Chapter 22: Transforming Thinking
Chapter 22: Changing Mindset
From the moment the minced meat was sent for testing, Zhou Ming and Crow began a long wait.
Over the next ten days, Crow steadily advanced her surveillance plan. Even with the overwhelming advantage of her investigation methods, she continued to refine her monitoring system, wandering the streets daily, correlating red dots with the identities of the town's residents.
Aside from not being able to see the actions of the individuals like a real surveillance system, she could already track the movements of anyone in the town. Her surveillance capabilities had reached half of the Sky Eye system within the First Wall.
On the other side, Zhou Ming continued to run around interviewing people to complete the witness information.
As his interviewing skills gradually improved, Zhou Ming also mastered more convenient and efficient interviewing methods.
His past attitude was too polite, making it impossible to intimidate the other party. However, ever since he adjusted his attitude from polite and gentle to mechanically cold, supplemented with a hint of veiled threat, he found that the probability of interviewees cooperating significantly increased, and the information they provided was also much more detailed and comprehensive than before.
Sometimes people are just like that: they bully the weak and fear the strong, they refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit. In short, they're just asking for trouble.
Furthermore, just this morning, the test results for the pork came out, ultimately proving that the minced meat was just ordinary pork. Although the meat was mushy, it genuinely contained no undesirable additives.
With only sixteen days left until the one-month deadline, Zhou Ming was mentally prepared for this outcome.
After investigating several restaurants, he found that all restaurant employees in Senma Town had a habit of dining at their workplaces. If the meat truly had an issue, a large number of special witnesses would emerge among the restaurant staff.
However, the investigation results showed otherwise, so the normal quality of the meat was well within expectations.
Of course, besides the expected results, there were also some unexpected special circumstances.
In the fourteen days since their arrival in Senma Town, no more disappearances had occurred. The most recent disappearance had happened seven days before their arrival date.
This meant that there had been no disappearances for a full twenty-one days, far exceeding the previous longest interval between incidents.
It was as if the anomaly in Senma Town knew they had arrived, intentionally stopping its activities and hiding after their arrival…
"Damn it, this just got more troublesome." Crow walked slowly down the street, carrying her coffin, her mind racing.
Such anomalies, which could adapt like humans, were called 'Intelligent Anomalies' by the Hidden Ones, and they were Crow's least favorite type.
Compared to 'Regular Anomalies,' they were more cunning and dangerous, often taking a lot of time to resolve.
If it were a 'Regular Anomaly,' her tracking system should have already taken effect. But now, her system had become useless equipment; all previous investments were sunk costs. As long as the anomaly didn't act, those trackers were nothing but rat droppings.
"Teacher Crow? Why are you out today?"
Zhou Ming, emerging from a restaurant, ran into Crow.
"Just wandering around." Crow scrutinized Zhou Ming, her gaze slowly moving down to the folder in his hand.
"So diligent," Crow teased.
"Why don't you become a police officer? You seem very well-suited to this traditional method of investigation. If you became a police officer, you'd definitely be more useful than being a Hidden One. You'd surely become an excellent police officer, and at least people would think you're very responsible, seeing you busy running around."
Although Zhou Ming couldn't see her face, he could imagine that mocking, half-smiling, sharp-tongued face hidden beneath the mask.
After more than half a month of interaction, Zhou Ming was certain that Crow's sarcasm had nothing to do with testing his endurance; it was simply her inherently nasty personality.
"What are you investigating?" Crow asked again.
She looked at the restaurant Zhou Ming had just exited, nodding slightly as if she understood something.
"Oh~ I see, you're investigating the population movement of the town's residents," Crow chuckled.
Zhou Ming's eyes widened suddenly, his expression one of great surprise.
Crow looked down at Zhou Ming, letting out two chuckles from behind her mask: "Do you think I can't figure it out? To be precise, you're investigating the relocation records of these restaurant staff, aren't you?"
"How did you know?" Zhou Ming asked, astonished.
"Your last investigation target was a restaurant. I believe you're not the type of person who would investigate randomly based solely on intuition and then have the audacity to entrust me with such a trivial matter as testing rotten pork. So, I figured you must have had some clue.
Although the pork sent for testing last time was fine, twenty-one days have passed since the last disappearance, exceeding the longest interval between disappearances. This allows us to categorize the anomaly as intelligent.
However, besides the intelligent type, there's another easily overlooked possibility.
If you're targeting that, it's not surprising you'd continue this type of investigation.
Heh heh, just keep working hard. Let me see how far you can go."
With that, Crow brushed past Zhou Ming and continued walking straight down the main road.
Zhou Ming looked back at her tall figure and couldn't help but let out a long sigh.
"As expected of a professional Hidden One, her insight is astonishing."
She was right; he was indeed investigating the population movement records of the town's residents, but it hadn't just started today.
This investigation had begun the day the minced meat was sent for testing and was now nearing completion.
The absence of disappearances was indeed unexpected for Zhou Ming, but it also strengthened his conjecture.
No disappearances for twenty-one days. Besides an intelligent anomaly, there was another possibility: when a dangerous sealed item is controlled by a person, assisted by human intelligence, it can also exhibit the external characteristics of an intelligent anomaly.
Moreover, if the mastermind behind the anomalous phenomena was assumed to be human, it would also explain why all the missing persons had visited the tavern before the incidents.
The tavern was very likely an environment that was very convenient for the perpetrator to commit crimes.
Furthermore, the detail of Wang Er's entire family disappearing, which had been previously overlooked, also became a very valuable clue for investigation.
Of course, besides the tavern and Wang Er as clues, Zhou Ming would certainly not neglect the restaurants.
Because among the previously summarized information, one point was: an entire family could see a specific missing person.
This regular phenomenon was crucial, representing a trend of transmission.
To rationalize this transmission route, besides food, all other possibilities Zhou Ming considered were very slim.
If the culprit was human, then upon realizing the Hidden Ones had arrived in Senma Town, there was a high probability that he would choose to leave Senma Town immediately.
Investigating relocation records could significantly narrow down the range of suspects and improve the efficiency of the pursuit.
Currently, Zhou Ming had already questioned all the taverns, and the last restaurant had also just been questioned.
These businesses indeed had some temporary workers who had resigned and left Senma Town recently. However, if the disappearance dates were added as a parameter to the information, it would be found that no temporary worker could perfectly match the crime timeline.
The initial disappearance dates occurred long before those individuals arrived in Senma Town.
This indicated that the temporary workers who recently left Senma Town were not the masterminds; rather, they likely wanted to escape this troubled place as quickly as possible due to the series of eerie disappearances.
Working backward, another conclusion could be drawn: if the culprit was indeed human, then he was still in Senma Town!
The investigation had to continue; there was still one last suspect's home he hadn't visited.
Hopefully, this final visit would yield some results.
…