u/ConversationSea1684

These two OCs are obviously not mine and I'd like to say thanks to the people who actually write them for me to scale

Anyways, I'll try and explain a little as I go

FSIQ: Juan >>>>>>>>>>>>>> (PSI, WMI, VSI, VCI), Connor (, FRI) (Juan has busted CPI from calculating billions of chess moves so I can't see any OC taking FSIQ from him)

EQ: Connor>> (EP, EU, EE), Juan (EM)

SQ: Connor>>> (takes all except social engineering)

AC: Juan>= (The fact that he didn't seem to be surprised by attackers at the start of the story shows good stress tolerance and the chess game between him and Roshi shows good cognitive discipline and perserverance), Connor (Bro cut off his own limb on purpose so I think he takes mental fortitude)

Adaptability: Juan> (Connor adapting to his new environment, while Juan adapts to pretty much everything; proverty, the paradox chessgame, etc)

Foresight: CGEW, Connor (prediction), Juan (anticipation)

Thinking: Juan>> (Connor takes holistic but that's about it)

Reasoning: Connor> (same reason as ToM)

Scheming: Connor> (I'm using methodology here so since Connor's feats are more well explained, he takes scheming. I would say Juan takes complexity and contigencies tho)

Deception: Connor> (Juan takes misdirection arguably and definitely info control)

Manipulation: Connor>>> (direct+emotional: manipulating Nora, indirect: manipulating Daisy to take down Sylveon; Juan probably takes mass manipulation)

ToM: Connor> (profiling Sylveon and deducing Sylveon's motive+scheme)

Countering+trap evasion: Connor >>> (Sylveon counterscheme)

FS: Juan>>>

NFS: Connor>>>

Cat and mouse: Connor>

Overall: Connor wins mid diff but if we take all the statements in Apex Paradox literally, then Juan no diffs 😭

Also, Connor's feats are just explained more; Juan might scale higher for some people but I just prefer feats that are shown that's all (and also I haven't seen volume 3 so that might have been a handicap for Juan)

Also, for Connor, there are a bunch of docs pudding sent me, so ask him for the docs if you want to read Connor's schemes for yourself

I want to know if everyone thinks I should sacrifice the writing for the SCD elements or if I should keep the writing but keep the characters from scaling higher

Also if anyone is willing to help, please let me know and I'll send some of my future plans for feedback🙏

Just chill everybody

RIP Baku (the previous goat of SCD)

How did I do?

The Emperor's Vessel is a game in Kei and Satoshi and I did a short summary on what happened during it: https://www.reddit.com/r/IntelligenceScaling/comments/1u9q2um/satoshis_emperors_vessel_strategy_from_kei_and/

Anyways, I have tried to provide basic explanations as to why the characters can or can't beat the Emperor's Vessel

Morris (2 short stories) loses extreme diff

Has sufficient reasoning and thinking to be able to see through Kuromine's trick and probably Kuromine's Sei limit, but Morris' manipulation and deception are not as high as the rest of the characters on here, so he'd probably struggle to avoid contact with Kuromine.

Connor (PuddingDrawer's Pokemon fanfic although I'm using one of the docs he sent to me) wins extreme diff

I don't think anybody knows what feats this guy has, but I'll just say this: his scheming will probably be enough to hold off Kuromine, but lacks the deception and manipulation. (I'll ask Puddingdrawer tho)

Kei wins high diff

Kei imo is just a slightly weaker version of Satoshi in terms of scheming, manipulation, deception, etc. The only thing he has way higher than Satoshi is SQ.

Satoshi wins mid-high diff

Self-explanatory.

Xue Yin (chapter 27 because I haven't read all of it) wins mid diff

Xue Yin is paranoid af, so I doubt Kuromine would be able to sneak up on him. Also has enough deception but what really helps him is his insane reasoning. So far, I have Xue Yin as the number 1 in reasoning (especially deduuctive) + thinking, so Xue Yin would easily see through Kuromine if he tries to trap him.

Li Guang wins low diff

Li Guang is my goat. That's all I need to say. His scheming is more than sufficient and although his deception is not quite as high as his manipulation+SQ imo, it would be pretty easy for him to orchestrate a mass attack on Kuromine without even using direct contact like Satoshi did.

Don't read below if you don't want to see some insane glazing

>!Sigerson and Blight (individually at chapter 40) win low diff!<

>!Their stats are quite sufficient in deception and scheming to be able to avoid Kuromine and counter his army of Sei-controlled henchmen. Blight is better at long term planning while Sigerson is much better at countering so I think Sigerson would actually have an easier time countering Kuromine.!<

Tell me if you think there's anyone I should add or if anything's wrong

Also, if there's anyone with OCs they want to see scaled just tell me and send me the link or stuff

So yeah, I finished the first volume at 40 chapters

Thank you to anyone who's been supporting this project and I hope that the other authors are going just as well🥺

If you have read my novel, please tell me where I could improve in terms of writing, where the characters scale, etc

In the second volume, I plan to expand on the world-building and bring the plot where it belongs, the war between the countries and individual factions in them.

I'm back with another short summary of another OC's feat ig

Also, this is my first time reading Cultivation stuff so there's a lot I might not understand concerning Cultivation and reaching different stages, etc

CONTEXT: Li Guang and his team were exploring a cave and then he (Li Guang) found a scripture that allowed the user of the recipe to concoct some sort of recipe to refine their bodies in order to break through the Perfection Stage of the Qi Refining Great Realm (or something like that idk). After he finds this scripture, he immediately starts scheming because he evidently doesn't trust his teammates.

Also, Li Guang has some sort of ability to control wolves and also has the ability to share sensory with animals (that is, use them like living cameras and see what the animal can see).

He also has some kind of obsidian dagger that can absorb stuff (you'll get it later on)

THE SCHEME:

1. Li Guang (I'm just gonna call him Li for short) replaces the true scripture with a fake one. This is to ensure that if one of his teammates stole from him, it would be practically harmless. Of course, one of them steals the true scripture, so now Li is required to keep scheming to hide the fact that they've stolen a fake scripture.

He then used animals to deliver ingredients to the thief in order to make them think that he (Li) had already started preparing the ingredients for the recipe. He decided it was not enough, so he came up with another layer to hide the validity of the scripture.

2. He spread rumors through mortals (the weakest in the story) that a certain figure trained animals to deliver certain ingredients to the thief (Li's teammate). This would mean that the other Cultivators would investigate in the mortal places, which in turn would lead them to Xieyi, Luo Qingxi (some random Cultivator)'s enemy who also looks the same as him.

The hidden layer: There were rumors of Xieyi actually having two bodies, so even though the description of Xieyi didn't match the person they had come to, it would make sense for the investigating Cultivators to think that it was the second body of Xieyi they had come across. Xieyi at the time was also busy doing other stuff, so he couldn't deal with these rumors.

Once the Cultivators discovered it actually wasn't Xieyi, they would think it was Luo Qingxi because of their very similar appearances. This would make Luo Qingxi think that someone had plotted against him and so a conflict would begin between him and Xieyi. All attention then focused on those two, so now Li could cultivate his stuff in peace.

3. After all this, Li started to calculate stuff for his cultivation stuff, only to realise he also had the wrong scripture the entire time. As he sinks into depression, a strange woman approaches him, subdues him and forces him to take pills that would allow him to live another 10 years. He was now stuck solving the recipe for the strange green-haired woman.

The poison that had been slowly killing him would react with any ingredient he consumed, so he (ofc) had to keep on scheming. Now, his goal was to make someone else cultivate themselves to transfer their refined strength to him (Li).

4. The next part then begins here. He first finds out that two people (Yang Yuting and Si-Hyeok who were also in a good relationship with one another) always sought out large quantities of Snow Thorn Roses. He also found out that Si-Hseok had a disciple named Shu Yangyi.

He spreads rumors (again) that a group of cultivators were planning to attack Si-hyeok, knowing that Shu Yangyi would definitely hear these rumors. Shu Yangyi would then figure out that her Master's plans would be ruined like so: the rumors claim that some cultivators are hiring mortals to assist in their scheme ---> they plan to gather Snow Thorn Roses and poison Yang Yuting and my Master ---> while Master is recovering, they will ransack his residence ----> this will ruin Master's plans

Then, Shu Yangyi attacked the rumored Cultivators, who were overcome. As the defeated Cultivators were running away, Li used his wolves to direct the fleeing Cultivators to the fields of Snow Thorn Roses, knowing they would destroy the fields to spite Shu Yangyi's master, Si-hyeok (which will harm both master and disciple).

Li made sure they did not destroy every field, so he claimed one for himself and protected it with his wolves.

5. Si-hyeok and Yang Yuting's good relationship was now broken and a dispute broke out between them, while the demand for Rose Thorn Flowers rose.

Now, Li needed Green Vine Amnesia Dust (GVAD). Since there was a group that regularly gathered it, Li considered ambushing them but dismissed the idea, because it would put him in the open. He then decided to use a desperate person for the ambush because desperate people aren't picky about their missions and were usually weak, meaning they could be overpowered easily.

He then manipulated a group of people to fight each other and the victor of the scuffle was then easily overpowered by Li's wolves. He manipulated them by putting a map with a corpse of one of the GVAD gatherers (this corpse is just the gather's appearance though). Then a second person came forward and tried to ambush the first person. Then a third person came, and a fight broke out to try and secure the GVAD.

6. After all this, Si-hyeok sends a guy named Genzou to gather Snow Thorn Roses for him. At this moment, Li places a 'shared-sensory' rat to spy on Si-hyeok, who deduces that someone must want to further escalate the conflict between him and Yang Yuting.

Now Genzou took advantage of the high demand for Snow Thorn Roses and sent newcomers of the Sect to gather the ingredients. Li then uses this to his advantage by searching for a suitable candidate to refine themselves (someone intelligent to solve the recipe he failed, yet unexperienced enough to suspect manipulation). This leads him to Xue Yin (the MC). He feeds Xue Yin boar meat to nourish him, confuse him with the GVAD (amnesia) and sealed off the other caves except for two.

He does this because he knows Xue Yin is cautious (after observing him for a while during the ealier chapters) and will check his own scripture with the others, hence going into other caves to check their scriptures.

7. Li also ensures Xue would not escape the mountain by posting beasts along the paths. As a result, Xue Yin would end up in a cave specified by Li, making it easier for Li to track Xue's movements and stuff. The final step he took was to mix up the recipe on purpose to have Xue Yin deduce the correct order, which would draw his attention away from his (Li's) scheme. All Li did next was steal Xue's vitality and refined body with the obsidian dagger.

So yeah, this is Li Guang's scheme, which imo is low-high tier and is probably equal to Satoshi's Emperor's Vessel Strategy or even a bit higher. (but probably not as high as my OC totally no glaze here)

The crazy thing with this scheme is that it spanned across 2 chapters, which is insane. Li Guang is definitely mid tier after this (bro is speedrunning SCD atp with just 2 chapters) and already has good manipulation, ToM, etc.

Take a character like Johan for example. Since Monster's story structure doesn't allow the author to fully explain the thoughts behind Johan's actions, it makes it much harder to determine where he scales, as a lot of interpretation and reading analysis is needed. Characters that come from stories which are not 'SCD orientated' tend to scale lower because it is uncertain which parts they are involved in and why they acted in a particular way.

Characters with simpler story structures like Chen Ran normally have all their feats laid out for the readers to see, making it easier to scale them high.

This doesn't mean high scaling characters can't be from well-written stories; I just wanted to say that specific story structures would make it easier to see particular characters' feats, especially for webnovel characters because webnovels tend to have hundreds to thousands of chapters

In the end, it really just depends on what the author wants: either a character with clear obvious feats that anyone can understand, or a character that requires a ton of analysis and rereading in order to be scaled.

CONTEXT: Morris is a blind man who is basically like Sherlock but focused on gambling. When he hears of a curious report from Wilson Bar (a gambling den) of a man who supposedly has 'supernatural powers' used for cheating, he decides to go with his sidekick (again like Sherlock and Watson) to investigate the matter. The supposed cheater, Buchanan, however is not suspected by the gambling den, because he simply 'loses very often' but doesn't always win. This makes him a much more dangerous cheater, because a lack of obvious wins turns away suspicion. This is the puzzle Morris is determined to figure out.

Oh yes (this will be important), Mr Severoux, a gambler Morris had defeated in the other short story, is Buchanan's accomplice who was the "overseer" of the gambles between Morris and Buchanan. They were both working together against Morris to avenge Severoux.

HOW HE EXPOSES THE CHEATING:

To begin the trap, they first play a game of poker, which is the first trap that Morris sets in order to observe (idk how to say this since he's a blind guy) his opponent. After they finish the game with morris losing, he first starts off with this premise:

P1: Buchanan's ability to cheat is not supernatural

C1: He must be gaining information from another method through one of the five senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch)

P2: Sight is the most obvious way of cheating through marked cards

P3: Mr Buchanan was under heavy scrutiny from the men of the casino who were definitely looking for any signs of cheating (with marked cards being the most obvious)

C2: Mr Buchanan is not using sight to cheat (marked cards are too obvious and would be easily seen)

P4: Buchanan wasn't in contact with anything that smells or can be tasted

C3: Taste and smell are not the senses used for cheating

P5: The cards used for playing had no marks or bumps to be distinguish them from one another

C4: Touch is not the sense used for cheating either

C5: Therefore, with all the other possibilities eliminated, hearing is the only sense left that Buchanan could have used to cheat

P6: While playing poker, Morris hears a pattern in the dealer's breathing

C6: Buchanan is cheating through hearing the dealer's breaths

P7: The dealer must be have a way of telling which cards are which without looking at them, with touch being the most likely, since they have direct contact with the cards

P8: The dealer is handling cards differently from usual by lifting them from the back rather than from the top or bottom

P9: There are no permanent bumps on the cards, which Morris checked by feeling them himself

C7: By lifting the cards from the back, the dealer is using gravity to push the temporary bumps out, and distinguish the cards

Now, Morris had already known all of this, but he still chose to play another game he had set up long before these events had even happened. He planned a game called Hok'm since it would be exceptionally difficult for Buchanan to cheat with the marked cards since every card would be used ( I assume this means there will be too many cards to be tracked and distinguished). This is how the events went:

After losing the game of poker, Morris challenged Buchanan to another game. A man named Morad suggested the game Hok'm (kind of like bridge where you have to win as many tricks as possible). Morris knew Buchanan would be suspicious because Hok'm needed an extra player to make it a four player game (he suspected the extra player, Morad, was on Morris' side). After assuring Buchanan that the extra player was not an accomplice, they began to play, with Buchanan losing and Morris dramatically ripping apart the card to reveal chalk coloured globules to fall out. These pellets were the proof of Buchanan's cheating.

Morris had foreseen this before they had even approached the gambling den and planned accordingly. This is how he did it:

Right after his last gamble with Mr Severoux (Morris obliterated him), Morris knew that if Severoux wanted to take revenge on him it would be troublesome to do it himself or in secret, since he (Severoux) was a man of social standing. This meant Severoux would likely lure him into somewhere open to fool him more easily. Therefore, Morris predicted he would lure him to the casino (since Severoux is well acquainted with the gambling den).

Morris then planned accordingly; he requested that Morad (his secret accomplice in Hok'm) play at the gambling den for some time to be known as a regular there. Then, when the time came, it wouldn't be suspicious for Morad to join their game of Hok'm, since he was just a regular player there. Then, Morad can suggest Hok'm as the game they should play, which then led to Severoux and Buchanan's eventual downfall.

The link to the short story: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-4jMsfVF_IN4o5WMmp1YuJpFGBA-odO9lC7FomKJMdM/edit?tab=t.0

Also, this story is from one of FederalManner and AncientEnd's friends, so don't come to me cos I didn't write it.

Btw, this is also one of the submissions for the ongoing writing competition if anyone wants to know what kind of works are being submitted

Mine would probably be adult Johan

CONTEXT:

The context of this strategy is basically just a set of fixed rules for a game.(page 66 is where this arc starts btw so I'd recommend just skimming through it to get a basic picture)

Satoshi's opponent for this game is Kuromine, a strategic revolutionist who had the power of *supposed* mind control. The mind control (called Sei) only worked if the person was making direct eye contact with Kuromine, so the referees had special lenses called anti-Sei contact lenses. Also, the mind control had a limit of about 30 uses.

Anyways, now for a summary of the game rules (by ChatGPT because there is no way I'm spending that much time summarising the rules):

The Emperor's Vessel is a high-stakes gamble between Satoshi and Kuromine aboard the SS Vandal, a luxury cruise ship carrying 1,000 neutral civilian passengers. The goal is to enter a three-digit code into a command terminal located on the ship's bridge, known as the "Throne Room." Each player receives only two attempts, and the first player to enter the correct code wins. If a player uses both attempts unsuccessfully, they automatically lose. The only other way to win is if the opposing player dies. The voyage lasts 28 days, and if neither player succeeds before the ship returns to port, both lose.

The code is split into three parts. Kuromine begins with the first digit, Satoshi begins with the second digit, and the third digit is hidden behind a special system involving ten passengers known as the Apostles. These Apostles secretly wear identifying wristbands, while both players possess Master Wristbands. By finding an Apostle and touching their wristband with the Master Wristband, a player records that Apostle. After registering all ten Apostles, the Master Wristband reveals the final digit of the code. To win, each player must therefore discover the opponent's digit and uncover the Apostle digit.

The game places very few restrictions on how players may compete against each other. Deception, manipulation, coercion, and even violence against the opposing player are permitted. However, harming civilians, tampering with the terminal, or otherwise breaking the stated rules results in immediate disqualification. Players may also request special side games through assistant referees in an attempt to obtain information from their opponent.

Before boarding, each player must choose one of five shipboard roles: Nurse, Technician, Camera Watcher, Security Guard, or Rich Guest. Each role grants unique advantages and access privileges while imposing significant limitations. Nurses gain trusted access to passengers and medical records, Technicians control maintenance systems, Camera Watchers can monitor the entire ship through surveillance, Security Guards have authority and mobility, and Rich Guests enjoy wealth, influence, and access to VIP areas. Players must continue performing the basic duties of their chosen role throughout the voyage, and repeated neglect of those duties can lead to disqualification.

THE STRATEGY:

To begin, Satoshi chose the Technician role, which allowed him to control maintenance systems and cause 1 blackout + allowed him to enter locked doors. This would become the main deciding factor of his strategy. The rest could be imo summarised into two stages:

1. Setting the foundations for the trap and neutralising the Sei
2. The actual trap to attain the code from Kuromine

STAGE ONE: SETTING THE FOUNDATIONS

So first, Satoshi memorises the entire ship layout (10 decks) and chooses to stay in a storage room in deck one. This move basically prevents immediate risk from Kuromine immdiately finding out where he is located (since he can use the Sei on the staff and find out his room number and enter his room to ambush him). He then prepares enough food to last him days without needing to exit the locked room.

Satoshi proceeds to enter the medical bay on the pretext of checking up on an injury, distracts the nurse there, and steals a sedation needle from the medical bay.

Now that he has everything he needs, he uses up his 1 time blackout, sedates a referee in the dark (this opportunity also means he is immune from Kuromine), and steals his anti-Sei contact.

Prior to this, he already received information that the referees would be wearing anti-Sei lenses to be immune from Kuromine.

Of course, the lenses would have to be returned to the referee if he merely stole them, since it was required for the referees to wear them. Satoshi counteres this rule by switching the anti-Sei lenses with identical lenses he had prepared beforehand, so that the referees would think they still had their own anti-Sei lenses on and would not force Satoshi to return the real anti-Sei lenses.

During this entire time, Kuromine was building up his network of technicians with his Sei, so he could completely corner Satoshi eventually. At the same time, this also meant that Kuromine was the only one that was able to freely move around the ship to find the number required for the code.

Satoshi knew this; his entire strategy from the start was to retreat into an unreachable corner and let Kuromine do the work, while building up personal immunity from the Sei for himself. Satoshi also set up a contigency here; if his later confrontation with Kuromine didn't work out as well as he hoped, he had bugged Kuromine's room + belongings beforehand to try and hear if Kuromine would inadvertently let slip the number required for the code.

Kuromine predicted this would happen, however and countered it by completely changed his clothes and listening to the number outside of his room to prevent Satoshi from listening.

By now, Kuromine only needs one more number to complete the code: Satoshi's number. Satoshi knows this and so acts like he's cornered and tries to escape but lets himself be captured by Kuromine's henchmen. The diWhenrect confrontation happens now.

STAGE TWO: THE TRAP AND BLUFF TO GET THE NUMBERS FROM KUROMINE

When Kuromine meets Satoshi directly, he threatens to kill him in order to extract the last number from him.

Satoshi already planned for this to happen, so he goes along with it and lies, saying his number is 5.

Kuromine obviously doesn't trust him, so to be sure, he uses his Sei on Satoshi, who answers 5 again. Now Kuromine knows the last number is 5. (This is still a lie, because Satoshi has the anti-Sei lenses. Kuromine doesn't know this though, and Satoshi further strengthens the illusion by saying 'Your Majesty', something he would never say unless he was influenced by something)

Kuromine then takes Satoshi (since Kuromine believes Satoshi is under his control and is harmless) and a few bodyguards as insurance to the control panel, where the code was to be put in and inputs the number in, but before he can press enter, Satoshi tases him from behind.

Kuromine aims his gun at Satoshi, fully intending to kill him now, but Satoshi had already prepared for that. In fact, during the entire time he was hiding in the storage room, he had prepared a device that would lead to an explosion if he died.

Kuromine calls this a bluff and continues to threaten him, but Satoshi assures him it isn't (it actually is). This leads Satoshi to convincing Kuromine to go down with hime and the referee to check if there actually is a bomb hidden in deck 1.

This was the trap Satoshi had been waiting for, since Satoshi had already rigged the entire "hidden bomb room" with propane (actually, it's ethyl mercaptan, which smells exactly like propane but isn't flammable). He (Satoshi) quickly uses his keycard to lock him and Kuromine in the room, so they are completely alone. Satoshi then warns him that if the gun is fired, the propane (fake but Kuromine doesn't know) will light up, burning both of them to death.

It all came down to a physical fist fight after this. Satoshi was already very proficient in hand-to-hand combat, so he easily subdued Kuromine, chained him to the railing to prevent Kuromine from interfering with him while he inputted the three numbers (which were 717; he had already known what the other two numbers other than his own were when Kuromine tested them).

Satoshi was then declared the winner, but Kuromine, still in possession of a gun and his Sei-controlled technician army, escaped, used the gun to his advantage and shot Satoshi, who had already worn bulletproof clothing as insurance against this.

So yeah, this is the most impressive scheming feat from all the OCs so far. Satoshi (from Kei and Satoshi) is definitely a mid tier and this scheme showcases:

indirect manipulation, direct manipulation, concealment, misdirection, VSI (visualising the ship's decks), AC in general, social skills + charisma (charming the nurse earlier), contingencies, and a bunch of stuff I won't bother typing here.

Tell me if you think I've missed anything or where you think this feat scales. Imo, this feat surpasses Xue Yin, Morris, all of my OCs, etc in scheming + deception. There might have been a few points I missed though, making this scheme even more impressive, but since I haven't slept well in like a week, you'll just have to read the novel yourself to fully get the entire scheme.

Oh and btw I probably won't do the cases tournament as I said I would in my earlier post because of my failing health (this thing took me forever to write since I also had to reread parts of the novel)

What are some of the hardest fictional cases I can use for this tournament? Any cases are fine, even ones with supernatural interference

Also, I'm working on another short analysis on Satoshi (from Kei and Satoshi) so yeah

I've seen some people say X is a planning merchant or reasoning merchant or stuff like that, and I'd just like to say imo that's completely wrong.

Good planning always involves good reasoning and thinking and most of the time, the plans are tied in with other categories like manipulation and deception, so I'm not really sure why anyone would say someone is a planning merchant.

Same thing with reasoning as well. A lot of people think characters like Maomao are only good in thinking and reasoning so they call them reasoning merchants. Tbh, I haven't seen a single character with good reasoning+thinking who isn't good in at least another category like ToM or foresight.

Feel free to disagree

I mean, I understand this is INTELLIGENCE scaling, but if a character scales so high they no diff the other mainstream characters, what fun is it to put them in match ups? It'll just be X no diffs A, X no diffs B, etc

I think (and I'm not criticising anyone here) introducing and scaling low-mid tiers with good writing is actually more enjoyable than scaling characters with 10000000 year plans that aren't well written (don't get me wrong I'm not saying they're bad)

Also, character X that no diffs COMP SCD will just lead to more no diff slop when put against lower tier characters (again just my opinion, everybody should chill I'm not attacking anybody)

It has to be a legal arrest as well, so no violence as well as a sufficient amount of evidence

Novels Poirot, novels Sherlock, novels Lupin, Edmond Dantes, etc

Also who would their modern counterparts be? (eg Sherlock ---> Kudo or PJ or L etc)

Btw thanks to FederalManner for inspiring my lazy brain to write this

Oh and also spoilers for my novel too ig

CONTEXT:

The MC, Sigerson, escaped from his home after being falsely accused of exposing government conspiracy theory-type stuff. The Enforcers (kind of like Secret Police in my story) commence a search for him, so he narrowly escapes to a little town where not much happens as a resting place. He (and his cousin) influence one of the townspeople there (who is the mother of an Enforcer) and uses this to his advantage to also gain the sympathy of an Enforcer. A crime happens there, and so with the help of the Enforcer ally, he is allowed to investigate in disguise.

There is a main mastermind who has turned the Enforcers against him (which Sigerson knows), but that's not too important for this feat

Also to help visualize everything, the farm is next to a river but separated by a fence and thick trees + foliage. There is a hidden pathway leading out of the farm to the main road through the trees though.

1. When Sigerson enters the cottage, he finds a wet rug and vase. Since neither the police nor the guy who found the body touched the vase, it must have been either one of the victims or the culprit. The weather was also hot at the time, suggesting the vase had only fallen recently
2. A muddy bloody jacket was found on the bank of the river
3. The body of A was hidden away neatly, while B,C,D were messily stashed away
4. A group of mice avoided a specific WET dish.
5. A strange mark was made on the muddy ground, suggesting a curved object fell there during a struggle, most likely from at least a metre up (judging from the mud splatters)
6. There are footprints suggesting the culprit is around Sigerson's height and were made quite effortlessly (calculated by approximate stride length)
7. The murders were very different; A's was 3 hours earlier by poison, while B was killed by a blunt force and C,D were killed by poison (all 3 were same time 3 hours later than A)
8. There are marks suggesting recent human activity around and on the fences. The marks seemed to suggest that the fence was being used as a handrail. There was also evidence that proved the culprit moved along the fence, to the opening of the hidden pathway.

From all of this, Sigerson deduces that a) the culprit is someone around his height, b) wears glasses, and c) is quite familiar with the farm's layout.

a) is proved by point 6 obviously

b) is proven by 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8

A's body hidden tidily + haybales stacked neatly ---> careful murder

B, C, D's bodies hidden messily ---> contradicts the culprit's earlier method ---> something must have happened in between the three hours of A and BCD murders ---> B's death was not poison like ACD but instead was instead caused by a blunt object injury ---> The thing that happened during the three hours was a struggle, most likely as the culprit was hiding the body of A ---> If B's arrival was unexpected, it is highly possibly that BCD were not targetted by the culprit and instead the culprit killed them out of fear --->

The dish on the drying rack was avoided by mice ---> Poison is on the dish ---> The method of poisoning was by food ---> C and D's deaths were most likely accidental if the poisoned food was left out

The dish was wet + The rug that the vase fell on was wet ---> The culprit came in after the death of B to clean up (since if C, D were poisoned before B, B would've noticed and gone for help, but B didn't because B was already dead)

During the struggle, something fell on the ground and was picked up + the methods before and after the struggle were completely different + the fence needed to be used as a handrail + the culprit was not old or injured after the struggle, since the strides from the footprints would be impossible to replicate by an old or injured person ---> something was lost that made the culprit become more unorganised during the struggle ---> a lot of marks were found around jutting rocks, proving someone kept stumbling on them + a pair of similar but mismatched shoes were taken (I forgot to mention this earlier) ---> the object was a pair of glasses, since it has curved lenses that match the mark in the ground, and would explain why the culprit kept stumbling on the rocks, couldn't hide the other bodies neatly, and took a pair of mismatched shoes

c) is proven by the fact that the hidden pathway was able to be found by the near sighted culprit, despite being hidden. The culprit walked straight to the fences (shown by the footprints) and began going along them until they reached the opening to the pathway ---> normally culprits trying to escape would never do that unless they already knew the hidden pathway existed.

Also since the bloody jacket and clothing were also found on the bank of the river, this further proves that the culprit used the hidden pathway to escape (the river flows from the pathway to the bank area)

To conclude, Sigerson deduced the order of events as this:

Culprit enters and kills A with poison ---> Three hours later as culprit is hiding the body neatly, he kills B who has just stumbled upon the scene, losing his glasses ---> he returns to the cottage where C and D also are found dead and cleans up evidence of the poisoned dish ---> takes a mismatched pair of shoes and escapes, removing his bloody clothing as well

After he finds out all of this information, to arrest the culprit, Sigerson knows that the culprit will be needing a new pair of glasses soon, and so organises a super simple trap using this fact but that's not part of the reasoning feat here so I won't explain it

So yeah tell me what you think of this feat! (it is lowkey mid abductive reasoning)