NOVEL WEB 0031 – Intent Practice and Captain Dioh
January 27th.
The morning sunlight streamed through the window. Zoe Carter sat on the sofa with her eyes closed, focusing her mind.
She didn't need rest or sleep.
Closing her eyes was to better utilize her ability, transparent world.
Despite the absence of vision. The transparent world hadn't weakened much. Relying only on hearing and smell, most things around her could still be perceived. It could even be said that. Her hearing had sharpened somewhat.
She clearly heard Benny chatting on the phone next door, criticizing with gusto: "As the old saying goes, eat what you lack. So, enduring hardship doesn't make one superior, it makes one cannibalistic!"
Although she didn't know who Benny was talking to, she could only discern it was a woman's voice. But Benny's insights remained sharp as ever. To this, Zoe chuckled lightly and chose to ignore it.
Her attention was more focused on the insects near the building. Other sounds were temporarily diminished in importance. It had only been a few days since the Walpurgisnacht holiday.
Many insects and avians had survived the long winter and were now waking up in this season of rejuvenation. Zoe's perception range at the insect scale was not large, only about the size of the building she was in. And in this building. There were quite a number of insects.
In this old residential area that had been built for many years, there were many places with unreasonable construction. These places harbored filth and gathered many insects.
Cockroaches, woodlice, fruit flies, stink bugs...
Among them, only a few types emitted sounds of movement that Zoe could distinguish. Many others, she couldn't even name. But that didn't matter.
Zoe didn't use the ability to see through the world to get to know or study these insects.
But to train!
To train the murderous intent she had discovered last night! Any insect that was perceived. Seemed to suffer a violent attack, instantly losing its life. This was precisely Zoe using her murderous intent to precisely kill these insects.
This was undoubtedly using a cannon to kill a mosquito. The way these bugs died was too high-end.
One intense release could stun an adult, and multiple releases could even scare an adult into madness, enough to kill these insects.
Even though theoretically these insects didn't have enough size to birth thoughts and emotions, they could still be influenced to death by Zoe's murderous intent.
Obviously, the nature of murderous intent was quite interesting. Like the Haoshoku Haki in a certain well-known work, but slightly different.
At least for now, it couldn't cause physical oppression. Regarding the deeper aspects of murderous intent. Zoe still couldn't understand it now. But it wasn't necessary to understand the essence of murderous intent yet.
What was most important now was what Zoe was currently doing—training.
For now. Murderous intent could be said to be Zoe's most powerful means.
After intense release, it could crush an adult's spirit.
And most importantly. Not only could it be released remotely in an instant, but there was no sense of depletion. Coupled with the perception ability of the transparent world, which was like having X-ray vision, she could easily become a large-scale weapon of mass destruction.
This was undoubtedly a divine skill.
And for such a divine skill, it was necessary to train it well.
The few times she used it on the thief last night could only be considered as testing the general effect.
Now, using insects as targets for precise killing was true training. Especially in terms of control.
She must be able to wield this highly lethal ability freely and adjust its intensity at will. Even though Zoe could roughly adjust the intensity of murderous intent by adjusting her own killing intent, she still needed to practice to become proficient.
Only then could she feel more at ease. And in this long training process. After killing several insects, Zoe had gained quite a bit.
Apart from experimenting with the thief last night and finding out that the range of the murderous intent was fifty meters, she gradually learned to control the intensity of the murderous intent to a very small range and could adjust it with great precision.
This allowed her to stun people, leaving them dumbfounded. Instead of frightening them to death or paralyzing them. This made the practicality of the murderous intent even higher.
After training, she could also accurately direct the murderous intent towards a specific individual or a specific group. As for the indiscriminate release of murderous intent, after trying it several times, she could do it.
If she released murderous intent indiscriminately, she would become a humanoid weapon that could scare or even kill all nearby creatures wherever she went. In short.
After training like shooting mosquitoes with an anti-aircraft gun. After sacrificing the hidden insects in the building.
Successfully achieved considerable results. This made Zoe very satisfied. However, the smile on her lips hadn't lasted long before she instinctively suppressed it.
In her perception of the transparent world. She heard three men parking downstairs. Such sounds shouldn't be constantly monitored, or else she would have been driven crazy by the cacophony. After all, being able to hear insects burrowing out of the soil, if she paid extreme attention to everything, she would be as annoyed as she was on the day of the holiday.
But since her subconscious had highlighted these three men in the transparent world. It was natural because she heard something worth paying attention to.
"That kid stole quite a lot of stuff. According to the surveillance and stolen goods, six households were robbed in total. After the evidence department finishes their work, do we need to go house by house to return the items?"
"Probably. By then, we can let the newcomers run errands, or we can let them come to pick up the items themselves. I'm more concerned about why that thief turned into a vegetable by the riverbank?"
"The surveillance around the river couldn't see there, and the more distant surveillance didn't find anything unusual. We'll have to wait for the test results from the hospital. I suspect it's some disease that suddenly flared up?"
Such a conversation took place while the three men hadn't yet gotten out of the car. Therefore. Zoe paid attention to these three people.
Obviously, they were policemen.
Among them, one seemed to be an acquaintance she had encountered in the popular shop a few days ago. Zoe wasn't surprised by their arrival. In fact, she had known the police would come.
Although the thief last night had evaded many surveillance cameras, there were still some he hadn't. Add to that, he turned into a vegetable by the riverbank with a load of stolen goods, he would surely be discovered today.
Then, following these stolen goods and surveillance, the police could probably piece together what the thief had done last night. So. Zoe had temporarily refrained from going after the thief who turned into a vegetable last night and took back her own laptop.
Because from the scent traces of the thief, she knew that among the surveillance cameras the thief hadn't evaded, some were near her home. The thief had been to her house, yet didn't find anything from her house among the stolen goods, which was suspicious.
Zoe didn't want to cause more trouble. So, she chose to wait as a victim, and the police would come to her the next day. By then, she could safely retrieve her laptop.
After all, the thief had left a note saying "Dare to call the police and I'll kill you," and she hadn't reported the theft, which could explain it. And there was no surveillance of her leaving home at night.
No matter how you looked at it, the thief's matter had nothing to do with her.
It would most likely be attributed to the sudden onset of some illness in the thief, or suspecting that the thief was too excited to get so much stuff, which caused a mental breakdown.
Anyway. They couldn't suspect the victims like her. Thinking like this. One of the three police officers stayed in the car. The other two had walked to the sixth floor.
And then knocked on her door. Zoe waited for a moment, preparing herself slightly. Then she stepped forward and opened the door.
The moment she saw the two plainclothes policemen at the door, her acting skills erupted instantly.
"Huh? Captain?!" Zoe's expression first froze, then turned surprised. Then a hint of worry. Her extreme coordination and control. Made her expression control at a master level, enough to make any world-class actor marvel.
At least the two officers in front of her couldn't tell that Zoe's natural expression was an act.
"Hmm?"
"Are you... Zoe from Hampsterburgg City?"
After a moment of daze, the captain remembered Zoe after some recollection. When his colleagues gave him the information of the person they needed to visit for questioning, he felt that this Zoe looked somewhat familiar. But he hadn't been able to recall until now.
Now he remembered. They had indeed met before.
On the third, there was a case of a person stabbing someone in Hampsterburgg, which he led the team to handle. He remembered that Zoe in front of him had evaded the knife attack in that case and then swiftly subdued the criminal.
Afterwards, their police station wanted to give Zoe a commendation for her bravery, but Zoe said she didn't like fame and directly refused it.
"It's me, Captain Dioh."
"Why are you here today?"
Zoe smiled and extended her hand, shaking hands with the two policemen at the door. Then she showed a humble expression. The worry on her face still lingered.
After shaking hands. Dioh, who knew that Zoe had acted bravely before, also smiled and directly pulled out a transparent plastic evidence bag and placed it in front of Zoe. There was a piece of paper inside. Written on it: "Dare to call the police, I'll kill you."
"Have you seen this before?"
Dioh pointed to the evidence bag and said.
Seeing this, Zoe fully displayed her acting skills, revealing a hint of hesitation and worry. It seemed like she wanted to say something but didn't dare to.
In Dioh's eyes, this was the behavior of a young person from out of town, afraid of stirring up trouble. No matter how courageous someone may have been, they might still have fears.
After all, anyone would worry whether this thief had accomplices. No matter how fearless, they couldn't avoid the situation of being outnumbered. Provoking these guys would lead to constant harassment and threats.
"Don't be afraid. You've seen me before. You should at least trust that I'm a police officer," Dioh said patiently to Zoe.
"Let's assume this thief has accomplices. Today we came here undercover, so you don't have to worry about others knowing the police have been here. And downstairs, our comrades are keeping an eye out. If there are any suspicious individuals, they'll be restrained immediately," Dioh explained to Zoe.
Zoe, upon hearing this, also pretended to hesitate. After a while, she gritted her teeth and said, "Come in with me."
Saying this, she turned and walked into the house. The two police officers followed her inside.
"Last night when I returned home, I found my bedroom and living room in a mess," Zoe said.
"Upon inspection, I found my laptop missing, and where I originally placed the laptop, there was a note similar to yours."
"I live alone in a rented place here, and upon seeing this note, I was afraid of getting involved with some big shots, so I didn't dare to report it," Zoe said while handing the note from last night to Dioh.
Seeing this, Dioh put on gloves and put the note into the empty evidence bag he carried with him. Then he said, "Don't worry about any big shots. This is a society governed by law now, and we'll protect the safety of the people."
After saying that, he took out a photo from his pocket and handed it to Zoe, asking, "Is this the laptop you lost?"
Zoe looked at the photo and nodded, "Yes, it's this Shadow Elf series gaming laptop."
"Alright, within one to three weeks, we'll send someone to return it to you," Dioh said.
"If it's urgent, you can go to our District Police Station tomorrow to make a statement, and then you should be able to take your laptop back." Dioh said to Zoe.
Hearing this, Zoe also nodded. After that, the few of them exchanged pleasantries for a while, and then the two police officers bid farewell and left. During this time, Zoe didn't ask much about the thief-related situation, just like every other victim, she only asked, "Was he caught?"
After getting the answer that he was caught, she didn't ask anything else.
Watching the police car drive away from the balcony, Zoe gazed for a moment. Then, she turned back to the computer desk and continued to use her ability to perceive insects in the building and then used them to hone her intent to kill.
Such behavior not only trained her intent to kill but also honed the accuracy of her ability to perceive insects even further away.
On the way back to the police station, Dioh sat in the passenger seat, his eyes deep as he gazed out the window. The police officer in the back seat couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong, Captain Dioh? Was there a problem with that woman just now?"
"That woman didn't have any problems. Didn't we roughly confirm it through the surveillance before coming? She's just a normal victim of theft," Dioh replied with a furrowed brow. He felt like something was off.
"What's the matter?" the police officer in the back seat curiously asked.
"I just feel like I saw too many dead insects in that hallway just now," Dioh explained to the others.
"Captain Dioh, you've been a detective for too long. You've become overly suspicious. It's the coming of spring these past few days, isn't it normal for there to be more bugs and therefore more dead bodies?" the police officer in the back seat complained helplessly.
"True, there's probably been some insecticide used," Dioh nodded in agreement. He couldn't refute the words of the police officer in the back seat. It seemed he had indeed been a bit too jumpy.
