Chapter 024: Department of Supernatural Crime Investigation

The black fingernail halted just before piercing Su Cheng's eyeball, as a terrified and despairing wail erupted from Mitsuike Junjin’s throat, now transformed into a monster. A black, virus-mutated tumor fell to the ground with a sickening splat, dissolving as if in concentrated sulfuric acid, and quickly turning into a pool of revolting, putrid liquid.

The acrid stench spread through the deserted building, and Su Cheng seized the opportunity, covering his nose and mouth as he retreated swiftly. Mitsuike Junjin was clearly in a dire state; from the look of him, the fusion of two viruses within his body was causing his flesh to collapse.

As the saying goes, “You reap what you sow.” Mitsuike Junjin had brought this fate upon himself.

“No! I don’t want to die! Someone save me!” Mitsuike Junjin, now like a crazed beast, raked bloody gouges into his own flesh with his claws. Fetid pus sprayed from the wounds, and soon his body was a mangled, unrecognizable mass of blood and tissue.

Su Cheng dashed into the room, locked the iron door from within, and with a cold, indifferent gaze, watched through the crack as Mitsuike Junjin’s flesh rotted and disintegrated, his desperate howls echoing in the void. There was not a trace of pity in Su Cheng’s eyes.

It was nothing less than he deserved; compared to the crimes he had committed, this suffering was only interest on the debt.

“I won’t die alone! Come to hell with me!” At last, Mitsuike Junjin was utterly desperate, aware that death was inevitable. But before he died, he was determined to drag Su Cheng down with him. If not for this hateful man, he would never have fallen so low.

Kill! He must kill him!

With eyes burning with vengeful fury, Mitsuike Junjin summoned the last of his strength to stagger to the iron door, raising his hand to pound on it, the blows echoing like a death knell.

“Open up! Open this door!” On the other side, Su Cheng toppled a metal cabinet to block the entrance. No matter how Mitsuike Junjin hammered at the door, it would not yield.

The pounding resounded through the abandoned building, tolling not for Su Cheng, but for Mitsuike Junjin himself.

After about five minutes, Su Cheng peeked through the crack and saw that the zombie’s flesh had completely melted away, leaving only a skeleton collapsed in a pool of tar-like black pus.

“Is it dead?” Su Cheng was unsure if the bizarre zombie might revive, so he waited in silence behind the door until no sound remained outside. Only then did he move the heavy cabinet, open the door, and step out.

It seemed the zombie was truly dead. Had the two viruses not fused and destroyed its flesh, killing it would have been a much more arduous task.

Most of the key members of the Mitsuike Group were dead; the rest were mere lackeys, incapable of causing trouble. At least, this could be considered some answer for the innocent girls who had been harmed.

Yoshioka Izumi was still unconscious from inhaling too much sedative, but her life was not in danger. Su Cheng rifled through the pockets of the Mitsuike Group’s crew-cut man and found a phone, with which he called the police and an ambulance.

As he was making the call, the skeleton suddenly twitched.

A cold chill crept up Su Cheng’s spine. He spun around to find a rotting skull thrust right in front of his face.

A wave of terror washed over him. The zombie still wasn’t truly dead.

“Damn!” The sight of the decaying skull startled Su Cheng, sending his blood pressure soaring. Without thinking, he kicked the skeleton before him.

The sound of cracking bones rang out. To Su Cheng’s surprise, the skeleton was unexpectedly fragile, as if all its strength had drained away.

It was just an ordinary undead, not some indomitable overlord.

“Undead should go to hell quietly.” Calming his nerves, Su Cheng drew his blade and slashed wildly, hacking the skeleton into a pile of bone fragments.

He refused to believe that Mitsuike Junjin, reduced to bone dust, could ever return to exact vengeance.

“A soul crystal?” After slaying the zombie, Su Cheng found a gray soul crystal amid the bone shards.

“Aren’t normal soul crystals colorless and transparent? Why is this one gray?” Without time to ponder, he stowed the gray soul crystal in his inventory for now.

Before the police and ambulance arrived, he left the abandoned building.

Not long after Su Cheng departed, a figure emerged from the wreckage of another room.

“So someone else took the prize... but that guy is interesting.” Yoshioka Izumi’s lips curled into a faint smile, revealing two sharp fangs like those of a vampire bat.

As she stepped out of the building, her short hair suddenly lengthened, cascading down to her waist. Her figure grew taller, and her features became even more exquisite, as though she were a princess from a medieval castle.

This woman was also a professional—one far more fearsome than Mitsuike Junjin.

“That soul crystal can be your thank-you gift,” Yoshioka Izumi murmured as she made her way to the rooftop. A look of disgust crossed her refined face. “Those SCI hyenas are here already? What a nuisance.”

As she spoke, a pair of black wings unfurled from her back. She leapt into the air, vanishing into the night as a shadow.

...

Twenty minutes later, more than a dozen police cars were parked outside the abandoned building where the murders had occurred.

“Officer Mori, what’s the situation at the scene? Any leads?” At that moment, several special officers in white uniforms arrived, their tone distinctly condescending.

“SCI, huh? Didn’t expect you to get here so quickly, but I’m afraid you’ve wasted your time. The dead are a few of the Mitsuike Group’s core members—looks like a gang war.” Officer Mori summarized the scene, hoping to send these annoying special police on their way.

SCI—the Supernatural Crime Investigation Division—was a mysterious, independent bureau tasked with investigating supernatural crimes and apprehending offenders with paranormal abilities.

“The wounds on these corpses were all inflicted by a single person. That means the killer stormed in alone and slaughtered the Mitsuike thugs. But their real target wasn’t these men—it was the mastermind behind them,” said a tall, cold-faced man after briefly examining the injuries.

“So what? Even if it was just one person, that doesn’t mean it was a supernatural crime,” someone retorted.

“The key point is, the mastermind behind the Mitsuike Group was a monster.”

As he spoke, Detective Kube pointed at the reeking black pus and the pile of bone fragments on the floor.

“If my deduction is correct, the killer’s target was a supernatural being—something like a zombie or an undead. In the end, he succeeded in killing his mark and then left.”

“You must be joking. How could an ordinary person take down a zombie or undead—creatures that can’t die?” a new male agent from SCI protested, shock on his face.

Not long ago, he had joined a case with his senior and encountered an undead; it had taken the lives of three elite SCI agents to bring that creature down.

“What if the killer wasn’t an ordinary person?” Detective Kube stroked his chin, his words loaded with meaning.

“What do you mean by that, Detective Kube?”

“The one who killed this monster was likely a player in the horror game—a high-level player, perhaps.”

“A veteran player?” Kitagawa Kosuke mused. The horror game Detective Kube referred to was SCI’s top secret, and its players were under special scrutiny.

But the player base was enormous, and many possessed unique powers and items; even if SCI mobilized its entire force, they couldn’t round up every player. They could only monitor those with criminal tendencies.

What Kitagawa didn’t know was that Detective Kube himself was a seasoned player of this very horror game.