Chapter 52: Alertness

Su Xiao walked out of the auction house. It was daytime, and Ghouls usually came out at night.

"Mr. Bai Ye, hello~."

A somewhat lazy voice came from not far away. Su Xiao looked over; it was that little white-haired guy, Juuzou Suzuya.

"Here are your credentials."

Juuzou Suzuya handed the credentials to Su Xiao, looking at him with a silly smile.

Upon receiving the credentials, Reincarnation Paradise gave a prompt.

【Promoted to First-Class Investigator, Contribution 525/2000.】

Seeing the Contribution Points required for 'First-Class Investigator', Su Xiao frowned.

The Contribution Points required from 'Third-Class Investigator' to 'First-Class Investigator' didn't have a specific pattern; sometimes it increased by nearly ten times, sometimes nearly five times.

However, these 2000 Contribution Points might require hunting hundreds, or even thousands, of Ghouls.

"Mr. Bai Ye~, what are you thinking about?"

Juuzou Suzuya looked at Su Xiao curiously.

"Nothing..."

Su Xiao was just about to speak, but suddenly he felt a sharp sensation on his back.

It was as if someone was staring at him, the same feeling as being watched by that little hamster in the restroom earlier.

His eyes suddenly became sharp, and he scanned his surroundings calmly.

"Click, click, click~."

A faint gnawing sound came, mixed in with the honking of cars and the conversations of pedestrians. Su Xiao's gaze locked onto a pile of trash.

On the lid of the trash can, a little hamster was standing upright, gnawing on something.

This familiar scene made Su Xiao's pupils contract.

This hamster wasn't right, very not right.

After Su Xiao's gaze focused on the hamster, it immediately stopped gnawing and handed a small piece of apple toward him from far away.

Su Xiao instinctively wanted to move his gaze away, but suddenly felt something was wrong.

Earlier, after this hamster made that move, he left the restroom and stopped suspecting the other party. Why was that?

Su Xiao's gaze focused on the hamster again. The little hamster suddenly stopped chewing, dropped the small piece of apple it was holding in its paws onto the trash can lid, and turned to run.

This little thing was monitoring him.

Su Xiao rushed across the road, not caring at all about the passing cars.

The little hamster ran very fast, heading straight for the alley by the street, but Su Xiao was faster, gradually closing in on it.

In a residential house 500 meters away, the green-haired girl lying on the bed suddenly opened her eyes.

"Are you kidding me? Why isn't Lv. 3 Deception working?"

The lazy expression on the green-clad girl's face vanished, and her expression was somewhat flustered. That little hamster was her symbiotic partner, carrying three passive abilities, and was very precious.

"Ye Zi, what's wrong?"

The knight-armored Queen looked at the green-clad girl, Ye Zi, with confusion.

"Kaka was discovered by that man and is running for its life. Queen, hurry and save Kaka."

"How is that possible?"

The Queen was somewhat incredulous; that little hamster was their most important source of intelligence.

"I'm going..."

The Queen rushed out, her full-body armor clashing and making crisp sounds.

Su Xiao pursued the little hamster. 200 meters ahead, there was a sewer. Once the little hamster ran into the sewer, the possibility of him catching it wasn't high.

Checking Zhan Long Shan appeared in his hand. Su Xiao spun the blade twice, adjusted his grip, and threw it with force.

"Ding."

Checking Zhan Long Shan precisely pierced the little hamster's body, the blade sinking deep into the ground, but the hilt didn't move at all, showing how hard the blade of Checking Zhan Long Shan was.

Su Xiao stepped forward and pulled out Checking Zhan Long Shan. He stomped the little hamster into meat paste, and the feeling of being watched vanished.

The reason he could detect being watched was because his Intelligence was as high as 12 points; the Intelligence attribute affected perception. Not only that, but it was also because he practiced swordsmanship.

This little hamster wasn't easy to discover; Lv. 3 Deception was enough to deceive human vision, otherwise, the green-clad girl wouldn't have let it appear so openly.

In the residential house 500 meters away, the Queen hadn't even walked out the door when she heard a shrill scream from behind.

"Kaka~."

The green-clad girl was heartbroken, tears instantly sliding down.

"Drip, drip~."

Nosebleed dripped onto the ground, and the green-clad girl seemed to collapse, paralyzed on the floor.

"Ye Zi, Ye Zi, what's wrong?"

The Queen helped Ye Zi up, looking nervous; it seemed the two had a good relationship.

"Kaka is dead, stomped to death by someone. I saw it in the shared vision, woo~."

Ye Zi began to sob uncontrollably.

The Queen's expression turned ugly; the death of the little hamster Kaka was a significant loss for their three-person team.

"Kaka has Lv. 3 Deception, how could it be discovered? Sometimes even I, as a friend, would instinctively ignore that little thing."

It seemed the Queen was also puzzled as to why Kaka was discovered by Su Xiao; this was something none of the three had expected.

Ye Zi's tearful voice came.

"The improvement of Intelligence also increases perception. Although that bastard has 12 points of Intelligence, his perception couldn't possibly be this sharp."

Under normal circumstances, 12 points of Intelligence wouldn't have perception as sharp as Su Xiao's, but Su Xiao's perception had become sharper due to practicing swordsmanship.

The meditation method passed down to Su Xiao by Koushiro also had the effect of improving perception, and meditation had become Su Xiao's habit.

"We absolutely cannot let this go. I want to kill that bastard, now!"

Ye Zi stood up and walked out, full of rage.

"If you want to go die, don't drag me and Black and White down with you."

A cold voice came, and Ye Zi's body trembled.

Although the Queen was usually easy to get along with, after the Queen became serious, Ye Zi couldn't help but feel some fear; after all, she was her captain.

In the adventure team Ye Zi belonged to, disobeying the captain without reason had severe consequences.

"Calm down. We'll act tonight. Black and White has already gone to find a high vantage point. Tell her to be careful too; if 'Kaka' could be discovered, Black and White won't be able to escape that man's perception either."

The Queen took out an earpiece and pressed it lightly to contact Black and White.

In the alley, Su Xiao held Checking Zhan Long Shan, standing silently in place.

The enemy's surveillance earlier had almost been ignored by him, but fortunately, he discovered it in time.

This was a lesson; he had been smooth sailing in the Ghoul world, so it was inevitable he would be a bit careless.

Su Xiao was now vigilant; in a derived world, one absolutely couldn't relax, not even for a moment.

That pile of hamster meat paste was definitely not an ordinary animal. Whenever that little hamster showed goodwill toward him and made the move of sharing food, his hostility would suddenly dissipate, and he would instinctively ignore the little hamster.

This reminded him of skills, skills within Reincarnation Paradise.

He had encountered this once in the real world, and in the end, he had relied on sharp perception to exempt it.

Su Xiao pondered for a while and asked Reincarnation Paradise.

"Paradise, is there any way to investigate enemy information?" A prompt from Reincarnation Paradise appeared.

【1. Detection-type equipment. 2. Apostle-type summons. 3. Investigation-type skills... Insufficient authority, unable to view the following content.】

The answer given by Reincarnation Paradise satisfied Su Xiao. He secretly decided that after this derived world ended, he would immediately find a way to obtain one of the three.

Knowing yourself and knowing the enemy is the way to win every battle; this saying made a lot of sense.

At the very least, he had to understand the various attributes of the enemy; from the level of each attribute, he could roughly judge the strength.

Just as Su Xiao was about to leave the alley, Reincarnation Paradise suddenly popped up a prompt.

【Detected that the Hunter's level is Lv. 2, one level lower than the current derived world. Now opening a temporary skill.】

【Temporary Skill: Basic Detection, Cost: 800 Paradise Coins. Yes/No to open.】

【Note: The temporary skill will disappear after leaving this world.】

Seeing the 【Basic Detection】 function, Su Xiao was overjoyed, but upon seeing the required cost, he cursed inwardly: what a rip-off.

Although Reincarnation Paradise had the intention of robbing him while he was in trouble, he was indeed in urgent need of this ability now.

Su Xiao knew clearly that the little hamster he stomped to death must be related to the enemy contractor.

The dangers in the derived world didn't just come from various missions or plot characters; other contractors couldn't be ignored either.

"Heh~, the little mouse is dead, the appearance of the mouse's owner isn't far off."

Su Xiao couldn't help but feel some anticipation; he hadn't fought other contractors yet.

PS: (New book period, please vote for recommendations~. Your recommendation votes are my greatest motivation.) ===== CHAPTER 53 =====