Quadruple split.

Chapter 2859 [The Sword Tester]

Game time 22:00 PM
Liberty City, Nightless Zone, [Coins and Dancers] Rooftop Terrace

"Thank you all for coming. Please allow me, on behalf of the Gold Coin Merchants Association, to express our sincerest gratitude to all the ladies and gentlemen."

A goblin man, dressed in an exquisitely tailored tuxedo and with his black hair neatly combed and slicked back, stood respectfully by the table. While instructing the waiters to bring out dishes that cost no less than three digits of gold coins each, he announced in his loud, magnetic voice, "In addition, I am honored to be chosen as tonight's 'witness.' Although the chances are not high, I hope that everyone will get a satisfactory result tonight. So, the first toast is to freedom."

"Respect for freedom."

Men, women, young and old gathered around the table spontaneously raised their glasses of red wine or juice, smiling and agreeing with each other.

"The second cup."

The goblin man raised his glass, which had been filled by the waiter, again and said solemnly, "To freedom."

"Respect for freedom."

The crowd raised their glasses once more, following the customs of the City of Freedom, to pay the highest tribute to 'freedom' on this night destined to be filled with blood and fire, and with intrigue and backstabbing.

"The third cup."

The goblin man, his face slightly flushed, smiled faintly, raised his wine glass one last time, and murmured softly, as if in a dream, "To the strong."

"Respectfully, Kodo."

"Respectfully, Allison."

"Respect Dean."

"Respect Willis."

"Respect the clown."

"Respectfully, Paparic."

"Respectfully, Carol."

"Respect to Regas."

"Respect to Scott."

"A toast to my wife."

"Respectfully, Besmodem."

"respect……"

People raised their glasses for the last time, but this time, the words they uttered were completely different.

Then--

"So, regarding the analysis report on the [Sword Tester], besides what we've already distributed to everyone, is there anything else you'd like to add?"

Almost no one knew his real name, only that he was one of the main representatives of the Gold Coin Merchant Guild in the Free City. The goblin man, the highest director of [Gold Coins and Dancers], cleared his throat, looked around, and said, "If there is anything, I can supplement the information known to the guild after everyone has finished speaking."

"Three days ago..."

A gloomy-faced, slightly overweight, black-haired dwarf gently placed his wine glass on the table and said coldly, "Two of my 'corpse collectors' were murdered in a corner of Snake Tail Alley. After investigation, it is almost certain that there was only one opponent, and the weapon was a very fast and long sword."

“Yesterday afternoon, one of my cadres went missing on his way to the dark alley.”

A gaunt, bat-like orc man narrowed his eyes and said in a deep voice, "We didn't find his body in the sewers until midnight. A single sword through the heart, a fatal blow."

"This morning, my vice president was found dead at home."

The tall orc man slammed his fist on the table and growled angrily, "He was split in two on the bed, symmetrically split from top to bottom. His wife was almost driven mad with fright when she woke up!"

"To be precise, that lady should be Mr. Longtai's mistress."

The goblin man who was in charge of the event said in a light tone, and then bowed politely to the orc man: "A generous gift of 285,760 gold coins, Mr. Heavy Hammer."

"What did you say?"

Carter Hammer, the leader of the Black Axe Brotherhood, narrowed his eyes, stared at the short figure not far away, and asked in a deep voice, "What, 285,000 gold coins?"

"You have just accidentally damaged a precious collectible. This silver-threaded ebony table is the crown jewel of our [Gold Coins and Dancers] shop. Because the raw materials and craftsmanship used in its production have become completely extinct, this table is worth at least 1.9 million gold coins. The three cracks you just left on it, while not irreparable, will still require a considerable amount of cost."

The goblin smiled politely at Carter and said in his still gentle and gentlemanly tone, "Based on my rough estimate, the loss is about 285,760 gold coins. However, given the considerable influence of your Black Axe Brotherhood in Greythroat Street, I can take the liberty of waiving part of the repair costs for you. So you only need to pay us 285,000 gold coins."

"Two hundred and eighty-five thousand gold coins..."

Carter stared intently at the shrewd man with the kind face, and said in a dry voice, "Why don't you just rob it?"

"You're joking. The Gold Coin Merchants Association is known for its integrity, friendliness, and fairness. It would never commit such a despicable act as robbery."

The middle-aged goblin stroked the ring on his index finger as he asked calmly, "So, can I understand that you don't wish to repay this loss, which was indeed caused by your personal negligence?"

"I……"

Carter took a deep breath, forced out a ferocious smile, and said seriously, "How could that be? Of course I'm willing to repay this... loss caused by my personal negligence, 300,000 gold coins, which will appear in the [Gold Coins and Dancers] account before dawn."

"Thank you. My account name is 'Mr. She.' Please verify the information carefully before transferring the money." Mr. She smiled and nodded to everyone, indicating that the 'information supplementation process' could continue.

This time, however, no one spoke rashly. After nearly a minute of silence, a seemingly unremarkable street leader coughed lightly and tentatively asked, "In my opinion, why don't you, Mr. She, share some information about your chamber of commerce first, and then we can supplement it based on what we know?"

"That's fine too."

Mr. She first looked around at everyone, and after confirming that no one had expressed any objections, he smiled and nodded, saying, "In that case, I will briefly share what I know on my side for your reference."

First, in the past week, centered on the East Street of the Nightless District, several to more than ten vicious killings have occurred almost every day, with victims spread across various factions in the 'Thirteen Streets of the East District,' including Snake Tail Alley, Toad Alley, Bella Street, Spike Street, Camille Street, Dark Street, and Everlasting Street.

So far, more than thirty factions have lost members. In addition to those present, three factions did not attend this meeting. The reason is that they lost their supreme leader or chief decision-maker in this turmoil, and were thus quickly divided up by some of those present.

As for the specific number of casualties, based on my integration of several reliable intelligence sources, it can be roughly estimated to be between 130 and 160 people. Without exception, they were almost all killed by the enemy within ten moves, and they did not receive any effective opportunity to call for help throughout the entire process.

Based on the subsequent investigation of the scene, we can be almost certain that the murderer was a master swordsman with a strength of around half-step epic level, and there is a high probability that she was female.

She took more than a hundred lives with an almost execution-like killing spree, and what's intriguing is that these people almost all had several things in common.

First, their strength was almost all above the peak of the high-level, and about fifteen of them had already reached the threshold of the epic level. In other words, although the murderer did not intend to provoke a strong person who could completely suppress him, he did not deliberately choose weak 'prey'. In fact, according to our deduction, at least in terms of absolute strength, the murderer did not have much of an advantage when facing many of the victims.

Secondly, the killer almost never used ambushes or other fighting methods. Although there are no valid eyewitness testimonies, by comparing all the traces of the engagement, we can conclude that the killer almost always gave the victim about three seconds to prepare before attacking.

Third, the reputation of all the victims on an objective level, especially in terms of 'morality,' is extremely poor. Although none of the people who participated in this 'gathering' were naive, they at least cherished their reputation and rarely participated directly as leaders in actions that were... well, difficult to be positively evaluated from an objective perspective. But the victims obviously didn't care much about such small details.

Fourth, the victim's whereabouts are almost impossible to track. Although everyone has been working together since the third day to try to contain this situation, and even with the intention of finding out which faction the other party belongs to, the other party has not only not reduced the frequency of killings, but has even increased the efficiency of killings by 30% before tonight. And everyone's preparations... obviously have not caused any resistance to the murderer.

That's all the information I can provide at this stage. I just hope it can help broaden your thinking a little.

After saying this, Mr. She bowed to everyone and stood respectfully at the end of the long table, saying nothing more.

The attendees of this small gathering were enveloped in a complex atmosphere that was so quiet it was almost oppressive.

Clearly, the information provided by Mr. She was so detailed that it far exceeded the grasp of the situation by most of those present. Because of this, many people only realized the seriousness of the matter at this point, and the small gathering, which was originally intended to 'catch the culprit' and 'make a pact', gradually changed its nature and became increasingly ambiguous.

however--

"I believe there is a way to quickly narrow down the scope of the perpetrators to a reasonable range."

David Butcher, the boar-man and head of the "Pig Head Butcher" on Cammy Street, suddenly chuckled maliciously. He then turned his gaze directly to Mr. She at the end of the long table and said in a deep voice, "If Mr. She is willing, we can completely eliminate possibilities by analyzing the list of victims. The more dead a faction is, the less suspicious it is. Although there is a possibility of eliminating dissidents, at least we won't have to run around like pig-headed flies."

"That makes some sense."

A plain-looking canine-orc frowned and asked calmly, "But how can you be so sure that the source of this chaos is among us? If there is someone else behind the culprit, wouldn't our actions make us a laughingstock?"

David shrugged and said nonchalantly, "But before that, we've been the laughingstock of the world for a week. At least this way, everyone has a direction."

"But if the direction is wrong, it might be better to stay where you are."

The owner of the Wanderer's Inn in the Nightless District, a handsome male elf wearing gold-rimmed glasses, said calmly, "Take our branch for example, no one has lost their life in this turmoil. If we follow Mr. David's logic, should honest businessmen like us be suspected?"

David shrank back, saying nothing, while another human man with a cold expression shook his head: "We all know the inn is innocent, so Boss Junwu doesn't need to worry about this possibility."

“You know the hostel is innocent because you know I have enough high-quality resources at my disposal, and there’s no need to go to the trouble of dealing with those insect-like people.”

Junwu pushed up her glasses and said in a light tone, "But the problem is, can those who don't have my strength and background get a fair and just outcome? Or, to put it another way, how can we ensure that those so-called 'suspicious' individuals are just a greedy excuse?"

David sniffed nervously and explained with a cold face, "I don't have that much of an appetite. I closed two stores recently. Just one street, Camille Street, is enough to keep me busy."

"I think so too."

Junwu smiled gently, then changed the subject as soon as David's expression relaxed: "But who can guarantee that others don't think the same way?"

"So, according to Mr. Jun's meaning..."

Carter Hammer frowned and asked, "What should we do?"

I have two ideas.

Junwu shrugged and said in a light tone, "As everyone knows, our 13th Street in the East District of Wuye District hasn't had a 'representative' for almost twenty years. Every district-level meeting has always been irrelevant to us. Although it seems quite free, we spent a whole week this time and still couldn't catch the murderer... which is also related to the fact that we don't have a person in charge who can truly connect the 13th Street."

"So, what Boss Junwu means is—"

"Please don't misunderstand. Compared to the countless trivial matters I have to deal with every day, and the responsibilities that have an absurdly low cost-effectiveness, I still prefer to be a businessman. So I personally have no interest in this additional identity."

"So, are you going to recommend someone?"

"No, no, no, my dear friend, you can completely assume that my statement just now was not purposeful at all, but simply wanted to come up with a solution. Then you will find that I just wanted the existence of such a necessary person."

"I see. I remember you just said you had two ideas. What's the other one?"

"Please tell us the answer directly, Mr. She."

"……what?"

"After all, if they weren't colluding with the murderer, I really can't imagine why [Gold Coins and Dancers] would have more detailed information than my [Nightless District Inn]."

Chapter 2850: The End