Decstemic

1

“Huh? Where’s my tattoo?!”

Liam Stake rolled up his sleeves and was shocked by the sight of his own two arms, which were white and unblemished. Previously, they were covered by a tattoo of the head of a lion, drawn by one of the most famous tattoo artists in the area. They looked intimidating, to say the least.

But…where were they now?

Liam raised his head and found himself sitting in a brightly lit office that was split into many small cubicles.

At the moment, the office was in a state of chaos–phones ringing nonstop, documents flying around, and a flurry of office workers running through the hallway, each of them with anxiety and exasperation written all over their face.

“Alright, alright, everyone, gather around!” A middle-aged man clad in a brown jacket appeared and directed everyone’s attention. “Team Leader Elyon Roy shall now describe to us the situation regarding Taser Rape Cases. Tonight, we’re moving out, so everyone listen carefully!”

Another person quickly pulled over a whiteboard which was filled with words, along with many pictures posted on it.

Upon hearing the announcement, many workers quickly crowded around the whiteboard, pulling up chairs whenever convenient before sitting and watching intently.

As for Liam, he merely remained in his own seat.

At the moment, he was still in a state of shock. Liam touched his right ear–perfectly intact! As he remembered, his right ear should have been split in two during a scuffle with some runt.

Liam wished he could see his own face with a mirror or something. He looked around and his eyes fell on a photo sitting on the office desk. The photo depicted a young, handsome man wearing a police uniform, but the man looked exactly like himself!

Holy sh*t!

The shock was finally passing, and the man felt foreign memories flood his mind. Liam finally realized: Could it be? That he had encountered the legendary…Mind Cross Over?!

He could still clearly remember that he was previously the top strongman for the Qing Long Mafia, a true ruffian to the bone. Although his actual name was Liam, everyone called him King Liam.

What happened right before?

Jesus Christ!

What Liam finally remembered came as a shock–he had already been subject to the death sentence by lethal injection!

The memories came back more clearly now: when the medicine slowly entered his body, and the slow spreading fear that came with it. He was muttering some old sayings, “Better an honorable death than living like a dog…”

But, mid-way through his muttering, how did he suddenly appear here?

Could he have actually crossed over into another body?

It was so sudden; there were no warnings or signs, or even reincarnation into a baby.

With new memories entering his mind, he was shocked to realize that not only did he still reside in the regular world, but his current identity was an investigator in the Key Case Investigation Unit. In other words, he was a police officer!

So, where he was sitting was the office of a police station.

Jesus Christ.

Liam could not believe his eyes, from a street ruffian to a Key Case Investigation Unit member, h-how could this be? The contrast made his head spin.

The man ran a hand over his head; he previously had many blade injuries on his head that messed up his hairline. That has lead to his baldness–both for convenience and intimidation. But now, he possessed long, jet black hair, presenting the image of a handsome young man.

“Everyone, since the twelfth of this month, our city has had three cases of Taser Rape incidents.” At this time, a female investigator with short hair and large eyes was briefing everyone about the situation surrounding their mission.

Liam quickly found the female investigator within his memory: she was the Team leader of the Key Case Investigation Unit, Team B. Despite her youth, she possessed a sharp mind and incredible nerves, contributing to her high success rate in crime solving. The woman was also incredibly popular with the higher-ups. Usually, any cases that required full team cooperation were led by her.

“The victims have always been scantily dressed young females, usually with some problematic habits,” Team Leader Elyon Roy started her introduction. “The crime scenes were usually places such as bars and the like. The crimes were all committed after midnight.”

“According to our victim’s description, the perpetrator first followed her into an empty alley, then knocked her out with a taser shock before proceeding to rape her. After the act, the perpetrator then peed on the victim.”

Upon hearing the word “peed”, the entire crowd turned quiet.

“We’ve run tests on the urine sample,” Elyon continued, “and have concluded that all three cases were indeed done by the same person. Also, when the third victim woke up in the middle of the crime act, she managed to scratch the perpetrator’s face during the ensuing struggle. With this, we have also obtained blood samples as well.”

Team Leader Elyon was still explaining the situation in front of the white board when the previous middle-aged man wearing the brown jacket suddenly turned his head towards Liam. The man waved his hand absentmindedly and commanded, “Hey, Kid, tonight we’re definitely working overtime. Why don’t you run along and get us some coffee?”

Liam threw a glance at the man; he was the Key Case Investigation Unit’s vice-captain, Stephen Reyes. During Liam’s internship here, the man often bullied Liam, forcing him to do menial work more like a servant than anything.

Also, the Liam of this world was not some ruffian or fighter, but a weak-willed boy who had just recently completed his internship towards becoming a full-fledged cop. Not just Stephen, but many other more experienced co-workers often teased him as well, giving him work that was obviously not his responsibility.

“Oi! Hurry up!”?Stephen’s smile faded when he saw Liam’s lack of reaction. “Didn’t you hear me? What’re you spacing out for?”

This Liam now was no longer just the spineless wimp he used to be. How could he start letting them push him around? The man slammed his hands loudly on the table and stood up in one swift motion.

His sudden action had shocked Stephen, even Team Leader Elyon could not help but pause and turn to look at him.

“I- I’ll do it instead!”

No one expected the interruption when a bell-like, feminine, voice rang out as the Team stared at Liam. Everyone watched as a slightly chubby, ponytailed female, wearing a huge pair of glasses came into view.

The girl’s name was Sharon Bay, a new intern at the Key Case Investigation Unit. Unfortunately, she was also a little eager. It had not even been a month since she had started, but she was already head over heels in love with Liam.

It was not much of a surprise, though. Despite Liam’s weak personality making him a constant target of bullying, he was easy on the eye, to say the least: 5’ 10’’ tall, elegant, young, and handsome. The man was definitely the type to turn heads on the street.

When Sharon saw her crush become the target of the verbal attack, she quickly stepped forward to help, “Vice-Captain Stephen, I, I will go instead! I’m still an intern, these kinds of chores were mine to begin with!”

The girl flashed a smile at Liam before leaving for the lobby to make coffee.

Seeing the girl leave, Stephen shot Liam an angry look before turning away. Liam also realized this was not the best situation to unleash his anger, and calmed himself enough to sit down. He was still considering the whole situation. Despite his transition, his memories were crystal clear, because only a few minutes ago he was on death row.

The him from the previous life was prosecuted for murder, although Liam knew himself that he was framed. The victim was the boss of a real estate conglomerate. Liam was only following the orders from higher-ups to rough them up a little, but there was no way he could have caused their death.

Besides, even if it was death by battery, it would have been manslaughter. There was no way it would be prosecuted as murder! Therefore, his death sentence was clearly due to some outside influence!

Remembering this much, Liam could not help the rage flaring within him. His knuckles cracked with force as he tightened his fist. If he found the people who framed him, he would make them pay!

At this time, Sharon came back with everyone’s coffee, distributing them among all the workers. The girl’s face overflowed with enthusiasm. She even gave out appreciative comments like, “Thank you for your hard work!” and “Good luck!” as she gave each person their coffee.

Finally, she stepped in front of Liam, winking at him as she put the last cup of coffee before him and lowered her voice, “Officer Liam, this cup has two bags of sugar in it! We will definitely be working overtime tonight, but I believe you can do it!”

Even before Liam showed any reaction, the girl had already turned around to put the plate away, with a smile on her face.

Captain Elyon had finished explaining the case, and stepped aside to give the floor to Captain Ortega Jones, the top brass of the investigation unit. Captain Ortega was already over fifty years old, with peppered gray hair. The man was immensely serious during work, rarely cracking a smile.

“So basically, everyone will be quite busy!” Ortega spoke in a resounding, formal tone, “This Taser case had already occurred three times, any more offenses and it will become a serial offense. We cannot take this responsibility. We must try to take care of this case as fast as possible, so everyone please stay alert.”

“Then Team A is responsible for evidence gathering. Since the culprit followed the victims, he must have appeared at the bar the victims had frequented. Search through all the camera recordings, find this person! Not only that, but also check all the cameras near the bar, and car registrations. Do not let a single trace of evidence escape.”

“Understood!” all the officers confirmed.

“Team B, your responsibility lies in cross-examination,” Captain Ortega commanded. “We don’t have any data on the culprit’s blood, so we cannot use blood comparison. However, the culprit’s urine is an important piece of evidence. Even though we cannot find any match with the basic tests in the station, we can ask hospitals and other medical centers for possible matches. As long as the culprit has had a body examination before, we can definitely pin him down!”

“Of course!”

“Also, the taser used by the culprit, all the cell phone signals within the area, and the victim who saw the culprits face, this evidence cannot be ignored. Make sure to have people check through all of them!”

“Yes!”

“Alright then, now that every Team has been assigned their job, there shouldn’t be any problems. Please head out as soon as possible.” The man finished up his speech and closed his notes, ready to turn around and leave right away.

No one expected a dissenting voice to speak out in the crowd.

“Hold up, there’s a problem!”

Everyone turned their head to see the source of the voice was none other than Liam.

Even Captain Jin paused shortly in confusion, but urgently asked: “What is it, Liam? What seems to be the problem?”

“Me!” Liam pointed at himself. “I’m feeling under the weather right now, so I’ll be taking my leave. You all can enjoy yourselves and take care.”