Code Collector

Chapter 59: Alleys are Dangerous Places

Allen was planning on investigating the Phantom Cunt's case privately. He was sure that he didn't do it, so whoever was responsible must have a close connection to the police.

In his room, in the middle of the night, he had listed all the possible figures that would want to take over his persona. He divided them into income brackets, genders, and purpose.

For the most part, he was successfully into categorizing the first two easily. The third one was rather challenging. He didn't know any one of these people, so he couldn't possibly know their purpose into riding the incident.

From this point on, he was lost. His investigation could only go so far considering he had basically nothing in his hands. He didn't have any private vault of profiles for these people. What he holds is a couple of words passed on from one gossip to the other.

From his investigations, he had found three major suspects for the Phantom Cunt case. Two of which were males and the other was a female.

His first prospective suspect was a man named Joseph Kennedy. Allen frequented his visits in the market, and Joseph's name would often come into the conversations.

He was a man who was part of the meat business. He was previously a Meat Hunter, but decided to shift paths and became a businessman. So far, he produces one of the highest grade of meat in the camp and the surrounding camps.

From the gossips, his motive would be his slolwy dwindling business. Meat was essential in the camps, but so many have started and they were reaching out to him. Just from the last five years, three major slaughter houses had boomed and attracted many investors to their side.

This would mean that the ones who previously supported Joseph were slowly pulling out from his business. Adding the fact that he was facing criminal charges for inside trading, his business was in deep jeopardy.

The words were saying that Jospeph wanted to sell his business, but due to the fact that there were a lot more business that were cheaper than his, many buyers wouldn't buy them. When he figured out that he really can't sell, he had decided to find a poison and infect every fresh produce.

Allen was thinking that this wasn't a great move from Joseph, but then he heard that this was because Jospeph can then claim on insurance. He had put on his safety net before he jumped off the cliff, saving himself in the process.

His products were insured, and if he can tell the insurance company what happened to the camp, they will pay him a hefty amount of money. Allen checked all three criterias for this man.

His second prospect was a man named Geralt Grant. Geralt is a man living in the Wealth Valley and is known for the most famous chain of restaurants. His motive for doing the incidents weren't as different as Joseph's, but he had a much more dangerous place.

His chain of restaurants had been closing, investors had been pulling out, and his life was falling into the deepest bottoms of life just because of an issue. He was caught being a cheating partner by a man.

This issue was released by the man's wife who told the news outlets in Haven, and in Earth, that her wife was cheating on her. This angered Geralt and he wanted to run away with the man.

When he knew that his business wasn't as valuable as what he initially thought, he decided to do something horrendous by poisoning the supplies for his restaurant for insurance money. Geralt and Joseph were in similar boats, and Allen was just choosing which is which, who had a deeper motive.

Going into the third prospected suspect, it's the wife of the man Geralt had been cheating on with, Sofia Edinburgh. A royalty from Earth, albeit not a Hunter, but she has connections.

Her motive was to one by one make Geralt's business rot by poisoning the supplies. This way, his restaurants couldn't serve their food and his life would become miserable.

Among the three, Allen was too skeptical about Sophia. She was the least likely to commit the crime since she had to know that Geralt insured his restaurant. It didn't make sense for a powerful woman to miss this fact.

Nonetheless, her name was one of the most mentioned names in the market. Allen was too happy that he was a daily patron at the market. He just didn't get to discover new things, but he could also collect all the gossip circulating.

It was night when he just left Jack's store. Jack was the most frequent gossip supplier of Allen. He had gone closer to the man as the days of his investigation went by.

From their conversations, he had learned that Jack was a widower and he had no children. He became a Hunter at the old age of sixty and was one of the first generations of Hunters.

From his third year of hunting, he decided to stop and sell instead. The market was filled with opportunities, and Jack was a visionary. At first he wanted to build a large store but, his exact same words, "The world was unfair and it didn't look like what I had expected."

He ended up selling counterfeits and fake equipment in the market alongside antique items. The man was old and he had accepted his fate. He was already a close to seventy-five, the final year of becoming a Hunter.

If he reaches this age, he was forced to retire and he will live in Earth. The man was both excited and scared by this but he said that it's more scary than thinking decades ahead of you. At least he was in his final years and could only care so much.

Grumble. Grumble.

Allen touched his stomach after hearing it growl in hunger. He stretched his body and stood from his chair, walking outside to get something to eat when he heard people whispering in an alley. One sounded scared and the other was rather angry.

"Alleys in camps are more dangerous than in Earth," Allen whispered to himself. He was close to the alley, and the voices got clearer and clearer.

"Give me your money!" a younger man yelled in anger.

"Sir, please," a familiar old voice spoke.

Allen ran to the corner and took a peek. There, he saw old man Jack being lifted into the air by a younger man through his collar.

"Sir, I have no money. Please let me go," Jack pleaded.