Rustle, rustle…
Ichinose mechanically solved problems and flipped through the pages.
Problems involving tricky wordplay or numerical tricks were now being solved in seconds.
“Noah~ Let’s stop now and go eat dinner.”
“I haven’t finished reviewing yet. Please wait.”
Ichinose gave the same response as always to Noah, who was hogging the bed as usual.
Noah’s presence wasn’t a distraction.
Ichinose was even using Noah’s constant attempts at conversation as a way to increase the difficulty of the problems.
A perfect way to boost concentration.
“Ugh… I’m bored.”
Noah grabbed Ichinose’s dolls on the bed and stared at them intently.
There was a dragon doll with tears dripping down and a shark doll.
They all looked equally dumb, but kinda cute.
“Noah. What were their names again?”
“I told you last time. It’s Ulul and Bluebee.”
“Ulul and Bluebee… Right, that was it.”
Noah could tell.
That her aloof friend had slept hugging these guys last night.
The dolls reeked of Ichinose’s scent.
Meanwhile, Ichinose, sitting at the desk, stopped moving her pen while chatting.
She paused when she saw a problem related to the southern region.
“Noah.”
“Yeah?”
“Have you ever been to the southern region?”
“Nope. But I heard stories from my dad. He said it’s not a place for people to live.”
“I thought so.”
“My dad also said… there are a lot of monsters there, so it’s a good place to gain experience.”
According to Noah, the southern region was exactly as the public knew it.
A place where monsters, left behind by the Void Whale, multiplied explosively.
A hideout for vicious criminals who couldn’t fit into society.
To the average person, it had no value as land.
“But why the sudden interest in the southern region? You never cared before.”
“It was in the workbook, so I asked.”
“Hoh~! Pretty girl. If you’re curious, wanna go on a trip to the southern region with this big sis?”
“Stop with the creepy tone, it’s giving me chills.”
Ichinose loosely rejected the offer, solved the last problem, and picked up her smartphone.
‘Experience…’
A blank profile with no photos came into view.
*****
Rohan quickly checked the dead guy’s smartphone for information.
He kept a video playing to prevent the screen from locking while moving.
He finished double-checking the info by rummaging through the phone and even confirmed the faces of the group.
‘One down, five left.’
Rohan moved swiftly.
He tosses the man, who had a sock in his mouth and was now a corpse, into a dark thicket without much care.
He steals the driver’s seat, wipes off the bloodstains on the passenger seat with a knife, and rummages through the car’s interior.
A bunch of mysterious pills, cigarettes, a lighter, alcohol, and a small amount of coins and tokens.
The coins jingled in his hand.
“At least I’ve got enough for fare and food.”
The only other notable item was, of course, the gun in the passenger seat.
It’s a model he’s never seen before.
“Looks like an automatic pistol to me.”
Rohan has never handled a gun in this world. The car is also entirely new to him.
So, he focused and fiddled with it for a moment.
He checks the chamber and even disassembles the magazine.
“The bullets… what caliber are these? I can’t figure out the specs here.”
Despite the different appearance, it wasn’t much different from the guns he handled in his past life.
The way to handle it was the same; he could disassemble and reassemble it right away.
*Click!*
After pocketing the pistol and stepping out of the car, he recalled what Juyun had said during a practical class.
─ Guns are pure terror to ordinary people. But they’re not very effective at causing fatal injuries to bodies imbued with magical power.
In that class, Juyun had fired a gun repeatedly into her own palm to show it was unharmed.
Thanks to that, Rohan learned that in the academy city, guns are perceived no differently than hunters.
As Juyun said, for weapons like guns, bows, or hidden blades to be truly effective, one needs a talent or skill to imbue projectiles with magical energy, like Princess or Clara.
Even though I don’t have that talent, I’ll still take the gun.
“It’ll do for suppression.”
At Rohan’s current level and that of his enemies, getting shot would hurt a lot.
Soft parts like the pupils would be pierced, and flesh would be shallowly penetrated by bullets.
That’s enough.
“Next.”
Rohan climbs into the dump truck with the engine running.
On the floor of the passenger seat, syringes and drugs are scattered haphazardly.
In the back seat, a toolbox is visible.
The tools, smeared with grease and blood, seem to have a variety of uses.
“A wrench.”
It fits snugly in his hand. Rohan’s arsenal has grown by one.
He tucks this excellent weapon and conversation starter into his belt and steps down from the dump truck.
“…”
His gaze is caught by the dull container loaded on the dump truck.
Rohan stares at it for a moment before looking away.
“No need to open it myself.”
Inside is a space for breeding mice of various types and sizes.
Additionally, there are plenty of illegal devices for filming and recording.
The reason is simple.
Because there’s a guy in the group with a skill to possess mice.
That guy and another who specializes in computers are the pillars of the information-gathering tasks entrusted by the old elves.
After rummaging through the last remaining vehicle, Rohan…
I walked along a pitch-dark path where no light reached. I began to follow a faint voice that reached my ears.
‘At my current level, there’s only one guy I really need to watch out for…’
The leader of a group is usually more likely to be alone.
So, before he joins up, it’s crucial to quickly take out his lackeys.
…
…
In the pitch-black factory, the guys were gathered.
Rohan clearly spotted the group.
*— Damn, it’s windy. When this job’s done, let’s ask the boss to take us to a warm country, huh?
*— Dumbass, you’ve been working for years, and you think you can lure the boss with that?
*— F*ck.
*— You should suggest going to a country where paint dries fast. That might get him moving.
*— True, he’s probably in a graffiti trance on the walls again today. He loves having plenty of canvases.
*— It’ll take him hours to come back.
*— Ah, sh*t, I’m out of cigarettes.
*— Wanna buy a butt for 100 coins?
‘One, two, three, four… all but one are here.’
The cigarette light in their hands was the best marker in the darkness.
The fact that the beastmen mixed in couldn’t sniff me out was probably due to the thick cigarette smoke filling the room.
Or maybe they were just being careless.
‘Leave the gun on the ground.’
If the leader is away, a loud gunshot would be a bad move.
Seeing them yelling and cursing at each other while messing around, I figured a scream or two wouldn’t be a big deal.
…
‘The visibility’s iffy for an ambush…’
Rohan hid the knife in his pocket.
He adjusted the wrench on his waist so it wasn’t visible from the front.
Then he stood up.
*Thud. Thud. Thud.*
He turned on the flashlight on his smartphone and boldly approached the group.
“Who’s there? This is private property. You’re not supposed to be here.”
At Rohan’s voice, their eyes all turned toward him.
Their lips curled up, finding some amusement in the otherwise boring situation.
“Oh, really? My bad.”
The largest beastman among them stepped out of the factory and stood in front of Rohan.
The lackey with the highest stamina and defense.
From Rohan’s memory, it was a dog beastman.
“Please leave now.”
When Rohan spoke boldly, the beastman chuckled and reached out his hand.
“Give me a cigarette first.”
“A cigarette…”
Rohan pretended to rummage through his pocket.
Then he pretended to hand something over.
Rohan made contact with his hand.
‘Weakness Affliction.’
[Inflicts a physical attribute weakness on the target.]
At the same time.
‘This smell of blood…?’
The beast twitched its nose at the scent of Rohan carried by the wind.
Just as it sensed something.
Rohan, enveloped in magical energy, swung his knife.
*Squelch!* The blade sliced through thick muscles like tofu, piercing deep.
“Ugh…!”
He then dragged the knife up to the neck.
No extraordinary strength was needed. The bones in its path snapped like twigs.
‘That makes three.’
*Thud!* The beast fell backward.
Seeing this, the others quickly shook off their surprise.
They calmly prepared for battle.
“What the? A little brat handling a knife like a pro.”
“Damn it! I still haven’t gotten back the coins I lent that mutt!”
“Tsk, if you’d bought the butt earlier, it would’ve been free.”
Despite their idle chatter, a sticky aura of killing intent flickered in their eyes.
The fact that they had already shaken off the shock of the ambush intrigued Rohan.
—
*Sssss! Sssss!*
A man who had filled a factory wall with spray paint turned his gaze.
The approaching figure wasn’t one of his subordinates.
A man drenched in blood.
In one hand, a wrench; in the other, a pistol.
Though covered in wounds, none seemed fatal.
So he asked.
“Where are my men?”
“Dead.”
The unwavering assertion saddened him.
To suppress the rising grief, he pulled out brass knuckles from his pocket and put them on.
“Sigh, I feel so sorry. I knew we were fighting, but I couldn’t stop it…”
“Did you get a cramp in your leg or something?”
Rohan had suspected this guy knew.
The screams of the men had been quite rough. One of them had even tried to call him.
“Today felt especially good. On days like this, I can’t stop my work midway.”
“Sure.”
Rohan nodded and aimed the pistol.
*Bang!*
He pulled the trigger.
