"What is this green slime on the body?" Colin wondered, but couldn't tell. There was no other way – they could only wait for the autopsy results.
"This person..." Hunt glanced at the corpse. Although it looked like it had been dead for a few days, the face hadn't changed much. He had previously investigated the Crystal Mountain disappearance case and immediately recognized one of the missing persons.
"This is one of the missing persons from the Crystal Mountain incident," Hunt said with a grave expression. "Judging by the situation, he was likely killed upstream and washed down..."
"I didn't expect the Crystal Mountain disappearances and the floating body incident, two seemingly unrelated events, to be the same thing..." Colin, unlike Hunt, had already confirmed the identity of the missing person from Crystal Mountain through a picture, which was why he hadn't realized earlier that this floating body was one of them. Now that the two cases were linked, they could solve both and earn credit. The two officers immediately planned to rush back, have the forensic examiner determine the cause of death, and collect fingerprints to identify the killer.
...
"This is not any known biological material!" The forensic examiner's firm conclusion greatly surprised officers Colin and Hunt. They had handed the body over to the forensic examiner to determine the cause of death, only to receive this bizarre answer.
"You mean, the green slime on the body isn't from any known organism? What... what does that mean?" Colin asked.
The forensic examiner replied, "It means that this green slime was left by a living being, and this living being does not belong to any known life forms on Blue Star. It's a never-before-discovered organism."
"It's a creature that has never been found before. The cause of death for this body was suffocation, surrounded by the green slime, caused by this never-before-discovered organism. It was not a human-caused death."
"Are you sure it's not human-caused?" Hunt couldn't help but ask again. Before arriving, he had assumed the body was killed by a human, even without signs of firearms or sharp weapon marks, as poisoning was a possibility. But now, the forensic examiner's statement shattered their assumptions. Was it killed by a wild beast? And not just any wild beast, but one never before discovered on Blue Star? That was truly rare!
The forensic examiner glanced at him unhappily. "Are you questioning my professional judgment?" Hunt quickly apologized, saying he dared not, and then they left.
As they walked out, they discussed, "Killed by a wild beast?"
"This is very close to what the young girl reported when she called the police, about being chased by a monster."
"I didn't expect it wasn't human-caused... so the monster was a wild beast?"
"Didn't the forensic examiner say it was an unknown organism?"
"So, the young girl mistook the wild beast for a monster back then?"
"What do you mean mistook it for a monster? If it was a large, unknown wild beast they had never seen before, it's understandable they would see it as a monster, isn't it?"
"Perhaps 'Slime' wasn't a code word or a signal, and she wasn't forced by criminals to say it. Perhaps there really are beasts with similar appearances attacking them, hunting them."
"That's why so many people died in Crystal Mountain."
"Why would such an unknown creature, never before seen on Blue Star, suddenly start hunting humans?" Hunt was perplexed.
Colin shook his head. "Three possibilities: one, an extraterrestrial being; two, a creation of a biological laboratory; three, a truly undiscovered creature on Blue Star... Which do you think is more likely?"
Hunt thought for a moment and said, "I think the second possibility is more likely."
"It's hard to imagine a never-before-seen wild beast suddenly appearing as a natural product rather than something from a laboratory – perhaps some mad scientist created them."
"Isn't that how it always plays out in Hollywood blockbusters? A mad scientist creates a monster, it goes out of control, kills all the researchers in the lab, escapes into the outside world, and then starts hunting humans."
"I need to remind you, that's a Hollywood blockbuster, not reality."
"But haven't 'monsters' appeared in reality too... Hollywood blockbusters are so popular, doesn't that also represent the possibility of certain things developing in reality? I wouldn't be surprised if the military is researching how to create monsters right now."
"That female officer is quite unlucky. She's taking all the blame, but anyone in her position at the time, including us, would have made the same mistake. Wait, even if it wasn't a code word, her not believing in monsters and thinking it was related to a game would still lead to punishment... No, who would believe monsters are real? Her actions were actually completely normal."
Hunt said, "That woman is truly unlucky. She's bearing all the responsibility, but what she did at the time, anyone else in her shoes, including us, would have made the same mistake."
"Truly unlucky."
"Let's submit this inspection report. We'll see if it can help reduce her sentence. May God protect her."
...
While Hunt and Colin were discussing in the rear, another search team dispatched by the police had already arrived at Crystal Mountain. Before this, no one knew that the two incidents were related. Therefore, the police had dispatched another search team to Crystal Mountain at the same time. And while Hunt and Colin were having the forensic examiner examine the body in the rear, the search team made even more discoveries. They found several corpses here, and even the body of a monster – a slime-like creature. Green in color, round in shape, without limbs, a creature that existed in both liquid and solid states...
Upon seeing this, the faces of the search team members were a sight to behold. They had originally thought they would encounter a murderer at Crystal Mountain, so they had prepared a large number of firearms and personnel. But now... it was this thing that was killing people? The officers present were not unfamiliar with this type of monster. Whether in games, anime, or movies, this kind of monster had appeared in many works, usually as a low-level enemy. Weak monsters, in large numbers, even new players could hardly be defeated by slimes, and could easily defeat them. This was the impression the officers present had of slimes.