Chapter 219 The Third Player
Don't let him find out who is the guy behind the scenes.
Saikai Haruto lowered his brows and thought about the conversation he had had with Sakaguchi Bingo.
...He just said "I have no opinion" and "I'll leave everything to the Special Powers Division." If I call him now and ask him directly for information on these cases, wouldn't it be like he's slapping himself in the face?
Absolutely not.
Xi Haiqingdou closed these official websites and kept moving his hands. His left hand quickly tapped the keyboard, his right hand moved the mouse, and the scroll wheel slid down. Countless kana flashed across the screen quickly.
Displayed on the screen were all the files related to the recent cases that were sealed in the Special Powers Division.
The information inside is organized quite completely and classified, the personal style is very obvious between the lines, the narrative is concise and organized, it looks quite pleasing to the eye, and the three cases that have occurred so far are sorted out quite clearly.
——The three murders currently recorded in Yokohama correspond to the second, third, and fourth murders in "The Nameless Wax Museum", and the time interval is exactly the same, that is, every other day. As always, the murderer left a "love letter" to "Mochizuki Kurumi" near the scene, and all of them were signed with "X".
I don’t know if it’s because the victim of the first case in the novel committed suicide to some extent rather than being killed by “me”, so there is no corresponding victim in the case that happened in reality.
The third case occurred at noon this morning, exactly four days after the first case, and the victim this time was a government official from the Ministry of Justice.
That's why Sakaguchi Binggo called him three times in a row today: if he is not contacted, the people in the Ministry of Justice will get restless.
As an organization specifically created to monitor and manage people with special abilities, the Special Agents Division would be hard-pressed if it did not speak out when faced with a crime committed by a person with special abilities. This would be like actively handing over evidence to the Ministry of Justice.
Xi Haiqing Dou read through the summarized information twice from beginning to end, then loosened his hand holding the mouse and slowly leaned back in his chair.
Black bytes flooded into his mind, quickly gathering into clues. He half closed his eyes, took off his glasses and pressed his temples.
——Just like what Sakaguchi Binggo said, this guy, X——is coming for him.
It's not about "Mochizuki Kyurumi", but "Mochizuki Xun".
Saikai Haruto is 100% certain.
There is some information hidden in those cases, some information that only a few people will know - that information was buried in Europe seven years ago, or even earlier, and was also buried in the past of "Mochizuki Kaoru".
That person, X, must be just like "Mochizuki Kaoru", and must know everything that happened seven years ago, even the details are exactly the same.
It is even possible that this person was certain that "Mochizuki Kurumi" was "Mochizuki Kaoru" because of this.
So X was definitely coming for him on purpose.
And that guy must have a grudge against him.
“It’s a really depressing discovery.”
"Why do you suddenly come and disturb my peaceful life?"
The young man with black and purple medium-length hair sighed with his eyes slightly closed, his expression seemed tired: "I have always been very satisfied with my current life."
For a long while, there was only silence in the study.
【……】
[Host, are you going to fail?] The system's calm electronic voice echoed in his mind.
【……】
[Host, are you okay? What are you doing? 】
[I'm not good.] Xi Haiqing Dou answered decisively, [Can't you see? I closed my eyes and prayed devoutly to God, Buddha, Allah and the eight million gods to protect me from being exposed.]
[Don’t ask me why I don’t pose. Anyway, it’s enough to be sincere. ]
[I reminded you not to write everything you encounter into your novel.] The system's electronic voice sounded mocking to Xi Haiqing Dou: [Look, someone really came to our door.]
Xi Haiqingdou retorted: [It's hindsight. How did I know that guy still had relatives and friends who were not dead? I thought he was dead a long time ago. ]
[There's nothing much to find, but it happened two years earlier than I expected...] Xi Hai Qing Dou made a "tsk" sound in his heart.
The fact that the prototype would be discovered while writing a novel was predicted by Saikai Haruto when he wrote his first book under the pseudonym "Mochizuki Kaoru". Otherwise, why would he insist on writing real events into his novels as inspiration? Of course, it was to provide a reasonable reason for the possibility of "exposure" in the future.
He had already compiled eight hundred topics in his mind, such as "Shock! A famous contemporary mystery novelist turned out to be a member of a jihadist organization who was laid off and re-employed."
"Retiring from the world and wanting to live a quiet life" is the character setting of the pseudonym "Mochizuki Kaoru" and also the future he wants, but it is not what Saikai Haruto wants - "A novelist who wanted to retire but his past identity was discovered and he is far away from a quiet life" is the script he wrote for himself.
"When a person goes out, all the stories and accidents are created by himself." This is what he is like.
However, in his expectation, the "past identity being exposed" would at least happen after he met the main character of Bunno and appeared in the comics as "Mochizuki Kaoru" for a while, right?
At least not now - otherwise he would put on such a drama, but in the end there were no audiences showing up to watch it, and by the time the audiences showed up the drama would have already ended, which would be hilarious.
As a result, due to the appearance of X, he may be at risk of being exposed at any time - what the result will be depends entirely on what X wants to do.
[So the point now is that I have to get rid of this bad guy who is doing things behind my back. At least I can't let him spread the past identity of "Mochizuki Kaoru" to the whole Yokohama or the whole world. Otherwise, I can only go to the Hong Kong underworld to make trouble and see if they are willing to take in another intelligence dealer who has turned over a new leaf.]
Xi Haiqing Dou thought: [System, can you find him? ]
[Insufficient clues, unable to analyze, please continue to work hard, explore on your own, and find "X". ]
Xi Haiqing Dou: […Can you learn more from other systems? You say you are a useless system that can do nothing. What use is there for me to have you?]
The system decisively began to play dead.
Saikai Haruto: Another day when I wonder if my own system is defective.
He actually fell asleep like this...
Yesterday, I was leaning on a chair in the study room with my eyes closed, chatting with the system in my head. It ended up being so noisy that I accidentally fell asleep on the chair and slept for the whole night. I was not awakened by the sun until the next morning. Xihai Qingdou squinted his eyes and rubbed his shoulders and back which had become extremely stiff, still a little bit unbelievable.
I don’t know whether to praise this guy for his good sleep quality or for his good physical condition - he didn’t even catch a cold or a fever after spending the whole night like this.
After checking the time, Xi Hai Qing Dou rubbed his shoulders, stood up from the chair, put his glasses back on, and then strode out of the study, put on his coat, took out his mobile phone, and walked out into the world.
"Help me find someone."
"Xun-chan? It's rare that you actually contacted me." A clear male voice with a cheerful smile came from the other end of the phone, intimate and not a bit strange: "Haven't you already retired and found a new job? What do you want me to help you find out?"
"Stop talking nonsense." Mochizuki Kaoru's voice was deep and mellow. Once her voice turned cold, it sounded particularly distant: "Will you check it out?"
"I have to know who you want to check, right?" The other party seemed helpless and said, "Is there someone you can't check yourself and you have to ask me to help you check... I can only make a bold guess. Is it someone from that side? Are you sure you want me to check?"
"The incident a few months ago when you came to Yokohama and brought people to break into my villa is written off." Mochizuki Kaoru said, "And you help me find someone."
"With our relationship, it would be too distant and sad to talk about this, Kaoru-chan." The other person sighed and suddenly became cheerful: "So it's settled, huh?"
"A gang that has recently appeared in Yokohama and is copying the novel of 'Mochizuki Kurumi'."
Mochizuki Kaoru said: "He should have come from Europe, to be more specific, England. He is looking for 'dead souls'."
"...Oh, you've been exposed?" the person on the other side asked in surprise.
"If you can't act, don't act. It's fake."
Wangyue Xun paused and said, "Help me find out where he is within three days."
Today's murder is the third, which corresponds to the fourth in "The Nameless Wax Museum". If the subsequent developments remain the same as in the novel, then there are still six to seven days until the last case occurs, that is, the time when the murderer kills the last person - Xi Haiqing Dou is very likely to be sure that the last person is himself.
"In Yokohama, things seem to be a bit difficult. After all, you Yokohama are really exclusive." The other party said, "I will send you the information when the time comes."
"But...Kaoru-chan, now that you've left, don't do anything that will make you regret it." He kindly reminded: "I don't want to see you crying out of regret, it would be ugly."
"Yuyuan Chiaki."
Mochizuki Kaoru suddenly called out the other person's name, interrupting him.
"Huh?"
"Have I ever told you that you're really nagging? And, really noisy." He hung up the phone and put it back into his coat pocket.
On the quiet street, a young man wearing a light grey kimono and a coat was walking in the north wind with big strides, looking particularly handsome.
[…But, host, are you really not going to wear two more layers? According to the calculations of this system, if you go out like this, there is an 80% chance that you will catch a cold and a 42% chance that you will have a fever.]
In my mind, the system calmly expressed its opinion: [And last time you said it was strange that you called yourself. ]
...Can he say that he had no idea that the weather outside would suddenly become cloudy and windy before he went out? It was clearly sunny yesterday.
Good, I'm starting to feel like sneezing.
[This is a matter of demeanor, not temperature. You don’t understand the system.] Xi Haiqingdou retorted: [And you must have remembered it wrong. It’s obviously cool to talk to yourself on the phone.]
If he wants to find more clues about "X", he can only go to the scene himself to see the situation.
Even though three or four days have passed and we may not be able to get into the scene, what if "X" is still observing nearby?
As for the Special Powers Agent Department, they probably had the same intention - the information he just found in the Special Powers Agent Department was obviously compiled by Sakaguchi Binggo, and the process of finding it couldn't be simpler. It can only be said that it was really obvious that the guy did it on purpose.
By the way, he also hopes that the fighting skills of the intelligence officer from the Special Powers Division following behind him can at least be better than his tracking skills... From now on, the safety of him, a powerless and incompetent novelist, will depend on him.
Xi Haiqing Dou silently wrapped his coat tightly around himself.
It’s really hard to get through this day of “forced overtime”.