Reincarnated as an Energy with a System

Chapter 1856: Rika

The young woman who had brought him his meal hadn’t touched it in the slightest. From his room all the way back to the lobby, nothing had been disturbed. Moving further back, the chef who prepared it hadn’t done much except open the wine and pour it into the prepared glass.

Ning first had the recording move back to where the wine had come from, and then to where the wine glass was kept. Upon doing so, he finally found a culprit.

A woman in her late 30s had applied something on the inside of the glass before bringing it to the chef.

”There you go,” Ning said. ”Who is she?”

”That’s... Rika,” the manager said. ”Why would she...”

”Doesn’t matter. Where is she now?” Ning asked.

The manager gave a blank look at first, seemingly unable to come to terms with the fact that one of his subordinates had even dared poison a guest. However, he didn’t keep silent for any longer and quickly brought Ning over to the kitchen where she was.

The woman still worked as though she had done nothing. Even as Ning and the others approached, she wasn’t concerned. It was only when they all stopped before her that apprehension appeared on her face.

”C-Can I help you?” she asked.

Ning stared at the woman for a good few seconds, trying to determine if she had some powers. However, forgetting about powers itself, the woman didn’t even recognize him at all.

”You don’t know who I am,” Ning said. ”So, why did you poison me?”

The woman took a step back, but the other chefs and staff were already surrounding her, more so to try and listen in on the drama, cutting off her escape route in doing so.

”I...” the woman stammered, failing to get her words out.

Ning waited.

”Damn it, Rika. Did you really do it?” the manager asked. ”Did you poison his wine glass?”

”They paid me to,” the woman shouted. ”They said they would give me money if I did what they asked me to. I didn’t know it was poison. I... I had no idea.”

”Who asked you?” Ning asked.

”I don’t know,” she answered. ”Please, it was some man or woman who called me. They knew everything about me and said they could make my life better if I helped them.”

”You put something in his glass, and you didn’t think it was poison?” the manager asked. ”What the hell did you think it was? Did you think you were going to get away with it?”

”I didn’t!” the woman said, seemingly scared at first, but then something snapped within her. ”I didn’t care. The money they sent... it would be enough to pay my rent for months and months. I wouldn’t have to worry about being evicted. My children could finally eat good food after ages. God knows you don’t pay me enough to do so. I’ve seen how much you take away as bonus and never once have you thought of giving us more than a pitiful amount of pay.”

”I did what I thought I had to. I didn’t know it was poison. Maybe I should have, but I didn’t care. I cared more about my children than some man whose face I had never seen before.”

The manager looked disgusted. ”Your children would hate you if they heard that.”

”That’s fine with me. They can hate me with a full stomach and a place to sleep.”

Ning saw fear fade away from the woman, replaced with anger, anger born out of her own situation and envy for others. She calmed a little as she turned, her eyes landing back on Ning.

A sense of dread spread through her when she looked at him again.

”How were you going to tell them that I had died?” Ning asked.

”I... I wasn’t going to,” the woman said. ”All they asked of me was to lace the glass with the powder.”

”How did you get the powder?” Ning asked.

”It arrived outside my house this afternoon.”

”And the money?”

”Wired straight to my account.”

”I see,” Ning said. ”Then I’ll need information about the account the money came from. And where do you live? I’ll need that information too. If you find it scary giving me that information, then you can hand it over to the cops that show up soon. They will show up.”

”But!” the manager was surprised. ”You said you...”

Ning turned around. ”What did I say? I don’t remember promising not to get the authorities involved.”

The manager sagged a little, realizing the press he was likely going to have to deal with.

Ning called the cops not long afterward and even let Larissa know what had happened. The cops arrived soon enough and started taking witness statements.

Ning explained his side of the story, which needed a bit of manipulation to make it so that he hadn’t survived gulping down entire mouthfuls of wine. They took the woman’s statement next, and she explained the exact same thing she had told the rest of them.

The cops took her away a few minutes later.

As much as Ning wanted to just let it pass by, she had been complicit in trying to kill him. She needed to understand what it meant to do something like that.

Larissa arrived a few minutes after that, and Ning explained the entire thing once again. She was horrified at the thought that someone had tried to poison him, and at the same time, surprised that nothing had happened to him.

”Do poisons not affect you?” she asked.

”A little, it seems,” Ning said, not explaining anymore.

”Okay... so who would want to kill you?” Larissa asked. ”Do you think it’s someone from one of the other agencies? Trying to get rid of the competition before it starts.”

”That’s possible, but highly doubtful,” Ning said. ”I think there is a greater chance that our remaining six friends have decided to take another shot at me right away.”

Larissa’s breathing turned uneven for a second as she tried to suppress a grimace. ”Do you think... it’s one of Talia’s friends?”