Life in North America, you call this an autopsy officer?!
Chapter 373 - 230 Monster, Found You!_2

Chapter 373: Chapter 230 Monster, Found You!_2

The human skull is composed of 23 bone structures.

Together with skin and flesh, they form our entire head and facial shape, but due to our chewing habits, muscle tissue impact, and other factors, the gaps between these bones continually move and change.

A change in one region might not be significant, but impacts on multiple areas can lead to major morphological changes in the skull.

Additionally, there is the metabolic proliferation of bones.

For most people, although bone density decreases with age, the lateral thickness continues to increase, so between the ages of twenty and forty, there are noticeable changes in bone appearance.

The main reason I was sure Reinhardt was not himself was due to his youthful photos.

In the photos, the right masseter muscle was significantly more developed than the left, indicating that he habitually chewed on the right side, and might even have a habit of chewing things like chewing gum.

This means his facial bones would also be affected by this habit.

More than twenty years later, at the time of Reinhardt’s death, his skeletal condition resembled that of his youth.

This was abnormal.

Seeing the two deep in thought,

Brian smiled at Chief Flory, "After Reinhardt returned, did he initially have minimal contact with the townspeople and only appeared occasionally?"

Chief Flory pondered for a moment, then fell silent.

Indeed.

He had been busy setting up a company at the time, mainly interacting with the town’s youth, only beginning to frequent the town taverns after the camp activities settled down.

Moreover, Reinhardt had a habit of chewing tobacco, influenced by his grandfather.

These details matched what Brian had said.

Ellie, seeing Chief Flory’s expression, knew Brian was on point.

She gave Brian a thumbs up, utterly convinced.

Professional!

True to his title as Autopsy Officer!

...

After some casual chat,

Brian pulled out a wire.

The wire was stained with dark brown soil.

Brian’s nose twitched, and he shook his head, "There’s a unique post-mortem odor produced by the soil, similar to an egg buried for a year or two, it seems there is indeed a body underneath."

Upon hearing this, Chief Flory sighed in relief.

He preferred this outcome over the possibility that Reinhardt was an imposter.

That was purely an emotional preference.

"It seems you’ve gone through unnecessary efforts."

Ellie also chuckled lightly.

Ever since she met Brian, he had always maintained a position of strength; seeing him proven wrong was quite satisfying.

Brian shook his head:

"That doesn’t prove anything; it’s common to plant a body as a decoy in meticulous fake deaths."

"Specifically, we need to exhume."

"However, I suspect the police don’t have Reinhardt’s DNA record, and he might not even have his own children, so exhumation might be meaningless."

Chief Flory: ... All correct again.

He was starting to doubt himself now.

After their conversation, Ellie developed some interest in solving the case: "Since we’ve come up empty here, what’s our next step?"

Brian softly said, "Exhume."

Ellie was puzzled, "Didn’t you just say it was pointless? Then what’s the point in doing it?"

Brian explained:

"Solving a case involves verifying the clues one by one."

"But that’s not the main purpose of exhumation; my goal is to spook any potentially watchful eyes."

"Normal crimes need not be this complex, which suggests he doesn’t want people to uncover his issues, and the more he tries to conceal, the more critical it is."

"By doing this, we’ll make whoever is watching nervous."

"When people get nervous, they tend to make mistakes."

"Let the Chief handle the exhumation."

"We have other things to do."

Ellie nodded, "Okay, what are we going to do next? Your other two reagents should arrive this afternoon."

"The reagents aren’t urgent; I’m planning to take you to the disappearance site to resolve the missing person case first."

After Brian finished speaking, he asked the Chief to find some people to start the exhumation and walked off.

Ellie, not quite grasping Brian’s last remark and seeing he was not inclined to explain, curiously followed him.

...

Half an hour later.

Brian was alone once again, having returned to the dock not far from the lake campsite.

Ellie didn’t come.

She had other things to do.

With outsiders around, he too would be restricted.

At the dock, he could still see the bloodstains and filth left by the attacker Brian had previously shot in the head.

He sniffed the air around him, saw that it yielded nothing, and started wandering around.

It had to be said.

The Federation’s environment was quite unique—vast and sparsely populated, with wilderness covering most of the area except for some densely populated urban clusters.

This also resulted in a decent natural ecology.

Under almost Transcendent perception, a vast amount of information converged in Brian’s mind, allowing him to enjoy the surrounding scenery while also eliminating areas one by one.

Solving the disappearance case, for Brian, was actually not difficult.

Previous evidence had suggested that this was merely a human-induced attack.

As long as human factors were involved, traces would be left.

The location of the disappearances was where the adversary was active; the time of the disappearances was when the adversary was active.

Everything carried information.

These were impossible to cover up.

Suddenly,

in a wooded area growing a few wild cannabis plants, Brian stopped.

He frowned at the land where the wild cannabis was growing.

This location was very close to the lake, less than ten meters away. Above was a slope covered with plants, and below by the lakeside were several old trees.

Above the wild cannabis plants, Brian smelled a very peculiar pheromone.

As he examined the cannabis plants,

secretly,

a pair of eyes gazed through the gaps between the water surface and the lakeside branches, intently watching Brian’s back.

Brian sensed something and abruptly turned around.

The water surface was uneven, and the reflected light passed through the lake-side tree trunks and leaves, refracting in the woods, showing nothing unusual.

Thinking it over,

Brian walked towards the cannabis plants, crushed them, and took a sniff.

A sense of dizziness surged within him.

He actually felt a peculiar floating sensation.

Considering his current physique, even chemical drugs and anesthetics would hardly take effect so quickly on him, and even the feeling after inhaling would differ due to his body’s rejection response.

This cannabis carrying special pheromones was indeed magical.

...

As Brian paused to experience the effects of this special cannabis,

ripples gently parted the water surface.

A head reflecting an eerie red glow under the sunlight slowly emerged from the water and then, in a strange posture, kept moving closer to the shore.

Such movements, to any onlooker, would seem horrifying, as if a vicious head stood atop the water with ripples spreading below but no trace of limbs moving, continuously advancing.

To put it vividly,

it appeared as if a long snake had grown a human head!

Splash~

Accompanied by a slight water sound, a three to four meters long creature with the body of a snake and a human head, covered in red, coiled around a tree trunk by the shore, its head hanging down, arriving above Brian.

It greedily watched Brian below, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth.

This guy smells so good!

Much more fragrant than those tender or old meats.

For this prey’s condition, it was already no longer surprising.

Those special plants were cultivated by it; guarding these special plants was its purpose.

Although it desperately craved the scent of the prey’s flesh, its long-term hunting had made it cautious.

It opened its big mouth and exhaled in Brian’s direction.

A certain colorless, odorless gas was emitted from its mouth, slowly diffusing, blending into the surrounding air, and enveloping the area below.

Just as it thought the prey below would fall into illusions,

Creak~

A bone-cracking sound was heard.

The head beneath the big tree rotated one hundred eighty degrees, tilted slightly upward, the mocking gaze meeting its eyes.

Looking at the monster’s blank gaze,

Brian, with his body facing forward and face turned backward, lightly smiled, "Monster, found you!"

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