Chapter 7: Accusations and Suspicion

  Sophia Rossi's words instantly exploded among everyone.

  "A toy? In a place like this you're carrying illegal hacking tools?!" Pierre Chan accused sharply, instinctively retreating half a step as if the connector were some source of plague.

  "Put it down immediately! Put your hands where I can see them!" Samuel Jones stepped forward. Though lacking actual weapons, his posture was full of oppressive force. Kenneth Ryder and Irina Petrova also moved tactically, subtly forming an encirclement.

  Charles stared intently at Sophia's expression. The innocence and frivolity on her face hadn't completely faded, but deep in her eyes flashed a trace of barely perceptible mockery and... confidence? She didn't seem afraid of becoming everyone's target.

  "Illegal? Officer, do you have enforcement authority here?" Sophia chuckled lightly. Not only did she not put down the connector, she elegantly spun it around her finger. "Besides, how do you know this is a hacking tool? Maybe it's just an advanced beauty device?"

  Her tone was full of provocation.

  "A body was found at your compartment door, you're holding an unidentified device, and you still want to argue?" Irina said icily, her gaze seeming to want to pierce through Sophia.

  "I told you, when I came back he was already lying here." Sophia shrugged. "As for this..." She paused, her gaze suddenly drifting toward the tightly closed door of Leon Schmidt's room, saying meaningfully, "...maybe someone wanted to deliberately plant it on me, frame me? After all, who can say what happened in the darkness, right?"

  These words immediately introduced a new possibility. Leon Schmidt's self-isolation did indeed seem abnormally suspicious.

  "Enough!" Samuel roared, trying to control the situation. "Ms. Rossi, regardless of the truth, until you can reasonably explain the device in your hand and your appearance at the crime scene, you will be our key subject of observation. Please cooperate, hand over that device, and remain in the public area."

  "What if I say no?" Sophia raised her chin.

  "Then we may have to take some coercive measures." Samuel's voice lowered, Kenneth and Irina also moving closer.

  The atmosphere was tense.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  "Wait." Anya Sharma suddenly spoke. She had been crouching by David Kim's "corpse" (the "corpse" was slowly dissipating), examining the shattered datapad. "Mr. David seemed to be attempting to forcibly access the compartment door lock system before he died... look at these scorch marks, he used an extremely high-intensity cracking protocol, it failed, and likely triggered some kind of... reverse energy shock."

  She looked up at everyone, her expression grave: "His cause of death may not be entirely due to external force. This kind of reckless cracking behavior is extremely dangerous during consciousness transmission, very likely causing consciousness overload and collapse."

  This discovery temporarily eased the tense atmosphere directed at Sophia. David's own actions might have caused his death?

  "See?" Sophia immediately seized the opportunity, spreading her hands. "I told you I'm innocent. This nerd wanted to get himself killed, ended up dying at my door, scared me half to death, and I almost got wrongly accused by you all." She put on an aggrieved expression, though it looked completely fake no matter how you viewed it.

  Charles frowned. Anya's explanation made some sense, but it was too coincidental. David just happened to die at Sophia's door? And what about Jacob Lee's death—how could that be explained? Did he also have consciousness collapse on his own?

  "Even so, the device in your hand is still suspicious." Kenneth Ryder wasn't led astray, his gaze still sharp. "And you can't explain where you went just now, what you did."

  "A lady's private time, do I have to report that to you all too?" Sophia rolled her eyes, but seemed to realize pure stubbornness wouldn't work, her tone softening slightly. "Fine, I just went to the dining car wanting to find something to drink, okay? As for this..." She finally seemed reluctant to throw the connector to Samuel. "...just a data encryptor, for theft prevention. If you like it, take it and study it."

  Samuel caught the connector and handed it to Anya: "Doctor, can you analyze this?"

  Anya took it and connected it to her datapad, soon shaking her head: "The underlying code has been wiped by a self-destruct protocol, can't read specific functions. But structurally speaking, it does have very strong encryption and anti-tracking features." This could neither prove it was a hacking tool nor prove it wasn't.

  The leads seemed to have broken again.

  Leon Schmidt's room door remained tightly closed, deaf to the commotion outside.

  Suspicious gazes moved back and forth between Sophia, Leon's door, and everyone else. Trust was disappearing bit by bit.

  "We... what should we do?" Lily Tang's voice carried a sob, looking at Charles desperately.

  Charles felt a wave of helplessness. The killer was among them, yet like a ghost, leaving no trace.

  [Dear passengers, during the journey, please try to remain in your compartments or seats, be mindful of safety.] The system notification sounded again, as if the two murders that had just occurred had nothing to do with it.

  The second "night" seemed to have passed, but the shadow of fear had grown even heavier. The "day's" discussion brought no truth, only more suspicion and an unfalsifiable "accidental" death. The killer had perfectly exploited the chaos and the passengers' own fears.

  Who would be next? Behind that closed door, what was Leon Schmidt really doing? Was Sophia Rossi truly wrongly accused, or an extremely cunning actress?

  The train continued racing toward an unknown destination, or rather, toward the next platform of death.