２．Ｓｕｎｄａｙ Ｍａｒｃｈ ３１， ２０１９
文字数 6,479文字
"Why not make it a locked-room murder anyway?"
"That's good."
"Filling a locked room with poison gas."
"That's classic. www"
"In that case, an autopsy would immediately reveal the cause of death. Poison gas, for all its trouble, is easy to identify the culprit."
"After stabbing him, the killer goes out the window and pulls the string attached to the window crescent lock from the outside to complete the locked room."
"It's also classic."
"What about rotating part of the room?"
"Mechanized?"
"No. Possible manually."
"Elaborate on this."
"First, prepare rooms of the same type on both sides." ......
〈Number 4〉 pointed to the area around these words. "Around this time, they seem to have submitted a rough proposal for the structure of that house."
Scrolling further down, a link appeared in the comments. Clicking on it brought up a messy hand-drawn illustration. It was very similar to the drawing of the house that Maruta had just drawn [Fig. 5 in Chapter 9].
However, there were still no details there, such as an entrance or windows. It was drawn simply, with rooms on either side of a central rotating room.
"Wouldn't it be easy to tell that this is rotationally symmetric?"
"They won't find out that."
"Someone with better instincts might notice."
"I found a house like this deep in the mountains, can we use it?"
Another link appeared and Maruta opened it. In the middle of the rough grass stands an unfamiliar old wooden hut. There were some other slight differences, such as weeds still growing in some places, but this must have been the crime scene that Maruta had tried to get close to so many times.
"You know, this shed has a rectangular shape when you look at it from above. Why don't you just tear this down and build a new house that looks like this one?"
"You mean?"
"I'll show you now."
In the next link, a more developed scheme emerged. It was a detailed blueprint of the house, far more elaborate than Maruta's handwriting. The middle room, a pair of rooms on either side of it, the entrance, the restrooms, and even the rotating mechanism of the middle room and the double skylights that allows its rotation are accurately depicted with design-rich straight and curved lines. It was clearly the work of a skilled hand.
"Now that they has come this far, it's no longer a prank." Maruta said with a sigh.
"Before the blueprints for this house were available," 〈Number 4〉 said. "Indeed, it seems to us that most of these guys were just playing around with the comments. But from this time on, it seems that those who really had murderous intentions toward Silva-san began to gather. Do you know what this alphanumeric sequence is, Maruta-san?"
Dozens of letters of the alphabet and numbers are randomly lined up at the spot pointed to by 〈Number 4〉. As Maruta looked and thought, he gave the correct answer.
"This is a cryptocurrency [*2] address."
When told, Maruta thought he had seen that in some payment sometime ago. However, 〈Number 4〉 continued to say at his side.
"At this time, someone who submitted the detailed blueprint of the house demanded cryptocurrency as a reward. Indeed, the dimensions are also finely defined and the diagram is accurate for all to see. But that doesn't mean people have to pay for it, right? Maruta-san, please see next comments."
"Good job to the person who drew the diagram!"
"This can make it possible for GN to be a star."
"Let's do it now."
"How could we not build it after being given these drawings?"
"Starting to feel like we can do it for real."
"Perhaps," Maruta put scorn in his words. "The person who created these blueprints must have received a reward."
"I don't know if the amount paid was 10, 100, or 1000 dollers. But in the context of the story, I am sure that there were several people who paid."
Thereafter, Maruta read on as similar frivolous statements continued, shedding them. Among them, the following comment stopped his hand holding the mouse.
"There was a dead body inside."
Maruta hesitated, trying to click on the link just below.
〈Number 4〉 said quietly, "Warning. If you want to see it, please look at it."
After a moment's pause, Maruta displayed the linked image.
The scene from last night comes back to him. Oku's dead face illuminated by the light of someone's cell phone. The progress of the decomposition is still mild at this time, and the hollowed eye sockets and half-opened mouth can be seen.
He must have met that moment alone indoors. The posture of the man, lying on his back with his clothes still on, was that of a person who is exhausted and slumbering.
"Dump it in the woods back there."
"If the man is dead, that's in our favor."
"Let's throw away all the household goods and destroy the shack. Then, let's build the house according to the blueprints right away so that no one will notice."
Maruta watched these outrageous exchanges with teeth chattering. Several comment groups with embedded links appeared after that. Opening the images of the links in sequence, he could see the huts being demolished, as if in a frame-by-frame sequence.
Accordingly, the number of cryptocurrency addresses also increased visibly. Those who went to the site and actually demolished the hut also received some compensation. It would have taken more than one person to hide the old man's body, throw away his household goods, and destroy an entire hut.
There, a few 'Obscure Guys' must have been secretly active. The images show only crumbling hut and debris, so there is no glimpse of human beings. There is no way to confirm now whether they did the work with their faces hidden, and whether some conversation took place during the process.
[*2]: A currency in the form of electronic data used as a means of payment over the Internet; the world's first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, began operations in 2009.
However, various problems abound, and in 2018, approximately 58 billion yen worth of NEM held by Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges was illegally leaked. It was allegedly stolen via the dark web, and the culprits remain unknown (as of 2019).
"That's good."
"Filling a locked room with poison gas."
"That's classic. www"
"In that case, an autopsy would immediately reveal the cause of death. Poison gas, for all its trouble, is easy to identify the culprit."
"After stabbing him, the killer goes out the window and pulls the string attached to the window crescent lock from the outside to complete the locked room."
"It's also classic."
"What about rotating part of the room?"
"Mechanized?"
"No. Possible manually."
"Elaborate on this."
"First, prepare rooms of the same type on both sides." ......
〈Number 4〉 pointed to the area around these words. "Around this time, they seem to have submitted a rough proposal for the structure of that house."
Scrolling further down, a link appeared in the comments. Clicking on it brought up a messy hand-drawn illustration. It was very similar to the drawing of the house that Maruta had just drawn [Fig. 5 in Chapter 9].
However, there were still no details there, such as an entrance or windows. It was drawn simply, with rooms on either side of a central rotating room.
"Wouldn't it be easy to tell that this is rotationally symmetric?"
"They won't find out that."
"Someone with better instincts might notice."
"I found a house like this deep in the mountains, can we use it?"
Another link appeared and Maruta opened it. In the middle of the rough grass stands an unfamiliar old wooden hut. There were some other slight differences, such as weeds still growing in some places, but this must have been the crime scene that Maruta had tried to get close to so many times.
"You know, this shed has a rectangular shape when you look at it from above. Why don't you just tear this down and build a new house that looks like this one?"
"You mean?"
"I'll show you now."
In the next link, a more developed scheme emerged. It was a detailed blueprint of the house, far more elaborate than Maruta's handwriting. The middle room, a pair of rooms on either side of it, the entrance, the restrooms, and even the rotating mechanism of the middle room and the double skylights that allows its rotation are accurately depicted with design-rich straight and curved lines. It was clearly the work of a skilled hand.
"Now that they has come this far, it's no longer a prank." Maruta said with a sigh.
"Before the blueprints for this house were available," 〈Number 4〉 said. "Indeed, it seems to us that most of these guys were just playing around with the comments. But from this time on, it seems that those who really had murderous intentions toward Silva-san began to gather. Do you know what this alphanumeric sequence is, Maruta-san?"
Dozens of letters of the alphabet and numbers are randomly lined up at the spot pointed to by 〈Number 4〉. As Maruta looked and thought, he gave the correct answer.
"This is a cryptocurrency [*2] address."
When told, Maruta thought he had seen that in some payment sometime ago. However, 〈Number 4〉 continued to say at his side.
"At this time, someone who submitted the detailed blueprint of the house demanded cryptocurrency as a reward. Indeed, the dimensions are also finely defined and the diagram is accurate for all to see. But that doesn't mean people have to pay for it, right? Maruta-san, please see next comments."
"Good job to the person who drew the diagram!"
"This can make it possible for GN to be a star."
"Let's do it now."
"How could we not build it after being given these drawings?"
"Starting to feel like we can do it for real."
"Perhaps," Maruta put scorn in his words. "The person who created these blueprints must have received a reward."
"I don't know if the amount paid was 10, 100, or 1000 dollers. But in the context of the story, I am sure that there were several people who paid."
Thereafter, Maruta read on as similar frivolous statements continued, shedding them. Among them, the following comment stopped his hand holding the mouse.
"There was a dead body inside."
Maruta hesitated, trying to click on the link just below.
〈Number 4〉 said quietly, "Warning. If you want to see it, please look at it."
After a moment's pause, Maruta displayed the linked image.
The scene from last night comes back to him. Oku's dead face illuminated by the light of someone's cell phone. The progress of the decomposition is still mild at this time, and the hollowed eye sockets and half-opened mouth can be seen.
He must have met that moment alone indoors. The posture of the man, lying on his back with his clothes still on, was that of a person who is exhausted and slumbering.
"Dump it in the woods back there."
"If the man is dead, that's in our favor."
"Let's throw away all the household goods and destroy the shack. Then, let's build the house according to the blueprints right away so that no one will notice."
Maruta watched these outrageous exchanges with teeth chattering. Several comment groups with embedded links appeared after that. Opening the images of the links in sequence, he could see the huts being demolished, as if in a frame-by-frame sequence.
Accordingly, the number of cryptocurrency addresses also increased visibly. Those who went to the site and actually demolished the hut also received some compensation. It would have taken more than one person to hide the old man's body, throw away his household goods, and destroy an entire hut.
There, a few 'Obscure Guys' must have been secretly active. The images show only crumbling hut and debris, so there is no glimpse of human beings. There is no way to confirm now whether they did the work with their faces hidden, and whether some conversation took place during the process.
[*2]: A currency in the form of electronic data used as a means of payment over the Internet; the world's first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, began operations in 2009.
However, various problems abound, and in 2018, approximately 58 billion yen worth of NEM held by Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges was illegally leaked. It was allegedly stolen via the dark web, and the culprits remain unknown (as of 2019).
