Villain? No, I'll catch up with the protagonist after passing the civil service exam.

The black police car sped along like a bolt of lightning in the dark night.

The piercing sirens echoed through the empty streets, but they couldn't mask the growing chill in Lu Jingyan's heart.

The financial center is the economic lifeline of Jinghai City.

More than half of the city's listed companies and top conglomerates are located there. If a large-scale financial fraud were to be exposed, the resulting chain reaction would be devastating. It's not just about money; it's about the livelihoods of tens of thousands of families and the collapse of the city's hard-earned credit system.

"Captain Lu, we've found it."

Su Xiaoxiao sat in the passenger seat, her fingers flying across the keyboard. The blue glow of the tablet illuminated her serious face, and the dense stream of data on the screen was refreshing at a frantic pace.

"This 'Shura Investment Group' was suddenly registered and established half a month ago."

Su Xiaoxiao swallowed hard, her voice trembling.

"The legal representative is named Ye Chen. He... he was originally just a live-in son-in-law of the second-rate Su family, working as a nanny for three years, someone even the dogs despised. But in the last two weeks, he's like a completely different person, not only loudly proclaiming himself the so-called 'Lord of the Asura Palace,' but also..."

"And what?" Lu Jingyan suddenly turned the steering wheel, and the police car drifted smoothly onto the main road leading to the financial center.

"And he started frantically attracting social capital!"

Su Xiaoxiao pointed to the red line on the screen that had suddenly surged, which was an extremely abnormal curve of capital inflow.

"They operate under the guise of the 'Asura Divine Punishment Fund,' promising guaranteed principal and interest. Most outrageously, they offer an annualized return... a staggering 300%!"

An annualized return of 300%.

These words struck Lu Jingyan's heart like a heavy hammer.

"Three hundred percent?"

Lu Jingyan sneered, his laughter devoid of any warmth, only mocking such extreme greed and ignorance.

"Why doesn't he just rob a bank if it's a sure-fire way to make money? Even the world's richest man wouldn't dare issue such a worthless check. What makes him, a son-in-law who just escaped the ranks of sweeping and cooking, think he can?"

"That's the weirdest part."

Su Xiaoxiao quickly pulled up a financial statement, which she had just forcibly retrieved using the police station's internal system.

"I investigated this company's underlying structure and cash flow. They have no actual investment projects, no real industrial support, and not even a decent risk control team. The huge sums of money they raised, aside from being used to pay exorbitant interest rates to early investors to create the illusion of profitability, were mostly used for..."

"The rest was all transferred to an anonymous, encrypted account overseas, and its final destination is completely untraceable!"

Lu Jingyan slammed on the brakes.

The police car stopped a block away from the Star Trade Center. From here, the towering financial center building was already visible, its neon lights on the top shimmering in the night, like a giant, black vortex devouring wealth.

"No need to check anymore."

Lu Jingyan pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses. Behind the lenses, his eyes were icy cold.

"Without any real projects, they rely on money from later investors to pay interest to earlier investors, using extremely high returns to lure more people into the game."

He spoke slowly and deliberately, his voice like that of a judge.

"This is a textbook example of a Ponzi scheme."

It's just a game of musical chairs.

"If the funding chain breaks, or if that Ye Chen absconds with the money, who will fill this hole of tens of billions? Who will compensate those who invested their entire fortunes for their lives?"

Sitting in the back seat, Captain Chen of the Economic Crime Investigation Team was already drenched in sweat. He was a veteran police officer who had worked on the economic crime investigation front for twenty years, but even he felt a chill run down his spine in the face of a financial fraud of this scale and nature.

"Captain Lu, this is a very serious matter."

Old Chen wiped his sweat, his voice dry, "This kid is using some kind of 'Asura War God' label to bewitch those brainwashed investors. We have some suspicious financial details, but we don't have concrete evidence of fraud yet. If we act rashly, it might cause a mass incident..."

"When he runs away with the money, that will be a real mass incident."

Lu Jingyan unbuckled his seatbelt and pushed open the driver's side door. The night wind, carrying the chill of autumn, rushed in, making his police uniform flutter loudly.

"System skills, Commercial Crime Insight, fully activated."

Lu Jingyan issued the command in his mind.

[Ding! Skill activated!]

[In-depth financial structure scan of "Shura Investment Group" is underway...]

[Scan complete.]

[Judgment: Major fundraising fraud case.]

The amount of money involved in the case has reached 12 billion yuan, and the funds are being transferred overseas at an extremely rapid pace. This gang possesses extremely strong counter-surveillance capabilities and an intricate organizational structure, and its ringleader, Ye Chen, is highly dangerous and inflammatory.

Lu Jingyan looked at the red warning box that popped up on his retina, and the murderous intent in his eyes could no longer be concealed.

12 billion.

This is only half a month. Does this so-called "Lord of the Asura Palace" intend to drain the lifeblood of the entire Jinghai City?

Did he think this was a wish-fulfillment novel? Three years later, he returns as the king, and with just a few cringeworthy lines and a fabricated title, he can treat all the city's richest people like fools and reap their wealth?

"Old Chen, notify the Economic Crime Investigation Division of the Municipal Public Security Bureau to cancel all leave."

Lu Jingyan turned around and looked at Lao Chen and Su Xiaoxiao in the car, his eyes sharp as knives.

"Immediately apply to freeze the domestic accounts of 'Shura Investment Group' and all its affiliated companies. Contact Interpol and the Anti-Money Laundering Center to urgently intercept that anonymous overseas account."

"But Captain Lu..." Old Chen hesitated, "This freezing process takes time, it won't be ready until at least tomorrow morning..."

There will be no tomorrow morning.

Lu Jingyan pointed to the brightly lit luxury hotel in the distance. That was where the Su family held their annual family banquet.

"According to intelligence, tonight is the Su family's annual meeting."

"That good-for-nothing son-in-law not only wants to publicly humiliate those relatives who once looked down on him at the annual meeting, but also wants to take this opportunity to pull all the prominent and wealthy people in the city into his 'Divine Punishment Fund'."

A chilling, mocking smile curled at the corners of Lu Jingyan's lips.

"He wants to go big."

"Then I'll go and cause trouble for him."

"Xiaoxiao, call the SWAT team. Tell them to bring riot shields and breaching hammers, and to meet at the hotel entrance where the Su family's annual meeting is in five minutes."

"tonight."

Lu Jingyan tugged at the hem of his police uniform and strode towards the hotel.

"I want to show this 'Lord of the Asura' that financial fraud is rampant on Chinese soil..."

"He'll spend the rest of his life in jail."