Netherworld Investigator

NEW NOVEL: First and foremost, I'm delighted to announce that our long-time veteran translator littleshanks has finally launched his new novel, Rise!  Rise is a novel about the esports scene in Shanghai, the competitive gaming capital of China. It follows the story of Lin Feng, a boy who has just moved to the city for his last year of high school. He's a passionate gamer and dreams of being the best professional League of Legends player in the world. The twist? He almost achieved his dream, but failed at the...

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The three of us rushed over to the suspect’s flat which was located on the first floor of the residential quarters. Upon entering the room, a foul odor assaulted my nose. It was a poorly furnished two-bedroom flat of two completely different styles. It turned out that the two were housemates sharing the same flat.

The simple design of the flat was ruined by the piled up cigarette butts in the ashtray and unthrown rubbish. However, the unfinished whiskey on the table, expensive take-out lunch boxes in the garbage and the snacks and drinks stuffed in the refrigerator all revealed a message–the people living here were originally very poor but had suddenly become very rich!

The balcony was completely enclosed with several knives used to slaughter pigs, while chopping boards and sharpening blocks were scattered all over the floor. The Strongest Mantis Shrimp was indeed a butcher who quit his job after he became a streamer, casually throwing his tools around his home.

There was a wet market nearby. Xiaotao sent officers over to inquire about our suspect so it was only a matter of time before we confirmed his identity.

When we entered one of the bedrooms, we were greeted with a neat, spotless scene. There was a computer inside, shelves displays with car models and radios assembled by the owner himself and a disassembled remote control car on the table.

A complex contraption lay on top of the TV console. When I touched it with my finger, a small ball came rolling out from the starting point, triggering various mechanisms continuously along the way and finally falling into a box. It was very interesting.

Dali jumped onto the bed with an alarmed cry and covered his head with a pillow. "Song Yang, don't touch it! What if you trigger toxic gas or some kind of bomb?"

"Don’t you know anything?” I mocked. “This is called a Rube Goldberg machine. It's a kind of educational toy."

"Well don't touch it,” cried Dali. “What if you leave fingerprints?"

"You’re one to talk!” Xiaotao admonished with displeasure written all over her face. “Get off the bed, you idiot!"

Needless to say, this bedroom belonged to Storm Punisher. There was enough evidence to be collected here to keep the technical team’s hands full for some time. The small room could hardly fit the lot of us so we headed to the other room to have a look.

The Strongest Mantis Shrimp’s room was a chaotic mess, distinctive of the owner’s careless and unrestrained lifestyle. The bed was heaped with dirty clothes, ground littered with cigarette butts, and both sides of the headboard covered with dried phlegm stains. The suspect probably laid in bed and spat phlegm on the walls.

Beside the bed were bottles brimming with a suspicious yellow liquid as if he had performed some mysterious ceremony, though the more realistic explanation was that our suspect was too lazy to brave the cold at night, using these beverage bottles to relieve himself instead...

There was a computer by the window, and a dusty keyboard next to discarded skewer sticks. In the trash can were a few dubious wads of tissue paper and two dirty posters on the walls, probably the two people he most admired as an explosives fanatic–Nobel, the man who invented dynamites and the character Deidara from Naruto.

"What a pig!” Bingxin snorted in disgust. “How can a person live like this? There should be a law to arrest such slobs and educate them."

"This room is revolting!” echoed Xiaotao. “I don't want to stay here a second longer than I have to. Even if the suspect was standing in front of me right now, I would have to put on a pair of gloves before arresting him!"

I couldn't help thinking, how did two people with completely opposite personalities become housemates? Did they start living together because they were both streamers or did they stumble upon each other’s online identities after living together?

At this moment, there came a chewing sound from behind me. I turned around to see a nonchalant Dali grazing on a creampuff Bingxin had given him earlier. 

"Go somewhere else if you want to eat!" I yelled.

"Put it away!" shouted Xiaotao.

Our irritated shouts frightened Dali so the creampuff slipped from his hands and rolled under the bed. He immediately dropped down to the ground to pick it up, but a while later, I noticed he still had his head down, buttocks pointed in the air. I couldn’t resist the impulse to kick him and aimed my foot at his buttocks. "What are you doing? Practicing yoga?" I teased.

"Shh, don't talk!” Dali hastily cautioned. “There’s something under the bed!"

Upon hearing this, we dropped to our knees and looked under the bed, only to see an object connected to many wires. There was a square box wrapped in a black plastic bag and a display modified from a digital watch, the values on the screen continuously changing.

It was a bomb!

"Let’s get out of here first,” Xiaotao’s expression turned ugly. “I’ll call the bomb squad for emergency support!"

As she spoke, the numbers changed a few times again, from zero to twenty, and then back to zero. I understood immediately. "Don't talk, it's a vibration-sensitive bomb!"

The main components of the bomb were just like any other ordinary bomb except the trigger was a vibration sensor that would detonate as long as the surrounding vibrations reached a certain value. The technology wasn’t that advanced with a principle similar to the voice-activated lights we commonly used. The Strongest Mantis Shrimp was an expert in homemade bombs. When we entered the building, we found that the voice-activated light on the first floor was broken, the parts possibly having been removed by him.

When I spoke, the value fluctuated a few times and then dropped back to zero. 

"Song Yang, keep your voice down so you don’t trigger the bomb," Dali’s voice drifted over in a low whisper.

"Speaking normally shouldn’t be a problem,” I said. “Otherwise, we would have already been blown to smithereens."

At this moment, I heard a click that scared the wits out of me. Cold sweat ran down my forehead when I heard a voice say, "Ladies and gentlemen, let’s play a game!"

The digitally-altered voice had just finished speaking but the delight in his tone couldn’t be masked at all. "Hello, officers of the law,” he laughed. “I am The Strongest Mantis Shrimp whom you have been looking for. First of all, I have to say I’m surprised you found this flat and I like to give praise where it is due. You’ve all done a good job!"

I stood up and saw an MP3 player on the table that had started while our attention was drawn elsewhere. The MP3 file must have been recorded in advance.

"I wonder if you’ve found the gift I’ve left you under the bed,” the voice added. “...Do you see it now? Well, don't be nervous. Let me give you a brief introduction. This bomb has two methods of detonation. The first way to trigger the bomb is to reach a vibration value of 100. But don't worry, you can talk and move around normally. If you try dismantling it, you will... Bang! Don't make the mistake of sitting on the bed either, or else you’ll also go bang!"

Among the four of us, Dali looked the palest because he had been sitting on the bed in the other room.

The sound from the MP3 player was loud enough that the other officers came running into the room to ask us what was wrong. We tried our best to signal them not to talk or move.

The Strongest Mantis Shrimp continued, "The second way to detonate is by remote control. I’ve placed some hidden cameras in the house to monitor your every move. If someone tries to enter or leave after hearing this recording, I will press the remote control and send you all to hell!"

"What the hell do you want?!" Xiaotao demanded through gnashed teeth.

However, the other voice was merely a recording and unable to answer her. 

"Don't look so glum, everyone,” continued the voice. “Smile. From now on, you must do whatever I say. Your lives are all in my hands. My first instruction for you is to take off your uniforms in five minutes."

My gaze flicked up to meet the others, and a veil of uncertainty swept across our faces.

Xiaotao quietly turned on her radio but left it on her waist belt. "Calm down, everyone,” she said, intentionally raising her voice. “The murderer placed a remote control bomb in this room and no one is allowed to enter or leave the room. We will do as he says for the time being and try to buy some more time."

A burst of consternation swept away the joy of finding the murderer's home. As it turned out, this entire incident was a trap the murderer had specially planned for us.

I looked around, my eyes attracted by a hole that had been dug in one of the book spines on the bookshelf. Ever since the MP3 started playing, a red light flashed from within the hole, suggesting that a camera had probably been placed inside.

Pointing to it, I announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, don’t worry! We won’t die for the time being because we are now being live-streamed!"

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