A Dangerous Target

After the school day ended, he followed the rest of his classmates out of school. But instead of going home, he went into a public bathroom and changed into casual clothes.

Leaving the bathroom, he followed the compass once again. After using it twice before, he had gotten better at finding his targets. He took the train and was able to find his target within an hour and a half.

He tracked the player down to a run-down apartment complex. He watched from afar as he determined which of the rooms was his target.

He didn't enter the complex because he didn't want to appear suspicious. He had no reason to enter the complex and his target would die soon, so he didn't want to increase his chances of being on the list of suspects.

This area he was currently at was shady and he'd been told not to come here. Gangs were common, so many CCTV cameras were placed.

Ethan was extremely wary, making sure nobody was watching. The person he was targeting could be dangerous.

After watching and walking around the neighbourhood for a couple of hours, he got the feel for the area. During that entire time, his target never left the apartment, so Ethan returned home.

While Ethan didn't find the face of the target, he managed to find the location of their residence. Ethan asked around the neighbours, but they all had little information about the man. And the ones that did, told him to avoid the man who lived there at all costs.

When Ethan returned home, he hopped on his computer and tried to get some information. Unfortunately for Ethan, his research didn't yield many results.

He got some names of the people who lived in the apartment complex but couldn't get the name of the person or people who lived inside the specific apartment.

As a consolation, he was able to find out a bit about the landlord, who owned the place.

While doing his research, he also checked the news. There was a murder that was committed today and a young girl was killed. After doing a bit of digging, he found out the that girl was just an ordinary.

No special connections. There was no reason for a girl like that to be murdered. There is a chance that she may be killed by a serial killer or been murdered for some other reason, but the most likely reason is another player.

He kept a close eye on the case, hoping to gain some information on the potential suspects that may be a player.

The next day, Ethan went to school again, and then went to the apartment complex.

Nothing.

He got nothing. Ethan stayed there the entire day until it was nearly 10:00 before leaving. Despite Ethan suffering from extreme boredom, he still stuck it out, hoping that he would get a glimpse of his target.

The following day, Ethan got up extra early so he could check the apartment complex before school. The result was the same as yesterday. His target hadn't moved from his house in three days.

The day prior, Ethan asked Sia to keep track of the arrow when he was at school. If the arrow deviated by a couple of degrees, the target had moved from his house.

Ethan had to do a lot of maths, to calculate the exact angle, while accounting for a margin of error in order to determine whether they had left. It was all for nothing, as the target never left the house.

After school, Ethan was determined to get at least the face of his target. He would be a food delivery service person, but someone who accidentally got the food to the wrong address.

With his plan set, he ordered takeout from a food service restaurant and went to the house of his target. It was very risky, but he was willing to take it. He couldn't wait.

He walked over to the apartment building and pressed the doorbell.

Initially, nothing occurred. Ethan waited 2 minutes before the door finally opened.

Out came a man, with dishevelled black hair and a beard. Ethan's instincts immediately told him that this man was dangerous.

Ethan was afraid. But he couldn't falter. The man was a player and showing fear could be fatal. Suppressing that instinct, Ethan spoke his rehearsed lines.

"Good evening! I have a delivery for James. Are you the one who ordered the food?" Ethan asked, wearing a smile on his face.

"Uh... no. You have the wrong address." The man responded.

Ethan checked his phone, pretending to look at the messages. "I'm sorry, I must have made a mistake." Ethan then left the apartment.

To make his act more convincing Ethan muttered quietly, "Shit, I misspelt the address. I hope the customer doesn't complain."

Ethan ran away in a hurry. The man he faced was dangerous. His 12 in perception warned him and Ethan wasn't one to reject his gut feeling.

Ethan was luckily able to sneak a picture of his target when he opened his phone. He rushed home soon afterwards.

When he continued research, he was able to gain a bit more information about his target, but nothing really of substance.

When checking local news, social media and similar websites, he couldn't determine anything. The man was just too much of a blank page. Going in blind was going to end badly.

And Ethan got the feeling that he was dangerous.

Could he figure out how to kill him? Of course.

Would it be risky? Definitely.

Was it a bad idea? Of course. 

If Ethan went for the man now, he would either die or risk being caught by the authorities.

At this stage of the game, it was the same as a death sentence if he was caught. Ethan could only target the man with the skills he had.

Any other useful skills he could buy were too expensive to buy. Ethan figured that he could find a way to kill the target with the resources he had on hand, but it would take too much time.

He needed to kill as many targets as fast as possible. The more he killed, the greater advantage he would get. In a battle royal with 50,000 people, he needed all the advantages he could get.

So he made a calculated decision. To change his target.

Ethan asked Sia about using another tracking compass while one is active. The system told him that was possible to track multiple people.

However, the tracker would only lock onto the nearest target. If the nearest target was the one he was already tracking, then the compass would go to waste.

So Ethan had to move further away before tracking attempting to track the next person. Ethan was a bit annoyed since he would have to waste time to go to his target's home, but it was a necessary consequence.

He didn't want to waste 250 coins, or risk dying. So that was his only option.