The unique manly charm and chiseled, majestic muscles.
An idol-ranked Pixie whose popularity is quicker to count from the top of the rankings.
And in the bounty hunter industry, a Double Number Pixie with an almost 90% success rate, symbolizing trust and stability.
In the past, he gained fame under the nickname “Mage Killer” for taking down countless mages who could turn the tides of battle.
But now, he’s just a man mistakenly labeled a pervert, drenched and dressed only in a robe.
Victor forced a smile to endure the throbbing pain in his forehead.
“Just a few more hits from that magic, and my head will split open like a watermelon. Casting spells without incantations? What a ridiculous monster.”
He couldn’t help but click his tongue at the Ghost’s unimaginable potential.
Even though Victor was currently bare except for a hastily worn robe after being interrupted mid-shower, with nothing but a borrowed grappling hook gun as equipment…
He was still an enhanced human superior to normal people in every nerve, muscle, and bone.
A superhuman who could shrug off pistol shots as mere scratches and lift a car with sheer arm strength alone.
Yet even Victor found the spell attacks overwhelming without any chanting?
If he imagined the potential with a solid bodyguard shielding him…
It felt almost wasteful for such talent to remain unnoticed in this underworld.
“I’m really liking you, Ghost! You want to see each other’s skills, huh? Got it! From now on… I’ll take you down with everything I’ve got!”
Hah!
Victor’s vivid muscles pulsed with power, exploding with energy.
It was an absurd momentum reminiscent of a raging bull.
Of course, since he was wearing a translucent robe, the Ghost instinctively recoiled in disgust.
Unaware or simply uncaring, Victor just laughed joyfully as he charged forward.
“The silver lining is that the attack’s tell is easy to spot! Despite its immense power, the pattern is quite monotonous. A fundamental flaw of mages.”
Swish!
Victor dodged the frequent probing attacks lightly while learning the Ghost’s pattern.
As he tried to close the distance, he quickly retreated backward, continuing his assault.
This meant the Ghost wasn’t the stationary turret type who needed full concentration on their spells.
Judging by how they prepped spells along predicted paths…
Their magic seemed more adaptable than fixed-target types.
The time lag between the tell and impact was at least 0.3 seconds.
This gap could be intentionally delayed but not shortened further.
The movement started and ended with physically impossible speed.
The Ghost relied heavily on magic to assist most actions, with actual physical abilities being rather weak.
“…I see it now. Three moves ahead, checkmate!”
Victor calculated all his cards and those the Ghost had played.
After computing every possible scenario, he confirmed the shortest path to victory over the Ghost.
Unless the Ghost pulled out something entirely new here…
Only three actions were needed to decide the outcome.
The power to calculate all possible variables the opponent might display and lead them to victory.
This was why Victor earned the title of Mage Killer.
“…”
First move.
The Ghost kicked off the ground, scaling the building’s outer wall to reach the rooftop.
Victor simultaneously fired his grappling hook gun at the outer wall, reaching the rooftop almost at the same time.
Second move.
The Ghost landed on the rooftop, standing behind some device while facing Victor.
Victor, also on the rooftop, charged fiercely toward the Ghost, nearly stomping the floor to pieces.
Third move.
For some reason, the Ghost didn’t move at all.
With only seven steps left between them, right as Victor was certain of victory…
Suddenly, a fierce wind swept through both of them.
The pure white form of the Ghost shot rapidly toward Victor.
Telekinesis was undoubtedly a versatile ability.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a flawless, perfect skill.
First, the range of manipulation was thick, like wearing bulky gloves, making precise tasks difficult.
It required significant concentration, so managing more than two or three objects at once was pushing it.
And the critical issue currently troubling me the most?
Moving objects with telekinesis wasn’t particularly fast.
Though throwing objects with telekinesis could somewhat mitigate this downside…
Once thrown, it completely left my control range, like tossing a baseball from my hand.
Thus, against this absurd pervert dodging telekinetic flicks purely with reaction speed, doing much with telekinesis alone was quite challenging.
Telekinesis itself was painfully slow, and abandoning control for speed wouldn’t work either.
There was no way this monster would fail to dodge simple movements.
“So I needed it! A way to gain speed while maintaining telekinesis!”
Whoosh!
Wind burst forth, pushing against my small back.
It was a strong gust, around 40 km/h, enough to knock someone over if they let their guard down.
The source of the wind was none other than the building’s ventilation system.
This area was densely packed with buildings, earning it the nickname “Jungle Gym.”
Ventilation systems, essential for tall buildings, inevitably ended up on rooftops to save space.
And the larger and more complex the building…
Naturally, the wind speed from the ventilation system increased accordingly.
Using telekinesis, I twisted the internal structure of the ventilation system, directing the wind toward both the blond pervert and myself.
The result was this fierce windstorm engulfing us both.
Of course, this wind alone wouldn’t make the blond pervert bat an eyelash.
Even I could stand firm against it without telekinesis, so it wouldn’t meaningfully affect that monster.
“But this will definitely affect it!”
Retreating precisely backward from the rapidly approaching blond pervert, I shed the pure white cloth I wore and threw it forward.
The lightweight cloth flew with a speed similar to the wind.
Meaning, the blond pervert was bound to be naturally covered by the swiftly flying white cloth!
“As expected, he’s fast. He already reacted in that short moment.”
But perhaps he was indeed a formidable opponent.
The man seemed to realize there was no one in the flying white cloth and began changing his movement direction already.
It was an unbelievable level of instantaneous judgment, difficult to attribute merely to reaction speed.
However, having already acknowledged his skill, I could respond to this outrageous pervert’s reaction speed.
“But the cloth is still within my telekinetic range!”
The cloth, riding the wind, drew an impossibly fast trajectory.
Adding telekinesis to the wind completely reversed its movement.
Perhaps he didn’t expect this.
The cloth successfully covered the man’s face, and I tightly wrapped it around to make it hard to remove with telekinesis.
That was practically the end.
Finally, I took out the item prepared in my pocket and scattered it in the air without hesitation.
“How did that pervert know my location? After much thought, only two possibilities come to mind.”
The identity of what I scattered in the air? It was cash.
The money I obtained today through thievery.
Enough to last at least two days.
If a tracker was hidden somehow, it had to be either in the cloth or the cash.
But not knowing which was real, I decided to boldly give up today’s earnings altogether.
Choosing between a little money and a life of comfort without danger…
The latter was obviously worth several times, several dozen times more.
“Take this, Ten Thousand Blades of Wind!”
Riding the wind, the shredded banknotes flew at tremendous speed.
Adding high-speed rotation with telekinesis…
The banknote fragments approached the blond pervert with the ferocity of blades.
“Woooaah!”
Perhaps the blond pervert, his face covered by the cloth, sensed something amiss.
He immediately shifted into a defensive stance, protecting his vitals as he tried to tear off the covering cloth.
Of course, since I had no intention of targeting his vitals, this grateful posture only made my aim clearer.
Chzzt!
Dozens of banknote fragments grazed past the pervert’s body.
And before he could regain his stance, half a beat faster…
I tightly balled up my telekinetic force and pushed hard against his chest.
Even a monstrous man couldn’t resist being shoved while off-balance, it seemed.
The blond pervert was helplessly pushed off the rooftop, falling below.
A lightning-fast chain attack completed in mere seconds.
“Done! Time to run!”
This was the best I could do right now.
Drained from using my concentration to the limit, I hurriedly left the scene, dizzy but determined not to be seen.
Though I put on a Goblin Mask I bought ages ago just in case…
Without the cloth covering my body, I felt incredibly exposed, almost naked.
Fortunately, perhaps the cash really was the tracking method.
Or maybe the pervert who fell from the rooftop no longer had the leisure to chase me.
After dropping the man, all signs of pursuit vanished completely.
Just in case, I wandered around the area for about two hours.
As dawn approached, utterly exhausted, I staggered back to my base.
“Thievery… Let’s take a break for a while…”
It was a truly exhausting day, one that might leave me traumatized by perverts.
*
Thud!
Victor, falling from the rooftop, landed perfectly amidst garbage bags in a dumpster.
He tore off the cloth tightly wrapped around his face and urgently got to his feet.
“Loss: 5 seconds. I can still catch up if I move now. The escape patterns and preferred directions of the Ghost are clear in my mind… If I act immediately, I should be able to find them…!”
Maintaining extreme focus, Victor made the best decision he could at the moment.
Now, stripped down to what barely counted as clothing…
This might be the only chance to uncover the Ghost’s true identity.
Victor burst out of the dumpster with great urgency.
Suddenly, he noticed something strangely missing from his body.
Especially, the unsettling looseness between his legs, lacking any support…
“That final, empty-handed attack was aimed at stripping me!”
Victor abandoned any lingering attachment to what remained of his gown, now too small to qualify as proper clothing.
With his arms crossed over his waist, he quickly scanned the surroundings.
But no matter how much he looked around, nothing resembling clothing was in sight.
Though the Ghost’s torn cloth might cover his lower half…
Wandering around like this risked social death if anyone spotted him.
A Double Number Pixie running around rooftops naked in the dead of night?
No matter how you spun it, it was front-page news material.
“Hahaha! If I wander around like this, forget the Ghost—I’ll end up caught by the police! I admit defeat! What an outrageous fellow, that Ghost!”
Victor willingly accepted his own defeat.
Had he been wearing his usual carbon-fiber outfit with an arc glaive, this wouldn’t have happened.
But choosing to wear a robe was purely to save time.
Both the Ghost and Victor fought with all their might given their circumstances.
The Ghost simply came up with one more creative idea.
There was no room for excuses, nor did he particularly want to make any.
The nighttime chase was, without a doubt, the Ghost’s complete victory.
He thoroughly enjoyed the refreshing sense of defeat he hadn’t felt in a long time.
“Unless my eyes deceived me, beneath the Ghost’s cover was…”
But as Victor slowly replayed the fight in his mind, a nagging detail surfaced.
Specifically, when the Ghost discarded the cloth…
For a fleeting moment, a glimpse beyond the fabric was visible.
If his memory served him correctly, it was unmistakably the figure of a child.
“Could it be… another shadow of the city?”
Victor’s expression turned serious.
He slowly raised his head to gaze at the dark night sky, lost in deep thought.
