Chapter 859 Why Is Brenda Ignoring Solo!
“Jack?”
Nora, who was behind the few of them, uttered in surprise.
It was no wonder that she was surprised. After all, Jack’s bright and sunny image was simply too out of line with Barbarian. Moreover, Nora had fought with Barbarian before back in New York, so she knew that he could not possibly be Barbarian…
While she was thinking, Aaron rushed over. Together with Brenda, they cautiously grabbed Jack’s arms, held them behind him, and arrested him!
Jack, who looked rather flustered, exclaimed, “What’s the matter? What happened? Sh*t! You can’t just arrest me without a reason!”
Both Brenda and Aaron also felt that things were going too smoothly and the two looked at each other. While Aaron held Jack down, Brenda cautiously circled the room. However, she did not see Peter at all!
At the sight, Nora took the initiative to question Jack. She asked, “Why are you here,
Jack?”
Jack, who was bent over due to being bound, answered, “Professor Peter wanted me to clean his room. What’s the matter with you
guys?”
In university, many postgraduate students working under the professors also doubled as their assistants in their personal life. In fact, a fair number of professors even got their postgraduate students to pick up their children from school for them. Therefore, situations like what Jack was claiming did exist.
However, he had a very flustered look in his eyes, so it was obvious at a glance that he was lying
Aaron immediately held him down even more forcefully, which made Jack feel as if his arm was going to break. He shouted, “You can’t treat me like this! I’m a student of Staav University! What gives you the right to treat me like this?”
Aaron’s expression darkened even further when he said that.
Nora said, “If you don’t tell the truth, I’m afraid we won’t be able to help you, Jack.”
Jack pressed his lips together when he heard her.
Nora nodded to Aaron.
Aaron slowly let go of Jack, but nevertheless continued to point his handgun at him warily.
If Jack was Barbarian, even if all three and a half humans present teamed up-Solo could only be regarded as half a person here—they still wouldn’t be his match.
Therefore, Aaron and Brenda did not dare to let down their guard one bit.
Jack stood up straight and shook his arm, which had become numb from being held down. Only then did the young man, who was close to tears, say, “I was doing Professor Peter’s work for him… He said that he should have been taking care of this by himself, so he didn’t want me to tell anyone about it.”
As soon as he said that, the rest understood.
Why, Jack had been the one handling all the work—including verifying the professors’ attendance-in the group chat since the morning, not Peter!
Aaron broke into a huge frown and asked, “Where’s Peter?”
Jack shrugged. “I don’t know. Why would the director ever tell me where he’s going?”
Aaron looked at Brenda.
Brenda suddenly took a step forward and attacked Jack, which scared him so badly that he immediately retreated. Even so, he did not manage to dodge her attack. There was no sign of an act in his actions.
Brenda said, “He’s not Barbarian.”
Only then did the fierce and menacing look on Aaron’s face ease. The way he looked just now was as if Barbarian had killed his father.
Nevertheless, he was furious. “When did you start handling these affairs for him? And when was the last time you saw him?”
Although Jack was displeased at being punched for some inexplicable reason, he nevertheless answered Aaron’s questions honestly. He replied, “At ten o’clock last night. When I left this place, I told him that I would come over at six this morning to continue helping him with his work.”
Aaron asked, “Didn’t you see him when you came here this morning?”
“No.” Jack replied, “He was already gone when I came. He usually gets up at 5:30 for morning runs and then he takes his breakfast after it. I was also wondering why he isn’t back yet and was just about to call him.”
Aaron noticed something suspicious. “How did you get in if Peter wasn’t here?”
Jack was confused. “I have the password to Professor Peter’s room. I come here every morning to clean up when he goes for his morning run. Is something the matter?”
His explanation was flawless.
There was no problem with Jack’s answers.
Nora also frowned.
After circling around the room, Brenda finally took a deep breath and said, “Peter has been murdered.”
Both Aaron and Jack looked at her in shock.
Jack blurted out, “How can that be?!”
Brenda took out a poker card. “This is Barbarian’s calling card. He leaves a poker card like this behind whenever he appears. Here’s the question, though: Where is Peter’s body?”
She looked straight at Aaron. “Retrieve the surveillance footage.”
Aaron nodded.
The night before, they had spent the whole time keeping a watch on the staff dormitory. There was no way anyone could enter the room without them knowing. There must be something wrong in here.
Soon, Aaron retrieved the surveillance footage and started checking it on his cell phone.
Everything had gone well the night before. Except for a few students, no one had gone to Peter’s room. There was no trace of Barbarian having ever entered.
After going through it once, Brenda said, “Barbarian typically kills at night between ten and four. Let’s slow down the video and watch the footage for those six hours again.”
“Okay.”
Aaron replayed the video.
They had sped through the video at twenty times the original speed just now. This time, they slowed it down and watched it carefully.
Nora suddenly noticed something amiss. She was about to speak when Solo suddenly tugged at her sleeve. Nora immediately understood and closed her mouth.
Solo was intending to display his professional expertise.
It was just like how Nora hadn’t offered to unlock the door for them just now—because there was Solo.
Sure enough, Solo said, “Look at the part at five minutes past midnight.”
Brenda was taken aback.
Aaron’s fingers also paused slightly but he still reversed the video to the part at five minutes past midnight.
Solo pointed to the video and said, “The time flow here is not quite right. A hacker has likely covered up something here. Look here…”
A very professional Solo pointed out something odd, “The reflection of the moon outside the window was at this position at 11 pm. It should have changed its direction after midnight but this part here stayed the same the whole time and never changed.”
Aaron and Brenda were stunned for a moment and they both looked at Solo.
Solo continued. “This shows that their hacker has masked the part after midnight with the footage from 11 pm, so as to prevent you guys from noticing anything unusual.”
Aaron hurriedly asked, “Is there any way to restore the surveillance footage at twelve o’clock?”
Solo shook his head. “That’s where they were really brilliant. The surveillance footage after twelve o’clock has been fully masked, which means that the camera was turned off at midnight. Therefore, even if you discover something amiss, you won’t be able to find the original video anymore-because it was never recorded.”
If the video was never recorded, then even if they had a master hacker on their side, it would still be impossible for them to recover
it.
After all, how was one supposed to recover something that had never existed?
Solo subconsciously said, “The guy is very cautious. It feels like he knows that you have hackers on your side, so he is guarding against that.”
Hackers…
As soon as Solo said that, Brenda suddenly looked at Nora.
Nora also narrowed her eyes.
nou
Between Q and Y, only her identity had been publicly announced, so the other party did not know that Y was Justin. Besides, even Nora couldn’t say for sure whether Justin was here or not, let alone the other party?
Therefore, she was the one whom they were guarding against!
In other words, Barbarian was already aware that Nora was here.
Nora frowned.
Once again, she was acutely feeling just how tough the enemy was. Barbarian’s overwhelmingly powerful fighting abilities coupled with Spacey, whose hacking skills might be comparable to hers… Could she really beat a combination like that and get the V16?
While Nora was thinking, Brenda had already sorted out her thoughts. She looked straight at Aaron and said slowly, “The most important thing for us now is to find Peter’s body as soon as possible, so that we can prove that I am speaking the truth, or else the president is going to kick us out tomorrow! In addition, the students and professors are all intellectuals with minds of their own. They will never let us confine them here for ten days or half a month!”
Aaron nodded but said anxiously, “But where is the body? We don’t have any clues at all.”
Brenda said, “The whole campus was closed off last night, so they definitely can’t transport the body out. The body must still be within school premises!”
Aaron nodded again. “Okay, I’ll send someone to look for it right away. Even if we must turn the whole school upside down, we will find the body.”
After that, Aaron made a phone call and dispatched his men to look for the body.
But after he hung up the phone, he saw an extremely grave look on Brenda’s face.
“What’s wrong?” Aaron asked.
A grim-faced Brenda replied, “We have been investigating suspicious people the whole time since yesterday, but even until now, we still haven’t found any clues. Barbarian is a living, breathing person. We’ve also reminded the students to be careful if they spot any strangers. Although the school is big, the student population is dense, yet no one has spotted any strangers even until now. Do you know what this means?”
Aaron shook his head.
Before Brenda could speak, Nora replied on her behalf. She said, “Barbarian is either a student or a teacher in the school.”
Her one-liner was akin to a thunderous explosion in their ears.
Everyone looked at her in stunned disbelief.
Brenda nodded. She said, “Yes, Nora is right. I always thought that Barbarian was all brawn and no brains but it’s only now that I’ve realized that he is actually very clever. No wonder he instantly disappeared the moment we found even a tiny lead on him all these
years.”
Nora, however, said, “There is another possibility, though.”
Brenda looked at her. “What is it?”
In a low voice, Nora slowly answered, “Someone is helping Barbarian.”
Spacey, the genius with the high IQ.
When Solo said just now that the other party had hackers on their side, she’d immediately thought of Spacey.
If Barbarian wasn’t blindly acting in a reckless and foolhardy manner at the moment, then this meant that the highly intelligent Spacey must be giving him advice and guidance!
Spacey’s IQ genes had been improved, so he must be highly intelligent.
As for Barbarian, his physical fitness had been improved, so he was extremely strong. The two, teaming up, made for an even more terrifying enemy than Barbarian alone.
Brenda nodded solemnly.
After the two spoke, the room suddenly fell into silence.
After a while, Brenda recovered and said, “Alright, Nora, we are going to continue with the case. You guys can go now!”
Solo, however, said, “Brenny, I’m not leaving, I can stay and help you. Look at how much help I was to you just now, you…”
Before he could finish, though, Brenda cut him off. She said, “What can you even help with? Do you think you’ll be of help to us just by mouthing off some nonsense? Hurry up and leave, I don’t want to see you! You’re just a pretty boy who only knows how to freeload. Go away!”
Solo paled when he heard her.
He didn’t expect Brenda to say such things just to drive him away.
He gave her a resigned smile and said, “Brenny, I’m a hacker. I solved the technical problems for you just now. If someone hacks into the system again tonight, at least I’ll be able to find out. Why are you-“.
“Hacker? I don’t know what you’re talking about, you are just a programmer. Please don’t pester me anymore, okay? Go away!”
Brenda pointed at the door and yelled at him.
Solo was stunned again.
He wanted to say something but Nora had already turned around. She said dispassionately, “Let’s go.”
Solo was not afraid of Brenda, but he was afraid of Nora. That big boss wasn’t very even-tempered. Although he still had a lot to say to Brenda, when he glanced at Nora from the back, he chose to follow after Nora. Even after Solo stepped out, he was perplexed. “Does Brenny hate me that much? But why?”
Nora looked behind her at the people in the room. Suddenly, she said, “Leave this place.”
Solo was taken aback. “Anti, are you also not on my side anymore? Do you also think I’m a good-for-nothing? There is obviously a misunderstanding between Brenny and me, we have to resolve it and talk things out properly! We love each other, I’m not willing to just let go of her like that! Besides, you saw just now that I can really be of help to her. Although my computer skills are not as good as yours, I’m still a well-known hacker…”
Nora was about to interrupt him when Aaron suddenly came out of the room.
He stared at Solo and suddenly said, “When you said that your name was Solo, I didn’t think much about it. Are you the hacker Solo?”
“Yes, yes, that’s right!” Solo nodded. “I’m Solo the hacker! I can be of help to you, really! Go and tell Captain Brenda to let me stay!” Solo had completely forgotten that he was currently wanted by Interpol.
As soon as he said that though, Aaron laughed and said, “So, you are Solo! What a coincidence!”
“Yes, what a coincidence, right? There can’t be a bigger coincidence than this! Although I’m not as strong or muscular as you, I’m still useful, right?” Solo vaguely found the value of his existence. “So, you…”
Aaron suddenly stepped forward, grabbed Solo’s arms, and held them behind him!
Solo: “?”
Just as he was at a total loss, Aaron cast his eyes down and said coldly, “We were looking for you all over the world, but to think you present yourself right on our doorstep!”
Solo was taken aback. Then, he shouted nervously, “Hey bro, I didn’t do anything bad. This is just a misunderstanding! A misunderstanding, I say… Brenny, come out and save me!”
Despite his shouts, Brenda didn’t step out of the room. Aaron let out a low scoff and said, “I thought you and Captain Brenda were just having a petty lover’s quarrel, I didn’t expect this at all. I finally understand why she’s ignoring you now…”
Solo was not at all anxious about being arrested anymore. On the contrary, he asked, “What have you understood? Hurry and tell me! I’m at a total loss! Why is she asking to break up when nothing happened? What am I doing wrong?”