Flip, flip—
Ichinose turned the pages as she solved the problems mechanically.
Tricky questions that involved cleverly twisting words or playing with numbers were now solved in mere seconds.
“Hey, Nose~ Let’s stop here and go eat dinner.”
“I haven’t finished reviewing yet. Please wait.”
As always, Ichinose gave the same response to Noah who was sprawled out on her bed as usual.
Noah’s presence was not really a hindrance.
Ichinose even used Noah’s endless attempts at conversation as an added challenge to the difficulty of the problems.
She found it perfect for enhancing her concentration.
“Ugh… I’m bored.”
Noah grabbed and stared intently at Ichinose’s plushies on the bed.
There was a dragon plushie with tears dripping from its eyes and a shark plushie as well.
They all looked silly, which made them quite cute.
“Nose. What did you say these were called again?”
“I told you last time. They’re Woolwool and Bluebee.”
“Woolwool and Bluebee… Right, those were their names.”
Noah knew one thing for sure.
Her aloof friend had slept hugging these little creatures the previous night.
They still strongly carried Ichinose’s scent.
Meanwhile, Ichinose who was seated at her desk chatting as she wrote with her pen suddenly stopped when she saw a question about the Southern Ruins.
“Noah.”
“Hmm?”
“Have you ever been to the South?”
“Nope. But I’ve heard about it from my dad. He said it’s not a place fit for people to live.”
“As expected.”
“My dad also said… There are so many monsters there that it’s a decent place if you want to build experience.”
From Noah’s account, it really was just as the general public believed.
Monsters poured out by the Void Whale continued to breed and multiplied explosively.
It was also a place where vile criminals who couldn’t fit into society hid out and formed groups.
From an ordinary person’s perspective, the land had no real value.
“So why the sudden interest in the South? You’ve never really cared before, Nose.”
“It was in my workbook, so I asked.”
“Oooh—! My pretty friend. If you’re curious, shall we take a trip there with your big sis?”
“Stop it with that creepy tone.”
Ichinose gave a half-hearted refusal, finished her last problem, and picked up her smartphone.
Experience…
A bare profile with not a single photo came into view.
***
Rohan checked the dead man’s smartphone and quickly pulled out any useful information.
As he moved, he played a video so the screen wouldn’t lock.
He finished reconfirming the intel by scrolling through the phone and even got a good look at the faces of the man’s companions.
One’s down, so there are five left.
Rohan moved swiftly.
He tossed the corpse that was still gagged with a sock into the pitch-black grass without much care.
He took over the driver’s seat, wiped off the blood caked on his knife onto the passenger seat, and rummaged through the vehicle’s interior.
He found some unknown pills, cigarettes, a lighter, alcohol, and a small amount of coins and tokens.
Coins jingled in his hand.
I’ve earned enough for the fare and a meal.
As for any special items, sure enough, there was a firearm in the passenger seat.
It was a model he had never seen before.
Clearly an automatic pistol.
Rohan had never handled firearms from this world. Vehicles were all new to him as well.
That was why he focused and fiddled with it briefly.
He checked the chamber and removed the magazine.
The bullets… What caliber is this? I don’t know the specs here.
Even though the exterior was different, it didn’t vary much from the guns he had handled in his previous life.
Operating it was the same, and he could disassemble and reassemble it on the spot.
Clack!
After grabbing the pistol and stepping out of the car, he recalled something Joo-yeon had said during a practical class.
– A gun is utterly terrifying to ordinary people. But it’s hard to inflict a fatal wound on a body enhanced with magical power.
During that lesson, Joo-yeon had fired multiple rounds into her own palm and showed that it was completely unharmed.
Thanks to that, Rohan realized that in Academy City, firearms were perceived almost the same way the Hunters saw them.
Just as Joo-yeon had said, in order for guns, bows, or throwing weapons to function as truly effective weapons, one needed a talent or skill to imbue magical power into the projectiles. Just like what the Princess or Clara could do.
Although he didn’t possess such talent, he still decided to take the gun.
It’ll be useful for keeping them in check.
For someone like Rohan right now, or even his enemies, a bullet wound would hurt a great deal.
It could pierce through soft spots like the pupil, and it would at least embed shallowly into flesh.
That was enough.
Next…
Rohan climbed into the dump truck with the running engine.
On the passenger seat floor, there were syringes and drugs left lying around randomly.
In the back seat, a toolbox was visible.
The tools were smeared with a mix of grease and blood. They likely served all kinds of purposes.
A claw hammer.
It fit snugly in his hand. Rohan’s equipment had just increased by one.
He tucked this excellent weapon and potential means of communication into his waist belt and climbed out of the dump truck.
“…….”
A drab-looking container loaded onto the dump truck caught his eye.
Rohan stared at it briefly, then shifted his gaze.
There’s no need to open it myself.
Inside was a space where mice were raised in various types and sizes.
Additionally, there were numerous illegal devices for filming and record-keeping.
The reason was simple.
Among the group, there was someone with a skill that let him possess mice.
That individual and someone adept at handling computers formed the pillar of the intel-gathering work entrusted by the elder elves.
After rummaging through the last remaining vehicle,
Rohan walked along the pitch-dark road where no light reached. He began tracing the faint voices he heard.
At my current level, there’s only one person I really need to watch out for…
Because of the leader’s nature, there was a high probability he was alone.
Therefore, before the leader joined them, it was important to dispose of the minions quickly.
··
··
Those thugs were gathered inside the pitch-black factory.
Rohan could see the group clearly.
– Damn wind is strong. When this job’s done, think we should tell the boss to take us to a warm country?
– Idiot, we’ve worked for years, and you think that’s enough to sweet-talk the boss?”
– Shit.
– He’ll only move if we say it’s a place where paint dries well.”
– True. He’s probably busy painting graffiti on some wall again. Said he likes it when there’s a lot of canvas.
– Might take him a few hours to come back.
– Ah, goddamn, I’m out of cigarettes.
– Wanna buy my butt for 100 coins?
One, two, three, four… they’re all here except for one.
In the darkness, the glow of their cigarettes provided the best indicator of their location, even more so than their voices.
There was a mixture of beastkin among them, yet they couldn’t pick up his scent. This was likely because the place reeked of cigarette smoke.
Or maybe they were just careless.
I’ll leave the pistol on the ground.
If their leader was away, then a loud gunshot would be a bad move.
By the sound of them yelling, cackling, and swearing, Rohan figured a little scream mixed in wouldn’t raise any suspicions.
Huh, the visibility makes a surprise attack tricky…
Rohan slipped his knife into his pocket.
He turned the claw hammer on his belt around to keep it hidden from the front, then rose to his feet.
Tap, tap, tap.
He turned on the flashlight function of his smartphone and approached the group without hesitation.
“Who’s there? This is private company property, so you’re not allowed to be here.”
All eyes turned to Rohan at once when they heard his voice.
Then, grins crept up on their faces, as though they had just discovered some fun distraction.
“Oh, is that right? Gosh, how sorry we are.”
The biggest beastkin among them strode out of the factory and stood in front of Rohan.
He was the minion with the highest stamina and defense.
If Rohan recalled correctly, he was some sort of canine beastkin.
“You should leave right now.”
When Rohan spoke in a bold tone, the beastkin snickered and held out his hand.
“Give me a cigarette first.”
“A cigarette…”
Rohan pretended to rummage through his pockets.
Then he pretended to take something out and hand it over.
He made contact with the beastkin’s hand.
Inflict Weakness.
[Inflicted a weakness to the target’s physical attributes.]
At the same time,
This smell of blood…?
The beastkin twitched his nose at Rohan’s scent carried by the wind.
At that moment, when he sensed something,
Rohan covered himself in magical power and swung his knife.
Fwoosh! The blade tore through the thick muscle as though slicing tofu.
“Grrk…!”
He then slid the knife upward to the beastkin’s throat.
He did not need much strength. The bones caught on the blade snapped as easily as straw.
Now there are three.
Thud! With that sound, the beastkin fell backward.
The ones who saw this quickly erased their surprise
They calmly prepared for battle.
“What the hell? That little brat sure knows how to swing a knife.”
“Shit! I still haven’t collected the coins I lent to that bastard dog!”
“Khaha, if you’d bought that cigarette butt earlier, it would’ve been free anyway.”
Even as they exchanged trivial banter, a thick killing intent gleamed in their eyes.
From Rohan’s perspective, he found it interesting how quickly they had recovered from the surprise attack.
··
··
Sssss! Sssssssss!
The man who had covered one wall of the factory with spray paint turned his gaze.
The one approaching was not his subordinate.
It was a man drenched in quite a bit of blood.
He held a hammer in one hand and a pistol in the other.
He had wounds here and there, but none looked fatal.
That was why the man asked,
“Where are my subordinates?”
“They’re dead.”
At the unflinching declaration, he felt sadness.
He pulled out a knuckle duster from his coat to erase the swelling sadness.
“Haah, I feel so guilty. I knew they were fighting, and I still couldn’t go…”
“Did you get a cramp in your leg or something?”
From some point on, Rohan had guessed that this man already knew.
After all, the men’s screams had been fairly loud, and one of them had tried calling him.
“Today, I was in especially high spirits. On days like this, I can’t just stop working on my piece halfway.”
“Right.”
Rohan nodded his head and aimed his pistol.
Bang!
He pulled the trigger.
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