Ita Era

Chapter 86 The Butcher in the Rainy Night
Ding Shi crossed the zebra crossing, and a car turned left onto it. Based on Ding Shi's judgment and that of a normal person, the car, which wasn't moving fast to begin with, would slow down again upon seeing Ding Shi. At that moment, a window about 100 meters away was blown open by the wind, and sunlight reflected off it, blinding the driver. For a moment, the driver didn't see the pedestrian crossing or Ding Shi on it.

Faced with a danger that wasn't particularly perilous, Ding Shi, though wary, easily defused the situation and quickly ran a few steps to get away from the car's path.

Damn it! 20 meters, two murderous attempts, am I being targeted?
Without any notification, Ding Shi would simply assume it was an isolated incident.

In a high-rise building over ten stories high, a welder, suspended by a safety rope, was working at a great height when a spark landed on his neck and slid down his skin. The welder instinctively shook his clothes, lost his grip on the welding torch, and it fell straight down on Ding Shi, who was walking by.

"Watch out!" A woman's voice came from across the street.

Ding Shi instinctively stopped and looked, but before he could even see who had spoken, the welding torch slammed onto the floor in front of him. A cold sweat broke out on Ding Shi's back. "What the hell? They're launching an air raid?"
Turning his head to look across the street, a truck blocked Ding Shi's view. The truck turned right, and the left latch of the truck's tailgate suddenly malfunctioned. As the truck turned right, the tailgate swung around the right latch, hitting a girl on the sidewalk with a bang.

After checking his surroundings, Ding Shi quickly crossed the road to the other side to check on the girl. He saw her lying on the ground with a large amount of blood below her head. Ding Shi touched the girl's neck, then opened her eyelids to check her pupils, and found that she was already dead.

Ding Shi was puzzled. The truck wasn't going very fast, and the side panels weren't nearly powerful enough to crush a human skull. Even though this was the Ghost King instance, cheating like this was going too far.

A patrolman ran over blowing his whistle, and Ding Shi first took out his badge: "My name is Ding Shi."

The patrol officer glanced at the badge: "My name is Liu He."

Ding Shi, unsure if the other party was a player, didn't mince words and described what he had witnessed. The truck driver also ran over. The truck driver, named Zhang Hai, stammered out the situation, frequently glancing at the corpse on the ground, appearing very frightened.

To facilitate passage, the patrol officers and Ding Shi moved the body, only to discover a nail embedded in the girl's head where she had fallen. It was an ordinary nail. Theoretically, the nail should have been lying on the ground. But in reality, when the girl fell, her head happened to land on a nail that was standing upright.

Ding checked the back of the truck. The mechanical latch was difficult to remove. Someone, or perhaps by divine power, opened the latch, used the centrifugal force of the right turn to knock the girl down, and placed iron nails where the girl's head hit the ground.

Ding Shi was horrified when he thought about it. The girl had stopped because she was reminding him to be careful. Even if she had moved an inch or faced a different direction, she wouldn't have died even if she had fallen.

This isn't death, this is AI, AI that calculates down to the micrometer.

Ding Shi couldn't help but think of a classic movie: Final Destination. It's about a group of people who escaped certain death, only to have Death set its sights on them. Someone slipped and fell in the bathroom because of the toilet water, and as if that wasn't enough, they landed right on a clothesline and were strangled to death.

Another guy was annoyed by the pigeons in front of him, so he chased them away. The pigeons flew up and disturbed the workers, causing one of them to touch a control lever. Tempered glass then fell from above and crushed the guy to death.

In the movie, the non-existent Grim Reaper doesn't kill directly, but he alters the settings subtly, such as using wind to close a door, forcing the target to choose whether to open it. This triggers a chain reaction, creating a butterfly effect that ultimately kills the target.

This instance is so realistic that Ding Shi cannot determine whether the girl who died is a player, nor can he be sure whether Liu He and Zhang Hai are players.

Ding Shi felt the whole world was filled with malice, and that it was dangerous outside; he should go home. However, he had to go to work that night, and without work, he couldn't leave this world.

In summary: It's forcing you to die.

Hell dungeon, you can do it.

For the next two hours, everything was calm and peaceful. Ding Shi, tense and constantly looking back, felt a renewed sense of human warmth. Pretending not to be nervous, he cautiously walked two more blocks, but still nothing unexpected happened. Was Death not in multiple places at once, or was Death simply numbing his senses?
Ham Town is quite large; Ding Shi walked around for a whole day and only covered seven blocks, while the town center alone is 14 blocks wide. No more Death events occurred during this time, and Ding Shi couldn't identify any players. It's unlikely that players who have reached Hell difficulty would mindlessly shout out their identities.

……

At 4 PM, Ding Shi went to the police station and picked up the compensated bicycle. At 6 PM, Ding Shi, in uniform, arrived at the police station for dinner, followed by a patrol meeting. The police station has a total of 50 uniformed officers and two plainclothes officers. Police equipment includes handcuffs, batons, whistles, flashlights, raincoats, etc. Two handguns are in the hands of the two plainclothes officers.

There are 14 patrol officers on duty at night, each responsible for a block, 5 officers on duty at the police station, plus one plainclothes officer.

Fourteen police officers sat down, greeting and joking with each other. They were completely at ease with Ding Shi, as if he had always been one of them. During their conversation, Ding Shi also came to understand his own personality: taciturn, serious in his work, neither the focus of the team nor an outsider, with no close friends nor any major enemies.

The director took a stack of documents to the stage and planted a new small red flag on the map behind him. Now each of the 14 blocks has one red flag, and each of the two factories has two red flags.

The chief gestured for everyone to look at the map: "A total of 18 intentional homicides have occurred this week."

Ding Shi thought to himself: "18 murders in a week, all the residents would have fled long ago."

The director continued, "I hope everyone will fulfill their responsibilities and protect Ham Town..."

After speaking for four minutes, the director said, "Dismissed."

Everyone headed to the equipment room, encouraged each other, and then rode their bikes out.

Night Rain Street is located in the southwest of Ham Town. Legend has it that it often rains in Night Rain Street while other areas remain dry, hence the name. Night Rain Street is similar to other streets in terms of layout, with residences, shops, restaurants, etc. However, Night Rain Street has two unique characteristics: many of its residents are young slaughterhouse workers, resulting in a large number of professional women living there.

The weather was a bit chilly, and as they approached the Night Rain Street area, a light drizzle began to fall. Ding Shi took out the raincoat from the back of his bicycle and put it on. When they arrived at Night Rain Street, the streets were bustling with people, and the cinemas, restaurants, and cafes were packed. Men and women chatted and talked, and everything seemed peaceful and serene.

Local residents seem to have gotten used to the fact that it rains at night; their umbrellas are large enough to shelter two people from the wind and rain. Of course, single people can use them too, and they're even more useful, since at least there's no need to discuss who should hold the umbrella.

Ding Shi went to the bookstore first, intending to take advantage of the system, but unexpectedly, all the books in the bookstore were books that he already had in his island library.

Then Ding Shi helped an old woman cross the road because she was walking too slowly and had blocked two traffic lights. Ding Shi half-lifted her to the other side of the road, completely ignoring her resistance.

At 8:30, the number of people in the street reached its peak. At this moment, a man in a suit ran up to Ding Shi and said, "Officer, there has been a theft in our office." As a patrol officer, Ding Shi had to go to the scene to check the situation first, and then contact the plainclothes officers using a public phone or other telephone.

The theft occurred at a tea company on the 7th floor of the Night Rain Building. They had received a major client that afternoon. After dinner, the client finally agreed to sign a contract, and the group went to the tea company to sign it. The client left a deposit of 5,000 yuan. The owner was delighted and opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate. As everyone raised their glasses, the power suddenly went out. A few minutes later, an employee in the electrical room switched off the power, restoring power, only to discover that the owner's bag containing the money was missing.

Ding Shi stood at the elevator door, which was open, revealing the anxious employee inside. The employee urged, "Officer, please hurry up."

Ding Shi didn't like this elevator; it was too passive.

Ding Shi said, "I believe you." After saying that, he turned around and left, walking out of the building and into a public phone booth. He inserted coins and contacted the police station. About 10 minutes later, an undercover officer arrived at the Night Rain Building. Ding Shi explained the situation, lying that he had seen the scene. The undercover officer took the elevator upstairs alone.

System notification: For being uncooperative, 10 work points will be deducted, bringing your current work points to -7.

Damn it! I work 8 hours a day and only get 8 points.

Wait a minute, why didn't I get any work points for helping an old lady cross the street? At the very least, I helped ease traffic congestion, right?

At 10 p.m., the streets became sparsely populated, and passersby quickened their pace. However, nighttime activities also began, with women from certain groups emerging from their homes and standing in rented rooms and alleyway shops, displaying their alluring figures to passersby.

Some women would see their guests off, then continue to stand under the eaves to avoid the rain, lighting a cigarette and greeting any potential guests who passed by. Others, who had cars, would simply pick them up and drive away.

Ding Shi sat alone under the giant mushroom, a stone sculpture in the center of the rainy night street, which provided shelter from the wind and rain.

A cold, rainy night, a boring job. Until a scream came from an alley.

Ding put on his raincoat and hat and walked towards the alley 30 meters away. There were no streetlights in the alley; some houses would light a lamp on the ground floor as a streetlight, but most places were dark.

Ding Shi pulled out his flashlight and shone it on the scene. He saw a scantily clad woman in red lying on the ground in front of the apartment building, surrounded by blood. She was clutching her bag tightly with both hands. A man in a dark raincoat, holding a dagger in one hand, was trying to snatch the bag with the other. When the woman wouldn't let go, the man raised the dagger as if to stab her.

"The Rainy Night Butcher"—Ding Shi instantly thought of the villains lurking in the rainy neighborhood. It was said that the Rainy Night Butcher had severely burned faces, making him quite gruesome. The police investigated based on this clue but found no one matching the description. Ding Shi immediately recognized the burns as makeup. The police started with the stolen goods but ended up with a female suspect who claimed she had found them.

Ding Shi blew his whistle and ran towards the butcher in the rainy night. The butcher glanced at Ding Shi, put down his satchel, and ran away.

Ding Shi faces a choice: Option 1, stay and rescue the woman in red, notify the police station, and provide basic first aid, which may save her life. Option 2, abandon the woman in red, let her fend for herself, and pursue the Rain Night Butcher.

Option 2 seems inhumane and cold-blooded, but if we give up the chance to catch the butcher now, there will definitely be another victim. However, option 2 also violates basic morality and professional ethics.

Damn it, are all the residents here dead? With the sound of the whistle, the surrounding lights went out one by one. Some people opened their windows to see what was going on, but they couldn't find anyone in the darkness.

So, is the system forcing itself to choose between two options?

As a police officer, Ding Shi should have chosen option 1, but as an undercover agent, he chose option 2. As an undercover agent, his goal was not to save citizens, but to eradicate evil.

After pausing for about ten seconds, Ding Shi gave chase. His agility made him a runner, not a running leopard, because in the dark, running too fast would easily lead to crashing into the wall. Getting injured was a minor issue; if he crashed into the wall, he would lose points.

Seeing that Ding Shi wasn't chasing him, the butcher slowed his pace, preparing to tear off the disguise from his face. Then Ding Shi caught up. The two chased each other out of the alley, the distance between them rapidly closing.

A cyclist was knocked down by the butcher, who picked up his bicycle and rode away. Ding snapped his fingers and released his electric scooter to give chase.

The butcher ran a hundred meters and glanced back, only to find Ding Shi less than five meters away. He was terrified and immediately stood up, stomping on the pedals until sparks flew. Ahead were the railway tracks, the stop barrier already lowered, and he could clearly feel the vibrations transmitted by the moving train.

Damn movie plot! As Ding Shi cursed, the butcher rushed out through the gap in the parking barrier, and Ding Shi chose to stop. This was out of pressure from death; Ding Shi guessed that if he forced his way through, he would most likely be killed.

Sure enough, the train almost grazed the butcher's tail, and what was even more disgusting was that the train showed obvious signs of acceleration.

Ding Shi stopped the train and sighed, watching the passing trains. Then, a porcelain cup was thrown out of the window. Instinctively, Ding Shi punched the cup. The cup hit the moving train, bounced back, and struck Ding Shi on the forehead. Ding Shi covered his forehead, his anger burning fiercely.

As soon as the train passed, Ding drove off, revving the engine to its maximum, the two wheels leaving a trail of water on the flooded road.

After chasing for another two hundred meters, Ding Shi spotted the bicycle.

The bicycle stopped at the intersection of a long, downward-sloping staircase. Ding Shi peeked out; the height was over 7 meters, below which lay the shantytown of Yeyu Street. The butcher was running forward, his path parallel to the road, one below, the other above.

Ding Shi immediately drove after him from above, just as the butcher was about to escape the streetlight area and enter the dark shantytown. Ding Shi produced a Wildcat crossbow in his left hand, stopped the car, placed the crossbow pouch on the handlebars, and took out a bolt to load.

The butcher has entered the dark zone by 10 meters.

A black crossbow bolt flew out, striking the butcher in the back and passing through his chest. The butcher collapsed to the ground.

Ding Shi drew a second crossbow bolt, aimed, and pulled the trigger. The bolt struck the butcher in the shoulder.

Ding Shi drew out the third crossbow bolt, aimed, and pulled the trigger. The bolt pierced the butcher's head.

Ding Shi then put away his crossbow, drove back, put away his electric scooter, went down the steps, got on his electric scooter, and drove to where the butcher had fallen.

But the butcher is gone. Fine, he's gone, but what's the meaning of taking the crossbow with him?
(End of this chapter)