Chapter 105: The True Purpose of the High-IQ "Murder"

The definition of a high-IQ murder:
1. The perpetrator usually possesses a high IQ.
2. The act of murder typically involves high levels of concealment; the perpetrator uses indirect means to achieve a direct result.
3. When the victim suffers the fatal blow, the perpetrator usually has a perfect alibi.
...
Since his resurrection, Ren Zhong has told many lies and deceived many people.
He has also rambled on with many high-sounding, righteous words that were, in truth, somewhat idealistic and biased.
It was not that this was the extent of his ability, but rather that in specific environments, his thinking was subjected to many specific distractions. Whether it was the words he spoke to different people or his internal psychological activities, there was actually much room for scrutiny, debate, and even improvement.
But when he truly calmed down, adopted a rigorous scholarly attitude, and made up his mind to do certain things, even without the help of the Time Spiral, as long as he obtained sufficient information in advance, Ren Zhong could indeed make every link interlock and leave no stone unturned.
...
This day, Ren Zhong rarely slacked off. He did not participate in the daytime hunt but instead spent the entire day hanging around the town.
In the morning, he completed the cashing out of his Yuanhang Heavy Industry stocks in his own container house.
Although the amount involved was more than ten times greater than in the past, he was increasingly accustomed to the bloody nature of the Source Star stock market.
The stock sale was successful, with a selling price of 769.4 points per share. Compared to the purchase price of 137.65, the total gain was 458.95%.
After deducting taxes and commissions, the total funds recovered amounted to 383,832.23 points, with a net profit of 314,990.02 points.
Ren Zhong had once worried that his hundreds of thousands in capital would create ripples in the market, causing a minor fluctuation in the stock price.
Now it seemed he had been overthinking.
After he sold his shares, the unit price of Yuanhang Heavy Industry continued to rise, reaching a peak of 769.44 one minute later, then smoothly falling back to 763.01, before beginning to fluctuate within a tiny range, exactly matching the figures in Ren Zhong’s memory.
Ren Zhong understood.
Even with funds that could be converted into the purchasing power of over three million RMB, in the terrifying ocean of capital forged in this era of interstellar productivity, it was still a drop in the ocean, so small it could be completely ignored.
His ant-like flapping of wings had not caused any ripples on Source Star worth noting.
The chariot of history continued to drive coldly and steadily, along the path planned by the upper structures of Source Star society, toward a direction he could not yet grasp.
After all funds were recovered, counting the small, fragmented income from short-term trading, morning exercise hunting, daytime hunting, Tier 4 wristwatch hypnosis, and the salary of a Tier 2 professional, and then deducting the costs of equipment maintenance and daily life training, Ren Zhong’s total capital reached 428,705.75 points.
He then went to the arms mall and brushed past Fatty Wang, who had arrived as agreed, in a corner of the mall.
The two did not exchange many pleasantries.
Wang Zhaofu only handed the keys to the Qingfeng Heavy Truck to Ren Zhong and whispered, "As you requested, the car is parked in a closed parking space. I came in through the exclusive passage given by the mayor at five in the morning, trying my best not to let anyone see."
Ren Zhong nodded. "Good. Thank you for your hard work."
Ren Zhong settled the final payment at the post-tax price they had agreed upon, paying out a total of over 63,000 points, leaving his remaining funds at 361,027.97 points.
During the payment, Wang Zhaofu was slightly shocked by Ren Zhong’s ability to pull money out of his pants without blinking, but he did not ask any questions.
Immediately afterward, Ren Zhong said goodbye to Fatty Wang and went to Ju Qingmeng’s office to discuss the subsequent equipment modification plan in detail.
"I bought three special parts from Wang Zhaofu, which are... I'll trouble you to do it this way..."
"And I also want to upgrade the electrical system, transmission system... all eight major systems to the highest level."
"After all this is done, I want the output power limit of this Tier 2 exoskeleton to reach exactly 1100 kilowatts. Of course, I still don't want any major changes to its appearance."
This time, on the 24th day, the standards Ren Zhong set for his equipment already surpassed the peak state of the 45th day in the previous timeline.
Although his data still lagged far behind the last time, with the aid of an amplifier, he could already exert his previous peak strength when fighting specific targets he had dealt with before.
After listening to his requirements, Ju Qingmeng began to crunch numbers for the budget and check the inventory.
After a long while, she rubbed her temples and said, "What a coincidence. Although the items you want are rare, they are all in the warehouse. But I have a question."
"Go ahead."
"Setting aside the three special parts you already bought, the total cost of the modification projects you need me to do here comes to 22,000 points. It's not cost-effective."
"In total, the cost of this set of equipment is as high as 43,000 points. I think you'd be better off spending 15,000 to buy a whole set of Tier 3 exoskeletons. A Tier 3 exoskeleton already has a performance limit of 1000 kilowatts, and I only need to make small-scale modifications, costing at most another 5,000 points, to give you a 1100-kilowatt rig."
"The fission beast tendons can also be used, and the final performance will be slightly stronger. Your current strength in town is neither high nor low, and these second-hand parts are almost impossible to sell. If you do as I say, you can sell this set at the end, which is much easier than selling the dismantled parts individually."
"This back-and-forth in funds would save at least 16,000. Even if you are good at trading stocks and making money, there's no need for this."
Ren Zhong lowered his voice and said slowly, "Lin Wang's existence severely hinders my development. But I don't have time to play with them slowly. Before long, I will kill Lin Wang's entire team. I need to hide my strength from them first and lower their guard against me."
Ju Qingmeng froze for a moment.
She did not question Ren Zhong's decision, only saying softly, "Okay, thank you. I'm with you. Helping you is also helping myself."
After saying this, she gripped Ren Zhong's hand tightly, her face flushed slightly.
Ren Zhong knew she was thinking in another direction again.
But he did not explain much, simply pulling his hand back silently. "Yes. I won't say thank you."
Ju Qingmeng: "Neither will I."
In a sense, Ju Qingmeng's guess might have been correct.
Throughout the day, Ju Qingmeng took sick leave and did not appear at the counter or the manager's office, staying in the small laboratory the entire time.
She spent four hours completing the full design, then reserved the bio-metal bearing hub, fission beast tendons, and Aiman beast armor alloy parts, while modifying other related sections.
After ten o'clock at night, Ren Zhong rode his bike to the parking lot, quietly opened the closed garage, opened the Qingfeng Heavy Truck, put the three types of parts into his backpack, and rode back to the arms mall.
At 1:30 AM, Ju Qingmeng, exhausted to the point of collapse, finally let out a long sigh. "Finished."
As she spoke, she tried to stand up but stumbled, nearly falling.
Ren Zhong supported her from behind and sent her to the folding bed. "You should get some sleep. I have to go. By the way, I need to take the Fanged Heavy Sniper Rifle on consignment in the mall to use for a while; I'll return it before tomorrow morning."
"Okay. Take care. The mall door key is on the workbench."
"Good."
Equipped with the perversely modified gear that looked like a Tier 2 exoskeleton on the surface but performed beyond the peak of a Tier 3, Ren Zhong rode his motorcycle out of the arms mall.
Tonight, the guard responsible for watching the North Gate of Spark Town was none other than Guard Captain Ma Xiaoling.
Given Ma Xiaoling's status, the business of night watchmen should have nothing to do with her.
But Ren Zhong had made a deal with her in a private capacity.
Ren Zhong said to her: "If you lend me the hoverbike tonight, drive away the other guards, watch the North Gate alone, and help cover my tracks, I will tell you what I and your father are planning. Your father wants to protect you and keep you out of it. But I believe that as the town's guard captain, you should have some right to know."
Ma Xiaoling agreed to Ren Zhong's deal without hesitation.
At 1:45 AM, Ren Zhong walked to the North Gate of Spark Town.
Ma Xiaoling was standing with her arms crossed, leaning against the large gate frame.
Her hoverbike was parked right next to her.
Ren Zhong walked up, and Ma Xiaoling threw him a coin-shaped remote patch key.
She raised an eyebrow flippantly. "Take it."
Ren Zhong caught the key. "Many thanks."
"Don't thank me yet; I'm waiting for you to complete the transaction."
"Tomorrow night at ten, don't be late."
"Okay."
Ren Zhong straddled the hoverbike, exchanged a look with the other party, nodded at each other, and left with a tacit understanding.
Watching the departing hoverbike, Ma Xiaoling thought to herself that although she didn't know what he was going to do tonight, a major event would surely happen in Spark Town tomorrow.
At 2:07 AM, Ren Zhong arrived at the abandoned mine.
He found a hard rock terrain outside the mine, gently parked the hoverbike, and then, holding the box containing the lethal cargo in his arms, activated the dielectric engine on his back. He floated up and, like a goshawk diving, plunged down the slope of the mine toward the lower levels.
He landed steadily, waited for the dielectric engine's exhaust nozzle to cool, opened the energy-shielding lining, pushed the output power to 450 kilowatts, and dove into the pitch-black tunnel.
Left turn, right turn, straight ahead for 300 meters.
Tier 4 Ruin Beast 50 meters ahead, jump up, move diagonally forward for 80 meters, downhill, jump down.
Straight, right, right, left...
Y-junction, choose right.
Crossroads, choose left.
...
Through seven days of repeated exploration, Ren Zhong had completely perfected the magnetic field line network model algorithm.
His prediction accuracy for the distribution of Ruin Beasts in the lower levels had also reached over 98%.
At the same time, he continuously analyzed the battlefield traces of Lin Wang's team, partially cracking the equipment characteristics of everyone in the team, especially Xing Ming.
Using the on-site analysis, he also accurately calculated the regular patrol and hunting route of Lin Wang's team.
Ren Zhong also knew the general activity time of Lin Wang and the others like the back of his hand.
They usually came to the abandoned mine in the afternoon.
Ren Zhong did not need to track them.
His deduction was based on the fact that Bei Lihui basically only came in the morning to collect the "encounter tax."
Thus, he concluded that the team's operational mode was individual combat in the morning and gathering to develop the abandoned mine in the afternoon.
In addition, Ren Zhong had dealt with another professional team leader, Tang Shuying, and had witnessed one of her hunts.
Lin Wang's combat style should be similar; when encountering a Tier 4 Ruin Beast, he always liked to let the disposable meat shield step on the trap first.
When eating at the Delicious Fresh restaurant, the only male member Lin Wang brought was Bei Lihui; he brought no one else.
Therefore, in the entire professional team, the people closest to Lin Wang were Bei Lihui, Pan Fenglian, and Sima Wan.
Xing Ming and the other Tier 4 colonized soldier in the team must have a lower status.
Lin Wang himself was a mecha soldier; the only one in the professional team who would be assigned to step on the trap would be Xing Ming!
At this moment, although he had never asked face-to-face, Ren Zhong, who had calculated against the unsuspecting, was already one of the people in Spark Town who knew those few best.
A philosopher once said that the one who knows you best might not be yourself, but your enemy.
The true core of a high-IQ murder lies in collecting all obtainable information and formulating a thorough plan that takes all factors into account.
Ren Zhong could do it.
...
At 3:02 AM, having avoided a total of seven Tier 4 Ruin Beasts and nineteen Tier 3 Ruin Beasts along the way, and being forced to kill two Tier 3 Ruin Beasts with short-range grenade launchers, Ren Zhong arrived.
Ren Zhong looked at the entrance of a three-meter-high cave fifteen meters away, took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and mentally rehearsed the plan one last time.
Tomorrow at 1:00 PM, Lin Wang's team would start exploring from another tunnel entrance, repeating the patrol route from seven days ago, eliminating a total of 9 Tier 4 Ruin Beasts along the way, and arriving here around 4:30 PM.
Then, they would pass through here.
This tunnel is an important magnetic field line node in the entire abandoned mine, and it is the favorite spot for the mutant species of the maze stinkbug—the plasma coil maze stinkbug.
As long as they can stay here for a while, their energy reaction intensity index will see a visible improvement.
Although many of their kind have been buried here, some Tier 3 and newly broken-through Tier 4 plasma coil maze stinkbugs still enjoy coming here.
Lin Wang had grasped the significant weakness of the opponent and made targeted preparations.
This is one of Lin Wang's rich mines.
When the time comes, Lin Wang and the others will not hesitate to launch an attack on the Tier 4 plasma coil maze stinkbug inside.
Xing Ming, who is walking in the front to scout, will die.
Ren Zhong let out a low shout and lunged toward the tunnel entrance.
The maze stinkbug, which was crawling and sleeping inside, stood up in anger.
Although the entrance to this cave was small, the space inside was surprisingly large.
The cave was fifteen meters long, eight meters wide, and the rock-supported walls were four meters high.
However, this stinkbug was not small either.
After standing up, its head almost touched the ceiling.
Its six unfolded long legs were at least six meters long, spread out on the ground like a plow machine.
It emitted a buzzing high-voltage current startup sound from its mouth while lunging forward.
During its run, the spiral coils on its spindle-shaped abdomen hanging at the rear began to glow with blinding white light.
Streams of plasma as thick as a thigh began to spew out like a fountain from behind its tail, hitting the ground behind it.
The surging, terrifying voltage instantly filled the entire space.
Similar to the water-permeating eel, it was also a mutant Ruin Beast that played with electricity, but the former could not be compared to this Tier 4 plasma coil maze stinkbug at all.
Whether in terms of voltage, current, or total electrical energy, the two were not in the same order of magnitude.
After lunging forward a few meters, the maze stinkbug began to turn around.
Ren Zhong knew that once it turned around completely, the plasma would flow over like poured molten iron, swallowing him whole and burning him to dust.
At this moment, wearing a helmet, with every part of his armor fitted with an insulating layer, Ren Zhong's hair was still standing on end.
But he was not panicked.
He simply whipped out the Fanged Heavy Sniper Rifle from the side of his thigh, held it level with both hands, aimed, and pulled the trigger.
Boom!
The Tier 5 special bullet from Wang Zhaofu, worth 4,400 points before tax—a superconducting magnetic needle sniper bullet—whistled out, hitting the top of the plasma coil maze stinkbug's forehead and piercing it!
A moment later, the stinkbug's turning motion paused.
The substantial plasma spewing from its abdomen seemed to have suddenly found a direction, winding and snaking around its body, flowing toward its forehead like a hundred rivers returning to the sea.
It began to emit a shrill hiss, and the coils on its abdomen began to flicker intermittently.
It tried to terminate the discharge.
But it was useless; attracted by the true superconducting magnetic needle, the plasma inside its body returned, unstoppable.
Its body, the plasma in the air, and the superconducting magnetic needle bullet combined organically into a closed circuit.
It short-circuited.
Before the energy matrix inside its body was completely exhausted, the electrical surge would not cease.
Three minutes later, the plasma coil maze stinkbug lay on the ground, a charred black spot burned into its forehead, and it moved no more.
It was dead, and it did not die unjustly.
The value of just one special bullet exceeded that of the plasma coil maze stinkbug itself.
Ren Zhong's shot was basically no different from using anti-aircraft guns to kill mosquitoes.
But he could afford the loss.
After the high temperature in the cave was gradually absorbed by the soil, the temperature dropped again, and the ozone dissipated slightly, Ren Zhong walked in, dragged the stinkbug's corpse further inside, and rearranged it into the posture of crawling and resting as before.
Then, Ren Zhong took off his exoskeleton armor gloves and replaced them with the Tier 4 dismantler gloves he got back from Chen Hanyu.
He took a deep breath, a gleam of light appearing in his eyes.
This dismantling must succeed, no failure allowed!
Three minutes later, Ren Zhong put the chip, which had been damaged to the point of being completely unusable, into the storage box.
He was not disappointed because his definition of success this time was not to obtain a perfect chip, but simply to preserve the stinkbug's corpse as perfectly as possible.
He picked up the box he had been holding, opened it, took out an ostrich egg-like object, carefully uncovered the stinkbug's head shell, and put this thing inside.
Then, he set the thing inside to activate in ten minutes, closed the head cover, and used the dismantling glove's cutting function in reverse to carefully ablate and melt the stinkbug's head shell, restoring it as much as possible to its previous appearance.
After finishing all this, Ren Zhong checked the superconducting magnetic needle sniper bullet on the stinkbug's forehead—which was silver-gray like the head shell, needle-tipped, and almost invisible to the naked eye—and after confirming its orientation was fine, he exited the cave.
He waited outside for about eight minutes, and a light buzzing sound came from inside.
Ren Zhong looked at the scanner, confirmed that the energy oscillation frequency, method, and mechanism coming from inside were almost exactly the same as when the maze stinkbug was alive, but slightly stronger, and left with peace of mind.
The bomb he put in just now, while slowly releasing electrical surges, mimicked the state of a Tier 4 plasma coil maze stinkbug breaking through to Tier 5, which could deter other Ruin Beasts from provoking it easily for a long time.
Doing this much was enough.
By tomorrow afternoon, Xing Ming would excitedly approach this unlucky stinkbug, which was in deep sleep due to the breakthrough, preparing to pick up a bargain.
Then, that Tier 5 special bomb worth 50,000 contribution points, called a "Boiling Bomb," would detonate.
The Boiling Bomb would release terrifying plasma resembling boiling water at an output power of 15,000 kilowatts, instantly filling the entire cave and lasting for 5 seconds.
At the moment of detonation, the Tier 5 superconducting magnetic needle sniper bullet head would be vibrated out, chisel a capillary-like hole in Xing Ming's armor insulation layer, and take root inside.
Subsequently, the rolling plasma in the cave would flow along the superconducting magnetic needle sniper bullet into the inside of Xing Ming's armor.
When everything subsided, the superconducting magnetic needle sniper bullet would have been completely melted by the terrifying heat released by the Tier 5 Boiling Bomb's current as it passed through the surface of Xing Ming's armor.
The entire murder scene would be disguised as an unfortunate mutant Ruin Beast riot.
Lin Wang would only think that this unlucky maze stinkbug's evolutionary direction had gone wrong, releasing plasma comparable to a Tier 5 Ruin Beast from its head before death, burning Xing Ming to death and burning itself away.
Perhaps Lin Wang would be lucky enough to find the Ruin Beast chip remains.
Because the core of the Boiling Bomb's warhead was originally a Tier 5 discharge-type Ruin Beast chip!
On the way back from the abandoned mine, he had originally wanted to pick up the corpses of the two Tier 3 Ruin Beasts that had died at his hands earlier.
One reason was for money, and the other was because he didn't want to expose that someone had been here.
However, he came up empty-handed; those two corpses, along with the chips, had already been dragged away by other Ruin Beasts.
At 5:17 AM, Ren Zhong returned the Fanged Heavy Sniper Rifle to the arms mall consignment shelf.
He even carefully checked the angle at which the heavy sniper was placed and the shape of the rifle strap's curve.
Afterward, he went to look at Ju Qingmeng’s small lab again; she was still sleeping soundly.
Locking the door from the outside, Ren Zhong left quietly and arrived at Zheng Tian's team's small courtyard at 5:33 AM, sitting on a beach chair with his legs crossed to take a nap and wait for Wen Lei to bring him food.
In the evening, when Zheng Tian's team returned to town after a full day of hunting, they heard a very shocking piece of news.
Xing Ming, the senior Tier 4 heavy defensive mecha soldier in Lin Wang's team, had died, killed during the professional team's hunt in the abandoned mine that afternoon.
It was said that he died very miserably, with not even his body remaining, and the hunters were too lazy to collect any goods.
Upon hearing this news, everyone was both surprised and shocked.
Xing Ming was no ordinary person. Before joining Lin Wang's team, he had been the number one semi-professional team leader in the town for a long time, with rich experience and strong strength, and was known for his defensive prowess. No one expected that such a person would die silently in the abandoned mine.
Only Ou Youning glanced at Ren Zhong with a suspicious look.
But at this moment, Ren Zhong looked at Zheng Tian with an equally shocked expression, urging her to quickly go and find out more news.
Ou Youning was confused again.
When no one was around, Ren Zhong, alone in the restroom, heard Lin Wang inviting him for a talk, and the corners of his mouth quietly curved upward.
He had six goals in killing Xing Ming.
First, by killing Xing Ming, he reduced the size of Lin Wang's team, creating an opportunity for himself, a balanced mecha soldier, to join their ranks.
Second, he wanted to go to the new mine to get ore source stones.
Third, during the operation at the new mine, he would seize the opportunity to spy on Lin Wang's true strength and all his equipment at close range.
Fourth, to avoid contact between Lin Wang and the people of Chongyi County.
Fifth, for pleasure.
Sixth, he also used the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the terrain of the abandoned mine.
The people he wanted to kill there were far more than just Xing Ming.
The anomalous geomagnetism and information flow field of the abandoned mine created a remote communication void in the depths of the tunnels.
Killing people there, as long as he was clean enough, could be done without Yang Bingzhong noticing, not affecting his next step of the plan.
That place was the perfect burial ground he had chosen for Lin Wang and the others.
As for why not just throw money and blow everyone up?
First, Ren Zhong's control over the action patterns of Lin Wang's team could not be precise to the second.
Second, Lin Wang would let others take risks first; the one who died might not be Lin Wang.
Third, Lin Wang surely had more life-saving means. Even when he was in that state last time, he couldn't be blown up. If the timing of the bomb detonation was slightly off, it would only alert the enemy without killing them.
Fourth, Ren Zhong really wanted to go to the new mine. He really wanted the ore source stones.
Fifth, setting aside all the factors above, if he directly threw hundreds of thousands of points into it to create a small mushroom cloud in the abandoned mine, then Lin Wang would indeed be dead. And then what? With such a big disturbance, could it be hidden from Yang Bingzhong? And then wait to be hunted down by Yang Bingzhong?