I Became the Cute One in the Problem-Solving Team

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When Victor, who had lost the ghost, was deep in thought with a rare serious expression on his face.

Suddenly, the sound of clattering heels echoed from outside the alley.

The familiar sound of high heels.

As he lifted his head, there stood his assistant, looking as though he had seen something disgusting.

“…Mr. Victor, or rather, pervert. What on earth is this?”

“Ah, assistant. Could you bring me some clothes? As you can see, I’ve really taken a hit here.”

“I brought some just in case… but it seems you won’t need combat gear.”

The assistant handed Victor a thick coat, unable to hide his astonishment.

Despite the absence of the ghost, he had not stopped the pursuit and was stuck amongst the banknotes rolling on the floor.

With just that circumstantial evidence, he had roughly understood how the situation was unfolding.

Was the operation a failure?

Feelings he hadn’t experienced in a while sharpened the woman’s gaze.

“What a disappointing outcome. If we had had more time with the tracker, we wouldn’t have had to rush after it.”

“Well, we can’t expect the film device to run forever. If its appearance had been noticeably different, the ghost would have surely noticed it right away.”

Victor lightly shook his head at the assistant, who was lamenting the situation, as if to say it was unavoidable.

The way in which these two accurately determined the ghost’s location was quite simple.

It was when the apprentice was attacked by the ghost.

A counterfeit banknote with a film-type tracker had been slipped into the apprentice’s wallet.

However, due to structural limitations, the tracker couldn’t have a battery, meaning they could only know the ghost’s location for about four hours.

If the tracker happened to break off unexpectedly, he would have no choice but to wait endlessly in the alley to meet the ghost again.

To finish the job this time, he had to chase the ghost while wearing a gown, burning with impatience.

“So, what will you tell the client, Mr. Pervert? The request was to capture the ghost or uncover its identity. Wouldn’t this mean failure either way?”

“Hmmm. That’s a problem. Can’t we say it was an unexpected strong opponent? Or maybe that we just had some bad luck?”

“…If someone hadn’t just skipped their bath right before the operation, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“Ugh, don’t push on my forehead. It hurts…”

Victor averted his gaze from the assistant, who was pressing him down with an intense stare.

If he had at least worn clothes instead of this gown, he wouldn’t have been cleanly shaken off by the ghost like this.

Having built an impressive success rate of 90% for requests until now, this failure was bound to return with a much greater loss than he imagined.

“Phew… well, saying that now won’t mean anything. I thought if it was you, Mr. Pervert, you could succeed even naked.”

“Cough, I’m sorry for not living up to your trust…”

But regretting what had already happened was pointless.

The woman, with a professional mindset, pressed her forehead and, after calming her emotions, asked him calmly.

“So, how was the ghost? It seemed like an eager peacock trying to impress.”

“Well, every action it took was endearing. I’d say it was quite the rarity in this city. Just from our brief encounter, I could tell it had excellent skill and strong convictions. And a powerful spirit.”

“Really… that’s amazing. It was rated that highly?”

“Yeah, I wish our apprentice was at least half like the ghost. I hope we could work together perfectly.”

Victor’s praise for the ghost was sincere, with no hint of falsehood, and there were several reasons for it.

In the underworld, where helping others was considered foolish, the ghost vanished after helping without expecting anything in return.

Despite possessing outstanding skills that filled his eyes,

Whether the opponent was a mere thug or a dangerous vampire, it merely subdued them.

Even at the very end, when it fell from the rooftop, it landed in a garbage pile filled with soft trash bags.

Given his tendencies, he couldn’t possibly hate the human semblance that was much closer to the outside world than the underworld.

“Phew, to be honest, I’d like to take a bit more time, but….”

“That’s not possible. We have to leave Morey City tomorrow.”

“Just as I thought?”

Victor scratched the back of his head, showing his disappointment.

He had a request that he had taken a month ago, so he needed to leave Night Haven soon.

Moreover, this side request had been a way to kill time, so he couldn’t spare any more of it.

If he had known this would happen, he would have kept his schedule clear.

After pondering for a moment, Victor sighed as if it were inevitable and spoke.

“Hmmm… then I’ll have to ask a trustworthy friend to help me instead.”

“Mr. Pervert… wait, do you actually have friends?”

“Wow, it stings a bit when you say it with such a serious face… Well, shall I call it a long-time comrade?”

He looked at the assistant, who tilted his head, and continued.

“Do you happen to know Raven?”

Victor smiled slyly.

With joyful thoughts of seeing an old comrade after a long time, he felt that he could trust him to take care of the ghost.

Of course, if the being known as the ghost had known the truth,

It would have been the part where they would scream internally, saying, “Isn’t that the original protagonist!”

But that fact went unnoticed by anyone as the wheel of fate simply continued to turn.

*

Dozens of minutes later.

The head of the largest beastman faction in the western labyrinth, Wang Chi-en, let out a sharp scream right after receiving the report of Victor’s request results.

“Is it really possible that a double-number like Victor could be missed! That ghost being! HACK! Why on earth did such a thing come out in our territory! I hate it! I really hate it!”

That was just how unpleasant the news was.

She reacted as if she had just seen a cockroach crawling in her newly moved-in house.

“Miss, please calm down and maintain your composure.”

“Do I look calm right now?! A man who can sink a warship all by himself has given up and let go! It’s a bomb that doesn’t make any sense in our territory!”

Wang Chi-en, the head of the organization that ruled a corner of the underworld, had a cowardly personality.

She felt like crying at the too-despairing reality.

Double-number fixers.

That referred to those within the world who exceeded 10,000 fixers.

It referred to fixers who ranked in the official fixer ranking within two digits.

Whether sinking a giant battleship single-handedly, or inflicting near-extinction levels of casualties on an army of a country.

Or nearly destroying a city by themselves.

Those who proudly ranked within the top 100 worldwide were all nothing short of extraordinary beings, closer to superhumans or monsters than humans.

For Wang Chi-en, who had merely become the head of the organization thanks to her well-born father, they were undoubtedly frightening beings.

But, a named one among those double-numbers failed?

That meant the ghost was also equally a nonsensical monster on par with Victor.

“Ah, ah… no, this cannot be…?”

“Miss.”

“But if Victor has failed, what will we do! We’re dead! We’re going to die! The ghost will suck out all our blood and guts!”

“Phew, Miss….”

It was far too disgraceful to see a fully grown woman, even the head of an organization, creating such a scene.

Forcibly, her subordinate, a lizardman, pulled on Wang Chi-en’s long ears from behind, trying to snap her out of the panic.

“Yow! Ouch! Ouch! I’m sorry! I’ll get a grip! I swear I’ll get it together!”

“Calm down and listen. According to Victor, the ghost seems to have a fairly mild temperament. So far, the ones who’ve suffered were just a third-rate thug or a vampire. The ghost’s level is estimated close to a triple-number fixer.”

“Ugh… even triple-number is dangerous…”

“Yes. But there’s an unbridgeable gap between double and triple numbers. The ghost likely isn’t as dangerous as you think.”

The lizardman assessed the danger of the ghost with extremely rational judgment.

So far, the ghost had not shown a particularly dangerous disposition.

In the approximately three-month activity, no one had suffered above fainting.

Even the victims so far were just pathetic third-rate punks who oppressed or bullied others.

Moreover, while double-number fixers were indeed walking missiles, tactical weapons,

Triple-number, even among the scum of the underworld, were opponents they could potentially defeat depending on the situation and circumstances.

Thus, there was no reason to be excessively scared of the ghost.

Instead, the lizardman felt a strong need to take a stand here.

“Miss, for now, let’s spread some bad rumors about the ghost.”

“Bad rumors about the ghost?”

“Yes. Then, using those rumors as an excuse, we’ll demand the ghost reveal its identity.”

“Hmm… but do you think the ghost will happily reveal its identity like that?”

“It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t reveal it. Or rather, it’s better for it to not reveal it. Then we’d have a reason to place a bounty on the ghost.”

This was the lizardman’s line of thought.

No matter how justified their reason for the ghost’s victimization was, they couldn’t just let a ghost rampaging in their territory.

The more the ghost rampaged, and the more people benefited from it,

The influence of the Black Lotus that ruled the western labyrinth would continue to decline.

So, the method he came up with was as follows.

Silently spreading bad rumors about the ghost, and then using that as an excuse to demand a reveal of its identity.

If the ghost revealed its identity, great; if not, they could claim that the rumors were true and place a bounty.

Then, surely, money-hungry bounty hunters would come looking for the ghost.

Eventually, the ghost would surely display a gap.

“Um… so, we’ll do it that way. I’m sorry to the ghost, but I just need to spread the bad rumors, right?”

Wang Chi-en, after managing to pick herself off the floor, spread the word through the beastmen of the western labyrinth that the ghost might actually be a bad individual.

And commanded that a message be spread throughout the maze, representing the Black Lotus.

The message stated that within a week, the ghost would reveal its identity and clarify the rumors before the Black Lotus.

Though there had been some minor resistance from those who had received help from the ghost,

With the strong resolve of the influential Black Lotus on the line, the proclamation was not rescinded.

In the end, even a week after the proclamation had been made, the ghost had yet to reveal itself to the Black Lotus.

Ultimately, the Black Lotus placed a bounty conditionally on capturing the ghost.

This was precisely the reason why she became a wanted individual merely three months after reincarnating.

‘This is a lie, right? Why is it so expensive! With this money, I could buy 40 more beds!’

From the perspective of the one with the bounty on her head, it truly felt like a bolt from the blue.

*

And as the existence of the ghost spread widely into the underworld through the wanted poster.

A pale-faced man crumpled the bounty notice in his hand and frowned deeply.

“Is it this person? The one who trampled upon our race’s grand plan.”

The man’s name was Drakel.

He was the leader of the Bloody Pool, which had lost dozens of ghouls to the ghost and had fled alongside the vampires.

He was feeling quite uneasy at the moment.

Having unleashed dozens of ghouls into the underworld and creating numerous blood slaves.

Using that as a catalyst to establish a new territory for vampires, his great scheme had been shattered not long ago by a foolish son who didn’t know his place and that ghost.

As a result, his hideout was exposed, and he had been forced to leave Night Haven.

If he didn’t withdraw quietly, there was a possibility that a double or even single-number fixer might come down and wipe him out.

Naturally, rather than having a vampire’s lineage severed,

It would be better to bow his head for a moment and wait for another chance.

But his pride wouldn’t allow him to shrink away quietly.

Thus, just before leaving, he planned to exact a small revenge.

“Let’s exact some bloody vengeance. On this damn underworld and everything!”

As powerful hatred surged, thick blood began to seep out from the deepest part of the western labyrinth.