Working in a Zoo with Beast Taming System

Chapter 302: Chapter 185: Tiger’s Roar in the City

It was a well-known fact.

Mercenaries, assassins, and arms dealers active abroad had virtually no ground to survive on in the country.

Smuggled firearms were, at most, limited to a few handguns and grenades.

Domestic searches and crackdowns on such activities were extremely strict.

But using controlled animals as "weapons" was a different story.

Because no one would ever think of it!

The killer might be from a clandestine organization abroad?

This information made Shen Ruiping’s expression turn grim in an instant, his brows knitting tightly together.

Yang Qi waited a moment for him to digest this before raising a key question.

"Captain Shen, according to my teacher, this kind of organization serves ’high-end clients,’ and their fees are likely astronomical. The victims of that car crash six months ago, were they very wealthy?"

Hearing this, Shen Ruiping’s body trembled slightly.

He was silent for a full ten-plus seconds before letting out a slow breath. His voice was low as he said, "Advisor Yang, you’ve guessed correctly. The victim of the car crash was the chairman of our city’s Heguang Real Estate. Heguang Real Estate is worth several billion, and the chairman, who died at the scene, has a son named Zhou Mingxuan."

"When the vehicle carrying Zhou Dong and his wife crashed, Zhou Mingxuan was studying for his doctorate at a famous university abroad."

"After the accident, Zhou Mingxuan returned to the country urgently to handle the aftermath. He immediately sold off the company’s assets and took his mother, who was seriously injured and in a coma, abroad... He hasn’t returned since."

"We contacted him through the proper channels to ask about the situation, but his response was cold. He said he didn’t know or care about matters back home, that his mother needed to recuperate in peace, and that they were not to be disturbed."

"So..."

Yang Qi stared straight ahead, his voice calm and even. "This Zhou Mingxuan is the client who hired the killer? For revenge, he went through his own channels to find a professional ’animal assassin’ to eliminate the people he believed were guilty?"

Shen Ruiping was silent.

Based on all the information gathered so far, the probability that Zhou Mingxuan was the client was extremely high.

But this was, in the end, just speculation based on motive and outcome. There was no direct evidence.

Taking a huge step back, even if they could catch the ’animal assassin’ who committed the crimes in Binjiang, if the person really was from one of those extremely clandestine organizations, the chances of prying the client’s identity out of them—or obtaining evidence that could incriminate Zhou Mingxuan—were next to nil.

For such an organization to have survived this long, it must have an incredibly tight structure and sophisticated counter-surveillance methods.

It was highly likely that Zhou Mingxuan placed the order through multi-layered, encrypted channels on the dark web, paid with untraceable cryptocurrency, and was separated from the ’assassin’ carrying out the mission by countless firewalls. They might never have even had direct contact.

Trying to expose the mastermind by catching the perpetrator would be as difficult as climbing to heaven.

Shen Ruiping clearly understood this as well. He remained silent, his face ashen, his fists clenched unconsciously, his knuckles turning white.

It was the stifling frustration and indignation of facing a cunning criminal while being constrained by rules and reality, a sense of utter helplessness.

The police were not omnipotent, especially when faced with this type of international crime that operated in the shadows and used unconventional methods.

After a long moment, he let out another heavy breath, his voice tinged with exhaustion.

"No matter what, we have to catch this killer who’s manufacturing the ’accidents’!"

"We have to stop him from killing again, get justice for the deceased, and provide an explanation to the public. This is what we can and must do right now."

"I’ll do my best," Yang Qi replied, without making any guarantees.

Changing the subject, he asked, "Captain Shen, can you give me the details on the other information you have and the police’s overall deployment?"

"Of course."

Shen Ruiping collected his thoughts and began to explain.

The series of "accidental" murders began ten days ago with the first incident, a falling flowerpot, and continued up to yesterday’s drowning of a high school student who was "acting heroically." In just ten short days, four lives had been lost, and all the deceased were connected to the car crash from six months ago.

A serial murder case like this, with its clear motive of revenge, was exceptionally vicious in nature and had an extremely negative impact.

The Binjiang City Bureau and even the top brass of the municipal government were furious. They issued a strict order to solve the case within a deadline and to catch the animal killer hiding behind these "accidents."

Four days ago, after the third incident—the "sewer" case—the Binjiang Police officially established the "7.15 Serial Accidental Death Case" special task force.

The task force was personally led by Tang Yuan, the Deputy Chief of the City Bureau in charge of criminal investigation. He pulled in elite officers from various departments, including criminal investigation, technical investigation, video analysis, and public security, and deployed nearly every resource and technical means available.

However, the investigation was mired in an unprecedented dilemma.

The killer used animals to commit the crimes and may have never even been near the crime scenes. On surveillance footage, aside from the cats, rats, dogs, and birds whose behavior was slightly abnormal yet seemed "plausible" for animals, there were no suspicious human figures to be found.

Traditional investigative methods—vetting social connections, tracing communication records, analyzing movement patterns...were far less effective against an opponent who could "remote-control" animals.

It wasn’t that the Binjiang Police hadn’t thought of approaching it from the animal angle.

They urgently consulted Animal Experts from within the province, senior zookeepers, and even university professors who studied animal behavior.

But these experts were either too theoretical or only studied specific species. Very few had long-term, hands-on experience with a wide variety of animals and a deep understanding of their complex behaviors and psychology.

Let alone reverse-engineering the controller’s characteristics and methods from the subtle clues of the animals’ abnormal behavior.