Chapter 255: It all made sense

Chapter 255: It all made sense

Chapter 255: It all made sense

Before Ryan saw the skill activate, he was feeling a bit nervous. After all, every skill had its own activation conditions.

He thought back to the time he used the skill Blind Massage Techniques. The condition for that one was being blind, so Ryan had to cheat a little by covering his eyes to make it work.

This time, the skill was called Bloodhound Instinct, and honestly, it wasn’t exactly a skill Ryan was thrilled about. Pretending to be a dog in front of Mia? He’d rather not have the skill at all.

Luckily, the system didn’t embarrass him this time, and the skill activated smoothly.

Ryan opened the skill and began observing the world through its lens. No wonder it was an A-rank skill—the things he could do with it were mind-blowing.

The world was full of traces. Footprints left by people walking on the ground were traces, and even the water stains left by rain on tree bark were traces. Humans could only perceive a small part of these, and even then, it was pretty superficial.

That’s why police forces train dogs to assist in investigations—those furry friends can pick up on traces far more intricately than humans can, especially when it comes to scent.

Right now, Ryan’s view of the world was incredibly sharp. Different smells traced arcs through the air, representing the movement of various things. The ordinary smells were faint and ethereal, while the dirty, heavy ones were darker and more polluted. But what really mattered were the bright red traces—those were the scent of blood.

The worker’s injury and the crane operator’s fall were clearly connected to blood. Ryan squinted as he looked toward the distant crane. The red there was so thick it made his heart race.

“What’s up? Did you find something?”

Mia, noticing Ryan’s expression, wrinkled her cute little nose. He’d been acting off ever since they got in the car. Was there something she didn’t know about?

Even though Mia was putting on a tough front, trying to pressure Ryan into talking, she was well aware of her own worries deep down.

She blinked her big eyes and glanced nervously at the reporters gathered near the main entrance. Then, she leaned in closer to Ryan and adjusted his mask.

Going back to the construction site right now wasn’t exactly the smartest move. Not only was there a good chance they wouldn’t find any evidence, but they also risked exposing themselves. She couldn’t figure out what was going through Ryan’s head.

“Yeah, I found something.”

Ryan let Mia adjust his mask as his eyes followed the faint, almost invisible trail of blood in the air. He’d made up his mind.

The crane operator had died the night before last, falling from a great height. The bloodstains were thick and terrifying.

At first, they said the guy had only been hit by a falling brick, which seemed like a minor injury in comparison.

“Excuse me, are you Mr. Ryan?”

Ryan and Mia had been standing there for a while when someone finally showed up to greet them.

The person who approached was a young man, probably only a few years older than Ryan. He wore a white hard hat, marking him as part of the construction site’s management.

Ryan had never worked on a construction site, but he knew enough to recognize the significance of the hard hat colors. Yellow was for regular workers, white for management, and blue or red for technical staff and other roles.

But Alice had taken on the entire project, from construction to eventual operations, biting off more than she could chew. Now, the lack of expertise among her team was starting to show.

Ryan could understand Alice’s urgency. She needed something to prove herself, and she was desperate to break free from the existing system.

Obsession can be both a blessing and a curse, and now everyone was seeing the downside of Alice’s ambition.

“So, what did you do before this?” Ryan asked, curious about the man’s background. Alice’s workforce was mostly made up of people from the underworld, given her connections.

“Uh, just some manual labor...” the man replied awkwardly, rubbing his nose as if embarrassed.

Alice was trying to restructure her operations, and this guy was one of the more successful examples of that transition. “Manual labor” was a vague way of putting it, but it wasn’t entirely wrong.

Whether it was mixing concrete on a construction site or roughing people up on the streets, it was all just different kinds of “manual labor,” right?

As they chatted about the construction site, Ryan gained a deeper understanding of the situation, and his concern for Miss Alice grew.

On the surface, Alice seemed to have everything under control, but Ryan suspected only she knew how much she had gambled on this project.

Seizing an opportunity and doubling down was what any smart businessperson would do, but this had gone beyond that.

Alice had fought tooth and nail for this chance, and she had staked everything on it. If things didn’t turn around soon, she could end up in a situation she couldn’t recover from.

“Mr. Ryan, we’re here,” the man said, interrupting Ryan’s thoughts. The three of them had arrived at the base of a tall building.

The structure was already over 90 feet high, with the basic framework in place. If it weren’t for the recent incident, construction would have been completed in about three months.

Ryan pushed aside his worries for Alice and looked up. The bloodstains were much clearer here—this was definitely the site of the accident.

A brick had fallen from above, injuring the worker. It all made sense.

But Ryan narrowed his eyes. He had noticed something interesting.

————-

PS:

Ryan’s detective mode is officially activated! Between shady construction projects, bloodhound skills, and Mia’s... well, Mia-ness, I’m amazed he hasn’t lost his mind yet. But hey, that’s why we love him, right?

Alice’s ambitions are no joke, and it looks like Ryan’s starting to see just how high the stakes are. Will he crack the case? Or will Mia’s “support” end up distracting him more than helping? Only time will tell!

Oh, and can we talk about Mia for a second? She’s clearly scheming her own little plot, and you just know she’s going to make things even more interesting (and probably more complicated). Her laid-back attitude is almost too perfect—like, how can anyone eat ice cream while all this chaos is going on? But that’s Mia for you, acting like she’s just along for the ride when we all know she’s up to something.

This whole dynamic between Ryan, Mia, and Alice is really about to shift, and let’s face it—Ryan needs all the skills (and luck) he can get to stay afloat. Will his Bloodhound Instincts save the day, or is there more to this mystery than meets the eye?