"Attention: High-risk target [Momiji] has been confird off the coast of Umikaze City and has now made landfall."
Inspector Sato stared at the ssage on his ancient Nokia phone, his brow furrowed. The thing he had feared most had finally happened. Because the [Card] had last appeared in Umikaze City, these dangerous individuals were now appearing one after another. Including the newly confird [Momiji], there were now 3 high-risk targets and 7 dangerous-level observation subjects in his jurisdiction. Furthermore, the people accompanying them were, in all likelihood, unidentified Reincarnators.
In an instant, Umikaze City had beco a powder keg.
Mizuki Akiyama, noticing her ntor's grim expression, carefully placed a cup of coffee on his desk. "Inspector, is there anything I can do to help?" she asked, batting her eyelashes, subtly hinting that he could make use of her family's connections.
But Sato just rubbed his temples. The Akiyama family was indeed powerful, but against monsters like these, the military could only be the last resort, never a conventional weapon. Power that is rarely seen holds the greatest deterrent. The mont the military engages in an open conflict with Reincarnators, the Reincarnators will begin to test just how much damage they can inflict on the existing order, and chaos will inevitably follow.
The reason Japan remained stable, the reason it hadn't devolved into a paradise for shooter-type Reincarnators like the Federation, was precisely because it kept its true strength hidden. Every Reincarnator who had attempted to challenge the established order in Japan had been swiftly and silently eliminated, which served as a massive deterrent to other would-be warlords. Coupled with the strictest gun control asures in the world, Japan was the worst place for a shooter-specialist to operate.
It was just that this ti, the ones who had co were not easy to deal with.
Knock, knock.
The office door opened. Both of them looked up to see the frustrated face of their director peeking in. Sato said nothing. He simply put down his coffee, stood up, and walked toward the door. Mizuki knew what this ant. Another dangerous mission that only her ntor could handle. She looked around the office. While there were several other colleagues who supposedly possessed special abilities like her ntor, they were all currently staring intently at their own navels, having reduced their presence to an absolute minimum.
As Sato reached the door, he paused as if rembering sothing, and turned back. "Mizuki, I'm going to be busy for the next few days. If anything happens with the Kaito Shirogane case, I need you to use your best judgnt on the scene."
Mizuki's eyes went wide. She couldn't believe he was handing such a mission over to her alone. But seeing the looks from her other colleagues, she swallowed her panic, nodded, and sat back down.
She tried to comfort herself. Kaito Shirogane is just an observation target. Just observation... It's fine.
Outside the office, Director Kondo, who knew so of the details, sighed. "Sato, you know how new our departnt is. We're still spread thin. I have to ask you to handle this one more ti."
Sato just nodded, saying nothing. The Director knew he was in the wrong, but he had no better option. In this situation, he felt like the worst kind of boss, exploiting Sato's sense of duty because he knew he would comply. But in the face of a once-in-a-century paradigm shift like this, no country had a perfect solution. They could only rely on heroic individuals like Sato to step up.
Sato walked out of the building and drove directly toward the Umikaze City port district.
Not long after he left, the phone on the Director's desk—who had barely had a chance to sit back down—rang again.
"Director Kondo. We've just received word. The Sanyue Group from Korea is sending an inspection team. They're saying they want to build a new production line in Umikaze City."
"Given the current situation, I need you to dispatch personnel to ensure the inspection team is not affected by any... unstable elents."
Director Kondo felt his chronic migraine beginning to flare up. This was supposed to be a quiet, peaceful corner of the country. Why was everything happening at once? But the Sanyue Group was one of the major players in the global microchip industry. This was an industrial opportunity Japan could not afford to ignore. He reluctantly accepted the task.
He looked out the window. The sky over the ocean was dark with clouds. A storm was coming.
Kaito looked at Douma's head in his hands. He tested it and found he could still place it in his inventory. He thought for a mont and tentatively asked, "Is there anything I can do with this extra head?"
Knight-chan, still wearing her cheerful smile, didn't look at all like a being that possessed such terrifying speed and power. "Heads like these, which can be used as a cornerstone of power, are excellent items! A Reincarnator can pay a certain price, at specific nodes, to fuse them into their own body."
She nodded as she explained. "As they say, a single general's victory is built on ten thousand bones. The deaths of countless ordinary people forge a single strong warrior. And the corpses of many strong warriors are what forge the strongest Reincarnator."
"If you don't need this head," she added, "we can also recycle it for a price of 3000 Dinsional Points."
Kaito imdiately stored Douma's head. "Recycle." He could tell just from the offer that it was a lowball scam. And according to Knight-chan's explanation, it seed that Reincarnators weren't limited to just this one fusion at the [Mortal]-tier advancent. There would be other opportunities to fuse materials from other strong enemies, allowing one to gain more and more powerful traits. These traits would beco a vital part of a Reincarnator's strength.
"Is there a way for to fuse other traits right now, Miss Knight?"
Knight-chan just smiled. "I'm afraid I don't know about that. All I know is that when a Reincarnator ets the conditions, they will show a special glow in my eyes."
Kaito clicked his tongue. This was probably another one of those cryptic hints, like the puzzles for hidden quests in video gas. But this was a multiplayer ga, and where there were puzzles, there were walkthroughs. The only difference was the price you had to pay.
He waved goodbye and walked out of the shop. Kaito checked his ti. He had already spent nearly an hour in the public space. He already knew from the [Black Butler] that the [Training Hall] was a place to spend DP and Singularities to rapidly level up abilities, proficiencies, and even attributes. He didn't plan on using up his remaining hour of Dwell Ti now; he needed to save that ti for training.
Besides, he had sothing far more urgent that he couldn't wait to do.
Kaito hurried to the Stall District, spent 1000 Dinsional Points to rent a temporary stall, and then put Douma's head on display. He set it to "Accepting Offers," but all trades would have to be manually confird by him. This was another test. Anyone who needed a head like this would almost certainly be soone who knew about the secret fusion pathways. The best way to get that information was from the buyers themselves.
Douma's head was an excellent material. The mont it was displayed, it attracted a lot of attention. Kaito didn't wait. He imdiately teleported back to his private space and returned to the real world.
Kaito reappeared in his dorm room. He glanced at the phone he had left on his desk. Less than five minutes had passed in reality. He opened the curtains and dialed a number.
"Hello, Counselor Tanaka? It's Kaito Shirogane."
"Isn't there an international marathon in Hakone in the next few days?"
"Yes, that's right. I was thinking of participating. You know I'm pretty good at sports. Heh. If I'm lucky, I might even bring so honor back to the university."
On the other end of the line, Counselor Tanaka heard his request and checked the schedule. She saw that sports were indeed one of the few areas where Kaito could channel that monstrous strength of his into sothing positive. She didn't refuse. He was already in the second sester of his third year, and his required courses were almost finished anyway.
"Do you need to send a classmate with you… You know what, never mind. Just be safe."
The counselor hesitated, but before she could say more, she was t with the dial tone.
Kaito hung up, his mood quite good. He opened his laptop, plugged in the data drive he had looted from Evans's inventory, and skillfully opened a certain website called "Silk Road," where he began to use his cash to lower the difficulty of acquiring information.
By that evening, an employee roster for the [Hakone Energy Group] appeared on his computer.
Kaito looked at the list. He didn't find the na "Ryo Zangetsu." But then, a smile spread across his face.
"Ryo Zangetsu, RZ… Ryuzaki Zenji…"
"Vincent. That's a rather fatal habit you have."
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