Chapter 30: An Adult Like You, I’m Going to Fix You!

The busy signal in the phone was cold and urgent—it had been hung up!

Yuki Asahi jerked his head up, staring hard at the screen, his voice trembling slightly.

“Hunting list?……Why are there ordinary people?”

On the screen, the originally scrolling list had frozen, with Jiang Jian Yue’s name and photo glaringly present.

The entire list was densely packed with hundreds of entries, the vast majority likely Superpower Users who appeared after the outbreak.

Dream Serpent ignored the no-smoking sign on the wall, calmly lighting a cigarette with her lighter.

She took a deep drag, then casually flicked the ashes onto Takaguchi’s shoulder beside her, gray ash scattering down.

“Well……not sure.”

She held the cigarette between her fingers, lazily gesturing in front of the screen.

“This area, up to here, those marked in white are ordinary citizens.”

The smoke spread before his eyes, making Yuki Asahi’s throat tighten; he waved his hand repeatedly, signaling her to move away.

“These targets……”

Dream Serpent exhaled a string of smoke rings from her vivid red lips, her tone indifferent.

“Should be handed over to Takeyama, the weakest. He’s enough to deal with ordinary people.”

The man in the main seat asked the staff beside him.

“Has the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department been contacted?”

“They were notified to deploy immediately, but……”

The staff’s voice was hesitant.

“The gap in police force is too large, and they’re urgently mobilizing personnel from outside Tokyo, but……no idea if it’ll be in time.”

Trying to stop hundreds of precise assassinations by a group of powerful Superpower Users in a metropolis of tens of millions?

Despair filled the meeting room; this was an operation doomed to fail.

“I understand.”

The man’s heavy sigh nearly dragged the atmosphere to its lowest point.

He raised his hand, rubbing his dry eyes vigorously, the heavy dark circles a testament to his exhaustion.

The containment of Masakazu Kinoshita was not yet over, and the city-wide Superpower Outbreak Event surged in like a tide.

Tokushu Jishou Taiou Honbu was exhausted, managing to contact only seventeen willing Superpower Users in two days.

Everyone had reached their limits, their faces filled with the despair of death, and now……

This hunting list was the final straw that broke the back of Tokushu Jishou Taiou Honbu.

Expansion? Stabilization? Everything was undecided, yet already on the brink.

Yuki Asahi stood up suddenly, gripping his phone so tightly his knuckles turned white.

His mind was filled with Jiang Jian Yue’s safety; in his eyes, the hunting list seemed to hold only one name.

At the moment he was about to blurt out a request to leave, his phone suddenly vibrated—the contact “Senior Jiang Jian” was calling back.

“What’s wrong?”

A familiar and still calm voice came.

“Senpai! Someone is trying to assassinate you, get to a safe place quickly.”

His urgency overflowed, unhidden in his words.

“Shen Ao has already succeeded.”

Jiang Jian Yue said something unclear, giving Yuki Asahi no time to question, and continued.

“You don’t need to worry about me.”

“Do what you need to do, Yuki.”

Do what needs to be done?

Yuki Asahi slowly raised his head; a string of avatars and names were reflected in his golden eyes from the screen.

“Understood……I’ll do my best.”

He hung up, looking much calmer.

He turned to the man in the main seat.

“Is there anything I can help with?”

***

Tokushu Jishou Taiou Honbu had already sent assassination warnings to everyone on the list.

Those originally in Chiyoda were advised to rush to Tokushu Jishou Taiou Honbu immediately, but how many would listen……

The Tokushu Jishou Taiou Honbu reception hall was oppressively empty.

In the center, a small-time punk in a flashy shirt with a face full of metal studs shifted his eyes uneasily.

His gaze swept around.

The SAT-EX Members in full heavy riot gear stood at the edges of the hall.

Finally, his eyes landed a few meters away, on a trembling, slightly disheveled blue-haired middle school girl.

In the entire reception area, only these two “guests” remained.

“Tch…”

The punk clicked his tongue, running his fingers irritably through his brown-red pompadour.

“Is this protection or surveillance?”

A sound of footsteps broke the silence, approaching from a side corridor.

The nearest SAT-EX Member straightened and saluted sharply toward the entrance.

The two in the hall looked over.

A boy of high school age walked in, head lowered, focused as he flipped through a thick stack of documents.

Following closely behind was a curvy woman with pale purple hair and a Tokushu Jishou Taiou Honbu staff member wearing a badge on her chest.

Seeing the newcomers, the punk curled his lips, narrowing his eyes in a mocking laugh.

“Does Tokushu Jishou Taiou Honbu have no one left? What a joke.”

Yuki Asahi’s gaze remained on the documents, only glancing briefly at the source of the noise.

His steps didn’t pause, as if talking to himself while sorting through clues.

“So the hunter can use a personal terminal to lock onto Runaway Energy for tracking?”

In that instant, he also understood how Kuninori Tsuruoka had known his location back then.

The materials in his hand were about the Mindworm Superpower System, information Tokushu Jishou Taiou Honbu had just obtained.

Through Dream Serpent—the woman who betrayed GPRI……

No, not betrayed, but returned to the right path.

“Hmm, hiding is useless unless these targets shed their skins like cicadas.”

The woman pinched the last cigarette from her pack.

Yuki Asahi’s thoughts raced.

He asked the Tokushu Jishou Taiou Honbu staff.

“Did anyone consider having these targets band together nearby?”

“As Superpower Users, they should have some self-defense ability, right?”

“That’s what the Strategic Planning Group thought too, and they’ve already notified them.”

Dream Serpent shrugged, her tone mocking.

“Then the hunters could wipe them all out at once, saving them the trouble of picking off each one separately.”

Survival and risk went hand in hand.

Being alone was dangerous—encountering a hunter meant almost certain death—but grouping together made them a bigger target.

“OI!”

Completely ignored and left out, the punk’s anger finally exploded.

He kicked the back of the metal chair in front of him, the crash echoing as he jumped up.

“Damn it! What the hell are you people at Tokushu Jishou Taiou Honbu trying to do? Are you toying with us?”

The sudden outburst terrified the middle school girl, who began to sob quietly, unable to suppress her fear.

“Are you all useless? Tax-stealing scum!”

Yuki Asahi remained silent, lowering his head to flip through the documents again.

He remembered the words of the main seat man—the Deputy Chief of Tokushu Jishou Taiou Honbu.

“Your mission is……as the Central, stabilize morale.”

He closed the file and handed it to the staff behind him.

Standing in front of the punk, Yuki Asahi was slightly taller, his eyes downcast as he looked down.

“Oowada Toshihiro, male, twenty-five, societal trash, Runaway Energy 2680.”

“What the hell are you babbling about!”

Being called societal trash, Oowada Toshihiro flushed with shame and rage, reaching out to grab Yuki Asahi’s collar.

Pa——

A slap sent Oowada Toshihiro flying, crashing into a pillar on the side of the hall.

“Truly a disgraceful guy!”