Rewards

Ding~

The elevator door of the apartment building opened as two familiar officers stepped into it.

"Read me the report Xiao Pan."

"Yes, Leader," Xiao Pan affirmed before looking down at the files in his hand, "The victim is named Huang Si. Male. Age 42. Single. There is no criminal record on file, but it is noted he was a witness to a couple of recent crimes. He is the owner of this apartment building. As for medical history, he is healthy besides the fact that he has suffered from multiple cases of amnesia ..."

"Is this the contractor that we held for investigation, but was released due to orders from above?" the Leader questioned.

"Yes, Leader. This isn't the first time either. From the records, similar cases has been happening multiple times, and they all happened in this man's apartment building, but for some odd reason, he was still released," Xiao Pan responded as he flipped through the report.

The leader frowned without saying anything. He felt that there was some conspiracy that he did not know of in the ranks above, and his heart couldn't help but chill. Alas, he is helpless in face of those in power. He is only the captain of a small investigation squad.

"Although this man has managed to live even though he encountered so many crimes, it seems his luck finally ran out and it ended up being his turn," Xiao Pan commented as he looked at a picture on the files.

The leader glanced over at the picture to see a man with wrinkly skin slumped on the toilet. It seemed as if the man was completely hollowed out as his eyes sunk in like a dead fish. A large puddle of blood laid on the ground by his feet with traces of blood leaking from the edges of the toilet.

"Cause of death?" the leader questioned with a frown.

"It was determined to be blood loss," Xiao Pan answered as his mouth twitched, "According to the witnesses, the victim seemed to be having constipation before his death."

The leader stepped out of the elevator as the doors opened, walking towards the open room where two officers were guarding. He frowned as he looked at the apartment number, "Room 444 again?"

Xiao Pan nodded as he continued to read the report, "According to the witnesses, they were here to inspect the apartment before a purchase. However, due to eating what they believed to be unclean food in a meal before coming, the victim and one of the witness suffered from diarrhea. They happened to be inspecting room 444, so they used the toilet in this room."

"Coincidence?" the leader muttered as his brows furrowed, "How is the witness?"

"After a medical check, the witness was determined to be in a weak state, but healthy otherwise," Xiao Pan replied.

"Weak? Why?" the leader asked as he stepped into room 444 to check the bathroom.

Xiao Pan coughed awkwardly before replying, "It seems to be from overexerting himself too much doing 'that' kind of activity."

The leader's mouth twitched as he glanced at Xiao Pan while the two officers at the door snickered. The leader then questioned, "Did the witness report anything about the time of death?"

Xiao Pan checked the report and said, "The witnesses stated that they heard the victim moaning in pain in the bathroom, but they thought he was just suffering from constipation."

Glancing at the bloody stains in the bathroom, the leader frowned and asked, "They didn't check?"

Xiao Pan stared at the report for a bit before his eyes rolled, "The witnesses said they did, but 30 minutes after the time of death. The male witness refused to tell why they took so long to check, but after interrogating the female witness, we learned that it was because the two were frolicking outside the room."

The leader sighed, "Unclean food, constipation, death in the same room as the previous case. Is it all a coincidence? Did you hold the witnesses and checked to make sure that their statement is the same after a period of time?"

"Leader, about that ... the male witness has a fairly big background, and he was released under orders after a simple interrogation," Xiao Pan sighed.

The leader sighed as he muttered, "Troublesome bureaucrats."

After glancing at the bathroom one more time to see nothing wrong, the leader commanded the two officers on guard, "Contact someone to clean up the blood stain after collecting enough evidence."

"Ah? Sir? We are closing the case this fast?" one of the officers asked.

The leader sighed before stating, "The victim's cause of death was found. There is insufficient evidence to state otherwise. One of the victims filed a complaint and wanted us to close the case fast so he won't be entangled in it for too long. Orders from above to close the case as soon as possible. We have no choice. "

The group stared at each other in melancholy. They knew that their position in the justice force can't do much against those with true power, especially when there is no sufficient evidence.

Xiao Pan then muttered, "Could this be similar to the case last time?"

The leader glanced over before sternly saying, "Don't guess. It's not something you should be involved in. Even if it is, it has nothing to do with us. The decision to call in external assistance is left to those above, but it will probably not happen this time because they already sent in a request not long ago."

The leader stared back at the bathroom one last time as if he felt some gaze watching him, but he saw no one. He then turned around and commanded, "If there is nothing else, let's go."

The group left apartment 444 and the fourth floor returned to tranquility not long after.

A translucent human gradually faded back into existence in the bathroom after watching the investigators left.

"It seems that they are just normal police officers. According to them, there is an external assistance that can be called in, but it can't be used too often. I bet that is where the real hidden side of this world is," Pro muttered.

After pondering for a bit, a smile arose on Pro's face, "Glad to know I didn't attract any existence that can threaten my life just as planned. Letting that rich man go was the right decision. All is well, and even better I got rewards!"

Pro then glanced at the points he got. His life points have jumped up to a total of 210! He got 10 points from the rich man, then the remaining 200 points all came from the contractor! Initially, he thought he would only get 50 points from the contractor, but who knew that even after he ran out of energy, the contractor suffered a long time afterwards due to internal bleeding. This gave him around 100 points alone! Then, the contractor dropped dead from bleeding out, allowing Pro to absorb an extra 50 life points from his corpse. Not only that, Pro also managed to absorb his soul and got some data in his system library. Opening the system library, Pro searched for the contractor. Although it was a nickname, it brought up the relevant memory file of the person.

[Name] Huang Si (Contractor)

[Gender] Male

[Age] 42

[Life Details] He was born on ...

From reading the life details of the contractor, Pro was able to learn about the important points in the contractor's life. Unfortunately, there was no information about the mystical hidden side of the world nor were there any information about specters like himself. However, it was from the contractor's life details that Pro realized that there was something very wrong with this contractor after he bought this building from an unknown individual.

As for the unknown individual, the details say it was cleaned from his memory, which rung the alarm bells in Pro's mind. From the details, there were multiple parts where it was noted that the contractor had amnesia, followed by a visit to the police station due to being a witness of a crime or a death in the apartment building. Even though there were missing parts of the memory, Pro was still able to figure out that this building may be more dangerous than he thought, especially some specially bold detail in the summary, the fourteenth floor and apartment rooms with 4 in their room number. Not only that, it seems that his revival was not as simple as luck.

Pro glanced around wondering if the black hand behind the scene was currently watching him. He frowned but he was helpless with his current strength. It seems he has become a chess piece of someone, but jumping out of the chessboard to become a player is simply something that is not possible for him at the moment.

Of course, there is also a small chance that his revival is an accident, but Pro has doubts about that. If it was a normal world, then Pro may believe it could be coincidence, but Pro knows this world is not normal. Who knows if there is some godly being that is playing with his fate at the moment. Pro then shelved this thought in fear of truly attracting some unknown existence's gaze. Curiosity kills the cat if you are not strong enough.

"What a headache. Not only is there a black hand behind the scene, now I know I might actually have neighbors, troublesome ones that normal people can't see," Pro muttered in frustration as he scratched his head before glancing at his rewards to cheer himself up.

After checking his rewards, Pro then sighed, "Although the rewards are great, but killing this contractor means cutting off a future source of income. Now no one will bring tenants for me to prey on. But alas, it was a must to at least reduce my resentment somewhat."

After killing the contractor, it seems one of the shackles that bounded him was broken, causing Pro feel as if his burden was lightened. Pro wasn't sure if this was a good or bad thing, but the rewards he got was definitely a good thing.

Staring at his points, Pro giggled happily, "Now, let's see what we can spend points on."