The sound of a gunshot echoed throughout an abandoned warehouse. Accompanied by that was the thudding sound of someone falling on the ground after letting out a moan of pain. A second later, a swarm of rats and c.o.c.kroaches hiding on or under some of the dirty stacked up crates from the side scurried out startled, the loud continuous sounds breaking the silence of the dark place.

The man wielding the handgun was wearing a large black coat over his body. He stood at the entrance with a hand holding the gun positioned in front of him, his lowered face was hidden by the black cap, but the eyes peeking out were brown and cold, emotionless even. It was like shooting down a live human was nothing but a walk in the park, natural and a matter of fact.

He strode towards the direction of the boy he shot down, intent on triple-checking if the person was truly dead or not. His steps were leisurely, but since his legs were long, it didn't take much time for him to reach the motionless body lying face planted on the dirty and dusty floor. The place was dark, but it didn't bother the man one bit. He could make out where the head, limbs and other parts were. That's all that matters. A b.l.o.o.d.y stench wafted over, a.s.saulting his nose but it didn't elicit any reaction from the man. He merely lifted his left foot and stepped on the boy repeatedly. His actions were rough and full of strength. A sound of bones breaking made way to his ears but that seemed to not make the man any satisfied.

He raised his gun again and pointed it at the back of the boy's head. At that moment, his earpiece was ringing with another man's voice reporting that the police were coming. In reality, he could already hear the loud noises of the police cars nearing this place. Any minute they would be arriving. His current position was deep into the warehouse. The door was more than ten meters away. Once they infiltrate the place, he would be d.a.m.ned. But he didn't care. He still did things without feeling hurried.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

Two bullets got planted into the boy's skull, causing the area to stink more of blood. He remembered earlier, aside from the sound of the gunshots, he seemed to have heard some watery stuff splas.h.i.+ng or leaking out somewhere. That caused him to grin savagely as he reloaded the gun with bullets.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

Despite it being dark, some intruding rays of moonlight managed to illuminate their spot a bit, and he could barely make out some uneven or hollow surface on the boy's head. He crouched down, doing his best to avoid the pool of blood around the unmoving body. The man grabbed the other's hair and made it so that it would be convenient for him to test if the boy was really dead. He placed a finger before the other's nose and waited there for a few seconds.

'Not breathing anymore.'

'Faking it?'

'Should be not. I'm sure I didn't miss the mark, and it's actually stupid to think of missing when it's almost point blank.'

'Should be really dead.'

"Young Master!"

The man swung his head to the entrance as he heard the voice coming from there. He stood up unhurriedly, pocketing his two hands in the front of the black coat.

"George," he said.

"The police arrived. Old Gil and the others are stalling them. Let's get out of here now."

The unfeeling man threw one last stare at the corpse lying nearby before giving a nod to the newcomer. He began walking out of the warehouse with George following him.

A minute later, a shadowy figure appeared next to the corpse. Its form solidifying after five more seconds. By then, the two men could no longer be seen, and this figure who had just solidified into a boy was a duplicate of the person lying coldly on the floor. He looked out of breath, or someone who had held back his breathing for so long in fear of getting found out by the ruthless man. He huffed a few cold air, his eyes pinned onto his copy. The darkness of the place hid his very pale countenance and the few beads of sweat that formed on his face and neck. Under his black jacket, particularly at the back, cold sweat was also trickling down, silently testifying to how scared he had become.

"Dammit. I almost died..."

He staggered out of the warehouse, seizing the chance to flee while the police were still not here.

"That d.a.m.nable demon! He nearly killed me! He's a devil! He's so ruthless! Just to make sure I'm dead, he shot my copy's head five more times! If that is me... Dammit!"

"Son of a b.i.t.c.h. I'm of course happy to be alive. I'm so happy I can even host a party! You see, I survived the hunt of a demon like that? If not for me reaching level 3, and gaining that skill, I would be really dead! But what I want to know is how he knew where I am!"

The pale boy, Floyd Cruz, alertly wandered his eyes around as he peeked out from the entrance before sprinting in full force. He didn't even dare look back. All he did was run to the opposite direction from where the sound of the police cars and gunshots were coming. He ran past many shrubs, and trees, and reached the place were small houses began appearing. As his eyes looked around warily, a reply came from the phone pocketed in his jacket.

"You useless system! Son of a b.i.t.c.h! Just deduct it!" He frustratedly shouted as he jumped over a two meters fence and crouched down at the backyard of a random house he had chosen. Behind him, he suddenly heard some frightening words and voices for a criminal like him. He reckoned somebody saw him from the last alleyway he turned to and then alerted a nearby or pa.s.sing police to his direction. With reddening eyes, he charged towards the other side with his body lowered, and then immediately jumped over again to the fence to continue das.h.i.+ng messily on the web of streets.

Meanwhile, he listened to the system's report. Fury growing within as seconds and minutes pa.s.sed. When his system finished, he felt so ridiculous that he wanted to charge back to West Alina City and kill the b.i.t.c.h that turned him, a rich and pampered playboy like him, into an almost cornered rat.

With raging heart and mouth, under the full-mooned night, he roared out, "d.a.m.n you, b.i.t.c.h! d.a.m.n you, Gio! I'll surely make the both of you pay for this! I'll make the two of you wish for a quick death! Motherf.u.c.kers!"

Floyd cursed under his breath and immediately changed directions. However, not even five minutes pa.s.sed and his system once again told him someone was also manning the road ahead. The night's darkness seemed to become deeper, and every time he turned around or evade, no matter which way he chooses, a person dressed in blue or black would be waiting there. He grew tired every pa.s.sing minute and his stamina which was higher than normal athlete gradually ran out.

"What's happening?"

Floyd was barely gasping for breath and the system speaking from his phone only continued to repeat the same message. How he hoped it just went crazy or glitchy because every word it said was bad news, but he knew it only spoke the truth. After all, he had consented to the auto-deducting of points for information about possible threats. But he was certainly unhappy about his current situation. Just an hour ago, he almost died. He had barely escaped from that warehouse which used to be his hideout. Now, he's been running for almost an hour, and he's still being cornered?

Floyd almost went crazy as he jumped again over a fence and barged into a window of the small bamboo house. He got into a small dark room, only his improved vision allowed him to spot a very narrow bed at the corner.

'n.o.body's at home?'

Floyd's eyes busily swam around, his brain also furiously planning. Knowing that someone out there could pinpoint his location and even tell it to the police and those men in black, he s.h.i.+vered. His eyes which could not be hidden by the darkness turned redder from madness.

'Should I hide beneath the bed?'

'd.a.m.n. Then I'll just pretend to be the owner of this house.'

He began moving around and looking for a blanket or anything to cover himself with. After finding one at a cupboard on the left, he cheered within and celebrated that at least, his 15 luck was not that useless. He laid down the bed and then posed to be sleeping. In case somebody truly trespa.s.sed to look for him, he could pretend to be the owner of the house sleeping the night away.

To complete the story, he begrudgingly asked his system to apply the only system-rewarded Face Changer to himself, customizing his looks into that of a typical middle-aged and seemingly unmarried man. Now, only his clothes should be a problem. There was nothing he could about this though, given that he didn't have enough time to find any change of clothing in this room. He could only make sure to cover his whole body with the moldy and dust-smelling blanket. Floyd's heart was practically going wild from fear and worry as he lied on the bed with eyes closed.

'Heaven or h.e.l.l, just make them go away.'

'Let me pa.s.s the night safely! Then I'll make sure to go away from here. My revenge can wait!'

After his desperate praying, not even a minute pa.s.sed and noises and footsteps resounded outside. Then those footsteps gradually neared, and he could even tell that there was more than one person coming in. Even though he was sure his face had been changed, Floyd still almost held his breath. Then he thought, he must be like a real sleeping person or else his act would not be convincing.

A voice rang near to his ear after a few seconds of silence. "Is he the only one here?"

Floyd almost cursed out when he recognized the voice as that guy's.

"I searched around, he's the only person here."

"The face is different," replied the first voice.

"Yes, young master. It's confusing. That anonymous broker informing us of that scourge's location said he's here. He kept on saying Floyd is not dead and that he's here."

"The police outside received the same information, right?"

"Yes. Our men monitoring the police had intercepted the same exact info. Whoever that anonymous broker is, either he's too efficient or too malicious. Must have a great grudge against this Floyd if he's this hardcore. It could also be someone making stories up to make us worked up."

While Floyd's heart was furiously thumping in his chest, and his sweat continuously trickled down his forehead and back, the second voice paused for a moment. He first let the one he's calling young master to finish chuckling then resumed speaking. "Young master, how about this one? Did he finally fail to locate him?"

At that moment, Gio was busy scanning the dark place with his hawk-like eyes. He once served in the military so he had honed a certain comfortability with the darkness. Even if the place was hardly illuminated, his trained eyes would still make out something. Or even if his eyes couldn't, his other senses could.

For example, he could perfectly smell the unusual heavy thickness of dust, mold and half-rotting wood in the air. No matter how untidy a person was, having deteriorated a house to this extent was not that likely. His eyes flashed due to this.

"Did he lie to us?"

In reality, Gio suspected the anonymous caller earlier was only talking big to him. But he was intrigued by how the person bypa.s.sed George and his team, and also the police. When he was leaving the warehouse, this caller kept on insisting that Floyd didn't die and he was fleeing on the suburbs. He was disbelieving at first, but the mystery of this caller fascinated him. Moreover, he was someone obsessed with ensuring things went his way.

So he simply went back and joined the group cornering the person they always spotted per the anonymous broker's instruction. Now, he's inside this obviously abandoned house, looking at a middle-aged man pretending to be asleep.

George, the all-arounder a.s.sistant, exclaimed with wide eyes as he watched his boss drew close to the man pretend-sleeping on the bed. Gio's hand rose to the air and ruthlessly chopped on the person's neck. That time, Floyd was severely panicking, yet also helpless due to the fact that he was still counting on the effectiveness of his Face Changer. When a pain much heavier than usual overwhelmed his senses and made him faint, it was all too late for him. The last thing that crossed his mind was he should have just continued running on the streets. Maybe luck would eventually smile at him and allow him to break free.

"Call the others. Pick this thing up then probe him. If he's a fake, kill. If he's really Floyd, kindly ask him how he changed his appearance. Most importantly, I want to know how he survived my bullets."

For a few seconds, George remained looking at his boss' retreating figure, his brain wondering if his boss truly believed that this middle-aged good-for-nothing could be a Floyd that just suddenly changed his face.

How was that even possible?

George shook his head then pulled up a syringe from his coat's pocket. Before bringing this thing away, he must make this suspected guy very relaxed and peaceful. Then once back to Alina City, he'd make sure to chat nicely with him.

....

****

[Ding!]

[System Prompt: Nth Side Task! #TooLazyToCount]

System Task: Witness How A Demon Hunts

System Introduction: For the love of the system, just thoroughly accept your depravity and learn how to be a proper immoral host. Maybe if you see personally how a real demon hunts, you'll evolve. So go now and find your s.e.xmate. You fail if you can't find him before 10 pm.

Quest Rewards:

-1000 Pleasure Points

Failure Consequences:

-Not g.a.n.g.b.a.n.g, but don't be happy yet

-Steffy will recover all her memories!

*****

Sofony's complicated gaze was glued to the system interface in her mind, watching this particular page turned into texts of congratulations.

She was located not too far away from the warehouse, hiding behind a relatively obscure tree. Because the system dropped Steffy's name, she could not reject the mission. She did travel all the way to this place since according to her bought Intel, Gio was here.

A little more than an hour ago, she witnessed how Gio 'killed' Floyd. The experience had not been in any way easy for her, especially after the system made sure to show her five different screens depicting five different angles on how everything unfolded. She couldn't appreciate the high definition live streaming because it only made her see the blood-curdling display clearly. For someone like her who greatly disliked violence and the sight of blood, it was torture. The terror that enveloped her was way greater than when she saw many people dying due to an explosion.

It was Gio doing the murder, the one firing away that scary weapon. This fact froze her in place and disturbed her heart. Reading his record of killings from a screen and seeing it personally was really very different. She was terrified because, in her eyes, all she could see was a heartless demon.

Did she sleep every night with a person like this?

Would she also become like this?

All the questions that popped up in her mind made her stay rooted to her hiding spot. Probably only after she witnessed something unusual from the corpse did she recover from the shock and stop trembling. Gio already left. But now every screen before her showed a shadow manifesting near the corpse, gradually turning into a figure that was actually Floyd! It was showing he was unharmed!

The sight once again scared her as she's now fully seeing how powerful, unfathomable, and scary a higher-leveled host could be!

'Did he just revive?'

'This is possible?'

If not for the urging of her system, she probably would stay dumbfounded for a long while and forget that what's important was how Floyd was still alive.

It took her long before Sofony began to spend points on making the system broadcast Floyd's location to the police and Gio's people. As hours pa.s.sed, she became very tense, worried that before he would get cornered, her points would run out first. She started to fear for her life, knowing that once Floyd learned she was the person behind his current predicament, he would madly retaliate against her. By then, she would certainly become another Agatha Geere, maybe even ending up worst. This time she recognized that she was really scared for her life and all she hoped for was Floyd's arrest - or even death.

When her system showed her how Floyd ended up caught by Gio despite the changes in his looks, Sofony's gaze became more complicated and she didn't know what to think about the relief that washed over her whole body and mind. The hateful voice of the system reminded her that she still had technically completed the task as she really did witness how Gio usually kills people, making this trip quite worthwhile. However, just like what she felt when Floyd was caught instead of killed, this 'witness how a demon hunts' task also made her very conflicted within.

So many complicatedly dark thoughts and questions started to swim in her mind. When she began walking away there, she felt cold all over even though she had a thick dark blue windbreaker put on.

The waxing moon above was not beautiful today, she thought.

The night was no longer young.