The Daily Life Of A Cyberpunk Magician

Chapter 57 - 58 I thought it was just bronze
Chapter 57: Chapter 58 I thought it was just bronze”75 Xin’an Road, Unit 2, Room 205,” Wolf muttered as he stood in front of several residential buildings.

This was the old city district, near the slum, so it was far from peaceful.

The nearby crime rate was the highest in the Seventh District, which was why there was no surveillance.

Any installed cameras on the streets would be maliciously destroyed at night by masked Wanderers, as no gang members wanted to be caught on camera.

In the old city district, only homes or nearby areas had surveillance, because no one knew when someone might break in.

Just like now.

Wolf gestured for silence to Jiang Shu, then pulled out his service gun, slightly tilted his body, and peeked out from the staircase entrance.

The residential building was dilapidated, showing signs of decades of weathering. The walls graduated from black at the bottom to pale yellow above, the hallway was cluttered with various objects, but fortunately, there was no garbage leaking sloshy water.

Jiang Shu extended a small camera to look outside; it was calm, nothing unusual. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a playing card, and casually flipped it between his fingers.

”I’ll check it out; you stay here, don’t move,” said Wolf, turning back with a solemn face, unsure whether the studio apartment would be dangerous.

He might encounter the Deception Group or gangsters; either way, he could take a risk but saw no need to endanger Jiang Shu.

He had already sent his location to the police station—they could dispatch support quickly if anything happened.

”Mmm,” Jiang Shu nodded, standing still in the hallway, but as he pondered Wolf’s words, he felt somewhat offended.

A: I’m going to buy some oranges, you just stay here, don’t move.

Thinking it over, he reminded Wolf, ”Be careful, if you see a fox, don’t look at him and don’t listen to him speak.”

”Got it,” Wolf moved up the stairs, heading towards Unit 2, Room 205.

The door was an old, sturdy iron door, not using an electronic lock but a metal one.

Wolf hesitated for a moment, then fired two shots at the lock. His revolver, designed by the Huang Kong Group, had a large caliber that held only five rounds but packed significant power – three shots could kill an elephant, and the kinetic energy was comparable to a high-caliber sniper rifle within its range.

The recoil jolted Wolf’s wrist painfully as the revolver pressed against the lock, but it was effective; at least now the lock was smashed, the bullet stuck inside, and he could rip out the entire lock with a pull.

The action was loud, so Wolf quickly opened the door, glanced inside, but didn’t enter immediately; he waited, took the time to reload his revolver, and then tossed a shock bomb inside.

He had extensive combat experience, and not many made it to Police Chief on the frontline without being sharp.

Once the shock bomb exploded with a ”bang,” Wolf swiftly rushed in to search the premises, finding only an open window, but the studio apartment was already empty.

No, to be precise, there was one person left, a mutilated corpse.

It lay in the bathtub, soaked in a brownish-red liquid, the body appearing dissolved within it, with bits of red and white floating on the surface.

A whole tub of it looked quite appetizing.

”Corpse-dissolving Liquid...” Wolf muttered to himself, his brow furrowed as he witnessed the sight in the tub, but his extensive experience in criminal investigation made him resistant to such scenes.

Corpse-dissolving Liquid, also known as chromic acid solution, was among the few substances used to dissolve bodies.

An arm of the corpse rested on the edge of the bathtub, showing visible scratches likely from a small feline animal or a fox.

The fingerprints were dissolved, and more than half of the head was submerged in the solution, its features too damaged to easily identify.

No, it must be Jabba.

Looking at the bald head, Wolf made his judgment.

He walked out of the bathroom, shutting the door behind him, and took in everything in the room.

The living room table was piled high with takeaway boxes. He walked over and sifted through the order information; the most recent order was placed at noon two days ago.

Two days ago?

Wolf noted the detail and then, among the stacks of takeaway, he spotted a brown corner peeking out.

”This is...” he muttered, reacting quickly, ”this is the music box from New Moon Hall!”

But he didn’t dare to pull out the music box right away because he wasn’t wearing gloves and was afraid of smudging the fingerprints on it.

If the music box was here, if the dead person was Jabba, if Jabba was a member of the Deception Group, then what exactly had happened here?

A dispute over the spoils?

Impossible, the spoils were still here, and besides, that much cash from the previous robbery hadn’t caused any disputes.

Then what was the reason?

”Tap—” A soft footstep came from behind him, and he immediately turned around, pointing his gun in the direction of the sound.

At the door, Jiang Shu looked innocent, blinking his eyes and facing the gun barrel, he couldn’t help but raise his hands high in a French military salute.

”It’s you.” Wolf lowered his gun.

Jiang Shu pointed inside the room, ”Did you find anything?”

”I can almost confirm that Jabba was one of the members of the Deception Group, and also, there’s a body in the bathroom, possibly Jabba,” Wolf responded succinctly.

”A body?” Jiang Shu glanced towards the bathroom, which had its door shut.

”Don’t go in, I’m afraid you can’t handle it,” Wolf kindly warned him. Jiang Shu, without proper training, would definitely be left with psychological trauma from such a body.

”Cut it out, I don’t buy it.” Jiang Shu scoffed. He used to watch nasty horror films in his past life—it was just a mere body, right?

With that, he swung the door open.

Three seconds later, he mechanically turned around, mechanically shut the door, and looked at Wolf with a serious face.

”What’s wrong?” Wolf asked, puzzled.

Jiang Shu shook his head, quickly said a phrase, then closed his mouth again: ”Don’t talk to me, I feel like throwing up.”

”Told you so,” Wolf said helplessly. Just as he noticed a roll of trash bags on a nearby cabinet, he tore one off and handed it to Jiang Shu: ”Here, If you want to vomit, vomit it out.”

Jiang Shu grimly took the trash bag and walked outside to the hallway.

Beta: Yo.JPG.

Beta: Thought he was just a bronze, but he’s a stubborn bronze after all.

Before long, police personnel arrived at the apartment. They cleaned up the body at the scene and began gathering forensic evidence.

Other evidence at the scene was cleaned very thoroughly, with only a few remnants indicating minor details, such as the small one-bedroom apartment previously housing two people. However, something had likely changed about two days ago.

Furthermore, the music box on the table was a fake, merely a 3D-printed replica, and in a cabinet nearby, the police discovered a camera.

An old-style camera, identical to the one from the New Moon Hall scene.

Both items bore the same fingerprints, later confirmed to be Jabba’s.

In the bathtub, the police also found a bullet that seemed to have been lodged in the body. After the body dissolved, it fell into the bathtub.

The shooting was likely the cause of Jabba’s death.

The extent of dissolution of the body and the blunting of the bullet indicated that the body had only started to dissolve this morning, which raised a new question.