1995, Starting as a Criminal Investigation Expert

At the same time, some information appeared in Li Shu's mind out of nowhere.

Upon realizing what was happening, Li Shudu couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

In the quiet environment, several people were startled by the shouts and turned to look at Li Shu.

Han Jianjun also looked over.

Li Shu quickly lowered his head, but a tidal wave of emotions was surging within him.

He had somehow become connected to some kind of system that could help him become a true criminal investigation expert.

Li Shu looked at the interface in front of him again.

It's something only you can see, just like in a science fiction movie.

As for the functions, based on the information I've received, there are mainly two parts.

Together, they form a skill set.

According to the system, it provides a skill tree that a criminal investigation expert must possess, covering six major categories.

This is different from the education Li Shu received.

The school only teaches five categories.

Trace evidence examination, document examination, criminal imaging technology, criminal physical and chemical examination, forensic examination.

The system also has an additional category called electronic data verification.

Li Shu guessed it must be related to computers.

This is an emerging technology. I've heard my professors at school talk about it, saying that new forms of crime using computers have emerged abroad.

From this perspective, the system is quite advanced.

This is the general outline; there are further specific categories below.

Within each category, there are a large number of skills waiting to be unlocked.

Li Shu needs to accumulate experience at work and learn to apply the knowledge provided by the system in order to unlock skills and obtain the corresponding talent points.

Therefore, in Li Shu's understanding, this is a knowledge base, and as long as he is willing to learn, he can learn a lot of criminal investigation science techniques.

It is very precious.

Then there are the talent points after unlocking skills, which can be used in another function of the system.

This part is quite special.

In a systematic way, becoming a top criminal investigation expert requires talent.

For example, visual perception, static vision, and dynamic vision; a gifted person can tell whether fingerprints are similar at a glance.

Professor Zhang at the school is an expert in this field.

For example, their hearing has an exceptional ability to distinguish different sounds quickly, find the target sound in a noisy environment, and have a sound memory ability, similar to photographic memory. In fact, their hearing is even stronger than others, allowing them to hear farther and deeper sounds.

That's talent; there really are people like that in China.

It also has memory ability, drawing expression ability, and spatial analysis and reconstruction ability.

Even physical skills, firearms proficiency, and much more.

There are also distinctions in talent points.

For example, the skill of fingerprint comparison belongs to the vision category, so the talent points obtained can only be used to enhance vision.

"Li...Li Shu, right? What's wrong? Is there a problem?"

Suddenly someone patted him on the shoulder. It was Zhao Yong. He had heard Li Shu call out and came over to ask what was wrong.

Li Shu came to his senses and hurriedly shook his head, saying that he was fine.

Zhao Yong guessed that he was genuinely busy and didn't have time to ask in detail, so he didn't inquire further, but simply said, "Alright, take your time, don't worry about speed, the key is accuracy, you absolutely can't make mistakes. Of course, don't feel pressured either, if you encounter anything you can't distinguish, come and ask me immediately."

He gave a brief instruction and then hurriedly sat back down.

Li Shu quickly lowered his head and began working.

As a provincial police academy, it may seem like just a junior college, but the training requirements are quite high.

The main focus is on "easy to learn and easy to use." Li Shu remembers the principal saying at the opening ceremony that he hoped that three years later, everyone who leaves school will be able to immediately become a qualified police officer when they start working.

Therefore, Li Shu was very familiar with fingerprint comparison.

The school has also conducted a large number of practical experiments, and even real-world combat exercises.

In Ningshan City, the provincial capital, when major cases arise and fingerprint comparison work is heavy, they will ask students from the school with relevant majors to help with the comparison.

Not to mention that trace evidence examination technology is the school's flagship course.

If you don't learn this lesson well, it will be difficult to graduate.

Therefore, Li Shu, this so-called newbie, is not actually that new.

In some aspects, they even have access to cutting-edge knowledge, which is better than some older people who have worked for many years and rely more on experience.

Li Shu sharpened a pencil while examining the fingerprint photo he had given himself.

This is a photo of the suspect's fingerprints taken with a macro lens in a darkroom and then magnified proportionally.

What Li Shu had to do was observe the fingerprints in the photos, memorize all the details, and then manually compare them one by one with the fingerprint files.

The file card is about the size of a palm, made of cardboard.

Anyone who gets into a fight, causes trouble, or commits a crime will have their records kept and their fingerprints and handprints collected.

Since they are all 1:1 replicas, a magnifying glass is needed to see the details of the fingerprints.

The photo was magnified four times. Li Shu picked up a piece of tracing paper, placed it on the photo, and began to draw with a pencil.

Hand-drawing fingerprints is a basic skill, and Li Shu practiced it diligently at school.

This is done for two reasons: first, to familiarize oneself with the fingerprints being compared, and second, to extract the complex patterns and draw only the identifiable, distinctive lines.

This facilitates quick comparison later.

First, this is a fingerprint of the right index finger.

Bad luck is the most common type of whorl pattern.

There are folk sayings about "dou" (a unit of dry measure) and "boji" (another unit of dry measure), such as "one dou means poverty, two dou means wealth, three or four dou means selling tofu," which even children can sing.

These two patterns are indeed the most common fingerprint patterns.

Together, they account for more than 97 percent.

But there are actually two other patterns. One is the bow-shaped pattern, which accounts for more than 2 percent.

The last type is called mixed patterns, which are the rarest and are found in higher proportions only in certain ethnic groups.

Therefore, if an arch-shaped pattern is used, the workload will be reduced exponentially.

After determining the pattern, it can be further categorized.

For example, this "dou" (a type of ancient Chinese container) can be divided into six types based on its shape, including ring-shaped and spiral-shaped.

Li Shu first determined these types of files by hand, then searched for the corresponding file cards based on these types, and then began to compare them one by one based on their characteristics.

At first glance, the workload seems manageable.

Because fingerprint profiles are categorized by pattern, type of finger, age, and region, once you have a fingerprint and determine its basic characteristics, you can retrieve the corresponding profile for comparison.

The problem is that over the years, the number of files collected in this way is staggering.

They are all in the tens of thousands.

Secondly, determining the pattern is simple; the real challenge lies in comparison.

In fingerprint comparison, the main focus is on nine fingerprint features, namely divergence, union, hook, bridge, etc.

A fingerprint typically has 70 to 150 such feature points. You need to visually observe and compare them to confirm that at least 12 feature points match before you can be considered to have made a preliminary match.

The difficulty can be imagined.

At this stage, it's still just tedious, repetitive physical labor.

Often, fingerprints left at crime scenes are incomplete.

It can also remain on different materials. Some materials have dust particles, which can affect the integrity of the fingerprint.

Even the pressure applied by the finger when leaving the fingerprint can cause it to deform.

At this point, the experience of the technicians is required to try their best to reconstruct and deduce the true fingerprint characteristics.

This is exactly what Li Shu lacks most, so all he can do is be extremely careful.

If you make a wrong judgment and fail to catch the murderer, but he is eventually found out, that would be a serious dereliction of duty.

Out of this caution, it took Li Shu almost two minutes to complete the comparison of the first file card.

On the system side, because of my work in fingerprint comparison, I actually gained 1 experience point for the skill of [Fingerprint Verification].

Just 1 point.

The maximum level requires a full 10,000 points.

In other words, you need to compare at least 10,000, or even more, because you can't just add 1 point of experience points whenever you want.

It may be necessary to deal with more complex comparison situations before it increases.

Therefore, the upgrade is nowhere in sight.

At the same time, accumulating experience is not enough; one must also learn relevant systematic knowledge, and only after learning all the knowledge can one truly understand and apply it.

So reaching the maximum level is still a long way off.

Fortunately, one thing was confirmed: the system really existed and it wasn't just my imagination.

It took almost two minutes, which is considered slow.

Because you can tell at a glance that it doesn't look like it.

Li Shu was just starting out and was worried about things going wrong, so he carefully compared the features using the comparison methods taught at school.

He glanced up at Tan Guoxiong across from him.

This guy was also hunched over the table, completely absorbed.

He's more meticulous in his work, so his speed is about the same, but also quite slow.

Li Shu stopped thinking about it. This was his future job, and he had prepared himself mentally before coming.

Then let's watch it.

Everyone has their own tasks, and since they are newcomers, they don't know each other well.

With no one to disturb him, Li Shu quickly got into work mode.

At first, I was focused on gaining experience through the system, but later I couldn't pay attention to that anymore.

Let it rise slowly, there's plenty of time.

It wasn't until someone tapped him on the shoulder that he realized it was already noon.

Before I knew it, I had been sitting for almost three hours.

As soon as I stood up, my upper body cracked a series of sounds, which felt incredibly satisfying.

"Not bad, you two can sit still."

It was Zhao Yong. He smiled and casually complimented them, then invited the two to eat in the cafeteria.