The victims had watched a certain recording before falling into a coma, so Fire Moth had long since investigated the recording itself. But no matter how they searched, they couldn't find the so-called recording that was supposedly being widely circulated.
Logically, with Fire Moth's capabilities and Prometheus No. 2's computing power, things circulating on the internet should have had their origins traced long ago. Yet, not even a trace could be found, which forced them to take the matter seriously.
Since the medium was "a recording on a screen at 1:15 AM," victims usually met their fate at home or in late-night internet cafes, bars, and discotheques. The branch had already collected the last known locations of all victims; Lin and the others could go directly to investigate.
The process was simple. Lin and the others only needed to show their IDs to enter various places without being troubled. After all, Fire Moth's current form was equivalent to a union of nations; not only did its shadow loom over every industry, but it also held almost complete political control. This was to facilitate intervention in various incidents caused by the Honkai.
"This is the one." An internet cafe waiter led Lin to a computer that had been banned from use.
It looked no different from any other computer. After checking for any external hardware, Lin ordered the blankly standing Prometheus, "Prometheus, interface with this computer."
"Yes."
Prometheus stepped forward, placing her finger on the computer's data port. A green stream of data flowed through her eyes. Lin and Elysia waited quietly as she detected the internal data of the entire host machine.
The internet cafe waiter swallowed hard as he looked at this weird trio. The girl now in front of the computer gave him the feeling of a cold corpse; he hadn't seen her blink once the whole way here. This man's voice didn't have the slightest fluctuation either, and he was wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses, and a mask—a three-piece set that hid his face completely, looking just like a stalker from a movie.
Of course, the weirdest was that pink-haired girl who looked unrealistically beautiful...
"Hmm? What's wrong? Staring at me the whole time?" In the blink of an eye, the pink-haired girl he was criticizing in his mind turned her head and looked at him with a smile, making his heart race and tremble at the same time.
Those cute yet unusual pointed ears made the waiter shiver.
Would a normal person... have such sharp ears?
Whoosh.
Just as the waiter was thinking of an excuse, the mysterious man directly raised his hand and pulled the pink-haired girl's hood over her head, covering her ears.
"Go back to your work. We'll leave once the investigation is finished," Lin said indifferently to the trembling waiter.
"Oh, oh... okay. If you need anything, you can come find me."
The waiter fled as if running for his life, thinking to himself please don't come find me.
"It's better to cover your ears when you're outside."
"I think it's fine~ Why cover up such pretty ears?"
"What is pretty in your eyes may not be so to others."
"Is that why Lin always hides his face?"
Lin hid his face largely to avoid unnecessary trouble. Even Fire Moth personnel might not necessarily accept his face; to Lin himself, it was also a kind of symbol.
Elysia didn't have such a burden, even though the meaning of her ears was similar to the meaning of Lin appearance.
During their idle chat, Prometheus had already flipped through the host machine inside and out dozens of times. She exited the scan and reported mechanically, "Queried 13,047 modification records. No data files matching the criteria were found."
"What about network records?"
"The same result."
It was as expected. If traces were that easy to find, there would be no need for them to come here.
"What if it's not in the computer itself, but a certain environment or a certain condition being met?" Elysia offered a constructive suggestion, shifting their target from the computer to an investigation of the internet cafe's interior.
Prometheus went to the security room to look through records, while Lin and Elysia split up—one to question the internet cafe staff, and the other to observe the environment.
"At that time? Uh... I remember that kid came with someone else. When he passed out, it gave me a fright; I thought someone else had died from pulling all-nighters for days again."
"There weren't many people in the cafe at that time, and they happened to be sitting in a prominent spot. As for the two of them, they seemed normal..."
"Oh, right! He also ordered a bottle of Nutrition X-line and hasn't paid for it yet!"
The internet cafe staff weren't very clear about the situation at the time, being vague. After all, who would pay attention to an ordinary student coming to use the internet?
Elysia didn't find any problems in the internet cafe either; it was just a common cafe located near a school.
Prometheus, meanwhile, found the footage of the student falling into a coma.
"Enlarge the image on the screen." Lin pointed to the comatose student's computer screen. At 1:15:02 AM, there was a prominent pop-up window.
But even when Prometheus enlarged the image to the extreme and repaired the pixels, she could only see blurred black dots, limited by the surveillance hardware.
"So it really does exist... the 1:15 AM video." Elysia gazed thoughtfully at the student slumped over the keyboard.
"Some kind of hypnosis?" Lin proposed a hypothesis but quickly dismissed it. "Hypnosis couldn't be completed in such a short time, and the effect far exceeds hypnosis."
The investigation hit a bottleneck, but that was normal. Most cases with no initial clues progress slowly in the beginning.
Since they couldn't find clues through a simple investigation, they would simulate the situation at the time.
Using the same environment and conditions to simulate the environment when the recording appeared, to see if it could be triggered.
After the coma incident, no one dared to use that computer. Lin and Elysia borrowed the computer without any obstacles, and the three of them waited until one o'clock in the morning.
Since it was a holiday today, the number of students coming to the internet cafe for all-nighters had clearly increased. Even at one o'clock, the cafe was still packed, and people were still coming in.
"Heave-ho." Elysia squeezed her butt into the chair, waving her hand with a grin. "Move over a bit, I want to sit too."
"...You can go open another station."
"I'm not playing, why take up a spot someone else could use?"
Lin couldn't find a reason to argue. He could only shrink to the side, sitting crowded in the chair with Elysia soft body.
Prometheus stood expressionless behind them, not even blinking, giving off the vibe of a mob hitman.
Speaking of which... he didn't know if it was a psychological suggestion at work, but Lin body seemed to have some sensation—a very faint sense of touch, allowing him to feel the full, delicate body pressed against his side.
He didn't speak. Time ticked away, second by second, toward that legendary 1:15 AM...