The Author Is Speechless
Chapter 271: The Mourning Ceremony. Part 10

Chapter 271: The Mourning Ceremony. Part 10

’Triple X Superhuman Corporation, public safety department’

The office was busy as always due to the sudden increase of criminals with superhuman strength. The superhuman police department was cooperating with them so their work increased tenfold which made all of the office staff annoyed.

"Ugh... this report is taking ages! Senior Shida, can you bring me the file from 20 years ago that my father worked on before passing away?"

"Why?" His co-worker asked.

"Yesterday, a group of kids came running into the police station saying their friend got missing in an abandoned house. They filed a case and left after leaving their contact info. Their faces looked like they had seen a ghost or something. Later after investigating, I found out that there is nobody called Kanna. Nothing, absolutely nothing. It’s like she appeared out of thin air and vanished. After I called the kid who filed a missing case, he broke into tears. Not only him, but the other two also broke into tears after hearing there is no kid named Kanna. Those kids didn’t lie and I am so sure about that."

"How did you know those kids didn’t lie?"

Shida looked at him by pointing at his eyes, "Did you forget? I can see if anyone is lying. It’s an ability I was born with. That’s why I got this job pretty quickly as a detective. I can solve cases ten times faster than anyone."

"So why are you looking through a 20-year-old file that your father worked on?"

"Why?" He clicked on a picture on his computer and showed him an old picture of a kid who was crying in front of an abandoned hospital. "See this kid?"

"Yes? He seems to be crying in front of an old hospital. What is he doing with those candles?"

"20 years ago when my father was nearly at his retirement age, a kid from high school came running with his friends and filed a report. 2 days later, my father found out there was no kid named after as the high schooler reported. He went to his house to give him a beating for making such a joke but when the kid showed him some evidence of the missing kid’s existence, he became a little interested and decided to solve the case on his own. Later that day, he again came running with one of his friends, saying that another of the group got missing.

To understand what was going on, he took the signatures of every kid who was involved and put the paper in a different envelope. A week later, he found an extra envelope with an empty page. Since he was a wise man, he quickly realised he would never make mistakes. That day, the boy again filed another missing case which made him rethink the whole situation.

Later that day, he found another extra envelope in his drawer that he didn’t remember putting it in. This made him think the boy wasn’t telling a lie. Because when he went to his school, he found 6 extra seats in his classroom, 6 empty rows in the homeroom teacher’s notebook, 6 empty lockers and 6 empty seats in a club where there were supposed to be 8 members. There is no way a school would allow only 2 people to run a club throughout the year. There was evidence of 6 people missing without any evidence. So he contacted the superhuman agency to look for any criminal who could wipe memories from a person. But there was nobody with such broken ability ever recorded in history."

Shida sighed and again explained, "My father spent his remaining life researching the false missing case. Of course, he found 4 cases related to it. They are all repeated every 20 years. I didn’t believe it at first but seeing this in real life truly shocked me."

"So you’re saying more will go missing this year?"

"I’m afraid so. But let’s contact Ryoko, the kid who filed the missing complaint."

"Let’s get some more info out of him. I am getting curious."

******

******

*RING!!! RING!!! RING!!!*

Adonis noticed the phone ringing sound from a room far away from the place they were walking. They were all holding hands, looking for Mahiko suddenly heard his phone ringing and decided to check it.

After they entered the room, they found the phone lying on the floor ringing. So Adonis received the call and said, "Hello? Who’s this?"

*Is this Mr Mahiko’s phone number?*

"Yes, but he is not available now. He is.. um.. we can’t find him."

*What do you mean you can’t find him? Can you explain it in detail? This is the Triple X Corporation, I am Detective Shida.*

"I am Futaba Adachi, a close friend of Mahiko and his classmate as well. The missing complaint he filed is indeed true. Our friend Kanna went missing and since nobody was helping, Mahiko nearly went mad and ran into the forest to find her. We chased him but we are facing trouble looking for him."

*You’re What?? You’re looking for him instead of informing us? Give us your location, we are coming.*

"Yes, it’s in the ’X’ area. But you won’t find it though. It’s impossible for a person to look for it."

*Hello? Can you hear me? Hello h...*

<Out of Network>

Adonis looked at the phone and saw there was no network. So he doubted if they heard the location.

"Ryoko, can you hold this?" Adonis handed him over the phone and looked above. He then said, "Maybe something pulled him inside the gap between the ceiling and roof. If I can go inside, maybe I might be able to spot him."

"Go inside? Are you mad?" Ryoko yelled.

"So what do you suggest? Screaming out his name isn’t working at all." Adonis said that but in his mind, he had already commanded some of his small undead creatures to look for the two of them. In less than a minute, a small one spotted Kanna and sent a signal to Adonis through telepathy.

*Master, Meat, I, find, meat. Girl, meat.*

’Oh? Already? What about the boy?’

*Boy, meat, close, girl, meat. Boy, meat, cry.*

’Let them be alone. I don’t want to drag him out and mess with the game. It’s better if he disappears.’

*Yes...*

Suddenly, Mahiko screamed at the top of his lungs, running somewhere on the second floor. In front of his loud footsteps, everyone heard something dragged quickly and then, the body of Kanna was thrown from the staircase.

Mahiko came down crying and held her nearly rotten body and started to cry.

’Wait... what is going on? Why is Kanna dragged out? Isn’t it Mahiko’s turn to disappear for the sake of the quest? What happened? Oi system! What is going on?’

A screen appeared in front of him

[Warning! A bug has interrupted the quest]

[Cancelling all the quests for the safety of the player. Please select the "Safe Mode" or "Return" or "Re-start"]

Three red options appeared and he started sweating. "System, what is safe mode?" He hushed at the screen and looked at everyone who was covering their nose due to the rotten smell. He was making sure nobody could hear him.

[Safe mode will unlock 20% of your seal and will cancel the quest. But the player won’t be able to go back until the previous deadline of the quest. This won’t affect the player’s Qi stage because a bug has been interrupted.]

"So I will be stuck here for more than 2 years?"

[Affirmative.]

"With 20% of my real strength?"

[Affirmative]

"Do you know what caused the quest to stop midway?"

[Negative. The core system is figuring it out.]

"More than 2 years huh? I guess I can live among the mortals without any issue with 20% of my real strength. With this, I am already the strongest person on Yerth." Adonis mumbled and looked at the group who were trying to figure out what to do with the rotten body. They couldn’t call the cops or anyone because it was a remote area. Not to mention, they were in the middle of a forest.

But suddenly, Mahiko came running at Adonis with a knife, screaming. "It’s all your fault, you devil!!"

Adonis was speechless...

"Mahiko don’t!!!" Rika tried to stop him but the knife pierced it through his hand. Adonis was able to save his body but it cost him one of his fingers.

"It’s all your fault! It was you who killed Kanna!"

"Me? What makes you think it was me who killed Kanna? I was with Ryoko all the time when you guys were hiding. Right? Ryoko?"

Adonis looked at him but Ryoko refused. He said, "Are you sure?"

’Heheh.. So this is his true form huh?’ Adonis saw the true form of his soul and started to laugh at Ryoko loudly. His laugh was so devilish that every evil spirit that lived inside the house ran away in terror.

Adonis might have become a kid because of the quest but with his 20% strength, he was stronger than he was on Earth a few decades ago.

"So you guys are accusing me of killing her huh? Where is the evidence? And Ryoko, it wasn’t nice of you to go against me." Adonis gave off a smile and walked out of the house. But the others believed Ryoko and Mahiko that they just chased Adonis and pinned him down to the ground.

He looked at the clear blue sky and mumbled, ’If my master somehow heard this news of me getting pinned down by some mortals, he’d just destroy this whole galaxy because someone bullied me. Master, please don’t come out until my quest is over...I don’t want to show you this helpless state of mine. Kobayashi, watch over me please-_-.’

"Futaba!!! So it was true that you killed Kanna! And you’re an able user! That shaman shit is just a lie to deceive us! You’re a criminal" Ryoko yelled near his ear but Adonis was unfazed by the whole situation. He was just staring at the sky, thinking about the helpless universe which was going to get destroyed by his master. He was feeling sad for the innocent people and the waste of food.