Carl Sandford, a well-known local antique dealer in Arkham, is also the largest art acquirer on the East Coast.
As early as the development process of Cocoon, Carl Sandford had shown great interest in the Battle Angel bronze statue at the headquarters of Sindora Company and proposed to purchase it at a high price.
However, the Battle Angel bronze statue itself is Sindora's proudest collection and the symbol of Sindora Company.
Moreover, the dagger in the hand of the bronze statue is a family heirloom of the Sindora family, and it is impossible to sell it.
So Sindora refused.
Afterwards, Carl expressed his desire to acquire the bronze statue more than once and could offer a price he couldn't refuse.
The most recent time was at the last Cocoon conference in Boston. Syndora had a secret meeting with Karl, and the conversation was still about the acquisition of bronze statues.
But the result was still no agreement, and both parties broke up unhappy.
Sindora thought that this was the end of the matter and that it would be the last conversation, but she didn't expect
He was leaning closely against the sofa, and his height of nearly 1.9 meters was like a frightened child. There was both surprise and panic in his eyes, and he stared at his employees with wide eyes.
"you."
"Are you his people?"
This is a somewhat redundant question.
Several people didn't reply. Five of them stared at Sindora silently, while the other turned around and opened the cover under the console to look for something inside.
Sindora's face was full of disbelief, and she continued: "How, how is this possible?"
"You have already entered the company before him."
"Jeff! I even had lunch with you! Remember?"
Sindora was extremely surprised.
It is nothing new for companies to infiltrate industrial espionage, especially for IT industry giants like Sindora.
But these people are all veterans who joined the company before Sindora truly became an IT giant.
It was only half a year ago that Carl Sanford showed interest in the Battle Angel bronze statue.
Isn't this penetration?
Is it bribery?
Just as Sindora's mind was thinking about when she had been isolated, the operator opened the cover under the console and took out a spring knife from the gap inside.
The short switchblade was stained with solidified blood, which was a little oozing.
Seeing this knife, Sindora suddenly understood.
"Did you kill Kashimura?"
"It's you!"
Sindora looked at the bloody switchblade in disbelief.
There is no doubt that in such a tightly guarded environment, this is the only murder weapon.
The police tried their best, but they never imagined that it was brought in in this way and kept hidden here.
Even if the police want to search this place, it cannot be done with a simple search warrant.
This involves the most cutting-edge technology and core technologies of American IT companies.
Even for homicide investigation reasons, the laws of the US government will never allow the Japanese police to investigate these devices.
This is a kind of protection that rises to the zz level. The competition is about the international right to speak, not what local laws can control.
Therefore, this is the safest place to hide the murder weapon.
At this moment, several former employees were holding switch blades and slowly approaching Sindora.
Sindora felt something was wrong and quickly begged for mercy.
"How much did Carl give you?"
"I can add money!"
"You can have as much money as you want!"
Typical rich people's thinking makes Sindora want to use money to solve problems.
However, Jeff, whom he trusted the most, came over and shook his head lightly.
"This is not about money, Chairman Sindora, but about the future."
"What future?" Sindora looked confused.
Jeff held a switchblade in his hand and looked at Sindora condescendingly, as if he were looking at an extremely pitiful down-and-out man.
"Imagine that sounds, images, and knowledge can be transmitted to the human brain only through electrical signals."
"This is a great technology that can change the world."
"And this is the future, not a game just for entertainment."
Sindora's eyes widened, and the dead memories in her mind rekindled again.
Many years ago, when Syndora Corporation first established this project, an anonymous investor offered to fully fund the research and development of the project.
This was a great good thing for Sindora, who had not yet obtained the genius boy Hiroki Sawada.
After all, the technology required for this project is too epoch-making, the research and development costs are extremely high, and the future is uncertain.
Once the project fails, or the final product is not launched, Sindora will not be able to bear the huge losses caused.
The anonymous investor is not worried about risks and claims to have enough financial resources to support the entire research and development process.
However, the only condition is that the research direction needs to be changed, and the technology does not have the ultimate market goal of developing fully stealth virtual games.
This investor even suggested that the technology does not aim to be launched on the market, but only needs to be developed.
This condition makes Sindora feel very strange. How can any investor not aim to make money?
Capital is all about profit, and no matter how good your technology is, you still have to make money in the end.
When Syndora established this project, it had already determined that virtual games were the best product for this technology.
Moreover, this anonymous investor has never shown his face and has always been contacted by email, which always gives people an unpredictable feeling.
Smart people often don’t cooperate with people they can’t even guess, no matter how much benefit the other party can bring.
After Sindora carefully considered it and decided to reject the anonymous investor, the other party sent an email.
The general meaning of the email is that this is a technology that can change the world, rather than being limited to games for people's entertainment.
Of course, Sindora refused in the end.
Now after so many years, Sindora still remembers that person's email signature.
That's an impressive signature -
Earl of Crow.
Thinking of this, Sindora recalled what Carl Sandford once said to himself at a meeting in Boston: I am not interested in games.
"Are you guys?"
Before Sindora could express what was in her heart, a cold light came first, followed by a stream of blood.
The sharp switchblade instantly made a gash on Sindora's neck, and blood spattered on the delicately groomed gray beard and on Jeff's face.
"Forehead"
Sindora made a dry sound in her throat. Even though her eyes were full of reluctance, her body could only gradually wither until she completely lost her vitality.
Jeff threw away the switchblade, took off his work clothes, wiped his face like a rag, and then threw the rag into Sindora's face.
The operator at the back opened the external device slot and took out a disk from it.
"Have they all been copied?" Jeff asked.
"Yeah." Operator No. 4 nodded.
"withdraw!"
Several people pushed the door open and left, leaving a mess behind.
By the time Kudo Yusaku and Megure arrived with a group of police officers, the game control room was already empty.
On the floor, Dr. Ari and Takagi Wataru were lying in various places.
Kudo Yusaku and Megure rushed forward immediately, caring about their own pawns respectively.
"Takagi! Takagi!"
"Shiratori! Call an ambulance right away!"
Shiratori looked back at Chiba, who immediately understood and went out to make a phone call.
Here, Kudo Yusaku also helped Dr. Agasa up.
"Doctor? Are you okay?"
At Yusaku Kudo's call, Dr. Agasa slowly opened his eyes.
"Huh? It's Yusaku."
Kudo Yusaku quickly asked: "Dr. Ali, where are all the staff here?"
Dr. A Li paused and shook his head.
"I don't know either. I seemed to have been knocked unconscious by someone from behind."
later?
Kudo Yusaku looked back and saw the person lying on the purple sofa behind him, with the Sindora Company employee uniform covering his head.
"That's over there."
At Yusaku Kudo's reminder, Shiratori walked over, opened his clothes, and was shocked for a moment.
"It's Chairman Sindora!"
"he died"
When Kudo Yusaku heard this, he quickly helped Dr. Agasa in his hand aside and walked closer.
There was a bloody gap in Sindora's throat, and the obvious murder weapon was a switchblade on his body.
Mumu also came over and guessed: "Did Sindora know that we were coming to investigate this place, so she committed suicide out of fear of crime?"
Hearing this guess, Kudo Yusaku narrowed his eyes slightly and glanced at Megure.
It seems that if you always rely on detectives, your reasoning ability will indeed deteriorate.
Kudo Yusaku leaned over and observed for a few seconds before giving his own reasoning.
"Chairman Sindora was killed by someone, and the murderer was also the person who killed Kashimura."
"This switchblade should be the murder weapon in the two murders. Just like my reasoning just now, the murder weapon has always been hidden here."
Officer Memu nodded in understanding and asked, "Then who is the murderer?"
Kudo Yusaku held his chin and thought for two seconds, then looked at Dr. Ari and asked: "Dr. Ari, did you find anything about what I asked you to investigate?"
Dr. Ali paused for a moment and then thought of it.
"I discovered that the extra data was uploaded from the external access device port of operation position 4."
"Right here. Huh?"
"Gone?"
Dr. Agasa wanted to point it out to Kudo Yusaku, but the indicator light there had gone out and the slot was empty.
Kudo Yusaku walked to the operation console, stood behind the No. 4 machine, glanced at the complex operation console, and then looked around the entire control room before reasoning.
"It seems we thought wrong from the beginning."
"We thought that Kashimura had a conflict with Sindora because of the investigation into Hiroki's suicide, which in turn aroused Sindora's murderous intention."
"But we neglected Kashimura's own job."
"Kashimura's job is to monitor various technical indicators of 'Cocoon' and ensure data security. He is an important person who can control the overall situation."
"That's why the murderer killed such an important village, causing the cocoon game system to fail."
Megure narrowed his eyes slightly, still not quite understanding what Kudo Yusaku meant.
He knew nothing about digital, computers or anything like that, so he could only ask succinctly: "Who is the murderer?"
Kudo Yusaku took two steps back and pointed at all the empty chairs in the control room.
"These are the former owners of these seats, those operators, they are all murderers"
Memu and Shiratori looked shocked, their eyes widening in disbelief.
"Brother Kudo, you said the murderer in this case is not the same person!"
Kudo Yusaku nodded calmly, "Yes, there are many murderers in this case, and I believe there are more than just the ones we have met."
"They have long planned to break into the 'Cocoon' game system from the inside at this conference."
"When they were in the United States, they planned to take advantage of legal loopholes to transport the murder weapon and kill the project leader Kashimura at this conference who could monitor their abnormal behavior."
"As long as Kashimura is dead, these people can do whatever they want to the Cocoon game system, possibly stealing data or something like that."
"This is a quite long-term plan, and there may be competitors of Syndora Company behind the scenes."
As soon as Kudo Yusaku finished speaking, Megure immediately gave orders to his men.
"White Bird! You immediately issue a wanted warrant and instruct all nearby police officers to set up blockades at various intersections to intercept him!"
"It hasn't been long, I can still catch them!"
Mu Mu waved his hand, and all the police officers immediately got busy.
But Kudo Yusaku just watched Megure's actions calmly, and deep down he didn't think it would be of any use.
In order to guard against commercial espionage from other companies, Chairman Sindora is extremely cautious in selecting and employing people.
But even so, the other party was still able to infiltrate so many people at once, and all of them became operators of this conference.
This shows that the mastermind behind this case is very powerful, and his hands and eyes are far superior to that of Sindora, a giant in the IT industry.
Even if those people are caught, the other party may rise to the international level and deal with the Japanese police.
Moreover, this plan is so important to the mastermind behind the scenes, and just infiltrating Sindora Company took so much effort, it is impossible not to consider how to escape.
Presumably, the path to escape and the new identity abroad have already been prepared.
No matter what the purpose of the mastermind behind the scenes is, they have already won.
Thinking of this, Kudo Yusaku clenched his hands subconsciously.
The other party's strength was far beyond his expectations.
It’s just that Kudo Yusaku still doesn’t understand. The mastermind behind this case carefully planned this operation. What is the purpose?
Just to ruin this press conference and let Sindora go bankrupt?
Also, what is the significance of the letters "JTR" left behind by Tadabin Kashimura before his death?
JTR, which undoubtedly represents the abbreviation of Jack the Ripper between the two, should have no other meaning.
But if it's just a game character.
Just when Kudo Yusaku was thinking of this, Dr. Agasa on the side suddenly shouted at the screen on the operating table.
"What the hell!"
"what is this?"
Kudo Yusaku quickly walked to Dr. Ari and saw the game screen on the screen.
I saw that the world of London, which had always been gray, was now dyed with a layer of strange scarlet.
Indescribable things are happening in the game world.