Click-!
Though far quieter than an actual gunshot, the distinct sound of a suppressed firearm echoed from the corridor.
Thud.
The sound of a heavy object collapsing followed.
Luo Shu emerged from the shadows of the hallway, holding a SIG Sauer pistol fitted with a suppressor.
Thanks to the suppressor, the gunshot's volume was comparable to a firecracker, and since it had been fired indoors, it shouldn't have drawn too much attention.
Still, Luo Shu himself had some minor complaints:
"I thought suppressors would make guns completely silent."
"That only happens in novels~. Suppressors just muffle the sound a bit; they can't make it silent." Kurumi's lazy voice drawled through his earpiece.
"Only in novels? I feel like I could achieve that with just a little tweaking... Never mind, forget that. How's Takina's situation?"
As he spoke, Luo Shu approached what his instincts had already identified as a corpse.
Earlier, using wind elements to scout from a distance, he had immediately spotted the target hiding inside a residential house.
Out of caution, Luo Shu and Takina Inoue had split up—one infiltrating for a stealth kill while the other waited outside as backup, ready to snipe any fleeing target.
Naturally, since Luo Shu had taken action, he wouldn't give the target any chance to escape. The moment he breached the premises, the target had already fallen to his gunfire. The operation had gone suspiciously smoothly.
But then... what was this faint unease gnawing at him?
Just as Luo Shu puzzled over this, Kurumi, having heard his question, checked the surveillance feed. Watching Takina Inoue lying prone on a rooftop, pressing down on her sniper rifle, she scanned the surroundings before raising an eyebrow and reporting:
"All clear here. Your side?"
"Already handled. I used my ability to check—no other dangerous items around."
Of course, the 'ability' Luo Shu referred to wasn't wind manipulation, but he knew Kurumi would assume as much.
That was information he'd keep to himself.
At that moment, the target's corpse caught Luo Shu's attention.
He frowned at the peculiar creature before him—its body covered in reddish-brown skin, devoid of genitalia, standing barely 80 centimetres tall, yet with unnaturally prominent fangs and claws, its eyes bulging like a fish's.
"So this is what they call a Lesser Demon?"
'The official scientific name should be Small Demon Kind Lifeform, but, well, calling it a Lesser Demon works too...though the real thing is much uglier than the name suggests...not that I've seen one in person, only internal photos.'
'That said, I heard the retrieval price for these corpses is quite high. By the time it reaches us, it's apparently 50,000 USD per body? Converting that, it's roughly 5 million yen?'
Hearing this, Luo Shu's gaze flickered slightly: "If it's less than that, I'll put bullets in Chief Tachibana's sports car."
"Ehh~~ With you saying that, I'm tempted to stash some away and only give them to you after you've planted the bullets."
While notifying the post-operation team to handle the situation, Kurumi asked:
"By the way, any unexpected discoveries at the scene?"
"None...aside from feeling slightly uneasy when this Lesser Demon's eyes locked onto me, and the fact it stank pretty badly, there weren't any surprises..."
'Though the whole reason I deliberately divided tasks with Takina was to make discoveries at the scene...' As Luo Shu thought this, he willed the Astronomy Club's internal forum to appear in his mind.
Inside the forum, Utaha Kasumigaoka's avatar was faintly blinking.
Luo Shu clicked the avatar and immediately saw a crudely hand-drawn map. While mentally mocking Utaha's drawing skills, his eyes locked onto the marked target location at its core.
As for this map, it was naturally leaked by Ken Yakushiji, using the hypnotic program Utaha Kasumigaoka had implanted in his mind.
The function essentially led Ken Yakushiji to believe he had a poor memory, causing him to regularly record essential matters in a diary-style format on his phone during quiet moments, then send them to a fake email account purchased with points.
Utaha herself would then organise the intelligence from these emails at the Astronomy Club's base and transmit it to Luo Shu via the internal forum.
The advantage was that no one had contacted Ken Yakushiji, nor had anyone interacted with Luo Shu, yet the intelligence still reached him.
To achieve this, Luo Shu and Utaha Kasumigaoka had spent considerable time discussing the plan during their off-road journey to Chiba. While not foolproof, the scheme wouldn't have significant vulnerabilities.
After all, Luo Shu hadn't yet discovered any Abyss Artefacts capable of infiltrating the system.
Under these circumstances, intelligence transmission orchestrated through system functions naturally couldn't be leaked.
'But this map...seems to be of Chiba's affluent district...So, how can I reasonably explain how I knew Katsuhiko Yakushiji was here?'
'Ah, got it.'
Luo Shu narrowed his eyes, then tentatively asked: "Kurumi, the stench from the Lesser Demon is quite distinctive. Do you think we could use it to track down other Lesser Demons?"
"Let me check...Ah, found it. The scent from Lesser Demons dissipates quickly once dispersed in the air, making even specialised equipment struggle to collect it...Wait, Luo Shu, don't tell me you can..."
"I can detect traces of it." Luo Shu said, half-truthfully.
The odour from Lesser Demons was a type of volatile compound. Once released into the atmosphere, he could indeed sense it using his wind manipulation abilities.
"Speaking of which, the scent from the direction of the wealthy district in Chiba City we passed earlier seemed particularly strong, but at the time I didn't realise it was the smell of a Lesser Demon."
That's right, what Luo Shu couldn't sense was actually the intensity of the Lesser Demon's scent. When he passed near the wealthy district, he only caught a faint, similar smell, and without any intuitive warning, it was the kind of thing Luo Shu couldn't even recall. But if he didn't mention it, who would know?
"Are you sure it's the stench level?" Kurumi, who had changed from her previous laziness, asked seriously.
Luo Shu maintained a calm facade as he hurriedly replied, "Yes, it's obvious. I only realised it after coming into close contact with the Lesser Demon."
"So, the wind element's reconnaissance is that effective? No wonder the section chief was willing to snatch people..." Kurumi muttered, then turned to Luo Shu and said:
"I've reported the information. Most likely, Hilda will surround the wealthy district first. If the target is really there, then Luo Shu, you might achieve great merit this time~~"
"Tsk tsk, if Mika gets promoted because of you this time, you'd better give me a raise, okay?"
The implication was that Kurumi thought Luo Shu might become her future superior, so she decided to act a bit coy first.
"Well, it depends on whether we can catch the person," Luo Shu said, revealing a somewhat meaningful smile.
'So, Mr Yakushiji, how do you plan to deal with this unexpected ambush?'