Chapter 99: Twelve But this is not a weapon
Twenty minutes later, Kude stepped into the store, where the fire had already been extinguished.
“What happened?” Kude asked Chamos, who had arrived at the store before him. “What’s all the commotion?”
“Um… hard to describe, but preliminary judgent suggests it was an accident,” Chamos shrugged, and then couldn’t help but complain, “Seriously, we had just returned to the city and hadn’t even finished our leave when this happened. You know, at the ti of the accident, I was just two streets away getting prosthetics maintenance. Damn it, that sudden explosion scared the chanician so badly that his hand shook, almost welding off my prosthetic limb. Next ti, I’m definitely going to check if that guy even has a formal chanician’s license.”
Kude paid no heed to Chamos’s incessant chatter; he knew that the other was just a bit talkative, but serious about his work. Chamos had also been the first in their squad to arrive and secure the scene after the accident occurred.
“Any casualties?” Kude asked, stepping over scattered chanical wreckage and asking Chamos with slight concern. “As far as I know, the population density on this street is quite high.”
“In a strict sense, there were no injured, only a casualty,” Chamos shrugged. “The casualty was the owner of the store, and the accident took place inside. The store had already closed at the ti, so he was the only victim… there, right over there.”
...
After rounding a corner, Kude finally saw the specifics of the accident.
A destroyed machine was the most eye-catching, its exposed parts resembling the devoured carcass of a giant beast, and beneath that carcass lay a middle-aged man in a chanician’s uniform. Five tal rods were impaled through his body; clearly, these were the culprits that had taken his life, the terrible wounds draining him of blood.
And still he stared with eyes wide, mouth open, as if wanting to say sothing, but the accident had co too swiftly, freezing his not-so-advanced life at this very mont.
Kude slightly lowered his head, a token of minor tribute to the unfortunate victim.
“Are there any preliminary conclusions about the accident?” Kude soon raised his head, continuing to question Chamos.
“There are. As I ntioned earlier, this is almost certainly an accident,” Chamos motioned for Kude to look behind, “There, the accident was caused by this machine.”
Kude also turned his head to look at the fierce machine, which was more than half destroyed by the explosion, yet he recognized the model: “A Gway Type Body Replacent Machine?”
“It’s a Gway Model Three,” Chamos said. “It’s an old model now, so it’s not surprising that an accident happened.”
Kude thought for a mont but then shook his head: “Not quite. The Gway Model Three is only an eight-year-old model, and its service life should be upwards of twenty years. It’s far from being called old.”
“That’s the thing, Captain, you’re also falling behind the tis,” Chamos said with a smile. “Nowadays, calling a machine old after three years of use is the norm. This seven-year-old thing is truly an antique.”
Kude gave Chamos a glance and said indifferently: “Since when have we started basing our judgents on trends, rather than facts?”
Chamos imdiately fell silent.
This ti, Kude could continue observing the scene.
Actually, just by looking at the scene, there weren’t many suspicious points. It seed that the owner had been repairing the machine when it suddenly malfunctioned and exploded, instantly killing the unprepared owner with tal rods from inside the machine.
But Kude still felt sothing was off.
It wasn’t just the simple fact that the machine was far from the end of its service life.
“Have we identified the victim?” Kude asked.
“We have. His na is Carol, 38 years old, with a son and a wife,” Chamos said. “He was also a Level Three chanician.”
“Did he have any other jobs before?”
Chamos paused slightly: “Other jobs?”
At that mont, a “Skeleton” Knight ca from outside the house: “Captain! The victim had another identity; we just got the records from Sky Tower. Before becoming the store owner, he was a Maintenance Staff mber for Sky Tower!”
Kude and Chamos’s expressions imdiately changed.
Before the Knight could reach them, Kude promptly stepped forward, taking the records from the Knight’s hand, and quickly scanned them.
“Indeed, a Maintenance Staff mber for Sky Tower.”
Unable to resist scratching his head, Chamos said: “Maintenance Staff for Sky Tower? And still an accident like this happened? I thought he was just a second-rate chanician.”
Before he could finish, he saw Kude with a solemn face lifting his head from the records.
“Are you worried about sothing?” Chamos couldn’t help but ask. “Even if he once was a Maintenance Staff mber, that has nothing to do with now, right? This is Lyra, a murder is unlikely.”
Kude glanced at Chamos and said: “The ti of this Maintenance Staff mber’s departure was—236 years ago.”
Chamos’s expression froze.
After all, that year was just too peculiar.
“Is this… a coincidence?” Chamos couldn’t help but ask.
Kude didn’t speak; he just felt there was sothing wrong with the file in his hand.
But it wasn’t the file itself that was wrong. Instead… the accident had just happened; how could these records have already been sent to them? Theoretically, Maintenance Staff records should be confidential.
“Captain!” Before Kude could sort out his thoughts, a team mber examining the body imdiately spoke up, “Look at this.”
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