Ke-style law enforcement officers

Chapter 80 Story
After returning to the law enforcement office from Mrs. Apoo's, Milo's stomach finally started rumbling, which was a rare occurrence.

Nero must have seen Karl's inhuman corpse and its dissected state firsthand, but Milo essentially experienced Karl's ordeal firsthand.

The feeling of watching fungi grow on someone else's body is completely incomparable to watching fungi grow on your own body. Coupled with the oppressive and fearful feeling of being there, Milo truly felt the despair and struggle of a dying person.

The reason why Milo has been unable to figure out the cause of Karl's death is that Karl's consciousness and memories were disordered, and the images and information that Milo read from the perspective of the dead were incomplete.

Unlike Robben, although Robben was insane, his madness stemmed from his stubborn self-imposed confinement to a worldview he believed in, under which all his actions were supported by clear thinking.

But Karl was different. His memories and thoughts were all chaotic and fragmented. He himself couldn't remember where he had encountered anything or when his body had started to undergo strange changes.

In some fragmented memories, he even forgot who he was...

This is a different, more profound kind of fear, distinct from what I saw and heard in that underground cave.

This is also a key reason why Milo needed Nero to provide valuable information.

……

According to Nero, the eerie rumors surrounding the town of Ickham date back to the last century, but those were merely horrifying stories. It wasn't until after the Great Plague ended and the Solomon Gang took over the copper mines of Ickham that those terrifying tales began to be unearthed from the depths of the earth.

What is Solomontu?
Unlike the church, the Solomon were more of a profit-driven organization. Their initial purpose in entering the town of Ickham was probably just the copper mine, but they discovered something more valuable than copper during the excavation.

That's the only explanation.

……

Milo didn't think it was an easy trip at all.

Just look at how Karl died to understand.

He's a genuine number one in law enforcement assessments, not someone like Milo who came to the profession halfway through.

Milo could sense that in Carl's final moments, his mind was consumed by endless fear, which completely robbed him of all rational thinking. This indicated that in the town of Ickham, Carl had encountered something that overturned his worldview.

Even Karl, whom Nero praised as incredibly talented, had fallen into such a miserable state, so Milo naturally dared not let his guard down.

Moreover, he now has to walk on thin ice in everything he does, because he never knows when the aftereffects might flare up, and if he were to have another attack at some critical moment, there would be no one in that remote mountain town of Iqal to help him.

Regarding this potential threat, Milo currently has only one solution: to stockpile ammunition.

He can no longer overuse his physical strength unless absolutely necessary, which means he will have to replace hand-to-hand combat with firearms.

If something can be solved with bullets, then avoid using knives.

……

In the office of the chief law enforcement officer of Chengnan Law Enforcement Station.

Rebecca sat on the inside, flipping through the autopsy report and the box of things Nero had given to Milo.

She glanced at Milo sitting opposite her and the six or seven revolver cylinders in front of him.

Because it is a weapon with separate ammunition loading, loading ammunition is a very tedious task. Gunpowder, gaskets, lead bullets and other items must be loaded in an orderly manner. Compared to the moment of pulling the trigger and firing the gun, the time spent loading ammunition seems incredibly long.

However, revolvers have a significant advantage over flintlock muskets because a single reload allows for six shots. Furthermore, due to their open-frame design, an empty cylinder can be removed and replaced with a new one in just a few seconds with proper handling. All that's needed is to pre-load the spare cylinders. This is remarkably close to the firearms model that Milo remembers.

In this operation in Ickham, Milo doesn't plan to use a knife. He doesn't want to inexplicably pass out again, only to wake up to find a bunch of mushrooms growing on his body...

Therefore, having enough ammunition is absolutely the right thing to do.

……

"As for it?"

Rebecca watched Milo carefully loading ammunition.

“Fear stems from insufficient firepower,” Milo uttered a profound statement.

Rebecca shook her head: "I already said it's just a preliminary investigation."

Milo glanced at Rebecca.

He knew that Rebecca and Theon were similar; their understanding and selection of weapon systems tended to be more traditional. This might be related to their training. After all, in this world, revolvers were a relatively new type of weapon. Without sufficient usage data as a basis, law enforcement officers would naturally prefer to use traditional weapons that had been tested and refined over a long period of time, which was understandable.

To some extent, law enforcement officers have more faith in the knife in their hands.

Rebecca is a prime example. ...

Milo placed the loaded revolver cylinders one by one on the table, then took the heavy revolver from his waist and began to remove and reinstall the cylinders repeatedly until he was completely familiar with the process.

Rebecca watched Milo's increasingly skillful movements, listening to the increasingly continuous clicking sounds, and a strange expression appeared on her face:
"Were you really just a city guard before?"

“Before the time when I was a city guard, I worked in the alchemy workshop.” Milo knew what Rebecca was suspicious of.

After all, the guards of the city only had a short metal rod as their tool. How could any guard be so familiar with a cutting-edge weapon like a revolver?

But the alchemy workshop's reasons are clearly untenable.

However, seeing that Milo didn't want to talk about it, Rebecca didn't bother to press him further and simply said, "Then from now on, the law enforcement team can just go to the alchemy workshop to recruit new people."

"Let's talk about the upcoming itinerary," Milo changed the subject.

Rebecca pushed the information about the town of Icam toward Milo:
“Since the last century, there have been continuous cases of missing persons in the town of Ikham, but because of its remote location and very little opportunity for communication with the outside world, many of these cases have been left unresolved.”

"I know that. The most famous story is about the disappearance of a young noble hunter. I forget his exact surname, but I think it was Russell? Anyway, it happened in the last century. The name is no longer on the kingdom's noble list. There's a rumor that a young son of the Russell family disappeared while hunting in the Icam region. The Russell family later sent people to plow every inch of the mountains near Icam, but they still couldn't find their young son. Not long after, the people and livestock on the Russell family estate all died mysteriously, and the noble family disappeared from then on."

This story is actually gleaned from Karl's perspective as a ghost.

But Carl himself learned about this story from some casual reading material.

Later, Milo even took the time to look it up and found that such a book did exist. The author vividly described some traditional folk tales from some very tricky angles and with a rich imagination, presenting many strange worldviews and a chilling, gloomy world.

The Russell family secrets are one of the stories in his collection of tales.

However, readers are unaware that Icam is a real town, and most people believe that the town, like other place names in the book, is fictional.

"It's a very old story."

Rebecca wasn't interested in the Russell family history, and connecting a real-life case with a ghost story was simply absurd.

Her attitude is somewhat similar to Milo's.

From Rebecca's perspective, the truth behind the town of Eckham should be the human experiments orchestrated by the Solomon gang. This is the most rational, intuitive, and realistic view.

Milo caught Rebecca's inner thoughts from her tone.

In fact, if Milo hadn't been spying on Karl's undead perspective, he would most likely have shared the same attitude and views as Rebecca.

But now he can no longer be so certain of that.

Because everything he saw from Karl's perspective was too real to be explained by common sense.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have brought up the contents of that ghost story novel for discussion.

Ikham has a long history of missing persons cases, and this has continued for many years. Perhaps the ghost story was just a pretext, but the record of people disappearing without a trace cannot be a completely fabricated story.

……

"I'm feeling a little hungry."

Milo suddenly changed the subject.

He attached the loaded revolver magazines one by one to the pouch on his waist, put away the revolver, and began rummaging through the closet in Rebecca's office.

Milo found some canned goods and dry bread slices.

"Would you like some?" He turned to Rebecca.

The latter shook his head firmly.

It's clear that Carl's death left a deep scar on Rebecca; this loss of appetite will likely persist for a while.

Anyway, Milo was really hungry, so he didn't care about anything else and just opened the can and showed it off on his desk.

Rebecca stared blankly at the mangled body in the autopsy report photo.

Milo noticed the subtle sadness on Rebecca's face, but he wisely remained silent and did nothing, focusing on filling his stomach first.

(End of this chapter)