Hell's Handbook

Chapter 121: Eighteen Corpses

“Is there an autopsy report?” asked Su Jin.

Lv Jincheng nodded and got a staff member to bring some files over. Su Jin looked through them quickly, since his psychokinesis had enabled him to speed read and gave him a photographic memory. If he had to take his national high school exams again, he would have passed with flying colors. He would just have to study for a few days before the exams and he was sure to top the entire nation.

“I’m very sure that these people are related to the local cases we saw earlier,” said Su Jin confidently as he handed the files back to the staff member.

Lv Jincheng asked curiously, “Why are you so sure?”

“I suppose you haven’t read the autopsy reports,” said Su Jin.

Yang Tianzheng had handed this case to Lv Jincheng not too long ago, so it was true that he had not read some of the information on the case. He took the autopsy reports from the staff member and gasped after reading it carefully.

“You’re right. It’s very obvious that they’re linked,” said Lv Jincheng with an embarrassed smile.

Han Mengyao couldn’t stand the way they talked so vaguely and took the files from Lv Jincheng. But even after reading through them once, she still didn’t get the connection.

“What did the two of you see in these cases? Can you guys stop speaking in riddles and go straight to the point?” Han Mengyao was very annoyed. It was bad enough that Su Jin was speaking like this, but now her senior was speaking like this too.

Lv Jincheng explained, “The fatal wounds of all 18 persons are different, but they were all killed in a similar fashion and the report has more or less classified these into four categories.”

“Is that included in the report? I didn’t see that.” Han Mengyao read through the report again but failed to see what Lv Jincheng mentioned earlier.

Su Jin sighed and explained, “He’s not saying that four types of weapons killed them. The report has listed the injuries suffered by these 18 people in detail, and if we do a venn diagram of their injuries, you would be able to see some overlaps. For example, person one could have a knife wound, a gunshot wound, a tear in the skin and a burn; person two could have a tear in the skin, a bruise from a hard knock, a burn from being electrocuted and was poisoned; person three could have suffered a knife wound, a tear in the skin and a burn; person four has a bruise, an electrocution burn and was poisoned.”

“So, we can say that person one and three are in the same category, while person two and four are in another category. By sorting out the victims according to how similar their injuries are, they can be classified into four main categories.”

Han Mengyao was too stunned for words. “What sort of brains do the two of you have? Mr. Yang said before that twisted criminals have twisted minds, so does that mean that twisted minds would also become twisted criminals?”

Lv Jincheng and Su Jin stared at each other, then rubbed their own nose a little awkwardly. Han Mengyao burst out laughing. These two men were smart, but they couldn’t seem to get that she was just kidding.

The four families that had been slaughtered could also be divided into these four categories, so they were definitely connected.

“The most recent case happened just three days ago, while the bodies of these foreigners were found in an abandoned warehouse two days ago. In other words, someone had gathered these bodies on purpose. Do you think we could find the mastermind based on this?” asked Lv Jincheng with a thoughtful look on his face.

Su Jin shook his head and did not think Lv Jincheng ought to start his investigation this way. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Mr. Yang said earlier that the special police doesn’t have enough manpower, and you saw the situation in those houses just now. The people we’re looking for are extremely formidable fighters, so if we have to fight them with our current resources, I think…it’s too dangerous.”

Lv Jincheng hesitated for a moment, then laughed sadly, “Well, we’re in charge of ensuring public safety, so regardless of whether it’s dangerous or not, we can’t just say we’re going to just stay away.”

“You and Miss Han can go ahead then! To be honest, I don’t want to get into trouble with these people,” said Su Jin as he rubbed his nose. He was now very sure that these cases had something to do with Handbook owners. After his own experience with those Handbook owners who tried to rob him, he was 100% sure of this.

Su Jin was fine with having to deal with ordinary thugs, since he had superpowers. But things were very different if his opponent was an owner. Also, it was hard to say if the owners they were up against were veterans.

Lv Jincheng did not expect Su Jin to retreat so quickly and didn’t know what to say. Han Mengyao quickly piped up, “Mr. Su, I believe you still have the responsibility to protect me. If I insist on going to the warehouse to investigate, would you fulfil your job responsibilities and go there with me?”

Su Jin’s expression fell. He could insist on not going, since he didn’t think Lv Jincheng and Han Mengyao combined would be able to stop him from leaving. But if Tang Ning found out that he had abandoned the client, she was going to skin him alive. And if she got Ye Yun to teach him a lesson, he was doomed.

“I’ll go.” Su Jin was afraid of what Tang Ning and Ye Yun might do to him, but he also felt that since he was now knew about these cases, he had a feud with that syndicate of owners who went around robbing other owners, plus this whole thing might have something to do with Ye Yun, there was no harm in continuing the investigation.

It was evening by the time the three of them arrived at a warehouse in the countryside. In fact, this place wasn’t too far from the shooting range that belonged to Kano Mai’s friend, where he practiced his shooting skill for about a month.

The warehouse was huge, and according to the information that Lv Jincheng had, this place was built by a foreign company seven years ago, but they ran into cashflow problems and were about to go bankrupt, so they gave up their business and left behind their properties, including warehouses, factories and offices. But they had also been looking for buyers very actively.

The warehouse contained mostly large containers. Lv Jincheng brought them to where the bodies were discovered and said, “Some junkies discovered the bodies here. They had taken some drugs and somehow found their way here. After the effects of the drugs wore off, they found the 18 bodies and called the police in a panic. The special police took over from there.”

The area where the bodies were found was a large and empty space, and Su Jin could still make out where the bodies had been. He squatted down to take a look, but this place had merely been used to store the bodies and there wasn’t anything worth taking note of.

He used his psychokinesis to scan the place, since it could pick up many things he might not have detected on first sight. But once he did that, his heart started palpitating. His psychokinesis had detected signs of 15 living people hiding in this warehouse.

He stood up emotionlessly and said to the other two, “I don’t think there’s anything here that’s worth checking out. Let’s go back and see if we can get more information from those junkies.”

Lv Jincheng was rather puzzled. They had barely arrived for ten minutes, but Su Jin seemed to be in a hurry to leave. He noticed an uneasiness in Su Jin’s eyes, but he couldn’t understand why.

Just then, Su Jin let out a bitter laugh. “Forget it. We can’t leave even if we wanted to. It’s time to fight our enemies!”

“Fight our enemies?” Neither Lv Jincheng nor Han Mengyao knew what Su Jin was talking about.

Su Jin scanned his surroundings. It seemed like those 15 people could feel that Su Jin had noticed them and did not intend to let the three of them leave this warehouse alive.

He flicked his wrist and Rumor appeared in his palm. He whispered to the other two, “When I give the signal, just run for it. Don’t look back and don’t hesitate, or we’re all going to die here.”

Lv Jincheng was still confused, but Han Mengyao realized what Su Jin was talking about. She was trained in fighting after all, and her sharp instincts in that aspect helped her to understand what Su Jin meant.

“Jincheng, just follow me!” Han Mengyao grabbed her senior’s arm tightly. He didn’t know exactly what was going on, but he figured they were in trouble.

“And…NOW!” Su Jin suddenly yelled as he threw Rumor out. He was very good at controlling the direction and strength of his attacks, so even without the help of his psychokinesis, Rumor still flew through one of the containers and a scream could be heard.

“It seems like none of them is a veteran.” Su Jin let out a sigh of relief. He hadn’t used psychokinesis to control Rumor earlier, so if there were veterans among the 15 people hiding in the warehouse, they would have intercepted his attack easily.

That scream from behind the container was like the sound from a starting gun. Han Mengyao and Lv Jincheng immediately dashed out at top speed. These two were certainly no ordinary humans either: they ran at a speed that was comparable to some of the best short distance runners in the world.

Meanwhile, Su Jin remained close behind them, flinging Rumor out again and again, and killing three people in the blink of an eye. However, these victims were those who hadn’t realized that Su Jin had discovered them and didn’t know how their location was exposed even until the moment they died. But once the other owners realized that Su Jin knew their exact location, it wasn’t going to be as easy to take them down.

Just as he had expected, five owners leaped out from the darkness. Three of them had guns while the other two had a sword and a saber.

Su Jin couldn’t summon the Boning Knife or the Demon Lord’s Bow in front of the other two, so he broke off a metal rod from one of the machines and held it in his hand.

“Get out of there!” Su Jin flung the metal rod out as hard as he could. The metal rod whooshed through the air with a mighty roar. His body was now very tough, and he could stay unhurt even after being shot by a handgun. The strength he possessed was now beyond what any ordinary human could possibly have.

The metal rod crashed into one wall of the warehouse and exploded upon impact, creating a hole in the side of the warehouse.