I Maxed Out My Luck Stat-Chapter 27: Investigation (Part 1)

The Mountain Range had turned into a wasteland.

For miles, there was nothing but flatlands, all linked to the crater of destruction that was too glaring for anyone to ignore.

It felt like a scar, one that seemed both magnificent and ugly.

At the center of this scar were two individuals—a man and a woman.

Both of them looked humanoid, with all-black attire. The man, his combed hair brown and slick, wore a dark suit, his black trenchcoat flapping as he kept his two hands in his pockets.

He had sunglasses and had a general vibe similar to those people in The Matrix movies.

As for the woman, she wore a dark gown, its fabric covering her entire pale body. Her face was also shrouded with a veil, and seated atop her head was a large hat.

She had the same mysterious feeling as the man.

They both had badges strapped to their waist, showing that they belonged to the Special Unit within the City of Brilliance.

Both of them were also partners.

"What do you think of this, Iri?" The man asked, his voice dark and gritty.

For a moment, there was silence.

The winds howled as the woman narrowed her eyes on the scene. Only after a few seconds of what seemed like an endless stream of melancholic quietude did she speak.

"This isn’t natural-forming. It was caused by someone... or something. But I sense no mystical residue in the atmosphere, which makes it unlikely that it was caused by a Mystic Object."

"My thoughts exactly."

The man, Frankcastle, frowned at the scene.

"When this first happened, and we were dispatched from the City, the Boss mentioned how the blast suddenly appeared without warning. That meant there was very little time between the appearance of whatever caused this and the impact. Since that eliminates natural elements and the persistent effort of ordinary items, that leaves very little to work with."

"Even Principal Dispositions leave behind traces which we can run through the Akashic Records to determine a suspect. This... is rather messy."

Both of them nodded.

This was yet another truth about Principal Dispositions and their relationship with the Akashic Records that not many people knew about.

—The Tracing Method.

Also largely referred to as Tracing, it refers to the ability to distinguish the culprit through analyzing the traces left behind by their Principal Dispositions.

Whenever a Principal Disposition is used, it leaves behind remnant aspects of its nature.

Special Investigators like these two could then take back these traces and run them through the forensic analysis to determine what Principal Disposition it was. By determining the Principal Disposition, they could consult the Akashic Records and draw up all the current wielders of that Principal Disposition.

For example, they could discern the Principal Disposition to be [Supreme Summoning], a High Rank Principal Disposition.

The Akashic Records would then reveal everyone who held that Principal Disposition in the current era. By isolating the specific incident through borders, date of the occurrence, and running through alibis, motives, as well as other methods, they would easily be able to identify the exact person who used that Principal Disposition.

It had a near-perfect streak of success, only failing a few times due to the incompetence of the Special Investigators themselves.

But these two—Frankcastle and Iri—were experts in the field.

Veterans, even!

They had resolved so many cases in the past and were very popular in their department.

There was no way they could fail...

... As long as they could get a proper Trace of the Principal Disposition.

"We’ve already scoured the area, but the only Principal Disposition we could detect anywhere close to the area is that of Basic Summoning. It was also a considerable distance from the place of impact, so it’s likely unrelated to the case..." Iri muttered with a sigh.

"Of course it is unrelated. There is no way Basic Summoning could even do something like this."

As experts in the field, they understood things like this well.

Basic Summoning could only summon mundane items, and there were even limitations to its use, such as the size of the object and its duration.

Nothing that Basic Summoning could bring forth would ever be able to cause this disaster.

Even if they wanted to be thorough and pursue this only lead that they had...

... To what end?

How common was Basic Summoning?

Everyone knew!

It was a Low Rank Principal Disposition, and thus very common.

Thousands of people, at the very least, likely had this Principal Disposition.

Even if they isolated the ones far away from this area and removed a majority of potential suspects from the list, they would still have to account for hundreds of people.

The two of them would have to create profiles for these people, discern alibis, find motives, and so on. It would be an extremely difficult and time-consuming task—all for something that was not only unlikely and improbable... but downright impossible.

Frankcastle and Iri knew this, so they didn’t even bother.

Instead, they decided to investigate everything else involving the surroundings.

"We should check out the Exit Route they must have used. With my Principal Disposition, we will be able to find out who and what passed through it. That way, we’ll at least be able to identify potential suspects."

Frankcastle nodded to Iri in a collected manner, and she nodded back.

There were quite a few Exit Routes that led to the Outskirts of Cities. This was because of Spatial Loopholes that would be formed after a certain duration of time, leading to openings that could connect a point in the Outskirts with the City.

These Exit Routes could be detected after a certain period of time by the authority, and thus would be regulated by them.

However, they left one of these Exit Routes unregulated intentionally.

This was to encourage criminals to use them, which would make it easier for them to catch anyone who used it and discern their motives.

Such an arrangement was useful in cases like this when they wanted to find the culprit but couldn’t detect any trace of them.

The two of them walked to the Exit Route—what resembled the common wall at the end of a hidden tunnel.

It led to an uninhabited district in the city, and was the perfect place for criminals to enter and exit the city. Naturally, the authorities knew this and even often used this to their advantage in all kinds of ways.

In this case, Frankcastle was going to exploit it to fast-track this investigation.

"[Spatial Memory]."

As Frankcastle muttered these words, his Principal Disposition was activated.

It was a Medium Rank Principal Disposition whose use and mastery had reached such a level that many considered it nearly High Rank.

It stood at the pinnacle of Medium Rank, however, and had one function.

—Past Projection!