the surface as it was inhumane. If the documents were exposed, the Union Government's name would be affected and it might irk the public.
It was past six in the evening after Lin Huang was done with his preliminary read. He turned his screen off and got ready for dinner downstairs. Just when he opened the door, the lady staying next door came out of the room as well. Lin Huang pretended not to see her and headed straight to the elevator. The lady knocked on the door of Room 26 and called out, "I'm ready, let's go."
The door of Room 26 opened and the tall man walked out of the room. After closing the door, the duo headed to the elevator.
Lin Huang had been waiting for the elevator to come and before it did, the duo was standing behind him. As they entered the elevator, the couple ignored him completely while starting to talk to each other.
"What did you from your end?" the lady asked.
"The association has gotten the location of the four men's Emperor's Heart Rings when they disappeared as well as their whereabouts during the last few days. They will send it to me soon. How about you?" the man asked.
"I have gotten the history of the phones from the association, but I didn't find anything odd." The lady shook her head helplessly.
From their conversation, Lin Huang could tell that they were investigating the same case as he was. Unfortunately, the elevator soon arrived on level one and the duo walked out of the elevator. Lin Huang hesitated and decided not to follow them in the end.
"I shall have dinner first. After that, I'll get the Hunter Association to get me information about the four men's Emperor's Heart Rings and see if there are any clues," He thought to himself. It seemed like there was only one Brain Eater in this city. If the duo managed to kill it, Lin Huang would have to find another way to obtain the Supreme Intelligence skill for his Demonic Dandelion Vine. Now that there were competitors, Lin Huang could no longer stay calm.
Chapter 234: Chilly Night
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After dinner, the first thing Lin Huang did when he got back to the hotel room was to look at the Hunter Association's official website. He then submitted the app to look at the locations of the four men's Emperor's Heart Rings as well as the history and the messages on their phones. Later on, he started reading the documents of Brain Eater that Han Ji had sent him earlier.
The documents about the Brain Eater were detailed. In fact, they were even more detailed than the monster encyclopedia that Mr. Fu had sent him. The difference between them was a Ph.D. holder's thesis and a primary school kid's homework. The information alone was 1,000 times more complete than the monster encyclopedia. Before Lin Huang had the chance to look at the video of the first experiment, he received a couple of messages from the Hunter Association.
"Location request app for Emperor's Heart Rings has been approved, please see attachment for details."
"Phone history app has been approved, please see attachment for details."
"Message request app for Emperor's Heart Rings has been approved, please see attachment for details."
He turned off the Brain Eater's documents and started reading the attachments in the messages. The first attachment was the images of the four men's last seen location before they died. As Lin Huang opened the images, he opened Luoxi City's map as well to compare the locations.
"They were all in underground hotels…" Lin Huang frowned.
The last location that appeared on the four men's Emperor's Heart Rings were in four different underground hotels. An underground hotel was not really beneath the ground or a filthy motel; it was a special hotel that exclusively catered to one night stands. Such hotels were usually well-decorated with ample equipment and the rack rate was expensive too. Many were willing to pay for such hotels as there would be no surveillance cameras around. There was no registration needed either, as all they had to do was to transfer credit points onto a trading chip and get a room that they wanted. There was a back door in each room so people could leave from the back anytime they wanted.
Such hotels were usually occupied before 11 and at night, business was booming. The owner of such hotels usually had a powerful background. If something bad happened, it was hard to get them to speak. That was why Lin Huang frowned when he saw that the four men had last appeared in underground hotels.
"This is tough…" Lin Huang was in a pickle as he knew that the hotel owners would not assist him in the investigation. Even if they did, there were no records of clues that he could investigate further.
Glancing at the whereabouts on the day that they were killed in fast forward mode, Lin Huang could not find any similarities. The only similarity was that the locations of the four of them were close to this area. Two of them had been staying in the same hotel before they died, which was the hotel where Mr. Fu had brought Lin Huang to earlier. Meanwhile, the other one stayed at the hotel that Lin Huang was currently in while the last one stayed in a luxurious hotel nearby.
Without a clue, Lin Huang opened the second attachment. It was the records of their calls and messages. All of the messages looked normal without anything about any one-night stands. No lusty messages could be found and this puzzled Lin Huang.
"How did they contact the murderer then? Could the four of them have had a different Emperor's Heart Ring?"
Putting that thought aside, Lin Huang opened the last attachment. It was the browsing history of their Emperor's Heart Ring including the time of whichever network they logged onto when they did any credit points transfer and the number of times the app was opened. However, there was no concrete information. All he could see was the main page of the network that they logged onto and he could not see what kind of information they were looking at. As for the credit points transfer, he could only see the transaction time but not the amount transferred. Meanwhile, for the app, he could only see the name of the app but not any other details including the amount of time spent on the particular app or the activities.
However, Lin Huang noticed that all of them had used the same app before they died.
"What is this Chilly Night? There's this same app on all their Emperor's Heart Rings and two hours before their death, the app was either opened all the time or sporadically…" Lin Huang then looked at the app.
"So, it's an app for one-night stands…" After reading the description of the app, Lin Huang finally understand what it was for.
"That means the murderer must have used this app to lure all of them. No wonder there's nothing on their phones as they never contacted each other using their phones."
Lin Huang was in yet another predicament as the attachment provided by the Hunter Association did not include the conversation on the app, so he could not find out who was talking to them. Helpless, Lin Huang replied to the Hunter Association, "Is it possible to provide more details on the app utilization?"
This time, he received a reply in a blink of an eye.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Ye. We are unable to go further into the user's privacy to provide you with more details."
Although he had seen it coming, Lin Huang felt helpless when he saw the reply. After closing the attachments, Lin Huang gathered his thoughts.
"The messages on the phone were not helpful. Although I have identified their locations of death, the chances of obtaining information about the murderer from the underground hotels are slim. The only way to identify the murderer's identity is by looking at the conversation history on the Chilly Night app…"
Lin Huang thought that Yang Ling was the only person he knew who might be able to provide him with that information, so he called Yang Ling straight away. After two rings, his phone was picked up. For the first time, Yang Ling did not look tired. He looked like he was full of energy this time and he was even dressed in new clothes with neat hair.
"Good evening, my regular customer." Yang Ling seemed to be in a good mood as he waved at Lin Huang with a smile.
"You look great today." Lin Huang smiled back at him.
"That's because you always call me in the morning. I'm a night owl, I'm usually energized after eight at night." Yang Ling rolled his eyes.
Lin Huang then looked at the time, it was almost 8:30 p.m.
"Are you making a fake identity for your friend again?" Yang Ling knew that Lin Huang would not call for anything but business.
"It's something else this time, I need your help." Lin Huang was aware of Yang Ling's response as he spoke and he was worried that Yang Ling might reject him.
"What's that?" To his joy, Yang Ling did not reject him straightaway.
"I'm sure you know about the app called Chilly Night," Lin Huang started.
"Of course, I do, I'm always using it. Do you use it too? Do you need me to recommend some chicks for you?" Hearing the name of the app, Yang Ling smirked at Lin Huang.
"I need you to get me a conversation history from the app." Lin Huang ignored Yang Ling and told his purpose of the call.
"You have such a fetish of looking at others' conversation on the one-night stand app? Tsk tsk…" Yang Ling smirked again.
"I'm investigating a case whereby the four victims were on this app before they died. I'm suspecting that the murderer was the lady who asked them out," Lin Huang told the truth.
"Oh...I know which case that is! It's the one in Luoxi City. Are you really that far away?" Yang Ling knew what was happening; it was clear that he read the news on the Hunter Info Network.
"Could you help me?" Lin Huang asked.
"Sure, I can, but my assistance isn't free…I want half of the 3,000 Life Crystals reward!" Yang Ling demanded greedily.
"Sure. However, I have a condition. From the beginning to the end of the case, you are not allowed to reject my request, you are not allowed to add any conditions or ask for more Life Crystals," Lin Huang stated.
"You've got my word!" Yang Ling agreed immediately.
Chapter 235: Asexual Reproduction
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After he hung up, Lin Huang sent the codes of the four men's Emperor's Heart Ring to Yang Ling. Within minutes, Yang Ling sent him the images of the four men's conversations. However, the four of them were talking with four different accounts. All of them were females without profile pictures. The conversations were explicit with the exchanging of images. However, the images that were sent by the ladies were deleted, so Lin Huang could not tell who they were.
Just when Lin Huang was planning to call Yang Ling to ask about the deleted photos, Yang Ling called.
"I have investigated the four female accounts and although their addresses were all in Luoxi City, they were in different locations. However, all of the accounts were temporary ones whereby they would stop using the account after two to three days. Besides the first account, the other three accounts were created 25 to 26 days after the first account was created. Therefore, it was normal that the locations were different. It's highly likely that the four accounts belong to the same person." Yang Ling started talking since Lin Huang picked up his call.
"Is it possible to retrieve the deleted photos?" Although Lin Huang knew it was not possible, he wanted to try his luck anyway.
"That's not possible as the application's programming is very simple. It's good that it can keep the messages but it's impossible to retrieve deleted photos. Moreover, the creator of the application made it for fun without the intention to make the application big, so it's not connected to the cloud network of the Emperor's Heart Ring. There's no backup of messages in the application," Yang Ling said with his arms open.
"Are you the creator?" Lin Huang had the assumption when he heard Yang Ling said that the application had been created just for fun.
"Oh…You got me." Yang Ling shrugged his shoulders.
"Is there nothing that you can do?" Lin Huang asked.
"There's really nothing that I can do as the programming itself is flawed. I never wanted it to be perfect. All I wanted was a smooth conversation in the application, so I didn't put in many functions on the application. I used less than two hours to create it and launched it right away…" Yang Ling explained.
"Send me all the four addressed of the ladies then." Lin Huang thought the only clue that he might get was from the addresses.
Yang Ling sent the addresses immediately. Lin Huang projected the map and located the coordinates of the four underground hotels. He then connected all the coordinates to the manhole where the dead bodies were found.
"Please check for me all the surveillance cameras on the route to the manhole on the same night when the four men died. See if there's anyone who appeared repetitively. If that person appeared several times when the bodies were getting rid of, the person could be the murderer that we are looking for," Lin Huang said to Yang Ling.
"I'll do that. Besides on the day itself, I will also look at the days after the incident happened."
"If there's anything else that you need my help with, tell me now. I have things to do after 10 at night, you know," Yang Ling added.
"Not at the moment, I'll let you know tomorrow. Is it possible to send me the surveillance footages by today?" Lin Huang asked.
"I need time for that, I'll send them to you before 10." Yang Ling hung up the phone right away.
It was almost nine o'clock when the conversation ended. Lin Huang proceeded to read about the Brain Eater. However, the more he read, the more difficult he realized it was for him to handle the monster. The Brain Eater was a monster who relied on asexual reproduction. They usually lived up to 300 years and then would they start reproducing when they knew they were almost at their end. Their reproductive method was unique as a ball-shaped baby Brain Eater would grow on its head. The baby would absorb all the nutrients that it needed from its mother and grow. Once the mother was dead, it would detach from its mother.
Within 48 hours of detachment, it needed to find a host or else it would die. A Brain Eater that was just detached from its mother was only a size of a thumb, so it was hard to discover. It would usually go into another creature's body and head to the brain. Once it arrived at the brain, it would attach its bottom on the host's brain and release a massive amount of neurotoxins. The brain would lose its nerve function without feeling any pain. The Brain Eater would then devour the brain as the host was in deep sleep and take over the host's body.
Han Ji had done many experiments on dead criminals by getting the Brain Eater to take over the dead criminal's body to see what would happen. According to the research, the Brain Eater would most probably inherit the host's character on its first attempt. For instance, if the host loved smoking, he would still be smoking after his body was taken over. The same applied to those who loved drinking and eating spicy food. Such inheritance proved that the Brain Eater would take over most of the memory of the host.
The Brain Eater would not have its own consciousness during its first attempt of inhabiting a host's body just to survive. Therefore, the first attempt would affect its own consciousness as it would mostly be affected by the host's memories. Its consciousness was basically built on the host's memories. For the following infections, the Brain Eater would acquire the memories of the following hosts as well especially after it has experienced the memory from its first host. However, the memories of the following hosts would do little to affect the Brain Eater.
Once the first takeover was done, the Brain Eater considered as an adult. It could absorb all the information from the memories that it wanted and learn from them to adapt to the environment as soon as possible. If the Brain Eater took over a human body, its learning speed would be terrifying because it could learn to use most of the tools within a couple of days. The most it needed was two to three days to perform exactly the same as the host without exposing itself to others.
Although the reproduction ability of a Brain Eater was weak, it was the most difficult one to handle among many parasites. As Lin Huang was indulged in the documents of Brain Eater that Han Ji sent, a message snapped him out of his focus. It was a short, single-sentence message from Yang Ling.
"I've found the culprit but I can't see the face…"
Chapter 236: The Cautious Brain Eater
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"I've found the culprit but I couldn't see the face…"
There were four attachments in the message that Yang Ling sent and they were all videos. Lin Huang downloaded the attachments immediately. Once they were downloaded, he looked at the first video that was less than 20 seconds long. It was an empty crossroad and on the top right of the screen, the timestamp showed that it was taken at 1:28 a.m. Although it was late, under the lights along the street, the crossroad was brightly lit.
The crossroad remained empty for five to six seconds, then suddenly, a person in black robes appeared on the screen. The black robes were oversized and it was hard to ascertain the person's gender, let alone the person's face. Lin Huang could tell that it was a lady from the black heels that occasionally flashed from under the robe. The person's strides were short but fast, and within seconds, the person walked out of the area monitored by the surveillance camera.
Lin Huang proceeded to look at the second video. It was also around 20 seconds but this time, it was at a T-junction. The same thing happened. A person in black robes walked by quickly. Although the person was covered in the robes, judging from the gait and the speed of the steps, it was the same person who had appeared in the first video. Lin Huang proceeded to look at the third and fourth videos, all of them featuring the same person in black robes. The date stamp shown on the video showed that it was on the second day that the fourth man died. All of them had happened between 1:30 a.m. to 2 a.m.
Lin Huang could confirm that all of them were the same person, that that was the Brain Eater that he was looking for. However, without being able to recognize the face, Lin Huang was clueless. It was past 10 o'clock at night when Lin Huang checked the videos and he did not want to bother Yang Ling, so he continued to read about the Brain Eater. He finished all the documents until it was past 7 a.m. He did not sleep at all. He took a cold shower and had breakfast downstairs with a cup of coffee.
Later on, he sent Yang Ling a message: "Please get me the surveillance camera footages from around the four underground hotels to see if we can find the person who was with the four victims on the night that they were killed. Also, take a look at the camera footage of the four users of the Chilly Night app who appeared on that night. The Brain Eater should've headed home after it got rid of the dead bodies around 1:30 a.m. If she headed home without her black robes, we can see her face on the camera."
After sending Yang Ling the two messages, Lin Huang left the hotel and headed to the first registered address of the first Chilly Night user's account on the Viridian Wolf. It was an old, small area without any surveillance cameras around. Yang Ling managed to find the room, which was Room 401 in Block 4. Using a Specific Transformation Card, Lin Huang transformed himself into Spectre and went into the room.
It was a unit with two bedrooms and a living room. It was around 60 square meters large with a kitchen and a bathroom. There was nobody but it was clear that someone was living in there as it was clean. The master bedroom was neat with the bed made and the blanket folded. There were two pillows on the bed and there was a photo frame near the bed head, facing the corner. It was a photo of a young couple. It was obvious that the new occupiers were a young couple.
Lin Huang looked around the room but he found nothing. Although there must be clues that the Brain Eater had left a couple months ago before it left, now that there were new people moving in, those clues must have been wiped clean. Lin Huang had expected to not find any clues here. He then left the room, transformed back to himself and walked to the security office downstairs.
The security guard was an uncle in his 50's. Seeing that he was the only one in the office, Lin Huang had a silver glow in his eyes as he spoke to the man.
"Uncle, are there no surveillance cameras in the security office as well?"
"No, Luoxi City has always been safe so there's no need for that. Moreover, I am here. We don't need surveillance cameras." The man patted his own chest confidently.
"I would like to ask, was there a beautiful lady staying in Room 401 of Block 4 four months ago?" Lin Huang asked.
"Yes, she's really pretty with a banging body too." The man nodded immediately.
"What does she really look like? Do you have any photos or videos of her?" Lin Huang asked.
"Of course not, why would I have any of that?" The man waved his hands.
"You can only get a photo of her from herself, even the house owner does not have it. She signed her unit contract with me. There were some issues with her Emperor's Heart Ring that day, so she could not retrieve any of her personal details. She stayed here for only a month, so the house owner did not even register the house rental with her."
Lin Huang realized that it was a tactic of the Brain Eater so that her face would not be exposed. She figured that if any hunters were to come for her, it's likely that the places that she stayed at would be exposed. After obtaining the information, Lin Huang left the security office. After he left, the illusion that he cast on the man disappeared.
"Eh, I thought I was talking to Aunty Zhang? Where did she go?" The man looked around trying to find where Aunty Zhang went.
As Lin Huang walked out of the area, he bumped into the two hunters who were staying next to him in the hotel. They must have followed the clue that they got from the Chilly Night app. Noticing Lin Huang, they finally figured that he was in the same case as they were. They both glanced at Lin Huang without saying a word and passed by him. It was normal for different hunters to be on the same mission. Clearly, the duo was calm as it was not the first time they had encountered something like this.
After the duo entered the area, Lin Huang summoned the Viridian Wolf and headed to the second address. It was 11 in the morning when Lin Huang managed to visit the third house. The three houses were all located in an old, small area without any surveillance cameras and had new tenants. All traces of the Brain Eaters were all gone. Lin Huang did not find anything the entire morning.
Helpless, he summoned the Viridian Wolf and headed to the fourth address. It was the address of the account user who had registered more than 20 days ago. It was also an old, remote area without any surveillance cameras. As Lin Huang arrived at the entrance of Room 502 in Block 3, he realized that he had used all of his Specific Transformation Cards. He then redeemed a couple of Spectre Transformation Cards using his card pieces and entered the room after transforming himself into the Spectre…
Chapter 237: A Fingerprint
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The fourth house was a small apartment with a bedroom and a living room. It was about 50 square meters large. The floor and the coffee table in the living room were covered with a thin layer of dust. It was obvious that it had been vacant for a while. After looking around the living room, Lin Huang headed to the bedroom.
The bedroom was simple with a bed and a cabinet behind the bed. Across the bed was a walk-in wardrobe with a one-meter wide space in the middle. There were neither bedsheets nor blankets on the bed; it was just an empty wooden bed frame with a mattress that was 20 meters thick. Besides an empty facial cream container, there was only dust on the cabinet with three drawers behind the bed.
There was half a packet of tissue paper and an opened packet of half-eaten candy in the drawer. After packing both of the items for analysis, Lin Huang proceeded to open the second and third drawers but realized that they were both empty. Under the bed was a thick layer of dust. After looking around and confirming that he did not miss anything, Lin Huang turned around and headed for the wardrobe.
It was a big wardrobe with sliding doors. He opened the left side of the wardrobe, which was empty, save a couple of hangers. However, Lin Huang smirked as there was an unmistakable clue in the wardrobe. As he opened the wardrobe, a perfume scent wafted out of it. The scent was different from the facial cream that he had smelt earlier. Neither was it any scent nor detergent; it was definitely perfume.
Lin Huang recalled a female colleague back on Earth. The colleague did not like the detergent scent on her clothes, so she would do something luxurious after she hung her clothes in the wardrobe. She would spritz perfume into the wardrobe. The perfume that she used was not cheap. A small bottle costs a couple thousand of dollars. Because of that, she would spend more than $10,000 per year on perfume alone. Whenever he visited her house, he could smell perfume, which came from the wardrobe, as he stepped into her room.
Clearly, the Brain Eater had the same habit which might have been inherited from the host. The perfume in this world cost even more than on Earth, so the host of this Brain Eater was clearly a silver level or even higher. To a silver or gold level person, spending 100 million credit points on perfume alone per year was nothing. Lin Huang shook his head to clear his mind from the fog of perfume. After looking around in the room, he did not find anything else.
He walked out of the area after transforming himself back. It was past 12 noon. He was not sure if Yang Ling was still sleeping or some other reason because he had yet to reply Lin Huang's messages. He then found a random restaurant and had a bowl of ramen. After lunch, he summoned the Viridian Wolf and headed to the Union Government. As he arrived, Liang Yin was having lunch in her office.
Lin Huang knocked on her door and asked, "What're you eating?"
"Intestine cup rice!" Liang Yin looked at Lin Huang.
"Why are you here again?"
"I brought clues this time." Lin Huang took out the items that he had obtained from the Brain Eater's house.
"What's this?" Liang Yin blabbered while eating.
"I found the last house that the Brain Eater was staying at and these are the items that she left behind before she moved away. Please see if you could retrieve anything such as fingerprints." Lin Huang dangled the plastic bags in front of her.
"Put them on my desk, I'll do it for you after I am done eating," Liang Yin said with her mouth full.
Lin Huang placed the three plastic bags on her desk and sat on the chair behind while waiting for her to finish her lunch.
About five to six minutes later, Liang Yin finished her food and wiped her mouth with tissue paper, then she walked to the test station with the three plastic bags.
"How did you find the Brain Eater's house?" Liang Yin chatted with Lin Huang while testing the items.
Lin Huang smiled as he explained, "As I was investigating their similarities, I found out that they were using the same app on their Emperor's Heart Ring to talk to the culprit. I got a friend to find the coordinates of the account user."
"You have such a friend?" Liang Yin looked at Lin Huang in wonder.
"Then, could you ask your friend to get me Sword Genius's identity and contact details?!"
"No, that would be violating the privacy of others," Lin Huang rejected without even thinking.
"Aren't you violating the privacy of others right now?" Liang Yin argued, clearly upset.
"I'm doing it for the case, there's nothing else that I can do. Moreover, I'm investigating a Brain Eater. She's a monster that is not eligible for the primary of a Union Government citizen.
"Hmph, I give up then!" Liang Yin did not speak anymore.
Around 10 minutes later, Liang Yin started eating the candy that Lin Huang had brought from the Brain Eater's house.
"Hey, that's evidence…" Lin Huang was speechless by her behavior. "Moreover, have you considered if that's even edible?"
"It is, I have checked. It's just a piece of normal candy," Liang Yin said while shaking the packet of candy at Lin Huang.
Lin Huang rejected her 'kind' offer, "I don't want any, you can have it."
"When will I get the results of the test?" Seeing her relaxed, Lin Huang could not help but ask.
"It's out," Liang Yin declared while shaking a semi-transparent film the size of her palm in front of Lin Huang. There was a clear, black fingerprint on it.
Lin Huang got closer and took the film.
"I'm not responsible for the matching of fingerprints, so you will have to go to the information department," Liang Yin said.
"If she's a Luoxi City's resident, it will take less than 30 minutes to find out her identity. If she's a foreigner, it will take longer, perhaps two to three days," Liang Yin added.
"I understand, thanks!" Lin Huang took the film and left.
Instead of heading to the information department, Lin Huang took a picture of the film and sent it to Yang Ling. After the image was sent, he called Yang Ling, who picked up almost instantly.
"What did you send me?" Yang Ling seemed like he had just woken up. He was wearing a red sleeping robe. He was puzzled by what Lin Huang sent him.
"Did you get the stuff that I asked for this morning?" Lin Huang asked.
"I overslept, I just saw your messages half an hour ago. I'm still on it, I need a while." Yang Ling admitted, embarrassed.
"Alright then, help me check whose fingerprint does this belong to. I have just gotten this from the forensic department. If I'm not mistaken, this fingerprint belongs to the host of the Brain Eater," Lin Huang explained.
"Sure, I will do the identification. I will start with Luoxi City. If the person is a resident there, I will get the result soon." Yang Ling nodded and hung up as he had work to do.
As Lin Huang walked out of the Union Government, he received a message from Yang Ling.
"It's a lady's fingerprint."
Lin Huang was excited as he opened the attachment…
Chapter 238: Wild Beauty
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang frowned when he saw the image that Yang Ling had sent him. He did not think that the lady in the photo was the murderer that he was looking for. It was a middle-aged woman who looked like she was at least 47 years old. She was fat, and although it was a photo of her upper body, Lin Huang could tell that she was not tall. She did not look like she had any combat strength. No matter what, Lin Huang thought her body was too different from the lady in black robes that he saw in the surveillance camera footages. Although her body had been covered by the big robes, Lin Huang could see the shapeliness of her body. If this middle-aged woman was to put on the same robes, she would look completely different.
Moreover, among the four hunters that had died, the oldest one would be in his 30's while the youngest one was not even 20. If they were really met the woman in the photo, they would have probably run away instead of following her to an underground hotel. Besides, Lin Huang had asked the security guards in the apartments that the Brain Eater used to stay in with the help of illusion, and all of them had said that the lady was beautiful with a nice body.
Perhaps the victims and the security guards like this type of women. Just as Lin Huang was puzzled over this, Yang Ling called.
Lin Huang picked up immediately.
"Is that a mistake? Are you messing with me?"
"No, it's not a mistake. The fingerprint belongs to this aunty," Yang Ling said.
"However, she's not the culprit, but the owner of the house. She must have touched the stuff that you retrieved after the Brain Eater left. I was shocked when I found the identity of the woman and realized that she's not the one that we're looking for after I checked the registration of her Emperor's Heart Ring," Yang Ling explained.
Lin Huang was relieved after he heard Yang Ling's explanation. It would be hard to accept if the culprit was that aunty.
"I'm still looking for the information that you asked for this morning. I will contact you again once it's done."
After hanging up the phone, Lin Huang summoned the Viridian Wolf and headed to the hotel. Awhile after he got into the hotel room, Yang Ling called again. He picked up immediately.
"I have looked at all the surveillance cameras. All the four victims went to the underground hotel alone on the day they died without any companion. Also, I have also looked at the surveillance cameras around the area the culprit was staying in the day the bodies were dumped. Until past five in the morning, nobody appeared. It seems like the culprit never returned home after she got rid of the bodies," Yang Ling told Lin Huang the result of his investigation in all seriousness.
"That means that before the Brain Eater carried out the murder, it was ready to move away…" Lin Huang frowned as the investigation came to a dead end again.
"However…I followed the way you think and investigated the four underground hotels. I found something…" Yang Ling smirked.
"What did you find out?" Lin Huang asked.
"I found out that the hotel owner of one of the underground hotels had surveillance cameras secretly installed in every room. The stuff that I saw was interesting. Even a professional like me learned a couple of new positions." Yang Ling smirked again.
"You saw the face of the murderer?!" Lin Huang's eyes flew wide open.
"Hehe, not only her face, I saw the entire process of the murder. Unfortunately, a great porn video turned into a horror movie abruptly. I couldn't take it." Yang Ling patted his chest as a gesture of fear.
"Send it over right now!"
"Look at you…Would you want videos of other rooms as well? They are all high-definition, it's complimentary for you." Yang Ling winked at Lin Huang.
"I'll tell you what, if I were to upload all these videos to the network and make them available for download for 10 credit points, I would make big money from that…"
Lin Huang stared at him without saying a word.
"Alright then, it's no fun to talk to you! I will send it over now." Seeing Lin Huang ignored him, Yang Ling stopped his nonsense.
A moment later, Yang Ling sent a couple of photos, a video and some personal details to Lin Huang.
"The Brain Eater went to the black market a few months back and got her location system on her Emperor's Heart Ring removed. Even if we got her identity and her Emperor's Heart Ring's code, as long as she doesn't launch the Chilly Night app, we can't locate her at all.
"However, I'm trying to get into Luoxi City's surveillance system to look at the areas that she had appeared in before. Hopefully, I can get the location of her current accommodation. I'll contact you once there's news."
After they hung up, Lin Huang looked at the photos immediately. In the first photo, a naked lady was walking out of the bathroom. Her hair was wet and she seemed to have just showered. There was a naked man on the bed. He was the fourth victim who had died more than 20 days ago. He was the one with the nicest body according to Liang Yin. In the second photo was a naked lady closing the curtain at the window. As she was very close to the camera, Lin Huang could even see the pores on her face. He finally understood why Yang Ling said that the videos were of high-definition. From the quality of the photo, the owner of the hotel had spent big money on the surveillance equipment.
The lady had long, dark brown hair that reached her waist and she was pretty but she was not the type with sharp features. Her eyes were big and she had a high nose bridge. Although her lips were not small, after she put on red lipstick, she seemed extra sexy. She had a healthy tan on her body with long, toned legs. The killer feature on her body were her boobs; perhaps 99% of the ladies in Luoxi City would have low self-esteem when they saw her boobs. She exuded a wild kind of beauty, and even Lin Huang was drooling when he looked at the photo.
After looking at the photos, Lin Huang started watching the videos. In the video, the lady got out of the shower. She used a hairband to tie up her hair and got onto the bed to kiss the man…
Their bodies got closer together and the man was breathing heavily as he indulged in the lady's multiple kisses.
Suddenly, the lady opened her eyes. There was a silver antenna-like thing the size of a thumb extending from the top of her head and it made its way to the back of the man's head. After staying mid-air for a moment, the antenna plunged and pierced into the man's head. The man experienced a sudden death before he could even react. As the antenna pierced into the man's head, it was like a snake slithering deeper into his head. There was no blood coming out of the wound.
Around 10 seconds later, the silver antenna came out of the man's head. In the video, Lin Huang could clearly see that the antenna was slick with blood and brain juice. After the antenna returned to her head, the lady let go of the man softly, let down her hair and showered in the bathroom. Later on, she slowly cleaned up the scene in her naked body. She kept the man's body in her storage space while looking around to see if there were any blood stains. After cleaning the room and keeping the man's shoes and socks in her storage space, she put on her clothes. She then put on a big, black robe and looked into the mirror. Confirming that nobody could see her face, she left via the hotel back door…
After finishing the complete video that was 20 minutes long, Lin Huang opened the last document that Yang Ling sent. It was the lady's identity…
Chapter 239: The Disappearance of Zheng Yihan
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Name: Zheng Yihan
Age: 20
Combat Strength: Silver level rank-3
Hunter Association Authorization: Silver Hunter
Remarks: Expert in hidden weapons and close-quarter combat
…
After looking at Brain Eater host's basic information, Lin Huang felt relieved that it had confirmed the identity of the murderer. Finally, after two days of no sleep there was a breakthrough in the development of the case, but knowing the identity wouldn't be enough on its own as nobody knew where she was right now or if she was even in Luoxi City.
Zheng Yihan was a silver level rank-3, with authorization to log into the Hunter Info Network. Using this she must have found out that the Hunter Association was after her but with Brain Eater's intelligence how would she react? would she choose to mess around with the hunters who were after her, would she change to another host so that she could stay in Luoxi City or would she escape the city? Those were all unknown.
Lin Huang did not plan to do anything before obtaining more information. Since he had not slept for a night, he took a nap while waiting for any news from Yang Ling. Finally, after two hours of napping, Yang Ling called. Lin Huang was only resting and wasn't in a deep sleep. As his Emperor's Heart Ring beeped, he sat right up immediately and picked up the call.
"So what? Did you see her appear anywhere?" Lin Huang asked.
Yang Ling opened his arms wide in the video call.
"I didn't see her anywhere. After she got rid of the bodies, she seems to have disappeared completely from Luoxi City. I watched all of the 8,000 surveillance cameras around the city three times since the day she got rid of the body, I haven't seen her face once."
"Do you mean she has left Luoxi City?" Lin Huang frowned.
"Maybe she has left, maybe she's hiding or maybe she has a new face. Those are all possible." Yang Ling gave three different answers.
"If she's hiding, isn't it impossible that she doesn't appear anywhere on the surveillance cameras for more than 20 days?" Lin Huang figured since the Hunter Association had launched the mission many days before; the host, Zheng Yihan might have been disposed of.
Yang Ling disagreed with Lin Huang. "That's not impossible, I could do that."
"There are not that many surveillance cameras in Luoxi City. If she chose to stay in an old, small area without any surveillance, she could wander around without getting captured as long as she does not enter any areas with surveillance."
"I have been watching her Emperor's Heart Ring and looked at the user record. It has been more than 20 days since she last used the 'Chilly Night' application. Judging by her behavior, it's not possible that she had found her new target for face-changing." Yang Ling suspected.
Lin Huang agreed and nodded. "That's right. She's now in the body of a silver level rank-3 with outstanding combat strength and an attractive appearance. Such a host is like a beautiful flower exuding an amazing scent that attracts bees around her, providing her with good food. Without finding a better host, it's not possible that she'd give up on the current host."
Yang Ling thought and voiced his suspicion. "It's not possible that she'd leave Luoxi City unless she's forced to. Although I have no idea how she's managed to get into the city, looking at the Union Government's security system it's hard for her to pass through the other footholds."
"Do you mean among the three possibilities, the possibility that she's hiding is the highest?" Lin Huang asked.
"This is what I thought. However, my analysis is just for reference. Exactly what happens depends on what this Brain Eater is up to." Yang Ling shrugged his shoulders with the attitude that Lin Huang was on his own now.
"Alright then… The Brain Eater would need to eat at least once a month. It has been 25 days since she'd last eaten. If she's still in the city, she'd be eating again within these next few days. I think she'll use the Chilly Night app again, watch it for me." Lin Huang planned to wait for another few days. If the Brain Eater had left the foothold, he'd have to abort the mission and think of other ways to get the skill for the Demonic Dandelion Vine as he didn't want to spend too much time here.
"Don't worry, I'll do that. I'll receive a notification as soon as she logs into the app." Yang Ling was confident.
It was five in the evening after he'd hung up the phone. Lin Huang had dinner downstairs and returned to his hotel room. It seemed like all he could do now was wait for Brain Eater to log into the app. It had been 25 days since the Brain Eater had last eaten. If she was still in Luoxi City, she would definitely kill someone again within two to three days as she'd die if she didn't eat for more than a month.
It was past six in the evening. After reading the news for a while, Lin Huang started playing Gun Master in the living room. Since he had nothing to do, he wanted to get Lin Xuan to train with him. Before entering the game, he connected the game with his Emperor's Heart Ring's notification so that he could be notified even when he was playing the game.
As he entered the game, he realized that Lin Xin and Lin Xuan were online too. He pulled the both of them into the virtual training ground that he'd built inside the game. Although they're in different game consoles, as long as the virtual training grounds number was the same, they'd be on the same battle map. Seeing Lin Huang in the game, Lin Xin ran towards him.
"Have you guys had dinner?" Lin Huang patted her head.
"Yes, we have. Brother, why are you so free today?" Lin Xin smiled and asked.
"My task here is stuck at the moment. I'm waiting for news from a friend and since I have nothing to do, I thought I'd train here." Lin Huang explained.
"How long will you stay there?" Lin Xin asked.
"I would be in Luoxi City for four to five days at most. If it can't be done, I will abort my mission. I don't have time to waste here, I have more important things to do."
Lin Huang had not been training his Life Skill recently as his Life Power was being stabilized. It would take less than a week for it to completely stabilize naturally. If he didn't manage to kill Brain Eater this time, he could always train his Demonic Dandelion Vine once he became a Gold Hunter. It was unnecessary for him to waste too much time in Luoxi City. After a quick chat, Lin Huang started training his gunfighting techniques with Lin Xuan…
Chapter 240: The Professional Got C*ckblocked!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
For the following two days, Lin Huang spent most of his time inside the Gun Master game. After two days he'd only managed to learn three intermediate gunfighting techniques. He was training past 10 at night when his phone started ringing. Seeing that it was Yang Ling, Lin Huang exited the game and picked up the call.
"Is there any news?!" Lin Huang was worried.
"The lady has just logged into the Chilly Night app…"
"What's her location, send it to me right now and I'll go over!" Lin Huang asked for the address before Yang Ling could finish talking.
"Erm… This is the reason why I called. I can't locate her…" Yang Ling looked embarrassed.
"Didn't you tell me you could locate her as long as she uses the application?" Lin Huang was suspicious.
"That's because I thought she only had the programming removed from the location service and it wouldn't affect the location of the app. I didn't know that she got the entire location receiver in her Emperor's Heart Ring removed."
Yang Ling said helplessly, "To crack the ring open and work on the chip isn't easy. I don't think anyone in Luoxi City would be able to do it, that's why I thought she had only gotten the code for the location system removed. Now that the location receiver has been destroyed, even my personal code for the location services couldn't locate where she is…"
He was embarrassed as he had told Lin Huang that he could do it.
"Can't locate her…" Lin Huang frowned as he listened. He had faith in Yang Ling to get it done, he did not expect to hear this.
After thinking for a while Lin Huang thought of an idea.
"I'm thinking to download the app myself and register an account. Since we can't locate her, I'll ask her out.
"That's a great idea!" Yang Ling agreed with Lin Huang but not completely.
"However, it's too suspicious to register a new account now; as she could see the date and time of registration. She knows that she's being hunted down by the Hunter Association, so she will be wary of accounts that are new. Let me give you the testing account that I used, it was registered three years ago. Upload a picture of yourself and key in your own profile. She won't suspect a thing. Don't expose yourself when you talk to her… Never mind, I'll help you with the talking. You're such a serious guy that she'd never fall for you. I'll be monitoring your conversation with her, you can copy whatever I send you and send it to her."
"Sure!"
Lin Huang agreed immediately. Although he'd used a similar phone application when he was on earth, he couldn't bring himself to flirt with a stranger. Using Yang Ling's method, he was just being a middleman where Yang Ling was the one actually talking to the lady. All he had to do was forward the messages. Immediately after the phone hung up, Yang Ling sent the password to his account. Lin Huang logged into the application after he'd downloaded it using the username Super Hunk, Lin Huang was tempted to change the username, but he couldn't find the settings button.
He then started to amend his profile. Now that he looked like himself on earth, he was sure of his own body and in less than a minute, the new profile was done. He changed into something more casual and took some photos from different angles, uploading the photos to his own page.
"I didn't expect you be so skilled with selfies. Are you sure that you've never used any one-nights stand apps?" Yang Ling teased him.
"Thanks for the compliment. Now, how do I change the username?" Lin Huang ignored Yang Ling
"You can't change that. I created the username on purpose, why would you want to change it?" Yang Ling replied.
"Alright then, send her account to me." Lin Huang did not want to waste his time on small talk and got straight into business.
Yang Ling sent a voice message this time, "Her new account username is Waist Length Hair. Don't talk to her first, just look at her profile. Although there's nothing much to see, she'll see that you've visited her profile. If she's not talking to anyone else, she'd probably look at your profile. Since you have photos and clear biography, if she's interested, she'll definitely talk to you. If she doesn't talk to you, but she looks at your profile several times then she's letting you know that she's interested in you and by then, you should be halfway there."
Lin Huang didn't know that there were so many rules on a one-night stand app.
"Alright then, I'll do as you say." Soon, Lin Huang found Waist Length Hair's account. He looked at her profile carefully. It was simple - only listing her weight and height; she didn't even fill in her age. There was only one picture on her profile and it was a picture of her upper back. Her hair touched her waist and her back was naked all the way to her bum cheeks. Anyone could see that she wasn't wearing anything in the picture.
The picture of her back wasn't enough, Lin Huang couldn't tell if it was Zheng Yihan herself. The hair color didn't look like hers. However, the body and skin color were similar. Realizing that there was nothing useful, Lin Huang left her profile. A moment later, Lin Huang realized that she was looking at his profile and within a minute, she sent him a message.
"Hi, handsome."
Just when Lin Huang was ready to reply 'Hi', Yang Ling sent him a message.
"Hey, beautiful." There was a smiley face at the back of the message. Lin Huang smiled as he thought he was too innocent. He copied Yang Ling's reply and sent it back.
Waist Length Hair replied in an instant. "How do you know that I'm beautiful? What if I only have a beautiful back?"
As Lin Huang was thinking how to reply the message, Yang Ling sent him the reply. "My instinct told me." Lin Huang forwarded the message.
"Instinct? Tell me, what other things are your instincts telling you." She replied immediately.
"Hehe, she's hooked." Yang Ling sent a disturbing voice message. Soon, Yang Ling sent his reply.
"My instinct told me that not only you're a beauty but you have a nice body too."
Lin Huang forwarded the message again.
"What if I told you that this is not my photo, would you still think the same?" She replied again.
"Of course. It's my instinct, it has nothing to do with the photo that you have." Yang Ling replied.
"If your instinct is on point, can you sense what kind of person that I am?" She replied.
"My instinct is telling me that you're a dangerous woman." Seeing that reply, Lin Huang thought it was not right and sent Yang Ling a voice message.
"I don't think that's appropriate, she might have her guard up."
"Don't worry just forward that. I know what to do." Yang Ling replied.
Helpless, Lin Huang forwarded the message anyway. This time Waist Length Hair was silent. She hadn't replied 10 seconds later either.
"This is bad…" Lin Huang frowned.
Just as Lin Huang had mumbled to himself, he received another message.
"Please tell me, how am I dangerous?" It was still Waist Length Hair.
"Hehe, what did I tell you…" Yang Ling sent another voice message.
"My mother once told me that the more beautiful a woman is, the more dangerous she is. My instinct doesn't tell me what kind of danger you are; all it's telling me is that you're more dangerous than 99% of the women in this city." There was a smirk emoji at the end of the sentence.
Lin Huang secretly complimented Yang Ling in his mind, he had to admit that Yang Ling was really good at flirting.
"Such a sweet talker, I'll take that compliment then." She replied immediately.
As they chatted, the conversation became more and more explicit. Although Lin Huang did not want to forward the messages but for the sake of hunting down Brain Eater, he did it anyway.
After chatting for 10 minutes, Lin Huang could not take it anymore.
"Stop messing around, ask her out now." Lin Huang sent Yang Ling a voice message.
"What's the rush, can't you see that I'm waiting for the perfect timing?" Yang Ling seemed to be indulging in the conversation
However, two to three minutes later Waist Length Hair sent a message abruptly.
"Let's talk next time. It's late and I'm going to sleep."
She went offline right after she sent the message.
"What happened?" Lin Huang was stunned. He did not expect her to go offline suddenly before he could even ask her out.
Soon, Yang Ling called.
"I thought it was going well, why'd she go offline?" Lin Huang was puzzled.
"She set me up! F*ck!" Yang Ling cursed.
"Somebody else got her?" Lin Huang finally understood what was happening.
"Do you think she really went to bed?" Yang Ling rolled his eyes.
"I knew she's talking to other guys as she was talking to me. I was too indulged in the conversation; I didn't see what they were talking about."
Yang Ling uploaded the chat history of the man who managed to ask Waist Length Hair out.
"Although we didn't get to ask her out, at least we could locate the man who had managed to and find out where they are meeting." Yang Ling was pissed but he did not forget about what was important.
"Wait, do you have a picture of this man? Why does he look so familiar…?