Fantasy Game: Infinite City

Chapter 549 Temporary Team (2)

Liz, who had not yet figured out what was going on, was so shocked by the strange scene that she forgot to speak. Frank was better. Although he was also shocked, he forced his attention back to Adenauer. He put away the two submachine guns, walked around herself and Liz behind the kitchen bar, took a meat cleaver and a boning knife from the knife rack, then returned to the corpse that looked exactly like Liz and squatted down.

"Crack!"

With just one stroke, Adenauer used the cleaver to chop off the head of the corpse, and then he carried the head and placed it on the chopping board on the other side of the kitchen bar. Then he continued to chop open the skull with the cleaver, threw it into the trash can, and then used a thinner boning knife to stir it up.

Frank had seen many murder scenes, including many by psychopathic killers, so he wasn't particularly impressed. However, Adenauer's actions had sobered him up considerably. Adenauer's actions didn't seem to be about satisfying his perverted desires, but rather about searching for something. Frank had no medical background, only common sense, so he had no idea what Adenauer was doing.

Liz, knowledgeable about forensic medicine and having worked with all sorts of corpses, actually found this scene much more normal than seeing someone who looked just like her. Her shock quickly wore off, and she couldn't help but move closer to Adenauer. She noticed that while Adenauer's movements weren't gentle, and were even a bit rough, he didn't grind the brain into a pulp. Instead, he dissected it with a professional and precise, though un-medical, approach.

"Ah, I found it."

Liz noticed that Adenauer had withdrawn the boning knife that had been thrust into the head. When the blade exited the head, something was hanging from the tip of the knife. Adenauer removed the object from the tip of the knife with his hand and threw the knife into the sink next to him.

"This is... an artificial Kaiba?!!"

However, of the two, Frank and Liz were the first to say what that thing was, not Liz, who had medical knowledge, but Frank. This surprised Adenauer.

"I thought Miss Lizzie would recognize it first. It seems you're not bad, Frank."

As for why Frank recognized it before Liz, it was actually a coincidence. Nine months prior, while on a business trip to another city, Frank had helped local police crack a human trafficking case involving several criminals involved in organ trafficking. Frank had been at the scene at the time, and one of the victims' skulls had been opened. A similar, though not identical, artificial hippocampus was found on a tray next to the body, apparently having been excavated from that corpse. Although the case had been solved, the artificial hippocampus had never been fully investigated. Since it wasn't a key component of the case, the local police department hadn't pursued the matter further. But Frank remembered it clearly.

"What on earth is going on? Why is there someone who looks exactly like me in my house??"

"This is... Have you heard of rumors or urban legends about synths?"

"I think I heard... Wait, you mean, that's not just a rumor, but true?!!"

Frank was fine. As a detective in his early thirties who was full of energy and passion (part of him), he was very tolerant of these weird and weird things, and was very interested in them. He was the kind of person who would deliberately find time to watch such things in his spare time. Although he was surprised, he did not react much.

But for Liz, who had some knowledge of medicine, this was a major event. Although she had heard rumors of synthetic humans, she hadn't previously believed they were real. After all, based on her understanding of medicine, and based on modern medicine, creating such a human was completely impossible. But now, things seemed completely different from what she had imagined. The artificial hippocampus was the real evidence. While modern medicine had similar devices, they were not as complete as this. To insert such a large object into the brain through nasal surgery was something that even ordinary doctors, even some of the most advanced doctors in the field, could not accomplish.

"Anyway, this is a synth. Its purpose is to kill Liz and replace her. However, I'm not sure what exactly this thing is going to do with this identity. And to be honest, I don't really care. But I can roughly guess that it probably wants to use your identity to contact or control Lugosi."

Liz was shocked and kept trying to process the news she had witnessed in her mind. Even when Adenauer walked in front of her, she did not react. However, Adenauer did not do anything. He just shook the artificial seahorse in front of Liz and then handed it to her.

Frank, who was relatively undeterred, wasn't idle either. He was using his instincts as a skilled detective to digest and comprehend the clues and information he had gathered. While Adenauer washed the blood off his hands in the kitchen sink, Frank successfully pieced together the clues and arrived at a conclusion that, while not entirely wrong, made perfect sense.

Based on what he knew so far about Adenauer, he was undoubtedly an extremely dangerous man, decisive and ruthless in his actions, but he wasn't a bloodthirsty individual. In fact, the fact that everyone who had seen him, save for the Norwegians, was still alive showed that Adenauer was extremely restrained in his killing. As he himself said, killing was a means to an end, not a hobby. Furthermore, his actions during this period had largely been designed to conceal his whereabouts, suggesting that he disliked drawing attention to himself. His methods of concealment were highly sophisticated. If he hadn't revealed himself, Frank knew it would have been extremely difficult to find Adenauer.

If that were the case, then Adenauer couldn't have gone on a killing spree in a densely populated town, especially one as overcrowded as a hospital. It's not that he couldn't have done it, but based on our current understanding of Adenauer, he wouldn't have done something so foolish and put himself in a passive position, unless for some reason, Adenauer absolutely had to kill these people. This would completely confirm that the surveillance footage leaked from the town was indeed fabricated by someone or some organization, and the truth of the matter would likely be very different from what was shown in the footage.

After Adenauer had killed the synth who had originally intended to take down Liz, he immediately knew where to look for evidence. This was clearly not his first encounter with synths. Combining this with Adenauer's massacre at the small town hospital, one can roughly infer why Adenauer went on a killing spree in the small town. It's likely because he encountered a large number of synths, and they threatened Adenauer's safety. Threatening someone like him was not a good idea. Furthermore, those synths were likely problematic.

Frank immediately thought that the bridge in the town that was blown up by someone was most likely caused by a problem with the synths in the town. Although Frank didn't know the specific reason, he could roughly guess based on similar horror movies he had seen in the past. So the bridge was blown up by someone else who knew the inside story, or the mastermind behind it, in order to prevent the situation in the town from spreading quickly. This also explains why the entire town is now out of contact.

If his speculation was correct, Frank believed Adenauer's identity was likely a cover. While he was certainly dangerous, perhaps his true identity wasn't a ruthless criminal, but rather a special investigator investigating the synths. This could also explain why Adenauer's movements, which should have been unknown, were suddenly revealed. It's possible that the organization behind the synths discovered Adenauer's true identity, or guessed something, and planned to deliberately restrain or even kill him. The individuals in the surveillance footage, dressed in police uniforms but far more skilled than them, were likely thugs or scavengers for this organization, likely sent to investigate the town, but eliminated by Adenauer. It's likely that they noticed Adenauer's unusual behavior at that time and targeted him. Therefore, they must have been monitoring Adenauer at least while he was still inside the town.

Then the reason why Adenauer was able to enter Oak City smoothly should be the work of the organization behind the scenes. They should have wanted to send their own people to secretly deal with Adenauer, but something may have happened that prevented them from succeeding, so they chose a backup plan and spread the news about Adenauer to let the police arrest him.

As for who this organization behind the scenes might be, or where it might be located, Frank had his own theories. The prison van was originally destined for Johor Bahru, and the news of Adenauer's murder and escape also came from Johor Bahru. Furthermore, many of Johor Bahru's actions regarding this matter were illogical. Although Frank couldn't completely confirm that this incident was definitely related to Johor Bahru, at least for now, Johor Bahru was the most likely suspect.

"Well, now that the synths have appeared, that proves... never mind. We should go. Time waits for no one."

"Wait a minute. You can cooperate with us, but I need to know something. If you can't give me the answers I want, then even if you kill both of us, we won't help you."

Looking at Frank's attitude, Adenauer nodded.

"Okay, what do you want to know?"

“What’s really going on in this small town?”

"Well, if I were to explain it in detail, it might take an hour or two. I don't want to waste that much time. After all, I still plan to..."

Just then, Liz spoke up.

"The highways leading to other places are being repaired. Oak City doesn't have a port, so you can't get to the airport. Your wanted poster has spread throughout the state, and Oak City in particular already knows you're nearby. Therefore, the security level at important places like the airport must have been raised to the highest standard. If you want to leave Oak City, you can only take the highway. You must have passed through Tunnel 78C to reach Oak City from the town, and it's now blocked, but even if it wasn't, you probably wouldn't have returned the same way. So, even if you're in a hurry, you can't leave until the repairs are completed. We have time. And I also need to clean up here. I don't want to leave a body with its head and body separated on my living room floor."

Frank and Liz had been observing Adenauer's actions, preparing for a sudden attack from him, but Adenauer's performance once again surprised them. He did not refute their statements, but cooperated quite well.

"That's right, I can't leave for the time being, but where should I start?"

"It's okay, but it's best to start from the moment you left the prison and boarded the prison van."

"Okay, I..."

Over the course of two hours, Adenauer recounted everything from his release from prison to his departure from the town. This essentially confirmed Frank's theory, though it wasn't much different from his own. However, he was still quite shocked to hear that the townspeople had gone berserk and that mutants had appeared. Adenauer seemed to be caught up in a shocking incident in the town, involving multiple forces. Compared to this, the Fabron case was merely a minor incident for Adenauer.

"Anyway, this is what happened. I know you may not believe it, but that's not my problem."

Seeing Frank struggling to digest the information, subconsciously chewing on the neck of his beer bottle, and Liz cleaning up the scene, Adenauer paused and decided to give them some time to digest. He pulled out the two submachine guns he'd obtained from the Norwegians and began cleaning them. By the time he finished and reloaded, Frank and Liz had also almost digested the information.

"So you were originally planning to go directly to New Mountain City? But why did you stop in Oak City?"

"The car needs gas, and didn't you tell me before? When I arrived near Oak City last night, the road leading to New Bahru was completely blocked by a landslide. I can't go any further, so I have to find a place to stay. I originally planned to find a motel, but all the motels in Oak City were full, so I had to go into the inner city to find a place to stay, so I just found a hotel."

"You weren't planning on staying at that hotel? Then how did you get involved with Fabron's affairs?"

Adenauer could not explain the real reason, so he made up a reasonable hypothesis.

"It was a complete coincidence. When I was leaving town, besides the guy who robbed the truck and was blown up by me, I also saw a car leaving town. Being able to drive meant there was no problem, so I didn't care at first. I originally just wanted to drive around Oak City to familiarize myself with the terrain, maybe it would be useful. But just as I was near the hotel, I happened to see an identical car driving into the hotel. I suspected that the car might have discovered my whereabouts, so I followed it into the hotel. It was during this time that I accidentally heard about Fabron from the hotel staff. Later, I found the car, but I found that the model of the car was different from the one I saw in town before. Although the shape and color were the same, it was not the one in town. My whereabouts had not been exposed at the time, and I happened to have nothing else to do, so I found out the cause of Fabron's death and then killed the murderers. You should be able to match up the situation after that."