Heroine-Saving System: Reborn In A Third-Rate Manga As The Protagonist-Chapter 45: Mission Day [II]

The last two hours had been spent going to the police station and receiving a detailed mission briefing from the Squad Captain.

The Captain believed with reasonable certainty that this was the work of organized human traffickers operating in the Lower Commercial District. A lot of people who lived around this area had reported not only children but also adults being dubbed as missing over the past two weeks.

There wasn’t any clear pattern to discern the victims from the general population.

It wasn’t like these criminals were choosing certain specific people off the streets based on any criteria... they were just picking random individuals, which had caused widespread fear throughout the entire area. However, there were still some brave people who would come out during the day because they refused to live in fear.

"Okay... so we’re meant to be asking people around and gathering witness statements," Renji said as they walked down the busy street. "What are the chances we actually get attacked by the traffickers themselves?"

Kōya pulled out his Academy phone and checked the mission parameters again.

"There’s a 50-50 chance of direct confrontation... but that’s exactly why we have these signal guns," he said.

Both of them glanced down at the small circular toy-like signal guns attached to their waists with clips.

There were other undercover officers doing the same work in this sector and different sectors, which was why this operation was termed a Squad mission... Everyone was coordinating together across the district.

"We can shoot the signal flare into the sky and backup will come running within minutes," Kōya explained. "But from the profile of the people they’re kidnapping, we’re expecting that these traffickers are relatively low-level threats that we should be able to handle if necessary."

He continued.

"The exits leading to the underground tunnel paths to the other Supercities, the teleportation crystal stations to other Supercities, and even the standard city exits are all being heavily guarded by police and Academy personnel. There’s absolutely no way the traffickers can leave Keropolis with their captives."

"I see..." Renji said, processing the strategy. "So us and the other undercover officers are essentially nothing more than bait to draw out the main criminals into the open."

"Pretty much exactly that," Kōya confirmed.

They approached their first interview target... a small food stall on the corner of a relatively quiet street.

「Host, the Heroine-Saving System will now be going offline temporarily for a multi-versal update and maintenance」

’Huh...?’ Kōya thought with confusion. ’What do you mean by that?’

「Your purchased skills will still be able to be used normally, however the Creator of the System has requested a mandatory worldwide shutdown for all System instances. This means you won’t be able to buy new skills, check affection levels, receive missions, or contact support until the update is comp—」

The familiar System interface suddenly vanished completely, as if it had never existed at all.

’System?’ Kōya tried mentally.

There was absolutely no answer or response.

’Whatever,’ he thought with a mental shrug. ’Hopefully it doesn’t come back even more stingy and expensive than it was before.’

They reached the food stall. There was nobody waiting in line at the moment, and a tired-looking woman was carefully frying skewers over a small portable grill.

She looked up at them as they approached, and Kōya noticed the pronounced dark circles under her eyes that suggested many sleepless nights.

"Welcome to my stall... would you like a skewer?" she asked with a warm but exhausted smile. "Chicken? Fish? Pork? I have quite a lot of assortments available."

"We’d like five chicken skewers each, please, and two cans of Tanfa if you have it," Renji said politely.

Kōya looked at Renji with slight confusion... what exactly was Tanfa? The woman nodded and began preparing their order efficiently.

She brought everything back moments later on a wooden platter and set it on the counter.

"Why don’t you boys come inside and eat comfortably?" she offered kindly.

She led them around the side of the stall and into a small covered seating area where there were several simple chairs and tables set up.

Once they sat down at one of the tables, she served them their food and drinks personally. Kōya popped open the can of Tanfa and looked at it skeptically.

’This is literally just Fanta with a different name,’ he thought as he examined the orange liquid. ’System... check if this is spiked or drugged.’

No answer came.

’Right, I forgot. The System is completely down for maintenance,’ Kōya thought with a resigned sigh. He glanced over at Renji, who had already started eating the chicken skewers enthusiastically.

Renji didn’t seem to be getting drowsy or showing any signs of being knocked out or anything concerning, so the food clearly wasn’t drugged.

’Besides, what are the actual chances that the very first person we randomly meet happens to be one of the traffickers...?’ Kōya reasoned.

He drank the Tanfa... it was pleasantly sweet and carbonated and ate the skewers as well, which were well-seasoned and perfectly cooked. The woman smiled warmly at them both as they ate.

"I’m genuinely glad you both enjoyed the food so much," she said. "It’s been quite a while since I’ve had any customers at all, ever since the Incident started happening around here."

Kōya carefully set down his skewer stick, recognizing the perfect opening.

"I wanted to ask... what exactly is this incident you mentioned?" Kōya asked casually. "I heard this area was supposed to be pretty busy and populated, but there aren’t really as many people on the roads as I expected to see. We’re relatively new around here."

"Oh... you’re new to the district?" she said, her expression becoming sad. "You boys look so young, too... shouldn’t you be in school right now? It’s not good to drop out and waste your parents’ hard-earned efforts and money, you know."

Both Kōya and Renji’s eyes twitched slightly at the assumption.

"Anyway, you’re absolutely right about the decreased foot traffic..." the woman continued. "There are significantly fewer people on the streets now, and that’s for a very good reason. There have been numerous cases of kidnapping happening on these very streets. People are being kidnapped from the roads at night, in broad daylight on their way back from school or work... it’s absolutely terrifying. A lot of people have chosen to lock themselves inside their homes and only go out when absolutely necessary."

Her eyes began tearing up visibly.

"My younger cousin was kidnapped as well, just three days ago. She was only sixteen years old..."

"Please calm down, ma’am," Renji spoke gently. "Do you know anything specific about the kidnappers...? Like, have you personally seen a glimpse of anyone suspicious, or heard any descriptions?"

"M-me personally...? No, I haven’t seen anyone myself." she said, wiping her eyes.

Then she paused and closed her eyes, concentrating.

"Wait... I think I did see one very suspicious man late one night when I was closing up the stall."

"Yes, please tell us more details," Renji encouraged while Kōya discreetly brought out his phone to document the information and send it to the Squad Captain.

"He had short brown hair and was wearing all black clothing," the woman pointed out, her brow furrowing as she recalled. "He looked very suspicious and out of place... and I specifically remember he had a crossbow strapped to his back, which was extremely unusual for this area."

Kōya quickly typed the description and texted it directly to the Captain.

"Thank you so much for this information, ma’am..." Kōya said sincerely, giving her a reassuring smile. "And we promise to do everything in our power to bring your younger cousin back to you safely."

With that, they paid for their food, thanked her again, and left the stall to continue their investigation.

They began systematically moving around the district to question other shop owners and residents.

...

It was 12 PM now, and both of them were walking along a particularly quiet street with noticeably demotivated expressions on their faces.

On this specific street, it felt somewhat lonely with significantly fewer people walking around compared to the main commercial areas.

"I’m so tired~" Renji complained, dragging his feet slightly.

"Seconded..." Kōya sighed in agreement. It was genuinely quite exhausting work to be honest. They had walked continuously for two hours, going door to door and asking around the entire sector.

The people they interviewed were almost all saying essentially the same thing... they were terrified, they’d heard about the kidnappings, but they didn’t have any useful information. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

There were some aggressive shop owners who had chased them away angrily for asking questions that reminded them of the danger, but the majority of people were cooperative even if they didn’t know anything helpful.

However, the investigation wasn’t completely without results.

They had managed to talk to one traumatized witness who had seen their own sibling kidnapped right in front of their very eyes in broad daylight.

The description matched perfectly... the same guy with short brown hair and a crossbow. This made Kōya wonder exactly how powerful and skilled this kidnapper was.

He certainly wasn’t just some run-of-the-mill smalltime street criminal, that was absolutely certain.

"Anyway, let’s head back to the rendezvous point before going back out to continue," Kōya suggested. "The Captain said earlier that other teams are getting the same descriptions all around the district, so we’ll probably be assigned to try a different sector where kidnappings have been reported as well."

Renji nodded in agreement.

Kōya had kept all of his purchased skills constantly activated throughout the entire investigation... Enhanced Speed, Enhanced Strength, Sensory, Danger Sense, Calm Mind... all of them were running simultaneously.

He didn’t want to take any chances at all with his safety or Renji’s.

There was a realistic possibility that the enemy could be significantly stronger than them, so he needed to be prepared to escape and call for backup the instant his Danger Sense warned him.

... And then it happened.

His Danger Sense suddenly pricked sharply... a clear warning of imminent lethal danger.

"Renji! Watch out!" Kōya shouted.

There was a sharp whooshing sound cutting through the air. Kōya’s Enhanced Speed kicked in as he twisted his body, turning himself around rapidly and dodging an arrow that embedded itself into the ground where he’d been standing.

He immediately looked over toward Renjiand his heart dropped.

Renji was staggering backward with an arrow protruding from his back, having pierced clean through.

"Renj—"

"Don’t worry about me, Kōya-kun," Renji interrupted, his voice strained but determined. He reached back and pulled the arrow out of his back with a pained grunt.

"I can’t die yet from something like th—"

His words cut off abruptly. His eyes rolled back, and he slumped over, falling face-first onto the ground with a heavy thud.

The few civilians who had been on the street screamed and ran away in panic, abandoning them completely.

This left both of them alone on the empty street.

About a dozen meters away stood the brown-haired man they’d been hearing about all day with a crossbow in hand, already loading another bolt.

Kōya’s hand moved instinctively toward his signal gun only to see that this man had already shot an arrow clean through it, rendering it completely useless. A quick glance confirmed that Renji’s signal gun had been similarly destroyed.

’Did he predict and read my movements ahead of time...?’ Kōya thought with growing dread.

The man had four distinct lines horizontally running across his entire face, making him look very unusual and somewhat intimidating.

He was a four-liner...which meant he could use actual spell-based magic in addition to physical abilities.

"Who are you?!" Kōya demanded, trying to keep his voice steady.

The man didn’t answer. Instead, he simply raised his crossbow and fired several arrows simultaneously in rapid succession. Some were heading directly for Kōya, and some were angling toward the fallen Renji’s defenseless body.

Kōya’s Enhanced Speed was pushed to its absolute limit as he rushed toward Renji’s position. He managed to dodge all of the incoming arrows with the help of his Danger Sense predicting their exact trajectories before they arrived.

However, as he tried to actively draw on his mana to activate Mana Mode for additional protection, his body suddenly felt extremely sluggish and heavy. His vision dimmed rapidly at the edges.

’I didn’t... get hit by anything,’ he thought in confusion as he fell to his knees.

Renji’s unconscious body clattered to the ground beside him.

’It had to be the foo—’

A boot connected hard with his face, and everything turned completely black.

...

When Kōya slowly returned to his senses, he immediately realized he was sitting upright in a dark, damp place that smelled terrible. His hands were tied securely behind his back with rough rope.

Something heavy and cold was clamped tightly around his left ankle.

He tried drawing on his mana reserves and while he didn’t feel the same sluggishness as before from whatever drug had been in the food, he couldn’t feel his mana at all. It was like trying to grab water with his bare hands.

He looked down at the clamp on his ankle with growing horror.

It was a mechanical device he vaguely remembered from the manga...a mana suppressor that completely negated a person’s ability to use any mana-based abilities.

Next to him was Renji, still completely unconscious, with an identical clamp on his ankle.

On either side of their position were metal cell bars... they were in some kind of prison cell. There were other cells visible in the dim light, with people inside them and there was a rotting smell pervading everything which was the unmistakable stench of decaying flesh.

He could hear the buzzing sounds of flies somewhere in the darkness.

"Look up here, boy."

Kōya raised his head and saw a grotesquely fat man sitting on what could only be described as a throne positioned not too far away from the cells.

The brown-haired crossbow man was nowhere to be seen. This fat man had no crest lines visible on his face or body at all, but he was holding a small remote control in his pudgy hand.

"Are you from any influential family or something like that...?" the man asked conversationally. "It says here that you and that other boy are supposed to be part of the police force, but your phones tell a different story entirely."

Kōya had only been carrying his Academy phone with him... the school had specifically enabled it to work outside Academy grounds during official missions.

That phone was now visible in the man’s other hand, along with Renji’s own phone.

Both devices were completely crushed and destroyed.

"These are ALI Academy phones, which means you both attend that extremely prestigious Academy for crest users..." the man said with a greedy smile. "Lucky, privileged little folks."

Kōya didn’t say anything in response or rather, he was far too terrified to say anything coherent.

His Calm Mind skill should have been helping him maintain composure and think rationally even in this situation, but for some reason it wasn’t activating or working at all right now. He remembered seeing it in the description... to activate Calm Mind, he needed to have some semblance of calm but right now, he was the opposite of that.

His heart was pounding so hard he could hear it in his ears.

"Since you’re students of such a prestigious and expensive Academy..." the man continued slowly, "I want you to tell me exactly how to artificially awaken a crest in someone who wasn’t born with one. I’m absolutely certain some professor there must have discovered the method by now."

He pointed at one of the cells to the left, where two small children were huddled together in the darkness... they couldn’t have been older than six or seven.

"If you don’t tell me what I want to know, I’m going to kill them. Right here, right now, in front of you."

Kōya’s throat went completely dry.

"I... I genuinely don’t know," he managed to say, his voice coming out weaker and more pathetic than he’d ever heard it.

He had never felt this helpless.

"There’s no known way to artificially awaken a crest. It’s biologically impossible. It either happens naturally during adolescence or it doesn’t happen at all—"

"Wrong answer," the man interrupted coldly.

He pressed a button on the remote control without any hesitation. Both children suddenly burst into flames... bright, terrible flames that consumed them instantly.

The screams were immediate and absolutely horrifying.

High-pitched, agonized shrieks of pure pain that echoed off the walls of the entire warehouse and seemed to drill directly into Kōya’s skull. The young boy was desperately trying to pat out the flames on his little sister with his bare hands, but his own hands were on fire as well.

The girl was calling for her mother over and over again between her screams.

"Mama! Mama! It hurts! Mama!" until her voice became a wet, gurgling rasp.

Kōya couldn’t look away even though every fiber of his being wanted to. His eyes were locked on the nightmare scene as the two children thrashed and writhed and burned. Their skin was bubbling and blackening and peeling away.

The smell of cooking human flesh filled the air which was nauseating and wrong. It took almost thirty full seconds for the screaming to finally stop and the thirty seconds that felt like thirty years.

When the flames finally died down to nothing, there were only two small, charred corpses remaining in the cell.

Kōya’s entire body was shaking so violently he thought he might break apart.

His stomach heaved uncontrollably, and he vomited everything he’d eaten onto the ground in front of him... the chicken skewers and Tanfa coming back up in a burning rush.

He couldn’t stop shaking.

He couldn’t breathe properly and his vision was blurring with tears he didn’t even realize he was crying.

’They’re dead... because of me?’

"Those children were brother and sister," the man said casually, as if discussing the weather. "Ages six and seven and they’ve been here for five days. Their parents are probably still out there searching, putting up missing posters, begging anyone for information."

He leaned forward slightly on his throne.

"Do you feel proud of yourself, boy?"