Knight Asylum

He is not a detective.

"Uncle - I don't have a definite answer, but..."

Walking down the streets of the bustling district of [S·L], Red raised his hands above his head as he still couldn't come up with a perfect answer.

"but?"

"But I still want to do something," Red scratched his face, "Of course, I want to do something that won't cause trouble for the criminal investigation department."

Without ever looking back or stopping, the resolute man turned around this time.

----

"What's matter?"

At the beginning, Dashiell didn't give Asano too much of a good look, but Asano was not angry, because Asano knew very well that the public relations department had caused Dashiell a lot of trouble. If Dashiell greeted him with a smile, Asano would think there was some conspiracy.

"It's about Servier Turia," Asano said with his hands behind his back, "As the director of the criminal investigation department, you should already know about the Knight Project."

"What does this have to do with your public relations department?" Dashiell raised his eyebrows.

"Of course it is related. The sponsors do not intend to carry out the Knight Project in secret. Since it is a project that will be exposed, it is naturally related to our public relations department. How can we get the majority of people to support the Knight Project without causing public panic? What if——"

Asano paused and said meaningfully.

"A candidate for the Knight Project went berserk and out of control during a mission. How are we going to cover it up?"

"So what does it have to do with us? If a candidate for the Knight Project goes berserk and loses control, it's the containment team that's dispatched. It has nothing to do with our criminal investigation department."

Dashiell didn't think there was anything wrong with what Asano said. The core of the Knight Plan was to transform monsters into Kamen Riders, and it was very normal for monsters to lose control and run wild.

"But the Criminal Investigation Department is also one of the departments that examines whether candidates for the Knight Project are capable of serving as Kamen Rider," Asano emphasized.

"What are you doing here?" Dashiell frowned. "Let me tell you first, don't bring your tricks to me."

"Z-01 - Red Leonardo, one of the candidates. The public relations department has determined that he is not qualified to become Kamen Rider," Asano smiled.

"Red?" Dashiell was stunned. Not long ago, Red was analyzing those photos and clues with him. "Why?"

"Of course, this is a judgment based on data from all aspects," Asano turned around and slowly moved to the blind spot of Dashiell's vision. "He is just an ordinary person who came to [S·L] for the first time. He has no background and no special talents. But such an ordinary guy wore the [defective] Agul Belt."

Asano placed great emphasis on the word "defect".

"The Enoch Group has given a specific time based on Z-01's physical condition and Aguru's erosion. It will take at least half a year, and at the fastest three months, for Aguru to completely erode Z-01's brain. At that time, Z-01 will become a irrational killing machine that no one can control."

Asano smiled, "It's a joke to let such a guy be a candidate for the Knight Project. The PR department can't turn a time bomb into an alarm clock, so the PR department has decided that if U uses the authority of the supreme commander to deceive the Hongshang Foundation to forcibly launch such a dangerous existence as a Kamen Rider... the PR department will resist to the end and will never cooperate."

Dashiell narrowed his eyes slightly.

"You have established contact with the Enoch Group? What kind of benefits did Enoch give you?"

Dashiell didn't think that Asano would dare to go against U, Hongshang Fund, so there was only one possibility left, that is, Asano had connected with the Enoch Group, which did not want Serviera to regain power.

"That's not what I meant..." Asano put his hands on his hips, shook his head and smiled meaningfully, "It's not just Enoch who cares about Selvi Tulia. Director Dashiell, I just don't want to lose you, my tacit partner."

"You are not threatening me," Dashiell said with a wry smile, "Only U can mobilize the criminal investigation department."

"No - I really just want to remind you that Z-01 is a very dangerous existence." Asano raised his hands above his head, no longer as tough as before, "I hope that your criminal investigation department will make a decision after strict consideration."

"After all - the supreme commander will be replaced soon."

Dashiell's eyes widened.

----

Although his body looked hollowed out, the man gave people the feeling of a reliable tough guy. He was silent for a moment before slowly speaking.

"for example?"

"Ahem - we can't find all the underground casinos and gamblers at once, but we can target one underground casino at a time for investigation. If we can find one, it's one. Although we don't know why those underground casinos are collecting those privately made O coins, it's definitely not a good thing," Reid coughed heavily and raised his finger.

"Moreover, considering the workers' feeding of Yummy, the criminal investigation department will probably prioritize searching and tracking down the gamblers to prevent Yummy from transforming and evolving."

"If there is a possibility that we find one of the underground casinos before the criminal investigation department and prevent the crime from happening, or discover some important intelligence that can influence the action, I think we need to work hard for such a possibility."

Ming Hai looked at Red seriously for a while, then raised his hand to press down his round-brimmed hat to cover his eyes, "Good eyes, you are right, as a detective, we must not let go of such a possibility, opportunities never wait for anyone, the initial target is the casino where those workers are going."

"I'll try my best—" Red rolled up his sleeves, "What should I do?"

"After sorting out the known intelligence, those workers have their own range of activities. Their project is only halfway completed, and they have stopped going to the regular casinos during this period." Ming Hai turned around and continued forward. "If we are lucky, the underground casino is outside their normal range of activities-"

"As long as we compare their activity range during this period with that before, we can lock down their location!" Reid followed behind Ming Hai.

"Yes."

Ming Hai narrowed his eyes slightly.

There was one thing he didn't tell Red.

Chapter 34: Incorporate the unexpected into your own life rhythm

It has to be said that it is worthy of being called the Criminal Investigation Department of Selvi Turia. Their terrifying intelligence gathering capabilities have almost revealed what kind of underwear those workers wear every day. While sighing, Red quickly browsed through the sorted specific intelligence provided by the Criminal Investigation Department.

As Red expected, the workers' range of activities was not large and was quite fixed.

"I thought they moved around in a wide and random area," Red complained.

After all, a job like construction requires traveling a lot.

"Before they were workers, they were ordinary citizens with fixed residences and fixed living habits."

“No matter how exciting [S·L] is, life is still so dull and similar.”

Minghai pushed a map and a pen to Red. After a moment of hesitation, Red understood what Minghai meant. According to the data on the mobile phone, he used a pen to draw on the map the workers' usual activity range and their activity range during the period when the project started.

"Diligent workers will live on the construction site during the project, but they are obviously not such diligent workers. When the time is up, they will return to their own residences and start their private lives centered on their own residences," Ming Hai raised his finger and tapped the contractor's residence marked on the map.

Because the contractor has a nice car, his range of activities is much larger than that of others.

"However, the location of the underground casino is not outside their living range," Red pinched his nose and felt a little overwhelmed.

"Red, do you know what the most troublesome thing for detectives is?" Ming Hai raised his finger.

"Uh--cases involving the supernatural?"

Red really wanted to say it was haunted, but Minghai's eyes were too oppressive, so he could only change his words to sound more serious.

"Very close. To be more precise, it was an accident," Ming Hai exhaled. "The more incomprehensible the crime, the more elaborate the design. For the person solving the case, the more incredible the case is, the more reasonable it is to the person designing the crime, and the less room there is for any flaws. That's why it's possible to crack the reverse reconsideration method."

"Ah - if the crime was entirely caused by coincidences and accidents, even if we can infer it, it will be completely unconvincing, let alone reconstructing it," Red reacted. "So, uncle, what you mean is that it was a complete accident that these workers knew about the existence of the underground casino?"

"That's right. It was a completely unexpected encounter and a spur-of-the-moment participation in the crime," Ming Hai nodded. "Those who secretly set up underground casinos screened gamblers in this way. Not many people can resist the temptation of O coins, especially those gamblers who go in and out of casinos anyway."

Red stared at the map for a while with his arms folded across his chest, then raised his brows slightly. "But they incorporated completely unexpected encounters into their own rhythm of life, and they no longer participated in crimes on impulse, but did so with premeditation."

A light flashed in Ming Hai's dim but sharp eyes.

Reid picked up a pen and quickly sketched on the map based on the various photos and corresponding monitoring points provided by the criminal investigation department. He then followed the same method to draw the movement trajectories of several other people, and then compared them with the activity routes of the previous few people.

"Here - here - here - they suddenly go there very frequently. It seems that they also know how to cover their tracks, but -"

"After thinking there was no problem, we started to relax our vigilance. The locations we used for cover-up started to go off and on, and often no one [signed in]. But this place—"

Red raised his hand and knocked hard on the left side of the map.

"They [check in] very regularly. There are always people passing by this location. It's completely integrated into their daily routine."

"The privately made O coin is a hot potato," Ming Hai stood up and held his hat with his right hand, "Let's go."

"Oh--"

Red stood up and nodded energetically.

The speculated location of the underground casino is in the underground driveway about one kilometer long between Xingxu Station and Jiaoxu Station. According to the results of the investigation, there is indeed space for emergency shelter on both sides of the underground driveway, but those are early buildings and are not perfect. In addition, the usage rate of this driveway is not high, so it is not surprising that someone bought it or directly occupied it.

Maybe one of them was driving by and had to pee urgently, so they parked their car temporarily and accidentally discovered a casino converted from an emergency shelter, made a profit from it, and then lost all their money with interest, and finally became a regular at this place after repeated attempts.

Of course, this is just speculation after all. They have not even confirmed whether this place is an underground casino. In fact, the several places that the workers deliberately went to all have the basic space and suspicion of being used as the operation base of underground casinos.

But they were lucky. When they walked along the edge of the underground driveway to a general position, they saw a very conspicuous gate, and there was even a glowing welcome sign next to it.

As an underground casino, even the seldom used underground driveway should not be so ostentatious.

"It seems like the other party is sure that we will come to their door," Ming Hai pressed down the round-brimmed hat on his head.

Red walked back and forth twice with his chin held high. Those workers were arrested only a few hours ago. There was no reason for the owner of this underground casino to know they would come so soon.

"Since the other party has opened the door to welcome us, there is no reason for us to be afraid."

Minghai took off his hat, bent the fingers of his left hand and knocked on the door, lifted the black curtain and walked in. Seeing that Minghai had already left, Red swallowed the suggestion that was almost on his throat to contact the criminal investigation department to arrest the man first, and followed him in.

As soon as he entered the door, Red saw a thick smoke coming in and his expression changed immediately. He leaned back and covered his nose, but still inhaled a lot.

Smokey?

Do not……

Reid frowned.

He was not unfamiliar with this smell; it was the smell of tobacco.

Reid breathed a sigh of relief, turned his head to look at Minghai and was about to say something when he saw that Minghai's face was livid.

Red was shocked, thinking that there was something else in the secondhand smoke, and immediately covered his mouth and nose, and fanned hard with his left hand, and the secondhand smoke dissipated a lot.

"What's wrong, you two? Why are you standing at the door? I'm not doing anything tricky."

Reid narrowed his eyes slightly and looked in the direction of the voice. This underground casino was not narrow. It only had a spacious and huge gambling table. An astonishing number of O coins were piled up on the edge of the table like a mountain. There were also various props that seemed to be able to be used for gambling placed around the underground casino. It could be said that although small, it had everything.

At the other end of the gambling table, there was a mountain of O coins. A man in a suit with bulging eyes like a toad was smoking a cigar and looking at them with a disgusting smile.

"Is this what you call no tricks?" Red shook his hands vigorously again to drive away the secondhand smoke.

The secondhand smoke was very irritating, and even Red couldn't help coughing after taking a puff.

“All casinos are like this. If you can’t even bear this, you can go back,” the man slowly held the cigar in his mouth, dense and tiny fire points flowed along the tobacco, and he exhaled another thick second-hand smoke.

Red's eyes jumped fiercely. "We are not here to gamble with you. You can be stubborn if you want to, but I believe that you will tell the truth about everything when you sit on the automatic confession chair."

"Well - I do have something I need to confess to you, but is that really okay? I have put some insurance on my brain. If I am forcibly taken to Servier Turia, I will forget everything you want me to confess," the man waved the cigar in his hand.

"In other words, only at the gambling table can you tell the truth about everything."

Ming Hai, who had not said a word since he entered the underground casino, exhaled, as if he had made some decision. He put the round-brimmed hat in Red's hand, raised his hand to wave away all the smoke, pulled out a chair and sat down, tilting his head slightly and looking deep.

"Then let's get started."

The man's mouth slowly opened up, "As expected of the Great Detective Ming Hai, you are just as tough as the rumors say. My name is Kaga Taizo, and if you can beat me, I will tell you everything you want to know."

Chapter 35: Tough Guy

Red felt that there was definitely something wrong with this man, Kaga Taizo, and he shouldn't have gambled with him.

But the criminal investigation department has determined that the brains of those workers have been tampered with. If they forcibly take Kaga Taizo to Serviera, Kaga Taizo might really forget everything they want to know like those workers.

After all, they still haven't figured out where those privately minted coins went.

"My opponent is a tough detective, so I have to play Texas Hold'em."

Kaga Taizo took out a box of unopened cards and threw it to Red, "Young man, you will be the one to deal the cards."

Red took the cards, scratched the seal with his fingernail, checked the cards, and nodded to Ming Hai, "Uncle, these are ordinary cards."

Ming Hai nodded without saying anything.

Reid frowned, not knowing if it was his illusion, but Ming Hai's breathing frequency decreased and his breathing became extremely slow.

"Young man, you can deal the cards now," Kaga Taizo pushed thirty O coins forward.

Ming Hai frowned slightly, took out a black card from his pocket, and flicked his wrist. The black card was thrown towards Kaga Taizo like a dart, while Kaga Taizo snorted coldly, pulled out a book from behind, and the black card hit the cover of the book with a snap. Then he bent down and took out a card swipe machine, took out the black card and swiped it, and a row of numbers slid by.

"As expected of a tough detective, the amount is staggering," Kaga Taizo smiled and pushed the card machine to the center of the gambling table, "Let's get started."

Reid exhaled and began to shuffle the cards, glancing at Narumi who looked no different than before.

An ominous premonition filled Red's heart.

Servi Turia.

The criminal investigation department, which used to be fast-paced and noisy, felt as heavy as if it was filled with mud today. Everyone was doing their own work in an orderly manner, but they couldn't help but look towards the director's office.

Dashiell is a very tough person and hates to hide things, so the director's office is just surrounded by glass so that anyone can see what's going on in the director's office. It is also because of this that they can now see Dashiell's gloomy expression.

After a while of pushing and shoving, a short girl with a round face was pushed out by the others.

"Um... Director? Has that troublemaker left us with another big trouble?" The cute girl leaned on the door frame and asked cautiously.

Dashiell, who was still thinking about what Asano said, was stunned. He looked up and looked outside. Dashiell immediately noticed the atmosphere of the criminal investigation department. He slapped his forehead in annoyance, stood up and waved his hands vigorously, "It's okay, it's okay - go back to work quickly! Are you free?"