Reincarnated as an Energy with a System

Chapter 1817: Narrowed Suspects

Larissa was quite frustrated with the lack of information. When she finally thought she would find something, it had all turned out to be in vain.

”Let’s go. We have some work to do,” Larissa said.

”We’re leaving?” Ning asked.

”What else do we have to do?” Larissa asked.

”Well... I wanted to look through the surveillance,” Ning said.

”There’s nothing there,” she said.

”Yes, but... maybe there is,” Ning said.

Larissa seemed frustrated, but she didn’t voice it. ”Can you make a copy of it and send it to the station, please?” she asked the head of the hospital.

”We shall thoroughly aid in this investigation,” the head said.

”If you could, please send it from the moment the ghoul old man was brought in. Thank you.”

Ning left afterward.

While they hadn’t gotten anything of value in the hospital, they had now learned that the attacker was a male of a very limited number of races. As such, they had a smaller margin to look from.

As soon as they reached the station, they began scouring the records of the old Gallows in hope of finding anything they could about this man.

Trunno Gallow, the kingpin of the Gallows, was a centaur. His attendants were mostly of the lower races, such as ghouls, zombies, goblins, half-elves, drows, and such. It was said his wife was of a lower race too: a minotaur.

They didn’t have many humans, but they certainly had some.

”I can’t find any angels in connection to them, but I have found a bunch of humans and elves,” Mira said. ”I’m cross-referencing where they are right now.”

Images flickered through a screen before them. ”Crossing out all names that have died, and getting rid of all names that are still incarcerated. We’re left with... 7.”

”Pull them up,” Larissa said, walking over to the main screen to watch the 7 images that came up, of which 2 were females.

She looked at them all — 3 humans, 4 half-elves — and frowned. ”How old is this guy?” she pointed to one of the older men in the image.

”Drisand. He was 37 when he was caught with the Gallows,” Mira said.

”That means he is, what, 57 now?” Larissa asked.

”59 actually.”

”A 59-year-old is climbing 6 stories, blasting through windows, and knocking out two police officers?” Larissa asked.

”Uhh... he could have powers,” Mira said.

”Was he incarcerated?” she asked.

”He was— oh, right.” Mira understood what Larissa meant. When one went to prison, the prisoner would have to go through a mandatory ability analysis, a machine that was made by a set of complex minds in the past, that could properly analyze and tell whose power was what.

The man’s power had come back blank, like most would.

”It’s not him,” Larissa said, turning to the other images. ”This one is old too. What’s his power?”

”None,” Mira said and got rid of the old man too.

She got rid of another person when she realized the man had been permanently disabled from the waist down. And then, Ning noticed that one of the girls, a half-elf, had particularly dark skin.

”She’s a daughter of a drow. The one that attacked didn’t have skin this dark. And I don’t think a 48-year-old woman with no powers is doing this.”

Mira nodded. ”So, that leaves us with these 3.”

Larissa nodded at the screen with 2 men on it and a woman. All 3 had been in their early twenties when they were caught, so there was a particularly good chance that all 3 of them would still be fit enough to get revenge, should they want to.

Larissa left with a squadron to go bring the 3 into custody. Ning stayed behind since he didn’t want to be involved in such simple tasks. He really just wanted to investigate crimes, so he would let others handle the rest.

’Weird,’ he thought after a while. ’I’m starting to think like Valen.’

It surprised him how much he liked this.

”Sir Valen,” Mira called out. ”The footage is here.”

”From the hospital? Pass it to me.”

Ning quickly sat down with a tablet in hand and began watching the footage, starting at moments before the cameras were attacked. As he watched, he realized the cameras were attacked from a dead zone in their coverage.

Whoever the man was, he had come from the north gate and attacked the cameras before they could ever turn toward him. He kept watching as one after another footage was destroyed as the man made his way toward the old ghoul.

Ning paused the footage as the last camera was destroyed and rolled it back a bit. He watched the scene again, noticing something. He replayed the same part a few times before standing up.

”Mira, can you help enhance this segment a bit?” he asked.

”Enhance it?” Mira asked. ”Did you find a face? We can’t enhance faces. The algorithm tends to place different features based on guesswork.”

”No, it’s not a person,” Ning said, handing it over to her. He turned to the side and saw Larissa walking into the station with one of the men.

”How long will this take?” Ning asked Mira.

”A couple of minutes. It goes through every possible iteration of what each pixel might—”

”Yeah, yeah, do that,” Ning said. ”Time to go interrogate.”

Mira turned and saw Larissa too. She nodded, letting Ning go.

Larissa put the man in an interrogation room and closed the door. She stood outside, looking at Ning. ”Do you want to stay outside or go inside this time?”

”I’ll probably stay out,” Ning said. ”What happened to the other two?”

”The other man had a strong alibi for where they were during the attack,” she said. ”Jack is bringing in the woman.”

”Alright, that’s great,” Ning said. ”Good luck. I’ll stay outside and watch.”

Larissa grabbed some files and walked into the room. Ning walked into the other room, ready to watch the whole thing from a one-way mirror.