Chapter 147: Trolley Problem Are you the hunter or the prey?
Hiroki Sawada stuffed the teddy bear he had just received into Haibara Ai's arms, and took away the other flavors of ice cream from the little girl's hand.
"Thank you, Ai!"
"Thank you, Ai~" Sugishima June also took the ice cream.
"Ai, do you want to give it a try?" Hiroki Sawada leaned down slightly and whispered to Ai: "Don't be afraid, just throw it."
"I can secretly help you tamper with the results..."
"Ahem, Hiroki." Sugishima Jun'e stopped Sawada Hiroki from talking and reminded him, "That game isn't just about what's on the screen..."
Noah can certainly help modify the data, but the darts on the circular target cannot deceive people.
"Well, I'll try next time to see if I can deceive others... Just like Sister Lin, I can cheat in real life..."
Hiroki muttered in distress.
Ever since he went on a day trip to Qingyue Mountain with Linxi as a child, Hiroki Sawada has been particularly keen on cheating.
Especially cheating in public was the game that excited him the most. So after he successfully invented the [Cocoon] and made up his mind to ask Thomas Schindler for help, he thought about making a surveillance video like that with Noah.
A surveillance video that looks real but is completely fictional.
The figure of the boy jumping off the rooftop was completely simulated by Noah based on the data of his body shape.
In reality, Hiroki Sawada had walked downstairs with such a swagger, having simply replaced all the surveillance footage. He got into Sugishima Jun'e's car and even leisurely ate the breakfast Lin Xi had made.
Ai Haibara glanced at the tourists still looking over, hoping they'd play another round, then pulled Sawada Hiroki closer and said, "Let's go find Sister Lin."
"She's still waiting for us over there."
“OK—K—”
However, when the three returned to the bench where Lin Xi had just been, they found that there was no one there.
"Where's she?" Hiroki licked a mouthful of raspberry ice cream. "Sister Lin, didn't she go to the bungee jumping machine alone?"
He pointed to the bungee jumping machine not far away where screams were coming from.
"No, she said she wanted to go play with the teacup spinner later." Haibara Ai looked at the two ice creams in her hand and then at the teacup spinner: "I asked her to wait for me here."
Sister Lin, you're gone again.
Haibara Ai thought.
But she wasn't worried.
She discovered that Sister Lin was very much like a cat in many ways. For example, she liked cute, furry things, liked to curl up on the sofa when she was resting, pretended to be busy when she felt awkward, and was always attracted to all kinds of brightly colored balls of yarn.
Now that he has disappeared, I guess he encountered something interesting and was attracted to it?
Maybe even asking her to buy herself ice cream was just an excuse to get herself out of the way.
Oh, I hope I won’t be gone too long… She looked at the ice cream in her hand.
One is matcha flavored, and the other is blueberry flavored.
She was still waiting for Sister Lin to take the first bite... two flavors of ice cream, one bite of each, just like they did when they were playing at Yokohama Ocean Park in Japan.
But... Huibara Ai looked around.
Even if Linxi the cat encounters something interesting and is attracted away, he will not leave without saying goodbye.
She should have left some messages for them. Just like the text message she sent her last time on Moon Shadow Island...
As she was thinking this, she saw the guy who was buying hydrogen balloons nearby walking towards them hesitantly.
"Hello...? Excuse me, are you looking for an Asian girl wearing a long white dress with her hair down?"
Several people understood almost instantly that this guy was talking about Lin Xi.
Seeing several people nod, the young man breathed a sigh of relief: "That lady asked me to bring you a message..."
…
A quarter of an hour ago.
Lin Xi was sitting on a bench in the park, with his hands placed obediently on his knees, his eyes looking at the snack shop not far away, as if he was waiting for someone.
Not far from her, under the shade of a tree, sat a white cat, raising one of its hind legs and lowering its head, trying to lick its belly fur. However, because it was too fat, it couldn't reach it despite several attempts. The white cat seemed a little frustrated, meowed, sat up, shook its head, and tried to walk away with elegant steps.
The girl was amused by the scene. The wind blew her hair. She seemed to feel a little itchy and reached out to push a stray strand back.
At this moment, a shadow fell in front of her.
The girl blinked and looked up at the person who came.
He was a middle-aged man, clean-shaven with yellowish hair and sunken cheeks. His blue eyes were fixed on Lin Xi. When he saw that she noticed him, he smiled and said, "Miss, can you do me a favor?"
The silver cross necklace with the image of the Holy Corpse engraved on it gleamed in the sunlight around his neck.
"Uh, sir, are you in any trouble?"
Her honey-colored eyes were filled with pure innocence, a bit of doubt and curiosity about men.
Such a look made the man shudder slightly, and his heart became even hotter.
He pressed his nose to cover up his mistake: "Miss, I want to go to the south gate of the amusement park."
"Do you know where the South Gate is?"
The girl let out a soft cry.
"I know. But it's a small gate, and it doesn't seem to be open. Everyone enters the amusement park from the north gate. What are you doing there, sir?"
The man smiled apologetically. "I got separated from my wife. I remember she said she wanted to meet me at the South Gate."
"But I can't find the way... Kind lady, can you help me?"
Lin Xi glanced at the bag slung over his shoulder and the gloves he was wearing, and smiled: "Of course. But if I go too far, my friends might not be able to find me."
"So... I have to leave a message for my friend first." She looked around, walked quickly to the guy selling balloons not far from the bench, whispered something to him, and took out a few bills to buy a dolphin balloon.
After hearing what she said, the young man nodded and watched her return to the man with the balloon in her hand like a colorful butterfly.
"Come on, sir. What's your name?"
Lin Xi asked with a smile.
The man didn't ask her why she didn't text her friend directly, but instead asked someone else to pass on the message. He had just seen her interacting with that little girl. That must be her sister, right? Was she going to the amusement park with her sister?
It is normal that children do not have mobile phones and cannot receive messages, so they can only ask others to convey messages.
The man only showed a hint of surprise on his face: "Me? My name is Jack."
"Wow." The girl smiled. "Is that the Jack from 'Jack the Ripper'?"
The man also laughed: "Of course... not."
"Miss, are you referring to the 'Jack the Ripper' that's been making all the fuss lately, or the 'Jack the Ripper' who committed the Whitechapel murders in 19th century London? Haha... No matter which one it is, it's a bit too scary."
"My wife is afraid to go out at night because of this news."
Lin Xi touched his chin and said, "Well, I really need to avoid unnecessary night trips recently."
"I heard that 'Jack' is extremely cruel. He's like a demon, quietly dragging girls who come home late into the darkness at night. It sounds like a pornographic story about getting children to come home early."
"Haha." The man said, "But it's not just at night. Because of my wife, I studied the news carefully - Miss, the girl killed by the devil recently disappeared a long time ago."
"Even in the daytime, you have to be careful. If you happen to run into that demon while walking alone, it would be terrible if he knocked you unconscious and dragged you away."
The girl didn't seem to take it seriously and laughed: "If that's what you said, then girls like me won't be able to go out day or night, right?"
"That's so boring!"
"But you don't have to worry too much."
The man was slightly surprised: "Oh?"
"You're worried about your wife, so you're following the latest news, right?" The girl patted his shoulder cheerfully and familiarly. "But that 'Jack the Ripper' only attacked young girls!"
"Your wife should be about the same age as you, right?"
"So, don't worry, Jack the Ripper won't harm you or your family!"
The man was silent for a moment after hearing Lin Xi's words. After a while, he said, "Miss, you are right..."
He followed Lin Xi, passing one amusement facility after another. The further south they went, the fewer tourists there were.
This is because only the north gate of this amusement park is open, and as Lin Xi just said, the south gate is locked. Visitors enter through the north gate and finally exit through the north gate.
And the closer you get to the south gate, the fewer amusement facilities there are, until only rows of maple trees and paths in the shade remain.
The man slowed down his pace slightly and walked behind Lin Xi.
He could see the girl's waist-length, thick black hair, her skirt dancing in the wind, and smell the faint scent of orange blossom wafting from her.
Ah, what a young girl, what a pure lamb, what a perfect sacrifice...
God will surely love this gift.
He slowly reached into his shoulder bag.
"But you still have to be careful, miss."
He spoke slowly, staring at the unaware prey in front of him.
"Hmm?" The girl seemed accustomed to his sudden words. Without turning back, she continued to lead the way. "I'm fine. I'm just a tourist. I'll be back in a few days."
"According to Jack the Ripper's pattern of committing murders, he just killed someone yesterday. He would definitely wait a few days before committing another crime, right?"
"By then, I'll have already boarded the return flight."
"Miss, your observations are very careful," the man sighed, "but you have misunderstood Jack the Ripper's motives."
"Even if hunting is regular, and hunters maintain a certain time interval between kills..."
"But when a good hunter sees a perfect prey that makes his heart beat, he will be ready to hunt it at any time."
Lin Xi paused slightly.
From an angle the man couldn't see, the corners of her mouth curled up slightly:
"...Ah, sorry, I don't understand what you mean-"
The next moment, the man pounced forward, wrapped his arms around the girl's neck in a hunting posture, and pressed a piece of cotton cloth soaked in anesthetic liquid against the girl's mouth and nose with his right hand.
At the same time, he looked around alertly and used his great strength to drag the girl into the maple forest nearby.
"Ugh——" The girl seemed to want to call for help.
But her voice was blocked by the cotton cloth in her throat.
The strength of her grip on the man's arm gradually weakened, her struggle became increasingly powerless, and finally she collapsed completely to the ground.
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