American homeless people, surviving in the city

Once Lynch's mind was no longer preoccupied with the tedious cleaning work, his thoughts immediately began to wander.

If he didn't consider that the room he was in was a haunted house and the floor he was standing on was covered in blood and mud, he would be in the Lakeside area, the most upscale and luxurious community in all of Seattle!

If you've finally made it to a place like this, it would be a huge waste not to try your luck as a "newbie gold digger"!

If we could find an unclaimed platinum ring like we did in Mark's apartment last time, that would be a huge windfall!

However, if Lynch wants to use the "Beginner Gold Miner" tool to find valuable items here, he will face two more problems compared to when he was in Mark's apartment.

The first problem is that this mansion is much larger than Mark's apartment. A novice gold digger can only scan objects within a 15m radius. In any case, this ability is simply not enough to scan and cover every corner of this mansion.

If Lynch wanted to scan for the most valuable items possible, he needed to find a suitable location.

The second problem is that the last time the "unclaimed item" was detected in Mark's apartment was actually an accident. If the deceased's girlfriend hadn't run away at lightning speed, the ring would not have become unclaimed, nor would it have been detected by the skill.

Therefore, Lynch needs some luck in any case.

After figuring out the second question, Lin Qi simply didn't bother choosing a suitable scanning location and decided to try scanning the living room as the center.

Even though the surroundings were completely covered in dried blood and a mess, Lin Qi could still tell that there were quite a few valuable things in this living room alone.

Several abstract paintings hang on the wall, which look quite valuable; the cabinet is full of fine wines, and although I can't recognize the labels on the bottles, the shape of the bottles and the gold leaf decorations alone are enough to tell that they exude an air of luxury.

A vase as white as mutton fat jade sits against the wall; it's unclear if it's an antique, but its texture appears extremely fine. In the corner cabinet, there are several sets of glittering gold tableware, which, in this year of soaring gold prices, could probably fetch a good price.

Therefore, in this treasure-filled living room, the scanning function of a novice gold digger is activated. Logically speaking, if something can be scanned, that thing must be a treasure.

Besides, he didn't actually know where in this mansion there might be any valuable unclaimed items. Whatever he got was free; the only difference was how much he earned.

Why not just leave everything to luck?

Therefore, Lin Qi took two steps in the living room, chose a clean spot as close as possible to the center of the villa, where there was no blood on the ground, and then activated his ability without hesitation.

[Get Started with Gold Mining], let's get started!

A pale purple light immediately spread out from Lin Qi, sweeping across every corner around him like ripples.

Lin Qi waited quietly, and a few seconds later, a pop-up window displaying item information appeared in his field of vision:

[High-value unclaimed item discovered: Bhutanese silver bowl. Market price: Similar items recently sold for approximately $200-$300 on eBay.]

[Detailed Information: This is a handcrafted silver bowl from the Kingdom of Bhutan, approximately 100 years old. The bowl is decorated with simple carvings and is believed to be a religious object. Ignoring its religious symbolism, this type of object is relatively common, and the materials used are not particularly valuable, hence its relatively low market price.]

Lin Qi was actually quite pleased to be able to scan unclaimed items. However, after carefully reading the item information in the pop-up window, he couldn't help but frown.

...Why is the price of this thing a little lower than I expected?

The item found in Seattle's most luxurious upscale neighborhood is only worth a little over $200?

It wasn't that Lynch thought a silver bowl worth over $200 was worthless, but he didn't understand why the system only scanned it.

You can't exactly tell me that everything in this mansion—the decorations, antiques, fine wines, and gold and silver utensils—is fake, can you?

That doesn't make sense!

Lin Qi had a vague feeling that something was wrong, but he couldn't figure it out. The system's item information pointed to a low cabinet in the corner of the living room, so he simply walked over there, ready to take a closer look at what this so-called "Bhutanese silver bowl" was all about.

Walking over and opening the cabinet door, the first thing Lin Qi smelled was a strange odor, a mixture of the unique scent of incense from a temple and the smell of burnt oil.

He frowned, bent down, and rummaged through the low cabinet for a while before quickly finding the so-called Bhutanese silver bowl.

The bowl sat alone inside, its color dull, looking out of place among the bright and shiny antique porcelain pieces around it.

Lin Qi took the bowl out of the bowl, held it in his hand, and examined it carefully.

The silver bowl is small, about the size of a palm in diameter. It is silvery-gray all over and has rusted a bit. The surface is covered with fine scratches, stains and spots. Clearly, it has never been well preserved.

The rim of the bowl was carved with strange patterns. Lin Qi could recognize some of them, which looked like lotus flowers; but some were just strange lines, blurry and hard to understand. If he had to make an association, they looked a bit like... bones.

The bone-like patterns wrapped around the blooming lotus flowers indeed present a strong religious color, just as the system describes, and look ancient and mysterious.

Besides the condition of the bowl itself, Lynch also noticed that the silver bowl seemed to contain something, a deep yellow, viscous substance, which appeared to be some kind of oil. Some black ash floated in the oil, like residue left after something had been burned.

The liquid emitted a foul odor mixed with the smell of incense, which was clearly the source of the smell in the low cabinet.

...Ugh, what is this thing? It's disgusting.

For a moment, Lin Qi almost didn't want to take the thing away, so he put the Bhutanese silver bowl on the low cabinet.

However, after the initial, visceral nausea subsided, a vague sense of unease grew stronger in Lin Qi's mind.

No, this doesn't look like something from the villa owner's collection at all. It hasn't received any meticulous care, and its condition is completely different from the other antiques around it.

Furthermore, considering the appearance of this silver bowl and its contents, the fact that it could be detected in this mansion by scanning it is simply very strange...

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck Lin Qi.

...[Beginner Gold Rush] scans "unclaimed items", not everything.

Although the deceased, Marcus Winchester, is dead, according to a note left by Officer Kayla, he apparently had family members, meaning his estate still has heirs. These paintings, wine bottles, vases, and antiques all have owners.

But this silver bowl... it is "ownerless".

What does this mean?

Combining the religious nature of the silver bowl, its bizarre appearance, its strange contents... and the grotesque and tragic case that occurred in this mansion, a bold idea gradually took shape in Lynch's mind.

If this silver bowl did not belong to the deceased, that is, the head of the household,

Therefore, it is very likely that the criminal deliberately left it here!

Items that are actively abandoned, regardless of the original owner's purpose in abandoning them, will become truly "ownerless" like trash in a garbage can!