Chapter 149: Let’s Save that Child
Night slowly descended over Alkon City.
The orange glow of the sunset faded beyond the horizon, replaced by a blanket of deep blue. One by one, the streetlights flickered to life, illuminating the city’s roads and sidewalks.
Office workers made their way home. Restaurants filled with customers. Traffic gradually thinned as the city’s daytime bustle gave way to its nightlife.
From the balcony of his apartment, Nobody quietly looked over the skyline. A cool breeze brushed against his face. The city looked peaceful. But he knew better.... Peace in Alkon City was often only temporary.
Nobody slipped his hands into his pockets. "...Time to get to work." He closed the balcony door and stepped back into his apartment.
The room was dimly lit. His crimson bunny helmet rested on a shelf beside the television. The apartment was silent.
Nobody took a deep breath. "System."
A familiar blue window appeared in front of him.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[System Window]
What now?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody smiled. "Crimson Bunny Mode on."
The System responded instantly.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Command Accepted.
Activating...
Crimson Bunny Mode
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Thin crimson streams of light emerged from the System Window. They spiraled around Nobody’s arms before spreading across his body.
A sleek crimson combat suit began forming piece by piece. The gloves materialized first, fitting perfectly over his hands. Protective armor covered his shoulders and chest. Dark crimson boots locked into place. A flowing black-and-red scarf appeared around his neck.
Finally...
The familiar bunny helmet floated into the air. It gently settled onto his head. The visor lit up with a soft crimson glow.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Transformation Complete
Crimson Bunny Mode
Status: Active
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody flexed his fingers. "Fits just as well as ever." He picked up one of his crowbars from the equipment rack. The metal reflected the room’s light. "Yo, System. What’s on the menu today?"
The answer came almost immediately.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Night Patrol Objective
Emergency Report Received.
Possible Child Kidnapping.
Priority: High
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody’s relaxed expression disappeared. "A child?" He straightened immediately. "Give me the details."
The System generated another window.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Target Information
Name: Sarang
Age: 12
Last Seen:
North River District
Status:
Missing
Time Since Disappearance:
27 Minutes
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody quietly read every line. "Sarang..." He repeated the name softly. His thoughts drifted elsewhere. "...Kind of reminds me of Toma’s backstory."
He remembered everything she had slowly recovered. The fear, the confusion and the loneliness. No child deserved to experience that.
He clenched his fist. "Not again." He looked toward the city outside his window. "Oh well..." A determined smile appeared beneath the helmet. "Let’s hunt down the kidnappers before they can disappear."
The System chimed.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Main Quest Updated
Rescue Sarang
Time Limit:
Unknown
Failure may result in irreversible story changes.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody opened the apartment window. Without another word.....He leaped. For a brief instant, he was suspended above the city.
Then.....
Whoosh!
He landed lightly on the rooftop of the neighboring building. His scarf fluttered behind him.
Another notification appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Suggested Route Calculated
Distance:
4.8 Kilometers
Estimated Travel Time:
3 Minutes
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Three minutes? We can do better." He crouched slightly. Then launched himself forward. Roof after roof blurred beneath his feet. The cool night air rushed past his helmet.
Neon signs illuminated the streets below. People walking through shopping districts never noticed the crimson figure racing silently above them.
To them...
The rooftops were empty.
Nobody activated his enhanced vision. Several sections of the city glowed with different colors. Blue highlighted safe areas. Yellow marked heavy traffic. Red indicated locations where suspicious activity had recently been reported. "Hmm...There."
A warehouse district near the North River caught his attention. Three red markers pulsed repeatedly. "Looks promising." He changed direction instantly.
A few moments later, he landed atop a tall office building overlooking the district. Below, rows of abandoned warehouses stretched into the darkness. Most of them were deserted. A few delivery trucks remained parked nearby.
Nobody scanned the area. "No obvious movement." He remained perfectly still.
Then.....
The System spoke again.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Passive Skill Activated
Mind Reader
[Multiple emotional signatures detected]
Fear.
Panic.
Anxiety.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody’s eyes narrowed. "Someone nearby is terrified." He focused. Faint fragments of thoughts drifted into his mind.
"Please... someone help..."
"I want to go home..."
"Mom..."
His heart sank. "That has to be Sarang." He looked toward an old warehouse with boarded windows.
The thoughts were strongest there.
Another System notification appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Possible Location Confirmed
Confidence Level:
89%
Exercise caution.
Unknown individuals detected inside.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody remained patient. "Charging in blindly won’t help." He crouched at the edge of the rooftop, studying the building.
Two adults stood near the entrance, talking while occasionally checking the street. Another figure moved inside the warehouse. A white van was parked behind the building with its engine switched off.
Nobody quietly observed every detail. "One entrance, one vehicle and limited escape routes." He smiled faintly. "Good." He preferred planning over rushing. He tapped the side of his helmet. "System."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Awaiting Command
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Display surrounding map."
A glowing holographic map appeared before him. Nearby alleys, fire exits, rooftops, drainage routes. Everything within several hundred meters appeared in remarkable detail.
"Perfect." He quickly formed a plan. If Sarang was inside, his first priority was ensuring the child’s safety. Only after that would he deal with everyone else.
A gust of wind swept across the rooftop.
Nobody tightened his grip on the crowbar. His heartbeat remained calm.
Far below, one of the people near the entrance looked around nervously.
For a split second, Nobody thought the man had spotted him. But the man simply lit a cigarette and continued talking.
Nobody exhaled slowly. "Good. The element of surprise is still mine."
The city lights shimmered in the distance. Cars continued moving along the highways, completely unaware that another dangerous situation was unfolding only a few streets away.
Nobody looked once more at the warehouse. "Sarang. Hang on a little longer. Big bro gonna slice their heads."
With one silent step, the Crimson Bunny vanished from the rooftop, disappearing into the shadows as the rescue mission truly began.
Nobody landed silently behind an abandoned storage container.
The sound of the city disappeared. Only the faint hum of old streetlights and the distant river remained.
He slowly peeked around the corner.
The warehouse entrance was guarded by two men. Neither looked particularly alert. One leaned against the wall while scrolling through his phone.
The other yawned. "...Boss said we’re only keeping the kid here until midnight."
"I know."
"I just hope nobody comes snooping around."
Nobody narrowed his eyes and in his mind he said, "You guys have no idea ha ha ha! Nobody is actually coming but not the nobody your guys are expecting."
He opened a small status window.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Objective Updated
Locate Sarang.
Primary Goal:
Rescue the child safely.
Avoid unnecessary attention.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Copy that." He crouched lower.
"Let’s keep this quiet."
He activated Mind Reader once more. The nearby thoughts gradually became clearer.
"I’m hungry..."
"Why did the boss choose this place?"
"That kid won’t stop crying..."
Then...
A much weaker thought reached him.
"Mom...Dad...please find me..."
Nobody’s expression softened. "Sarang...Just hang in there." He scanned the warehouse again. The building had several broken windows near the roof. "Front entrance is too risky. The roof it is."
With a single leap, he reached a nearby water tower. Another jump carried him onto the warehouse roof. He landed without making a sound. The old metal creaked beneath his boots.
Nobody froze.
The guards below looked around.
"...Did you hear something?"
"Probably another pigeon."
They returned to their conversation.
Nobody smiled beneath the bunny helmet. "That was close." He carefully approached a cracked skylight. Looking through the dusty glass, he observed the interior.
Several wooden crates were stacked against the walls. A white delivery van sat near a loading platform. Two more men were talking beside it.
At the far corner...
A small figure sat on a chair with their hands tied. A piece of cloth covered the child’s mouth. It was Sarang.
The twelve-year-old girl looked frightened but unharmed.
Nobody quietly exhaled. "Good. She is still safe."
A blue notification appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Target Confirmed
Sarang
Condition:
Minor injuries.
Emotional State:
Frightened.
Rescue Probability:
High
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody began studying the warehouse layout. Four people inside. Two outside. Six in total.
He whispered, "I need to separate them." His fingers tapped lightly against the crowbar. "No rushing. The child’s safety comes first."
He looked toward an old electrical panel attached to the rooftop. An idea crossed his mind. A faint grin appeared beneath the visor. "...System."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Awaiting Command
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Show me the warehouse power grid."
Instantly, a holographic blueprint appeared. Every electrical cable glowed bright blue. The main breaker was located directly above the loading bay.
"Perfect." Nobody gently loosened one of the old circuit switches.
Sparks crackled.
Three...
Two...
One...
Click.
The entire warehouse was plunged into darkness.
"Hey! What happened to the lights?"
"Go check the breaker!"
Flashlights switched on as the men shouted to one another. Two of them hurried toward the staircase leading to the roof.
Exactly as Nobody had hoped. "They’re splitting up." He quietly moved to the opposite side of the rooftop.
The moment the two men reached the roof access door, they found nothing unusual.
One scratched his head. "I swear someone was up here."
"Quit imagining things."
While they searched in the wrong direction, Nobody slipped through the broken skylight into the dark warehouse. He landed silently behind a stack of crates.
Only two people remained near Sarang. The child looked up after hearing the faint sound. Although Sarang couldn’t see clearly in the darkness, something about the newcomer felt different.
A calm voice whispered from behind the crates.
"Don’t make a sound. I’m here to help."