chsdbacks Chapter 105 First Encounter with the Ripper
Chapter 105 First Encounter with the Ripper
After Suren gave up the deal for "Astral Silver Sands", the thin man and the strong man made their transaction in the presence of "Rusty Hook".
"Rusty Hook" placed his palm on the small cloth bag provided by the thin man, and soon the ring emitted a soft white light. "Rusty Hook" nodded to confirm the authenticity of the item.
The two then successfully completed the transaction.
Perhaps because of this large transaction, the atmosphere gradually became more lively.
Suren successfully sold the "Heart of Domination" for 3200 pounds.
Mrs. Howard, who was standing nearby, bought a bottle of "structural stabilizer".
This further confirmed Suren's suspicions—Mrs. Howard had indeed become a superhuman, likely preparing for her advancement.
"I just don't know what type of superhuman she is. Perhaps she made some kind of deal with the Eternal Oath and became an Oath-bound superhuman?"
The more Suren thought about it, the more likely it seemed, so he decided to find an opportunity to ask Etherine.
……
After some time, the transaction came to an end.
Since the appearance of the "Astral Silver Sands," nothing of interest to Suren has emerged.
This is also because Suren's "Tears of Ellie" is too powerful. With such a special item that combines attack, recovery and inflicting negative status effects, Suren really doesn't need any other items at this stage.
In the end, Suren only bought some enchanted bullets and made no other purchases.
However, Mrs. Howard, who was standing next to him, bought quite a few items, which made Suren's heart flutter:
What crisis has Mrs. Howard encountered? It seems the Howard family isn't doing so well either...
However, he didn't have time to concern himself with other people's affairs for the time being; he decided to focus on investigating Jack the Ripper.
At this moment, "Rusty Hook," who was sitting behind the long table, took out his pocket watch, looked at it, and then stood up, clapped his hands, and announced that the exchange meeting was over.
Under "Rusty Hook's" arrangement, everyone left one by one through different exits.
Suren followed the pre-arranged path and walked out of the old house.
Following the exit of the old house, Suren pushed open the door and found herself suddenly standing on a grassy field not far from the old house, with no exit behind her.
This must have been a well-planned tactic by the business alliance. It must be said that they were quite thoughtful, as this prevented traders from being targeted by malicious individuals.
Of course, Suren believed that as long as someone was determined to do it, such an arrangement would not be difficult for those who wanted to do evil.
However, those who are able to attend this exchange event are not ordinary people, so it's uncertain who will be vying for whom.
Suren stopped thinking about it and walked back to her shop along the path she had come from.
After walking through two streets, Suren suddenly felt a blur before her eyes, and her mind and body felt somewhat sluggish!
This feeling was quite familiar to Suren, just like when that eerie painting attacked him before.
Having learned from his previous experience, Suren instantly realized that he was in an illusion, and he quickly adapted to the feeling of stagnation.
Unlike before, Suren's emotions were not affected this time, and she was able to control her actions, though she was slightly sluggish, looking like an inflexible puppet.
Perhaps it's because I wasn't the target of this attack?
Suren had a guess in her mind, and at the same time, she was somewhat surprised: 'Did I just happen to stumble upon Jack the Ripper committing a crime? That's too much of a coincidence!'
With this thought in mind, Suren did not rush to escape the illusion, but instead began to move forward slowly, as he was going to find the mysterious assassin.
Although Suren's strength would be weakened in the illusion, Suren was worried that breaking free from the illusion would alert the enemy.
"Ellie's Tears" was also trembling slightly. As Suren moved forward, the frequency of its trembling increased, as if it were guiding Suren in the right direction.
Holding the "Eye of Destruction" in his hand, Suren followed the guidance of the "Tears of Ellie" and moved forward. When he turned into an alley, the scene in front of him made Suren's heart skip a beat.
In the dim moonlight, a young girl with brown hair lay on the dark ground, covered in blood, and the entire alleyway was filled with the stench of blood.
In front of her, a tall man wearing a long tailcoat and a top hat was wielding a scalpel.
The man exuded a strong aura of violence, and Suren even felt that this aura had solidified into a physical form, making people feel physically uncomfortable.
The brown-haired girl's abdomen was already covered in blood, and her eyes were filled with tears of fear, but her body remained motionless as the man cruelly dissected her.
The man seemed oblivious to Suren, continuing to torture and kill the girl without a care in the world.
Without further hesitation, Suren focused his mind and broke through the illusion. In a daze, he returned to the alleyway where he had just entered the illusion.
He ran as fast as he could and soon arrived at the alley where the girl had been murdered, but now only the girl's cold body remained in the alley.
He looked around but saw no one else, so he couldn't help but curse.
Suren carefully stepped forward to examine the girl's body, only to be surprised to find that her internal organs had disappeared, and her blood had congealed, even turning into dark red clots, indicating that she had been dead for more than an hour.
He couldn't help but take out his pocket watch and glance at the time, only to find that more than an hour had passed since he left the trade fair!
"What's going on? The flow of energy in the illusion is abnormal?"
Suren couldn't help but feel a little scared, and at the same time he was also a little puzzled as to why the other party hadn't taken advantage of this time to attack him in reality.
'Unless he himself is also affected by the flow rate...'
Suren made his judgment, but he couldn't help feeling a little annoyed: "If only I had left the illusion earlier, I might have been able to find him."
"No, he doesn't need his physical body to attack this girl; he can inflict damage simply through an illusion. I just don't know the range of his illusionary spells."
Thinking of this, Suren immediately took out the "Causal Bridge" and injected "Source Knowledge" into it, hoping to find the murderer by following the causal line.
He quickly found the causal line that represented the murderer, and immediately traced it back. Almost instantly, various images flooded his mind.
Just then, something unexpected happened.
"Snapped!"
With a crisp sound, the crystal in Suren's hand exploded, turning into a cloud of light and disappearing without a trace, which also meant that Suren could no longer trace back.
"This memorial bridge has been used too many times; it's beyond its capacity..."
Suren sighed. Fortunately, he did not come away empty-handed. In the last remaining image, Suren saw a cross-shaped scar on the man's left wrist.
Just then, faint footsteps seemed to come from afar. Suren took a deep breath, used [Information Shackles] to erase his traces, and then left the scene quickly without lingering.
Suren's heart was far from calm as she walked along the road.
"Since the Ripper committed murders through illusions, he naturally left few clues at the scene, which explains why the killer was so difficult to catch."
"This method is truly terrifying. Judging from his previous actions and what happened just now, he can probably only pull one person into the illusion at a time..."
"But just now I entered his illusion, and he seemed unable to sense my presence."
He couldn't help but look at the "Tears of Ellie" on his chest. Perhaps it was because of it that he was able to enter the other person's illusion.
Tonight's encounter has further convinced Suren of her suspicion that Jack the Ripper possesses an "Aksha artifact"!
"However, since Ellie's Tears reacted, the Aksha artifact in their possession will likely react as well..."
"No, not necessarily. This reaction might be because Ellie's Tear is a second-tier relic, and judging from the opponent's unusual savagery, he probably failed to advance..."
"However, we cannot let our guard down; we must always be on guard against an attack by Jack the Ripper."
After that, Suren walked through the streets and alleys, occasionally changing direction to shake off those who might not even be following him.
Finally, Suren arrived safely at the secondhand shop. He carefully locked the door and then went upstairs to attempt to perform the "Revelation".
This revelation was better than the last one, but the text and images were still fragmented and contained little of value.
Suren couldn't help but sigh, "I haven't even seen what the enemy looks like yet. This Jack the Ripper is really troublesome..."
With his rich experience from his previous life, Suren certainly wouldn't assume that Jack the Ripper's true form was the image in the illusion.
To be fair, if Suren himself were Jack the Ripper, he would also create a false image in the illusion to commit the crime.
However, some doubts remained unresolved in Suren's mind.
"Why would Jack the Ripper happen to be here? Is it really just a coincidence?"
Suren shook his head; he didn't believe in coincidences.
Thinking of tonight's trade fair, a thought struck Suren: "Perhaps Jack the Ripper is at the trade fair tonight, and after it ends, he met that brown-haired girl and impulsively decided to..."
Suren thought about it more and more and it seemed very likely, but unfortunately most of the people in the exchange were disguised, so Suren had no way to conduct a targeted investigation.
Suren decided to stop thinking about it and rest for now, waiting until she received Tom's information before studying it slowly.
……
Time quickly passed to the afternoon of two days later.
Suren usually goes out to familiarize himself with the environment of Libraton and take the opportunity to learn about the town's layout. However, he stayed in the shop today because it was the day he had arranged to make a deal with Tom.
Soon Tom arrived at the store carrying a huge leather suitcase. He laboriously placed the suitcase on the table, then casually sat down in front of Suren and said, "Hey, Mr. Dantes, here's the information you requested."
He then continued somewhat apologetically, "The information you need about the 863 Vildu is indeed difficult to find and may take some time. All the other information is here. This time, you only need to pay 50 pounds."
"It's alright, no rush." Suren nodded, not too disappointed.
He opened the suitcase and found that the documents inside had already been categorized into file folders, which saved Suren a lot of time.
However, he still looked at Tom with some unease and said, "There shouldn't be any problems with the authenticity of this information, right?"
"You can rest assured about that," Tom patted his chest, his words brimming with confidence. "Our Night Owl Brotherhood's first principle is integrity! Any information that can be used for transactions is absolutely reliable!"
Upon hearing this, Suren fell silent. After all, £50 was indeed not expensive. However, it might be because the information was not difficult to obtain, which is why it was so cheap.
After checking the data and finding nothing missing, Suren gave Tom 50 gold pounds and told him to continue keeping an eye on Jack the Ripper's intelligence.
After counting the pounds, Tom smiled and said goodbye before leaving.
In the following time, Suren began to read these materials carefully.
As Tom said, most of these materials can actually be found on the market, mainly case files and oral accounts from the public.
Among these, the information on "Bloody Mary" is the most vague, consisting mainly of very brief reports and some folk tales.
What alarmed Suren was that the number of people who died because of "Bloody Mary" even surpassed that of the notoriously heinous "Jack the Ripper" case.
Apart from these two cases, Su Lun wasn't particularly concerned about the other cases, but she quietly memorized the relevant information, hoping it might come in handy someday.
Among these files, Suren also found information about Danvers, the former owner of the secondhand shop.
The document contains detailed information about Danvers’ time of death and his life.
Through this information, Suren noticed that the shop owner's social circle was mainly concentrated among nobles, and his secondhand shop business was able to grow bigger and bigger thanks to the patronage of nobles.
"Perhaps that painting came from some nobleman?" Suren couldn't help but wonder.
The document even included a detailed list of nobles with whom Danvers had frequent business dealings, leading Suren to marvel at the Night Owl Brotherhood's capabilities.
Suren made a note of all these people, thinking he could investigate them sometime and perhaps find some clues.
After that, Suren still focused her research on "Jack the Ripper," since she had had close contact with him.
According to records, "Jack the Ripper" actually began his activities five years ago, but his activities became more frequent in the last three years, which led to him being wanted by the church.
The information Tom provided was very comprehensive, even including the case that Suren witnessed.
After reviewing all the files related to "Jack the Ripper" over the past five years, Suren inexplicably felt that something was off about these cases.
Suren thought for a moment, took out his notebook, and wrote down the cases related to the Ripper one by one in chronological order. He finally discovered the source of the strange feeling in his heart.
"Three years ago, in 1149, Jack the Ripper's crime spree suddenly increased, three to four times more than in other years!"
Suren touched his chin, pondering the hidden meaning behind it.
One idea after another popped up, only to be rejected one by one by Suren.
"Perhaps there's something I've overlooked?"
Suren picked up the files again and read them carefully, one by one, trying to find the parts she had overlooked.
Suddenly, Suren's eyes lit up. He realized that most of these victims had one thing in common: they were all prostitutes!
This even includes the victim whom Suren witnessed.
He quickly separated the files from those where the victims were not prostitutes, and finally discovered that these cases were all concentrated in 1149!