79 – Hide and Seek (2)
Even with the cooperation of the heroes, the fact that it is hopeless has not changed.
Still, the fact that I wasn’t alone did ease the pressure.
ㅡ Me too, Brave. Heh heh.
… Yes, you are too
The currently distributed 20 scouts were distributed to each hero office along with sensory synchronizing devices.
Even if you check the abnormal reaction with a scout, it is difficult to catch the existence mixed in the crowd right away.
So, it was to make sure the part that could be missed by the eyes of the hero dispatched to the scene was more clearly through the support of the office.
A hopeful observation was made that at this rate, at least one monster could be caught in 2-3 days.
Since there is some data, that kind of specific figure must have come out.
I got out of the secret base and started looking for the monster in Seodaemun-gu.
But within 10 minutes of starting, I realized that this job would not be easy.
Seodaemun-gu in mid-August was crowded with people, so much attention was diverted.
ㅡ No, next.
It’s a race against time.
It is necessary to quickly and accurately examine as many places as possible.
Even that was not without problems.
ㅡ If the monster hides in a building, there will be no answer.
Yes, that is the biggest problem.
ㅡ Next.
It has already been 4 hours since I ran around the buildings in Seodaemun-gu.
Even so, the appearance of the monster was nowhere to be seen.
It’s as if they’ve been hiding in case of a situation like this.
I called the author by tapping on my earphones.
ㅡ What happened?
“Did you get a call from another hero office that they caught a monster?”
ㅡ No. I will contact you as soon as I come in.
“Uh, thank you.”
Four hours have passed.
Even if the number of scouts is not enough, 20 people went around for 4 hours and still couldn’t find a clue.
So little by little, impatience began to rise.
ㅡ You said something interesting would happen. What do you think, Brave?
… It would be an indiscriminate murder.
In order to obtain the vision of the future he desires, an unspecified number of people need to be exposed to intense stress that threatens their lives.
The human who smiled and greeted you like a neighbor yesterday might be a monster.
The moment the assumption that ‘might be’ turns into ‘was’, the waves that will arise will be beyond imagination.
To put it simply, it’s the same story as my kind next door neighbor was a serial killer who indiscriminately kills people.
The security will be destroyed.
Society becomes more and more chaotic, and the more it does, the more Humbert will run amok.
That much has to be stopped.
ㅡ But there are no sharp points, Brave.
… Not even one number left.
ㅡ What are you planning to do?
I’m going to meet him in person.
ㅡ … Dangerous.
If no clues are found today or tomorrow, that is the only choice.
He said he would show up if I came to visit him.
Because he’s a strange obsession with me, I’m sure he’ll see some clues.
From noble mtl dot com
It is a body that can sleep less anyway.
I’ll have to stay up all night to find the monster.
I continued to patrol until the sun went down.
However, no clear results were obtained.
***
A signal has come from the Monster Response Headquarters (temporary) to return.
I had no regrets, but I had no choice but to return to the headquarters.
The search started at 9:00 am and continued until 7:00 pm, but not a single monster was found.
As if the monster didn’t exist in the first place.
When I returned to headquarters, the boss told me to pack my things.
“Jimmy?”
“Yes. There’s no place safer than here. We must prepare for a fight while keeping ourselves safe from Humbert’s threat.”
ㅡ No!
The boss’s words were logical, but I decided to reject his words.
“Please let the author stay here. But I will stay outside.”
“Hmm?”
“I think Humbert would bite his tail if I suddenly moved in a situation where Humbert was targeting me. I will continue to live my normal life.”
“… Then there is nothing you can do.”
With this, the author will be less likely to encounter dangerous situations.
I thanked the boss and went back to the house with Jieun.
“Because of the grid?”
“There is that too.”
As if the author noticed the incongruity of the grid, if you live together, problems will be revealed somewhere.
Aside from that, as I explained to the boss, Humbert might bite my tail and attack the headquarters.
Other than that….
ㅡ The monster hunting time is reduced. Heh heh.
Because I hardly need to sleep, I want to spend the rest of my time hunting monsters.
“Then see you tomorrow. I’ll pack the things I need and go straight to headquarters.”
“Yes.”
I broke up with the author, ate a minimum meal, and hurriedly prepared.
ㅡ It’s monster hunting time!
With Grid’s cry, the monster hunt began.
The current time is 10:00 PM.
With the exception of a few people, it is time for most of them to go home.
I climbed the outer wall of the city, where there was a strange silence, and jumped to the roof of the building.
Then I looked at the people walking around and found the monster.
ㅡ No.
It was 10 o’clock when the patrol started, and it was already past midnight, but I couldn’t see the monster’s shadow.
Why?
Are you thinking of hiding and avoiding the pursuit of the hero?
The professor described Humbert as ‘a planned person with a knack for improvisation’.
At first glance, they are human beings who have feelings like antonyms that cannot be meshed with each other.
But improvisation and planning are not completely antagonistic.
ㅡ If you spontaneously buy a swimsuit and make plans to go to the sea to use it, you can be said to be a spontaneous and planned person.
Yeah, that’s it.
A human being who behaves spontaneously and eventually calculated.
A guy like that wouldn’t have just hinted that there were 15 monsters.
When he comes up with a game called hide and seek with monsters, he should have the answer ready.
Because he used the expression “Game”.
He came up with an impromptu game using monsters.
But he must have set a rule with a workaround.
Let’s remember what he said.
A total of 15 monsters, active only in Seoul, period is 1 week, not today, but 1 week from tomorrow, after 1 week, interesting things happen.
I will only show up when I go to the bar.
I want to talk with you.
ㅡ Let’s assume that he knows something about us.
Yeah, he’s not quite as good as the author, but he knows a bit about us.
Because they sent me badges and flash equipment under the premise that I could use psychometry.
Tomorrow, not today, after a day of psychometry….
“Is it there?”
ㅡ Hmm? Do you know something
“The criminal always returns to the scene. Isn’t this the basis of an investigation?”
ㅡ Um… Oh, yes. The problem is that there are 13 victims.
Yeah, that’s it.
He can ‘control’ the monster.
So that’s why the monster hasn’t been seen and has been hiding until now.
He gave direct orders to the monsters to abduct and kill those who escaped the lab.
In the process, he attacked the author who made the smartphone alarm sound and inflicted fatal wounds.
There is no way they don’t know what happened since Jieun’s blood was smeared on the people who were near him.
However, it was announced that there were 13 victims.
There’s no way he missed this.
ㅡ It must have been a game that targeted us from the beginning.
Yeah, it might be something like that.
He dared to use the expression “A day except today.”
That day might have been a clue.
Because this ‘day’ is very important to Psychometrics.
Psychometrics can only read memories of objects that have not passed a day.
If he had really used this day as a hint, things could have gone awry.
It’s worth the money, let’s go check it out.
I jumped over the building and ran towards the building where the author had collapsed.
When I arrived nearby, the door to the building was firmly closed.
I jumped through the front door, went inside, and looked around.
ㅡ I can’t hear the warning sound. Keep going.
I thought that there might be someone watching us around, so I lowered my stance and moved forward cautiously.
I pushed the door I arrived at, but the door did not open.
ㅡ With this, you became a petty thief, not a superhero. Heh heh.
Grid used his tentacles to open the locked door in the blink of an eye.
ㅡ Let’s go in.
Fortunately, the alarm did not sound.
I ran down the hallway and headed to the place where Jieun had collapsed.
ㅡ The CCTV is not working.
Is that so?
ㅡ There is no mechanical sound.
I followed Grid’s words and closed my eyes and sharpened my senses.
“Really.”
CCTV is not working.
ㅡ It must be bingo.
I guess so.
I hurriedly looked around.
It’s already been cleaned up, but I’m sure he left clues around here.
ㅡ First of all, let’s try psychometry.
Yes.
I put my hand on the place where the author had fallen and used psychometry.
Then a moment of dizziness struck and the video started playing.
Tumble.
I heard footsteps to see if someone had come here.
Someone passed by this place and headed somewhere.
With that, the video ended.
ㅡ Are you asking me to follow you?
Maybe something like that.
We walked to the place where a certain person was heading, wary of our surroundings.
But what appeared before us was a dead end.
ㅡ Hmm….
We put our hands on the wall again and used psychometry.
Huh?
No video is playing.
Why?
It was the moment when I was blankly thinking about that.
ㅡ Brave!
Reflexively kicked the ground at Grid’s cry and covered her face with her arms.
Boom!
“Keep it off!”
It happened so quickly that I couldn’t even use my superpowers.
In a state of confusion from the tingling sensation felt in both arms, the half-floating body rolled on the floor.
“Keah!”
The breath in his lungs was forced out.
I had an accident because my head was blank, ugh… !
ㅡ sh*t!
The body moves, moves, and bends on its own.
“Whoop, whoop, whoop….”
The shock was so strong that I lost my consciousness momentarily.
If Grid hadn’t moved his body forcibly, he was in a dangerous situation where he might have died from the monster’s pursuit.
I looked up at the monster who had punched me right where I was lying.
Yes… Did that happen?
There are monsters that can imitate so elaborately that they are indistinguishable from humans.
That’s why they’ll mimic humans and hide.
I was caught up in those stereotypes.
The premise was wrong from the start.
It’s not a monster that can perfectly imitate a human.
It was a monster that could be perfectly mimicked as a human.
It was made to focus on the focus of being human by making them walk on the street in human form.
Coming to think of it, he never asked me to catch a monster that mimicked a human.
I just prepared 15 monsters, so he just told me to catch 15 of them.
Damn it… !
My hand hasn’t recovered yet, but the monster doesn’t seem to want to wait for me.
He smashed the tiles on the floor and in an instant stretched his fist toward my face.
I hurriedly kicked off the ground and rolled forward.
Boom!
I heard a sound like an artillery shell exploding, and the wall I was standing on exploded.
It was so destructive that the fragments flew to me as I rolled across the floor.
ㅡ It is far stronger than the mimicking monster I fought last time.
Usually, if you cause this much fuss, an alarm goes off, but there’s nothing like that.
Humbert, the son of a b*tch must have used his hand.
ㅡ The arm should be fine now.
I finished healing his arm while dodging his attack.
ㅡ It’s monster hunting time!
With Grid’s cry, I rushed towards the monster.