Ferris used this time to rest his body. It felt like sleeping since he was technically in a prone position and all he had to do was pretend the roof of the truck was the bed and the air impacting him was the air conditioner.
He also stuck his head out multiple times during the trip, but since his phone was dead and the fact that the road the truck was traveling at had next to no signage—he had no idea where they were going.
It's almost night... Huh?
The truck took a hard turn, and he immediately noticed the shaking of the vehicle.
Did they go off-road? They'll probably arrive at their hideout soon.
Ferris flattened himself on the roof of the truck as much as possible to avoid being seen.
Another 10 minutes passed, and the smell of filth entered Ferris's nostrils.
Gosh, it stinks... Is their hideout a landfill?
Screech.
The truck stopped, and almost immediately, Ferris heard multiple calls.
"Get them out! They're going to come pick them up at midnight!" someone shouted.
Ferris closed his eyes and began heightening his senses. Although with his still undertrained body, he could still make use of essence as another sense.
Even if someone wasn't a blessing user, they would still have essence inside of them.
Focus...
***
Dining halls.
Felix was about to swallow a spoonful of delicious and hearty soup.
After the rigorous training given to him by his teacher, he couldn't help but smile—
Whack!
Felix dropped his spoon, causing a slight mess on the table.
Turning around, he saw Yaromech holding that damned wooden sword he always used to whack him with.
He screamed. "Why did you hit me?!"
Yaromech smirked, resting the sword on his shoulder. "Your training is too easy... It's time for a new lesson. If you can't detect my presence in under 5 seconds, I'll hit you!"
On the couch.
Whack!
In the bed.
Whack!
The kitchen counter.
Whack!
At the stairs.
Whack!
It wasn't even a lesson at all! His teacher didn't even bother actually teaching him anything. He gave Felix no grounds to even begin to learn how to detect presence.
Whack!
Yaromech is a pervert who loves to abuse weaklings. He's not a knight!
Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack!
After almost thousands of hits onto his head, back, shoulders, and more, Felix became more wary of his surroundings.
He slowly began to develop a certain 6th sense at that time—something that allowed him to detect certain intents, and the minute changes in the surrounding essence and environment.
***
Feel their presence... Ferris focused all of his physical five senses along with his sixth sense for essence detection.
There's a large empty space... and some rooms sticking out.
There's a cluster of essence in one of them. Same as the ones under him and were currently inside the truck's cargo.
Blessing users? They're trafficking blessing users? Ferris wondered, but he continued feeling his surroundings.
There's only about 10 kidnappers... They don't feel like blessing users, so I have a chance.
A chance.
Ferris patiently waited for the kidnappers to open the truck and start dragging the products out. Men, women, and children screamed but were quickly dealt with.
Ferris controlled every muscle fiber in his being to not move a single inch at their cries.
He continued waiting until the surrounding area was quiet before quietly jumping off the roof of the truck.
Just as he expected, the entire area was an abandoned landfill.
Without waiting, he made a mad dash toward the large trash piles and hid there for now.
It was already night time.
Now that he could look at the structure, it was a large hangar that stored an abandoned plane, along with a small building attached to the hanger. Could this place be an abandoned airport turned trash dump?
The smell got to his nose again, but he pushed through the stank.
Looking closer, he saw a single dim light in the center of the open hangar.
It was six of the kidnappers, playing cards on a makeshift table and makeshift chairs.
Above them was what remained of the large passenger plane.
I heard one of them saying that someone will come to pick them up at midnight. But they seem relaxed.
Organizations like these were usually a dog-eat-dog world, and they paid close attention to hierarchy.
Since they were relaxed, it meant that there was a bit of time left before their customer would come.
Ten kidnappers—six out in the hangar, four most likely inside the extension building keeping watch of the kidnapped blessing users.
Ferris didn't bother thinking about why they were kidnapping blessing users. Instead, he thought about something else.
Despite the formalization of heroes, there were still vigilante laws in place.
Ferris knew that what he was about to do was going to be very bloody. And revealing his identity would make applying to be a hero difficult, especially on his last chance.
He turned to look at the pile of trash he was hiding in and found a worn-out shiesty.
He also found two discolored gloves.
Unfortunately, for a weapon, all he could find was a metal pole.
Ew... So gross. Ferris held his breath under the mask. It felt like even a hundred showers wouldn't remove the smell he was emitting.
Plus, I look more like a damn kidnapper than them!
But he sighed out his worries
and locked in.
He sneakily circled to the other side of the hangar and quietly entered the abandoned plane from an opening hatch under the tail of the aircraft.
***
"Tsk."
"What? Are your cards bad? It's called poker for a reason," the man chuckled.
"What if I'm just fucking you with mind games, and I have the best set right now?" he rebutted.
Thud!
The six men suddenly stopped playing.
"What was that?"
"It's definitely a ghost," someone joked. "This is an abandoned private runway from decades ago, and the plane above us? It used to carry out secret flights to the other lost continents."
"Shut up." The one that looked the biggest and oldest made a statement. "Newbie, go check it out," he directed at the person in front of him.
The newbie quietly placed his cards on the table, back side up, and went up towards the rundown boarding stairs attached to the side of the plane.
"Tsk, arrogant motherfuckers. If only I had a blessing," he silently muttered.
Boarding the abandoned plane, he scanned the dark fuselage. It still had its seats in place, but some were missing.
Technically, there would be plenty of places for someone to hide in.
But it's probably nothing... It's probably some cat or animal, right?
Choke.
"Mmmph!" The newbie tried to scream, but his neck was being crushed by a choke hold. He tried struggling his legs, but for some reason, his legs were being pressed down.
Go to sleep.
Once the newbie lost consciousness, Ferris quietly settled him down and dragged him toward the cockpit.
After that, he poked his head through the cockpit's window and watched the five clueless men.
They didn't stick out that much in terms of appearance, and Ferris was confident in his skills as a swordsman.
But in particular, one of the men stuck out.
A scabbard? Ferris questioned the man. A fellow swordsman...? I doubt it.
The man was quite lanky. It seemed the scabbard was just there to compensate for something he lacked.
I would love to find what kind of sword is sheathed there, but...
Ferris didn't plan on killing them. He needed them alive for questioning—for the police or heroes. But as for even calling them in the first place, he'd think about it after he knocked them all out.
They're distracted. Ferris analyzed their behavior and decided to exit the plane from where he entered—the stairs near the tail end.
After exiting, he found some boxes lying around and quietly stacked them till they were about halfway to the vertical wing stabilizer.
Then he used it to jump and land more quietly compared to jumping directly from the ground.
Ferris silently walked along the top of the main fuselage and headed to near the front of the plane.
He readied his metal pipe and began waiting.
. . .
"What the fuck is that newbie taking so long for? We can't play the game without him," one of them complained.
"Heh... Who cares. How about we check what cards he has and fuck him over?"
"Nice, good idea," he replied, but was suddenly stopped by the older figure.
"Hold up." The older figure stood up and scanned the barren hangar.
He did some finger gestures and hand signals, but it was a mistake on his end.
Ferris now knew who the leader was between the five men and promptly placed his sights on his first target.
Before the other men could even understand what the older guy noticed, Ferris jumped from on top of the plane's nose.
A surprise present!
Slam.
Ferris landed on top of their table, causing some dust and the cards to fly.
Without hesitation, he raised his iron pole for a strike.