Chapter 128: Today: Everly the Peace-Lover

Chapter 128 Today: Peace-Loving Everly

"I've actually heard that there are many crimes on the dark web, but that site's evil still shocked me. It used Tor, with servers overseas, hiding users' identities through multiple layers of encryption and global relay nodes—the most common type found on the dark web, and also the easiest to crack. I was so angry I just destroyed it on the spot..."

Orff had pulled it off.

Although the poor girl most likely couldn't be rescued, much to Orff's frustration, at least he could cause trouble for the site's operators and users.

After the dark web site he'd targeted crashed, the people running the snuff livestream site would need a lot of time to rebuild it and regather users. This could slow down their progress in harming others, which, in a way, was doing some good.

"I saved a recording of the livestream and also intercepted some user information. But the dark web itself wraps users' real identities and IP addresses in layers of encryption—it's impossible to trace their communication paths from a single node. Even I couldn't do it; it would take law enforcement and cybersecurity experts working together. So I packaged the evidence and took it to the city police station."

"And the police brushed you off, right?"

"Oh, Everly, you're a genius—you guessed it. Yes, just like you said. After examining it, the police said the video was just special effects and makeup—a prank. I gave them the dark web URL, but the site had already crashed after my attack, and since the servers were overseas, the police clearly didn't want to deal with it and just kicked me out."

"So you can't trace the operators behind that dark web site?"

Orff nodded sheepishly.

"Do you still have the evidence?"

"Of course. I made several copies and stashed them in different places... Do you want them?"

Everly nodded: "Yes, I need to verify something."

Orff was a cautious person—well, only in the online world.

He hadn't just stored the data and videos he'd copied from the dark web on multiple external hard drives hidden around campus—he'd also backed them up on several cloud storage sites.

He used Everly's computer to open an encrypted cloud storage site, logged into a second-hand account he'd purchased, and downloaded the files onto her laptop.

"The recording is pretty graphic—prepare yourself."

Everly nodded, opened the video, and frowned as she dragged the progress bar until the victim's face appeared on screen.

After seeing the girl's face clearly, Everly's expression darkened: "Misha, come look."

"What?" Misha leaned in, glanced at the screen, and fury instantly flashed across her face. "It's Barbara! But how... how could she..."

"Don't you have her contact info? Try reaching out to her."

Misha nodded and pulled up her conversation with Barbara.

Since her work had gotten on track and she was busy with studies, Misha hadn't been in touch with Barbara in a while. But Misha was still grateful for the help Barbara had given her.

In her memory, Barbara was a very cautious person—she wouldn't have fallen for a part-time job scam.

She hoped her senior was okay, hoped the girl in the video wasn't her, hoped...

Misha clutched her phone tightly, knuckles turning white, fingers trembling.

Yet after waiting anxiously for a long time, no one picked up Barbara's phone.

Misha tried calling Barbara's best friend Nori—still no answer.

She couldn't hold it in anymore, tears welling in her eyes. She bit her lip and typed frantically, reaching out to everyone she knew, searching every campus group she'd joined for anyone who knew about the two girls.

Finally, thanks to Misha's efforts, someone provided information:

[Nori went missing early last month. Barbara reported it to the police and searched for Nori like crazy, but never found her. At the start of this month, someone saw her mumbling something like "she must be there" and leaving campus with a backpack. No one has seen her since. The police said she might have run off with Nori...]

Misha finally couldn't hold back her tears, and they dripped onto her phone screen.

Everly stepped forward and hugged her friend: "It's not your fault... It's the criminals' fault. They treat people's lives like playthings—they deserve to be punished!"

"Yeah... We have to find all the culprits, including the people who paid to watch." Misha sniffled, a determined look settling on her face.

Barbara's case was like a thread linking the city's missing women cases directly to the dark web snuff site.

If you counted the number of women who'd gone missing in Dalami City over the past two years, it would have been enough to alert the state police long ago. Yet the reality was that the city police had been handling the missing persons cases with indifference, never seeking help from the state police. Their investigation was so passive it was enough to make you suspect someone on the inside had been bought off.

Then there was what happened when Orff reported it to the police. That snuff recording—anyone with even basic investigative experience could tell it was real footage, not special effects or props. No prop was realistic enough to show blood seeping from severed capillaries like that.

But when Orff reported it, the police immediately said it was makeup and props. That couldn't simply be called negligence—it looked more like they were deliberately covering something up.

Everly thus suspected there was a mole connected to the dark web inside the city police department.

Following that line of reasoning, one could conclude that the snuff site's base of operations was likely also in Dalami City.

They "worked locally," kidnapping young women directly from the city, livestreaming their torture and murder online, and bribing police to shield them—allowing the crimes to go unsolved for two years.

This also explained why Orff had been ambushed by unknown assailants—his hacking and destruction of the site had been tipped off to the operators by a mole in the police force. Orff's hacker identity was exposed, and the operators discovered he was in the same city they were in.

Such a perfect opportunity—of course the operators would want revenge.

"Ahh! So that's it! No wonder—I thought I was being careful and left no trace. There was no way they could have traced me... I was wondering where the revenge came from. Turns out the cops were in on it with them!" Orff clutched his head, groaning in frustration, feeling like he'd just gotten a harsh lesson from society.

Everly nodded. "Once they learned the hacker who destroyed their site was right nearby, they wanted to vent their anger and also eliminate a loose end who could run around with evidence at any time. So they banded together and decided to kill you today."

She then pulled up the chat screenshots she'd saved from hacking Ronald's phone earlier: "Look at A's wording here—he called killing you an 'execution show.' Don't you think that phrasing sounds similar to the snuff livestream? I suspect they've already rebuilt a new streaming site and decided to film or even livestream the process of killing you, posting it as a big show to attract customers."

"..." Orff fell silent.

Hearing that the people targeting him were such a vicious criminal organization, he wrapped his arms around himself, pitiful and trembling: "Save me... Everly, Misha, you have to save me... *sobs*"

"I've promised to save you, and I'll do my best. But you have to listen—whatever Misha and I tell you to do, you do it. Understand?"

Orff nodded eagerly.

"Good. The first thing I need you to do is find Ronald—go to him in person or call him, whatever works. I need you to lure him to my car."

"Me?"

"Of course. We don't know him."

Orff scratched his head, thought for a moment, and pulled out his phone.

Whatever his excuse was, within a few minutes, a sharply dressed Ronald swaggered over to Everly's Grand Cherokee.

A minute later, he was tied up by Everly and Misha, relieved of his phone and anything else suspicious, and bound in the back seat.

Everly's plan was simple: she was going to interrogate him.

Since Orff couldn't identify the other dark web operators including A, she'd just have to ask someone who knew.

As for the interrogation method, Everly preferred peaceful methods. She wouldn't turn someone into a bloody mess, because that would dirty her beloved car.

Instead, she used a very, very, very "gentle" method: waterboarding.

Folding the rear seats down, Everly placed Ronald on the seat head-down and feet-up, tied him tightly with rope, then grabbed some tissues and purified water, soaked a towel, covered Ronald's entire face with it, and kept pouring water from a bottle over it.

This is a cruel punishment that can be traced back to the Spanish Inquisition. It looks bloodless, but the physical and psychological torment it causes is just as brutal as any bloody torture.

Physically, continuous pouring of water causes a large amount of water to be inhaled into the stomach through the mouth and nose while breathing, triggering a feeling of suffocation and nausea. In severe cases, it could even lead to incontinence—though Everly would try to avoid that, as she cherished her car.

Psychologically, the timing and duration of the water pouring are entirely controlled by the torturer. The panic of having one's life controlled, the fear of the unknown, and the intense psychological pressure and trauma from repeatedly slipping into shock amplify the victim's negative emotions without limit.

As a result, waterboarding has become a highly efficient interrogation method. According to statistics, about 80% of victims will confess shortly after undergoing waterboarding, while the other 20% don't hold out due to strong willpower but die from enduring the torment for too long.

Of course, to reiterate, Everly is a peace-loving person. She wouldn't use overly extreme methods to interrogate Ronald, because his willpower isn't that strong to begin with. After Everly had poured just two bottle caps of water, he was already crying and shouting, confessing everything.