Three months later.

After 12 o'clock on New Year's Eve, Pavel listened to the countdown from the broadcast in an old alley, smiling while smoking. "Congratulations on finishing the task on the last day."

The person sitting on his passenger seat lowered his hat, holding the document in his hand. "Thank you for your hard work. It must be hard to find all these guns in Norgular in three months."

"Sort of. I'll appreciate you if I can have fewer hard tasks in the future." Pavel snuffed out the last bit of cigarette in his hand, saying, "We have 367 guns in total, among which we will know the result of the last one by tomorrow."

The person nodded. "Norgular won't be safe until we find them all. It's getting late. Go home and take some rest."

Pavel raised his eyebrow. "Not if you get off the car first."

The man asked, "Don't you worry that you may get yourself in trouble since you have the last gun with you?"

Pavel refuted, "Who dares to mess with me since I have you at my back?"

The man smiled helplessly. "Keep it then. If you finish your next job as perfectly as this one, I can get you a real one if you need."

On the first day of the new year, Pavel was used to sleeping in.

He heard the message sound at 10 o'clock in the morning, taking his phone from the bedside with his eyes closed. Opening it up, he found it was from his tenant Ben Miranda.

Pavel had two apartments in the Realm, so he rented one out. Since today was the day for him to collect the rent, Ben sent him the message and told him to take the money in his place.

"Can't he just transfer the money?" Pavel made a call impatiently, having no intention to go out at this time.

However, it said that the phone was turned off.

Pavel grabbed his untidy hair and sat up from the bed.

His skin was fair, seeming as transparent as white porcelain under the sunlight entering through the window at the moment.

Before leaving the apartment, Pavel took the cookies from his table because Ben's daughter, Alexis Miranda, liked eating them.

The girl was nice-looking and quiet, so he liked her.

Pavel left his apartment and went to Unit 13. When entering the 11th floor, he was surprised to find that the door of the only apartment on this floor wasn't closed.

Did Ben open the door so that Pavel could get in directly?

Pavel stepped in from the door, saying, "Alexis, I took you..." He smelt something like blood before he finished talking.

He felt sick all of a sudden. Stepping into the house, he saw what was going on in the well-lit room.

The computer table was full of blood, and the man lying on it was not moving.

Ben was dead.

Pavel didn't know what had happened until he went over and watched by himself. Someone had shot Ben from his forehead, so the blood and the brain had spilled all over the keyboard and the table.

"Alexis." Pavel squeezed his fingers and began to look for other people in the room.

He didn't find her in her bedroom, so he went to the master bedroom.

The door was open as well, but it was dark since the curtain was drawn. Pavel turned on the light on his phone and observed the wall, and then he found a woman lying on her back on the bed.

It was Ben's wife, Molly Miranda. It seemed like she suffered more than what Ben had experienced.

Pavel held his phone tighter around the coolness from all directions. Walking all over the apartment while frowning, he finally stopped on the side of the bed and bent over, uncovering the messy hair on the woman's face so that he could see the face.

Pavel withdrew his hand, took a deep breath, and looked at the wardrobe.

"Hello, I make the call to report a homicide case in the Realm..." Pavel rechecked the apartment after he finished the call.

He didn't see anyone fight here or any potential killer.

The Realm.

Around 10:15 a.m.

The homicide case was transferred from the criminal investigation division to the homicide division.

Danish stood in the study door, smelling the strong blood smell with a lollipop in his mouth. "How tricky they die before we solve the old cases. I have a bad hunch."

"Oh, shut up. Can't you say something nice?"

The woman who talked was the only female team member in the division, Nilesh Ridell, wearing a sexy one-piece tight wool dress in black. It was as if she was still in summer. With red lips, she looked around, seeming like she was looking for someone.

Danish teased in disdain, "You do like the homicide division, don't you?"

"You got a problem with that?" Nilesh looked sideways at him, "Whether you like it or not, Danish, you'd better shut up once Tristan shows up here."

"I got it that you love his poker face." Danish rested his hands on his hips, "Stupid."

Nilesh was speechless. "Can you stop being jealous?"

"Jealous?" Danish seemed annoyed. "The body should be immediately sent to the funeral home for autopsy, but he told us to put the body here. Is he a medical examiner or something? Are you telling me to wait for his arrival and deal with the case based on his bureaucratic theories?"

Nilesh refuted, "Why can't he? Didn't he solve the old case in the wedding store three months ago?"

Danish had nothing to say. Nilesh's eyes lit up at this time. She smoothed her hair and then walked toward Tristan, "Hi, Tris..." She didn't even have time to finish her greeting.

Tristan was in a police uniform, seeming like he was wearing a highly customized suit. He walked over as if he didn't see Nilesh at all.

The uniform wasn't supposed to be worn in public, so he must come over after a meeting.

Tristan's fair face looked gloomy. He asked emotionlessly, "Where is the first crime scene?"

Nilesh hurriedly withdrew her hand. "The inside."

Danish rolled his eyes at Tristan when the latter bypassed him.

He thought to himself, "He's just like an arrogant peacock."

As Tristan walked into the study, he smelled blood, which made people sick. The victim was lying in front of the computer. His dilated pupils were no longer bright.

Tristan squatted down so that he could be at eye level with him. The victim's expression was hideous, and the table was full of blood. He rested his left hand on the keyboard while his right hand hung beside his foot.

A bullet wound was in the center of his eyebrows. After the bullet entered his skull, it formed a one-way entry wound. The blood and brains exuded from the wound showed it was the only wound on his body.

Tristan observed the wound. From the point of view of the gun, the murderer should have stood behind the victim with the gun and shot him on the right side. The victim was probably sitting in front of his computer when he was shot the moment he tried to turn his head and watch what was going on behind him.

He asked, "What do we know about the victim?"

Nilesh hurriedly handed the information of the deceased to him while dictating, "The deceased's name is Ben Miranda, 36 years old, a programmer from the Burdett Corp. His time of death should be around 3 a.m. He rented the apartment a year ago because his daughter was going to study in Norgular Middle School, even if it was expensive here. He died of the shot on his head. The air-conditioning was on and was set at 26 degrees. The tidy places showed no signs of fighting. He was dead for one shot, so our best guess is that the murderer was standing in the doorway of the study when he opened the fire."

Tristan didn't change his cold face but continued to ask, "Where is the other body?"

Nilesh took the initiative to lead the way. "She's in the bedroom."

In the untouched bedroom, the woman lay on her back in red velvet pajamas while her blood had stained most of the pillow. Her black hair covered her pale face. She had red heels on her feet, her flesh-colored silk stockings hanging at her knees, which made her seem twisted.

More unexpectedly, the woman was holding a pistol loosely in her right hand but an open lipstick in her left hand.

Tristan walked over and pulled the woman's hair out of her hair with his gloves. He saw her frightening countenance. The bullet had gone through her left temple and penetrated her right eyebrow. Stained with her blood, the bullet finally ended on the white wall above.

Moreover, Tristan could tell someone had scratched the woman's face deliberately. The flesh on her forehead and cheeks was all bloody. The only intact part of her face was her red lips.

Nilesh had dealt with criminal investigations for several years, but she was still astonished to see the woman's face. Her face was covered with blood, and her eyes seemed to be about to explode. She had put on lipstick on her mouth before she wide-opened it, but it only made it scarier at the moment.

Her posture was very weird. The messy lipstick, the half-done silk stocking, the pajamas made of gold velvet, and the high heels seemed so contradictory. After all, no one would dress like at midnight at home.

They happened to see the woman's picture on the wall. Although they weren't sure when the woman had taken it, they could judge from the photo that the victim used to be a beautiful woman.

Tristan asked, "What about her?"

Nilesh answered, "The woman was Molly Miranda, Ben's wife, 33 years old. She was a housewife and didn't have a job. She died around 3:00 a.m. We also found their daughter, Alexis Miranda, in this wardrobe. The child had a fever and was tied up before she was left here. She was unconscious, so we sent her to the hospital."

They were all surnamed Miranda. Tristan checked the wardrobe and found that the clothes and bags inside were all high-end brands. Renting such an expensive apartment and living such a luxury life? Was Ben, an ordinary programmer, capable enough to support their life like this?

Tristan then asked, "Who called the police?"

Nilesh followed him. "The reporter is called Pavel Stone, the landlord of this apartment."

Tristan continued to ask, "Where is he?"

Nilesh replied, "He said he had a headache after seeing the dead, so he went to the massage parlor for relaxing. I told him to record in our office once he was done, and he promised to come when he got time."

Tristan raises his eyebrow, asking coldly, "You let him go?"

Nilesh's smiling face suddenly froze because Tristan's gaze was so scary.