Finding Nyarlathotep's whereabouts was no easy task for Duanmu Huai, but it wasn't as if he had no leads at all.
That was why he was sitting here.
"I never expected you to actually accept my commission, Mr. Duanmu."
The person sitting across from Duanmu Huai was none other than Takatsuki Group's Group Leader, Tezuka Renichi.
Previously, Tezuka Renichi had called Duanmu Huai and asked him to investigate an incident, but at the time, Duanmu Huai had had no interest in matters involving the underworld and had flatly refused. However, after returning here this time, Duanmu Huai chose to... accept.
In fact, all Duanmu Huai had to do was think carefully from the Inquisitor's perspective to realize that gangs were pretty useful. In the lower levels of a Hive City, if an Inquisitor wanted to find some cult or another, going through the gangs was the fastest way. Besides, Duanmu Huai had dealt with the gangs of the Hive City in the game before. He knew that these people had connections in both the underworld and legitimate society, making them extremely useful.
However, when he had arrived in this world, perhaps because the system had given him several choices that kept pushing him toward the underworld, Duanmu Huai had instead wanted nothing to do with the gangs here. He always felt that if he got involved with the underworld in this world, the system would be setting him up!
But now that the world was about to be destroyed, clinging to such meaningless notions of loyalty and face was pointless. Since he had this lead in his hands, he might as well use it.
However, in this timeline, the circumstances under which Tezuka Renichi had contacted Duanmu Huai were different from before.
In the first timeline, Duanmu Huai had gone