Chapter 129: Today: Bad Guys Have No Human Rights

Chapter 129 Today: Bad People Have No Human Rights

Contrary to what Everly expected, Ronald was not an operator behind the dark web, but just a regular paying member.

"If you're just a visitor, a ton of exclusive content is locked—only paying members can view it. But one of the requirements for becoming a paying member is uploading your own crime video, showing you're handing over your leverage to the admins and standing with them. If you don't do that, the site won't accept you."

The "crime video" obviously couldn't be some small-time stuff like shoplifting—it had to involve at least one death.

Take Ronald, for example. He'd uploaded a video of himself shoving a little girl into a river and drowning her when nobody was watching—though in his first confession, he'd tried to dress it up as an "accident." But Everly wasn't dumb—she saw right through his bullshit.

He'd already been waterboarded once, and he still had the nerve to lie. Without a word, Everly tied Ronald upside down again and gave him a longer session of waterboarding.

After two rounds of that, Ronald was finally completely broken.

"I figured America was huge, with so many people uploading videos, that even if I showed my face as required, the admins couldn't possibly know who I was. But I never thought the site's operators would be in Darami City too, and one of them even went to the same school as me. He recognized me, used that video to blackmail me into joining their 'execution show,' and promised me a cut of the profits and a higher member rank on the site. I... I agreed..."

"Who is the 'A' you've been in contact with?"

Ronald's face twisted a bit, like he was shocked Everly even knew about A.

"That's..." He hemmed and hawed at first, but when Everly raised an eyebrow and held up the water bottle, the words came out fast. "He's the one who recognized me. Even though he only ever hits me up online and never shows his face, I'm about eighty percent sure he's Professor Abel Anderson in the chem department."

Ronald's reasoning for pinning Abel as A was solid but also shaky.

He said that people like them—those born with antisocial personalities—have a special kind of connection with each other.

"Just by looking, you can tell—that's my kind. Just as cold-blooded and selfish, just as indifferent to others, just as into other people's pain. Also, he has a habitual gesture—like this." Even tied up, Ronald stubbornly twisted around and made a fanning gesture with his hands tied behind him.

"This is how you waft chemical fumes in chem. In a few of the snuff streams, a masked guy going by 'Doctor' showed up. He liked to scare those girls while sniffing the fear coming off them. He probably never noticed, but after leaning in, he'd do that fanning thing out of habit."

Everly nodded, buying Ronald's theory for now. "Besides Abel, who are the other killers?"

Ronald shook his head. "I'm just a low-level member. A only contacts me one-way when he needs to. I don't know much about the others, just that 'The Butcher' is gonna be in action too."

"The Butcher?"

"The big, buff guy—the one who shows up the most in the streams."

Everly nodded. Seeing Ronald had nothing left to give, she didn't hesitate—pulled out a stun gun and zapped him hard, knocking him out.

"You know where Ronald's car is parked?" She picked up the car keys she'd found on Ronald and asked Orff.

The guy nodded.

"Go get his car. I wanna stash him in it first, then we'll go see the professor."

Orff nodded blankly, then quickly shook his head, wimping out and saying he didn't dare go alone and needed backup.

"Tell Misha where the car's at and have her go get it. You stay here with me." Everly shot him a look and handed the keys to Misha.

After dealing with Ronald and tossing the mummy-wrapped guy into the back of his own car, Everly had Orff stay put in the tank-like Grand Cherokee while she and Misha went to find Professor Abel in his office, pretending they had questions for him.

Professor Abel was around forty, big and tall, polite and classy—looked like a friendly, approachable professor. As a normal person, Everly really couldn't see anything twisted about him.

But Everly wasn't about to underestimate him. She and Misha went up to Abel together, Misha distracting him while Everly zapped him when he wasn't looking.

Knock out, tie up, lock the door, torture—a smooth combo executed without a hitch. Professor Abel clammed up at first, but after he pissed himself during waterboarding, the germaphobe couldn't handle it and confessed, totally humiliated.

He ratted out his three accomplices: "The Butcher" was a forest ranger and the main cameraman for the snuff streams; "The Undertaker" was a mortician at a funeral home who handled the bodies; and "The Nest Guardian" was a sheriff at the city PD, whose main gig was handling missing women cases and keeping the fallout small.

In the twenty-fifth loop, Everly raised an eyebrow upon hearing this. "Abel lied?"

Orff shook his head. "No, he told the truth."

"Is that so?" Everly found it unexpected. "But if he wasn't lying, with my abilities, I should have found a way to deal with all the murderers and claim your reward long ago. How could you have ended up on the twenty-fifth loop?"

Orff took a deep breath, struggling to suppress his trembling. "That's because there's something even Abel doesn't know—about the true identity of 'The Undertaker'..."

Back to the twenty-second loop.

Everly was naturally suspicious. After getting the information on the others from Abel, she didn't fully trust it. She stunned Abel, bound him, and stuffed him under the desk, then took his computer and phone.

Incidentally, while searching Abel's computer, Everly stumbled upon a safe. Figuring it must contain something good, she splashed water on Abel to wake him, forced the combination out of him, and found several hidden syringes inside.

Such fine goods—Abel naturally had to enjoy them first.

Everly photographed the syringe labels and searched online. It was a sedative that could put someone to sleep for over twenty hours, with possible side effects like grogginess, muscle relaxation, and hallucinations. Overuse could lead to addiction, and it was a strictly controlled substance.

But bad people have no human rights!

Everly gave Abel a dose, waited for him to pass out, hid him under the desk, then walked out of the office with his phone, computer, and keys, locking the door behind her.

She could deal with the aftermath tomorrow—for today, he was done for.

Ronald in the car was also forced to take a break. Everly was cautious, and since she had plenty of syringes, she naturally gave the mummy-wrapped bad guy a dose too.

After dealing with the two rotten eggs at the school, she returned to the Grand Cherokee.

Orff, the hacker, was tinkering with Abel's computer and phone.

With the devices in hand, finding the new dark web address the operators had set up and digging up information on the other operators was as easy as breathing for Orff.

The investigation results matched Abel's confession—the snuff livestream site had four operators: "Doctor" (Abel), "The Butcher," "The Undertaker," and "The Nest Guardian."

Just a few days ago, they had launched a celebration event on the newly built snuff site called "Execution of the Hacker," with the four operators as the executioners.

The event details stated that the site operators had found the hacker who destroyed the original site. Today (December 18th), the day before the new site officially opened, the four operators would hunt down the hacker, film the entire process, and upload it to the site at midnight to celebrate with all members.

As for Ronald, he was probably just an extra Abel had brought in, not a true participant, so he wasn't among the four executioners.

During the celebration, paying members could bet on the four operators using Bitcoin. After deducting a 10% cut, the organizers would split the remaining bets equally among members who bet correctly. The operators themselves didn't participate in the payout distribution, so there was no manipulation of the betting results.

Last night at 23:59:59, betting closed. Since this was the first event after the new site launched, member participation was enthusiastic, and total bets reached nearly 10,000 Bitcoin—roughly three million Mido at current exchange rates.

With the 10% cut for the operators, Orff's life was worth over 300,000 Mido to them—actually pretty valuable.

With the event description as reference, Everly was fairly confident that Abel's confession was genuine.

Abel's computer was a goldmine. Using it, Orff not only successfully logged into Abel's dark web account and used admin privileges to obtain intel on the remaining three operators, but also copied the personal information of all paying members.

"Great, with all this intel, we can go to the police station and request protection." Orff clutched the USB drive, feeling a glimmer of hope.

Everly immediately stopped him. "Don't get ahead of yourself. Remember, one of the four operators is a sheriff at the city police department. He has fourteen officers under him, and who knows what other connections he has in the shadows. If you go to the station, you might be dead before the evidence even reaches someone trustworthy."

Besides, even if Orff successfully delivered the intel and got protection from an honest cop, there was still the risk of insufficient police firepower, careless officers, or moles among the righteous—any of which could cost him his life.

After all, in horror movies, the police on the side of justice generally aren't all that reliable.

After much persuasion, Everly finally talked Orff out of his reckless idea and opened the operator profiles he'd stolen, studying them.

The four operators of the snuff live-streaming website each had their own roles.

"Doctor" Abel was a chemistry professor,

specializing in medicinal chemistry. Thanks to his job, he could easily access various chemical agents and secretly prepare banned substances. Abel was also highly intelligent, so his main responsibilities were scouting targets, luring young women out under the guise of work or part-time jobs, and then making them "disappear."

"The Butcher" was a violent and sadistic man with XYY syndrome, currently working as a forest ranger in the birch woods northeast of Darami City. His remote cabin had a basement, which served as the primary filming location for the snuff videos. He was the team's enforcer, mainly responsible for acting as the "host" of the snuff live-streams and subjecting the young women to all kinds of torture.

"Undertaker," a silent Black man, rarely spoke and seldom interacted with the other operators. He only showed up when collecting bodies, making him quite mysterious. He was the least enthusiastic participant in this event, and the site's paying members clearly knew this—only a handful of people bet on Undertaker, all of them reckless gamblers hoping for a massive payout.

Finally, there was "Nestkeeper," who worked at the Darami City Police Department as a sheriff. He was vindictive and money-grubbing, prizing cash above everything. But thanks to his smooth social skills and talent for keeping up appearances, he was well-liked at the station. Even many families of the missing thought Sheriff Charlie was a kind, decent man and would greet him warmly when they ran into him on the street.

With detailed information on all the operators in hand, Everly started her next steps.