Chapter 154: Let’s Save Number 2
The distant wail of police sirens grew louder.
Nobody stood in the shadows of a nearby alley, watching the flashing blue and red lights race toward the abandoned warehouse.
The System quietly displayed a notification.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Mission Status
Target: Issebella
Status: Safe
Authorities: Arriving
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Nobody looked down at the frightened girl standing beside him. "We’re almost done."
Issebella nodded weakly. She still looked exhausted, but the fear in her eyes had begun to fade. "...What happens now?"
"You go home."
Nobody glanced toward the approaching police vehicles. "They’ll take care of the rest."
"But..." She hesitated. "What about you?"
Nobody chuckled beneath the crimson bunny helmet. "I still have work tonight."
The first police cruiser turned into the warehouse entrance. Officers immediately rushed toward the building with flashlights drawn.
Nobody crouched beside Issebella. "When I tell you to run, head straight toward the police officers."
"...Okay."
"They’ll protect you."
She swallowed nervously. "...Will they believe me?"
"They’ll believe everything." Nobody gently placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "You don’t have to be afraid anymore."
Another police vehicle screeched to a stop. Officers began surrounding the warehouse. The moment had arrived.
"Go."
Issebella took a deep breath before running across the open yard. "Help!"
One officer immediately spotted her. "There’s the victim!"
"She’s alive!"
Several officers hurried toward the frightened girl.
One female officer wrapped a blanket around her shoulders. "It’s alright. You’re safe now."
Another officer knelt beside her. "Can you tell us what happened?"
Issebella looked back toward the dark alley. For a brief second, she saw the silhouette of the crimson bunny. Nobody raised one hand in a small wave.
She smiled through tears. "...Thank you..."
By the time she blinked...
He was gone.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Mission Complete
Victim Rescued
Experience Awarded
Reputation Increased
Crimson Bunny Legend +5
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody slipped silently across the rooftops overlooking the industrial district. Below, dozens of officers poured into the warehouse. Within minutes, handcuffed traffickers were escorted outside one after another. Ambulances soon followed.
Nobody watched quietly. "Good. They’ll answer to the law."
The System appeared again.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Remaining Rescue Targets
Moonlissa
Estimated Age: 17
Current Danger: High
Time Remaining: 4 Hours 51 Minutes
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Rian
Estimated Age: 11
Current Danger: Moderate
Time Remaining: 5 Hours 36 Minutes
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody’s expression became serious. "Two more. Can we save both tonight?"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Probability Analysis...
Success Rate:
91.8%
Recommended Route Generated.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
A holographic map unfolded before him. Two glowing markers appeared on opposite sides of the city. One pulsed crimson. The other glowed blue.
"Hmm..."
Nobody studied the map carefully.
"Moonlissa is in more immediate danger."
The System confirmed.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Priority Target Updated
Destination:
North Riverside District
Distance:
12.8 Kilometers
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Nobody smiled. "Looks like we’re taking the scenic route." He leaped from the rooftop.
Using Zig Zag Teleportation, he crossed the narrow alleys in a series of rapid flashes before landing beside his crimson motorcycle. The bike recognized its owner instantly.
Beep.
Engine Ready.
Nobody climbed onto the seat. He looked once toward the warehouse where Issebella was finally surrounded by people who could protect her.
"One safe."
He tightened his gloves. "Two to go."
The System displayed one final message.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nightly Rescue Progress
Issebella — Safe Moonlissa — Awaiting Rescue Rian — Awaiting Rescue
Current Objective:
Prevent Further Victims
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody lowered his visor. "Let’s move."
The crimson motorcycle roared to life, its headlight cutting through the darkness.
A moment later, it shot onto the empty streets, weaving between pools of moonlight as the city rushed past. Somewhere across the skyline, another frightened victim was waiting.
And as long as the System kept revealing names, the Crimson Bunny would keep riding into the night.
...
The crimson motorcycle tore through the sleeping city.
VROOOOOOOM!
Streetlights flashed past like streaks of gold. Empty intersections disappeared behind him one after another as the Crimson Bunny raced toward the next mission.
Cold wind whipped against his helmet. Nobody glanced at the glowing navigation window floating beside the handlebars.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Current Objective
Rescue Target:
Moonlissa
Current Danger:
High
Distance Remaining:
11.6 km
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"...Still pretty far." He twisted the throttle.
The motorcycle answered with a louder roar.
VROOOOOOOM!
Buildings gradually became older as he entered the northern district. Modern skyscrapers gave way to abandoned factories, worn apartment blocks, and narrow roads lined with rusted warehouses.
Nobody looked around. "...This place feels depressing."
The System responded.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Analysis
North Riverside District
Crime Rate:
Extremely High
Police Response Time:
Delayed
Illegal Activity:
Above Average
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody sighed. "...Of course."
He continued riding. Suddenly....
A new notification appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ Warning ]
Target’s Estimated Time Remaining
4 Hours
32 Minutes
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Nobody’s smile disappeared. "...Let’s pick up the pace."
VROOOOOOOM!!
The crimson motorcycle accelerated once again.
...
Meanwhile...Several kilometers ahead...Inside an abandoned textile factory...
The atmosphere was eerily quiet. Rows of broken machines stretched across the massive building. Dust floated through broken windows.
Near the center, a teenage girl sat tied to a metal chair. Her hands were secured behind her back. A cloth covered her eyes. Her breathing was shaky. "..." Moonlissa remained silent. She had stopped struggling long ago. Around her stood several armed guards.
One looked toward the entrance. "Boss still isn’t back?"
Another shrugged. "He’ll return soon."
"What about the girl?"
"Keep watching her."
A third man laughed. "She won’t be escaping anytime soon."
Moonlissa lowered her head. She listened quietly.
Every sound echoed through the empty factory. Footsteps, voices, metal creaking.
She silently wished...
Someone...Anyone...Would come.
...
Elsewhere...
Far from the world of Shining Blossom,
Ray stood atop a communication tower. The cold night wind moved through his black hair. He looked toward the northern district from the screen. Then smiled. "So...The Maniac NPC chose Moonlissa first." His golden eyes glowed faintly. "I expected that."
He slowly raised one hand. Black particles gathered around his fingertips. "They’ve already failed to stop you once. This time...I’ll make things a little more interesting."
The darkness expanded. It drifted away like smoke. Heading directly toward North Riverside.
Ray smiled wider. "Let’s see...How many people you can save."
...
Back on the road...
Nobody suddenly felt something. "...Huh?" He slowed slightly. "...Did the air just get colder?"
The System immediately reacted.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Environmental Scan
Unknown Energy Signature
Status:
Detected
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody frowned.
"...some danger?"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Probability
87%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"...That higher being seriously has nothing better to do." He accelerated again. "I’m busy tonight. I don’t have time for boss fights."
...
Five minutes later...
The motorcycle entered an industrial zone.
Rusted cranes towered overhead. Broken shipping containers filled empty lots. Old factories lined both sides of the road.
Nobody followed the navigation arrow. Left, right and straight.
Finally...
The System spoke.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Destination Nearby
Distance Remaining
420 meters
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Nobody slowed the motorcycle. "...We’re here." He parked behind an abandoned warehouse.
The engine became silent.
Tick...
Tick...
Tick...
Nobody climbed off the bike. He looked around carefully. "...Too quiet."
There were no securities. No barking dogs, no passing vehicles, no voices. Only the wind.
The System quietly displayed another message.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Scanning...
Life Signs Detected
Total:
19
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"Nineteen?" Nobody folded his arms. "One victim...So...Eighteen bad guys?"
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Affirmative
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"...Busy night." He stretched both shoulders.
CRACK.
CRACK.
"Let’s get to work."
...
Nobody climbed onto the roof of a nearby warehouse. From there... He finally saw it.
An enormous abandoned textile factory. Broken windows, collapsed smokestacks, rusted steel walls. Several floodlights illuminated the entrances. Armed men patrolled outside. Two stood near the gate. Four walked around the building. Others guarded different entrances.
Nobody crouched behind an air vent. "...Security doubled."
The System answered.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Reason]
Previous Rescue
Enemy Organization
Has Increased Precautions
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody nodded slowly. "Makes sense."
He looked toward the roof. "...Snipers?"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Scanning...
Two Confirmed
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"...Knew it." His grin slowly appeared. "They’re learning." He reached behind his back.
CLINK.
Both frost-infused crowbars appeared in his hands. Cold mist drifted into the air.
Nobody looked toward the nearest rooftop. "...Guess I’ll start with housekeeping."
FLASH.
Zigzag activated.
His figure vanished.
...
On another rooftop...
One sniper quietly watched the factory entrance through a scope. "...Nothing." He adjusted the rifle. "...Boring."
A cold breeze passed behind him.
"...?" The sniper frowned. He slowly turned.
Nobody stood there. "...Yo."
The sniper’s eyes widened. "Wha...."
BONK.
One crowbar lightly tapped his helmet.
CRACK.
Ice instantly spread across the weapon.
The rifle froze solid.
"...Huh?"
BONK.
The second tap landed gently on the man’s shoulder. Frost climbed over his clothing.
Within seconds...
He was completely immobilized in ice. Only his eyes moved.
Nobody gave him a thumbs-up. "Congratulations. You’ve been promoted..To rooftop decoration."
FLASH.
He disappeared again.
...
The second sniper never even realized someone had arrived. A shadow landed silently behind him.
Nobody looked through the sniper’s scope. "...Nice view."
The sniper blinked. "...Who’s...."
BONK.
Another soft smack. Ice covered the rifle.
BONK.
Another hit. The sniper froze in place.
Nobody looked at both frozen men from across the rooftops. "Perfect. No loud noises. I like stealth."
The System responded.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bonus Awarded
Silent Neutralization
+40 Points
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody smiled. "...Easy money."
...
Back below...
The guards remained completely unaware.
One yawned. "I hate night shifts."
Another laughed. "At least it’s quiet."
Suddenly...
A tiny pebble landed beside them.
Tick.
"...?" The guard looked down. "What was....?"
FLASH.
Nobody appeared between them. "...Evening."
Before either could react....
BONK.
BONK.
Two quick crowbar taps. Frost exploded outward. Both guards froze in surprised poses.
Nobody admired them. "...Modern art."
FLASH.
Gone again.
Another patrol rounded the corner. "...Hey. Where’d those two go?"
Nobody’s voice answered from above. "They’re chilling."
The guards looked upward. "...What?"
FLASH.
BONK.
BONK.
BONK.
Within seconds...
Another three guards stood frozen like statues.
Nobody clapped once. "Efficiency."
The System quietly updated.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Outer Guards
Neutralized
Remaining Hostiles:
11
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody rolled one shoulder.
"So far...So good."