“In the paradise, everyone can enjoy unparalleled sensory stimulation and an entirely new cognitive experience. Not only can you gain generous rewards from the game, but your life and destiny will also undergo a complete transformation. Whether that change is for better or worse is entirely up to you.”

　　“Paradise awaits your arrival.”

　　“Awesome!” Edward Cooper couldn’t help but shout out in the international lingua franca. “This can’t even be called a provocation anymore—how is this any different from slapping a challenge right in our faces?”

　　“What does ‘investigation and detection skills’ mean? Are they planning to have us participate as well?”

　　“You guys can’t figure out where this letter came from?”

　　“No, the gateway has no data records. It’s as if it just suddenly appeared in the inbox.” The voice of a colleague from the intelligence division came through the screen; clearly, they were also at their wits’ end. “We’ve already cut off the external network connection and are running a backdoor virus scan.”

　　“So can we sign up now?” Edward Cooper asked with great interest.

　　“In theory, there’s no problem. The email is currently in a virtual quarantine.”

　　“Go ahead and try clicking it.” Robert Harris instructed.

　　The intelligence division complied. The red-and-black gate slowly opened, and a proper registration form appeared before everyone’s eyes.

　　“Uh… is that it?” Edward Cooper couldn’t help but say.

　　In fact, that was what everyone was thinking—when the image was still, it was fine, but as soon as it moved, its shoddy production was completely exposed. The rough textures, the choppy, frame-skipping door-opening effect—let alone a seasoned programmer, even a college student in a related field could do better than this. And the registration form was clearly made in PowerPoint; if typed by hand, it wouldn’t take more than three minutes.

　　There was no doubt that a company like Caribbean could never produce such a cheap product.

　　“It feels just like a small company’s job application…” a detective couldn’t help but say.

　　“Someone’s messing with us on purpose, aren’t they?”

　　“Xiao Zhang, what do you think?” Robert Harris called out directly.

　　Michael Bolton, though only in his twenties, was highly capable and fluent in several languages. Since being transferred to Interpol, he had made repeated contributions and was highly valued by his superiors, so it was no surprise that Old Harris would ask him.

　　“To be honest… I don’t know.” He scratched his head, a bit helpless. After all, something this absurd hadn’t happened in his entire career—or even in the entire police department’s case files. “But there’s one thing I think we need to pay attention to: we shouldn’t assume in advance that the Paradise organization is connected to Wayne Janster. He did participate in the game, but he also took the Heart of the Ocean cruise. We can’t just assume the entire Caribbean company is involved. With that premise, it’s actually worth digging deeper.” “Mm, go on.”

　　“There’s something else I’m concerned about,” Michael Bolton said thoughtfully. “If you fill out a few of these forms with three fake and one real, the worst that happens is one person’s basic info gets leaked. But since the other side could easily get the email in, getting our surface-level information shouldn’t be hard for them. Look…” He pointed at the screen. “It doesn’t even ask for job titles or positions, nor does it involve any case details—just height, gender, and so on. It feels a bit like a psychological manipulation trick.”

　　“Psychological manipulation? How so?” Old Harris asked.

　　“When our department interrogates especially stubborn suspects, the officers start with simple questions that are easy to answer, so the suspect gradually lets down their guard,” Michael Bolton explained. “Questions like what day of the week it is, or what they had for dinner. After a few rounds, the suspect subconsciously becomes more compliant.”

　　“Bold move—so this is a test of our compliance!” Edward Cooper slapped the back of her chair.

　　“That’s not the key point,” he continued. “We get suspects to comply because we need their testimony—in other words, there’s a certain level of cooperation between both sides. So what is Paradise trying to achieve with this? After all, if it was just for fun or provocation, they wouldn’t need to go this far.”

　　His words left everyone deep in thought.

　　Robert Harris was the first to speak. “So that’s why you said we shouldn’t assume Paradise is connected to Wayne Janster. Makes sense… But if they want to discuss something with us, they’re making a huge mistake. Hacking into a government network is already a crime. As soon as we find out where these people are, I’ll make sure they’re brought to justice!”

　　“Absolutely,” Michael Bolton agreed. “We can give it a try—sign up while the cyber intelligence team traces the signal and contacts police in other regions to set up a blockade. Even if we can’t catch Wayne Janster, at least we might figure out what he did at the last gathering.”

　　“Should we send someone to check with Zhou Zhi’s side?” Edward Cooper suggested.

　　“Keep an eye on him for now. We don’t know if he’ll participate in the second game, so it’s best not to alert him,” Robert Harris decided after some thought. “If he continues to participate, we leave him alone. If he doesn’t make a move, then when the game starts, we’ll approach him directly and ask about the first gathering. Though I have a feeling he won’t be able to help us much.” At this, Old Harris stood up. “Alright, everyone… let’s move.”

　　“Yes, sir!” everyone responded in unison.

　　…