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After a few seconds, the headless body lost its stiffness and fell on the floor.

For now, Ferris eased his guard and cleaned his sword before sheathing it back. But he kept his right hand steady on the hilt in case anything happened.

First things first was to check the kidnapped on the other side of the door that the sadistic figure came through.

As Ferris stepped inside, he saw an arrangement of people tied onto the support pillars of the abandoned structure.

There were around 5 people tied to a pillar and there were 4 pillars.

Walking towards the nearest one, Ferris kneeled to inspect one of them.

I can definitely sense they're all blessing users, and since there's no common demographic among them, it's not your average human trafficking operation.

And strangely...

Ferris grabbed the face of a man in front of him. Although they were breathing, they seemed to be in a state of haziness as they didn't recognize his presence.

Their eyes also seemed as if they were out of touch from reality.

He looked at the man's right side to see the same hooded girl that bumped into him at the convenience store.

"b... be—"

She's conscious? Ferris hurriedly went to her side to check up on her.

But before he could even ask if she was alright, she said something that was barely noticeable to his ears.

"Behind..."

Almost immediately, Ferris's senses detected another person that he failed to notice before.

Damn! He twisted his body around and at the same time dashed towards the presence as he began drawing his sword out.

In front of him was a small-shaped figure who was holding up a gun that was already pointed at Ferris's face. This body can't react fast enough to a bullet!

Regardless, he squeezed out a bit more essence inside him to close the distance as quickly as possible.

As he got closer and closer, the small figure's face came into view.

A kid?!

As if some unknown force stopped him, he stopped halfway into drawing his sword.

The small figure had a terrified look in his eyes, but Ferris could somewhat see that the kid was also hesitating.

In that split second, the one with the gun pulled the trigger first.

Click.

Jammed?! Ferris withdrew his sword and grabbed the kid's throat before slamming him into the ground and instantly knocking him out.

Breathing heavily, Ferris thoroughly checked his surroundings to confirm that there weren't any more surprises waiting for him in the dark.

Why did the gun jam? Was it luck? Ferris wondered before returning to the tied-up people.

He looked at the hooded girl to see that she was back to a dazed state.

After confirming that everyone was alive, he returned to the hangar and checked everyone's belongings.

He first went to the 3 kidnappers he slashed during his surprise attack.

Although the lanky one was dead, the two were alive.

He saw that one of the two alive was barely awake and could barely form any coherent words towards Ferris.

Before he could treat their wounds, he first checked their pockets for anything dangerous.

To his surprise, he snatched a phone from the one that was awake.

It was one of those cheap and disposable ones.

On the screen, it displayed the time to be 3 hours away from midnight.

A face ID? Ferris raised one of his eyebrows before pointing the front camera of the phone at the barely conscious owner.

Thankfully, despite the contorted expression of the kidnapper, the phone still recognized his face.

"I hope you're a law-abiding citizen and legally bought a SIM card."

He navigated the home screen to find the phone app. While doing so, he continued talking to the awake kidnapper.

"Why are you kidnapping blessing users? Even if you won't tell me, I'm sure the Hero Association has a workaround for—

"!!!"

Suddenly and without warning, the man started convulsing and screaming. But it wasn't only him!

All of the kidnappers were spasming out, including the lanky man that was already dead.

Ferris instinctively felt that he needed to step away a few paces. As he did so, all of them turned into grotesque displays of wood sculptures with roots, leaves, and even flowers.

The effects even sprouted around half a meter around their bodies, breaking the concrete floor as wooden stems erupted from the ground.

Crumble.

The cockpit of the plane also erupted into a mess of plants and flowers.

Ferris readied his sword in fear. Is this the work of an enemy blessing user?

. . .

There was only silence.

A blessing related to plants... Was this to keep them from revealing anything?

Ferris hurried towards the extension building. As he opened the door, he was relieved to find that the kidnapped were unscathed.

But the child that tried to kill him wasn't spared from the strange curse.

Turning his attention to the phone in his hand, he was momentarily shocked as the screen darkened, signaling that it was about to close.

Press.

The screen returned to its vibrant screen. That was close...

Eventually, he found the app and decided to open the emergency contact tab for the Hero Association and pressed the call button.

#Hero Association Emergency Line. What's your emergency?

Ferris pressed a hand to his throat so that he could try to make his voice sound as scared and desperate as if it were a truly dangerous situation.

"There's—there's an Ogre-level villain here! Please, you have to help us!"

#A villain? I'm not getting a clean trace on your location. Can you describe where you are?

"I-I don't know exactly. It looks like an old airport? But it's abandoned and covered in trash everywhere…"

...

#Okay—I've got your approximate coordinates. Help is on the way! Are there any other civilians with you?

"There's around twenty of us. We're locked inside some kind of storage room."

#Got it. Can you tell me who the villain is or what they're doing right now?

"I'm not sure… but I think a hero showed up. I can hear fighting outside."

#Understood. Please stay on the line. Are there any signs of more villains in the area—

Ferris ended the call the moment he was certain that help was coming and after he said the amount of prisoners.

He returned to the hangar again and drew out his sword before throwing it towards the sprouted trees and plants.

The blade stuck itself on the wooden surface.

After that, Ferris exited the hangar and threw the scabbard amongst the thousands of trash in the dump.

He also took off his gloves and shiesty, throwing them away at different locations within the dump.

He had a last look at the phone he took. There's no map app. That's unlucky...

He then destroyed it before throwing it a good distance away.

"Finally, fresh air," he couldn't help but say out loud.

Compared to the smelly mask he wore, the air of the landfill felt like fresh spring.