Pokémon Detective Case Files.

Mr. Hayden, sitting next to Meidan, looked much more composed. He supported his cane, which was resting on his knee, with his right elbow, and while speaking, he elegantly raised his left hand to attract everyone's attention.

Then, he turned to Officer Jenny, his gaze deep, as if he were cautiously assessing his opponent's bottom line, much like when speaking at a board meeting.

"However, considering our position here, regardless of whether Ms. Officer Jenny or your team finds any results in the end, Ah Ying and I plan to leave before nightfall. After all, I came here only to meet with an old friend and do not want to be dragged into a controversy that could damage the company's reputation."

Faced with the two elderly people, one tough and one soft, and their respective uncooperative attitudes, Officer Jenny did not confront their offensive head-on. Instead, she smiled.

"It seems that you two, like me, figured out the authenticity of this dead man's head a long time ago. You didn't even participate in the autopsy. You truly are experts in the field of biology and big bosses of medical companies. It took me quite a while to confirm this myself."

"I've studied biology my whole life, I'm not going to be fooled by a cyborg head," Professor Mei Dan said coldly, without denying it.

"An android?!" Zina, the maid standing behind the owner, was taken aback.

"Of course, do you really think a grown man would die in this mansion?"

The old man let out a loud, scoffing laugh—

"Only naive young girls who have never seen the world would be fooled by such a childish trick, right? Hair, skin, muscles, teeth, lips, nose tip, blood—any film company has a makeup team that can recreate these things almost perfectly, not to mention the puppeteers and model makers who make a living by creating such props. In this day and age, a lifelike android head is nothing more than a slightly expensive toy. I really don't understand how simply faking some foul-smelling blood on the neck could cause such a commotion among everyone here."

“But that head, it really looks... just like the real thing,” Winnie muttered.

“The eyes,” Medan said firmly. “The eyes are the most honest thing—of course, I don’t believe in any mystical things like the sparkle in the eyes; I’m referring to their biological structure.”

The old man pointed two fingers at his own harsh eyes—

"Within these two spheres, each only a little over twenty millimeters in length, width, and diameter, lies a highly intelligent, high-definition camera. Dense connective tissue forms its shape, flexible tendons allow it to rotate freely, blood flowing through delicate vessels provides it with energy, and a gel-like vitreous body cleverly guides the light, projecting the world before our eyes onto the network woven by the optic nerve in an orderly manner... No mechanical structure can replicate such an intricate structure, and even if a similar shape could be created, its function could not be reproduced—let alone simulate the morphological changes of the human eye after death."

"I see!"

Officer Jenny raised her eyebrows, stopped pressing down on the head, and, with a sudden realization, happily agreed—

"As the saying goes, the eyes are the windows to the soul, so it is indeed appropriate to use them to distinguish between truth and falsehood. This reminds me of the forensic knowledge that relatives talked about at the gathering - after death, the pupil of a human eye will dilate and become fixed. After a period of time, the transparent cornea, which has no blood supply, will become cloudy and turn white due to edema and necrosis. But on this human head, we cannot see such traces."

Only artificial flowers can bloom forever, and only mannequins can have eyes that are always bright.

"So, what was inside the eye sockets of that head was just a pair of glass beads," Mei Dan concluded.

Everyone focused their attention once again on the head in Officer Jenny's hand. They could see that the pair of frozen, ferocious eyes were still staring in astonishment at the void.

The reason these eyes give off a ferocious impression is because the wide-open eyeballs are surrounded by blood vessels that involuntarily evoke fear—a feature that a dead head, deprived of its blood supply, would never exhibit. Not to mention the two pupils in the center of the eyes, which show absolutely no signs of dilation.

“And Mr. Hayden? How did you figure out that the head was a fake?” Miss Officer Jenny turned to Hayden again. “Did you also guess by observing the changes in the eyes after death?”

"Unlike Meidan, I had long ago forgotten all my biological knowledge from my university professors."

The big boss in the pharmaceutical industry shrugged, shook his head self-deprecatingly, and slowly said, without denying that he had seen through the shady dealings long ago.

"In fact, I noticed something unusual when Miss Officer Jenny brought the head into the house."

"That's the first thing you see when you see a head!" Officer Jenny complained helplessly.

Neither Hayden nor Medan went up to the roof, so they didn't see the "corpse" scene in the attic. Therefore, when Officer Jenny brought the head into the second floor, that was their first encounter with the head.

“While Miss Officer Jenny was still investigating the scene in the attic, Miss Winnie and the others had already come downstairs and naturally told us what they had seen inside. With that mental preparation, we weren’t too shocked and slow to react when we saw that thing,” Hayden explained.

"So what kind of anomaly did you discover?"

"The first odd thing I noticed was that you seemed to be struggling a bit when you were carrying the head. As a police officer conducting an autopsy, you should theoretically be supporting the face with both hands when moving the head, and moving it downstairs without damaging the body as much as possible. However, when you picked up the head, you carried it by supporting the chin with both hands—even though this made your gloves bloody."

"One wrong move and we've leaked the secret," Officer Jenny sighed.

"The next discovery further confirmed my suspicions—after the autopsy, when you placed this thing on the chair through a towel, it made a heavy thud. These two things combined indicate that the weight of this head far exceeded what you, Officer Jenny, had anticipated, so much so that you had to use a more convenient and forceful method when moving it."

Hayden raised his cane, pointing it at the head—

"A head that was cut off at the chin, without even the back of the neck, and with severe blood loss, could not possibly have such a heavy weight. The only explanation is that there is something wrong with its material. Beneath the lifelike face, what is wrapped is not flesh and bones, but a much denser steel wire and bionic muscles."

"Well, it's not quite steel bars or copper wires, but that's roughly how it is."

Seeing that everyone present was a shrewd and capable person, and unable to make a name for herself with the autopsy results, the policewoman was somewhat disappointed. However, having come this far, she had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue—

"After noticing that the head was not the right weight, I examined the cross-section of the neck and confirmed that the bones supporting the head were not made of calcium like those in a normal human body, but rather of stainless steel that mimics the structure of a skeleton. The remaining blood and muscles looked similar, but they were just superficial. Their pathways and veins were completely different from those in a normal human body. Therefore, I concluded that this was not a real human head, but a very well-made dummy head."

Since the head wasn't real, there was no decapitation involved. The body beneath the severed section might not have even been manufactured at all.

"Then why is it in this mansion?" Zhu Lan Champion, who had been silent until now, finally spoke up, still holding the ancient book she had brought out of the mansion owner's room.

“Considering the situation of this Forest Mansion, the reason shouldn’t be hard to guess…” Officer Jenny said thoughtfully, feeling as if she had grasped a bit of inspiration.

But at that moment, two voices speaking in unison interrupted the policewoman's thoughts—

"That goes without saying!"

Meidan and Hayden, these old classmates, spoke at the same time, their tones even perfectly synchronized—

"Of course, it's because those fanatical theists chased me all the way here."

"Naturally, it's because some organizations and companies that are hostile to my company want to smear me."

Chapter 281 Testimony of the Master of Meidan Pavilion

"I can understand the conjectures made by the two of you from your own perspectives."

Faced with the two elderly people's seemingly unquestionable assertions, Officer Jenny spoke patiently.

"But as I told Zina and the others at the attic, if the prisoner who placed this android head here was acting according to normal human thought, and his ultimate goal was to demonstrate, then the location of the rooftop attic is far too remote..."

"Ha, perhaps. Demonstrations with a specific purpose often pay attention to these details."

Mei Dan scoffed, interrupting Officer Jenny directly. He, who was not sensitive to the subtle differences between the intelligence agencies and the police system, continued.

"But, young policewoman, I think you should also know that in this world, much hatred is aimless and completely unreasonable."

The old professor, with his signature mocking expression, snorted dismissively and began his long-winded discourse—

"Whether it's humans or Pokémon, at some stage in the beginning of life, there will be a period when they are unable to control their violent tendencies. This stage for the latter may even recur with evolution. At this time, it is necessary to rely on the moral contract established between groups to limit and punish these inner dark sides, and to persistently educate them so that we can consciously restrain this instinctive violence and become life forms that can be accepted by society."

"This is a classic theory of original sin. Is this also a field that a PhD in biology should be studying?"

Miss Officer Jenny remained noncommittal, wiping the unidentified liquid simulating blood from her hands with a napkin she had prepared earlier, and crossed her arms as she looked at the owner of the establishment.

"The behavioral logic of biological communities naturally falls within the scope of biological research. Of course, I am not an expert in this branch of research; I have only dabbled in it." The old man was unusually modest.

Officer Jenny from the intelligence department nodded: "Is that so? I do think that using acquired concepts like 'good' or 'evil' to summarize innate biological instincts will inevitably lead to errors, no matter how much you argue, just like using black and white to describe gray... But that's not important, we can discuss it further later. How does what you've said relate to our previous topic?"

"Of course there is a connection. No matter how bad my personality is, I wouldn't go so far as to talk nonsense and waste time at such a critical moment."

Contrary to his words, Medan appeared unhurried, crossed his legs, and continued his sermon—

"If we consider secular morality as a cage that confines the evil in human nature, then religions in the general sense are like dismantling this well-functioning iron cage into pieces. They use magnificent halls, elaborate rituals, and new rules labeled as doctrines, sacred words, and divine revelation to construct a new, fancy cage that is different from the previous one. People can see the gods they pray to through the carefully arranged gaps in the cage."

"What do you mean?" Officer Jenny asked thoughtfully.

"Yes, during this process of replacing the cage, certain evil aspects of human nature may very well take the opportunity to break free. Just like when we debug a program in a computer, if we want to add something new to the code, it will inevitably conflict with other parts of the original code, and various oversights will occur. Running the program will likely result in errors, not to mention that they want to drastically replace the entire system."

"So you mean that the moral order established by religions might conflict with our current value system?"

Officer Jenny tried to understand it in her own way.

"In different 'iron cages,' certain bottom lines that we consider inviolable may be easily trampled on by fanatical believers in religion; while other things that we originally thought were unimportant may become the sore spot of those who believe in gods... To put it bluntly, accepting religion makes people single-minded and neurotic, right?"

"Heh, to be able to summarize it so simply and clearly, you must have met guys like this before, right?" The curator added, "The more immature a new religion is, the easier it is to educate a bunch of idiots with extreme ideas. For example, those guys who attacked my mansion with bricks in Binhai City before."

"So, Master Meidan knew the identities of those fanatical theists?" The intelligence officer, intrigued, raised one eyebrow.

"My dad and I knew a long time ago!"

With her hands on her hips, Winnie interjected in a manner befitting her father, suggesting she was present when Medan was harassed.

"I would say that the identities of those guys were clear from the beginning. After all, they stuck the condemnation notes on the stones and threw them into the house through the broken window."

What did the note say?

"Oh dear, it had a bunch of curses written on it, like 'You'll be punished by heaven sooner or later, and your soul will never find peace after death,' nothing profound at all," the girl said with a lively laugh. "To be honest, I thought there were some kind of hidden code, acrostic, or reverse cipher on the note, and I studied it over and over for a long time—but of course, I found nothing."

The curator rubbed his forehead and continued, "And at the end of that note, he brazenly wrote down his affiliation—the Arceus Society, the most notoriously ignorant new religion in the Sinnoh region. Hmph, being threatened by a group of guys like that, it's impossible to even feel angry."

Officer Jenny naturally followed up with, "Wasn't breaking a window with a stone already quite dangerous? According to Mr. Medan, they had also threatened us with paint before. Didn't the police intervene at that time?"

“It’s not that I didn’t want to call the police.” The curator scratched his gray hair. “It’s just that, given the situation at the time, it would have been more convenient to contact Hayden directly. After all, my speech videos were still circulating online back then, and even if I dealt with those guys from the Arceus Society, it might still attract more troublesome people afterward.”

At this point, Meidan nodded to Mr. Hayden beside her, who responded with a nonchalant smile.

"I see. So you moved into the Forest Mansion like that."

Officer Jenny nodded repeatedly, seemingly quite satisfied with this information that was completely unrelated to the headhunting incident.

At this moment, Cynthia noticed that Officer Jenny, who worked as an intelligence agent for the Sinnoh League's intelligence agency, was actually gathering information step by step, even though she seemed to be just chatting aimlessly with Medusa.

This method of investigation is completely different from that of police detectives. Officer Jenny may seem harmless, but she is like a hypnotic device that makes people unconsciously open their hearts, accepting all the information revealed by those involved in the case, regardless of whether it is true or false.

However, with so much information overwhelming us, will the final answer to the matter truly be revealed? And what kind of truth will ultimately emerge?

As Zhu Lan pondered, the conversation between the intelligence officer and those involved in the case continued back and forth.

"Alas, looking back now, my laissez-faire approach was not entirely appropriate... Indeed, one should not be lazy."

Mei Dan turned her gaze to the human head model that was gradually being forgotten by everyone, and shook her head and sighed.

“Mr. Medan, are you so sure that the prisoner who placed this head in the mansion was a fanatical follower of the Arceus Society?” Officer Jenny asked rhetorically.

The old man nodded: "Of course, I understood it the moment I saw this model."

He said solemnly and earnestly—

"If it wasn't to intimidate me, this blasphemer who has no regard for God, why would they dye the wig of this human head model the hair color of a member of the Galactic Group?"

“Indeed. If it were just the hair color, that would be one thing, but even the hairstyle has been adjusted to the standard style of Team Galactic. This is definitely a detail that cannot be simply attributed to coincidence.” Officer Jenny, who also had short, dark green hair, nodded in agreement.

"Team Galactic has been desecrating mythical relics, wantonly denigrating gods, and attempting to capture legendary Pokémon in the Sinnoh region. Such evil deeds are now common knowledge. And now, they have placed a bloody Team Galactic head in my attic. Their intentions are self-evident."

"Do you think it's intimidation? But this mansion is located in such a remote area, far from Binhai City... How did the intimidators find this place and climb over the surrounding woods to enter the mansion?"

"Is it really that unbelievable that those people could pinpoint the address of a retired university professor from the vastness of social networks, and then follow the trail to find out where we lived after we moved? At least the moving company kept track of our migration route. We should actually thank this Forest Mansion; its remote location kept them somewhat calm, preventing them from doing anything even more outrageous," the old man shrugged.

"But then why would they hide the head in an attic where it wouldn't be easily visible?" Officer Jenny continued to press.

"This is of course because those cowardly intimidators dared not step into this Forest Mansion. Therefore, they hastily left their intimidation tools in the deserted rooftop attic and fled. This behavior is so similar to the previous act of throwing a stone through the window. Ambitious yet self-deceiving, enthusiastic yet clueless, this is the way fools take revenge."

"So that's what you were thinking, Mr. Curator..."

The intelligence officer hesitated, seemingly feeling she could extract no more information from Mei Dan, yet still reluctant to leave, she turned back and pleaded—

"Master Meidan, may I ask you one last question?"

“Fine, ask away, as long as I can answer.” Mei Dan proudly raised her chin.

"Could your current research be related to this bionic head case?"

Officer Jenny asked the question that had been bothering her ever since she stepped into the mansion—

"What exactly are you researching, sitting in the basement room of the Mori Mansion every day?"

“That’s already two separate issues.” The curator shook his head directly. “I can only say that what I’m researching has nothing to do with the case. It’s a research secret, and I’m sorry I can’t disclose it.”

Officer Jenny then turned her gaze to Hayden, who, as the investor, was certainly aware of the research her old friend was conducting.

“He wasn’t lying.” Old Man Hayden simply sighed and continued, “Although my old classmate was clearly terribly wrong about the heads.”

Chapter 282 Hayden's Judgment

The Forest Mansion was brightly lit at night, its lights standing out starkly against the dense, dark foliage. Occasionally, a few poisonous moths could be seen flitting about, drawn to the light, near the mansion's weathered windows.

Having stepped down from the chairman's throne and now serving as a junior director in his own company, Hayden cleared his throat twice, glanced around at everyone, and then spoke slowly and deliberately—

"Do you know how I bought this Forest Mansion?"

Everyone looked at each other in silence. Even Officer Jenny, who was presiding over the meeting, shook her head helplessly: "According to the intelligence, this mansion seems to have appeared out of thin air. Apart from the application record for renovating the electrical wiring and water pipes two years ago, and the subsequent utility bills, the Alliance has no other information about this mansion. However, among the residents of Baidai City, there has always been an urban legend about the haunted mansion, saying that it attracts and devours lost people or something."

“Of course, no information could have leaked out,” Hayden shrugged. “Because this Forest Mansion was completely abandoned by its former residents long before the Sinnoh League established a comprehensive real estate registration system. Later, Eternal Forest was designated as a Pokémon habitat where new construction was prohibited, and this two-story building, surrounded by dense trees, was thus completely abandoned in the corner of history.”

"Before the registration system was perfected... it was abolished more than 120 years ago?" Officer Jenny mentally calculated the timeline of major events in the League, then suddenly felt something was amiss—

"Wait a minute, since this house has been abandoned, wouldn't your construction here violate the regulations regarding wildlife habitats?"

“Miss Officer Jenny, there’s no need to worry about this.” Manager Aying explained on behalf of the employer, indicating that he was also in charge of handling this matter.

"The main structure of the Forest Mansion already existed, so it cannot be considered a new construction project. We only renovated the building according to the standards of a secret outdoor base, and this matter has been reported to the relevant forestry departments of the Alliance."

Many trainers need to be stationed in the wild for extended periods to train their Pokémon. Over time, using simple tents becomes inconvenient. Therefore, many trainers simply establish permanent bases in the wild, such as cabins, caves, or burrows, together with their Pokémon. To regulate this practice and prevent an excessive number of bases from impacting the local environment, the League has implemented policies limiting trainers to a certain number and size of wild bases.

...Unexpectedly, Mr. Hayden found a loophole here.

"So, strictly speaking, this is a secret base?"