Another detective, seeing his colleague die so horribly, was extremely furious. After learning who the killer was, he immediately went to capture the woman in Room 136.
The woman from Room 136 was exceedingly beautiful, a typical Eastern beauty with willow eyebrows, red lips, and an oval face. She was petite yet voluptuous. The detective handcuffed her and brought her over. Her hair fell over her face, giving her a delicate and weak appearance, but through her thick black hair, her eyes showed no fear or panic.
The woman remained very calm, even in the face of so many people ready to interrogate her. She seemed completely indifferent.
This piqued Lu Chu’s curiosity even more. How had that “big cat” made these people willingly become its slaves?
The detective directly pressed the woman in front of the corpse and harshly demanded, “Tell me, did you kill him?!”
The woman’s arms were red and swollen from his grip, but she showed no sign of pain. She glanced indifferently at the corpse, then at the neatly placed two halves of lips and ten fingers on the bed.
Suddenly, the woman sneered and mockingly said, “Aren’t there other parts cut off? Haven’t you found them?”
Lu Chu thought she meant toes, but they had already checked, and the victim’s feet were intact. The two doctors immediately re-examined the body, trying to find any missing parts. They exchanged a glance and removed the victim’s clothes.
One doctor muttered, “Cutting off organs and then dressing the body, such a hassle…”
As they undressed the corpse, everyone was shocked. The women present turned away, and the men felt a chill down their spines.
Fortunately, the two surgeons were used to more gruesome surgical scenes and weren’t scared by the sight of the male victim’s severed genitalia placed in his pants.
The detective had seen many murder scenes, but this was the first time he saw a man’s genitals cut off and placed in his crotch. He shivered and swallowed hard, “Was it cut off while he was alive?”
“Of course, it was cut off while he was alive,” the petite woman looked at him with dark eyes and spoke coldly.
The detective frowned, “What kind of grudge did you have against him? What was your motive?”
“Motive?” The woman shook her head and laughed crazily, “It was fun, very fun…”
The detective, who had grown to admire his colleague while solving the case together, was extremely angry about his death, “He was so good to you, trying to protect you every day on this unstable cruise. How could you do this to him?!”
“Good to me?” The woman laughed hysterically again, “What do you mean good to me? He has a wife and a child, a boy. Was being good to me telling me I could be his mistress when we got back?!”
The detective didn’t know this truth and was momentarily speechless.
Lu Chu and the others witnessed the entire interrogation.
They could confirm that the “Detective Murder Case” was different from the previous killings. This time, the killer was clearly not the “tiger” hiding behind the spirit slave but the woman in Room 136—a genuine crime of passion.
However, Lu Chu didn’t believe that the “big cat” wasn’t involved in some way.
So, he approached the woman and stared into her eyes, “Tell me, who is the ‘big cat’ behind you?”
The woman looked at him and grinned, “Big cat? What big cat? There’s no such creature on this ship, only the hypocritical and ugly faces of humans.”
The doctor shook his head, “This woman is insane.”
Today’s murders were not the only ones. They couldn’t get anything useful from the woman right now, nor could they torture her for information. After a discussion, they decided to tie her up, gag her, and assign some strong crew members to guard her, preventing her from committing suicide.
Lu Chu said, “Let’s go check out the other crime scenes.”
Everyone nodded and headed to the other murder sites.
After examining the bodies of several murdered passengers, the accompanying doctors confirmed the time and cause of death. The detective and Lu Chu investigated other details. During this process, Lu Chu’s expression gradually became serious.
Each time, aside from a few possible suspects, he didn’t smell any suspicious scents.
But Lu Chu knew these people weren’t the real killers—they were merely accomplices lured and used by the “spirit slave.”
What kind of entity could repeatedly make Lu Chu’s ability to detect supernatural scents fail?
.
After inspecting the victims, they hurried to another notable crime scene—the crew’s restrooms.
Unlike passenger cabins, the crew restrooms were smaller, with four people sharing a room. In the narrow space, there were bunk beds embedded in the walls, with a table and stools in the middle. The two rooms where the murders occurred were at the end of the corridor. The eight crew members had died in the same way: a thin steel wire had cut into their necks, severing their throats, with red blood seeping out. A long wooden stick had been inserted into each victim’s right ear and out the left, piercing through their brains.
Lu Chu sighed at the sight. They were becoming numb to the bizarre ways the victims were killed.
They questioned the nearby crew members, who all gave the same testimony—no one heard any unusual sounds during the night.
The detective was getting agitated, “So many people died, and each in such a gruesome way. How could there be no sounds of struggle or screams?! Were you all drugged and slept through it?!”
The doctor thought seriously and said, “Maybe… that really is a possibility, but we don’t have the equipment to test their blood and analyze it.”
The detective examined the scene and said, “Maybe the killer initially planned to kill one room of people, but then the noise disturbed the next room, so they were killed too?”
The doctor shook his head, “If they could hear the noise, then what were the neighbors of the previous victims doing?”
The detective had no answer.
The case had hit another dead end. In the crew murders, Lu Chu couldn’t even smell the “spirit slave.”
The detective chuckled, “You really can’t smell anything?”
Lu Chu shook his head honestly.
The detective’s expression became enigmatic, “I think I might know something.”
Everyone turned to him, “What?”
The detective looked around and tapped his fingers on the table, “I’m not sure yet. I need to rest and organize my thoughts.”
“That’s true,” the doctor said, checking his watch, “It’s already 2:18 PM, and many of us haven’t even had breakfast. Let’s eat and rest before continuing.”
Everyone agreed.
They had missed lunch, so the chef prepared hot meals for them. After eating, they each returned to their restrooms to rest briefly.
Back in his room, Lu Chu sat by the bed, deep in thought, unconsciously touching his lower lip. “But there’s one thing I find strange.”
7 looked at him, asking, “What is it?”
Lu Chu replied, “This time, the people in the game are strange.”
7 watched him silently, waiting for him to continue.
Lu Chu said, “Isn’t it odd? In previous games, the people were little help to the players, even hindering them. The ‘rules’ must aim to obstruct players from finding the correct answer, but this time, the people seem so reliable…”
7 nodded silently, not interrupting Lu Chu’s thoughts.
Just as Lu Chu was pondering, 7’s communicator rang.
7 answered, listened, and said, “I’ll check it out.” Then he hung up.
Lu Chu quickly asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Something happened,” 7 grabbed Lu Chu’s hand, leading him outside, “No time to rest.”
They hurried to the banquet hall, where a doctor came running, stopping in front of Lu Chu, “The detective is dead.”
Lu Chu frowned in shock, “Dead?”
“Yes!” The doctor was sweating and panting, clearly taken aback by the news.
It seemed the “tiger” or “spirit slave” was hiding among them, knowing their every move—the detective had just mentioned a lead and was killed while they were separated.
Lu Chu asked, “What was the cause of death?”
The doctor replied, “Food poisoning.”
Lu Chu’s eyes widened in surprise, “Food poisoning?”
“Yes, definitely food poisoning,” the doctor explained clearly, “He died at his room’s door. A passenger found him and immediately knocked on my door. Another colleague and I examined the body and concluded he died from an allergic reaction. The meal we had contained a small amount of allergen. Usually, people with allergies are very sensitive to their allergens, but this time the strong flavors masked the allergen’s taste, and he unknowingly ate it all.”
After the doctor finished, the detective and another doctor arrived hastily.
The detective asked, “What’s the situation?”
The doctor shook his head, “We’ve lost another lead.”
The detective cursed, “Damn it!”
“However,” the doctor recalled, “the detective did mention something that might be related to the case…”
Lu Chu asked, “What did he say?”
“He said, ‘Only because I am in this mountain.'”
“Only because I am in this mountain?”
Suddenly, something clicked in Lu Chu’s mind.
