Thank you so much for the 100 power stones! Here's the bonus chapter
At 250 Power Stones, I'll drop another bonus chapter.
Sorry for the delay, I fell asleep.
×××
I'm standing in front of the CCG building, looking up.
"Alright, let's do something stupid."
I mutter those words to myself as I activate my Vampire Vision.
The world turns black and white, and I can see red silhouettes and auras of people inside the building through the glass walls that normally prevent seeing inside from outside.
There are about ten people still working at this hour. CCG workaholics, I guess.
I need to find someone who...
My eyes scan the building floor by floor.
There.
On the third floor there's an office near the stairs. A guy alone, sitting in front of several computers.
His aura is dark blue. Well, makes sense he'd be sad since several of his colleagues died today.
This is perfect. A negative emotional state means his mental resistance is weakened.
I focus my vision on that room and materialize an All-Seeing Eye behind a decorative plant in the corner of the desk.
The guy doesn't notice anything while typing something on his computer. Probably a report about today's incident.
'Okay, here we go.'
I make the eye come out of hiding and float directly in front of the man's face. The guy startles violently, almost falling out of his chair as his small eyes widen like baseballs.
"W-What the he—?!"
Mid-question, the eye stares directly into his eyes. With that necessary first step, I start emitting mental frequencies through the eye.
Concentrating all my mental energy on penetrating his consciousness, I immediately feel resistance. To use an example, it's like trying to push against an invisible wall.
'Shit.'
Even tired and sad, this guy has strong willpower. Well, he is CCG too, though clearly not the fighter type.
Still, working in such a sensitive place as the database room, he must've received rigorous training so that even if they threw him in a torture chamber, he wouldn't spill everything he knows.
I sweat a bit as I increase the frequency intensity.
The man grabs his head with both hands while his eyes open enormously.
"Get... get out of my head..."
Reminds me of Rize's trainers. At first they'd acted tough, and it was really difficult to control their minds.
Once again, I have no choice but to blame the distance and the lower frequency intensity that comes through the All-Seeing Eye, which makes this kind of remote work harder than it would be if I did it in person.
'Come on, come on, come on...'
I push harder. The veins in my forehead throb from the mental effort I'm making, while I can feel my mental energy draining rapidly.
Then...
—Crack!
Finally, after a long push against the barrier, the man's resistance breaks. His eyes become completely glassy and his expression turns vacant.
Shortly after, he returns to his normal expression.
"Huff... huff..."
While long sighs escape my mouth, I wipe the sweat that accumulated on my forehead.
'Crap. Mental manipulation is hard.'
Even if those ugly bastards in h-manga make it look simple.
Ugh! Damn it. I've thought of something repulsive.
"Listen carefully."
My words are sent through the All-Seeing Eye and delivered to the man, who nods slowly without saying anything.
"Good, start searching the database for the most recent registered data."
The man turns to his computer and starts typing. As his fingers move quickly, he navigates through various security menus, entering passwords and passing through multiple security layers.
What the hell? I feel stupid as I watch through the eye.
Good thing I didn't infiltrate to search on my own, otherwise I would've looked like an idiot.
I see lists of people's data scrolling by.
'Faster, faster.'
I don't want my mental energy to drain completely before I can accomplish what I want.
It takes like a full five minutes, but he finally finds the file I'm looking for.
"Stop there."
The man stops scrolling down the list.
On the screen appears a photo of Touka taken from afar, along with basic information that makes my blood boil.
Name: Subject 2714
Estimated Age: 10 years
Location: 20th Ward, Street 17
Suspected ghoul activity: High
Narrowing my eyes as I read that, I speak coldly.
"Delete all information about that subject without leaving a trace."
The man moves the cursor to the delete button.
But then...
"Wait."
The man freezes.
"Print that information first."
The man obediently clicks the print button. The printer in the corner of the office makes noise as it spits out the paper with Touka's information. Once done, he clicks the delete button.
A confirmation message appears on screen: "Are you sure you want to permanently delete the file for Subject 2714? This action cannot be undone."
The man clicks yes without hesitation and the file disappears from the screen.
'Good, one step done.'
Can't leave loose ends.
"Now take that paper and leave the building. Walk to the alley on the left side of the building and wait for me there. If someone talks to you, don't ignore them. Speak like you normally would."
The man takes the paper, stands up, and leaves the office.
I watch him through multiple eyes I materialize along the way.
No one stops him as he walks through the hallways. It's late and most employees are focused on their own tasks.
But when he reaches the entrance, several guards with briefcases in hand stop him.
When they ask where he's going, the man follows the previous orders and starts speaking normally.
Speaking naturally and with a smile. No one would suspect he was under a mental manipulation spell.
In fact, it wasn't easy to achieve this effect. After all, those who've been manipulated would normally have an expressionless face, glassy and unfocused eyes, along with a monotone voice.
That would make it easy to detect.
However, I managed to achieve this effect with mental commands and using more than double the mental frequency I'd normally consume.
I differentiate between them as Basic Control and Complex Control.
With the excuse that he'll go out to smoke for a few minutes, he leaves the building and walks to the alley as I ordered. I'm already waiting there, hidden in the shadows between the garbage containers.
The man enters the dark alley and hands me the paper without saying anything. I take it and quickly read the information.
"Who else knows about this?"
The man takes out a small box of cigarettes, lights one of them using a lighter, and while smoking, starts talking.
"I don't know. Usually those who bring the data are the ones who register it in the system."
'What a headache...'
There's someone else who knows about Touka. That someone is who brought this information.
It only happened today. So...
"Go back to your office. Search—"
I don't finish giving the order because at that moment my All-Seeing Eye catches one of the guards approaching.
Damn it. No time.
Without hesitation, I propel myself upward, jumping and grabbing the edge of the building's roof in a single movement. I climb onto the roof with a cat's agility and crouch in the darkness.
Just in time. The CCG guard enters the alley.
He's a burly man with a tired expression who had stopped my puppet earlier.
I see the man I controlled rush to fake it. He turns toward the wall, unzips his pants and starts urinating, all while still smoking his cigarette.
Huh, what the hell? I don't even remember giving you that order. Did you do that on your own? Pretty clever, buddy.
Still, that made my mental energy drain more.
Because the more actions the subject I'm mentally controlling takes, the more energy it consumes. And therefore, the amount of time I can control him also decreases.
The guard frowns seeing him.
"Hey! Weren't you supposed to be smoking?! But you're doing... that. What the hell?!"
The man turns around with a goofy smile on his face. He doesn't bother zipping up.
"Relax, man. Just need a break. It's been a long day, you know?"
He takes a drag on his cigarette and blows smoke toward the guard.
Got some nerve. Wait, what if the guard beats my puppet senseless and he can't get up?
I start sweating.
"Want to join? There's enough space for both of us."
Shut up.
The guard grimaces in disgust.
"Gross! Finish up already! And get back to your damn office. You shouldn't be out here, especially after what happened today. It's not safe. Especially for you, if someone catches you and extracts information."
"Yeah, yeah. Chill, buddy."
The guard turns around and leaves the alley, still muttering to himself.
"I'll be back soon. Don't worry."
The man responds with a chuckle before finishing his business and zipping up his pants.
Once the guard is gone, I jump from the roof and land silently behind him.
"Go back to your office. Search today's security camera footage for who brought this information. Review all the recordings if necessary."
The man nods and returns to the building. I maintain my mental connection with him while watching through the eye.
He returns to his desk, sits down, and accesses the building's security camera system. He starts reviewing today's footage, fast-forwarding until he finds something relevant.
Oh. There it is.
A man about thirty years old with short, well-combed hair, wearing the standard CCG investigator uniform, enters the office with several papers in his hands. He approaches the desk of the guy I'm controlling, leaves some papers, and leaves without saying anything.
"Memorize that face and tell me his name if you know it."
The man under control stares at the frozen screen, studying the investigator's face.
"Satoshi Yamada. Rank 2 Investigator. Works in the reconnaissance department."
'Perfect, now I have a name and a face.'
"Now forget everything that happened since you saw the floating eye. Go back to your normal work as if nothing happened."
The iris of the All-Seeing Eye in front of the man's face emits a bright light, and the last reserve of my mental frequency attacks his mind, erasing his memories.
Ugh...
I feel nauseous as my head throbs with pain.
Still, being able to manipulate someone for thirty minutes is pretty good. This time would've tripled if I did it in person and not through the eye. The problem is I can't get too far from my target if I use it in person.
Using Complex Control, making the energy consumption terrifying, doesn't help the duration either.
However, despite all my complaints, I'm pretty satisfied.
The man blinks several times as he looks around his office as if he just woke from a strange dream.
Then he shrugs with confusion and returns to his computer to continue working.
I dissolve the eye that was in his office.
Now I need to find this Satoshi Yamada before he reports something else or talks to someone about Touka.
As a vampire, my mental energy recovery is pretty high.
Therefore, I only needed to rest about five minutes for more than half my reserve to recover.
'Satoshi's not in the office...'
By then, I start spreading my All-Seeing Eyes around the area. One goes north exploring the streets, another south checking the alleys, another east scanning the restaurants, and so on.
It's like having my own personal surveillance drones floating around.
After about fifteen minutes of searching, I finally find him. He's in a ramen shop about three streets away from the CCG building, sitting next to another man eating and chatting.
Both are wearing casual clothes instead of their uniforms, but I can see that under their jackets they have plates with their CCG identities hanging from their necks.
Has Satoshi revealed to that other man about Touka?
'Well, doesn't matter. Let's finish this.'