This demonstrates two things. First, everyone received a different invitation letter; at the very least, only the police station received an invitation marked with “outstanding investigation and detection skills.”

　　In this way, the background the bureau fabricated for him wasn’t a waste of effort, and he wouldn’t be deliberately watched by the suspects.

　　Second, it basically confirms that the Paradise is a neutral organization and does not favor Joe James’s side.

　　“Are you sure, buddy?” The American glanced at him. “After buying this, you’ll only be able to choose between weapon equipment and a healing card.”

　　“You’ve seen the environment we’re in. We’ll definitely have to enter the city for operations later. If only one person can communicate and the others just stammer, it’ll definitely arouse suspicion.” Michael Bolton deliberately avoided mentioning solving the case. “Besides, with so many case files, how long would it take for him to go through them all by himself? I think Miss Clark is right. Since we’re a team, we should divide the work and cooperate. If you’re in charge of force, I can handle logistics.”

　　“Suit yourself.” Joe James didn’t say anything more.

　　Very soon, Michael Bolton ate the translation tofu he had exchanged for and looked at the case files again. The handwriting on the manuscript seemed to twist and change, finally reorganizing itself into Chinese that he could fully understand!

　　“How is it?” the others asked.

　　“It’s... effective.” Michael Bolton muttered, though his astonishment went far beyond that. He knew this was definitely not a simple translation, because with just a blink, he could see that the document itself hadn’t changed at all. The writing wasn’t an image floating before his eyes, but rather, after he fully understood the text, his subconscious automatically converted it! In other words, he truly comprehended the language in an instant!

　　Even in a simulation game... this shouldn’t be possible, right?

　　Michael Bolton couldn’t help but steal a glance at the host.

　　What kind of organization is this Paradise, really? How do they possess such astonishing technology? If this learning technology were applied to education or industry, it would surely spark a new wave of development, but they’re just using it to make money from the rich. He really couldn’t understand this.

　　Michael Bolton vaguely realized that perhaps the Paradise itself was far more important than the case—this was no longer something a police station or even Interpol could handle. He had to remember everything he saw and make sure to report it after the game ended!

　　For now, his top priority was to play his role well.

Chapter 13: Perverse Crime

　　“So, did you two figure out what’s written here?” In less than five minutes, Joe James impatiently asked.

　　“It seems to be about a murder case,” Michael Bolton pondered, “and it’s a serial crime. The person who wrote these files not only collected the scene details at the time, but also added all sorts of miscellaneous information, probably gathered from asking around.”

　　Unfortunately, by criminal investigation standards, this content was too scattered and superficial, with almost no analytical value.

　　This shows the recorder was not a professional.

　　“There’s also a bag of photos here,” said David Carter from the side.

　　“Oh? Let’s see them.” The American perked up immediately. After all, he hadn’t taken the translation tofu and could only stare blankly at the written records. But photos were different—everyone could analyze pictures.

　　The photos were quickly distributed to everyone.

　　They were clearly taken with the most basic film camera—not only were they black and white, but the resolution was also quite poor. But what was invigorating was that the content was undoubtedly a crime scene. Aside from the gruesome victims, you could also see a bit of the surrounding environment.

　　“This person... is really a pervert.” Ethan Clark frowned.

　　The deceased were clearly not in a natural state at the time of death—not only had they been disemboweled, but the killer had deliberately arranged them, twisting their limbs and bodies into bizarre poses. To do this required not only tremendous strength to break bones, but also a lot of time to set up the scene. This was enough to show the killer was extremely arrogant—if this were another world, it would be a blatant provocation to law enforcement.

　　“I can tell, this guy definitely isn’t killing for money or anything else,” Anthony agreed. “He’s completely enjoying himself... like a hunter relishing the chase.”

　　“So... the goal of the game is to find him, then kill him?” Jason Taylor said as he looked toward the host. “Do we have any tracking skills? Like being able to see unique footprints, or smell blood or something—” He suddenly froze. “Wait, where’s the host?”

　　At some point, the spot where the host had been standing was now empty.

　　“He’s hiding, I guess.” David Carter was much calmer, having played plenty of games. “Didn’t he say at the start that all clues and content are recorded in the pages? So what we do next is probably entirely up to us—there shouldn’t be any more extra hints.”

　　“We’re supposed to catch the killer with just this stuff?” Taylor spread his hands. “I get that the game needs realism, but honestly, even if Paradise put the killer’s photo right in front of us, it’d still be hard to find the right person in such a big city, wouldn’t it?”

　　Everyone fell silent at those words.