Chapter 37 A Man In A Fox Mask
It did nothing but make the IRO angrier. The problem of the gate explosion had already overwhelmed them. If Radmilo gave them any more trouble, then he had to rack his brains to avoid them.
Nonetheless, he would accept the quest. It was because the extra reward offered made him unable to refuse.
[Additional reward: From quest completion to the next year, you will receive 10% decrease in damage from the IRO members you once attacked in the emergency meeting
All rewards:
* You will gain skills that make your current weapon stronger
* A temporary item that increases magic attack by 25%
* Items that give you resistance to physical attacks
* Healing potion
* A book that describes details about \'stones\'
Impact of refusing the quest: You will lose all the item rewards]
[Would you accept the quest update?]
Radmilo said \'yes\' in his heart and the system automatically processed his decision. As soon as he confirmed, a new notification appeared.
[Please note that you cannot proceed to the next quest if the second quest has not been completed.
Failure to survive the attacks of the IRO members means you will result in no additional rewards.
If you complete the quest, you can teleport once to where you want. This does not apply if you receive 50% damage through the fight]
The system asked once again if Radmilo was sure of his decision and he unhesitatingly confirmed that he would carry out the quest. The list of rewards in the quest showed that his \'sponsor\' and \'support\' were aware of his actions.
Radmilo thought the reward \'book of stones\' would not appear if he did not get stuck in the axolotl\'s dungeon and talk to Clem. Even though Clem admitted that the system had an error, he thought his sponsor had realized something.
As soon as Radmilo returned to the past, everyone\'s mind was manipulated, including the Prime Movers and Instruments, as Clem stated. If that was true, then the memory of the sponsor was also impacted.
However, his sponsor must have noticed a strange change, because Radmilo killed Gordan and got into trouble with the IRO. Radmilo felt his sponsor considered his actions as something interesting. That was why his sponsor gave a quest to riot at the IRO\'s emergency meeting.
"Can I ask you something?"
Radmilo was forced to stop thinking about the Prime Movers because Carl suddenly spoke to him. Ever since they got into the taxi, the man had been silent and did not seem to want to start a conversation.
"Of course. You don\'t have to ask me," Radmilo replied as he turned to Carl.
"Are you involved with the death of the hunters from the Spiny Anteater guild?" When Carl raised that question, his voice sounded serious. He no longer spoke in his usual soft tone.
Radmilo, who knew Carl was talking about Gordan, immediately put on a confused expression. "I have nothing to do with their deaths. If you don\'t believe me, then you can ask the dungeon guard. He knows that I\'m not involved with Gordan and his friends."
"The dungeon guard died from the explosion of the gate on Broken Hill. I don\'t know why Keith suspected you. He came to me and asked about you."
"Did Keith also investigate Gordan\'s death?"
"Yeah. He works with the Spiny Anteater guild and the police. I think the police will interrogate us later."
Radmilo lowered his head when he heard that. "When the gate explosion happened, you were the one who saved me. You can prove that I wasn\'t with Gordan at that time. I apologize for hoping you to help me one more time."
"No problem. I\'ll still help you," Carl said, his voice sounding soft again.
Radmilo thanked him and continued to talk about other things with Carl. When they reached the evacuation site, he was the only one who got out of the taxi. His expression turned empty as the taxi drove away.
Now he understood why Carl wanted to sit in the same taxi as him. It turned out that the man wanted to know his involvement in the Gordan death case. Looked like Carl did not want to get involved in this case, too.
It was a natural reaction. Radmilo understood Carl wanted to maintain his good image in society. He hoped the police would immediately handle the Gordan case, so his \'friendship\' with Carl would not be disturbed. After all, he could not leave a bad impression on Carl, since they would meet each other often.
***
In a white room, a man in a fox mask was seen injecting something into a woman tied to a chair. The woman struggled as the strange liquid was successfully injected into her hand.
She had been crying and screaming ever since, but the masked man had no intention of letting her go. Nothing changed, even though she screamed with all her might. They were in a soundproof room and her voice would not reach anyone out there.
The woman had no idea what the man had injected her. However, she understood the man was testing the effect of that liquid. Amid her despair, she still hoped the liquid was a healing potion.
"Did I fail again? I thought the poison would react in a few seconds," the masked man muttered, causing the woman in front of him to glare in shock.
The liquid was poison, just as the woman had feared. She did not know how long it would take for the poison to be active. When she realized she would die sooner or later, she started to cry.
"W-why are you doing this?" Her voice was hoarse because she had been screaming since she was dragged into the white room.
Instead of answering, the masked man looked at the injection in his hand and muttered to himself. "This poison takes a long time to work. It\'s disappointing."
He was sure about the poison because he had researched its effects on humans. However, it appeared that his calculations were incorrect.
"I\'m sure it\'s just a small mistake."
The woman glared at the masked man as he turned back toward her. "W-what do you want?"
"You won\'t die here. You will live in pain for many years."
"What are you talking about? Why do you have to torture me?!"
The man ignored the shouts, as if he had heard nothing. He turned to pick up a small bottle from the table. It was the bottle containing the antidote that he had made. He opened the woman\'s mouth to force her to take the antidote.
"Won\'t you thank me? You won\'t die of poisoning now."
The woman gasped with anger. She knew the masked man was planning to make her a guinea pig for the next few years. But she could do nothing about that.
"Don\'t be sad. You will meet a friend in the new house." The masked man patted the woman\'s shoulder, as if he was comforting her.
At the same time, the door of the white room opened, showing a woman with light brown hair and a beautiful maxi dress on her body.
"Stop your experiment, Muramasa. Let\'s get out of here. Don\'t you remember that we have something important to talk about?"
The man who was addressed as Muramasa snorted. "Be patient, Elena. I just finished my experiment."
Elena rolled her eyes. She ended up here because Muramasa said he would not want to talk about the organization if she did not help him. The man asked her to kidnap a hunter from any guild for experimentation.
Because of that, Elena went to a restaurant where a group of hunters were celebrating their success in a raid. She pretended to be a pregnant woman in need of help and a woman from the group was willing to help her.
Elena was someone Muramasa relied on whenever she was looking for a guinea pig. People tended to lessen their vigilance towards a woman. Even the woman who had become Muramasa\'s guinea pig did not expect Elena would do anything bad to her.
"Please help me. I promise I won\'t tell anyone about this. I\'m a new hunter. My parents have been waiting for me to come home. They were very happy when they found out that I had become a hunter," The woman said while staring at Elena with a look full of hope.
Unfortunately, those words could not melt Elena\'s heart. Instead, she stepped forward to hit the pressure point in the woman\'s neck. "Like I would be touched by such a sad story."
"Woah, aren\'t you being too harsh?" Muramasa laughed when he saw the woman lose consciousness.
Elena ignored Muramasa and immediately used her teleportation power. The other organization members were already waiting for her to come with Muramasa. They wanted to discuss the new leader of the organization before the next meeting came.