Mystery Paradise: Wishing Power Demon

Chapter 35: Chapter 34 Taking Responsibility Chapter 35: Chapter 34 Taking Responsibility “… You’re referring to the serial killings, right?” Gao Wei took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. Just as he was about to light one up, he suddenly looked at his subordinate, “Your family…”

“Go ahead and smoke, I live here alone, it’s okay,” Zhang Zhiyuan said eagerly, “Chief Gao, I haven’t worked in the international police department for very long, but think about it, have I ever done anything unreliable? Of course, you can verify it yourself when the next Paradise game starts, but by then we might lose our advantage. I don’t know how many people are aware of Paradise, but just in this round alone, there are already five participants, and they come from different countries. If that place is indeed the real world, we must be prepared!”

That was why he had invited his boss to his home for a private talk.

Because there were still many foreign agents in the office building.

Moreover, when it really involved another world, the primary issue would be diplomatic, and criminal police like them were not even qualified to touch the matter, let alone him, even Chief Gao was not eligible. But he couldn’t find any other connections, and his superior was the highest authority he could report to, so meeting alone was the most appropriate approach, given that the fewer people knew about the message before it was passed up, the better.

Gao Wei took a deep drag on his cigarette, “I understand what you mean.”

“You believe me!?” Zhang Zhiyuan was delighted.

“What’s the use of me believing you?” Gao Wei glared at him, “It’s the higher-ups who need to be convinced! Anyway, I can’t report this based on your ‘speculation.’ In our line of work, evidence is paramount.”

“But—”
“However, I will attach your entire account,” his boss interrupted, “Whether Paradise has super-realistic simulation technology or the key to another real world, it’s worth a major investigation. Whether they take action or not is another matter—just like you’re telling me all this, I won’t believe it without any real evidence, but that doesn’t prevent me from notifying my superiors.”

Zhang Zhiyuan sighed in relief, “I was afraid you would think I’m insane.”

“If it turns out there’s nothing to it, then you’ve worn your police uniform for the last time.”

“I’m willing to take full responsibility!”

“Hmm,” Gao Wei nodded, “You don’t have to be so nervous, our organization values seeking truth from facts. No matter how bizarre, once something happens, we won’t deliberately ignore it. Moreover, we can’t just be like clanging bells, only reporting anomalies and considering it done. Now, think about what you should do next.”

Zhang Zhiyuan opened his mouth as if to speak but hesitated, “… Chief Gao, wouldn’t it be better to hand it over to our comrades in China?”

“Don’t want to do it yourself?”

“How could that be!” His body stiffened as he instinctively puffed out his chest, “I guarantee I will complete the mission!”

“Forget about it, I’ll be straight with you,” Gao Wei’s cigarette glowed brighter in the dusk of the living room, like a red star, “If everything you have narrated is true, it definitely constitutes a great merit. Don’t worry about jurisdiction—that I can manage to deploy a few people. If we can handle it, why should we give it to someone else? As for confidentiality… I can set up a special task force. As for how many people will be in the group, you decide. Oh, and you can take Officer Cui with you. Isn’t she quite familiar with computers and the internet?”

“Cui Zhen’en? But she’s a special agent from Korea…”

“Don’t worry, she’s not like you think. For confidentiality reasons, I can’t go into detail, but there’s no problem with her.” Gao Wei stood up and found a plate to stub out his cigarette, “Of course, you can ignore my advice and do as you please. So… I guess you already have a plan?”

“First, I want to contact another player from the game.” Zhang Zhiyuan’s expression turned serious, “This person is named Zhou Zhi, who mentioned living in Jiang City. A rich family’s son who traveled abroad within this month. It shouldn’t be too hard to find him after a little screening.”

As a participant in the Paradise game, he would undoubtedly be an important witness.

The more evidence they had, the more credible their case would be.

“Secondly, I believe we should send someone to check out the Caribbean Company,” Zhang Zhiyuan paused for a moment, “I strongly suspect that the main organizer of Paradise boarded that cruise ship.”

He was referring to Heart of the Ocean, the place where the first Paradise game was held.

“Why?” Gao Wei asked.

“Before I picked you up, I had someone check that VR headset and I found something odd.” He pulled out his phone and scrolled to a picture showing the VR glasses disassembled, “There is a hidden camera inside the glasses.”

“Explain it to me in more detail!” Old Gao demanded discontentedly, “I don’t know what kind of mystery you young people like in your gadgets.”

“The camera is focused on the user’s eyes—something that standard VR doesn’t require. In other words, the glasses sent by Paradise were specially modified, with the sole purpose of allowing someone to see me when I put them on.” Zhang Zhiyuan hesitated for a moment, “Although it sounds a bit mystical, I speculate that to send us into that world, Paradise needs to see us in person.”

Gao Wei rubbed his forehead, “The more I hear, the more outrageous it sounds. Alright… even if it’s as you guessed, couldn’t the first round of the game on the cruise ship have been done in the same way?”

“I’m afraid not,” Zhang Zhiyuan actually retorted, “The cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean can’t receive signals from service providers. I’ve asked the relevant people, and while there is WIFI, it essentially uses satellite signals that don’t support real-time image transmission. There couldn’t have been cameras installed in the VIP booths and the Caribbean Company is also unaware of the Paradise game, so I suspect that the main organizer of the game and the host who appeared on the cruise ship are highly coincidental. If we can catch the person himself, we will be very close to the truth!”

“Setting aside whether the Caribbean Company is willing to provide a customer list, there must be thousands of passengers on a ship, how do you propose to investigate that?”

“We’ll only investigate Chinese nationals.”

Gao Wei’s brow furrowed, his voice took on a note of seriousness, “Are you suggesting…”

“Yes, I suspect that Paradise is a domestic organization, and moreover, with very few people involved.” Zhang Zhiyuan said without hesitation, “During the first game, I noticed that the participants selected by the other side all spoke Chinese. Zhou Zhi, of course, but even Qianyuan Mingzi who lives nearby, and the Russian and American players spoke it too, which is quite interesting. This means that considering the communication needs of the participants, Paradise chose Chinese as the common language—from a psychological perspective, this should also be the most frequently used language within Paradise.”

Gao Wei had already guessed what his subordinate was going to say next.

If they used their mother tongue to limit the scope, thousands of passengers would instantly be narrowed down to a few hundred or even just around a hundred!

Investigating a hundred people was still extremely challenging, but the workload had been drastically reduced compared to before!

This meant that even just the manpower of their department was enough to solve the case.

Gao Wei began to smile.

He patted Zhang Zhiyuan on the shoulder and walked towards the coat rack by the door, “Not bad, you’ve told me a good story.”

“Chief Gao, about the list of names…”

Gao Wei put on his coat in an orderly fashion, “I’ll take care of contacting them.”