As Horst had said, Tujea left the church, followed the road, and began to walk eastward. He was still walking fast with his collar upright, but the second arrondissement presented a very different scene at the moment.

Hawkers follow the hurried workers, selling them things like cheap cigarettes or unbranded energy bars. There are many vehicles coming and going in the middle of the road, and there are almost no police cars.

The sky was filled with smoke and dust, and the factories that had stayed up all night rumbled at the far end of the horizon, and new smoke rose from their chimneys and drifted towards the sky that had not yet been completely polluted by Litatra.

It's an unusual sight, and it's an exaggeration to say it's vibrant, but it's not dead either. The sight made Tujea a little distracted, and it brought back some memories for him.

He quickly extinguished the memory completely, like a veteran smoker skillfully extinguishing a cigarette butt with his fingers. He doesn't smoke, but he often snuffs out memories.

He continued along the road, his steps starting to get faster. It didn't take long for him to find the shop. The plain white sign reads 'Sell, Cut, Sewn' in black lettering, not in a fancy font, but in a very simple typeface.

Tujea stared at it for a few moments before pushing open the door and entering. The store was huge, at least beyond his expectations.

As a ready-to-wear store with no window displays, the space here is surprisingly large. Not only that, but there are even two guards here. They wore light and well-fitting bulletproof armor with heavy pistols hanging from their belts.

They came to him and began to search him. Tujea didn't stop him, and as always, they failed to find his gun on him.

"What's the matter?" A guard asked.

"Buy clothes." Tujea replied cautiously. It took a great deal of effort for him to keep his green eyes restrained, not to make eye contact with the guard under his hat, and his occupational illness had begun to worsen.

"Go inside, sir." The other guard nodded at him and raised his right hand. "Lady Anaeis is inside."

"Thank you." Tujea said.

He walked inside, deliberately slowing down, observing the entire store. The shop was probably some years old, the green paint on the walls had even faded, and the floor was covered with a thick dark gray carpet.

Jackets, work pants or boots of all kinds fill the shop at both ends of the store. The 2nd arrondissement is not a very upscale neighborhood, and most of the residents here are workers. With that in mind, this shop might be doing a good job.

But what's the deal with those two guards?

With this doubt in mind, Tujea walked into the depths of the shop with a blank face. Through a long white desk, he saw a lady with blond hair. She was thin, her cheeks sunken, and her gray eyes were staring at Tujea very unceremoniously.

"You're the investigator who made us mess around for most of the night, aren't you?"

Not again.

"You're really well-informed." Tujea said. "Yes, I am."

"So, are you here to buy clothes, or are you here to do a survey?" The blonde woman continued to ask.

"Just buying clothes."

"What kind of clothes?"

Tujea didn't answer, just looked at the other end. He left where he was, grabbed a heavy, long dark blue jacket, and placed it on the desk.

"How much?" He asked.

The blonde woman didn't answer, just slowly stood up from behind her desk. She wore a silver-white dress, on which some glittering sequins were embellished along the waistline, outlining the graceful curves of her figure.

She stepped out of her desk, her right hand pressed against her jacket. She stared coldly at Tujea, still silent. They were locked in an awkward stalemate, and there was no choice but to speak again and make concessions in advance.

"How much do you want?" He asked again.

The woman's eyes narrowed.

"It's not about money." She shook her head. "I can't sell you something, it's going to get me in trouble. You walked into my shop in front of everyone on the street, you know? ”

"No one is following me, I've been sure many times."

"How do you know there's no one?"

"Because I'm an investigator." Tujea replied calmly.

The woman sneered: "Come on, an investigator who just got off the ship and let his existence be known to everyone?" I can't trust you, and I can't sell you clothes. ”

Tujea was silent for a few seconds, and slowly spat out a name: "It was Pastor Horst who asked me to come here." ”

The woman's face changed instantly, not that she started smiling immediately, but it was a little more soothing than the cold ice at the beginning. But she didn't let her guard down, her hand still pressed on the jacket.

Tujea knew that his strategy was working, and he began to expertly obscure the facts to give himself an edge in this stalemate.

"I spent the night in church." He continued, pulling at his coat so she could see the bandages wrapped around his abdomen. They had been changed, and they were wrapped in his blood-stained shirt.

The woman sighed helplessly, and let go of her right hand.

"Five Imperial Coins." She spat out a number.

Tujea nodded, and immediately took out a note and paid without hesitation.

The rest of the game was very natural, and the woman led him to the back door of the shop. Her expression was a little surprised when she saw him pull out a handful of candy from his coat. However, when she saw the gun, her face quickly darkened.

"It's not your buddy's problem, ma'am." Tujea said. "Also, can you keep this piece of my dress for me for a while?"

"What do you mean?" The woman asked, staring at him.

"I'll come back and get it."

The woman snorted softly: "If you can survive today, you will be considered successful"

Tujea didn't say anything, just put the gun in the deep pocket of his jacket, which he hadn't put in other clothes for years. And just like that, he left the shop through that alley.

The world in the alley is much more oppressive than it is on the street. Despite the low building complexes in the second arrondissement, sunlight barely shines here.

The homeless men smelled sour, and their eyes were glazed in the shadows, with either nothing at hand or a few needles scattered around. Tujea walked calmly, staring ahead, making no eye contact with anyone.

It took him two terra to return to the 2nd District 2 police station in Litatra, and he stepped up the stairs and pushed the door to enter, immediately attracting countless eyes.

The police officers standing behind the dirty reception desk stared at him, as did the two members of the law enforcement team who were escorting the prisoners, and the clerical clerks who were behind their desks wrestling with the papers.

Even a servo skull stopped for a moment, aiming its reddish eyes at Tujea's face.

Something is wrong.

Tujea gripped his gun in the pocket of his jacket, ignoring the gaze and walking to the room where he had been.

He knocked on the door and only pushed it open to enter. Just a second before he closed the door, the world outside the door suddenly returned to normal, and all kinds of noise hit again, completely changing back to the appearance of a normal police station.

Listening to those voices, Tujea's mood sank little by little.

He closed the door, and silence returned to the soundproofed office.

"Mr. Investigator, you're back, is there any progress?" The woman behind the desk asked, smiling.

Her chestnut eyes were still very cold.

Tujea didn't speak, just slowly returned to the chair he had been sitting in. It still made him uncomfortable, and the woman's gaze was fixed on his eyes, trying to dig something out of it.

As she wished, Tujea spoke slowly.

"Now, under your desk, there's a Katahan MK3 facing you. Twelve rounds were waiting in the magazine for me to pull the trigger and fire them. ”

"Sir—"

"—shut up, and listen to me." Tujea coldly interrupted her and pressed the hammer. The woman's eyes finally strained a little, which meant that she heard the click of the hammer being pulled off.

That's good, it's just what he wants.

"I'm going to ask you some questions." Tujea said. "It's best that the time between when I ask and when you answer should not exceed five seconds."

"Once over, I'll shoot, and I'll shoot twelve bullets completely into your body, turning you into a bloody mass of anthropomorphic objects. In the meantime, I ask you to remain calm. If I see the slightest irrational behavior, I'll still pull the trigger. ”

"You'd better not go around the bush when you answer the question, and if I hear the slightest hint of concealment, I'll shoot the same thing. Also, I'm going to deliberately deflect the first few shots so that you don't die so quickly. My first question is whether the leak of my whereabouts has anything to do with you. ”

He slowly leaned back, unhurriedly lowering the brim of his hat with his left hand.

"You can start answering questions, or start betting on whether what I'm saying is true or not."

The woman stiffened her hands on the table, acting very sensitive. Immediately afterward, she exhibited symptoms of oxygen addiction very similar to those of Tujea.

She took a deep breath and said, "Yes, sir, it matters. ”

"Why are you doing that?"

"Because." The woman pursed her lips and behaved very hesitantly.

It was only the second question, and she looked at it. Tujea's eyes narrowed, and he already had a guess in his mind. So, he spoke slowly and slowly for her second half of the sentence.

"It's because a nobleman asked you, no, asked you to do that, didn't you? He or she probably wants you to keep an eye on me, and if I show up, send the news back immediately."

The woman looked at him in astonishment.

"Yes, or no?" Tujea asked calmly.

The woman nodded with great difficulty.

"Good, I see." Tujea said. "So, can you provide me with a name? About this nobleman. ”

"Moran."

Tujea nodded, took off his hat, and deftly swiped his left hand behind his left ear. In front of the woman, he placed the wide-brimmed hat on his lap and reached into it and fumbled for a moment.

The woman looked at him nervously, but she couldn't see what he was doing because of the height of her desk. Little by little, Tujea crumpled the candy wrapper he had folded into long strips and gently tossed it to the ground.

At this moment, the office is very quiet, and even the sound of paper balls falling to the ground is extremely obvious. The woman swallowed, and before she could ask anything, Tujea put on her hat again.

He slowly stood up, the muzzle of the gun pointed inside his jacket at the woman's head.

"What just dropped under your desk is a miniature time bomb, courtesy of Terra's Legal HQ."

The woman's face began to twitch.

"It can blow you to pieces along with this precinct. Your corpse will vaporize directly at this distance, leaving no trace. They will declare you dead in the line of duty, and nothing will be left in your grave. ”

"Please, please."

"Shut up." Tujea smiled calmly, comfortably, and slightly amusedly.

"I'll leave now, and you'd better be quiet and don't give any orders. I would wait across the street for 10 minutes before leaving, and if I saw any police officers leaving the 2nd district precinct during that time, the bomb would be detonated. ”

"You don't have to," the woman said dryly, as she began to save her own life, which was not a threat at all. "Listen to me, sir, you really don't have to do that."

Tujea shook his head.

"No, it's necessary. Also, because of your words, I may also wait a little longer before leaving, this is my second bet with you, you can try to challenge my patience. ”

The woman could no longer say a word, her pale face was sweating profusely, and her lips trembled. Tujea nodded at her, put away his smile, and slowly walked to the door.

"Now, I'm leaving. Please remain calm, sensible and peaceful. If you make a sound, or give anyone else any hint of a look, I'll kill you before I detonate the bomb. Do you understand? ”

"Also, thank you for having such a good soundproofing in your office."

The woman wiped away the cold sweat on her face, trembled and nodded reluctantly, and even forced herself to return a smile.

Tujea pushed open the door and walked smoothly out of the police station in the second district, but instead of leaving immediately, he turned around and walked into a small alley.

He stayed in the shadows and began to wait unhurriedly. His green eyes glowed faintly in the darkness, like a hungry monster.

Three Terra hours later, when Tujea had already eaten the eleventh candy, the door to the police station was opened. Law enforcement and police officers scrambled out from within, got into their vehicles, and drove away. Those who don't have a car run wildly, lest they fall one step behind.

Judging by their expressions, some people probably promised them something.

It's funny, such a big stroke

After another twenty minutes in the alley, Tujea raised his hand and unbuttoned his newly purchased jacket little by little. He took off his jacket, folded it up, and wrapped it around his right hand.

His gun was in his clothes, his index finger firmly on the trigger. He left the alley, calmly walked across the street, pushed open the revolving door again, and entered. A servo skull turned its head with a humming sound, and looked at him for a moment, the red light in the eye socket suddenly began to flicker rapidly.

Without hesitation, Tujea raised his hand and it was a shot. It fell to the ground with black smoke and sparks. Tujea strode past it and began to run wildly towards the office.

He slammed open the door and happened to see a woman with a panicked face trying to pull a gun from her belt. On her desk was a piece of gray paper used to wrap candy, which had been crumpled considerably.

[Never let the Emperor down, citizen! 】

I probably don't.

"Put your hands up." Tujea said slowly.

The woman did as she was told, moving quickly, more than twenty times faster than she could draw her gun.

"Detective Nitaloa, did anyone tell you that you weren't really a good fit for the job of sheriff?"

"No, no." The woman replied in a cold sweat.

Tujea nodded: "So now that you hear me, stand up, Inspector." ”

"What are you going to do?"

"I'd like to borrow your badge for use." Tujea said. "It's useless to put it on your chest, so you might as well leave it to me to do something really useful."

Yes, something useful – at least in Tujea's opinion, it would be very useful to use the sheriff's authority to gain access to the entire Litatra police intranet through contemplatives inside the police department.

He stood in the police station's data room, holding a gun to the back of Detective Nitaloa's head, watching her clumsily fetch information from the Ponder's console.

The wonderful taste of candy still lingered on the tip of his tongue, and the sourness of industrial chemistry made his eyes squint a little and his concentration was incomparably concentrated.

"It's all here, I swear." The female detective said with difficulty. "All the information of the Moran family is here, listen, this is just a political transaction, sir, you must have seen it countless times."

yes, yes. I've seen a lot. He said in his heart.

The female detective, of course, was unaware of his mental activity and was still chattering nervously, trying to get another chance for her life.

"You know what people like me live on, so you don't have to kill me. I promise, I'll forget your face. As long as you leave the police station, I won't remember anything. ”

Tujea didn't speak, but little by little he imprinted the words on the contemplative's screen in his mind, word for word. The investigators of the Ministry of Justice have some talent in this area, and Tujea is naturally one of them.

He jotted them down and silently read them several times before removing the muzzle from the back of the female detective's head. As if relieved, she turned her head with a forced smile, only to catch the sight of Tujea's expressionless face.

"Where do you live?" He asked suddenly.

Nitaloa was stunned until the muzzle of the gun was pressed against her forehead, and the stunned was over. She named a place, and Tujea nodded, then asked, "How big is it?" ”

“.”

"How big is it, Detective?"

"It, it has four layers." The female detective said with difficulty. She had realized something, her body was trembling.

"And your salary is obviously not enough to afford such a house." Tujea said this, but suddenly nodded at her and removed the muzzle of the gun.

He said: "I understand that corruption is the norm in the bureaucratic system of Chaodu, and I do not hate people like you, the collusion between the aristocracy and the bureaucracy is a normal behavior in the empire."

The female detective's dead expression slowly came to life, and she looked at Tujea in disbelief, her eyes suddenly filled with tears.

"Thank you! Thank you, sir! Thank you——! She broke down and sobbed, as if she had been rescued.

Then, she gets a slight click.

Tujea pressed the hammer.

"But I don't believe you don't know anything about last night." He said expressionlessly. "You know exactly what that Chupani Moran wants to do, but you still chose to help him today."

The female detective trembled violently, shook her head again and again, tears slid down, but she couldn't say a word.

"You're a bottomless person, Detective. I hate this kind of person, but I didn't decide to kill you because of that. ”

Tujea pulled the trigger and turned away, without saying why. The staring female detective leaned her head back against the pierced contemplative, her expression glazed over, fear and blood pouring out of the back of her battered head.

The police station is silent again, but the floor-to-ceiling windows of the balcony of the data room are blown open by a breeze from nowhere, and a giant quietly appears like a ghost.

He stood beside the female detective's corpse and looked at her for a moment, the gloomy yellow eyepiece reflecting her dilated pupils, and after a few seconds, he reached out a finger and closed the female detective's eyes.

A hissing sound began to ring in the command room.

"He's got the key information."

"Yes, I understand."

"Keep tracking? But to show him a little trace? ”

The giant sighed: "Well, my lord, in the name of Shen, I wish you a glorious death, without having to enter the divine fearlessness and endure pain. ”

A foul curse rang out from inside his helmet, the giant chuckled, and the breeze blew again, and his figure vanished.

(End of chapter)

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