Chapter 56: Ambush, Su Chen Exposed!

Chapter 56: Ambush, Su Chen Exposed!

Investigate Su Chen?

The other experts in the expert panel office exchanged glances when they heard Wang Yanxing utter those words.

"Let's investigate him then, though I doubt it will yield anything of note."

Qin Ming shrugged, shifting his gaze back to his notebook.

He had little interest in the surveillance footage of a mere junior police officer named Su Chen. Instead, he remained deeply engrossed in the deductive reasoning method he had recorded—the one the simulated killer used to deduce the location of the final bone fragment—a puzzle that continued to mesmerize and baffle him no matter how much he pondered it.

Duan Yu was probably deep in research regarding that hacker's attack techniques, otherwise why would he have been missing for so long?

Ever since Duan Yu found his match within the killer group, Qin Ming felt he had finally found his own match as well: the mysterious deductive expert who had pinpointed the location of the bone fragments.

The police officers standing by in the room lowered their gazes and shook their heads slightly.

As a member of the expert panel, Wang Yanxing's decisions were not something ordinary police officers could interfere with.

However, deep down, these officers held Su Chen in extremely high regard.

Among the police forces handpicked by the experts, Su Chen had undoubtedly been the most impressive performer, and his contributions were witnessed by all.

Su Chen was a good guy, through and through.

"Su Chen is actually a great guy to hang out with. He even paid for tonight's barbecue in advance," Zhao Long whispered to Wang Ping beside him, his voice filled with genuine trust.

Wang Ping nodded in agreement and said,

"There's nothing wrong with Su Chen. He spent the entire evening with us that night, only stepping away to use the restroom for a bit. When would he possibly have had the time to commit a crime?!"

Truth be told, any random officer plucked from the police ranks would have a higher suspicion rating than Su Chen.

Wang Ping would rather believe the dismemberment case was solved during his own sleepwalking episodes than believe Su Chen had anything to do with it.

Besides, wasn't the opposing side a syndicate composed of individuals with extraordinary skills?

Even if a normal person wanted to be a killer, they wouldn't necessarily possess the capability.

For a moment, everyone wore vastly different expressions.

Yet Wang Yanxing remained steadfast, issuing a command to the Skynet system:

"Investigate."

[Inputting Su Chen's facial recognition data...]

The AI's electronic voice rang out abruptly.

However, immediately following this, as if the words "Su Chen," "face," and "input" had triggered some specific voice keyword, a faint, barely audible "beep" sound suddenly emanated from deep inside the black suitcase that the officers had previously brought back and placed on the table.

The instant he heard that sound, Cui Liwan's expression underwent a drastic change!

The conditioned reflexes forged through countless training sessions caused his body to react a fraction of a second faster than his brain.

"Get back!"

Old Master Cui lunged forward in a single stride, reaching out to pull the suitcase underneath his body, before throwing his entire weight hard onto the floor to pin it down!

Only then did the frontline investigating officers around him snap out of their daze, grabbing riot shields and other protective gear from nearby and swarming forward to form overlapping rings of defense.

None of this involved conscious thought; it was purely a subconscious reaction.

Simultaneously.

From inside the black suitcase came a muffled popping sound, followed by a burst of emitted smoke.

Finally, silence reclaimed the room.

Witnessing this scene, the pupils of the other experts contracted sharply.

"Old Master Cui!"

Qin Ming blanked for a moment before instantly rushing forward, intending to pull the fallen Cui Liwan back to his feet.

However, the latter waved a hand to refuse.

This sudden turn of events startled even the live broadcast's bullet screen audience.

[Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit! What just happened? Was that suitcase packed with hazardous materials?]

[Old Master Cui's reaction was lightning fast! Faster than any of those burly guys around him, not like an old man at all.]

[I get it now! This is a voice-activated device. Once someone on the expert panel tries to investigate Su Chen, it triggers the receiver inside.]

[Then what's packed inside this thing is probably—]

"Assess the situation first. Stay back for now."

Looking at the production crew staff members rushing through the doorway, Cui Liwan's voice sounded somewhat frail and exhausted.

He knew that this time, he had completely fallen into a trap.

Sure enough, the leading man in black pulled Cui Liwan up and unlatched the suitcase, which had popped open from the inside.

Inside lay a miniature voice-activated detonator.

Aside from that, the entire case was packed to the brim with solid explosive... raw materials.

Yes, explosive precursors. Mix these substances in specific proportions, and they would form a genuine, potent explosive charge.

Yet Su Chen had not done so; the various raw materials inside the case were kept separated in sealed bags.

Doing this served only one purpose: to demonstrate to the experts that he possessed the absolute capability to manufacture a real bomb.

"This modus operandi is practically identical... It really is him!"

Old Master Cui muttered in a hoarse voice, the look of profound shock on his face refusing to fade.

At this very moment, he was utterly convinced that Su Chen was undoubtedly the culprit who had bombed the power substation!

"Old Master Cui, I am terribly sorry."

The lead man in black took a look at the contents of the suitcase, briefly stunned as he broke out in a cold sweat for the program.

He said solemnly to Cui Liwan and the surrounding officers:

"According to the program's adjudication, you are now in a deceased state."

"You may now accompany us to the backstage area. We will leave behind your simulated corpse for reference."

Hearing this, Old Master Cui stood frozen in place for a moment.

Then, he suddenly smiled and let out a long, heavy sigh.

"By protocol, any unidentified package delivered to the police station must undergo hazardous material screening. I suppose I'm truly getting old and forgetful."

After saying that, he turned his gaze toward Qin Ming and the others:

"Remember this lesson. Tangling with dangerous criminals means a single lapse in judgment will cost you your life."

That expression truly resembled that of a retired veteran offering his final words of advice.

For some inexplicable reason, Qin Ming and the others felt a sharp, stinging ache in their noses.

Judging by the scale of the bomb Su Chen had prepared, it was obvious his intention had been to wipe out the entire expert panel and the Skynet equipment in one fell swoop.

If not for Old Master Cui's lightning-fast reflexes and the police officers using their own bodies to shield the blast, everyone in this room would likely have been eliminated by the bomb attack right now!

Having the expert panel wiped out by the perpetrator was something unheard of across the entire criminal investigation field.

Little did they know that the moment Cui Liwan heard the sound of the detonator, his brain had had no time to process whether this was merely a simulated explosive device.

He had simply reacted based on pure, instinctive duty.

The brief confusion after being pulled up was also his genuine reaction upon realizing the bomb hadn't actually detonated.

Had this been a real-life scenario,

the veteran senior who had been laughing and chatting with everyone just a second ago would already be nothing more than a cold corpse.

This was the harsh reality that frontline criminal investigators of Cui Liwan's generation constantly faced.

Without any superfluous words,

Cui Liwan and his five officers snapped a crisp salute to those remaining.

They were then escorted out of the office by the men in black.

Left behind on the floor was nothing more than an empty suitcase and a dummy serving as a comically absurd simulated corpse.

However, the expert panel and the surrounding police officers stared blankly at the lifeless mannequin on the floor for a long, lingering moment.

[The experts don't look good at all...]

Even the comments on the bullet screen became uncharacteristically cautious.

[To be fair, although this is a simulation, it completely mirrors reality. The casualty rate among frontline criminal investigators is actually extremely high...]

[Are they remembering some past events?]

[Too sudden, far too sudden. My dad is a criminal investigating officer, and there really was a time when a colleague he was laughing and talking with one second was gone the next.]

[This is a genuine parting within the context of the show; it's impossible for anyone's heart to feel unaffected.]

Meanwhile, at that very moment,

The electronic voice of the "Skynet" system finally delivered its response.

[Following facial recognition processing, Su Chen has appeared frequently in camera feeds recently, causing a delay... All information has been exported.]

Instantly, a series of surveillance footage clips featuring Su Chen were projected onto the massive main screen.

The sharp, piercing gazes of the experts and officers instantly locked onto the display.

On the screen, the scenes appeared in chronological order: on the way to the Public Security Bureau, inside the Public Security Bureau, the power substation, Su Chen's office, the surrounding areas of Jinling University...

The dense array of windows left everyone momentarily stunned.

How was it that Su Chen had been present at every single location where an incident had occurred?!

Soon, the footage began to play.

The first scene captured street surveillance as Su Chen made his way to the Jinling Municipal Public Security Bureau.

The footage showed Su Chen first rendering a program staff member unconscious inside a vehicle, stripping off the staff member's uniform, and changing into it himself!

Expert Panel: ????!

Qin Ming stared at the scenes playing out before him, feeling his temples throb violently.

"Quickly, go check the trunk of Su Chen's car parked downstairs!"

He shouted into his walkie-talkie to the police officers stationed on the ground floor.