Chapter 101: Half an Hour Is Enough

“What do you want?”

The male ghoul bowed his head in resignation, but his gaze held something dangerous.

“If I need you, I’ll come find you.”

Su Xiao stepped aside, gesturing for the ghoul family to pass.

The husband and wife both looked stunned, staring at Su Xiao in confusion—they assumed he would control them, perhaps by forcing them to swallow slow-acting poison.

“Heh~ You’ve lived underground for a long time, but the world above is nothing like you imagined.”

Su Xiao had already seen the family’s faces; if they lived on the surface, finding them wouldn’t be hard.

In this era, cameras are everywhere, and with the CCG’s influence, locating someone is simple.

The couple said nothing, pressing close to the wall as they walked past Su Xiao with their daughter.

The adorable little girl stared at Su Xiao, her eyes seeming to say, “You’re a bad person.”

Perhaps the couple still felt relieved that Su Xiao had let them go.

This couple wasn’t without combat ability, nor were they afraid of fighting—they carried a “little burden,” and this “little burden” was someone they could never abandon.

Combat means danger; no parent, human or ghoul, would let their child face danger.

Watching the distant family, Su Xiao felt no regret—he wasn’t acting out of kindness; that kind of thing had long been torn from him and crushed to dust. Compared to the secrets of District 24, this family’s kagune was worthless.

As for the possible loot chests from two SS-class ghouls, Su Xiao wasn’t optimistic.

He now seriously doubted that killing a black-market dealer in the Pirate World granted a chest because the Pirate World’s difficulty far exceeded his level.

The ghoul world’s difficulty was roughly equal to his own—those kinds of perks were gone.

Su Xiao continued to guard the entrance to District 24, preventing any ghouls inside from escaping.

Continuous roars and strange noises echoed from within District 24, but no ghouls reached the entrance.

An hour later, a sharp screech of brakes sounded outside the entrance, and a large group of investigators stormed inside.

The headquarters moved quickly—clearly, they took District 24’s situation seriously.

“White Night, Acting Special, what’s the current situation?”

A stern-looking investigator entered the entrance, clean-shaven, with small eyes, followed by over a dozen investigators.

Su Xiao recognized him: Acting Special Investigator Hōji Kōsuke.

Behind Hōji Kōsuke followed a rookie investigator named Takizawa Masamichi, a promising new recruit.

After graduating from the Ghoul Investigator Academy, top-ranked rookies are assigned to learn under senior or Acting Special investigators.

Others trailed behind them, but Su Xiao didn’t recognize them.

“No incidents so far. Something major must have happened deep in District 24, but the cause is unknown.”

Su Xiao didn’t reveal what he knew—such as that Ma Gui had already penetrated District 24, or that the primitive ghouls had seized the “Central City”—though he didn’t even know what the “Central City” looked like.

“Hello, Acting Special White Night. I’m Second-Class Investigator Takizawa Masamichi.”

Takizawa Masamichi looked young and nervous.

“Hello.”

After greeting him, Su Xiao returned to watching the corridor.

Takizawa Masamichi gave the impression of a well-behaved child.

But that was merely his public facade; Su Xiao had once browsed forums and read about Takizawa Masamichi.

In the early plot, Takizawa Masamichi was a not particularly strong but courageous investigator.

During the CCG’s operation to expel the Shopkeeper, Takizawa Masamichi had his arm bitten off by Gōryū’s kagune and was captured alive.

Afterward, he was forcibly implanted with the Shopkeeper’s kagune, becoming a postnatal one-eyed ghoul under the alias “Owl.”

After becoming a ghoul, Takizawa Masamichi quickly accepted his new identity, and the darkness within him gradually surfaced.

He ate human heads like “pineapples,” treating “brains” as jam.

Even among ghouls, Takizawa Masamichi was among the most deranged.

And even after becoming a ghoul, he remained obsessed with Shinomiya Akira.

Overall, Takizawa Masamichi constantly wavered between good and evil—heroic and brave when good, horrifying and monstrous when evil.

The dozen or so investigators set up a defensive line at the entrance; some even tried repairing the metal door.

But the metal door was too badly damaged to fix.

Of these dozen, only Hōji Kōsuke had real combat ability—the rest, in Su Xiao’s view, were unreliable.

One Senior Investigator looked deeply anxious, as if haunted by District 24.

At that moment, Su Xiao’s eyes sharpened abruptly.

“They’re coming.”

Su Xiao looked up the dim, narrow corridor—it was unnaturally silent.

“What is it, Acting Special White Night?”

Hōji Kōsuke spoke calmly, as if nothing ever rushed him.

“Prepare for battle. The enemy numbers around two hundred.”

Su Xiao’s Intelligence stat was not low—it stood at 12 points.

Intelligence stat doesn’t represent IQ; IQ is shaped by innate and environmental factors, and boosting Intelligence won’t fix a low IQ.

Intelligence stat enhances control over spells and determines spell skill strength.

Moreover, Intelligence stat determines mana capacity, and more importantly, it heightens perception of the surroundings.

This ability allows mages to sense ambient elements and manipulate them.

Su Xiao’s path was different; due to his [Absolute Magic-Resistant Body], he couldn’t sense elements at all, so he repurposed this stat to detect enemies around him.

Mages could achieve this too, but due to interference from various elemental forces, their perception range and sensitivity under equal Intelligence were far inferior to Su Xiao’s.

The Absolute Magic-Resistant Body functioned like a primordial filter, completely ignoring airborne elements and granting superior perception.

This shows that the [Shadow of Spell Annihilation] skills aren’t fixed—if your thinking is broad enough, you can deeply develop them.

The [Shadow of Spell Annihilation] class has been obtained by only seven people, including Su Xiao, so its late-game development path rests entirely on him.

The unlocked skills were likely developed by the six stone statues during the class inheritance.

Su Xiao had a faint feeling that [Qinggangyingsuo] might not be the core ability of the [Shadow of Spell Annihilation].

But now wasn’t the time to think about this—the corridor already echoed with hurried footsteps.

Fortunately, Su Xiao had over a dozen investigators beside him to provide covering fire.

“Boss, there are investigators ahead—what do we do?”

“Charge. I’d rather fight investigators than face those ‘beasts.’”

A dense horde of ghouls surged forward, flooding the corridor in a vast wave.

Su Xiao exhaled slowly; after entering the ghoul world, he’d seen this scene many times—he was now utterly unmoved.

Su Xiao remained calm, but the investigators beside him were not.

Takizawa Masamichi held a cylindrical Quinque, shaped like a gun, its design crude.

Now he stared blankly at the approaching “ghoul army,” his body trembling like a leaf.

“Acting Special White Night, I’ll cover you—fall back first.”

Hōji Kōsuke gripped a long-hafted greatsword—a Class SS Quinque named “Red Tongue,” forged from Tatsuya’s Quinque.

Hōji Kōsuke displayed a death wish, clearly preparing to hold the rear.

“Mr. Hōji, no—you’ll die!”

Though still shaking violently, Takizawa Masamichi rushed behind Hōji Kōsuke.

Clearly, this scale of ghoul assault was catastrophic for Hōji Kōsuke and the others.

Su Xiao unfastened the top two buttons of his trench coat and stepped beside Hōji Kōsuke.

“Acting Special Hōji, if you can provide ranged support, these ghouls will be cleared in half an hour.”

Hōji Kōsuke and Takizawa Masamichi and the others stared at Su Xiao in shock.