Everything Aboveground Has No Owner

Su Wu stepped away from the safe and looked around. In the end, he pulled the red velvet tablecloth off the nearby desk, placed the Geni, gold, and jewelry from the floor onto it, then tied it into a bundle.

"What are you doing?" a voice came from the doorway.

Unhurried, Su Wu openly swung the bundle onto his back and replied naturally, "Picking up trash."

He then turned to face Pampas—or rather, the puppet he controlled.

Like a marionette, strands of Nen thread had been woven around nearly the puppet's entire body. They controlled it while also serving as protection.

This was the very puppet Su Wu had first encountered, and the wounds he had inflicted on it last time had already healed.

"Trash?" The man glanced at the bundle and said nothing more, merely shifting his gaze to the safe beside him.

"So the last survivor is in here." There was a subtle note in his voice.

Before Hill took action, Pampas had told him—leave a few survivors alive to question.

Hill had indeed left survivors behind, but only one.

Everyone else had been killed.

Did that count as obedience or rebellion?

"Where is this?" Su Wu asked, though he did not particularly care about the answer.

He was simply curious that someone had built such a structure beneath Meteor City. It did not look like something that could have been constructed in a short time.

"District 3 Underground," Pampas answered. His tone sounded strange, but Su Wu was not interested.

"Beneath Upper District 3..." Su Wu nodded thoughtfully, seeming to understand something.

Anyone who could build such a structure underground within Upper District 3's territory was either a noble or... connected to the Elder Council.

"Oh, right. Who's the owner of that ability that makes people disappear while walking?" He suddenly asked with great interest. "Can he open a hole in the sky? Then open another one on the ground, so the moment someone falls into the hole on the ground, they appear in the sky? That would definitely be fun!"

Infinite bungee jumping—nice!

"Probably not. There is nothing in the sky for him to apply his ability to." Pampas smiled and shook his head.

As for the identity of the one with the Teleportation Ability, he already had an answer in mind, but he would not tell the boy in front of him.

"Such a fun ability... If you catch him, give him to me to play with, okay?" The white-haired, blue-eyed boy smiled lightly, his gaze indifferent. Even Pampas fell silent at his attitude of treating people like toys.

Could Hill be some naturally inhuman little psychopath? If so, his investment would be completely meaningless. Psychopaths would not be moved by so-called favors.

"If there is an opportunity." Pampas remained as proper as ever, but he made no promise.

Cunning adults really were difficult to deal with.

"Hey, come out." Clearly dissatisfied with Pampas's answer, Su Wu ignored him and simply raised his foot to kick the safe.

With a thud, the waist-high safe—with someone still hiding inside—was sent flying. It slammed into the wall with a bang before falling to the ground.

The safe door swung open, and the person inside rolled out in a miserable state.

"Ah—!!!"

"Don't kill me, don't kill me, don't kill me—"

"I don't know anything—"

"I don't know anything—" Terrified, he scrambled beneath the desk, clutching his head and screaming repeatedly. Then his eyes rolled back, and he looked as though he was about to faint.

There was only one survivor left. He could not be allowed to pass out just like that.

Su Wu quickly pressed a hand to the man's head and gave him a deeply meaningful, kindly smile. "Answer the questions properly and cooperate with us, understand?"

Even through his hair, the man could feel the piercing coldness of Su Wu's palm. He hurriedly nodded, indicating that he would cooperate completely.

"My name is—" He was about to reveal everything about himself.

"No one wants to know your name." Su Wu interrupted his nonsense.

He was just a small fry. What was the point of knowing his name? When playing a game, who wasted brainpower remembering the names of cannon-fodder NPCs?

"Who does this building belong to? Where are those children being sent?" the white-haired, blue-eyed boy asked coldly. "If you don't tell the truth..." His gaze fell on the pile of mangled flesh on the floor nearby, and there was a hint of amusement in his voice.

The man's entire body jolted. He clearly did not want to end up like that. "I'll talk. This place is..." He opened his mouth, desperately trying to say something, only to find that everything around him had gone quiet.

The frightening white-haired boy stood beside the blond man, looking at him with mild surprise and interest.

Why... were they looking at him like that?

The man opened his mouth, but not a sound came out.

He died a gruesome death. Blood flowed from his seven orifices, and his tongue vanished outright. Even at the moment of death, he had not noticed anything wrong, as though his life and tongue had been taken from him in an instant.

"It seems he made quite an extraordinary contract with someone." Pampas looked at the corpse, his tone faint and ghostly, without any surprise.

Su Wu looked down at the man who had stopped breathing, then at the puppet whose face, like Pampas's own, revealed no emotion.

"My task is finished. I'm leaving first." His figure vanished from the spot in an instant, openly taking the treasure with him.

Pampas looked at the now-empty office, which had clearly been thoroughly looted. Every valuable item had been swept away, leaving behind only corpses and a complete mess. His expression remained calm.

Hill had not left him with nothing, at least. He had left behind something quite important.

He looked at the paper documents on the ground beside him. Some were speckled with blood, but that was nothing compared to the heavy stench of blood seeping from between the lines of text.

"District 3..." He carefully gathered the papers into a neat stack, then quickly left.

A Release-type Nen ability could project Nen outward to achieve an effect similar to teleportation, while he... was a Manipulation-type.

But he was just as fast when it came to leaving.

The way back was the same as the way there; he saw plenty of corpses that had died gruesome deaths.

Being torn into pieces would have counted as mercy. Some were so badly mangled that they no longer even resembled human beings.

Bloodstains and bits of human tissue could be found at almost every stretch of the road.

If the circumstances had been more suitable, Pampas would have wanted to take a few photos for Sid to see.

Then Sid would stop saying Hill was weak.

Su Wu returned to his house in District 12 with a huge bag slung over his back.

Honestly, he had no sense of belonging toward Meteor City. He felt just as indifferent toward this so-called house, treating it merely as one stop on a journey—essentially a temporary inn.

Leaving his things in the house was obviously not very safe. In Meteor City, any house without someone inside was considered ownerless by default. The moment he left, other children would likely rummage through it.

"System, do you have storage space?" he asked without much hope.

[The system does not provide storage space to the host, but the host may purchase spatial items from the shop once it has been unlocked.]

The system answered coldly.

The answer was exactly as expected.

After all, this system was not only an idiot that had gotten the world coordinates wrong, but also a stingy, impoverished cheapskate.

"Then where should I put it..." Su Wu stroked his chin in thought.

If he had to name the safest place in Meteor City...

He turned to look at the church.

At the very least, the church in every district was quite safe. No residents of Meteor City would cause trouble there.

"Great, I'll hide it there!" He grabbed the cloth sack and rushed toward the church.

Ignoring Sid, who was meditating inside the church, he began looking around for a place to hide his things.

In the end, his gaze settled heavily on the stone floor tiles. Before Sid could sense that something was wrong, he pried one of them up.

He then dug a hole beneath it, buried the cloth sack inside, and set the tile back in place.

"What was that?" Sid had witnessed everything. By the time he wanted to stop him, it was already too late, so he simply gave up on stopping him and asked.

"Trash I picked up." Su Wu dusted off his hands, sat down nearby, and answered without the slightest guilt.

"Trash?" Sid's eyes were full of suspicion.

Did this brat really think he had no brains? Someone who never did any trash-cleaning work claiming he had picked up trash? Who would believe that?!

And what kind of trash needed to be wrapped in cloth and buried beneath a church?

That method of disposal somehow resembled a thief or robber hiding stolen goods in some unknown corner, waiting to retrieve them once it was safe or when it was time to flee.

"You... didn't go rob someone, did you?" Sid guessed.

Given the other's usual arrogant behavior...

It did not seem like something he was incapable of doing.

He was clearly an outsider, yet he had adapted to Meteor City's way of life even better than its native residents.

"No, I picked it up off the ground." The white-haired, blue-eyed boy spoke naturally, a relaxed and cheerful smile on his face.

Things on the ground were ownerless and could be taken freely. Wasn't that basic common sense?

"..." Sid wordlessly looked away and said nothing more.

Since the other insisted, then so be it. After all... this was Meteor City.

"You missed three days of training. Starting tomorrow, you'll make them up." He folded his arms and announced in a deep voice.