Netherworld Investigator

Over the next two days, we conducted the autopsy and investigated the crime scene. The days and nights passed as usual but there was no breakthrough in the case.

On Sunday night, Storm Punisher’s standard program was interrupted, perhaps due to a lack of hostages. I asked Xiaotao if we could keep the public safe by issuing an announcement throughout the city to remind the public that the criminal, Storm Punisher, was searching for new targets.

"There’s no use in doing that,” Xiaotao shook her head. “It’ll only cause widespread panic. What’s meant to happen will happen and there’s no way of stopping it."

It was getting late in the day and I was just about to return to school with Dali and Lao Yao when an officer came running towards us. "Chief, the murderer is about to start live streaming!" he yelled.

We rushed to the conference room without a moment’s delay. Everyone had gathered there and the video was already projected onto the wall. Much like the previous occasions, it was pitch dark at first, with only the sound of loud breathing. Tonight's live stream was still titled "Hell's Judgment."

It was already 1 a.m. so the murderer’s live stream was two hours later than scheduled. Had the victim been caught at the last minute?

With bated breath, we waited to see the victim’s face. A while later, the criminal spoke in the same digitally altered voice, "Li Derong, you’ve always been eager to become famous. Tonight, I will give you this opportunity!"

For an instant, I suspected that my ears were mistaken. Tonight’s victim was his partner, The Strongest Mantis Shrimp!

The officers in the room sat in shocked silence but the comments section below the live stream exploded into excited discussion at once. Although a large part of these viewers also watched The Strongest Mantis Shrimp’s live stream, most of them were thrilled and delighted upon learning the victim’s identity.

As soon as the lights flickered on, I gasped at the scene in the video. Pork Rong was naked, his skin glossy as if coated with a layer of oil. Body covered in bruises, his lips had been sewn together with messy stitches so the only noises he could make were low whimpers.

He was sitting on a contraption known as the Wooden Donkey used to punish promiscuous women in ancient times, but with certain modifications. Blood trickled down his arms and legs that were shackled in metal clamps resembling bear traps.

I noticed that there was a stake mounted on the back of a wooden donkey right under Pork Rong’s buttocks. From our perspective, only a small part of the stake was visible while most of it was inserted into his anus. The stake was most likely very sharp as indicated by the blood on it.

On Pork Rong's waist, a time bomb with one minute on the countdown had been attached to him.

I never imagined Storm Punisher would personally dispose of his partner. Perhaps it was an order from the people behind the website or for his own safety. After all, Pork Rong's rash, unauthorized actions had exposed them.

Judging from all aspects, the act of personally torturing and murdering his partner was proof that his perverse, twisted mind had far exceeded the point of “stark raving mad.”

"Next, you may begin your thrilling performance in front of tens of thousands of eyes,” Storm Punisher continued impassively. “Let me explain it to you. You have a time bomb with a countdown of only one minute! If you want to escape from this contraption, you must insert the stake deep into your body for the metal shackles that bind your hands and feet to unfasten. Make good use of this time to leave your deepest impression on the audience. The trial begins!"

With a beep, the time bomb began counting down. Pork Rong struggled fiercely, taking almost 20 seconds before he decided to brave the impalement of the stake. Bright red blood flowed to the ground and dyed his legs crimson.

"Fuck, I can't watch any more of this!" Lao Yao yelped as he violently pushed the door open and left.

Dali didn't have Lao Yao’s courage to walk away from the table in the middle of the live stream but his hands clutched my shirt, teeth violently chattering. 

The stake might have already reached Pork Rong’s intestines, blood sloshing down the contraption like a waterfall. At the same time, the shackles around his hands and feet loosened bit by bit, his neck tense from pain, eyes almost bulging out from their sockets.

This scene had many policemen shaking their heads from disbelief but the audience watching the live stream had a completely different reaction. The barrage of comments and numerous reward notices dotted out most of the screen, so much so that the comments had to be turned off.

Time went by second by second until only ten seconds remained. Having managed to open the metal clamps, he frantically tore at the explosive belt with his bloodied hands, but to no avail.

With only five seconds left, Pork Rong yanked the thread that bound his lips and shouted at the top of his voice, "Wang Yizhou, fuck you, fuck your whole family!" Then he quickly uttered a string of numbers but the bomb exploded before he could finish speaking.

Boom and the entire screen condensed with countless blood droplets. The camera shook unsteadily from the shock of the explosion and impact of pounding flesh. All that remained after the blast was Pork Rong’s lower body, his entire torso having been blown to bits. A section of his intestines was exposed, revealing the bloody stake that impaled him.

Xiaotao covered her mouth in shock and uttered, "How could anyone be so cruel?!"

While the others were still recovering from this horrible scene, I quickly took a pen and paper and scribbled down the numbers Pork Rong had recited before his death. "It looks like a cell phone number but there’s still one number missing," I said.

Xiaotao grabbed the paper from my hands and examined the numbers I had written. Then, she ordered the technical team to fill in the last number from zero to nine and investigate all of them.

The officers managed to accurately locate the geographic location of the cell phone numbers by satellite and soon discovered that three of the numbers were located in Nanjiang City. One of them was currently on the move. 

"It’s one in the morning right now so this number might be Storm Punisher’s!" I conjectured.

With a wave of her hand, Xiaotao declared, "Let’s go arrest the suspect!"

We quickly shuffled into the police vehicles and headed for the target.

On the way, I asked Xiaotao, "Were there any women among the hostages we rescued?"

Xiaotao nodded. "There is one who works as a hostess in a nightclub."

"So that’s why!" I exclaimed.

This Wooden Donkey contraption was likely to have been prepared for someone else but Storm Punisher was eager to dispose of Pork Rong, hence, tonight’s performance. However, Pork Rong had unexpectedly disclosed key information pertaining to Storm Punisher right before his death.

As we drew closer to the target, the officers asked Xiaotao, "The target is moving quickly. Should we chase after him?"

"What do you think?" Xiaotao turned to me.

"This is an unforeseen situation so what would Storm Punisher do to avoid our pursuit? My guess is he’ll hire a car, throw his cell phone into the car and flee in another direction."

"Isn’t that a common technique in the movies?!" cried Xiaotao. She proceeded to divide the officers into two groups–one to pursue the target and the other to search for the location where the target first appeared.

When we arrived at the original location of the number, we were surprised to find that it was a villa in the suburbs. There was a notice for rent stuck on the door, an obvious cover-up since the lights behind the curtains were indicative of people living there.

We pushed the door and entered the villa, greeted by the smell of burning wires permeating in the air. An intense heat emanated from one of the rooms. "No! They are destroying the evidence!" I yelled.

We dashed into the room, only to see the dismaying scene of a burning row of computers with the fire fueled by gasoline. The officers cut off the power and carried buckets of water from the bathroom to put out the fire.

When the fire was finally extinguished, I looked around the room and said, "There were more than a dozen people here. Pork Rong wasn’t trying to reveal Wang Yizhou’s location but the website's studio!"

I walked into the living room and opened the Autopsy Umbrella while Dali shone a light for me, illuminating a line of footprints on the floor. 

"It must have been chaotic at the time,” I said. “When they destroyed the evidence with gasoline, they also stepped on it and left footprints. Let's go and arrest them all!"