Chapter 171

Chapter 171: The Case

“Please… Help…”

With his final words spoken, the man named Sodod breathed his last in front of Dorothy. Hidden under the bed, she confirmed his d*ath with the corpse puppet ring and then became solemn.

Crawling out from under the bed, Dorothy wasted no time and immediately took out a magic box, placing it on the ground and opening it. She then used the corpse puppet ring to lift Sodod’s body and made him jump back into the magic box with Edric. After securing the box, the cabin was left with only Dorothy.

Hearing that Sodod might have been pursued, Dorothy knew she had to hide the body; otherwise, it would be troublesome if anyone saw it. Fortunately, Sodod had roughly bandaged his wounds before coming to her place, preventing bl**d from being left behind.

After securing the body, Dorothy sat back on the sofa and began to think seriously. In her mind, she replayed what Sodod had just said.

‘This man called Sodod claimed to be the captain of the An Yin Bureau in Alster. He was on this train to deliver something to the headquarters in Tivyán when he was ambushed by a suspected ‘Shadow’ of the Black Tier Extraordinary Being.’

‘This guy might be a ‘Lamp.’ I guess he wanted to use his ability range to search for the ‘Shadow’ during their battle, but instead, he ended up searching me out. It must have been him who depleted all the ‘Shadows’ in my ring…’

‘He knew about my existence and came to me for help as he was dying. To him, I am an unknown Extraordinary Being, while another ‘Shadow’ Extraordinary Being is clearly his enemy, wanting to steal what he was protecting and harm him. So he tried to entice me with the reward from the An Yin Bureau…’

‘So… Should I take on this case?’

Sitting on the sofa, Dorothy pondered. Facing off against a Black Tier ‘Shadow’ was extremely risky. Moreover, this case had nothing to do with her, so she could simply ignore it.

‘In any case, the An Yin Bureau is an official organization. Those openly opposing them are likely dangerous societies like the Holy Communion or cults. Frankly, I’m quite willing to deal with Extraordinary Beings from these organizations—they are my primary source of Extraordinary resources.’

‘Besides, he is a ‘Shadow,’ and I’ve been lacking them recently. During the fight with those bone craftsmen, I used up all my spiritual storage items, and even the ones in my ring are gone. I really need to replenish my supply of ‘Shadows.”

Dorothy thought, and indeed, she was severely short on ‘Shadows.’ She only had 1 point left after the battle at school. She had intended to buy some ‘Shadow’ storage items from Audric, but he planned to venture into dangerous places to regain his strength and thus needed to save all his storage items for combat. Instead, he recommended that Dorothy go to the White Stone Craftsmen Guild branch in Tivyán to purchase them.

Therefore, Dorothy had only 1 point of ‘Shadow’ left between her accumulation and storage items. This was quite disadvantageous for someone who preferred to stay in the background like her, so she needed to acquire more ‘Shadows.’ If she could eliminate that ‘Shadow,’ she might gain something and have the chance to receive a reward from the An Yin Bureau.

‘If handled well, perhaps I can safely eliminate that ‘Shadow.”

Thinking this through, Dorothy decided to get involved in the matter and confront the ‘Shadow’ Extraordinary Being.

‘First, I need to find him. He has already obtained what he wanted, and he may be looking for an opportunity to disembark. Until the next stop, it’s my chance…’

While thinking this, Dorothy left her cabin and headed towards the front of the train. After crossing one carriage, she found the train attendant’s duty room behind the conductor’s office. She approached the attendant on duty.

“Train attendant sir, where are we now? How long until we reach Tivyán?” Dorothy asked the attendant in the duty room, who politely replied.

“Miss, we’re currently at the border of Heshen County. If everything goes smoothly, we should arrive in Tivyán tomorrow afternoon.”

“So, when will the next stop be? Will it be as long as the previous one? Stopping trains feel so boring. I prefer the feeling of the train moving,” Dorothy asked, trying to appear innocent and naive. The attendant thought for a moment and responded.

“Well… the next stop should be in Shanzhu Town. The train just crossed the Moon Tree River Bridge, and according to usual practice, it’ll be there in about ten minutes. But don’t worry, Miss. We’re only handling garbage and restocking food there, not refilling water or coal or doing mechanical maintenance. So we’ll be restarting soon.”

“Ten minutes… Thank you!”

After bidding farewell to the attendant, Dorothy returned to her own cabin. As she walked down the aisle, her expression quickly changed from a naive smile to a serious and grave demeanor.

‘Ten minutes… Only ten minutes to find and deal with that guy among the entire train feels nearly impossible. If Sodod was right and that guy has the ability to pass through walls, once the train stops, he could immediately escape through a wall, making any part of the train a potential exit point. It would be impossible to intercept him. To catch him, the train must not stop… But how can I achieve that?’

Dorothy pondered deeply, and then she came up with an idea.

Having thought of a plan, Dorothy quickly walked down the aisle. After swiftly passing through another section, she arrived at a carriage still emitting faint white smoke. Inside this carriage, she saw an open cabin door.

Quickly approaching this cabin, Dorothy carefully examined its interior and discovered some dripping bl**d.

‘This is it—the place where Sodod and the other Extraordinary Being had their conflict.’

As she thought this, Dorothy looked around and muttered to herself.

‘It looks like I need to set something up…’

…

In the darkness, the roaring train continued its journey forward on the tracks.

In the train attendant’s room at the front of the first-class carriage, several attendants were bored, playing poker and chatting.

“Hey, what happened on car number three? There was so much smoke.”

“I don’t know… I initially thought it was a fire, but there wasn’t any flame when I got there. Just smoke. I opened the window to let it out and that was it.”

“Hey, listen. I just saw a little girl earlier. She was so cute…”

…

The attendants chatted and played cards, when suddenly a sharp, clear cry echoed from the direction of the first-class carriage.

“Ah ah ah ah!!!”

Hearing the scream, the attendants froze and exchanged glances.

“What’s going on now?”

“I don’t know, let’s go check.”

Quickly putting down their cards, the attendants hurriedly put on their hats and ran out of the duty room toward the source of the sound. Soon, they reached their destination, which was car number three.

Entering the carriage, they saw several cabin doors open, and passengers emerging from inside, gathering at one cabin’s door.

Realizing something was wrong, the attendants quickly approached the gathered crowd. They noticed fear on everyone’s faces, and among them, a noblewoman was sprawled on the ground, trembling and pointing to the open door of the cabin ahead.

“Dead… dead… dead people!!!”

The noblewoman, her voice quivering with fear, exclaimed. Several attendants felt their hearts tighten, and they pushed through the crowd to look inside the cabin.

There, they saw a man in his thirties, dressed in a dark blue coat and gray trousers, clutching his stomach and lying on the ground. A large amount of bl**d had pooled on the floor from his abdomen, and his lifeless eyes were wide open, a horrifying sight.

Seeing this, all the attendants were stunned, looking at each other in bewilderment.

“He’s… dead? What happened!?”

One of the attendants exclaimed in shock, but a voice from the crowd responded.

“It’s a m*rder…”

Hearing this, the attendants and many passengers turned to look at a tall, thin man in a trench coat, wearing a top hat, with deep-set eyes and a hooked nose.

Facing the many gazes, Edric spoke solemnly.

“Ladies and gentlemen, unfortunately, we may have just witnessed a despicable m*rder tonight.”