Chapter 22

"Well, it's good to know that G won't betray us. And it's great that Kaiser is finally one of us. Now, let's focus on the mission. G, it's you who wanted Kaiser to take this job. You explain," Bob said.

As expected, since she will join us for some reason, it can only be because she's the one who assigned me to take this job.

"…I thought that I will be the one showing the rope. But I guess I'm the most normal one in this group. Do they even need me?" Frank asked.

"It's still their first time on the field. You just need to watch them. The mission is not that hard anyway," Bob said.

[You can go to Bob's room then. We can use the TV there so I will brief everything to you from there. I can't just continue to stop everyone from working.]

After she said that, the screens in this room returned back to normal. And her avatar disappeared.

"…Did she just say to gather in my room? Why is she using my room for briefing?" Bob asked.

"You're curious about that? Then what about me? She has been stalking me since I was ten. She's a hacker. And I sometime took my phone to the bathroom. Obviously, my phone was there in my room as well when I change. G, is there anything you haven't seen about me?"

I asked G and looked at the giant monitor. Everyone as well. It doesn't change at all. But I'm sure that she heard me.

"See? She saw everything. Including the Great Dragon. If she's older than me, then it's a crime. Wait, it's already a crime no matter how old she is. She's totally going to jail," I said.

[Actually, we're the same age. I just don't go to school.]

"Hah! And that should make me feel better?!"

[Should I say that it's not actually a Great Dragon? Just come quick. And Bob, you can get those things for them.]

"…Now I'm a servant of a girl talking through her computer. Fine. It's better than having her see me naked," Bob complained.

"It's not fine for me! But now that I know, I can only cover my phone when I'm changing but I will still know that there's someone nearby! And it is a Great Dragon!" I complained.

And Frank on the side just laughed. I bet he doesn't have a Great Dragon. His is just a miniature lizard.

In Bob's room, we sat in front of the TV as G started the briefing.

[The job here is for you two to be bodyguards of a certain member of a girl band. Her name is Bora from the girl band that is quite famous, Wishing Well. A five members girl band.]

"Oh, I know that band. Their songs are quite famous. I just know some though," I said.

"Yeah. I quite enjoy their latest single. But why us though? Why not asking from an official security firm? If she's that famous, she should be able to hire even Heroes to protect her," Frank asked.

[She's being stalked and currently, the stalker has become more annoying. She thought that the culprit is most likely a Hero. Or at least a superhuman. She couldn't trust Heroes or security firms that mostly only have ordinary people. So she hired us.]

"How did she find us?" I asked.

[This is an information guild. We gather information and we can spread information however we like. Someone must have given her a way to contact us.]

That makes sense. And if it's G, she can easily hack into her phone and do whatever she wants.

"So you know the stalker?" I asked.

Then the screen changed. Showing someone wearing black pants and black hoodie covering his face.

[This is most likely the stalker. He's likely a level 3 warrior specialized in speed. At that level and since his specialty is speed, the cameras couldn't catch him well unless we use the camera for seeing object in slow-motion. And because he's a warrior at that level, there's a chance that he's a Hero. Or at least a superhuman with good training.]

"This is bad. If he's really a Hero, then we can't just kill him," Frank said calmly.

Even though he heard that the stalker is a level 3 warrior, he's still calm. I guess he's strong enough to handle him.

As for me, I can defeat the stalker if I use Body Strengthening magic. Maybe I should alter the magic to make me faster instead of just stronger. Or maybe I can just kill him by using Enchant magic on my new knife. It should be sharp enough to kill a level 3 warrior.

But if we end up killing the stalker, if he's a Hero, then there will be another case. We might end up being branded as criminals. Not like we're doing anything legal anyway. We're not even Heroes. Doing this is actually a crime.

[I'll take care of that. Once I found his identity, I should be able to find any crime that he has done in the past no matter how he hides it.]

I guess this is why she will join us.

"Then we will kill him if necessary. If we can capture him without killing, that would be best. But it's all depend on the client's decision," Frank said.

"Agreed. So, is there anything else we need to know?" I asked G.

[Wishing Well has a training tonight for tomorrow's show. Bora asked us to meet her after training. Though you have to sneak into the building and get there without anyone knowing. Leave the CCTV to me. You just need to pay attention to your surroundings.]

She then told us about the client, Bora. Her origin and how she came to Searise. How the girl band created and also other members and important crews helping them.

"But you're sure that the target is a man, right? Then it means that even the male crews are suspicious. But at least the members of the girl band are not suspicious. What about the manager?" I asked.

[The manager is female. And yes, I'm sure the target is a man. The client had received phone call several times from a weird guy who might be the stalker. And this is the phone call that she recorded before.]

G played the recording of the phone call. And from there, we can hear the heavy breathing of a man and also his deep and heavy voice. Unless the culprit is a woman who has a great range of voice, the culprit is a man.

[Bora… Bora… Bora. Bora-Bora. Boraboraboraboraboraborabo—]

"Alright, that's creepy! Even if he's a fan, that's too creepy!" I said.

"Is there any accident related to the stalker other than the phone call?" Frank asked.

[Something like someone knocked on the door to her house in the middle of the night. It happened several times. And from the CCTV, it's from the same hooded person. Then there are also some missing personal belongings of Bora which we assume to be stolen by the stalker. Obviously, since the stalker is a superhuman, the cops can't do much against him. So she had to rely on someone else. She then had to move to different hotels every week because of that.]

And she's asking us to meet her in where she practices her dance. Not in her hotel. I guess she can't trust us enough to give us her current address.

"More importantly, the reward. It's good, right? The client is popular after all," Frank asked.

[It's good. Don't worry about it. The organization doesn't take missions if the reward is too little compared to the risk.]

"Good to know. What else do we need to know?" Frank asked.

Then Bob entered the room and give each of us something to wear.

[Those are your working clothes. A black suit for you guys to wear while protecting Bora.]

"The mission is to capture the stalker, right? Not to protect Bora. I need confirmation," I said while checking the suit I just received.

[Ah, I forgot to check. Let's see… right. Bora asked us to get rid of the stalker. Not to protect her. I guess her agency can still spend some money for her protection.]

"Then she shouldn't have asked us to meet her. With the information we have, we can just ambush the stalker. Since we have to meet her, there's a chance that the stalker will realize that she hired some people to get rid of him," I said.

"Oh, you're smart. I never thought of that even though I should be more experienced than you," Frank said.

Protecting someone is one of the tasks that gangsters have to do. Obviously, we have to protect our boss. But we sometimes got hired to protect someone involved with our business. Including celebrities.

In this case, I'm more experienced than Frank it seems. He's just around 20 years old. It shouldn't be long since he started doing this job. So I'm actually his senior. Though I can't say that.

Still for the client to ask us to meet her… it's not good at all if the stalker knows that she hired us. 

Maybe she's doing it so she can meet the people she hired. It's hard to trust someone if you haven't meet them after all.

We'll just have to be really careful in this mission.

[Then the mission is clear. Get rid of the stalker. But first, meet with the client tonight. Go get changed into those suits and leave right away. I'll contact you through the earpiece.]

And her avatar disappears from the TV screen. But I can hear her voice in my ear.

"Can you defeat a level 3 warrior?" Frank asked me while I'm trying to get changed.

"I can," I said confidently.

"Good. Then make sure that at least one of us will continue protecting the client in case the other is unable to move," Frank said.

Then he walks to the corner to get changed there. Is he too shy to show his body to a hacker? I don't think there's a camera here other than the ones on our phones. So it should be safe.

My first mission is getting rid of a stalker. This might be my chance to have a deathmatch against another human. I'm so excited. 

"…It's weird that I got a mission to get rid of a stalker from another stalker."