Not a detective

Page 249

After Asakawa Riku discovered the unfinished "manuscript," Asukai Shi finally realized that some things could not be kept secret.

She was preparing to return and accept her fate of destruction...

But it was in that ward that I witnessed that scene of despair.

"Xu Qishi stood quietly beside the body, not saying a word, and did not react to the words on the notebook. She ignored my calls and her eyes were dull and lifeless, as if she had died along with Lu Chuanqian. Only then did I realize how big a mistake I had made. If I had followed the plan, this future would not have happened."

Asuji Shi gritted her teeth so hard that blood seeped from her lips.

This time, she hated herself; she was angry with herself.

It was because of my selfishness in that one moment that such serious consequences occurred.

She saved this world, she saved Asakawa Riku, but she caused the outside world to collapse.

"So, senior, if you're trying to play the emotional card, saying things like 'Since I like you, let's just let it go and go back hand in hand' won't work."

Her eyes were firm and resolute: "This is my last chance to atone for my sins. I'm sorry, I have to kidnap you, but I must find out the truth about that murder."

Asakawa Riku's words only made her more stubborn.

Eighteen years ago, Asukai Shi ruined Xu Qishi's original plan because she couldn't bring herself to do it, thus protecting Asakawa Riku, which led to a series of chain reactions.

Three years ago, Lu Chuanqian, who was already in a vegetative state, died mysteriously in her hospital bed. No clues could be found, and she was forced to believe that she died of illness.

This year, Shimi Asu returned to the "real world" and only then did she learn of this situation.

She was the one who caused all of this to happen. If she had acted back then, Lu Chuanqian would have been able to be resurrected long ago and would not have been killed.

But she was unwilling to admit that she was the culprit, because she did not kill Lu Chuanqian, she did not directly "kill" him.

She is both the murderer and not the murderer.

To atone for her guilt and to redeem herself, she repeatedly emphasized in scarlet letters that she was "not the murderer".

Shii Asukai cannot accept this reality; she must find the real culprit to console herself.

Therefore, this case must be a homicide; she will not accept any other explanation.

If there is no real culprit, then she is the biggest sinner.

This is the inner world of Shimi Asukai, her true thoughts, and her true [motivation].

...

"I understand."

Asakawa Riku nodded: "But you don't need to worry. This case is indeed a homicide. It's not a natural death, nor is it an accident or an illness."

He said it with exceptional firmness.

"What...really?"

Asukai Shi looked up in astonishment, unable to believe what he had said.

It seems like we've finally seen a glimmer of hope.

"Yes, the key lies in the [motivation]."

Asakawa Riku surprisingly circled back to the main topic.

He walked with his back to the crowd in the open space, talking as he went:

"Motive, motive, as one of the three elements of reasoning, has always been overlooked. When people read detective novels, they are always concerned about who the murderer is, how ingenious and rigorous the method is, and how imaginative it is, but they habitually ignore the motive. The orthodox school treats it as an unimportant additive, something to get by with, while the social school treats it as a tool to discuss phenomena and criticize problems, not something to be genuinely concerned about. Why don't you do it? It's clearly a very interesting question, but people always keep quiet about it."

"Don't rush to use that sword. This isn't a coincidence or an irresponsible intuition. It's the accumulation of a series of events over a long period of time: the Spider Woman kidnapped those students because of fear and terror; the Snow Woman froze people to death because of hatred and loathing; the Blue Lantern created the Mysterious to spread ghost stories and derivatives; Ibuki Ren wanted to kill Shinonome Suetsuki for research and results; the cat was simply evil and childish play, which led to the serial killings; the Red Ray transformed into an island to protect and preserve; Hannya possessed Hoshino because of jealousy; and Shinonome Kosuke became a god because he wanted immortality. Everyone has a motive, including you, Asukai Shi. Every murderer has a motive."

"Mozuki told me that motives should not be underestimated. For example, when I was on Red Stingray Island, I discovered that the god imprisoned me not for hatred, but for love. Shinonome Kosuke did not commit suicide, but wanted to live in another form. Chizuko, however, said that motives are unimportant. She believed that motives are just passing demons in people, and are all products of later generations' far-fetched interpretations."

"Neither of them is wrong; they are just two different ways of looking at [motivation]."

"In detective novels, motive is irrelevant, but in the real world, motive is the best way to solve a case. For example, if a husband dies, the wife will be suspected first, and if a wife dies, the husband will be suspected first. When a person dies, the police will ask if he had any enemies before his death. Love and hate are the strongest motives, and generally, with this clue, it is easy to solve the case."

"On the other hand, if a crime is committed without a motive, it becomes exceptionally difficult and baffling. People often say that perfect crimes don't exist in reality because modern criminal investigation methods are too powerful. As long as a trace is left, the perpetrator will be caught, not to mention the various surveillance cameras, which are usually banned in novels. But perfect crimes do exist in reality. For example, a person is walking in a deserted area in the wilderness, and another person, a complete stranger with no relatives or friends, who has never spoken to him, pushes him into a valley on their first meeting. No one witnesses the crime, no one discovers the body, the murderer goes back unscathed, and no one can find any connection between them. That is a perfect crime."

"This kind of sudden killing without any motive or reason is the most difficult mystery to solve."

Asakawa Riku was speaking when Asukai Uta interrupted him, "You mean... the real culprit has no motive, which is why it's so hard to find out? Could it be that Riku was also killed by a stranger who suddenly passed by? How could that be! It must be someone who appeared before... and there must be clues to show... that such a person didn't appear in that ward..."

This is too unusual. This reasoning is full of flaws. There's no need to add new red text; using the previous one would be self-contradictory.

However, Asakawa Riku was not surprised at all, and simply looked at her with a smile:

"What if I said that this [real culprit] didn't even realize he killed Lu Chuanqian? What then?"

Winter of Man: Chapter Twenty-Six - Reaching a Higher Level

"Based on the intelligence we have, the world we live in has two levels."

Asakawa Riku opened his hands, and two shimmering planes appeared in his palms, parallel to each other and separated by a distance.

Because of the power of "imagination," he was able to visualize some content simply. He knew that Asukai Shi would definitely see it, but he would only use it as a projection for explanation.

“This upper layer, you call it the ‘real world,’ which is the world where real ‘humans’ live, the world where Lu Chuanqian and the others live.”

"This layer below is our [world in the book], a world created by Asukai Shinobu, the embodiment of the [author's] superpowers."

He pointed to this floor plan:

"For the first eighteen years of my life, I always thought that these two worlds were equal, and that I was just like other transmigrators in novels, reincarnated from one world to another, transmigrated to a parallel world that was very similar to reality. It wasn't until you told me the truth that I realized that these two worlds had a hierarchical relationship."

Her finger slowly rose: "In other words, the real world is one dimension higher than the world in the book. If we are two-dimensional, they are three-dimensional; if we are three-dimensional, they are four-dimensional. This isn't a concept from physics, just a vivid way of describing it, because this book was created by her. Under this oppressive relationship, the [humans] in the real world are like gods to us. As long as the [writer] moves her pen and makes a slight modification, she can decide life and death, and decide everything."

This is all known intelligence.

Why bring this up now... Asukai Shi was a little puzzled. What does this have to do with the mystery?

Asakawa Riku seemed to sense her confusion and smiled slightly:

"I said... what if we assume that there exists another world above the [real world]?"

"What……?"

Shii Asukai was stunned. She seemed to understand what he was saying, but at the same time, she couldn't quite grasp it.

Therefore, Riku Asakawa put it more bluntly: "Since our world is a book for you, why can't your world be a book for an even higher level?"

"You mean... there are even higher-dimensional 'authors,' and even Lu Chuanqian and Xu Qishi's real world was created by someone else?"

Shinobu Asukai was incredulous. She took several steps back, instinctively reaching for the sword on her back:

"【Key Point 2: Detectives must not use supernatural or bizarre investigative methods.】"

"You can try and see if you can cut it off."

Asakawa Riku, however, seemed to have anticipated this, and neither dodged nor yielded.

Golden light engulfed the world before him, yet when the sword's edge dissipated, the plane in his hand remained intact, with an additional layer added on top of the original two.

The Ten Commandments of Knox are ineffective against it!

"Because this isn't a supernatural or bizarre detective method. Since the abilities of the [writer] can exist in the real world, and the structure of multiple worlds has been proven to exist, from a materialist point of view, this is a verifiable theory and an argument that can be used for reasoning. In terms of strength, your golden sword absolutely cannot defeat them."

Asakawa Riku smiled and said, "It's hard to believe, isn't it? That the world you live in is fake, and that you yourself are just a product created by someone else, an NPC, a character. Most people would never think of such a concept, because, as you said, the brain automatically filters out such doubts. But it just so happens that you punctured the illusion around me and successfully planted the seed of doubt in me. You could never have come up with this kind of reasoning, and neither could those police experts. This is a reasoning that only I could come up with."

"What...what exactly are you trying to say..."

Asukai Shi was pale and weak in the knees, feeling that things were gradually slipping out of control.

Because the reasoning that Asakawa Riku mentioned was indeed a completely new field that she had never thought of or explored before.

"In fact, if we generalize this theory, the universe is probably far more than just these three worlds. Below us, new 'writer' ability users may also emerge in this world, such as that tapir, whose dreams could very well give rise to a world, thus creating a new world below us. Above us, higher-dimensional beings will continue to appear, each world created by the higher-level 'humans,' layer upon layer, endlessly, like a mille-feuille, or a nesting doll..."

Asakawa Riku slowly stretched out his hand, as if playing an accordion, and the plane in his hand kept being copied and generated, from three to ten, and then to one hundred.

They appeared layer upon layer, like playing cards, then clasped together and opened again, returning to the original three planes.

"But places that are too far away are irrelevant to us; it is enough to explore these three worlds."

"Besides the 'world in the book' and the 'real world' that I just mentioned, let's give the topmost place a name: the 'real world'."

Asukai Shi stared blankly at the changes:

"The real world..."

As a writer, she never imagined that she herself could be a product of someone else's pen.

"In the real world, there also exists a group of humans who are even more advanced than Lu Chuanqian and Xu Qishi. To distinguish them from writers, let's call them readers."

In that instant, Asakawa Riku suddenly turned his head.

He looked this way.

He looked at us.

"[Readers] are everywhere, all the time. They are right here, right now, watching us and listening to our conversation."

"right here……"

Shiya Asukai looked over, incredulous, because there was nothing in front of her.

But she is also the one who understands best, because as a writer, she observes everything in this world in the same way.

Like eyes in the void.

"In fact, the readers are just ordinary 'people'. They are not superpowered beings or gods, but due to the difference in dimensions, their power is much stronger than ours, even stronger than the authors. With just a tiny thought or an unconscious idea, they can change our reality. This is the influence of the readers on us."

Asakawa Riku frowned and said that he also found it difficult to imagine such a concept because it was too abstract and too far away.

He explained, “If it’s hard to understand, you can imagine the readers as a group of giraffes. They are a group of observers. If they encounter an interesting story, an interesting plot, or interesting content, they will swarm over. They want to see the unpredictable stage of fate, so they will stretch their necks to get closer to observe.”

This explanation might dispel some of the fear and eeriness.

However, Asakawa Riku's next sentence immediately turned the situation horrifying:

"I believe that the real culprit behind Lu Chuanqian's bizarre death is [the reader]."

Winter of Man: Chapter Twenty-Seven - Time Point

"You mean... that powerful being killed Lu Chuanqian."

Although Shimi Asukai still finds it difficult to accept the messages of the "real world" and the "readers" for the time being, she has already entered this line of reasoning.

If it were a higher-dimensional being, it could indeed kill Lu Chuanqian with ease and create an impossible, absolutely locked room.

Just as she, as the author, could kill the people in this world without personally contacting or taking action, she could simply erase them with a stroke of her pen.

[Reader] To kill Lu Chuanqian, perhaps all it would take is a glance from afar through the hospital room.

"Why do 'rule-based monsters' exist in this world? Sometimes even I can't resist those enforced rules, because the essence of rules is actually the [reader's] approval." Asakawa Riku continued to explain, "Why do the collective beliefs and public consciousness of this world shape gods? In fact, it is also the [readers] who shape gods."

Once you understand this most basic concept, everything becomes very clear.

Anything is possible if readers want it, and the rules of the world will change because of them.

but……

However, she was still puzzled: "But...why would they do this! Is Lu Chuanqian also a pawn in someone's plan, or does someone hate him...!"

Shizuka Asukai couldn't understand why such a high-dimensional being would kill a person lying in a vegetative state on a hospital bed.

Lu Chuanqian was already in such a terrible state, why did they have to deliver the final blow? What is his connection to the "real world"?

"The so-called connection is actually no connection, and the so-called motive is actually no motive."

Asakawa Riku shook his head.

This is why he had to explain so much about his "motives" beforehand:

"The most difficult puzzles to solve, the most difficult cases to crack, are those without motive, without malice, and even without anyone noticing—"

He stood up: "The key is [time]."

Shiki Asukai asked, puzzled: "Time?"

"Yes, the time of the crime," Asakawa Riku said. "You said that Asakawa Riku died on April 1, 2024. If we only look at the [real world] description, this date is meaningless; it's just April Fool's Day."

The doctor came to check on her as usual, and her family visited as usual. Xu Qishi was still there; everything seemed normal.

He paused for a moment:

"But in our world of books, this time has special significance."

Shii Asukai immediately began to think... 2024... That was three years ago... What happened three years ago...? April... It's springtime.