Chapter 357: Killer in the Mist

When Zhu Li finished speaking, everyone present fell into silence.

Often, the solution to a problem has nothing to do with whether the matter itself is right or wrong.

Trading the flesh and blood of hundreds of living people for money, and to cover up the facts, they did not hesitate to artificially create a mine explosion, blowing up hundreds of miners.

According to normal procedures, for committing a major case of this magnitude, all those responsible for the mine should be sent to the gallows, and the mine's shareholders would have to pay astronomical compensation and likely be ruined as a result.

But that is not possible right now.

The entire Gangwan, or rather the entire Stilander Empire, is in a state of delicate balance.

As industry has gradually become the core pillar of Stilander, the new nobility and the Ziyou Party occupy the upper hand on the surface, but the rise of industry has only been for five years, and the old nobility, relying on their deep foundations, have not been left too far behind for the time being.

Coupled with the fact that Prime Minister Luo En is the leader of the Conservative Party and led a portion of the old nobility's industries to transition to industrialization early on, the Conservative Party is not without the strength to fight.

If the Ziyou Party were to have such a scandal exposed at this time, the political balance would inevitably be broken.

Especially since the place where the problem occurred is one of the symbols of Stilander industry, the Pine Tree Coal Mine.

The old nobility would never let this opportunity go and would certainly take the chance to demonize industry; then, both the future of Stilander and the upcoming World Industrial Expo would likely be affected.

Whether standing from the perspective of the Queen or the perspective of a player, Wu Chang must temporarily suppress this matter.

The best solution is naturally to wait until the World Industrial Expo ends and the prime ministerial election officially concludes, then use this matter as a bargaining chip to force the Ziyou Party to compromise and hand over some people to take responsibility for this incident.

The actual execution is too troublesome, and Wu Chang does not want to get involved; he said:

"I am referring to a Secret Knight; such imperial matters should be decided by you and Her Majesty Olivia."

"I can help you temporarily cover up the truth, but there are two conditions."

Zhu Li wore a reluctant smile and said, "Go ahead."

Wu Chang said expressionlessly:

"First, the owner of the Pine Tree Coal Mine must be handed over to our Secret Knight Order to handle. The occult arrangements within the Pine Tree Coal Mine are very sophisticated; behind him, there must be powerful transcendents supporting his actions."

"The affairs of the nobility are for the Queen and you to decide, but the transcendent realm has always been handled by the Secret Knight Order."

If one cannot move against the deep-rooted noble masters, can one not even move against a few skulking transcendents?

First, solve the Prime Minister's assassination case, and use the investigation of the case to purge Gangwan.

Then, help Landi rise to power, grasping both politics and the transcendent; by then, with his recognition, Olivia will be the Queen, and without it, she will just be a mascot.

Zhu Li did not hesitate and immediately said:

"Agreed, as long as the commotion isn't too loud; in Gangwan, no one can defy the Secret Knight Order."

Wu Chang was very satisfied with Zhu Li's attitude and continued:

"As for the second matter, do you remember you said before that as long as I could catch the mastermind behind a Gangwan anomaly, the Queen would officially announce the news of my reconstruction of the Secret Knight Order?"

"Now, are the conditions met?"

The transcendent gathering is imminent, and he needs an identity that can be put on the table so he can recruit thugs and, incidentally, build his reputation.

Hundreds of years ago, the Secret Knight Order was an existence at the pinnacle of the transcendent world; he couldn't possibly go to the slums to save a few people in the future and still be surrounded and monitored by a group of secret police.

Zhu Li hesitated for a moment and said:

"I need to confirm this with Her Majesty the Queen first, but I think the bargaining chip you found is enough to make the Ziyou Party acknowledge your existence."

It is not the Queen who hinders the reconstruction of the Secret Knight Order, but other forces in Gangwan.

The cake is only so big; if a Secret Knight Order suddenly appears at the table and wants to take a piece out of thin air, then someone will inevitably have less to eat.

At the same time, the Secret Knight Order is an organization that only owes allegiance to the Queen and does not take orders from the Prime Minister or Parliament.

Letting such an organization be held in Olivia's hands makes them fear that Olivia will restore her power and go back from being a mascot to a real Queen.

But by using the truth of the Pine Tree Coal Mine to negotiate now, the resistance to Wu Chang sitting at the table and taking a piece of the cake will decrease.

Zhu Li's answer was enough for Wu Chang; he never thought that Zhu Li could make the final decision on these matters anyway.

"Since that's the case, I'll leave this place to you. I need to hurry back to the city; if I'm any later, I'm afraid I'll only be going back to collect corpses."

He pointed to Thomas, who was standing next to Ai Lin in the distance, and said, "You can send someone to take him home."

Seeing that Wu Chang was in a hurry, Zhu Li asked, "Do you need me to find you a few fast horses?"

Gangwan has already invented steam automobiles, but they haven't been popular for long and are still tools for the upper class to show off their status; their speed is far inferior to fast horses.

Especially from the Pine Tree Coal Mine to the city, most of the roads are unpaved, so to travel quickly, one still needs to rely on horses.

Wu Chang shook his head and said, "No need, I have a faster way."

He called Thomas over and told him that Zhu Li would send him home, and that he should stay at home for the time being; they would come to find him in two days.

Afterward, he gave Lei Wendun a look and led him toward the mine owner's office.

Lei Wendun followed behind Wu Chang and Ai Lin, asking in a low voice, "What fast method are you planning to use to return to Gangwan?"

Wu Chang opened the door to the mine owner's office. He stood at the entrance and turned to ask:

"This is your first time; you might feel a bit dizzy for a moment, but you'll get used to it later."

After speaking, he took Ai Lin's hand and walked into the mine owner's office.

Lei Wendun followed with a face full of confusion, "Why would I feel dizzy... ugh..."

The moment he stepped into the office, he saw light erupt under his feet, and what followed was a sense of the world spinning.

Everything around him, including himself, seemed to be twisting, shattering, and then reassembling.

Although he had never seen how the transcendent purification machine absorbed flesh and blood, from the mechanical structure, his current feeling should be similar to that of the coal miners stuffed into the machine.

He did not know how much time had passed before the rapidly changing scenery around him stabilized. His legs went weak, and he stumbled to lean against the wall, beginning to vomit.

After the violent vomiting, Lei Wendun took out a handkerchief to wipe the corners of his mouth and looked around.

Gazing at the iconic clock tower not far away, he was surprised to find that they had already returned to the Gangwan urban area.

He opened his pocket watch; less than a minute had passed since he entered the mine owner's office. Excluding the time he spent vomiting, he had returned from the Pine Tree Coal Mine to the Gangwan urban area in almost an instant.

"What kind of ability is this?" He held up his pocket watch to check the time against the distant clock tower, ensuring his watch wasn't malfunctioning.

As a transcendent detective, he had many friends in the transcendent circle, and the abilities they possessed were all different.

But he had never heard of such an exaggerated ability existing in the world.

Wu Chang shrugged and said, "A basic application of space-type magic; nothing to be surprised about."

Lei Wendun reached out to make a pause gesture, "You mean you can manipulate space through that method?"

Wu Chang pointed to a road sign in the distance and said, "See that red road sign?"

Lei Wendun nodded blankly.

Wu Chang snapped his fingers and used his space-folding ability. The next moment, Lei Wendun was already hugging the road sign and beginning to vomit.

Lei Wendun looked at his pocket watch while vomiting; the time was exactly the same.

Half a minute later, a much more haggard-looking Lei Wendun returned to Wu Chang's side and said:

"How did you master this ability?"

Wu Chang said, "Naturally, through sweat and hard work."

Lei Wendun wanted to say that wasn't what he meant, but when the words came out, they turned into, "If I have the chance, I also want to go see the New World."

Wu Chang asked, "From what you're saying, this kind of ability isn't common?"

Lei Wendun smiled bitterly, "This is the only thing I can be thankful for; the ability to manipulate time and space is simply the natural enemy of detectives."

"It's a good thing you aren't a criminal, otherwise no one would be able to break your alibi."

Wu Chang said indifferently, "Compared to detectives, the police should be the ones more worried."

"If you've rested enough, take me to find the owner of the Pine Tree Coal Mine."

In the detective business, intelligence is crucial. Before Wu Chang entered the Steam Phantom dungeon, he had already investigated the background of the Pine Tree Coal Mine.

"The owner of the Pine Tree Coal Mine is Baron Philip, a local of Gangwan. His father earned his first pot of gold by opening a factory. After joining the Ziyou Party, he multiplied his assets many times over in a short period by relying on navigation and free trade."

"After that, the Philip family invested in the Pine Tree Coal Mine and, relying on their Ziyou Party status, managed to get a baronetcy."

"If I remember correctly, he lives not far from here."

Lei Wendun had extensive connections in Gangwan. After circling around outside, he borrowed a carriage and drove Wu Chang and Ai Lin to Baron Philip's villa.

From leaving the Pine Tree Coal Mine to approaching the Philip villa, less than half an hour had passed. When the carriage stopped at the villa entrance, the expressions of both Wu Chang and Lei Wendun turned ugly.

Before them, the entire villa belonging to the Philip family was engulfed in a massive fire, and a large number of firefighters were busy fighting it.

However, judging by the intensity of the fire, even if it could be extinguished, the people inside were beyond saving.

Lei Wendun went around to ask and learned that the villa had been burning for more than two hours.

Estimating from the time, the fire should have started around the time they removed the camouflage leading to the deep mining area.

As the actual owner of the Pine Tree Coal Mine, although Baron Philip's status within the Ziyou Party was not very high, he was at least a member of the House of Commons.

For a pawn of this level, the moment there was the slightest possibility of exposure, they were silenced without the slightest hesitation.

Such fast action, and such a ruthless heart.

No wonder they could find hundreds of victims with huge spans just to test which flesh and blood matched the transcendent purification machine better.

Lei Wendun gazed at the sea of fire before him and said:

"I'm afraid this fire will burn all night. I hope that after the fire, some evidence will still remain."

Wu Chang was not optimistic about this; the group of black-robed people could choose to silence them so decisively the moment their secret was exposed, so they must have been prepared long ago.

Rather than hoping that those people would leave clues, it would be better to hope that Philip could leave behind a trace of resentment.

He served the black-robed organization as a dog in earnest, but he didn't expect to be ruthlessly abandoned the moment something went wrong, even implicating his whole family to be buried in the sea of fire.

Baron Philip must be very unwilling, right? If he wants to drag the other party down with him, he should leave behind resentment; he will help Philip realize it.

The massive fire burning at the Philip villa sent billowing thick smoke into the air.

Lei Wendun looked up and said:

"Is it my imagination, or do I feel like the fog in the sky has become thicker?"

Wu Chang looked up at the sky and discovered that in the thick fog shrouding the Gangwan sky, the light of the Source Power was faintly flickering.

He let out a breath, exhaling a plume of white mist, and said:

"It is not your imagination; the world is about to change."

On the outskirts of Grimlund, in the factory district.

Two police officers wearing thick wool coats, iron helmets, and carrying bullseye lanterns were weaving through the dense, foggy alleyways.

"Brian, you go patrol the east side; signal immediately if there is any situation."

"In these last two days, that group of outsider transcendents seems to have gone mad; don't go soft if you run into them."

"Understood!"

The two officers separated. The officer named Brian pulled his wool coat tighter around himself and shivered.

He looked up at the sky; the moonlight was completely obscured by the fog. Standing on the ground, he couldn't even see the outline of the moon.

He hated this kind of weather. Without moonlight, his stamina attribute would drop.

In the Steam Phantom plane, his identity was Brian. Beyond that, he had another identity: the outsider transcendent his colleagues spoke of.

He came from the West Union, one of the four major organizations. Being able to rank into an S-rank instance was proof enough of his strength; he had always been the gatekeeper of the top fifty in the Wilderness World player combat power rankings.

Judging by combat power rankings, he wasn't among the very top, but he was certainly among the most troublesome.

The reason was simple: in addition to the hidden class that was standard for ranked players, he also possessed a bloodline that was very rare in the Wilderness World.

Furthermore, his hidden class, Blood Controller, could link with his Vampire bloodline, granting him vitality that exceeded that of ordinary players.

When encountering danger, he could disperse his body into countless droplets of blood and flee in all directions.

As long as one cluster remained safe, he could use the blood to invade the body of a plane native and resurrect by seizing the other party's body.

In the Abyss Game, life-saving skills were always the most popular abilities; only by surviving could one have a future.

Moreover, the synergy between the two abilities meant that while his lethality couldn't compare to players of the same level, it was not inferior compared to players ranked outside the top fifty.

His decent offensive capability, combined with powerful survival skills, earned him an S-rank potential rating in the West Union, and he was highly anticipated in this world instance.

It was just that he hadn't expected to have to go through an S-rank instance before entering the world instance.

Brian’s legendary "hard-to-kill" constitution made him always exceptionally aggressive when clearing instances. Acting with him meant a high risk of being implicated and dying in the trouble he attracted.

This made West Union players avoid him, and he was happy to be left alone, accustomed to acting solo.

But this time was different; even with his arrogance, he didn't dare to act alone in an S-rank instance.

So, currently alone, Brian urgently needed to find other West Union players and join forces with them to clear the instance.

It was now the second day since entering the instance. Although he hadn't found his companions yet, he had successfully infiltrated the instance plane.

Relying on his Vampire racial talent, he possessed a noble temperament, which, combined with the passive ability of his Blood Controller class, made it easy to gain the favor of the plane's natives.

It just so happened that public security in Grimlund had been poor lately, and the police department needed to expand. He successfully applied, becoming not only a police officer but also a secret police officer specifically targeting transcendents.

Based on his experience, his starting point at this moment already exceeded 80% of the players in the same instance.

While other players were still struggling to earn money, fretting over finding a place of shelter, and wandering into filthy low-end taverns to gather intelligence,

he had already moved into the secret police's welfare dormitory and was openly reviewing various classified intelligence reports.

With his status as a secret police officer, as long as he achieved some results, joining other factions would be a natural progression.

This was the disparity between people; while some were still working like beasts of burden, he had already arrived in Rome.

He was already on the right track; the next step was to find his companions.

Right now, he was preparing to head to the slums.

Today, he heard from a colleague at the bureau that a strange transcendent had appeared in the slums, voluntarily treating the illnesses of the slum residents.

This piece of intelligence instantly caught his attention.

This kind of weirdo was either a player, or involved with some faction, or perhaps even related to some hidden quest.

Regardless of the situation, he had to go and take a look.

The fog was getting thicker. The damp, cold mist covered him, making him feel very uncomfortable; even the flow of his blood had slowed down.

Click.

Click.

Click, click.

Amidst the fog, there had originally been only his own footsteps, but as he walked, the footsteps became two.

The sound of footsteps grew clearer; it seemed something was approaching him.

Was it some blind native, or a player from the Abyss Game?

He raised his pistol and shouted, "Stop, who goes there!"

The pistol in his hand was just a disguise. While shouting, his blood flowed out from his fingertips, turning into thin, sharp blood-lines in the air.

He was not a plane native and could not wound transcendents with special bullets like other secret police, but he didn't need that method.

The footsteps did not stop because of his shout; instead, they continued to approach him.

A dozen seconds later, a large figure shrouded in a black robe appeared before him.

This strange attire looked very much like a player.

He called out, "Who are you?"

The large figure seemed not to understand what he said. From the wide sleeve of the robe, a large, serrated blade hung down.

The large figure raised the serrated blade and ran toward him.

Brian frowned, feeling something was wrong. He waved the blood-lines in his hand, trying to block the other party's movements.

Who would have thought that the large figure would strike with the blade, without using any skills, directly shattering Brian's blood-lines.

"Naive."

Brian wanted to control the shattered blood to attack the large figure from all directions, but he discovered that after the blood touched the fog, it no longer obeyed his ability, as if his power had malfunctioned.

He had never encountered such a situation. In the moment of his hesitation, the large figure had already reached him and struck with the blade.

The rough, serrated blade sliced open his police coat and also sliced open his chest.

According to his previous combat experience, he could use his Blood Controller ability to stop the wound from bleeding, use the blood as sutures to stitch the wound shut, and then utilize the Vampire's super-strong recovery power to heal the wound instantly.

But this time, the wound sliced open by the serrated blade completely ignored his control. Not only did it not heal, but the blood flowing out of his body, just like the blood-lines that had been sliced earlier, completely escaped his control.

When the legendary "hard-to-kill" king lost the vitality he prided himself on, he began to panic.

Brian did not want to tangle with the opponent any longer. He gathered blood in his legs, pushed off with his feet, and leaped backward, preparing to use his speed to shake off the large figure.

But just as he was five meters in the air, he saw the large figure's robe open, and a thick cannon barrel extended from within.

Bang!

Amidst the roar, the cannon blast shattered Brian's left leg, causing him to fall to the ground in a twisted heap.

Before he could stand up, he saw the large figure, holding two serrated long blades, pouncing toward him.

"Ah!"

The wide robe shrouded Brian. From under the robe came the sound of blades cutting into flesh, chewing, and crisp metallic clashing sounds like gears.

One minute later, when the large figure stood up and left, all that remained on the spot was the mangled corpse of a secret police officer with his internal organs and eyes gouged out and his chest wide open.

(End of chapter)