American forensics, but the gourmet system

Brooklyn, New York, late autumn.

Chinese forensic intern Russell stood before a corpse with a severely deformed head and limbs twisted at bizarre angles, and took out a scalpel from his examination kit...

[The system detected that the host is about to process fresh ingredients.]

[Unlock beginner's initial skill: Butcher's Skill (Beginner Level)]

Huh? Is that right?

……

Let's go back an hour.

Red and blue police lights spun in the night sky of a Brooklyn slum, illuminating a stray cat rummaging for food next to a garbage can.

Russell, carrying his examination kit, bent down and crawled into the cordon. While putting on nitrile gloves, he nodded to the serious-looking, bald, middle-aged white man beside him.

"Good evening, Captain."

"Good evening." Carter Hansen looked at Russell with a strange expression. "You got here pretty quickly."

Carter Hansen is the superintendent of a major crime unit in the NYPD (New York Police Department), which is part of the Brooklyn North Homicide Unit.

Russell, on the other hand, was an intern forensic pathologist at the OCME (New York City Medical Examiner's Office). After graduating with his master's degree, he was assigned to this major crime unit to assist with routine crime scene investigations.

"I live in an apartment over there."

Russell pointed to the street corner not far away.

"oh--"

Hansen drawled out the last syllable, a knowing look on his face.

Russell's after-tax monthly salary is only about $4000, and in a place like New York where land is extremely expensive, there aren't many houses available for him to choose from.

And...it's said that Chinese people are very good at saving money...

Therefore, it's not surprising that Russell, despite having a decent job, lived in a poor neighborhood like Brownsville.

Russell ignored Hansen's reaction and took out his phone to take pictures of the dead man on the ground.

The deceased was a male, approximately 30 years old, of Latino descent, wearing a slightly wrinkled supermarket uniform. He was lying face up on the ground, his exposed skin covered with abrasions and lacerations. His skull was severely deformed, and a reddish-white semi-solid substance could be vaguely seen flowing out from under his head. He had multiple fractures in his limbs, which were lying crookedly beside his torso.

It meets the characteristics of death caused by a fall from a height.

The deceased's muscles and skin were very elastic, the blood on his body showed signs of congealing, and there was still warmth in the neck area, with no signs of rigor mortis. Russell estimated that the time of death was no more than an hour ago.

Russell has been with the police force for six months and has personally witnessed more than a dozen similar fatal falls. Most of them involved people who were drunk or high on drugs and accidentally fell from buildings.

However, there was no smell of alcohol on the body, nor were there numerous needle marks on its arms. The calluses on its palms were thick, indicating that it had engaged in long-term physical labor before its death.

Although Russell had been interning in the major crimes unit for almost a year and had seen many corpses, both fresh and not, seeing ordinary laborers struggling at the bottom of society, without alcohol or drug addictions, die still stirred a wave of empathy within him…

"It was suicide."

A voice came from behind Russell.

  

The short but strong young Black police officer bent down and crawled through the cordon, handing a piece of paper to Captain Hansen. He also greeted Russell.

"The deceased was named Joey Cruz," the black detective said quickly. "He had no legal status. He lived in the penthouse of this apartment building, and I found a suicide note in his room. According to the note, Joey was barely making ends meet by working three illegal jobs a day, which is a far cry from his initial expectations of New York. You know, man. So..."

The Black agent made a gesture of falling quickly and shrugged.

His name is Jesse Wilson, a second-class detective, whose influence in this major crimes unit is only slightly higher than that of Russell, a forensic intern.

"Well done, Jesse." Captain Hansen glanced at the suicide note in his hand under the flashing police lights, nodded to the black detective, and said, "Looks like we can close the case now...maybe we'll need to do some handwriting analysis. Any findings, Russell?"

"Nothing was found."

Russell stood up; he had just carefully examined the deceased's skull, limbs, and cervical vertebrae, and everything was normal.

Oh, for a body that fell to its death, everything is normal.

"The body is consistent with death from a fall from a height, but the on-site investigation report still needs Dr. Beckman's signature."

Dr. Beckman is the official forensic pathologist at OCME. Although Captain Hansen is mainly responsible for the determination and investigation of the case, without Dr. Beckman's signature, all homicide procedures cannot proceed.

"Dr. Beckman will be arriving in 90 minutes."

Captain Hansen coughed lightly.

"90 minutes?" Jesse looked surprised. "Dr. Beckman replaced his BMW with a wheelchair?"

"He got cornered at the Barclays Center... The Nets have a game today, you know."

"Oh, right, the Knicks and Nets are playing today... Actually, the huge traffic jam is because the Knicks are playing an away game at Barclays Center." Jesse winked at Russell. "Come on, do the Nets have any fans?"

"But the hearse arrived."

Russell watched as a Ford E-350 van pulled up in front of them, the driver rolling down the window and looking at them wearily.

"The sixth body in twelve hours," the driver muttered. "By this time next year, all of Brooklyn's humans will be dead..."

"Come on, Jesse, give me a hand." Russell opened the back door of the truck and took out a brand-new body bag. "Let's get the body back to the medical examiner's office first, and wait there for Dr. Beckman to sign the papers."

……

The forensic office is located on the basement floor.

Russell and Jesse lifted the bulging blue body bag, placed it on a stretcher, and pushed it into the freezer.

bang.

The sound of the freezer door closing echoed in the empty morgue.

"I sent the photos of the scene and the suicide note to Dr. Beckman, and his opinion was similar to mine. Suicide."

Captain Hansen stood at the morgue door, fiddling with his phone as he spoke to Russell and Jesse.

"So we're closing the case then?"

Jesse asked.

"I guess that's the case closed," Captain Hansen nodded. "However, without Dr. Beckman's signature, it's not in accordance with procedure. But we can get a signature after we start work tomorrow. He just spent half an hour walking 300 meters near the Barclays Center. I told him to find a place to turn around and go home, and hopefully he can park his car in a parking space before midnight... God bless him."

God bless?

Russell suddenly realized something.

He felt the hairs on his arms stand up.

"God bless him." Jesse laughed, then turned to Russell and said, "Are you going home? Maybe I can give you a ride. Of course, if you'd like to find a bar for a few drinks, that's fine too..."

“No, no.” Russell shook his head firmly. “I have a new perspective on this case… You just mentioned God, didn’t you?”

"Yes, what kind of revelation did God give you?"

Jesse looked at Russell with some confusion.

At that moment, Russell turned around, opened the freezer that had just been closed, and pulled out the stretcher inside.

Chi!

Russell opened the body bag and pulled out an arm.

He held the slightly stiff arm and began searching for something in the calloused, rough hand.

Captain Hansen and Jesse immediately surrounded them.

A few seconds later, Russell stopped.

“God didn’t give me any revelation, but perhaps God can do us a small favor… There’s a ring mark shaped like a cross here,” Russell said, pointing to a faint mark on his middle finger. “The deceased was of Mexican descent, and 88% of Mexico’s population is Catholic.”

Captain Hansen and Jesse exchanged a glance; they both understood Russell's meaning.

Catholic doctrine forbids believers from committing suicide.

"But...it's hard to say..." Jesse said slowly, "We've seen Catholics commit suicide before..."

"But new questions have arisen in the case, and we must eliminate them," Captain Hansen said decisively. "I'll call Dr. Beckman right now... Jesse, you contact Marty and Diaz immediately and have them go to the scene to protect the evidence. Russell, you can begin the autopsy now."

……

Ten minutes later.

Russell stood beside the autopsy table, already dressed in surgical scrubs; Jesse had just helped him undress the deceased. Joey lay disheveled on the table; more than two hours had passed since his death, and despite the relatively low autumn temperatures, rigor mortis had begun to set in.

Open the examination kit and take out the scalpel.

Including the specimen practice during his undergraduate and master's studies, as well as the practical operation under the guidance of Dr. Beckman after graduation, Russell has dissected more than a dozen corpses and can be considered an experienced intern forensic pathologist.

This is also why Captain Hansen felt comfortable entrusting the autopsy to Russell.

Captain Hansen also wanted to save time so that once Dr. Beckman arrived, they could immediately begin analyzing the cause of death.

In the hours following the murder, every minute was crucial.

Looking at the deceased's broken neck, Russell decided to use a Y-shaped incision, although this incision looked quite gruesome and terrifying, starting from the acromion of both shoulders, passing through the chest cavity and abdominal cavity, all the way to the pubic symphysis, and the operation was very long.

However, the advantage is that the exposure area is sufficient, and there is a lot of room for maneuver when conducting inspections.

Russell aimed his scalpel at the deceased's shoulder, about to make the incision, when a screen of light slowly unfolded before him.

Flashing text appeared on the screen:

[Congratulations, host, you have now bound yourself to the Chinese Cuisine Making System]

[The system detected that the host is about to process fresh ingredients.]

[Unlock beginner's initial skill: Butcher's Skill (Beginner Level)]

[Task: Use the "Butcher's Skill" to process a piece of fresh ingredient]

[Task Reward: New Player Gift Pack]

A flood of information rushed into his brain, and Russell was momentarily stunned.

No way, what's going on here?!