The next morning, Vincent got up early.
He finished his daily training first, then wandered the streets with nothing much to do.
And then he noticed something.
The world looked… different.
The thin morning mist floating in the air, mixed with dust and exhaust, drifted in slow spirals. A breeze brushed past, and the leaves on the trees trembled with a soft rustle. Every tiny motion, every little shift, stood out sharply in Vincent's vision.
"Is this what higher Spirit does?" he murmured. "I really didn't notice it before."
He exhaled, genuinely impressed. The boost to his Spirit was doing more than he'd expected.
Even the smallest changes couldn't slip past his eyes now.
"Are you sure it's the guy up ahead?"
A low voice suddenly reached his ears.
Vincent turned his head.
Pedestrians hurried along the road like normal. No one seemed to be speaking.
He paused, then realized what it meant.
His hearing had improved too.
He faced forward again and kept walking at an unhurried pace, while quietly spreading his attention outward.
He turned a corner, then another.
Cut through a few alleys.
Two sets of footsteps stayed steady behind him the whole time.
So it was true.
He was being tailed.
Vincent abruptly sped up, each stride covering the distance of three or four normal steps.
"Don't lose him!"
That same voice came again. Vincent smiled faintly.
As he moved, he monitored the rhythm behind him.
If he got too far, he'd slow down a little and let them catch up.
He maintained a deliberate distance, never letting them reach him, but never letting them lose him either.
He dragged them in circles across the city, walking for dozens of kilometers before finally easing his pace.
"Quick, he's slowing down!"
"Close in, close in!"
The two men panted as they hurried toward him.
Just as they were about to reach him, thrilled that they'd finally caught up, Vincent turned around sharply.
He was smiling.
Both men froze.
They understood instantly.
This man had been playing them like children.
"Need something?" Vincent asked pleasantly, looking at them.
His calm reaction made them hesitate, suddenly unsure what to say.
This target might be even more dangerous than their employer had predicted.
"Go!"
They turned to leave at once.
But Vincent wasn't about to let them walk away.
He flashed forward, cutting off their path.
A blur of motion.
In the next instant, each of them had a leg crippled.
Trying to run the moment things went bad meant they weren't clean in the first place.
The two men crashed to the ground, sucking in cold breaths through their teeth.
Vincent's kick had landed so fast they hadn't even seen it. Their legs were just… broken.
Still smiling, Vincent crouched.
He reached out and ripped off their masks.
Two unfamiliar faces stared back at him.
"Who sent you?" Vincent asked, meeting their eyes, his expression mild.
The two men went pale. This young man looked harmless, almost friendly, but his methods were brutal.
"No?"
Vincent's smile didn't change. He spread his hands and placed a palm on each man's chest.
"If I press down," he said lightly, "how many of your organs do you think will still be intact?"
Like the voice of death itself.
Hesitation flashed across both faces.
Vincent increased the pressure slightly.
Crack crack crack.
Their chests made popping sounds like roasted beans. Ribs began to splinter.
"I'll talk!" one man shouted, sweat pouring down his forehead as pain tore through him.
Vincent withdrew his hand and looked at him calmly.
The man's eyes darted away. He stammered, "It was… die!"
A cold glint flashed.
Somehow, the man produced a dagger and stabbed straight at Vincent.
Clang!
A sharp snap rang out.
The man stared, dumbfounded, at the broken blade in his hand.
What… was this?
A monster?
The knife couldn't even pierce him.
This dagger wasn't ordinary either. It could cut hardened steel.
And his own strength… it wasn't that pathetic.
For a second, he genuinely started doubting himself.
Vincent didn't have the patience to indulge them.
His left hand moved.
The man's head burst open.
Like a rotten ball kicked apart, it rolled across the ground, red and white splattering everywhere.
Blood sprayed onto the other man's face.
His eyes went wide, shaking violently.
One casual strike and his partner was dead beyond saving.
His lips moved, trying to do something.
But in the next instant Vincent pinched his jaw shut, locking him in place.
"Biting your tongue?" Vincent said with a soft sigh. "Is there any way to die more cliché than that?"
Almost as if answering him, the man's eyes rolled back. A dead, foul air leaked from his ears, nose, and mouth.
Dead?
Vincent blinked and pried the man's eyelids open.
The pupils were already dilated, cloudy, and unfocused.
He forced the mouth open.
A small poison sac in the upper palate had been crushed.
Poisoned to death.
Vincent stared for a moment, then exhaled.
So he got nothing. Not a single useful word.
He stood, searched their bodies, and found nothing that could prove identity.
But when he undid the wrist guards, he saw something.
A symbol shaped like a coffin.
"What is this?"
It felt familiar, but he couldn't place it.
He pulled out his phone and snapped a couple of photos.
Then he tossed out a streak of flame, burning the corpse with the shattered skull into ash.
As for the other one…
He killed himself. What did that have to do with Vincent?
Vincent vanished from the scene in a blur.
Not long after, he returned home.
He locked the door, transferred the photos to his computer, and tried searching online.
As expected, the pages that should have matched were all gone. Dead links. Error screens. Nothing but 404s.
He tried a few different routes. Still nothing.
So Vincent stopped.
If there was a first time, there could be a second and a third.
All he needed was to catch one alive and stop them from self destructing.
Then he could pry the truth out slowly.
He pushed it aside for now and called Autumn.
She picked up quickly, her voice lazy and soft, like she'd barely rolled out of bed.
After a bit of teasing, Vincent finally said what he'd called for.
"Want to go to Forbidden Zone Eight tomorrow?"
"So soon? You're already going back in?"
"Yeah."
"In that case… sure." She giggled. "Honestly, I've been so bored I'm starting to grow mold."
"Good. Then pick the hardest mission. We'll do it together."
"The hardest?" She paused, clearly startled, but then agreed anyway.
Ever since their last run together, Autumn had a clear sense of her own limits. She hadn't chosen the highest difficulty final mission again.
But with Vincent there, she felt oddly safe.
After all, he was the guy the authorities were searching for across the entire internet.
"Then it's settled," Vincent said. "Tomorrow we go together. I'll pick you up."
He said goodbye and hung up.
Then he started planning.
Two people meant he couldn't just charge through like before.
He'd have to do it properly this time.