System Task

"Sir, could you help us?"

Su Wu lifted his eyelids, which had been drooping from boredom, his expression still somewhat listless as he sized up the children seeking his help. They were decent-looking, with passable personal hygiene—kids who might be called cute in the outside world.

Right now, these "cute" children were looking at him with hopeful eyes of different colors.

But if he remembered correctly, he didn't have much of a relationship with these kids, nor were they close. If they wanted help, why not ask the other priests? There were plenty of them here.

"Because Tara's gone missing, so we wanted you to help..." One of the children seemed a bit awkward, as if being in the position of a supplicant made them feel oddly lowly.

Or maybe this was a common phenomenon—all the kids in District 12 were very obedient in front of church members.

Maybe the same applied across all of Meteor City?

"Why not ask someone else?" Su Wu propped his chin on one hand, his tone still languid and utterly lacking in energy.

"Because Sir Sid and the others are busy, we don't want to waste their time on something like this..." The children hesitated.

The priests of District 12 already had their hands full taking care of them; asking them to search for a friend who'd gone to District 13 would definitely get them rejected.

"Do I look that free?" Su Wu countered.

He reflected on why other kids might think he was idle.

Because the other priests were either in charge of training kids or picking up trash.

Only he did neither—just "played" with Sid every day?

Training couldn't really be called playing, could it?

Su Wu ended his reflection, deciding he didn't need to reflect on anything at all.

"...No, it's just... Sir Hill, you're about our age and already joined the church, so you must be strong too, so... so..." As if convinced their request would be turned down, the child's voice grew more anxious.

Just then, Su Wu's sharp eyes caught sight of Pampas and Sid walking out of the church, so he promptly raised a hand. "Hey, Sid. Pampas."

He waved them over.

Pampas's words had gotten through to Sid; he knew he wasn't as smart as the other man, and most of the time, Pampas represented the right answer.

The two walked out of the church together, and the moment they stepped outside, they heard the young man calling their names.

Sid and Pampas both changed direction at once, heading toward the one waving.

"What's up?" Sid looked a bit stern when he wasn't smiling.

"Is something wrong?" Pampas put on a kind, patient smile.

"They've got something to say." Su Wu casually pointed at the kids beside him.

Sid and Pampas followed his finger, their gazes landing on the children.

"Is there something you want to tell us?" Pampas was the first to ask.

No matter how approachable he was, the kids still looked nervous.

"It's... it's Tara. Tara's gone. We were supposed to play together today, and she said she'd wait for us at the entrance to District 13..." A little boy said nervously.

"Tara?" Sid was taken aback. "She's missing?"

Pampas said nothing, just watched as Sid pressed the kids for details.

"And... Anger, Isaac, Gremmy... they're all gone too." A little girl's voice was tinged with tears.

"Isaac?" At the vaguely familiar name, Pampas's usually gentle expression finally flickered.

Su Wu yawned casually off to the side.

Kids going missing in Meteor City—what was so unusual about that? With the Vulture Gang around, treating people like prey, it was entirely possible the kids had been snatched by them.

[ ]

Even though District 12 raised about ten to twenty thousand kids under eight, District 13 still had plenty over eight.

Even in the outside world, there were human traffickers, and in Meteor City, this phenomenon was surely even more normal.

He had no intention of helping, so he'd just called Sid and Pampas over and dumped the matter on them.

"I understand. We'll look for them." Pampas soothed the children and watched them leave.

Seeing the kids rejoin the group, under the watchful eyes of the other priests responsible for their training, Pampas's smile lost its warmth.

He dropped the facade he wore in front of the children, his smile now suggesting he was plotting something.

"The number of missing kids in District 13 has been rising lately. In half a year, over two hundred have disappeared."

"And no matter how we investigate, we can't find the cause. The gatekeepers haven't seen the kids leave on their own—it's like they vanished into thin air. Strange, right?"

"Sid, do you remember how many kids went missing from District 13 the year District 12 was founded?" The blond man oddly began recalling the past.

"I don't remember." Sid shook his head.

"Twenty-nine. That year, twenty-nine children went missing." Pampas recited the figure effortlessly.

"The second year, thirty-two went missing. The third year, five. The fourth year, three. The fifth year, zero..."

"Of course, these figures don't include the children who died of illness or other causes where their bodies could be found."

"They only refer to the children who vanished without a trace—neither seen alive nor found dead."

"Last year, the number of missing children was 182."

"And this year, the number of missing children is 357." Beneath Pampas's calm tone, something deeper seemed to lurk.

In the early years, when the numbers were still in the single digits, it was when a certain group in Meteor City had just formed and accomplished quite a few major deeds.

From these year-by-year increasing figures, one could see how the hidden culprits behind it all had grown bolder and more rampant step by step.

"This data..." Su Wu propped his chin on the side, eavesdropping openly.

It didn't sound like much, really—compared to some places in the real world, it was even on the low side.

With that comparison, Meteor City's environment suddenly seemed less dangerous, as if public safety had actually improved.

"Isaac's training results have always been quite good. After leaving District 12, I recall he went to District 13 to do some garbage sorting work for the church, didn't he? He was even the captain of one of the cleaning teams..." Pampas seemed very familiar with Isaac, even knowing what he did after leaving District 12.

"You know, District 13 isn't under our jurisdiction." Sid scratched his hair and muttered in a low voice.

District 12's job was to patrol, pick up children, and take care of them—of course, occasionally they also had to dispatch some manpower to clean up trash.

But most of the time, District 13 was managed by someone else.

One of the Meteor City Elder Council's elders, Faruk Zapata.

"Hill, want to play a game?" Pampas's thoughts stirred slightly as he looked at the youth beside him, who seemed to have grown bored to the point of exhaustion.

[Daily Side Quest—Investigate the Missing Children. Reward granted upon quest completion.]

The system's prompt made Su Wu open his half-closed, listless eyes.

This was the first side quest he'd ever received, huh. It made this feel even more like a nurturing adventure game.

Su Wu blinked, a smile tinged with a hint of mischief and eager excitement spreading across his face.

"Sure." He agreed in a cheerful tone.

Time to test the results of his training.