Martial Arts Worlds

In a messy detective office with stacks of papers and books stacked over each other to make towers, a lone desk lamp flickered dimly in the corner, casting shadows across the room.

The bulletin boards were covered in newspaper clippings and red string connecting different cases together, but there were so many that anyone visiting this place would think that the detectives weren't solving any cases!

At that moment, a brunette-haired woman entered the messy office, carrying some letters and new reports that had been sent from other branches.

She, despite not looking ahead, moved past the towers of paper without even looking at them.

"New cases?"

A lazy-eyed detective leaned over from his chair and wondered whether there were any interesting reports in the stack.

They had been overwhelmed with murder and kidnapping cases lately that they were getting so bored of them, as those cases usually ended in failure.

"A few, and some letters."

She dropped the letters on her desk, and detectives, as if they were hermits, showed themselves from behind the towers of paper.

They checked whether any of the letters were assigned to them and then took their private letters to read at their desks.

However, at the bottom of the letter, there was a letter assigned to the entire department.

"What is this now? Another hate mail, perhaps?"

The lazy-eyed detective opened the letter, leaned against the brunette-haired woman's desk, and read it inside his mind.

"Shoo, shoo!"

The brunette-haired woman pushed his butt off her desk.

"Sigh…"

The lazy-eyed detective picked himself up and sat down in his own chair.

'Hmm, this doesn't look like hate mail.'

It had some pictures attached, and when he looked at them, he realized they were crime scene photos.

'Hello, my name is Jack Mortality. I wrote to you about a recent murder, which you all have signed off as suicide.

'I am sorry to inform you that it was not a suicide, but a homicide. In the picture, you'll see Roah York's body, slumped over in his chair, fresh blood running down his face.

'I was the one who found him first.

'When I found him, it looked like an ordinary suicide. It looked like he had shot himself, but I found a pile of ash under his chair, which you'll see in the picture.

'I also smelled a distinct stench of sewer.

'I came to a single conclusion that the murderer must've been Mindbreaker, who specializes in mind control.

'I am sure you'll be able to find that by yourself now that you know what to look for.

'At this point, you must think that I am the killer, trying to set you guys off the trail…'

The lazy-eyed detective looked very concentrated, and when he reached this part in the letter, he nodded briefly, as that was exactly what he was thinking about.

'It is far too great of a coincidence that Jack guy found Roah York's corpse before the evidence of the Mindbreaker mark had faded off.

'The mark can disappear in a few minutes, and this Jack fellow must've been right outside when the murder happened… or inside the house.'

The lazy-eyed detective wondered what Jack's explanation for that was, and continued reading the letter.

'All I can ask is for you to trust me. I honestly don't have much knowledge about Mindbreaker's abilities, but I am sure that you detectives do.

'The majority of detectives are Mindbreakers, correct? I am sure that once you inspect Roah York's body, you'll see signs of foul play.

'That should be enough to prove that what I am saying is correct. I am not the killer, and I don't work for the killer.

'You won't hear from me again, and please, do your job—Jack Mortality.'

The lazy-eyed detective shouted for every detective to gather around him.

With sleepy and lazy looks, the detectives spread around him, and he read the letter aloud to them all.

"Let's pretend that Jack is speaking the truth—why would Mindbreaker go after Roah York? I know he works for the city council, but he is merely a glorified secretary."

"Maybe Roah York heard something that he shouldn't have? I am not surprised that there are some Martial Ability users working for the city council, especially with all the security issues in the city lately."

"Hmm…"

The lazy-eyed detective frowned and locked the letter in his drawer, and then he said to everyone.

"Well. I am Mindbreaker, so I will go check out the corpse, and if we're lucky, Mindbreaker was careless enough to leave some mind traces for me to follow."

…

Within the cold morgue, the lazy-eyed detective looked at the body of deceased Roah York, pale like a ghost.

He then touched the corpse on the forehead, closed his own eyes, and began to see flashes of Mindbreaker's memories.

He saw the last 24 hours of Roah York's life, and an hour before his death, he saw Roah York flinch suddenly with his eyes turning purple for a split second.

It only lasted a split second, and Roah York moved on with his day, but when he arrived at his home, his mood changed suddenly.

He then went to his office, pulled out a silver-handled revolver from the drawer, placed its cold metal against his temple, and pulled the trigger.

The lazy-eyed detective shook out of the memory land and sighed heavily.

"It was indeed not a suicide. It was a well-planned murder. It didn't look like mind control, but an ability that influenced him negatively so heavily that he was willing to kill himself."

He then activated his Martial Ability—Mind Strings.

It allowed him to see strings around the people—the red strings showed the person's love interest, blue showed friendship, and yellow showed family.

Black strings showed enemies, and white strings showed neutral relationships.

Then, lastly, there was a dark purple string, which was the rarest kind. It was a mind trace, and it only appeared if the person was influenced by Mindbreaker.

He hadn't noticed that string before because he wasn't part of Roah York's investigation, and since it seemed like a clear case of suicide, he wasn't needed.

There were also a hundred other investigations, and he was needed elsewhere.

"You fool…"

He said with a smirk.

"You didn't cloak yourself from other Mindbreakers? How careless."

There was a small chance that his Mind String ability would even work, as experienced Mindbreakers knew how to get rid of mind traces.

Thus, he thought that the murderer would've cut off the string, which would lead straight to him, but he didn't.

'A mistake that will cost him his freedom.'