Chapter 464: Victim Number 20
Two days passed since Evan’s arrival from the Future and the boy had spent them in the Demon Army Headquarters.
The demons assigned to serve him were unsure of his purpose but treated him hospitably, following Alvey’s orders.
The last time Alvey did that was for Arthur and the boy turned out to be a MASSIVE help to the Demon Army, so they guessed Evan might be the same.
Their assumption wasn’t entirely off-base, as Alvey indeed planned to enlist Evan’s assistance during his time there.
Treating Evan nicely was aimed at making him comfortable enough to deter any thoughts of escaping.
Evan on the other hand, wasn’t clueless about this, but he chose to remain silent, recognizing that his options were limited for the time being.
On the morning of the 3rd of April, Arthur barged into Evan’s room with a mischievous grin plastered across his face.
"Wake the fuck up, Evan! Today, we’re gonna be detectives!"
Evan, who was already awake and was busy playing games on one of the consoles that Arthur had lent him the previous day, looked at the progenitor with question marks floating all over his head.
"...what?"
"I’d be Sherlock Homes and you’d be Watson. Today, we’d investigate a Serial Killer who’s been on the loose for over four months! They’ve been killing Demons across the Southern Part of the continent and they’ve struck again today."
Despite discussing a recent murder, Arthur’s tone sounded oddly ’excited’. Evan couldn’t help but appraise him once more, wondering if Arthur possessed any titles associated with being a ’Crazy Detective’.
He’d been given basic information about Aramis and its current situation, knowledge of the Territories and things he needed to know, and Arthur had mentioned the Serial Killer during that discussion
However, he had not been expecting Arthur to want him to tag along in dealing with it though.
"I wanted to complete that game, you know?"
"Oh, Dead Read, huh? I get your feeling. That game’s pretty nice, I used to play it a lot."
Arthur replied as he stowed the console away in his subspace, leaving Evan with no choice but to follow him out.
"I did have something similar in my home world."
Evan muttered under his breath, a nostalgic look flashing through his eyes. Hearing this, Arthur raised a curious eyebrow.
"You’re getting me a lot more curious about your home world."
The Rogue Hero chuckled lightly before quickening his pace to catch up with Arthur, posing a question.
"Hey, Arthur. Don’t you think we’re a bit similar?"
"Are you just now realising this?"
Arthur reminded Evan that he mentioned this two days ago, having since noticed the fact that they had similarities.
"Well, I noticed it earlier. Got this strange feeling that was a bit similar to Series Skill Resonance.
But what was resonating wasn’t a Series Skill but our ’Irregular’ Titles...
A bit weird considering Alvey also had the same title but there was no resonance."
While he wasn’t familiar with this ’Series Skill Resonance’ thing Evan spoke about, Arthur grasped the gist of what Evan was trying to say.
Evan shrugged nonchalantly, as if deciding ’not to bother’ with something, before continuing.
"I doubt there’d be too many problems if I said this. Ever heard of Planet Earth?"
Just as he asked, Evan recalled that Arthur wasn’t from this universe.
"That’s right, you probably wouldn’t know it since you’re not from here..."
However, rather than concur with him, Arthur instead posed a strange question to Evan.
"Earth? Does your planet’s name happen to have a Romersk Numeral tacked on to it?"
Evan’s face turned to one of confusion when he heard Arthur’s question, clearly not getting the point of it.
"I don’t know about ’Romersk’, but we do have a ’Roman’ numeral..."
"Ah, Romersk, Roman...it’s just the same thing but in different languages."
Arthur clarified, waving at a pair of passing female demons, before turning back to Evan while ignoring how they squealed with delight.
’Someone’s popular...’
Evan thought that as he responded to Arthur’s question.
"My home world does have a Numeral in its name; ’V’."
"So, Earth V, huh? Guess it was too much to expect it to be the original."
The word ’Original’ piqued Evan’s interest, prompting him to lean forward and bombard Arthur with questions.
"Original? What does that mean?
Come to think of it, I spoke with someone a while ago and they called Earth V a ’Replica’. Do you know why?"
Arthur gently pushed Evan away before answering his questions.
"Because that’s what Earth V is. A Replica.
Planet Earth is one of the most powerful Apex Worlds in all of Existence. It’s also the smallest one of them, but its size is not the issue here."
Apex World was another term for Ancient Worlds, the highest World level after ’Prime’.
Arthur retrieved the portable console Evan had been playing with earlier from his subspace as he continued.
"These things were originally invented by the humans of the Planet Earth."
He gestured towards some electronic boards displaying information around them and repeated his previous statement.
"They were able to achieve interstellar travel and reach different parts of the Cosmos with ZERO magic.
To them, magic, aura, the ’Supernatural’—it was all nothing more than fiction.
Just as we consider magic to be ’common,’ that’s how they consider technology. They had tech so advanced it looked like magic, but it wasn’t.
It was pure science."
Arthur elaborated further, explaining how humans from Earth exchanged their high-tech inventions for the magic used by the rest of the cosmos.
Through this exchange, they integrated magic into their technology, making their technology level increase by leaps and bounds.
"It would NOT be an exaggeration to say the most magi-technologically advanced place in the Cosmos, is the Planet Earth
But here’s the thing, no one knows where Planet Earth is."
Evan was taken aback by Arthur’s last line. He was certain that his home world’s location was known, so the Earth Arthur referred to couldn’t possibly be his own.
"The Planet’s location is a secret to everyone but those from the planet itself. But such people are scarce.
Wars have been fought over information about the planet’s location and humans from that planet—even if the information was false in the end.
Sensing this, the people of the ’Original Earth’, did something to throw people off their trails.
They found Planets of similar sizes to theirs in other Universes and terraformed these planets, turning them into ’Replica’ Earths.
They manipulated these planets behind the scenes for centuries, shaping their histories similarly, before leaving them to develop on their own.
It took a while before people realised this trick of theirs, but by then, they had completely covered their tracks.
To prevent everyone from searching the same place again, whenever an ’Earth’ is found and confirmed to be a ’Replica’, it is then assigned a number.
Most use Romersk Numerals, or ’Roman’, as you call it. It’s basically a warning to everyone saying; ’Don’t Touch This Planet’."
As Arthur concluded his explanation, Evan thought about the numeral attached to his home world’s name.
"So ’Earth V’..."
"It’s the Fifth Replica Earth in this Universe."
To say Evan was surprised to discover this would be an understatement. The boy was completely flabbergasted, never expecting there to be such lore behind the numeral in his home world’s name.
"If I knew where the location was, then I’d like to go there.
People believe the Progenitor Human may know where the Planet is, but there’s a higher chance for the sun in the sky to go supernova this instant than for you to even find where the man is.
You also have to consider IF he’d even answer you if you eventually find him..."
"The Progenitor Human? How old would such a person be? Is he even still alive?"
In response to Evan’s inquiry, Arthur nodded as they entered the ’Waypoint Hall’ where they’d be teleported to the city where the crime site was reported from.
"He is. If a Progenitor dies, no new member of their race can be born again, even if a man and a woman do it a billion times."
"..."
Evan resisted the urge to laugh at Arthur’s analogy at the end, instead pondering the implications of the first part of his statement.
Humans were born every day on countless worlds—enough proof that the Progenitor Human was still alive and kicking.
With their conversation concluded, Arthur took the lead and spoke with the individuals in charge, arranging for them to be teleported to their destination within a minute.
Upon arrival, they exited the Waypoint Hall, where military police officers were already waiting for Arthur and led the way.
Despite Arthur looking significantly younger than 80% of the soldiers they encountered, they all stopped to either salute him or bow wherever he went. Evan needed only a glance at the two stars on Arthur’s clothes to understand why.
’I think that was Major General...’
Initially, they were meant to be led to the office of the City’s Military Police Chief Inspector for a briefing on the case.
However, Arthur decided to change the plan and suggested heading straight to the crime scene. When they got there some minutes later, they found that the Chief Inspector was already present.
"General Vaughn."
"Just go with Arthur."
Arthur replied casually as he walked into the perimeter. Hearing this brief exchange, all the other demons nearby turned towards Arthur and saluted.
The Chief Inspector, a Level 920 High-Rank Demon, then turned his attention to Evan who was tagging along and asked.
"Who’s this Dragonkin?"
"He’s gonna be my Watson for today. I was playing around with the law of Fate and I deduced that if I brought him along, it’d make us find the culprit faster."
"Wait...what?"
Evan was dumbfounded by Arthur’s words, realizing that the Progenitor hadn’t brought him along without reason.
’Law of Fate...the same as the "First Finger’s" power. Maybe I should have Arthur teach me how to avoid that thing...’
Such a thought crossed Evan’s mind as he watched Arthur casually uncover the corpse, revealing the gruesome state of the body.
"This...is disturbing."
The victim’s tongue had been cut out, and their ribs protruded from their chest. It was also evident that the blood-pumping organ meant to be in their chest was missing, probably removed by the killer.
"How many times have they struck?"
"Twenty.
A new victim every week. Never on the same day.
Each body has been found in this state."
The Inspector replied to Arthur’s inquiry and passed him a file, however, Arthur waved him off and retrieved a similar file from his subspace.
"Have you tried psychometry?"
"Yes. Unfortunately, I do not have a Pseudo-Authority so I can only see as far back as a little over an hour, and this body is the earliest we’ve discovered.
Forensics put it at four hours."
