76: Chapter 76 The Importance of Knowledge

The next day.

After finishing breakfast, Yang Bai took his two subordinates, left the hotel, and walked on the streets of Zhatie City.

Not long after, Yang Bai smelled a strange scent of gunpowder smoke; he felt as though he had smelled this scent somewhere before.

"Have you heard? I never expected such a tragedy to happen in the South District."

"I heard thousands died. It's truly terrifying."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, who's to say otherwise? After killing everyone, they set a huge fire, leaving no remains behind, making it impossible to even track them."

"It's not just the South District; a tragedy also occurred in the wealthy area of the West District, where four members of the Star Sea Alien Race, along with their servants, were all killed."

...

On the street, gods and their kin in bizarre attire were whispering to each other, seemingly discussing something.

Yang Bai's hearing was quite good; listening from the side, he managed to grasp the gist of it.

It seemed that yesterday, both the South and West Districts were attacked by monsters, resulting in many deaths, which was a major disaster for Zhatie City.

The South and West Districts were gathering places for gang-affiliated gods and the Star Sea Alien Race; usually, there were always minor frictions, but they were always within a controllable range.

Yang Bai shrugged and said luckily, "Oh my, how dangerous. Fortunately, I live in the East District."

After taking a short walk, spiritual energy rose beneath Yang Bai's feet, and he flew through the air toward the New Hope ship leasing company.

Meanwhile.

In an office on the top floor of the Star Sea Security and Inspection Bureau in Zhatie City.

Beside a long office desk sat five uniformed Second-Order Deities, and opposite them were three arrogant-looking members of the Star Sea Alien Race.

In the Star Sea, not all Star Sea monsters were enemies of humanity; among them were many intelligent races that would befriend humans and even coexist and cooperate with them.

Humans called such Star Sea aliens the "Star Sea Alien Race."

The "Star Sea Alien Race" members who came this time were a blonde, green-eyed male elf, a kobold with pure white fur, and a bearded dwarf wearing dark gold robes.

Eugene took a golden comb out of his pocket, meticulously groomed his beard, and said coldly:

"Everyone, you are all high-level security officials of Zhatie City. I hope you can give me a reasonable explanation regarding the tragedy that occurred yesterday."

The director of the Inspection Bureau stood up and said with his head lowered:

"Lord Eugene, we have already arranged for the Inspection Division to survey the scene. I imagine we will be able to find traces of the perpetrators very soon."

The dwarf Eugene represented Xiju Mining, which was the leading enterprise in all of Zhatie City; even this Star Sea Security and Inspection Bureau was established by Xiju Mining.

Viscount Slan slammed the table and shouted, "I don't care how many people died or how much money was lost. I just want to ask one question: how is my daughter, Aesaria, right now?"

"Mr. Slan, after the accident occurred, we immediately arranged personnel to protect Ms. Aesaria. But as the report states, Ms. Aesaria may have met with misfortune."

The director wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. He truly couldn't believe what kind of evildoers could sneak into the heavily guarded noble district and directly attack those nobles among the Star Sea Alien Race.

If this went wrong, it would be a diplomatic issue.

The dwarf and the elf both spoke up, and the kobold that looked like a husky opened its dog mouth, only to be glared back by the director.

They all had backgrounds; how dare a mere dog from a fallen nation bark?

"Impossible! As long as this 'Emerald Tree Heart' is still glowing, it means Aesaria is not dead yet. You must go find her immediately; you must bring my little Aesaria back alive."

Viscount Slan's green magic surged, and he said aggressively.

Eugene tapped his finger heavily on the table and said seriously, "Slan, give me some face and don't get excited."

Viscount Slan heard the threat in Eugene's tone, snorted, and then stopped speaking.

Eugene crossed his hands, a golden light flashed in his eyes, and he said:

"Chen Hanqin, the incident was discovered in the early hours of last night, and it is already 8 o'clock on the second day. In 8 hours, can you not find a single clue about the mastermind behind this?"

Chen Hanqin took out a handkerchief, wiped the cold sweat from his neck, and said tremblingly:

"Lord Eugene, that group of thugs was well-trained and possessed extremely high counter-reconnaissance awareness. After killing the people and looting the valuables, they immediately set the entire crime scene on fire."

"All traces were baked away; there isn't a single trace left."

"This fire is very strange; the ignition point cannot even be found. The flames seemed to appear out of thin air. Not only that, the temperature of the flames was extremely high; combat robots with tungsten steel armor were baked into lumps of iron..."

Chen Hanqin spoke faster and more fluently, as if everything had nothing to do with him and he was truly helpless.

And listening to his words, the golden light in Eugene's eyes grew more intense.

Before Chen Hanqin could finish speaking, he stumbled and fell to the ground. Upon closer inspection, one of his legs had turned into gold.

Eugene stood up and said in a deep voice, "Trash, since you can't find the enemy, then be a scapegoat."

"No, no."

Chen Hanqin dragged his golden left leg and crawled toward the door.

Just then, the door opened, and a researcher in a white lab coat walked in, excitedly saying, "Great, there's a clue! My god, Director Chen, what happened to you?"

"Director Wang, you came just in time."

Chen Hanqin, as if grabbing a straw, clutched Wang Chen's trouser leg tightly, weeping and saying.

Wang Chen asked in confusion, "What is this situation?"

"Don't worry about the situation, just bring out the clues you found," the deputy director couldn't help but say.

Eugene narrowed his eyes and said seriously, "Little brother, don't rush. Tell me, what is the clue?"

"Oh, oh, oh!"

Wang Chen opened his subspace bracelet and took out a medium-sized device similar to a gramophone, along with a dozen or so scorched black glass blocks.

Under the puzzled gazes of everyone, Wang Chen said:

"That group of perpetrators planned thoroughly and had meticulous minds. That fire was indeed set with skill; people were burned to ash, machinery was burned to liquid, and even souls couldn't be summoned back."

"However, even so, they still forgot one thing, and that is sound."

"The principle of a gramophone is to use the vibrations of sound to leave special sound waves on a carrier, and then use a stylus to trace across the sound waves to produce sound."

Wang Chen pointed to the scorched black glass blocks and said:

"These are all glass from the disaster scene. Under extreme heat, this glass was all softened and became a carrier for sound. It recorded the sound waves of the victims and the explosion at the scene. As long as we operate this 'Sound Wave Playback Machine,' we can play back all the sound waves on this glass."