Stronger with Crimson Modifier-Chapter 37: Taking the Blame
The way these two had died was bizarre, to say the least. Even if they had been thrown from the balcony, it would have been impossible for them to land this far away.
Furthermore, a search of the victims’ home had been conducted, but it turned up nothing. Not a single extraneous trace was left behind.
The perpetrator’s practiced methods gave the man the strange feeling that he was facing a veteran detective with decades of experience.
’This level of counter-investigation awareness means the killer’s identity is definitely not simple. It’s highly likely they’ve done similar work before.’
’Perhaps we can use that as a starting point for our search, but even so, it won’t yield results anytime soon.’
’And if this case involves *that* kind of existence, it’s beyond our jurisdiction anyway.’
Just as he was lost in thought.
"Chief, we’ve got something!"
Just then, a young officer ran over.
He was holding a tablet in a black case.
"We found a suspect when we were reviewing the surveillance footage."
"Oh? Good work."
The square-faced man’s expression shifted as he took the tablet for a look.
On the screen was a video, filmed from the side.
The video was short, only three or four seconds long, but thankfully, most of the man’s face had been captured with perfect clarity.
An ugly scar ran from his brow bone, nearly bisecting his entire face, making him instantly recognizable.
"This is Zhao Shi..."
The square-faced man wore a strange expression.
Zhao Shi. Thirty-four years old.
He’d served in a Federation special forces unit, but after being wounded in battle, he was forced to take a medical discharge.
He later married and had a child. To make ends meet, he earned his professional certification for the Golden Fist Level.
He became a professional fighter.
By all accounts, he was an honest and simple man—not very expressive, but kind-hearted.
And yet, this was the man who had committed such a horrific series of murders.
The reason? His elderly mother, back in his hometown, had been beaten to death, and his wife, who had just given birth, was violated by several men.
After the assault, his wife fell into despair and committed suicide, taking their newborn child, only a few months old, with her.
When Zhao Shi learned what had happened, he said nothing. He took a bus home overnight and, under the cover of darkness, snuck into the homes of the perpetrators.
He slaughtered every last one of them—a total of forty-one people across their families, not even sparing the infants in their cradles.
After that, it was as if he had opened Pandora’s box in his heart. He went on to commit several more gruesome and inhuman crimes.
Although his victims were hardly good people, murder was murder, and he was still a wanted man.
Unfortunately, his past experience gave him exceptional counter-surveillance skills. He handled the crime scenes perfectly.
He left virtually no traces, which is why he hasn’t been caught yet.
’If it’s him, then it all makes sense. A shame. As formidable as he is, he’s still just an ordinary person. If he’d taken *that step*, we could hand him over to *those people* to deal with...’
The middle-aged man sighed.
...
BAM!
The tremendous force reverberated!
Sunlight streamed through a gap in the curtains, clearly illuminating the fine dust in the air as it billowed outward from the impact.
The numbers on the Force Tester’s screen flickered before settling on an astonishing value.
kg!
A number like that was far beyond the Golden Fist Level.
’A pity. It’s still a long way off from the true limit of the human body.’
Hu Qi frowned, withdrawing his fist.
’No wonder Chen Wu said that a force of five hundred kilograms was just a theoretical value. A normal person could only get infinitely close, but never actually reach it.’
Even with several Perfection Fighting Techniques stacked, he still had a ways to go to reach that goal.
Then, he let out a soft breath.
’I’m getting a little greedy.’
He’d gone from 211 kg to 396 kg in just over ten days.
That kind of progress was simply meteoric.
And the reason Hu Qi had been able to do it was, of course, thanks to the Crimson panel and his own hard work.
After all, without his diligent practice to get his Skills to the Entry-Level, and without him painstakingly collecting Modification Points and giving the commands, the Crimson panel would be useless, no matter how powerful it was.
A tool was just a tool, after all.
’I need more Fighting Techniques!’
Improving his Fighting Techniques also drove the growth of his physique.
This was something almost impossible for an ordinary person to achieve.
After all, no matter how talented someone was, reaching Perfection in a single Fighting Technique was by no means a short-term endeavor.
But that didn’t apply to Hu Qi.
As long as he had enough Modification Points, he could use the panel to stack Fighting Techniques and improve at a rapid, continuous pace.
’Also, I need more Exotic Beasts. The Camphor Tea Duck provides an egg every day or two, but that’s still too slow. And that’s not even mentioning the Modification Points I’ve already invested in the Criminal Investigation Technique and Makeup Skills.’
The former, acquiring Fighting Techniques, was easy to solve. All he needed was money.
But as for Exotic Beasts, he had no leads so far. He could only rely on luck.
’A pity. If I’d been reincarnated as some rich heir, I could just pay people to find them for me. It’d be far more efficient than just waiting around.’
Hu Qi grumbled to himself.
He glanced at the Force Tester, pressed the reset button, and turned to leave.
However, just as he reached the doorway, he heard the sound of heavy footsteps approaching.
He looked up to see a burly figure come into view.
He had dark skin and wore a tight-fitting Martial Arts Uniform.
It was Sims, whom he had met once before.
His shoulders were broad, and the muscles of his exposed arms were taut, their contours like rolling mountain ranges.
Hu Qi stepped to the side, waiting for him to pass.
Sims said nothing in response, merely shooting him an indifferent glance as he brushed past and walked into the testing room.
Hu Qi spared him a glance, then turned and left.
...
「Inside the testing room.」
Sims walked up to the Force Tester, raised his hands into a fighting stance, and took a deep breath.
"Hah!"
With a short cry, he slightly raised his arm, clenched his fist, and struck!
WHOOSH!
His fist smashed squarely into the force plate with a dull thud.
kg!
When he saw the number on the display, the corners of Sims’s mouth curved up in a slight smile. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦
An increase of 8 kg from his previous 315 kg.
Sims was very satisfied with this improvement.
It was the fruit of his arduous training over the past several days.
The stronger one became, the more difficult it was to improve.
His pace of improvement wasn’t slow at all.
’This time, I’ll definitely be number one among the new students in the core class.’
His tone radiated powerful self-confidence.
As he thought this, he swiped the screen, habitually pulling up another page.
It was another one of the Force Tester’s functions.
[Punching Power Ranking]
It recorded all the strength data measured on the device, arranging it in ascending order.
