Global Disaster: I Will Slay Gods In This Second Chance!-Chapter 33: The Case of Bolard (3)

"That’s right."

Zold nodded in agreement.

He glanced outside the car, seeing a barren and deserted neighborhood with no sign of life.

"Should we take this outside? I wouldn’t want to go back on foot later."

Seeing Zold’s unfazed, even sarcastic response, Namita fell silent.

After a brief pause, he asked hoarsely. "... You knew?"

Zoldt didn’t answer immediately and tried opening the car door.

But it wouldn’t budge.

"Otherwise?" He stated as if it were obvious.

Hearing that, Namita took a deep breath. He closed his eyes and opened the car doors.

Click!

Zold stepped out of the car and cracked his neck, feeling a bit sore from leaning on Namita’s old and worn-down car.

"Good grief. Your car is terrible."

Namita had just stepped outside the car and couldn’t help but pause.

He took a deep breath before closing the door.

Click!

Now that the two of them were outside, Namita looked at Zold with a confused expression.

"When did I slip up?" He asked in a low tone.

"When..." Zold paused, thinking for a moment. His next words hit Namita like a punch, leaving him silent. "From the meeting with the mayor."

"How?"

Namita asked hoarsely, unable to believe his words.

"It’s simple, really. I have a good intuition," Zold shrugged. "When you live long enough, you can sense a person’s unusualness even at the very beginning."

Namita could tell that Zold wasn’t lying, but that was even more incredulous.

A young man who wasn’t even in his twenties was talking about living long?

"But I don’t just solely rely on intuition." Zold paused, then continued. "I wanted to confirm it from you personally, that way everything would make sense. What better way than to visit your own crime?"

Namita took a deep breath, looking at Zold differently.

"... I don’t think I revealed anything there."

"On the contrary, you revealed everything." Zold shook his head. "When I asked you to spill everything, you immediately did so. That means that you either didn’t care about the mayor or you disliked Fredrich Bolard. Both can be true at the same time."

"Your next words prove this as you told me everything about Fredrich Bolard, but you only said what the public knew first to ascertain my attitude. Once I pushed for more, you realized that I didn’t trust the mayor as well, so you then told me the real... hidden information."

Namita recalled that moment, realizing he was right.

Zold continued with a small smile.

"When I said I killed people before, although it was only for a short moment, your eyes shifted when our gazes met. At that moment, you reacted because you knew that I wasn’t lying, nor was I joking when I said I wanted to kill the mayor.

Why?

It’s because you saw yourself in my eyes."

Zold glanced at Namita, their gazes meeting. He paused for a moment, then continued:

"What did I say about crimes? The crux of all crimes is..."

"Emotions."

Namita finished for him, an ugly smile forming on his face.

He finally understood.

Zold nodded slightly, leaning against the old sedan.

"Jizu Harves was too simple a suspect. It’s not impossible, but why would a local gang leader kill Bolard if blackmailing him does the same thing? But—you, Detective Namita Hajin, dislike the victim. You are now qualified to be called a suspect. You have a motive."

"There was another reason, and its connected to my initial suspicioun of you. You said that Jizu was the killer from the intel... you received, isn’t that quite suspicious? You happen to receive intel that perfectly justifies the murder?"

Namita fell silent.

Although it was simple, crimes were often like that.

It was just a matter of feelings.

Zold suddenly smiled.

"The nail in the coffin was the scorch marks."

Namita flashed a toothy smile, looking at Zold deeply. "You made them, didn’t you?"

Zold nodded. "That’s right."

"I knew it. Hahahaha...!" Namita couldn’t help but laugh incredulously. "I inspected that place before and after I left. I erased every possible clue, every trace. So when you said there were scorch marks? That was impossible. I was with the police on the first visit to the crime scene... No one but you could’ve done that."

"But I couldn’t think of a reason why you would do that. But then I remember that you’re quite young. The only possibility was that you didn’t want to face Jizu, a gang leader with B-rank talent. But you still wanted to solve the case, so you chose to shift the blame!"

"But..." Namita chuckled angrily. "That may have been a calculated move on your part. It didn’t matter if your so-called evidence was true or not; once you reported it to the mayor, your opinion would hold more weight than mine. You were forcing me to make a move by trying to shift the blame!"

From the very beginning, he was playing right under Zold’s palm.

All of his responses, reactions, and actions were analyzed and exposed without him noticing in the slightest.

Namita felt unnerved, covering it up with an ugly, strained smile.

"You’re getting talkative." Zold mused. "Is this a personality shift brought by the mask?"

"... You even guessed that?" Namita’s eyes narrowed, his smile twitching. "Unfortunately, now that you brought me to this point. I have no choice but to kill you, even if you didn’t mean to do that."

Zold simply smiled, not replying to him.

Seeing his unfazed expression even until now, Namita didn’t hesitate anymore.

He suddenly vanished, moving faster than the eye can see.

Woosh!

In a split second, Zold raised his hand and accurately caught Namita’s wrist.

A cold gleam reflected off the knife in Namita’s hand.

"You’re pretty fast."

Zold said casually, raising his brows.

Namita was surprised, but he quickly regained his composure. His fingers moved precisely, throwing the knife towards Zold’s face.

But Zold caught the knife with his bare hands, causing Namita’s eyes to flicker.

Shk!

Unexpectedly, the knife made a sharp, pointed wound on Zold’s palm before bouncing off.

Zold saw the wound and was surprised.

’It barely damaged him?!’

Namita’s eyes widened, then he quickly twisted his hand, getting free from Zold’s grip.

"You have a defensive talent?" He asked in a low tone, landing from a distance.

Zold silently crouched down and picked up the knife. He observed it carefully and immediately sensed spiritual energy flowing inside, making him furrow his brows in surprise.

"You can turn ordinary objects into artifacts? Is it your talent? No, you should be a Manifestor with a Mask-related talent," He pondered carefully. "Mask talents are either related to deception or impersonation. Hmm, guessing from your personality shift, yours should be an impersonation... then this knife is a result of a skill? A skill of the character you’re impersonating?"

As if he found the answer, Zold glanced at Namita with a slight smile, speaking slowly.

"Interesting."

An explosion erupted in Namita’s mind!

His heart shook, and his expression twisted in an instant.

The grin on his face warped into something ugly, while his sharp and deadly eyes had lost all of their confidence, a flicker of horror creeping into them.

He couldn’t help but fall silent.

Even though Zold had already fully revealed his intelligence earlier, witnessing it in action truly made him realize how terrifying the young man in front of him was.

Namita instinctively took a step back, fear and confusion gripping his heart.

"... Who are you...?"

Woosh!

But at that moment, Zold disappeared from Namita’s gaze.

Then, Namita suddenly felt a presence on his back.

His eyes widened in shock, and a cold hand suddenly grasped his neck as he was shoved to the ground.

Bam!

Zold spoke slowly.

"You have two choices at the moment."

Namita immediately tried to pull away, but his horror grew even more when he discovered that Zold’s strength was on another level.

He couldn’t move at all, much less struggle!

But then, a moment later, he felt his bones crack.

Crack!

"...!"

Namita clenched his teeth, feeling unbearable pain.

It was as if a massive pillar of stone was pressing down on him, crushing his bones and organs slowly.

Zold continued as he slowly broke apart Namita.

"Choice number one. You die, and that’s it."

Namita’s mouth trembled, trying to keep himself from screaming at all costs.

But each passing moment heightened the pain he felt.

"Choice number two. You come under me."

"As my subordinate, you’ll do whatever I tell you to do. Of course, I won’t let you do anything evil. But you’ll have to follow all my orders, even if that meant sacrificing your life in the process.."

"Now, choose."

After saying that, Zold let go of his tight hold.

Namita audibly gasped, but when he saw Zold’s silent stare, he knew his next words would decide his life.

He fell silent for a brief moment, then made a decision.

"The second choice."