Not a detective

Page 22

"The spiderweb surrounds you on all sides, but you are actually the one sitting in the center. Beneath the tattered wings of the caught butterfly, eight long legs with deadly poison are hidden..."

“What’s the point of saying anything now?” the spider spoke, her voice hoarse and grating, like glass scraping across a blackboard: “You’ve been caught.”

The boy seemed to snap out of his daze, looked at her and smiled: "Sorry, I wasn't talking to you."

The spider froze. This was her nest, and she was certain there was no one else in this space.

"If these are your last words... then I will remember them for you."

The attack is coming.

　It wasn't spider silk as you might imagine, but a throwing knife.

The throwing knife sliced ​​through the dark air; in such a visible field of vision, it should have been an unavoidable fatal blow, yet it missed its mark.

The next second, the boy appeared beside her.

"...You!" The spider exclaimed in surprise, disappearing into thin air. However, the other party did not chase after it, but instead stared at the computer screen.

"I see."

The boy suddenly realized and said, "It seems I was right... You really are. The two things are indeed connected."

Then, he turned and looked at the Spider Woman who had appeared in the distance:

"Should I call you—Weaver Pearl?"

...

Five minutes ago, Asakawa Riku was inexplicably teleported here.

He realized in an instant that it was the "earth spider" attacking.

But unlike what he had expected, there was no spider silk binding him, nor was he suspended in the air; he was simply teleported here in an instant.

There was no time to react or struggle; it was as if the transfer was completed in the blink of an eye.

"...!"

Upon arriving in this unfamiliar, dark space, he did not panic. Instead, he regained his footing and grasped the "center of gravity" of the new plane.

He might be nervous before an event, but once he enters battle mode, Asakawa Riku becomes a completely different person.

This is the basic skill required to be a martial artist.

He used his breath to perceive everything around him, including his five senses—eyes, ears, nose, and so on—and quickly scanned the area.

It was ultimately determined that this was a closed room of approximately 100 square meters.

There were no doors or windows, only vents and drainage pipes in the corners, but neither was large enough for a person to pass through.

This is a bizarre "locked room," and you read that right—this is the "perfect locked room" from a detective novel.

Asakawa Riku wasn't nervous. He wasn't afraid of not being able to escape, since as long as the wall wasn't too thick, reinforced concrete wasn't impenetrable.

But he also sensed other presences.

That was another "person".

In this room, besides the spider monster, there are seven other different people, scattered in different corners.

None of them were awake; they lay sprawled on the ground, very young, their uniforms filthy and stinking.

The uniform was a color that Asakawa Riku recognized.

Four men and three women were not dead; they still had heartbeats and were breathing. They had thick iron chains around their necks and old strangulation marks on their throats.

The iron chain is the real "spider web".

So that's how it is. These people must be the victims from back then. Their pale and exhausted faces make it almost impossible to see the youthful vitality they had in the photos.

The senior students of Asakawa Riku were kidnapped and brought here.

“I’m glad they’re still alive.” He smiled, looking at the spider. “Did you give them sleeping pills?”

He deliberately increased the volume, and sure enough, no one woke up.

"Fine, I don't want to draw attention to myself, I don't want them to remember that I was here, and I don't want them to see anything too bloody."

"What...what are you talking about! How can you be so indifferent!"

The spider was angered by his flippant tone.

"Because I'm very disappointed."

Asakawa Riku looked at her, a hint of pity in his eyes: "You're actually human."

"If I'm like this, can you even call yourself human?!"

The spider screamed shrilly, making her voice even more unpleasant, and her extra limbs writhed and shook, looking extremely eerie.

In an instant, a hand snapped its fingers, with a "snap".

At that moment, Asakawa Riku lost his sense of distance.

He appeared in another "location," facing a spider woman wielding a dagger and slashing at him. It wasn't that the woman was charging at him; rather, he was being pulled towards her.

There were no invisible spider webs... no movement process, it was just a flash.

Asakawa Riku calmly pondered, he waved his hand to deflect the opponent's attack, disarming and disarming him in one fluid motion, transforming his hand into a palm and generating a gust of wind to push the opponent away.

But then the snapping sound rang out again, his palm pushed against the air, and the Spider Woman's body disappeared, no longer in sight.

I didn't see her dodge.

He was confident that even if he missed, there was no move that could completely escape his notice.

It has disappeared.

From a distance behind, that sharp, piercing laughter rang out, eerie and terrifying, like a ghost in the darkness:

"At this point, do you still consider me human, naive boy?"

"Let me tell you, I am a [Superpowered Person], and my ability is [Position Swap]."

The Spring of the Earth Spider: Chapter Thirty-Eight - A Sudden Beginning of Deduction

"I can swap the positions of any two items, as long as they are visible to me or have been marked by me."

Asakawa Riku rushed over, but just as he was about to punch her, the distance between them widened again.

I was forced to retreat, and in an instant the other person was several meters away from me again. I was pulled to the far end of the room, with my back against the wall.

If a normal person is suddenly moved to a different position, they will definitely fall hard to the ground.

But he reacted quickly, taking a step to regain his balance.

"Superpowers... I've always envied people who actually have such abilities."

"You envy me for turning into such an ugly monster!"

The words stung the Spider Woman, who roared in fury.

“It’s not your appearance that’s ugly, it’s your heart,” Asakawa Riku calmly replied. “You’ve kidnapped innocent students, including me.”

"You...you can't even be considered innocent?" the Spider Woman sneered. "If it weren't for your letter, I really wouldn't have been able to move you here."

A letter? Does it refer to a love letter?

So, she had already marked it back then.

Asakawa Riku suddenly understood why this room was so strange. It was completely enclosed by cement walls on all four sides, with no doors or windows, and he didn't know if it was above ground or underground.

Because of Spider Woman's ability to transfer things from the outside world, not only people, but also food and other items should be able to be transported in.

Asakawa Riku wasn't in a hurry to grab her, because there was no point in rushing.

The room was filled with a lot of clutter and garbage, scattered haphazardly on the floor. No wonder it smelled terrible; it felt like a garbage dump.

This is why Spider-Woman can perfectly utilize her "swap" ability to teleport freely within the room, and she can use everything to make a swap.

Like a spider web that serves only her needs, this is her natural nest, her home turf.

When Riku Asakawa wants to run or sprint, he also has to be careful not to step on trash, which will definitely slow him down.

If you rush in, the distance will be created again, or the opponent will flash away. If you continue like this, you will only be kited and toyed with.

Perhaps the only way to solve this problem is to burn it all down.

"If only I knew how to cast fireball," he thought to himself jokingly.

Unfortunately, he didn't smoke and didn't even have a lighter on him.

Therefore, we are currently in an awkward stalemate.

Asakawa Riku cannot harm the Spider Woman, but similarly, the Spider Woman cannot harm him.

Although the flying knives were fast, they couldn't pierce his body at all. Even if he used the power of "Exchange" to temporarily change their trajectory and direction, the blades still couldn't break through his defenses.

In just a few minutes, he was dodged several times and blocked several more times with a wave of his hand. Not a single trace of blood could be seen on the skin where Asakawa Riku was slashed.

It's just the realm of "indestructible diamond".

"Can't you switch the dagger with my internal organs? If you can't, you can't defeat me."

Asakawa Riku's calm tone sent chills down one's spine.

If it weren't for Spider Woman's ability to retrieve the throwing knives using "Swap," they probably would have been thrown away long ago.

"What kind of monster are you?!"

Gradually, her tone revealed fear.

The woman realized that the boy in front of her possessed terrifying defense and strength; he was practically a human armored vehicle.

If he gets close, your arm will be twisted off in an instant! Because of this instinctive fear, the two of them have always kept a distance that feels like a ghost grabbing at someone.

Asakawa Riku tried several times to suddenly change speed, and even jumped over walls to sprint back, but he still couldn't catch her.

The prerequisite for activating this capability seems to be "snapping one's fingers".

This is much simpler than clapping... He can't get close to the other person at this speed.

The two were locked in a stalemate, going around in circles with each other.

"Well, since I'm just killing time anyway, I'll do some reasoning."

"you……!"

"Listen to me, you can't stop me from talking anyway."

Asakawa Riku laughed shamelessly, seemingly trying to provoke the other party in order to find a weakness.

He stopped looking at the spider woman and turned to the only piece of "furniture" in the middle of the room: the computer screen glowing with fluorescent light.

"I see it. On your screen, it's the back-end page for Vtuber Orizumi Tama."

Asakawa Riku pointed there: "It's a good thing you weren't live-streaming, otherwise our conversation would have been overheard by a lot of people."

"I don't know what you're talking about... I just opened it randomly..."

The Spider Woman's terrifying growl was clearly a sign of resistance and denial.

"That's impossible. After all, only the account holder can log in to this page. Judging from your appearance, you're probably not an employee of the company or a streamer's agent or anything like that."

Asakawa Riku quickly retorted: "You're the person behind that virtual YouTuber, right... but what I find strange is that your voice is completely different from hers."

Spider Woman's voice was hoarse and shrill; even with the most advanced voice changer, it couldn't be disguised as that cute girl's voice.

"It sounds awful... Haha, I know, no one would like my real voice." She nervously pulled at her hair, more and more strands falling out; she was about to go crazy.

“I didn’t say ‘it’s unpleasant to hear,’ I just said ‘it’s different.’”

Asakawa Riku made an unnecessary explanation, and then continued:

“Yesterday, I came across a case related to Vtuber Orizumi Tama. Now that I think about it, it may have been fate or someone guiding me in the dark. Out of curiosity, I watched a few more of her videos last night and found that she is not doing her work alone. She has a group under her name, and there are a total of seven people in the group.”

"These seven people are all quite popular. Even the boy with the fewest fans has more than 10 followers. They take turns streaming, seven nights a week without stopping. Maybe it's because they have a strong sense of youth. I don't really understand what Vtuber is, but anyway, this group is very popular and loved."

"But I often see a comment in the comments section of their videos: 'Why haven't you guys ever collaborated?'"

"By the way, 'collaboration' means two streamers you know doing a live stream together, like chatting or playing games together... I don't think you need me to explain that."

"I was curious and did some research to find out what happened. The seven people replied that they were 'very busy with their studies, so they shared the work of the live stream.' To the fans, this probably means they were being dedicated to playing the role of students. But as an outsider, I have a bold guess."

"These seven streamers clearly know each other, yet they deliberately haven't appeared together, which is strange. Besides, their voices are all very young, not like they're faking it..."