Let the hunt begin (4), Check up

The calculating route, if it works he would gladly become a schemer.

He remembered a quote that made him chuckle: "Only villains calculate, heroes fight with their fists!"

'Was he a villain or a hero? That, he wasn't sure, but he'd rather prefer to be neither of them.'

The stereotypes and burdens on each were too heavy for his fragile bones to bear.

He gave another laugh, moving on, but the smile on his face was wiped out.

When do I start?

Then he remembered, I'll be meeting their boss tonight—that troublesome old man who doesn't want to die and is still paranoid. Who makes a meeting in a warehouse these days?

"Bingo," he exclaimed, his face lighting up like a white LED bulb.

He picked out the most important keywords: meeting, tonight, warehouse.

'If there's a meeting tonight to discuss something illegal… it's the perfect opportunity.'

He sat up straighter, tapping his chin with his index finger, his eyes narrowed in thought. 'Now, now, what can I do with this information?'

'Ah yes, I could give it to the police!' His hands clenched, squeezing the bedsheets.

"And if I do that, I can't be anonymous and, at the same time, catch him."

Yeah, yeah.

'How do I know the exact location?' His excitement calmed down once he remembered that.

'I should be able to search for it, right?'

A warehouse.

How hard can it be?

Jidenna stood under the harsh sunlight, sweat dripping from his head and trailing down into his shirt.

He regretted his decision to wear black again.

The heat was intense, blistering even, but thankfully, he couldn't get sunburned.

He remembered a sight he had seen in a video: a person's body looked like a cooked shrimp, red and all, and the wails—even from the video, it looked very painful.

He winced.

Another regret he had was his words in the morning: 'How hard can it be?' Because he had his answer now—very hard, like Hell's mode, level 1000 difficulty.

He took the cold pure water the seller offered him, tearing it open and gulping everything down until the last drop, but his throat still felt dry.

He had been searching around, walking since morning, but he hadn't seen any warehouse. He resorted to using glasses, a search engine, to look for warehouses around, but they were all working, occupied warehouses. 'They shouldn't be meeting in a warehouse where workers are, so it should be an abandoned one,' he thought, drinking his third cold pure water.

One hour later.

Still nothing. 'Arrgh!' he yelled out in frustration.

Staring at the map on his phone, for a split second, he felt like smashing it against the nearest wall.

He shook his head, dispelling the thought. He couldn't afford another one easily.

Seeing the increased number of pedestrians, the evening rush had come. He could feel it—the anxiety nipping at his heart.

'Was there really no other way?'

From his position, he looked beyond, ignoring the shoves and pushes from the rushing pedestrians, ignoring the grumbles and insults thrown his way.

His eyes narrowed in determination.

"Well… this will be dangerous."

****

A blanket of darkness covered the city, announcing to the people below that it was time to sleep.

But for others, the night wasn't for sleeping. No, it was for working.

Thud, thud.

A man walked out from the darkness, his footsteps echoing through the empty street, his pace unhurried.

The deeper he went, the more the surroundings changed. The formerly smooth paved roads now had cracks. The man passed through shacks made of wood and zinc.

After some twists, he stopped in front of a rundown building, its paint stained and peeling, and its iron door rusted. The flickering light gave it an eerie look.

The man, unbothered, stretched his arm, giving three long knocks and one short.

The door opened, and the man entered.

Just after the man entered, another man emerged from the side.

That man was Jidenna.

His eyes had a victorious glint.

He walked backward to the side, between two abandoned wooden shacks, away from any peering eyes that might be watching.

He reached for his pocket, bringing out the phone he had prepared for this.

His lips twitched in amusement, remembering how he got the phone.

Before he started trailing the boss, he had entered a club close to the bald man's house.

In the midst of vigorous dancers and dead drunk people, he found his victim. It had taken a bit of cajoling and money before he got the person's phone. After he was done, he immediately left.

A decision he was sure the drunk guy would regret tomorrow.

But with that, he solved his concern.

He had worried about how he could tip off the police without having it traced back to him.

With his gloved fingers, he typed in "112."

"112, what's your emergency?" a gruff male voice asked.

Jidenna immediately reported the address of the place, looking at the map on his phone.

Then the situation, "A meeting is going on now with several wanted individuals doing drugs." At the mention of the word "drugs," the operator's voice somehow became more serious.

In the background, Jidenna could hear the screeching of a chair against metal.

'Beep.'

He hung up the call, his face expressionless, indifferent to the operator's anxious request for confirmation.

He slinked further into the darkness, a triumphant smirk pulling at the edges of his lips.

He made his way out of the street, standing at a place where he could still see what was happening but would not be easily caught in it.

Very soon…

'Whirl!'

The multiple police sirens pierced through the night. The uneven ground was dyed blue and red.

Cars zoomed past.

Fully armed police officers jumped down in troops, running to the building, and—

Bang!

The door burst open.

"It's the police! Put your hands up!"

"The cops are here!"

From where he was, he could hear rounds of bullets being fired very clearly, followed by occasional screams.

His smirk became wider.

"Check-up."

"Now," his eyes moved to his next target.