Zhou Shen didn't continue, he simply pulled out a blood-stained dagger encased in a white plastic bag from his chest and handed it to Chen Miao, "The follow-up to this incident is beyond the Enforcement Bureau's authority to handle; too many people have died, and it's a bit hard to suppress."
"Miao, if you focus your consciousness on this dagger, it will appear as a mass-produced common item from the factory, with nothing special about it."
Chen Miao didn't say a word. The moment his consciousness focused on the dagger, a panel popped up in front of him.
「Taboo Item Name」: Undying Loyalty.
「Taboo Item Rank」: E Rank.
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「Taboo Item Effect」: Within a 10-meter radius of this dagger, when a person is in a state of emotional breakdown, pain, sadness, or other extreme negative emotions, the desire to die in their heart will be infinitely amplified.
「Taboo Item Introduction」: "On that rainy night, I died."
「Formation Condition」: 18 people commit suicide with the same dagger.
"Taboo Item?"
"Yep."
Zhou Shen nodded, let out a sigh, and said with a headache, "I know what you're thinking, but this isn't some supernatural event. These people did indeed die for love, although I don't know what's going on with their circle for 18 people to consecutively die for love."
"Let's not mention the courage it takes to face death."
"The relationships are messed up enough."
"To fool around to such an extent and still claim it's pure love, who would believe that if we told them?"
"And to think a 'Taboo Item' was formed; Taboo Items are a type of special object, not produced in secret realms or major events. They only come into being under certain special circumstances when key ordinary everyday items undergo a transformation and come to possess some miraculous effect, most of which are negative, offering no assistance to one's combat power."
"But once these Taboo Items enter the life of ordinary people, they can still cause a tremendous impact, so in most cases, cases involving Taboo Items are transferred to the Events Bureau right away, and then the Taboo Items are sealed away."
"Just died for love?" Chen Miao still found it difficult to believe. He always felt that the whole event was filled with irrationality beyond the understanding of ordinary people.
"Yep."
Zhou Shen nodded again to confirm, "There wasn't any factor influencing their desire for death. These people simply wanted to die on their own accord, and under the influence of their emotions, this Taboo Item was born."
"The Fengtian City Government has sealed away quite a few Taboo Items over the years."
But when facing some difficult enemies, it might be possible to break through their emotions and possibly drive them to suicide. As for how to break through an enemy's emotions, there's always a way, like...
Dishonorable methods.
He would not resort to such means, being a person of Morality. He couldn't do such things, but people like Yuan Buping could. Their hands getting dirty had nothing to do with him; so far, he had not done anything illegal.
The second reason was that his main base was still in this graveyard, and he didn't really want his lair to be exposed like this.
However, it was not a solution to keep things this way forever. It was time to consider changing his lair.
...
The noisy crowd at the entrance of the graveyard dispersed, and the bodies of the 18 deceased were buried together in a grave in the graveyard, without spending any money.
"This is quite a bargain," grumbled Hungry Monkey, who had been directing Yuan Buping and others to dig the hole, "So many people didn't spend a dime and got a grave. It cost me a whole 80,000 credit points to buy this tomb chamber."
Chen Miao also felt slightly embarrassed as he received 1,800 Star Coins from the old security guard at the entrance booth. It was from a deal he made with the old man a few days ago, 100 Star Coins for burying one person.
18 people, exactly 1,800 Star Coins.
Truth be told, he felt rather uncomfortable taking this money, but since it was offered, he would not refuse it. He had just been so shocked that he had almost forgotten a very important matter and immediately sent a message to Zhou Shen.
'Director Zhou, I remember this family didn't have many members, and they were fairly well-off. Now that they've all committed suicide, how will the family's assets be handled? Is anyone taking care of it?'
Asset appropriation.
A common practice since ancient times.
The reply from the other side was quick.
'Miao... it's difficult to intervene in this matter. Fengtian City has people who specialize in appropriating assets from extinct families. These people have very big backgrounds, and their cake is hard to touch.'
'Damn, that's utterly immoral. There are still people who specialize in asset appropriation these days? How despicable. How big can their background be?'
'Real power brokers in the government, and not just one of them.'
'Such big shots are involved in asset appropriation?'
'Not just asset appropriation... these days, there's no family assets they can't get their hands on if they have the power.'
'Nobody cares?'
'Who would care?'