He tapped on the desk three times whilst holding the documents.

The first case, the headless case, had a beheaded female victim found amongst the alleys. The beheading was a rough cut, enough to say that it would be ‘ripped’ off. Furthermore, the location was within the residential areas, so the locals have also been required to participate in the investigation.

The second case, a serial murder, had three female victims with severed limbs, but the cause of death was their punctured hearts. This time, the wound was clean yet the location of the corpses was also among the residential areas.

It wasn’t hard to rule these deaths as abnormal deaths, as it was perfectly possible to achieve so via normal means.

But the one who read it was Julius, an investigator no more nor less.

He switched on his phone, to which the screen shows the application icon for a beta version of the game, FREEDOM. Since the release of this game and his involvement as a player, he could not retract any possibilities that it may be the cause of a duel in the game.

Under the surveillance of the current head of the office, Julius had the authority to hold an investigation in regards to the game. But even so, that was not enough reason yet assume it to be solely for the cause of FREEDOM.

He sighed, and slowly attempted to profile the culprit based on these two cases. Based on the appearance of the wound and the potential methods that the culprit may have used, it’s likely that he is a sociopath with a gender-aligned grudge to females, though the first one seems to be from a personal grudge. It’s likely that he was also familiar with the residential area, whether he may be a local or just travels there often due to circumstances.

The final crucial evidence was the membership card the first corpse had in her pocket.

“Julius, it’s really miraculous how you even bother helping the forensics this time… here,” Faye entered the room, calling out to Julius and offering another small report, “We’ve just checked the sports membership card with the sports club and it traces to the user Tsuyuko Kana. We’ve checked scanned all the possible matches with the names on the census and had up to around 14 matches within this city.”

“Hey look,” Julius replied back, annoyed, “if you narrow it properly down- “

“If you narrow it down based to those who were reported missing recently,” Faye cuts in, pointing to the first page of the identity profile, “27 years of age, formerly worked as a teacher for Takizawa High school.”

Julius scanned the profile. It’s somewhat certain by now that she was the victim, but there seemed to be a time gap of a week between her disappearance and the time of death. With all the information, he tried to create a hypothesis for the case.

-The date of her disappearance was linked with her retirement from her teaching career, so the culprit could be a close relation to her

“Heh,” He flipped to the next page, then lightly smiled to Faye, “thanks.”

The two of them understood each other’s thinking processes almost too well. Even if it may look one-sided instead, the information there were the list of the victim’s fellow staff and students; just what he needed.

If the culprit should be amongst the students, the chances of the culprit being a FREEDOM player would increase drastically. The main target market of FREEDOM players would be people from their teens to early 20’s, being more popular towards the younger end of the age spectrum.

Should that be the case, Julius was already prepared to arrest all FREEDOM players. If that was not possible, then he… he will...

“Oh right Faye, I’ll take a break outside. Mind getting me a warrant? Thanks.”

Faye pouted briefly, “does it seriously hurt you to call me ‘Senior’?”

“I’ll have to pass on that; sounds ridiculous.”

***

Natsuki Café, 8:30 am

He took a trip to a nearby café. It was still early morning and not much had occurred as of far. But that being said, he thought

On the way, he glanced to a nearby school; Takizawa High School.

Well, I’ll look forward to paying a trip there I guess.

He sighed, then it almost became his turn in the queue.

“One double espresso please,” the person before him placed her order.

“Here you go, Hanae-san,” The man at the counter quickly passed her a prepared drink, though recently made.

Julius looked up briefly, the name caught his attention, after all. It rang a familiarity from earlier, and if he recalled correctly, she was one of the names mentioned amongst the fellow staff of Takizawa High School… the substitute PE teacher that was to replace the victim; Hanae Haruko.

Then it was his turn, but the man at the counter ignored Julius and escorted her aside to her desk.

Frankly, he found it disturbing.

Another waitress immediately rushed to the counter and quickly apologized, “Sorry for the inconvenience about our boss just then, what would you like to order?”

“Just a café latte would do, regular sized,” Julius looked at the staff tag of the waitress whilst passing the money, “Shiraimi-san, mind advising your boss to not flirt during business hours?”

The waitress, Shiraimi, lightly laughed, “sure.”

Once he received the order, Julius went to sit at a nearby table alone. He glanced across the store and still saw the store owner with Hanae. This time, Shiraimi tried to intervene briefly but somehow failed.

Well, he couldn’t really expect too much from an inexperienced employee like her.

Though frankly, Julius started to find it annoying.

Julius’ phone vibrated a bit, showing him the message that came from the FREEDOM game.

[USER: JULIUS (Julius)

RANK: 6 ( 150+ unranked)

TITLE: [Sinner]

ABILITIES: None

ITEMS: None

POINTS EARNED: 0 (AP) & 12 (SP)

KEEPER: Active

FRIEND: 1 of 3 active]

12 were already captured by him, but more are joining the game. Despite being a somewhat simple game, Julius sighed when he read the name of the messenger; White Crown.

As stupid as the name sounded, he did not think of the player too much. Even if they were to know each other in reality, Julius wouldn’t hesitate to consider ‘him’ an enemy. Though he had a clear line that was drawn for the moment being, and that was that the player was his informant.

White Crown: I’ve come across this photo a couple of days ago, thought you might find it ‘interesting’

Julius opened the file attached to the message, though he was slightly confused for a brief moment.

In the distant corner of the photo showed the one across the café, Hanae Haruko, seen alongside with the victim of the case, Tsuyoko Kana, at a park. He had no issues of those two meeting up, though the main issue was when the photo was taken; between Tsuyuko’s disappearance and her estimated time of death.

That would be enough to guarantee a warrant, so he forwarded the photo to Faye.

Now, just one more thing for him to do now that the photo was shown.

He stood up and moved to the table where the store owner (Natsuki Tenya) and Hanae Haruko.

“Sorry to disturb you two, but I have some business with Hanae-san over here, so if you don’t mind,” Julius interrupted between the two and placed his drink on the table.

The boss was both clueless and somewhat disappointed, but he left his seat and offered it to Julius. Hanae looked a bit hesitant though since she never met Julius prior. However, she remained silent once Julius briefly showed her his police badge.

Once it’s just the two of them, Hanae spoke first and the author got lazy.

Hanae: “How may I help you, Detective-san?”

Julius: “I’m here to investigate a case that’s been brought up recently to my division. I take it that you know Ms. Tsuyuko Kana?”

Hanae: “Yes, but briefly though. She’s the teacher I have substituted…”

Julius: “Not sure if you’re aware, but she had been missing since she resigned from her position. The main reason was originally to move to Osaka, but we’ve found some interesting evidence here… Oh right, she’s dead now by the way.”

Hanae: “You sound awfully okay with the death of someone…”

Julius: “That’s not the main issue here, I’m only here to capture the culprit. Of course, my condolences goes victim, but I can’t do much without catching the culprit. That being said…”

Julius showed her the photo which he was handed earlier.

“This photo was taken between the time of her death and her resignation. I’m just here to tell you that I might need to question you in the near future, whether it be an interview or an interrogation. Let’s hope for the both of us that it doesn’t lead to the latter, shall we?”

Hanae: “Is that a warning?”

Julius: “It’s an advice.”

And with all that being said, Julius left the table with a smile.

Whilst leaving the café, Julius switched on the FREEDOM app.

[NEARBY ACTIVE PLAYERS:

-CLOWN (20m)

-REAPER (30m)

-HANAKO (7m)

-WHITE CROWN (43m)]

Considering the current hundred players involved with the beta actively, this was a somewhat large number of players near him considering the size of this city.

Well, he deduced it to be a hunch, but he still remained to think that the culprit is REAPER for that brief moment.

Julius could only hope that it is so. So with arms clenched, he continued to investigate.