45: Give me twenty hours, and I'll create a devil.

"Absurd! This is utterly preposterous!"

Director Qian, who was from the Provincial Department, was the first to snap out of his shock.

His face turned a purplish red from anger and the affront to his authority!

"Falsifying the case details! Fabricating a suspect! Do you even know what kind of behavior this is? This is a crime! It's breaking the law while fully aware of it!"

He pointed at Chen Mo's nose, spitting everywhere.

"Director Zhou! What are you waiting for! Immediately restrain him! This is an open challenge to our judicial system!"

Director Zhou's face was paler than the wall.

His brain was completely shut down, like an engine filled with cement.

Reason told him that Director Qian was right; Chen Mo's plan was like dancing on a cliff edge!

But his intuition—the intuition forged over thirty years in law enforcement, having witnessed countless evils of human nature—was screaming madly: Believe him!

Chen Mo ignored the roaring Director Qian.

He simply turned around and looked calmly at Director Zhou with eyes burning with cold fire.

"Director Zhou."

His voice was utterly flat.

"You have two choices."

"First, listen to him, cut off the network, turn Jiangcheng into an information isolated island, and then watch as 'The Emperor' freely selects his next prey in our dark hunting ground. It could be Wang Fugui, or it could be... you."

"Second."

He held up two fingers stained black with blood.

"Give me twenty hours and the highest authorization. I will give him, and this city, a target that can draw all the fire."

"I will give him a... devil who deserves death more than anyone else."

Director Qian was trembling with rage: "Madman! You are a complete and utter lunatic!"

Director Zhou did not speak.

He looked at Chen Mo's face, young yet etched with weariness, and at his eyes that seemed capable of seeing through people's hearts.

Then he looked down at the blood-red, relentlessly ticking countdown on his phone.

[19:47:16]

He suddenly closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, the eyes that were usually full of authority held nothing but the desperate resolve of a man burning his boats!

"Director Qian."

He spoke slowly, his voice hoarse as if rubbed with sandpaper.

"I request that you and your team temporarily... observe from here."

Director Qian's eyes widened sharply; he could not believe his ears!

"Zhou Hai! Do you know what you are doing! I will report this to the Provincial Department! I will—"

"Do as you wish."

Director Zhou cut him off. He turned to Chen Mo and said, word by word:

"I give you twenty hours."

"All resources of the Municipal Bureau are at your disposal."

"I have only one request."

"Don't let this city turn into hell."

Chen Mo nodded.

He spun around abruptly, pointing at the whiteboard covered in sins like a commanding general!

"Begin!"

... The entire command center.

It instantly transformed into a high-speed, precision machine for manufacturing lies!

"Captain Su! I need a prototype!"

Chen Mo's voice rang out clearly amidst the noisy clatter of keyboards.

"A social outcast who suddenly vanished twenty years ago, around the time of the family massacre on Haitang Road, someone with no family and no friends!"

"Received!"

Su Qingxue's fingers became streaks of light on the keyboard!

Massive archives of missing persons rolled down the screen in front of her like a waterfall!

"Found him!"

In less than three minutes, she locked onto a target!

"Lin Yuan! Male! 23 years old at the time! Orphan! A temporary worker at a scrap metal recycling station near No. 13, Haitang Road! Solitary personality, slight tendency toward violence! Disappeared on the third day after the incident!"

"Perfect!"

Chen Mo's eyes lit up!

"Li Ke! Give me his ID number! I need you to... resurrect him!"

"Received!"

A sickly flush appeared on Li Ke's face, and his fingers danced like sprites on a piano!

"Infiltrate the household registration system! Change his status to 'Fugitive'!"

"Infiltrate the education system! Fabricate a record for him showing he dropped out due to psychological illness!"

"Infiltrate... the transportation system! Add a record of him buying a long-distance bus ticket toward the border fifteen years ago!"

One by one, fabricated pieces of data were injected like a virus into the nation's core databases!

The phantom named "Lin Yuan" was slowly being given flesh and blood!

"Li Hu!"

"Here!"

"I need a face!" Chen Mo shouted. "Use his twenty-year-old ID photo, combine it with AI technology, and generate an image of what he looks like now at forty-three! He must be haggard! He must be sinister! He must look like a devil burdened by countless blood debts!"

"Yes!"

Li Hu rapidly operated the computer. A blurry black and white photograph in his hands slowly began to sharpen, becoming... ferocious!

Director Qian and his team.

They stood there like statues hit by a petrification spell, staring blankly at the madness unfolding before them.

They watched this young man named Chen Mo, who, like a manic director, commanded his team to conjure a... monster out of thin air.

This had surpassed their understanding of the profession of "police."

This was more like... a meticulously planned, world-class scam!

"It's not enough!"

Chen Mo's eyes were bloodshot!

"A resume alone is not enough! We need... evidence!"

"Captain Su! Re-examine all the physical evidence from the Severed Finger Nursery Rhyme case! I need you to 'find' a fingerprint belonging to Lin Yuan among that old evidence!"

"Forensics team! Use Lin Yuan's voice sample to synthesize a recording of his... confession! I need him to personally admit that he killed those children!"

"Publicity department! Contact all the media outlets under our control! I need the name 'Lin Yuan' to appear on every news push notification in Jiangcheng within one hour!"

Time ticked by, second by second.

In the command center, there was only the clatter of keyboards and the suppressed, excited low roars rising and falling.

[12:00:00]

[08:00:00]

[04:00:00]

When the clock pointed to the final hour of the countdown.

Everything was ready.

A massive net woven from countless lies had quietly been cast.

A photo of a middle-aged man, AI-processed to look sinister and insane.

A sickeningly detailed "criminal file" linking all the cold cases together.

A manipulated "murderer's confession" filled with remorse and madness.

And a deeply reported article, personally written by Su Qingxue, full of inflammatory and emotionally charged language, titled: The Devil Beneath the Abyss: Unmasking Jiangcheng's Serial Killer Lin Yuan.

"Team Leader Chen..."

Li Hu's voice held a trace of a tremor.

"It's all... ready."

Chen Mo slowly walked up to the main console.

He looked at the man named "Lin Yuan" on the screen, this devil he had personally created, who carried all the sin and fear of the city.

Slowly, he raised his hand.

"Release it."

"Yes!"

Li Hu pressed the Enter key.

It was as if Pandora's Box had been opened!

In an instant!

This carefully manufactured "truth" swept across the entirety of Jiangcheng like a nuclear blast of the information age!

All mobile news apps, all social media platforms, all local forums... were brutally flooded with the name "Lin Yuan"!

[Shocking! Mastermind of the Severed Finger Nursery Rhyme Case Identified! It's a Ghost Killer Who Fled Twenty Years Ago!]

[Devil Among Us! Serial Killer Lin Yuan's Confession Tape Exposed! Content Is Horrifying!]

[One Chart to Understand Lin Yuan's Sinful Life!]

Rage!

Fear!

Hatred!

All the negative emotions suppressed in the hearts of the citizens found a perfect outlet at this moment!

The entire city erupted!

In the command center.

Everyone held their breath, staring intently at the blood-red countdown that was still ticking.

[00:05:00]

[00:04:00]

... [00:00:01]

[00:00:00]

Time's up!

*Buzz—!*

Everyone's phone across the city vibrated simultaneously again!

The black [Human Court] App automatically popped up!

A cold, emotionless electronic synthesized voice echoed in every corner of the city!

[The First Trial has officially begun.]

On the screen, the defendant's profile picture slowly appeared.

It wasn't any high official they had worried about, nor was it any celebrity.

It was the ferocious face of "Lin Yuan," the one they had created with their own hands!

[Defendant: Lin Yuan]

[Charges: ...]

The charges listed below were exactly the same as those Chen Mo had written on the whiteboard!

It worked!

They succeeded!

They used a lie to deceive the devil who thought he was God!

In the command center.

A wave of suppressed, relieved cheering erupted, like people surviving a catastrophe!

Director Qian's face had completely lost its color; he stared at Chen Mo as if he were looking at a god.

However, there was no trace of joy on Chen Mo's face.

He was just staring intently at the screen.

Just then!

On the App's interface.

Slowly, another window popped up—one that no one had anticipated.

A blood-red window, carrying a hint of mockery.

[For this trial, a mysterious 'Chief Prosecutor' has been specially invited to bring charges against the defendant Lin Yuan.]

[Now, let us welcome...]

A profile picture slowly emerged.

Everyone present recognized that face.

Su Qingxue's body suddenly went rigid!

Zhao Dahai's pupils abruptly contracted!

That face.

It belonged to someone who should have already been dead.

Someone who had ended his own life in a warehouse with a sinister smile.

Gao Fan!

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