Chapter 107: The Death of a Mystery Novelist

Setagaya Ward, AIC Classic Internet Cafe.

Toki Ippei sat in a cubicle in the corner of the internet cafe, clicking his mouse under the dim light.

He was a NEET (someone not in employment, education, or training), living entirely off his parents' pension. Yet he believed this was not his fault, but purely a problem with society.

If it weren't for the economic crisis, how could he possibly be unable to find a job!

Toki Ippei sighed; he had argued with his family again today, so he would go back later.

He set aside his worries, tapped the keyboard, and opened the mystery novel forum he frequented. Although he was a NEET, he was also a mystery fan.

To him, this forum was nothing less than a spiritual sanctuary.

On this forum, there were over 50,000 active users just like him. Although the identities of all the users varied, they shared one thing in common: everyone loved mystery novels from the bottom of their hearts, to the point of calling them spiritual sustenance.

Toki Ippei skillfully pressed the keys to enter his account password. After logging in successfully, he began to browse, preparing to see if there were any interesting topics or posts.

Immediately after, he saw a pinned post with the title "The Death of a Mystery Novelist."

Toki Ippei frowned; upon seeing this title, he suspected that this post was just meant to deliberately stir up controversy.

In recent years, although the Japanese mystery novel scene was still dominated by the orthodox school, works from the social school, the unorthodox school, and others continued to emerge one after another, and even court-room, suspense, and hard-boiled schools had appeared.

Because of their differing preferences for literary styles, supporters of different factions often attacked one another, even escalating to the level of flame wars.

Some people, dissatisfied with the orthodox school still holding the mainstream position, even accused all mystery novelists, attacking the orthodox writers while also calling writers of other factions trash.

Toki Ippei was very dissatisfied with this. To him, since they were readers and fans, wouldn't it be enough to just quietly read the works? Why did they have to attack and criticize each other?

Furthermore, the more mystery factions there were and the richer the mystery works, didn't that just prove the prosperity of the mystery novel world?

Did one faction really have to defeat another to become the mainstream?

Toki Ippei did not hesitate and prepared to open the post. Before opening it, he had already steeled himself; if it was just more of those empty, reckless criticisms, he was prepared to start cursing directly.

Moron, idiot, fool, what the hell do you know about mystery novels? What right do you have to say mystery novelists are dead!

If you have the energy for this, you stupid OP, why don't you write one yourself? If you have so much energy to criticize others, you'd be better off seeing what you're capable of. Since you can't write anything, you're just social trash; I suggest you commit seppuku to apologize!

Just curse like that, that'll be right. I bet I can curse this OP into having psychological trauma! Stop making the forum so foul and murky!

Toki Ippei took a sip of the drink placed in front of him, then clicked on the post and began to browse.

Huh? That doesn't seem to be the case?

Toki Ippei discovered with surprise that this post titled "The Death of a Mystery Novelist" actually contained a mystery story...

He felt a bit awkward and subconsciously twitched the corner of his mouth, but he still slid the mouse and began to read.

Let me see what this story is about. If it's not good, I'll... I'll just say a few words...

He calmed his mind and began to read.

The story took place in the GK Ward of Tokyo. An 85-year-old famous mystery novelist committed suicide by slitting his throat in his own room on his birthday, and the spurting blood sprayed all over the room.

The police received the report and immediately went to the scene. After multiple surveys, they determined it was a suicide.

Not long after the case occurred, a detective received an anonymous employment letter inviting him to investigate the killer behind this case.

After much consideration, the detective accepted the invitation, arrived at the family home of this mystery novelist, and questioned the novelist's family one by one.

He was surprised to find that everyone had had conflicts with the mystery novelist: the eldest son-in-law had an affair and was discovered by him, the youngest son was fired from his company by him, the second daughter-in-law had been swindling money and was discovered by him, and the eldest grandson had a huge argument with him the night before the incident and slammed the door as he left...

In other words, the vast majority of the family members had a motive for the crime.

Besides that, the mystery novelist's family members were all lying to some extent when answering the detective's questions.

But the detective still learned one important piece of information—the mystery novelist returned to his room after the party, had a female caregiver from the Qiandaoqun Islands give him an injection, and committed suicide at 12:00 midnight after the caregiver left.

Therefore, the female caregiver was the last person to see the mystery novelist.

The detective thought for a while and decided to go see this female caregiver...

Toki Ippei was reading intently when he discovered that there was no more below...

The OP only posted one sentence: "The follow-up content will be updated next Monday. At the same time, I recommend Akiwara Yuto's work, 'The Devotion of Suspect X'."

What the hell?!

My appetite has been whetted, and that's it?! You even gave me an advertisement?

Toki Ippei felt a bit restless, but he suppressed his mood and continued to browse downward.

Sure enough, there were curses everywhere below, with many people hoping the author would update quickly and add content as soon as possible.

But some people also began to speculate: who exactly was the killer? What method did the killer use to fake the victim's suicide?

After all, it couldn't have been the mystery novelist committing suicide himself; that would be too ridiculous for a case.

After reading the replies, Toki Ippei originally wanted to blast a comment too, but after thinking about it, he gave up.

What if too many people blasted the OP and the OP just ran away?

Then wouldn't he be unable to see the rest of the story?

To be honest, he really wanted to know who the killer was and what the detective's method of solving the case was.

All this unknown made him feel a bit itchy at this moment.

Suddenly, he lost the desire to continue browsing the forum; after all, most of the posts on the forum were just discussions about mystery novels.

Toki Ippei turned off the computer, stood up, and went to the front desk to pay the bill. He prepared to go to a nearby bookstore or library to see if there were any new mystery novels.

To soothe that itchy feeling in his heart.

In his view, if you want to get rid of an obsession with one story, then replace it with another story.

Just as he was about to walk out the door, he suddenly remembered the advertisement the OP had posted earlier.

How about going to the bookstore to check out that "The Devotion of Suspect X"?

He hesitated for two seconds, then turned around and walked in the direction of the nearest bookstore in his memory...

Perhaps there would be an unexpected surprise?