Bad Born Blood Chapter 307

307
Me, Quilia, Maria, and Sariel were also looking at the tea house.

Sariel’s sense of smell was directed towards the tea house. A long, lingering scent continued from there.

‘Tea houses are usually located in wealthy areas.’

For the lower class, ‘tea’ is a synthetic beverage that they drink occasionally, and it is sold as a bonus in bars and pubs, not tea houses. It is difficult for the bottom class to drink proper tea.

‘So, it’s a drug store disguised as a tea house… ‘

It was a common disguise. Everyone knew about it but just let it slide.

In fact, there were drug addicts wandering around this area.

‘The main business is probably selling drugs, but they probably buy a small amount of tea to disguise it as a tea shop.’

The amount of tea leaves purchased would have been more than enough for one person to drink.

‘Furthermore, Aquis Victima is closely related to awakening drugs.’

Many of Kinuan’s subordinates, Dedronin, are likely drug addicts. Most users of the Archies Victory must rely on drugs. It is rare for someone like me to have undergone high-level neurochemical treatment. Those who have undergone advanced enhancement treatments have less reason to learn the Archies Victory.

I stared at the tea house.

‘The question is whether this is a trap or not.’

As I approached, I felt a surge of anxiety.

“Here, the smell is thick and stagnant.”

Sariel raised his head and pointed to the tea house.

“I’ll go in first and check… … .”

Quilia tried to step forward. I grabbed her shoulder and pulled her forward.

“It’s an immature body, so leave it alone. It’s not like the Force use is unlimited, so save it.”

Above all, if there were any traces of Kinuan in there, I wanted to secure them first.

Maria and Quilia knew what to do without my instructions. They took up their positions and came under my protection.

I walked along the wall, weaving between the vagrants and addicts.

‘Think from Kinuan’s perspective, Luca. Bring him down to my level.’

A lot of thoughts were running through my head. First of all, I got rid of the ‘overgrown Kinuan’. If Kinuan was an omnipotent being, he wouldn’t have won in the first place. Let’s eliminate the possibility of a helpless defeat.

Just think about the prerequisites to win.

‘Maria is not a cautious person. If Kinuan had wanted to use Maria, he could have extracted Maria’s power and information through various means.’

However, Kinuan would have only acquired superficial information about Maria’s group. He would not have had the time or energy to delve deeper.

At this point, I, Iley, the special forces, and even Cora’s assassins were involved. Maria and her group were a low priority group in Kinuan’s observation ranking.

‘Sariel’s sense of smell, awakened by drugs, is able to classify even the smallest particles and trace back movements from several days ago. This is an ability that far exceeds the scope of general expectations.’

I too was amazed by Sariel’s olfactory ability. It was a super sense that was hard to find anywhere else. I don’t think Kinuan even expected this.

‘Kinuan doesn’t reveal himself to anyone.’

Even though I’ve been by his side for a long time, I still don’t know the true nature of Kinuan.

‘Kinuan would never have revealed his whereabouts to his subordinates. The Dedronin worship Kinuan. He continues to maintain an air of mystery that makes him seem inhuman. There’s no way he would show his human side or private life to his subordinates.’

I guessed what Kinuan had been up to. He must have lived here for several years, disguised as a drug dealer. He must have used a different body when he was pretending to be a drug dealer.

‘Whenever Kinuan showed himself to us, he used his old body as is. It made me think that there must be some reason why he couldn’t change bodies. It’s more likely that his brain has reached its limit to adapt to a new body, so it makes sense.’

If it were a cunning Kinuan, he would have done even that. He hides himself thoroughly with several layers of trickery and camouflage.

I followed his thoughts as if I was Kinuan.

‘Kinuan is standing on a thin sheet of ice. He is not in a very relaxed position. He must have been through countless precarious situations while staying in Border City.’

In terms of overall ability, Kinuan is equal to me. I have to think like that to win.

Let’s not take Kinuan too seriously. What’s hard for me is hard for him. What he can do, I can do too.

‘Whenever there was a problem with his plans, Kinuan would have used all his energy to solve it. I did the same.’

I tried to figure out Kinuan through my past self. It was like thinking in a mirror.

Crunch.

I went back to the back of the building and pulled the emergency door open. The sound of the lock breaking made the vagrants and addicts look this way. It only took a moment for them to turn into robbers.

Just then, Maria’s warning was echoed by the sharp sound of gunfire.

Phew!

Maria’s low-pitched sniper shot pierced the thigh of one of the vagrants.

“Kaaa, ugh!”

A staggering vagrant dragged his wounded leg behind him and hid in a pile of trash.

Hudda!

Those who were trying to enter the tea house all scattered into the alley. They were afraid of the snipers who came flying from nowhere.

‘That’s great, Maria.’

Maria would keep out any unnecessary intruders, while Quilia would keep watch from the roof of a nearby building.

Above all, Sariel’s sense of smell would be like a sophisticated surveillance net, scanning the surroundings thoroughly. It would be extremely difficult to fool Sariel’s sense of smell.

Rattling.

I leaned the rickety door against the wall and went inside.

‘The smell of tea leaves and medicine.’

My sense of smell is quite sensitive, although not as much as Sariel’s.

Our five senses are tools for perceiving the external world. Sharpening our senses to the extreme in order to process excessive amounts of information is also the basis of Aki’s Victima.

I looked at the stall.

‘A tea house is, after all, a disguise.’

The counter where the tea was placed was covered in dust. Instead, the cupboards and drawer handles where the medicine was stored were rough.

‘Find traces of Kinuan here.’

If it’s Kinuan, he leaves his traces thoroughly…

I squinted my eyes.

Finding traces of the guy was much easier than I thought. When I went into the room where he stayed inside the store, I saw pictures and notes on the walls.

Ssuk.

I stood in the center of the room and looked at the photographs and notes. The photographs were of various places and people, and underneath them were written descriptions like footnotes.

The lines connecting the photos represent relationships.

The relationship lines were so complicatedly intertwined that even I had a hard time understanding them all at once. There were also many gaps that seemed to have already been concluded and organized.

… … Looking at it, a big question comes to mind.

‘It goes without saying that he doesn’t leave any information behind digitally. Kinuan is not a great hacker, nor does he have the support of a great organization. If he has something to record, he’d want to avoid digital methods.’

However, the Kinuan I know is not someone who would reveal information so carelessly.

‘The amount of information and relationships is vast, but it is an amount of information that can be processed in the mind. There is no need to physically visualize it.’

I didn’t even move my eyelids.

‘Why? Why? Why did you leave this information? A trap?’

If this was a trap, Maria and Quilia would be dead by now. Kinuan had no reason to keep Maria and Quilia alive.

‘And he’ll have no reason to keep me alive anymore.’

Until now, Kinuan had been trying to use me. It was a situation where I had to live in order to benefit myself.

Having been used in this way, I attracted the attention of Ivan Krachia and Mushir Al-Kashra on behalf of Kinuan.

‘I’m done being the bait. I’m just a tracker who’s a nuisance.’

If even this were a trap, then a critical situation would have already occurred.

I blinked my heavy eyes and squinted.

‘Cognitive dissonance.’

The reality I know and Kinuan are not so easy. There is no way things could go smoothly like this. Because of the traces I found easily, I had a hard time believing in reality.

‘… … It really was Sariel’s sense of smell that caught Kinuan off guard. Believe it, please!’

I still think highly of quinoa. Even though there is a sweet candy right in front of me, I can’t eat it because I’m afraid it might be poisoned.

Up until now, all the candies Kinuan has spilled were poisoned candies. Even if he spilled real candy now, would you be able to pick it up and swallow it?

However, I am operating under the assumption that Kinuan did not anticipate Sariel’s supersensibility. Since I was able to obtain good results easily, I kept trying to deviate from the assumption.

‘Kinuan didn’t anticipate Sariel’s sense of smell! Admit it! Admit it! You stupid brain!’

I was screaming at myself. I was so overwhelmed by the virtual Kinuan that I couldn’t perceive the information in front of me.

I was wasting my brainpower trying to figure out Kinuan’s intention for exposing the information so easily. I was wasting my brainpower because of that ‘intention’ that I doubt even exists.

‘Ignore the anxiety that even this loophole might be Kinuan’s intention.’

I tried to ignore the intuition of Archie’s Victory. I barely suppressed the inaccurate intuition with my higher cognition.

“Okay, if you act like that again, you’ll end up with a hole in your forehead.”

I stared at the wall like a madman, threatening my brain with pictures, notes, and tangled masses of information seeping into my head.

‘Jafar, Anguis Regina, Lapis, Anne, Son Seok-jae… … .’

There were also photos of Maria and her gang, including the people I had met.

There were X marks on some of the characters’ photos. This probably meant they were not worth using. Japha, Son Seok-jae, En… … .

I quickly read the notes underneath as well. It was no different from the information I knew.

Stop.

I stopped at one picture.

‘Giselle Custoria.’

I opened my eyes wide as if my vision was expanding. I read the note about Giselle.

‘Luka’s weakness, G&G Cybernetics’ co-founder, currently missing, high priority to secure, where is he?’

There was a lot of information on the wall, but important plans were missing here and there. The things on the wall were just for ‘organization’ purposes.

I stared at a part of the empty space. This side was sticky because it had been removed not long ago, and the writing was faint as if it had been rubbed off.

‘There are no pictures of Lars and the parish priest. They must have been important figures… … .’

I checked the arrangement of other photos and notes.

‘… … If it were me, I would have placed the pictures of the parish priest and Lars here.’

I touched the sticky adhesive as I thought back on Kinuan’s accident.

And I traced the relationship between the parish priest and Lars with my hand, just by inference. The letters on the relationship line were also blurred and not visible.

I put together the content by collecting only the letters that were identifiable.

‘… …Contents related to assassination.’

Who is whom?

… … There was still no reply from Lars.

My liver and gallbladder are cold. Now is the time to unleash my suppressed intuition. I feel goosebumps running down my entire body.

I slowly lowered my hand. My fingers caught on the crucifix.

“Quilia, are you here now? Don’t act rashly. I’m saying this for your own good. No matter how much I am, I don’t have the confidence to ‘subdue’ an invisible opponent.”

At present, Quilia is probably not watching the net from outside. That’s what I thought. If my guess is wrong, I can just shrug my shoulders and be embarrassed.

Woohoo.

The space shook as the cognitive distortion ability was released.

chin.

Quilia appeared as if squeezing through space.

Stop.

A large teardrop fell distinctly from Quilia’s left eye.

“About ten minutes before we got here, we got word that the parish priest had passed away.”

It can’t be natural death, because he was in good health just a few hours ago.

“Who is the culprit?”

“He is an imperial soldier who acted with you. Lady Gaya was also seriously injured. I cannot help but suspect you.”

I resisted the urge to squeeze my eyes shut. A deep sigh threatened to escape my throat.

‘Lars.’

What on earth is going on where I can’t see it?