Decstemic

9

It was 5:30 in the morning, with the sun just peeking over the horizon, and most of the city still shrouded in the shadows.

Portland’s Street KFC was open twenty-four hours. The shop was currently only occupied by two middle schoolers trying to catch their morning recitation. The two were sitting near the entrance, quickly chewing through their delicious chicken sandwich.

Suddenly the door opened. A person wobbled into the store. It was a woman wearing a brand-name windbreaker, yet the windbreaker was stained with blood.

The woman’s hair was a mess, and she was clearly exhausted. She nearly fell to the ground as she pushed open the KFC’s heavy glass door. She limped with immense difficulty towards the middle schoolers, her voice was weak as she called out the best she could,

“H…H…Help…”

The two middle schoolers raised their head and nearly screamed. They shuffled back many steps, dropping their soymilk in the process because the woman did not have a right hand! At the end of her right wrist there was only an ugly wrap with a bandage that was overflowing with blood, yet the hand…wasn’t there!

…

‘Comfortable! Yay!’

At 7 o’clock that night, Liam was lying in his giant bed in his new house, feeling comfortable to no end. Although the rent was still two-thousand yuan a month, the landlord’s daughter was paying now. These sorts of luxuries, where in the world could you find them?

“Hehehe…” Liam couldn’t help but chuckle. With the five-thousand yuan he got from Chloe, after paying the rent for his house, and giving Delight four-thousand dollars for the first two months, there was still one-thousand left as his allowance.

Delight could not be bothered to argue with Liam. So long as Liam paid the rent, he supposed it was fine and just agreed to the deal. The two signed the rent agreement then and there, and Liam finally had a satisfactory place to stay.

Liam was a man of much stealth. If he greedily took the entire ten thousand from Chloe today, then he would have made a lot of money at the moment, but then there would be no second time. Now that he had a cooperative relationship with Chloe, every month he would obtain some of the money. Obviously, the second option was more beneficial.

Of course, Liam knew that encouraging the little girl into hacking gaming accounts, and then putting the money into his own pocket were both against the law. Especially considering that he was a police officer, the offense would be even worse.

But, the Liam now did not really see himself as a true police officer. He still had the same character prior to crossing over, and had even considered returning to his old profession! Things such as what he had done to Chloe today could not even be compared to all the questionable things he had done in his old life.

Thinking this far, Liam comfortably enjoyed his situation, and even considered that with the leftover one-thousand dollars, maybe he could get a better phone.

Right at the moment, the system in his mind spoke suddenly. The androgynous, neutral, and machine-like yet amazingly clear voice said, “Today’s Adventure has been completed. Completion rate: seventy-nine percent. Obtained one invisibility device, please accept!”

Again? What kind of rewards did he get this time?

Liam could not wait a second longer as he rushed to check in his mind. In his head there was an extra black, round ball.

Upon clicking it, the system’s voice started immediately, “Invisible Tracking Device: after use can achieve invisible tracking ability, undetectable, lasts for forty-eight hours.”

Invisible Tracking Device?

Liam thought it over. “It’s probably just something used to track people. Put it on someone, then immediately know their position?”

This time Liam could not help but feel a little disappointed. He had expected some better rewards from the system! Like some overpowered items for x-ray vision, wall phase, cloning skills, or even some just some kind of invisible camera or knock-out pills, maybe.

But it had only been eavesdropping or tracking so far. Not to mention, it had a time limit. What fun is that?

Liam started pondering again. This time the adventure completion rate was seventy-nine percent. If it was higher, would he get something even better?

But how could he get a higher completion rate?

He thought maybe he should restart the system again, and this time carefully observe what happens.

So he pulled out his cigarette, lit it and breathed in deeply. But strangely, this time he did not even cough. He tried taking a few more puffs but had absolutely no reaction.

‘Huh? What happened? How come it doesn’t even work anymore?’

He breathed in deeply over and over until he could not catch his breath, yet the magical Miracle System did not appear. His mind was quiet as usual.

“Hm…” After a short moment of panic, Liam calmed down and started analyzing the situation. Thinking back to the two times he managed to activate the system and complete the adventure, he quickly realized a possibility: “Could it be…the Miracle System could only be activated once a day?”

So today he already used it up, and had to wait till tomorrow?

Liam was focused on figuring out the mystery of the Miracle System when his phone suddenly rang. He picked it up and saw that it was Sharon.

“Hello? Officer Liam, where are you? How come you still haven’t arrived? The entire unit’s waiting on you!” said Sharon’s urgent voice.

“What’s up? Go where?” Liam answered lazily.

“No way?” Sharon sounded surprised, “Didn’t you get the text? The Lost Hand Case! The whole team is at the office for a meeting! Hurry up and come…hurry…”

The line shut off, and Liam now saw the phone notification. Due a sudden case today, everyone was required to be at the police station at exactly 7:00pm for a meeting to analyze the situation. The entire team must be there.

Looking at his watch, it was almost 7:30.

‘Holy sh*t!’

Liam was rather agitated. Yesterday he did not get any sleep, today he finally got some shut eye, but how come there was another case out of nowhere? With a name like the “Lost Hand Case,” too?

At first, he was much too lazy to go. But after thinking about the name “Lost Hand Case,” it sounded somewhat interesting. After much contemplation, he rose from his bed and headed for the police station.

When he entered the office, it was just like yesterday. The lobby was packed with worried faces. Everyone was crowded around a white table, currently focused on listening to team leader Elyon’s case introduction.

Captain Ortega was also there. After seeing Liam arrive late, his expression darkened.

Vice Captain Stephen smiled evilly at him, as if waiting to see Liam make a fool of himself. But as soon as Liam accepted the coffee given to him by Sharon, his smile instantly froze.

“This time, if we do not catch the culprit quickly,” Team Leader Elyon pointed at the whiteboard, “the culprit could repeat the offense within a short amount of time, and this tragedy will repeat!”

Liam had just sat down as team leader Elyon finished up her introduction, letting Captain Ortega talk. Captain Ortega first praised the lightning fast speed at which the unit closed the Taser Rape Case, followed by pointing out the importance of solving the Lost Hand Case as quickly as possible. The speech ended with a motivational speech calling everyone to attention and to quickly solve this case.

Liam listened carefully for a long time, but could not understand a single thing. The only thing he understood was when the tasks were distributed. He was assigned to the Victim Investigation group.

The meeting had just finished, and Liam was about to ask Sharon for details when his way was blocked by Stephen.

“Hehehe…” Stephen smiled darkly as patronized Liam, “What’s up, Liam? Just now you were so late. Did you look for evidence yourself? Did you find anything, Mr. one-man army? Can you solve the case by tonight while you’re at it?”