Netherworld Investigator

Chapter 235

Xiaotao cast Young Master Wang a look that seemed to imply he was worse than pond scum. "Get him a computer so he can log into the site for us to see!" she ordered.

Young Master Wang shook his head and explained, "That’s not possible. You can’t access the site from any computer. The website has its own client that is connected not only to my home computer but also my IP address. If someone steals my computer, it will automatically uninstall without leaving any trace."

This complicated system definitely required a hacker who was proficient in programming. From the looks of it, this website was closely guarded from every aspect.

"Let’s go to your place then. I’d like to see what your interests are!" said Xiaotao.

Young Master Wang bit his lip and nodded.

In fact, the young master’s statement had revealed an important piece of information–the dead man from last week wasn’t the first victim. Would Storm Punisher actually allow his captives to leave once they passed his trial? Considering this from the standpoint of a criminal, the possibility of that was very slim.

Before we left, I instructed several officers to scour the entire Nanjiang City for any recent unidentified bodies, in particular men without arms.

The four of us escorted Young Master Wang back to his home. I reported his address to Lao Yao and reminded him to bring his equipment to see if he could find any clues.

Young Master Wang lived in an upscale residential area. On our way there, he even had the gall to smile at Xiaotao and comment, "Xiaotao, this is the first time you’re visiting my home!"

As if he hadn’t spoken, Xiaotao kept her hands firmly gripped around the steering wheel and looked straight ahead. Having invited a snub, Young Master Wang coughed in embarrassment.

Right as we arrived at the gates of the community, we heard a loud racket coming from the guard booth. Poor Lao Yao was deemed suspicious by the security guard who was currently trying to chase him away. However, like gum on one’s shoe, Lao Yao refused to leave. Xiaotao immediately asked Young Master Wang to explain the situation.

After the young master “rescued” him, Lao Yao’s eyes lit up, his lecherous gaze sweeping across Young Master Wang’s entire body. "Xiao Song-song, is this your boyfriend?" he asked.

"Don’t make me puke!” I snapped. “I’d rather drop the soap in front of Meng Da than go for this guy!" Lowering my voice, I clarified that he was our suspect who incidentally hired gangsters to chop off my legs last night. Fortunately, God helped the righteous.

Lao Yao’s stance on the man immediately did a 180. He marched over and angrily pointed a finger at Young Master Wang’s nose, his voice containing the usual foxy tone. "Let me warn you, Xiao Song-song is mine. If you dare do anything to him, I’ll make you the next Edison Chen!"

Dali cried, "That’s great! We’ll have another naked photo scandal!" I gave him the side-eye.

When we entered the young master’s home, we were greeted with luxury in every corner. All that was missing was a shoe rack made of gold. There was a huge artistic portrait of the man himself hanging on the wall. He looked extremely amorous wearing a suit with a rose stalk between his lips.

Another artistic portrait featured him and a B-list Chinese celebrity. They were both scantily dressed, posed in the most suggestive position. "We broke up a long time ago. Don’t think anything of it, Xiaotao!" Young Master Wang awkwardly explained.

"Don’t you worry,” sneered Xiaotao. “The impression I have of you just keeps getting better!" Even fools could hear the sarcasm in her tone.

Young Master Wang turned on his computer while Lao Yao plugged in a USB cable, connected it to his laptop and got to work. A black client appeared on Young Master Wang’s computer. After entering his username and password, he obtained a verification code that was sent to his cell phone and read it out into the microphone. This last step was to confirm his identity through voice verification. The two-step password was indeed a strong insurance against outsiders.

A line popped up on the screen: In-depth Live Stream–Live streams that rebel against human nature!

"A bunch of rich people spending money to watch others abuse themselves,” mocked Xiaotao. “Is this what you call going against human nature?"

The layout of the website was similar to other live streaming sites with many thumbnails spread across the page. Xiaotao clicked on one and saw two bikini-clad beauties eating feces-colored ice cream, smearing it all over their bodies and licking it up. Dali covered his mouth and retched. "That’s so disgusting!" he exclaimed.

Meanwhile, Lao Yao stared straight at the screen with his mouth agape.

Xiaotao clicked on another thumbnail. This time it was a naked man with countless fat maggots wriggling under his skin. He continued injecting maggot eggs into his skin with a syringe.

It was so repugnant that even Wang Yuanchao wrinkled his brow. "This is revolting! How do you eat after watching these?"

The more we explored, the worse we saw, each video frightening us a little more. From the time I started surfing the internet, this was undoubtedly the hardest thing I ever had to force myself to look at.

Another streamer covered his anus with vaseline and then stuffed a beer bottle inside. Just when I thought it was over, he suddenly jumped up and dropped heavily to the ground on his buttocks, smashing the beer bottle inside his anus. Blood dyed the floor red as the streamer screamed in agony. A barrage of sky high in-stream donations floated across the screen.

There was also a woman who stuffed an electric eel into her vagina and started live streaming intercourse with a man. The two were screaming from the pain of the electric shock the entire time.

Another person deep-fried his finger in hot oil and munched on it until only the bone was left.

There are all sorts of unbelievable things–necrophilia, flesh mutilation, extreme body piercings–all of which made our blood run cold. If the streamers on Kuaishou were to see these fearless beasts, they probably quit live streaming entirely.

Then, Young Master Wang quietly reminded Xiaotao to switch to another section. It turned out that the section we had been browsing through was called "Approaching The Boundary" that comprised of various self-harm and even suicide live streams.

On the top of the page, I noticed all the sections, including "Approaching The Boundary," "The Dark Truth," "Torturing Out Human Nature," and "Monster Covered In Human Skin.” Xiaotao clicked on the second section, "The Dark Truth," which featured live streams of various crimes, For example, drugging women and raping young missuses or molesting women on the bus. In one of the live streams, several masked teenagers laughed as they beat up an elderly civilian police officer. The old man’s face was covered in blood and tears as he cried for mercy. But the streamer merely turned to the camera and said, "Take a good look. This is the true face of the civilian police!"

Without warning, Xiaotao stood up from her chair and delivered a backhanded slap to Young Master Wang’s face. Based on my understanding of Xiaotao, this time she was bursting with fury.

"You witnessed the humiliation of the police and still refused to report this?!" roared Xiaotao.

Cradling his bruised face in his hands, the shivering young master faltered, "If I reveal the website, they’ll cancel my account and take my deposit."

Upon hearing his misguided rationale, Xiaotao almost couldn’t resist giving him another beating. I stopped her and cautioned, "Calm down!"

Glancing at the teenagers who were still thrashing the officer in the video, Xiaotao ferociously declared, "I’m going to arrest these people! Lao Yao, record the video so we can analyze it later."

"No, you’ll alert them!" I quickly refuted.

Xiaotao could only grit her teeth and bear the anger because she was perfectly clear about that. "After we’ve solved this case, we’ll arrest them all and get even!" I promised.

"No, this case is no longer about these two sadistic murderers,” she said. “We must uproot this illegal live streaming website!"

At the mention of the two murderers, I suddenly remembered something that had previously slipped my mind. "Is there a psychopath who live streams explosions?"

Terrified by the slap he had just received, Young Master Wang hesitated to speak. "You’re merely a spectator not a participant,” I said. “It’s not against the law so speak up!"

He said that the man was called “The Strongest Mantis Shrimp” and compared his popularity to those streamers who ate feces and self-harmed. Explosions were his thing, whether it was blowing up a scrap car or a toilet. The most crazy feat he had ever performed was stuffing an explosive into a pig’s stomach and blowing the pig into bloody chunks.

The Strongest Mantis Shrimp must have recently gotten in touch with Storm Punisher. Since last week, the corpses of the victims murdered by Storm Punisher had been turned into exhibitions of explosions by The Strongest Mantis Shrimp. The destruction of the corpse wiped out all traces of the crime and provided entertainment value. With the spotlight shining on Storm Punisher, The Strongest Mantis Shrimp also gained popularity recently.