Su Xiao stood behind a big tree, observing for a moment before stepping out from behind the trunk. His sudden appearance startled the high school girl, and she quickly retracted her red eyes and kagune, looking a bit panicked.
"Who are you? How did you get here?"
"CCG, third-class investigator, Bai Ye."
The blade known as the Dragon Slayer appeared in Su Xiao's hand, its shiny surface glinting coldly in the moonlight.
"A CCG investigator... so the day has finally come."
The girl lowered her head, her hands hidden behind her back, still stained with blood that she hadn't cleaned off.
Her kagune and red eyes returned. This ghoul had a tail kagune, two thin tails at the end of her spine, about the thickness of a finger.
"Did you see my face? I'm Qianxia, the one who will kill you."
Qianxia's delicate features twisted in anger. Though she still had some humanity left, she was still a ghoul.
"This park is your hunting ground, right?"
Su Xiao understood the situation; the ghoul he was looking for was right in front of him, Qianxia.
"I'll give you ten seconds to say your last words."
Qianxia was taken aback, then laughed at Su Xiao.
"You’re just a third-class investigator, and you want me to leave a last word? Just because of that broken knife? That thing can't hurt me."
"Such a strange last word."
With that, Su Xiao charged forward with his blade.
Fighting, screams, cries...
A minute later, the forest fell silent. Qianxia lay on the ground, covered in blood, her kagune severed, and both arms gone.
"It hurts~ So this is what it feels like to be injured. No wonder those prey scream so loudly."
Tears streaked down Qianxia's face. She was just an A to S-class ghoul, easily taken down by Su Xiao.
"Are you going to kill me?"
Su Xiao remained silent, standing beside Qianxia, raising the Dragon Slayer.
"Is it really wrong to live as a ghoul? Haha~ Eating humans really brings retribution."
"That has nothing to do with me, just doing my job. Farewell."
The long knife fell, and blood splattered.
[You have killed S-class ghoul, Qianxia.]
[Qianxia is an ordinary ghoul, you gain 0.5% of the World Source, now totaling 5.7%.]
[Your talent 'Soul Eater' activates, permanently increasing your mana by 7 points, current mana is 170 points.]
[You gain 40 CCG contribution points.]
Even though Qianxia was an S-class ghoul, she didn’t drop any treasure boxes.
This wasn’t surprising; the power gap between Qianxia and Su Xiao was too great. The World Source gained showed that Qianxia had little impact on the story.
The reason the gecko dropped green treasure boxes wasn’t because of its strength, but because it was closely tied to the original story.
Su Xiao took out the CCG's special phone and called the 14th district branch to explain the situation before hanging up.
He didn’t need to handle the aftermath; CCG would send someone to deal with Qianxia’s body. Once her kagune was extracted, he could earn some contribution points.
Of course, he could also keep the kagune and spend contribution points to turn it into a Quinque.
A Quinque made from an S-class kagune should only be a white-grade weapon, so Su Xiao chose to submit it for 10 contribution points.
This way, his contribution points became: Third-class investigator (contribution value 50/50), yes/no to promote.
He chose to promote, but his position didn’t change, and the Reincarnation Paradise gave a prompt.
[Waiting for feedback from CCG headquarters, estimated time: 3 hours.]
Promoting isn’t just about making a choice; it also requires notification from CCG headquarters.
With the influence of Reincarnation Paradise, promoting to second-class investigator was a sure thing.
Without that influence, it might take Su Xiao years to become a first-class investigator.
This wasn’t about how many ghouls he had driven away; it was a matter of qualifications.
Now, with the influence of Reincarnation Paradise, the qualification issue was set aside, and Su Xiao just needed to hunt many ghouls.
Even so, becoming a first-class investigator wouldn’t be easy.
CCG investigators had six ranks, from lowest to highest: Third-class investigator, second-class investigator, first-class investigator, upper-class investigator, quasi-special investigator, and special investigator.
Third-class was the weakest, and special was the strongest.
When Su Xiao returned to the 14th district branch, Shinohara Yukiki approached him.
"This is how it went down. In short, the ghoul has been eliminated. Are there any other ghouls that need to be dealt with?"
Su Xiao explained the situation to Shinohara Yukiki, who nodded.
"I’ve already reported your solo elimination of an S-class ghoul to headquarters. If all goes well, you should be able to be promoted to second-class investigator. With your abilities, being a third-class is just too low."
"No, even second-class is a bit low, but without solid achievements, headquarters won’t promote you."
Su Xiao didn’t say anything; he just wanted to continue searching for the next ghoul.
The current situation was that, except for him, all other contractors had been classified into the ghoul camp. This meant that the target he needed to hunt, contractor number 12470, was also in the ghoul camp.
Looking at the main quest (1.2), the next main quest (3) would likely be a combat-type task; otherwise, there would be no need to split into two camps and activate a balance mechanism.
"Since that’s the case, Shinohara, why not provide me with more locations of ghouls?"
Completing main quest (2) as soon as possible would definitely be beneficial.
"Yes, that’s a plan, but you need to rest now; it’s already 10 PM. Plus, I have something to ask of you tomorrow morning, or rather, Mr. Shin'ya has something to ask of you."
Su Xiao was a bit confused but didn’t ask further. After bidding farewell to Shinohara Yukiki, he went to the dormitory assigned to him on the 16th floor of the 14th district CCG branch.
In the 11th district, Ota area.
The 11th district, as the stronghold of the Bronze Tree, had almost become a forbidden zone for humans.
The Bronze Tree had repeatedly attacked the 11th district CCG branch, weakening human forces to the extreme. Only a few civilians lived scattered near the 11th district CCG branch, living in constant fear.
These civilians didn’t willingly live here; they were trapped by the ghouls in the 11th district, using them as emergency "food." Except for powerful investigators, no one could freely enter or exit the 11th district.
The ghouls here relied on "imports" for their human supply, showing just how dangerous the 11th district was.
At this moment, in an unfinished building on the outskirts of the 11th district, more than twenty humans were gathered.
These twenty people weren’t part of a single faction; they were split into three groups, with varying numbers. They were contractors from the ghoul camp.
"Han Yu, stop talking nonsense. The balance mechanism is just because CCG is currently stronger than the Bronze Tree. Don’t set up imaginary enemies with me."
A young man with fiery red short hair, hot-tempered, looked disdainfully at Han Yu.
Han Yu sneered and shook his head. If the other party wasn’t a fire mage, he wouldn’t have approached for an alliance.
"Fiery, don’t think just because I’m looking to ally with you, you can act all high and mighty."
Han Yu pointed his staff at the ground, and a thin layer of ice began to spread from his feet. Han Yu was also a mage, but an ice mage; his ability to hurt enemies wasn’t strong, but he excelled in control.
"If we weren’t in the same camp, I’d wipe you out right now."
Fiery gripped his short staff tightly, a wave of heat radiating from him, and sparks appeared around his body.
The pressure from Fiery changed Han Yu’s expression.
"This feeling~ Have you found a staff that suits your element?"
Han Yu looked at the short staff in Fiery's hand.
The short staff looked shabby, like a fire poker, but at the top, it was embedded with a red crystal the size of a fingernail, which seemed to have flames burning inside.
Fiery looked a bit proud, sneering at Han Yu’s staff.
"This treasure cost me 14,000 Paradise Coins. That’s my total income from two worlds, not counting the cost of bringing people along."
Fiery’s face showed pain, but there was excitement in it.
"Lucky guy."
Han Yu looked at him with envy.
Shaking his head, Han Yu took out a small camera from his storage space and tossed it to Fiery.
Fiery caught the small camera and fiddled with it for a bit before his expression changed drastically.
The camera recorded the moment Su Xiao killed the gecko and easily defeated Rishi.
Though Fiery was hot-headed, he wasn’t brainless; otherwise, he wouldn’t have gathered a temporary adventure group of ten people.
"Let’s form an alliance, Han Yu. We must cooperate in this derived world, or we’ll all be killed by that monster. Killing S-class ghouls? Damn, how did a monster like this enter the ghoul world? This guy is at least Lv. 7 or higher.
I’ll show my sincerity first with an important piece of information: the third phase of the main quest is a combat task. I bought this information for 400 Paradise Coins."
Han Yu breathed a sigh of relief. If he allied with Fiery, they might still have a chance.
(End of Chapter)