38 Waiter!!

Washing up, Luke came out of his room, wearing his more casual mask with nothing on it but The Sage written on it, while it covered only the upper half of his face.

Seeing The Sage exit his room, OriginalMagus received a quest completion notification along with his reward, to his satisfaction.

"Mr. Sage. Lucy is currently sleeping in the secondary guest room."

Hearing this, Luke slightly smirked before questioning flatly. "Are you sure?"

"Y-" Just as OriginalMagus was about to respond, he suddenly thought of something and ran towards to only other room in the apartment other than The Sage's quarters.

*Bang*

He rushed in, only to find an empty bed, and an open window, much to his dismay.

Luke had already known of such a situation and already had a method to track Lucy. However, before he did that, he wanted to try an experiment.

He did not immediately rush after the fleeing Lucy, nor sent OriginalMagus on a mission. He just simply waited for something to happen.

And something did happen. Nearly 30 seconds after OriginalMagus entered the room, another mission notification popped up on OriginalMagus' interface.

============

Mission: Search

Lucy, who was placed under your care by The Sage has escaped.

Task: Find her location with the help of The Sage in 1 day.

Mission completion reward: 50 exp

Mission failure: Lucy escapes

Mission difficulty: F

============

'I knew it!' Luke screamed in him mind.

'The system automatically gives missions to continue a story! I can make use of this, without spending my daily quota!' he thought inwardly as he turned to the player and said,

"It is not your fault she escaped. It doesn't matter that much anyway. I already tagged her with my energy. I can find her as long as she is still in the capital. Don't worry, and instead come and have some breakfast with me. I'm starving!"

The two left the penthouse and went to the café across the street.

"Lucy wouldn't have jumped directly from the 12th floor right?" questioned OriginalMagus, who instantly got a ridiculing glance from Luke.

"No. She used the sewage pipe to climb to the 4th floor, and then climbed down to the ground using the balconies."

"How do yo-"

Interjecting OriginalMagus' question, Luke spoke as he turned back and began walking.

"The pipes from the 12th to 4th floors are a little lose, while the ones below are perfectly fixed. Leaving the only option of growing wings and flying away, or climbing down using the balconies."

In reality, Luke had sensed the faint presence of his energy, which would last for at least rest of the day. However, to make his impression more lasting on the player, he employed some 'half-truths'.

…

After a filling breakfast, the two began their search for Lucy in earnest.

Luke acted as though he was analyzing everything and coming up with possible trajectories, and then choosing the most suitable one. In reality, he was only following the traces of his unique energy, and making some random fantasies similar to the ones he knew from one of his favorite television show as a kid called Sherlock *Moriarty*, on the infamously outdated 2D streaming platform Netfix.

'Sigh. I wonder why Netfix went out of business in the end? The just didn't bother with streaming 3D projections and became outdate over a few years, and were replaced by the streaming tyrant Discord+.'

Time went by as the two trudged through the city alleys, making sure not to go out in the open to protect The Sage's 'sensitive' identity, while Luke used Mind Magic to make his presence almost fade in the eyes of anyone they came across.

Ever since his close shave with The Resistance Queen, Rachel, Luke had always been on guard of revealing his identity to anyone. The fact that he was alive was one of his top secrets until he could come up with a method to safeguard himself, or completely kill her.

A few hours passed by as the two began to enter 'District 3' as it is officially called, and more informally known as the slums.

Using the Mind Magic proved incredibly useful here and avoided a lot of useless attention, however, it was definitely putting a significant drain on Luke's energy reserves.

He predicted he could last till morning if he wished to completely deplete his energy into using Mind Magic.

The two also stopped by to grab a few snacks along the way, and stopped by for a quick lunch at a slightly well-maintained restaurant, at least in comparison to the rest of the establishments in District 13 of the capital.

Luke entered and took a seat, before turning to the waiter.

However, as soon as he turned to take a look at the waiter, his gaze froze, while the water also stared right back at his with an insidious grin on his face. His Mind Magic was working on everyone present, except OriginalMagus, and this waiter!

"We finally meet The Sage, presumed dead around a month ago."

Alarm bells began to set off in Luke's mind, urging him to flee. Flee with all his might!!