"Y-You bastard!" The gang leader shouted with extreme anger.
He was beyond outraged at what happened. He just went inside for a few minutes and when he came back, suddenly all of his gang members were killed or crippled for life.
Then, he immediately activated his gift. All of his soul force was used on what he was about to do.
'He's also a level 9 white soul.' Acht took a fighting pose and then dashed toward him like a ghost.
The man was almost taken aback by his speed but he still concentrated on his gift.
Suddenly, sand started accumulating in front of him. It wasn't sand per see but an accumulation of all the dust and dirt particles around him that resemble sand.
Soon, a ball of sand had accumulated in front of him. It was almost as large as the man's frame.
"Take this!" He shouted and blasted the sand ball at a high speed.
In normal cases, Acht would have dodged it. However, he wanted to try the new artifact he bought so he immediately pulled it out of the spatial ring and activated it.
He only had a split of a second to react so he didn't wait for it to fully ooze out of the artifact.
*BOOOOMMMMM*
The black liquid and the sand ball collided violently followed by a loud explosion that created a strong gush of air.
"Ugh!" The leader couldn't hold his foot and was sent flying until he hit the walls of the vault.
As for Acht, he used his gift to stay rooted to the ground.
After everything subsided, the boy immediately closed the distance between him and the leader to finish him off. The other was incapable of moving fastly because of his injury so he couldn't react to it.
"Wait! Don't kill me!" The man put his hand in front of him as a gesture for Acht to stop.
The other didn't care and moved in to slit his throat with his sword.
"I can give you the place where we get our goods from!" He closed his eyes and shouted in fright.
Acht's sword suddenly stopped and looked at the man who was sweating buckets at the moment.
"Speak." He said while keeping his sword near his throat.
"Our main supplier is the Toy factory on the other side of the city. They have a hidden laboratory where they make soul amplifiers." He blurted out everything he knew without caring about anything.
His life was way more important to him than his work. He could always change the place where he works but he will never be able to do so if he was killed by this monster.
"I see. Who's the owner of this factory?" Acht asked.
"I don't know! They keep their identity a secret!"
Acht didn't immediately react to his answer since he seemed to be telling the truth.
"Good."
He nodded his head in approval. The man thought he was finally spared. But, instead of seeing the sword get away from his neck, he saw Acht lift it up and then slashed down agily.
*Swish*
The man's throat was slit easily like a piece of butter. He looked at the boy with deep shock and horror in his eyes.
Then he tried to mutter one single word with all of his ability.
"Why?"
Acht chuckled slightly and answered.
"I never promised you anything…idiot."
Then, with a sense of hatred and hopelessness, the man closed his eyes and died silently.
"Stupidity is such an interesting thing to see," Acht muttered while wiping the blood from his face.
Humans are really bizarre when they're in imminent danger. You could see all kinds of emotions collide to form what many would see as 'despair'.
They would weep, beg, curse, and even laugh like maniacs. It was all a mechanism that their brains created so that they could stay sane enough.
But, the worst drawback of this mechanism is losing their ability to think rationally. They will do anything that even they would not accept just so that they could get another second to live.
Acht had seen these reactions thousands of times to the point where he could discern them with just a glance.
But, never in his two lives did he feel any sympathy for those he killed. They were all bastards and scumbags who harmed others for their own benefits. So, killing them was in fact the best thing to do since that meant the world would get rid of shitty humans.
Yet, he never considered himself a hero or some savior. He was also as shitty as they were.
"When a scumbag meets another scumbag…you should always expect low moves like that." He said as he walked away from the scene before the cops could come.
When he was far enough, he rested his back against a wall and opened his phone.
'They said that I should take a picture of the truck and the gang members. I left some of them alive so that should do it. As for the other part…' He gazed at the next part of the mission that made him wait for the gang leader to speak.
'They said that if I find a lead to the distributor I will get an extra 300 coins. It seems to be something they really wanna know for them to pay 6 times the initial reward for the information only.'
But, the question remains: Should he go to the puppet factory and deal with the laboratory by himself?
The mission description didn't specify whether they wanted information alone or physical evidence too. But, to make sure he did the mission perfectly, Acht decided to go there. It could be nothing but a lie, for all he cared.
After deciding on his next destination, he jumped on one of the buildings and disappeared into the horizon.
The toy factory was the only one in Lagradon so it was responsible for supplying all of the capital with toys which probably made it easier for them to distribute the soul amplifiers too.
It was a smart thing to do but it was also equally risky.
After jumping from one building to another, Acht finally found himself a few hundred meters away from the factory.
He didn't immediately move in since he wanted to see any suspicious movement in any part of the factory.
From such a distance, people would've needed binoculars to see clearly. However, Acht's eyes were extremely sharp so he didn't need them.
Anyway, the factory didn't seem to be doing any shady things from an outside perspective.
There were no trucks that moved in or out or anything suspicious for that matter.
"I need to get closer."
After closing the distance to 100 meters instead of 400 meters, he could see a lot clearer and also sense any type of soul energy around the place better.
"Hm? What's this?" He closed his eyes and tried to feel the abnormality.
There was indeed a strong concentration of soul force in a particular part of the factory. That part wasn't inside the building…but under it.
"I think I found what I'm looking for." He smiled slightly at his discovery.
But, he still needed to get inside and get some evidence or it would only be nothing but empty words.
"The guards don't seem to be that professional." He took a look at the two men patrolling the place.
The heat from the sun made them feel tired so they were barely even looking around.
So, he waited for them to leave, and then he jumped over the factory walls and moved near the main building.
Then, he took a look inside the building from one of the windows.
There were a lot of workers who were making dolls and all kinds of toys inside. It looked like a normal factory from just one look. But Acht was sure of it. There was a strong accumulation of soul force under the building.
'How should I enter without alerting anyone.' He wondered quietly.
Entering from the main door is out of the question. So, he had to find another way from outside.
As he was looking around aimlessly like that, his eyes caught something.
Behind the factory, there was a small door cornered behind a big trash can.
The door seemed unused, but Acht knew that was not the case since he saw someone walk inside from there. The man who entered was wearing a white coat and seemed to be looking around a lot before he entered inside.
Acht then walked to the door and opened it. This shady door would probably lead to the laboratory if his guess was on point.
"Excuse my intrusion." He said with a sarcastic tone to no one in particular.
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