Chapter 105 The Riddler (Part 1)

The Barrier, the headquarters of the Heroes' Alliance, is a fortress that flies through the air, like an airplane that never lands, constantly monitoring the ground.

Moreover, it gives people a sense of superiority.

As the headquarters of the special agents, the stronghold houses nearly two thousand staff members, who are organized into seven departments: the special agents group, the support group, the intelligence group, the investigation group, the research group, the logistics group, and the medical group.

Each department is further divided into general departments and special departments based on the needs of work and tasks.

All two thousand staff members had cover identities and were subject to a strict confidentiality system.

Billis didn't like this, and neither did Lisa, Mia, and Elsa.

The four people were taken to an open assembly point, underwent a full-body search, and passed through three security checkpoints before entering through a half-engaged gear gate.

A ring road much larger than I had imagined came into view.

It can be said that the barrier was designed according to the future urban planning. The ring is the only traffic artery, and every house must be built along the ring. At the same time, the ring has a complete water supply system, greening system, temperature control system, and most importantly, a monitoring system.

Every staff member must be monitored by the ring, and the intelligence group building is no exception.

This building is located on the southwest side of the ring road. The stone materials are exquisite and the craftsmanship is excellent. The only bad thing is that several pointed holes have been added to the original structure. I don't know what they are for, as if the building has several ventilation holes.

Lisa had a dream since she was a child: to become a professional detective. After checking in, she volunteered to be the leader of the four-person team, put on a trench coat, and led everyone to the scene in a hurry.

Richie's office was on the fourth floor, and the incident occurred in the corridor outside his office. Someone saw him being attacked by Irencel as soon as he stepped out of his office.

The scene was cordoned off and largely left as it was. There was blood on the ground, which had dried. The investigation team drew several circles with chalk to indicate that a fierce fight had taken place there.

The murderer used magic to attack, so there was no need for a weapon.

There were three eyewitnesses. One was a member of the logistics team in charge of sanitation. He greeted Ilenscher when he was cleaning the corridor, five minutes before the incident.

The second witness was also from the logistics team, responsible for building surveillance. He saw through the cameras that Erenshere entered Agent Richie's office multiple times and got into an argument in the corridor, less than five minutes before the incident.

The third witness, an indirect eyewitness from the intelligence team, told Lisa this.

"When I found him, he had multiple serious injuries, caused by a very direct magical attack, equivalent to a blunt weapon blow."

"You didn't see Irencel in person?"

"I could only see his back, but I was certain it was him!"

After some investigation, they entered Richie's office and found only a stand-in workbench, a folding sofa, and a desk piled high with documents.

The desk and folding sofa were probably not used often, and the documents were covered in a thick layer of dust.

Since Agent Richie always uses an Elemental Man avatar when he goes out, he only uses the workbench frequently.

Lisa quickly examined the documents on the desk; they were all old-fashioned official documents and task instructions. She had assumed that Richie would have a habit of keeping a diary like the other victims, but she found no handwritten records.

As for the workbench, it's of a slightly higher specification than a regular workbench, possibly custom-made for him by the Alliance.

Apart from that, no other information about Richie’s life was left in the office.

Afterwards, led by White, everyone went to the medical team to examine Richie's body.

This is a half-reincarnated person who is nearly forty years old. He is preserved in permafrost and cannot be touched. Just as the eyewitnesses said, he has many wounds on his body, and the bloodstains have been wiped dry. On the other hand, his two hands and two legs are bulging like balls, and the skin on his back is scorched and black, with a lot of dead skin peeling off from his back.

The biggest mystery is that he seemed to have passed away peacefully, his double eyelids were as black as night, and his face showed no signs of pain.

Knowing that Mia and Richie were close, Lisa asked some questions about their lifestyle and daily work.

To everyone's surprise, Mia's answer was always "I don't know".

"Didn't you know him a long time ago?"

“We’ve known each other for six years, but he always appears as an elemental being.”

"So, even you don't know what Richie looks like, and this is the first time you've seen him in person?"

"Yes."

Lisa then questioned the three witnesses from before.

Richie is a loner, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call him the most mysterious figure in the league. He almost never shows his face, but there is one thing he answered differently from Mia.

They all said that the body was Richie himself, and that the fact that he rarely showed his face did not mean that he never showed his face at all. The Alliance agents who remained at the fortress had varying degrees of contact with Richie.

Lisa then randomly asked several agents stationed in the Alliance, who also said that this was Richie himself.

Richie from the intelligence team was indeed killed.

Having reached this conclusion, Lisa did not continue to gather information about Richie, but instead turned her attention to Irenscher.

She asked different agents the same question.

The special agents said he was a man with high execution ability; the investigation team said he was a carefree man; the intelligence team said he was a man with a bad temper; the research team said he was a man with exceptional intelligence; and the logistics team said he was a man of dissolute behavior.

As a result, everyone had a different attitude towards Irencel.

Lisa finally asked Mia, "You've met him in person, haven't you?"

Mia's face suddenly turned red, and she stammered, "A sleazy, womanizing man."

At this moment, the neglected Billy suddenly jumped out and said, "Darling, I also had a brief encounter with him in the Abyss of Eva."

Who is he?

"A disgusting man with obsessive-compulsive disorder!"

A secret agent with a thousand faces—there are a thousand impressions for a thousand people.

However, Lisa believes that there is only one real Irencel.

According to the league's previous investigation, Erenshere did not leave the barrier after the incident, because the only way to leave that 5,000-foot altitude was to take a light airship docked on the south side of the loop.

Fifty airships, not one missing. He killed people and then disappeared from the fortress. Why?

It was as if they were deliberately leading others to investigate him.

Lisa focused her questions on the investigation team, because this matter was originally their responsibility, but it had now been handed over to four outside agents. They hadn't cooperated well and instead gave a perfunctory answer that the intelligence team had experienced several data theft incidents a month ago, and many people in high positions suspected that Irencel was the mole.

Perhaps Richie happened to have firsthand evidence of the mole, which led Irenschel to decide to kill him to silence him.

Therefore, the investigation must begin with the theft of data a month ago.

Lisa then asked Richie's colleagues in the intelligence group, and they all said that the thief had been executed.

The missing document was a letter proposing Leviathan.

When it comes to Leviathan, the reason why the Alliance didn't send agents to the coast to carry out operations, but instead kept lying and saying it was a geological disaster, was because of this proposal.

It is said that the proposal bypassed the high seat and was quickly approved, explicitly declaring that Leviathan did not exist, demanding the withdrawal of all agents sent to the coast, and at the same time, news about Leviathan's resurrection was also blocked.

So who exactly has the authority to bypass those in high positions and issue orders directly?

That person's name was included in the proposal.

Lisa wanted to access the information, but the high-ranking officials only allowed her to investigate the murderer, not to borrow the information. This meant that the high-ranking officials had invited them to arrest someone.

Having finally found the source, but unable to take any action, they had no choice but to return to the deceased's office and start the investigation anew.

Richie's office was unlike any other office; it didn't resemble an office at all, but rather a private lounge.

Based on the four agents' impressions of him, they knew that Richie was a lazy person, so it wasn't surprising that he usually piled up his documents on his desk.

Upon seeing that stand-in workbench again, Lisa suddenly remembered something.

"Do you remember the last time Richie transformed into a dark elemental, those few words he wrote in his notebook?"

Billy also recalled the last two sentences.

"If you encounter any difficulties, go to Irenshere, and don't worry about those in high positions!"

"So, Richie and Ellen Sher had a good relationship. If that's the case, why would Ellen Sher kill Richie? And what I'm more concerned about is the first sentence he wrote: 'There's a mole in the Alliance. Someone is preventing me from informing you. My Stand workbench has been bugged.'"

"Who is preventing him from tipping off others?"

“Honey, haven’t you realized yet? My point is that there’s a listening device installed on the workbench.”

"Were we told that everyone heard?"

Lisa winked at Mia.

Mia quickly reached under the workbench and found something that looked like a bugging device, but instead of removing it, she found a piece of paper next to it.

Unfold the note, which reads: "Hey, since you're here, play a riddle game with me: Five fountains, five stones, one face."