Coronel City, Edimea United States.
At seven in the morning, Seto woke up from his bed on time, put on a white shirt, and came to the living room.
He picked up the coffee pot and sniffed it; it contained coffee brewed yesterday.
He poured it into the sink, turned on the faucet, and the coffee and water flowed together down the drain.
On the living room coffee table lay a chessboard. Only one move remained for black to win.
He pulled open a drawer, took out a black tie from inside, fastened the buttons on his chest, tied the tie into a Windsor knot, and adjusted his collar.
He looked down at the items on the table: a keychain, a police badge, a fruit knife, a fountain pen, and a pistol.
Thirty minutes later, Seto arrived at Coronel City's old neighborhood.
"Screech..."
The car stopped. Seto looked out the window. It was 7:40 AM, precisely the time when people woke up and went to work.
But a torrential downpour was falling outside. Pea-sized raindrops continuously fell, drenching Detective Sumner, who stood by the roadside, turning him into a drowned rat.
Seto looked at him and smiled. He put on a bowler hat, pushed open the car door, went to the back of the car, and took out two pairs of sky-blue disposable medical gloves and two powerful flashlights from the trunk.
"Coffee?"
Sumner leaned in and asked, holding a cup of coffee in each hand.
Seto looked at Sumner, who was shivering from the heavy rain, raised his flashlight and gloves, shrugged, and walked past Sumner towards an old, multi-story residential building.
Sumner also shrugged and followed behind Seto.
"The scene is untouched, everything is in its original place."
As soon as the two approached the building entrance, a police officer in a raincoat walked over and said.
"When was the time of death?"
Seto asked. As he asked, the raincoat-clad officer pulled open the iron gate with a clang and said,
"As I said, I didn't touch anything.
But his face was buried in a large bowl of noodles for forty-five minutes."
The raincoat-clad officer led the two towards the crime scene, talking as he walked.
"Wait, did no one check if he was alive or dead?"
Sumner followed behind the two and asked.
"Wasn't I clear? This person isn't breathing anymore."
"Unless he can breathe in noodle soup, or he doesn't breathe through his nostrils."
The raincoat-clad officer specifically turned his head and glanced at him, his tone slightly displeased.
"Is this how cases are investigated here?"
Sumner looked at him with a serious expression, his tone solemn.
"Sorry, Detective."
"But he's sitting on his own excrement and urine. If he wasn't dead, he would have stood up a long time ago."
The three arrived at the crime room. The raincoat-clad officer stood outside the room door, explaining to Sumner.
"Enough, thank you."
Sumner smiled, patted his shoulder, and handed him the two cups of coffee in his hand. He then walked into the room with Seto.
"Thank you, Detective."
The raincoat-clad officer took the coffee handed to him, felt it—it was still warm—and stood at the doorway, thanking Sumner's back.
Seto and Sumner walked up the stairs to the second floor. Seto gave Sumner the gloves and flashlight. They put on their gloves, turned on their flashlights, and shined them into the gloomy, dark, old room.
The room was cluttered with papers everywhere, and clothes were haphazardly strewn about.
There was also a lot of snack trash and takeout boxes on the floor, and the entire space was filled with a foul odor.
"I'm thinking..."
Seto's flashlight swept around the room. He occasionally glanced at the floor, lifted his foot to avoid trash, and at the same time said,
"What was the meaning of your conversation with that officer just now?"
"I don't know."
Sumner followed behind him. Like Seto, he swept his flashlight around and lifted his feet at the same time, replying.
"Barney Fife countless times treated living people as corpses."
Seto raised his flashlight and searched for the incandescent lamp on the ceiling, pressing the switch. With two "clicks," there was no movement.
He then sniffed the air in the room again. A foul odor wafted in, so bad that he rubbed his nose and shook his head.
"Never mind that."
The two entered the room from which the foul odor emanated. The television inside the room was playing the local morning news.
Suddenly, he noticed Seto crouching motionless in a corner. Sumner stepped behind him.
He saw Seto's flashlight shining on a spot where a large number of cockroaches and ants, startled by the strong light of the flashlight, rustled and scattered in all directions.
"Notify Pattison World Records. This person is obese to a record-breaking degree."
Sumner pinched his nose. The foul odor in the room made his nose very uncomfortable.
His flashlight was shining on a massive corpse wearing a white vest, weighing at least a thousand catties.
The two stood on either side of the corpse, using their flashlights to examine the body, which was lying face down in noodles.
The corpse sat on a wooden stool, its lower body clad in shorts. Large amounts of excrement and urine seeped through the shorts, flowing down the stool legs to the ground. The scene was extremely disgusting.
Large numbers of blue veins and blood vessels appeared on the surface of the corpse's skin.
"Home Design Magazine."
Sumner looked at a magazine placed on the table, while Seto walked to a shelf on the other side. The shelf was filled with hundreds of various canned goods.
"Did anyone say this was murder?"
Sumner shined his flashlight on the corpse again, a smile on his lips, and asked.
"No one," Seto replied flatly.
"This man's heart must be bigger than a can of ham."
"If it wasn't a heart attack, then I don't know what it was."
Sumner tightened his coat. After being drenched in rain all morning, he felt he was catching a cold.
"Look at this."
Seto suddenly crouched down, his flashlight shining on the corpse's ankle. A thin wire was wrapped around the corpse's legs.
"How do you explain this?"
Sumner put away his flashlight, took out his phone, and took three consecutive pictures. Then he pulled out a notebook from his pocket, flipped through it with a rustle, and said with a confident expression,
"I've handled similar cases before."
"When?" Seto asked.
"Before I partnered with you."
As Sumner answered, he bit the flashlight in his mouth, pulled out his pen, and immediately began to record, writing as he spoke.
"There was a male corpse on the ground with a knife in his back. He must have been murdered, right?"
"Bullshit!"
"Anyway, he bought a high-value insurance policy. So this man took a knife and stabbed it into his own shoulder blade."
"He must have hesitated several times, because he had several wounds on his body."
While Sumner was recounting his early case-handling experiences, Seto stood behind the corpse, meticulously examining the entire body with his flashlight.
"Stop talking, be quiet."
Seto took out his fountain pen from his pocket. With the pen, he lifted the hair covering the back of the corpse's head. In the dense hair, he vaguely saw something written on the corpse's scalp.
"Wait a moment, I found something."
Sumner suddenly crouched down, discovering a bucket under the table.
"What?" Seto asked casually.
"There's a bucket under the table."
Sumner put his notebook into his pocket, reached out and pulled the bucket from under the table. He shone his flashlight into it and leaned in to look.
"Damn!"
"Ugh~"
Sumner merely glanced, as if he had seen something extremely disgusting. His body jerked backward in surprise, he landed on his backside, his face pale as he retched.
"What's in it?"
Seto looked at Sumner's twisted face and asked.
"It's all puke, damn it!"
Sumner pressed one nostril with his finger, continuously exhaling from the other, as if he could expel all the foul odor from his lungs.
"Is there blood in it?"
"I didn't see any. You look yourself."
Sumner pointed to the bucket on the ground, motioning for him to look himself, and at the same time asked,
"Do you think it's food poisoning?"
Just then, footsteps sounded outside the door. A forensic examiner in a disposable isolation gown entered with a police officer. They looked at the two and said,
"You two are so slow, making the forensic examiner wait outside."
The forensic examiner placed his box on the table where the corpse was lying. He took out disposable isolation gloves and a mask from the box, stood behind the corpse, and lifted its head from the noodles with both hands.
"This guy is really heavy. His head almost made me unable to lift him."
Sumner and Seto exchanged smiles. The forensic examiner was quite humorous, which lightened their work atmosphere.
"Then I'll leave this to you."
Seto said, and he and Sumner left the room, leaving the forensic examiner and a police officer inside.
After Seto and Sumner left the room, the forensic examiner's smile suddenly vanished.
He released the head he was holding, and the corpse's head "thumped" back into the noodles.
"Sloth and gluttony."
"These two negative emotions have reached their extreme, and they appear in the same person."
"This is the first time I've seen such a person."
The police officer who had followed the forensic examiner in looked at the corpse with great curiosity and said,
"How did you find such a masterpiece?"
The police officer turned to the forensic examiner on the side, grinning.
"Don't you ever watch the news?"
The forensic examiner asked. As he spoke, he extended his right hand and held it above the corpse's head. A translucent aura gathered in his palm.
"News isn't something someone like me watches."
The police officer's face was arrogant. He dismissed the news the forensic examiner spoke of with disdain.
"Recently, Edimea United States experienced a series of serial murders."
"These serial murders also occurred in various cities across the Edimea United States."
"And most notably, the victims of these murders all represented one of the seven deadly sins of humanity in Catholic doctrine."
The police officer watched as the aura in the forensic examiner's hand flowed down like liquid, gradually covering the entire corpse. He crossed his arms over his chest and said,
"Someone is proselytizing?"
The forensic examiner's lips curved, and he said,
"And this proselytizer is particularly sensitive to human nature."
"Every person killed by this proselytizing killer has extreme negative emotions condensed within them."
"And the killer, based on the characteristics of these people, sets up specific ways of death, allowing them to die after receiving punishment from the doctrine."
The police officer, standing to one side, watched the red aura gradually condensing from the corpse. A hint of crimson flashed in his eyes.
"I feel like this killer is more suited to having the power of the Seven Deadly Sins than you."
"Unfortunately, the killer is a madman."
The forensic examiner shook his head, focusing on the aura on the corpse. Red and dark green auras mixed together. They continuously twisted and struggled. The red aura even attempted to devour the dark green aura.
"Can a person possess two extreme negative emotions, resulting in them devouring each other?"
The forensic examiner frowned slightly. This was a rare opportunity. He couldn't let them devour each other. He needed to separate the remaining two Nen beasts in one go.
He would soon head to the Dark Continent. Before that, he had to perfect his abilities and further strengthen himself.
"If you want to devour, I have something more suitable here."
Illumi's body once again surged with a large amount of aura. He reached out and touched the red and green intertwined aura on the corpse.
"Sizzle..."
The moment the two auras touched, the murky aura on the corpse immediately pounced onto Illumi's body. The red aura was the most violent, frantically absorbing Illumi's aura.
Even after absorbing its own aura, it still wanted to absorb the part belonging to sloth.
"Enough."
Illumi's tone was calm.
But the red aura seemed startled and suddenly shrank back.
At the same time, it separated from the dark green aura and drifted to the corner of the room, its aura constantly trembling, looking as if it was shivering.
And the remaining dark green aura was slowly absorbing its own portion of the aura.
When both masses of aura were completely absorbed, red and dark green light respectively surged from them, transforming into human forms.
The dark green aura transformed into a sturdy man four meters tall, while the red aura transformed into a bald fat man, crouching in the corner and trembling.
"Are you sure, these two aren't mistaken?"
Greed's suspicious gaze swept back and forth over the two figures.
Clearly, the red aura was more brutal and ferocious, while the dark green aura was still and unmoving, like a dead person. But after transforming into human form, it was completely reversed.
"Wuwu, Father, don't, don't hit me..."
Gluttony crouched in the corner, his fingers in his mouth, looking at Illumi, who was dressed as a forensic examiner, not daring to approach.
"So tired"
And in front of Illumi, Sloth looked down at him, opening his mouth and letting out a hot breath, his speech extremely slow.
"Tch, are these even Nen beasts of the Seven Deadly Sins?"
Greed looked disdainful. He thought Illumi must have had something wrong with his head when he created these two, turning them into this.
"Let's leave here."
Illumi said. He didn't care about the Nen beasts' appearance; he cared about their abilities.
Gluttony, the Gate of Truth that could devour everything.
Sloth, possessing immense defense while also having speed unrivaled by other homunculi.
While pondering, Illumi turned and walked out of the room. Sloth followed behind him, slowly moving his feet.
"Tch."
Greed looked disdainfully at Gluttony, then followed Illumi and Sloth out of the room.
"Don't, don't leave me..."
Gluttony, crouching in the corner, saw Illumi and Greed leaving. He bit his finger, pursed his lips, and wobbled after the three, his big belly swaying.
"Finished the inspection?"
The police officer guarding the door on the first floor saw the forensic examiner coming down from the second floor and asked.
"Hmm?"
But then, the police officer immediately spotted the huge shadow following behind the forensic examiner. Terrified, he instantly drew his pistol and aimed it at Sloth.
"Get out quickly!"
"There's a monster behind you!"
The police officer's arms, gripping his pistol, trembled. His legs were also shaking uncontrollably, making him unable to stand steadily in a fight.
"Don't be afraid, we're just passing through."
The forensic examiner's voice suddenly sounded in his ear. The police officer abruptly turned his head to the side, only to see that the forensic examiner, who had just been on the second floor, was now behind him.
"You, you, are you human or ghost?"
The police officer was so scared that he plopped down on the ground, his pistol falling. He propped himself up with his hands, his legs constantly kicking as he retreated towards the living room.
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