Banzhen City, Peace Officer Headquarters.
After Guan Tong and his group of five arrived, the Headquarters Director immediately came downstairs with a few people to receive them.
"You've had a long journey, you must be tired. Would you like to go upstairs to the lounge for some tea first?"
The smile on the Director's face held a hint of feigned flattery, and it seemed especially stiff when he saw Uenoshi and Suzuki.
Even though these two were both from Sakura Prayer Country, they were now part of the Beixing investigation team, and the Headquarters could not interfere with their personal freedom.
"That won't be necessary," Guan Tong said. "Please give us our credentials immediately."
The Director looked at Guan Tong. The latter appeared young, but gave him a feeling of being difficult to deal with. The polite small talk he had prepared was now useless.
"Alright, alright. Where do you gentlemen plan to start the investigation? Do you need us to assign some Peace Officers to assist?"
"No need."
"Then, do you wish to question members of the Yuzawa Family? We in Sakura Prayer handle matters strictly by the book. After Beixing made the evidence public, we immediately took control of all suspects from the Yuzawa Family."
"Oh?" Guan Tong asked upon hearing this. "Is Yuzawa Jun among them?"
The Director's eyelid twitched a few times. "The Divine Child... Yuzawa Jun was assassinated by the Ascendant Shadow from your Beixing Country. This is known to the whole world. Could it be that you, Investigator, are unaware?"
Guan Tong immediately lost interest upon hearing this.
Based on the current evidence, several objectives of the Gene Hybridization Experiment were all related to Yuzawa Jun himself.
He was both the core mastermind of the project and its greatest beneficiary.
As for the other members of the Yuzawa Family, they were insignificant minnows in comparison. Given the cold-blooded nature of someone like Yuzawa Jun, these family members probably didn't carry much weight in his eyes.
The "Yuzawa Family suspects" mentioned by this Director were, in Guan Tong's view, no different from discarded pawns. Interrogating them would be a waste of time.
"Please give us our credentials. We need to begin the investigation."
"This... very well."
Seeing that Guan Tong was completely unyielding, and that even the suggestion to interrogate Yuzawa Family members had no effect, the Peace Office Director could only have someone fetch the credentials.
The credentials were several metal cards, engraved with the words "Special Investigation."
Guan Tong and the others took them and left immediately. The Director watched their departing backs, the smile on his face vanishing instantly.
After exiting the Headquarters building, Guan Tong saw Silver Fox fiddling with the metal card and asked, "Is there a problem?"
Silver Fox smiled. "Want to make a bet? I'm guessing there's definitely a tracker inside this thing."
"... That is indeed very likely."
If the Sakura Prayer side wanted to monitor their location at all times, they would definitely install a positioning chip inside these credentials.
"What should we do then?" Uenoshi said. "Throw them away?"
"If we throw them away, the other side can find an excuse not to cooperate with the investigation," Silver Fox said. "Give all the cards to me. I have a shielding item on me, it'll come in handy."
The others handed their cards to her. Guan Tong said, "It seems you came very well-prepared this time."
"It was on Dr. Zhang's specific instructions. To ensure we could handle various complex situations, he specially allocated many functional items for me to carry."
"That's good. Let's go. We'll head directly to the laboratory."
The Divine Child Yuzawa Jun's bodyguard "Shin," under hypnosis, disclosed intelligence regarding the laboratory's location.
It was located in an industrial area in the southern part of Banzhen City. The factories there were just a front. The core was the gene experiment zone within that area.
According to Shin, the experiment zone was as large as a football field, with half of it used to store experimental materials—namely, the poor souls captured to be used as test subjects.
After Guan Tong and the others quickly drove to the industrial area, they found it desolate. Not a single person could be seen, not even a ghostly shadow.
"It looks like our guess was correct. The Yuzawa Family has already relocated the laboratory in advance."
"Let's see if we can find any leftover clues."
Guan Tong silently released a large number of shadow lines, sending them deep into various parts of the industrial area to search.
Chen Na also used her ability, activating her Perception Domain to detect whether any personnel remained in the area.
She soon shook her head in disappointment. "Apart from us, there's no one else in this entire area."
The shadow lines Guan Tong released didn't find any people either, but they did locate the experiment zone. He immediately led the others there.
The entire experiment zone consisted of dozens of houses, all connected together.
A few of the rooms were extremely sealed and had undergone sterile treatment, likely used for experiments.
The majority were spacious, large rooms, seemingly used for collective confinement or lodging.
Silver Fox crouched in front of one room, examining the floor marked with many metal scratches.
She speculated, "These were probably left behind when large experimental equipment was moved and transported."
Guan Tong, meanwhile, noticed that several of the higher-specification buildings bore signs of having been burned.
He estimated that to thoroughly erase clues, the Yuzawa Family had incinerated many documents and some evidence they couldn't take with them.
"Look here!"
Uenoshi's shocked and angry voice suddenly came from not far away. The others went over and found her standing before a large metal building. On the ground inside, there was a full layer of congealed crimson, several centimeters thick.
If one looked closely, they could even find black hairs within this crimson, gelatinous mass. What this substance was composed of became painfully obvious.
"Ugh..."
Chen Na covered her mouth, feeling the urge to retch.
"This should all be the blood of victims who failed the experiments," Silver Fox said, much calmer. After a careful inspection, she looked at Guan Tong. "We need to find where the laboratory was moved to as soon as possible. Otherwise, more people will become victims."
"I know. But we need to find clues first."
"Let me try," Suzuki said at this moment. "They didn't move that long ago. I might be able to partially reconstruct the scene from that time through Profiling in my mind, to find clues."
"Alright."
Guan Tong had originally decided to bring the still-not-fully-trusted Suzuki precisely because he valued her [Profiling] ability. It would be great if it could be of use.
Under the watchful eyes of the other four, Suzuki took out the sketchbook she carried with her, took a deep breath, and activated her ability.
The scene of the location immediately appeared in her mind in a form of "modeling," continuously rewinding time while reconstructing the scene.
Before long, the image of a raging fire appeared. This was the Yuzawa Family personnel burning evidence. Going further back, some blurry figures were moving experimental equipment, and some voices engaged in conversation could be heard.
These voices were very low, as if heard through a layer of water curtain, making them indistinct. Even pushing her ability to the limit, Suzuki could only make out fragments of speech.
A moment later, the ability's effect ended. She quickly drew on a blank page the images that had appeared in her mind, and finally wrote down the few sentences of dialogue she had barely managed to hear clearly.
"This is everything I could profile."
She handed the sketchbook to Guan Tong. Silver Fox and the others also gathered around him to look.
The drawings of the previously occurring scenes were remarkably accurate, a testament to Suzuki's strong sketching skills. However, these pictures didn't provide clues. What was truly useful were the few sentences of dialogue she had managed to hear.
Guan Tong read them out slowly. "'The Family Head ordered to transport... all to...', 'Seeing the sea makes me uncomfortable, the earthquake rule... my hometown...', 'Hurry up and work... set the fire...'"
The few sentences Suzuki wrote down were all incomplete and didn't seem clear at first glance.
However, after reading them, Silver Fox immediately grasped the key point.
"The sea? Those people mentioned the sea?" Silver Fox's eyes lit up, as if she had thought of something crucial.
"Sister Silver Fox, does that mean they moved the laboratory to the sea?" Chen Na asked.
Silver Fox looked at Guan Tong. "You've guessed it too, haven't you?"
"Yes," Guan Tong nodded. "I guess the Yuzawa Family probably transported the laboratory onto a ship. That is indeed very hidden. Most people wouldn't think they'd do that."
Uenoshi frowned. "A ship? It would have to be a large ship to hold so much equipment and personnel."
"Correct," Guan Tong said. "To hold a large amount of experimental equipment, researchers, even victims, test subjects, and so on... it must be a large ship. This is good news for us, because such a large ship can't possibly remain hidden."
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