I Have Infinite Skill Points-Chapter 576: Is the Police Station Just for Show?
"On East Hua Street, two gangs were conducting a drug deal. They’ve been dealt with on the spot."
"Who are you, exactly? You’ve called me three times in the middle of the night and woken me up three whole times. Are you doing this on purpose?"
"Sorry about that, but there’s no helping it. The nighttime public security in the Black Brilliance Area is just too bad."
"Bullshit! The public security in the Black Brilliance Area is the best in the whole St. State. And who the hell are you?"
"I am Dawn!"
"Dawn? What Dawn? I’m warning you, if you call again and disturb my sleep, it won’t be as simple as just firing you. I will issue a warrant for your arrest, a warrant!"
Afterward, sure enough, he wasn’t woken up by the ringing phone again. But when Qiao Sen went to work, he was stunned by the scene before him.
A crowd of disabled people had gathered in the police station courtyard. Qiao Sen’s first reaction was: Has there been a war? Has this place become a frontline military camp? But in an instant, he realized these disabled people were the local mafia.
"What’s going on?" Qiao Sen asked, calling over a busy officer.
"Last night, a group of heroes appeared in our Black Brilliance Area, striking against criminals. Wherever there was a shootout, they’d show up. And they strike very hard. Any Star Martial Warrior had their Star palace completely crippled. As for ordinary people, all their hands and feet were chopped off."
"Why did you bring them to the police station? Doesn’t St. State have its own rules?"
"They came here on their own," the officer replied promptly.
"To do what?"
"To report a crime."
"PFFT—"
Qiao Sen looked at the defeated and wounded men before him, their faces etched with grievance. St. State must be going mad! We can’t be bothered to arrest you lot, and you still have the gall to come here and report a crime?
"They said four vicious individuals suddenly attacked them and cruelly chopped off their hands or feet... well, one or the other, anyway. They demand that the police quickly find the culprits and bring them to justice."
Are they teaching me how to do my job? Qiao Sen was amused. "If they want to report a crime, let them. Just file it directly."
Qiao Sen waddled into the office building and then to his office. Inside, he saw three bigwigs who were usually hard to catch a glimpse of.
Their smart attire made them look like elites, but who would have guessed they were the evil spirits of the Black Brilliance Area’s nights?
"Gentlemen, what brings you here so early?"
"Qiao Sen, I won’t beat around the bush. Were those four people from last night sent by the New Blue Government? What about their identity information?"
"Sorry, I have no idea about their identities. But I’m sure you all know there are people with similar identities and behaviors in other districts. Our Black Brilliance Area was actually one of the last to be affected. Yesterday, I even wondered if the Black Brilliance Area had been forgotten. Now, it seems our turn has come."
Hearing Qiao Sen’s words, the three bosses’ expressions immediately darkened. Truthfully, they had been mentally prepared for the arrival of Wang Lan and her group. With over twenty other districts being hammered by these mysterious newcomers, how could the Black Brilliance Area alone be overlooked?
"I need you to find out their identities and whereabouts." Another man, bald and middle-aged, slowly took a bank card from his pocket. "There are three million in here. If you find them, there’s another five million waiting."
"Blue Coin?"
"Green Currency!"
"Alright, I’ll do my best. And since you’re being so generous, I can tell you their name. They call themselves... Dawn!"
The now fully awake Qiao Sen had already guessed who had called him last night.
"Dawn? Got it."
"Oh, and a friendly reminder: it would be best if you stopped your nocturnal activities for now. According to intelligence from other districts, these individuals are very strong. Clearly, they’re connected. Even if you find and manage to eliminate them, there’s no guarantee that people from other areas won’t team up to retaliate."
"No one offends the three of us tycoons and continues to live carefree. Once we find them, I’ll find a way to eliminate them."
Although the three tycoons talked tough, their actions were far more cautious. The next day, all the forces under them wisely stayed low and didn’t stir up trouble. At night, those who did cause trouble were either from small gangs or lone, dangerous individuals.
But Dawn’s strikes didn’t stop. The next day, the police station was still very busy. Early in the morning, many people missing arms or legs could be seen being helped to the police station to report crimes.
It wasn’t that they lacked backbone; it was that they, along with their boss, had been dealt with. With no one to stand up for them and unable to swallow their anger, they had no choice but to report to the police station—a place they normally disdained.
Within just a few days, nighttime security in the Black Brilliance Area had significantly improved. Forget large-scale gang fights; even the petty thugs who lurked at night to rob passersby had vanished without a trace.
The time had come to test the capabilities of the various teams. It wasn’t just in the Black Brilliance Area; the difficulty of eradicating vice and evil in other districts was also increasing. Wang Lan’s team could dismantle an entire criminal network by capturing one gang member and using Spirit Engraving to find their superior. Other teams, lacking such methods, could only patrol their entire district all night, often ending up finding not a single criminal after all their efforts.
"’Are we too strong, or did the examiners underestimate our capabilities? It’s only been seven days, and we’ve already cleaned the Black Brilliance Area spotless,’ Xu Xiangwen boasted, lounging on the sofa.
"’All three major mafia groups eradicated. Private money lenders, underground gambling dens, even underground brothels—we’ve swept them all clean. Is the mission really over just like that? Isn’t this a bit too easy?’"
"If St. State’s underworld was this insignificant, it wouldn’t be called the ’City of Sin.’ What have we really dismantled these past few days? Just the obvious gangs, criminals, and lowlifes. If it were only them, why would the New Blue Government be so helpless against St. State?" Wang Lan mused.
"Lanzi, who else do you think is left then? We’ve used Spirit Engraving on so many people, and there doesn’t seem to be anyone behind them," Xu Xiangwen asked.
"It’s not that there’s no one. It’s just that even these cannon fodder, pushed to the forefront, don’t know who’s really pulling the strings. Only now is the true difficulty of this assessment beginning to show," Wang Lan replied.
"What’s our next move?" Jiang Xinyu asked, bringing out dinner.
"Investigate cold cases. The masterminds use scapegoats, pushing them to the forefront while they hide in the shadows. They wait for things to quiet down before re-emerging. Since they won’t come out willingly, we’ll have to dig them out. Sifting through the police station’s cold cases might give us clues leading to these hidden figures."
"But... the assessment rules state we can’t cooperate with the police. Without their cooperation, we can’t access their case files... Wait. Lanzi, are you suggesting we hack their system?"
"Exactly. Xiao Ai is already controlling the surveillance cameras in the Black Brilliance Area. Its storage is limited, so it can’t handle the police station too. Xinyu, did you bring Ice Snow?"
"Of course. Let Ice Snow handle breaching the police station’s firewall."
After dinner, Jiang Xinyu used her laptop to have Ice Snow breach the police station’s firewall. Although the police station’s firewall was one of the most advanced systems globally, to an artificial intelligence like Ice Snow, it was as flimsy as paper.
In less than half an hour, Ice Snow successfully penetrated the police network. Within another half hour, it had obtained the highest level of system access.
"Wang Lan, come take a look!" Later that night, Jiang Xinyu knocked on Wang Lan’s door. Wang Lan and Xu Xiangwen, dressed in pajamas, came out of their rooms and into the living room. Jiang Xinyu’s screen displayed a case file marked with a digital key icon.
"It’s a missing persons case from a year ago. I believe there’s a human trafficking ring behind it, possibly even an organ trafficking group. Moreover, their targets might be individuals with the potential to become Star Martial Warriors," Jiang Xinyu said.
"Oh? What makes you say that?"
"On May fifteenth of last year, nine female students from a school in the Black Brilliance Area mysteriously disappeared. They weren’t in the same class, and most didn’t know each other. However, they all had one thing in common: none of them were born in St. State; they had all moved here after turning ten. The time of their disappearance was... the night before the Soul Resonance ceremony," Jiang Xinyu explained.
"So, you’re saying there’s an underground crime syndicate involved in human or organ trafficking, and they target people not born in St. State?" Xu Xiangwen asked, puzzled. "What’s the point of that? Could it be that these inhumane scoundrels still adhere to the principle of not fouling their own nest?"
"No, I don’t think it’s that they *won’t* target locals, but that they *dare not*. How many of St. State’s natives are truly decent folk? Don’t forget, this place was a haven for exiled criminals from fifty to a hundred years ago. That frail, trembling old man you see on the street might have once been a professional assassin," Xie Sisi interjected, stepping out in her dressing gown.
"Is this case too difficult? Maybe we should pick another one?" Jiang Xinyu asked hesitantly, noticing Wang Lan’s thoughtful expression.
"No need. Easier cases mean lower scores; harder cases mean higher scores. This assessment is all about points. Xiao Ai!"
"I’m here!"
"Use big data to analyze the profiles of these nine girls and find matches."
"Right away!"
Big data was the latest evolutionary path Wang Lan had set for Xiao Ai. Wang Lan didn’t need an AI with super-high intelligence. After all, she wasn’t lonely, nor did she want to have a romance with an artificial intelligence. Why make it overly humanlike? As long as Xiao Ai served well as a tool, that was all that mattered.
The big data model involved Xiao Ai deploying countless instances of itself across servers worldwide, then interlinking these instances to form a vast data network. Once this was complete, Wang Lan could find out anything. As long as an event occurred and was discussed online, Xiao Ai could immediately collect the information.
"Data analysis complete. Last year, a total of 1,300 people went missing in St. State, including 206 minors. Among them, 36 individuals show an 80% or higher similarity match to these nine girls: 10 males and 26 females."
"Did they all disappear on the same night?"
"Yes. They all disappeared on the same night, indicating it was likely the work of the same individual or organization."
"It seems this group isn’t small. Ice Snow, isn’t there any detailed information in the police database?"
"There’s no information about this case in the accessible network data. Furthermore, 90% of the reports filed with the police department only have initial filing and case records, with no subsequent investigation records."
"So, this police department is just for show?"
