Soulless Players

Along with Philip's fingers stained with crimson blood, he heard a bell chime in his mind. Curious, he activated his system and read the new mission notification below the panel board.

[ Mission: Save the Children! ]

Description: Gerald and the other children are held captive by a dark summoner who intends to sacrifice them to summon one of the great devils of the mirroring world, Hodmeion. Immediate rescue is required.

Reward: 500,000 Exp., ???

Philip was taken aback when he read the mission's detailed description, it deviated significantly from the usual stingy and terse style of the system. But when his sight caught the words 'sacrifice' and 'devil', he began to panic. He quickly retrieved and unfolded the blood-soaked note from inside the medicine bottle.

The note contained vague figures drawn in blood. They were not letters or words, but rather a drawing of some sort.

Seeing this, Philip frowned as he discovered another mistake of his in the past. The street children, especially Gerald, were illiterate. Meaning, they had never learned how to read or write. Philip should have expected this to happen when he told Gerald to write something on it.

"I don't know what's going on in that child's mind that he never informed me about my mistake," Philip thought, trying to figure out his next move.

As he pondered his next course of action, Maris entered the room with a cheerful and enthusiastic expression. However, when she gazed down and saw Philip's legs, she became more joyful.

"You're not disabled anymore, little brother?" she exclaimed, her gaze fixed on Philip's feet and hand.

Philip nodded and said, "Come here, Maris."

He handed her a jewelry box and requested, "Can you help me open and close this box every ten minutes? If you see a medicine bottle with a note inside, can you assist me with it?"

During this rescue mission operation, Philip's primary objective was to ensure his safety, and considered it would be better to leave a way to maintain communication with a third party.

With this, Philip decided he would carry the bottle with him, and if he found himself in a life-threatening situation, he could use its connection with the jewelry box to signal Maris for help.

"Okay, little brother," Maris replied, puzzled by the unusual request. However, she did not ask anymore as she sensed that Philip's matter was urgent.

"Thank you, Maris," Philip said with gratitude. He then stashed the concealed gun and a magical empty bottle inside his traveler's ring. With that done, he left the Alma Inn as his child self.

Since the couple had left and the 40-year-old man he had mimicked went somewhere, Philip judged he could no longer use their identities.

The same went for Conrad and Raven, whose identities were unsuitable for this situation. And since he didn't have time to look for another body to mimic, he could only use his child body to proceed.

'I'll just have to be careful,' he murmured, reminding himself of the risks associated with using his true form.

Using his unique ability, the 'Golden Eyes,' Philip navigated the city cautiously. He kept an eye out for anyone emitting an abnormal amount of golden light. If he saw them and felt they had a huge prospect of being superhumans, he would immediately change direction to avoid them.

While on the move, he revisited the bloody note he had seen earlier. It depicted unclear, imperfect rectangular buildings. On the corner was a prominent tall rectangle with a circle drawn atop. Inside the circle were two sticks interconnected, with one pointing north and the other west.

'Looks like it's the clock tower at 9 o'clock,' Philip deduced. He then entered a meditative state and projected a holographic map of Bryxton City before his eyes.

Gradually, he changed the orientation and zoomed in on a location that resembled Gerald's drawing.

"It's on Windfall 15 Street," As Philip concluded the exact place, he quickly dashed off.

Upon arriving at the location and discreetly evading the astral blue beams of on-duty mentalists, Philip cast his gaze upon the clock tower. "It's already 10:30," he muttered, his heart sinking as he realized he was an hour and a half behind schedule.

Unable to change the past, Philip stopped regretting and continued to survey the area for clues. Suddenly, he noticed drops of golden light on the ground, seemingly leading to another location.

Philip turned off his unique ability to inspect the drops more closely, only to discover that they were drops of blood, likely from Gerald.

'I'm impressed that the child thought of this,' Philip smiled slightly and followed the blood trail.

Shortly, he found himself in a narrow, dark alley with a dead end, where the blood trail abruptly ended in a sewage drain. Philip carefully removed the circular metallic cover and concealed himself in a nearby trash can.

He then went to sleep and decided to proceed in his astral state. He knew he had to be cautious as he had no idea how many enemies he might encounter. In venturing into an unknown place, he believed astral travel was ideal for reconnaissance and infiltration.

As Philip ventured underground, he encountered a dim and foreboding sewage tunnel. The pathway stretched ahead, with damp ground underfoot and bits of debris floating in the murky waters that ran down the center of the tunnel. The stench was overpowering, a nauseating mix of filth and decay.

Carefully navigating his way, Philip floated slightly above the side pavement, avoiding the foul waters below. He continued to follow the trail of blood that had become his source of direction. The occasional drip from the tunnel's low ceiling echoed ominously in the eerie silence, a stark reminder of the grim mission he was on.

Given the filthy environment, Philip was grateful that his astral state couldn't perceive smell. With this, he could put all his mind on the mission.

However, as he continued to follow the blood, he suddenly felt a strange sense of déjà vu. The surroundings then began to feel eerily familiar to him, and Philip realized that he had been in a similar place before.

"It's the same place as where the hidden government unit I came from in the past!" Philip exclaimed, stunned by the realization.

However, when he felt his head suddenly throbbed painfully, he chose not to dwell on the past for now. He believed he wasn't prepared to remember the entire event.

Continuing his journey, Philip spotted three humanoid figures up ahead. Their golden light didn't appear extraordinarily bright, so he made no effort to hide, confident that no one could see him in his astral state except for mentalists.

"Are the children all accounted for?" asked the shortest man.

"Yes, we're just awaiting the ritual," replied the tallest, his voice filled with reverence yet silliness.

Shortly afterward, they turned left and placed their hands on an unremarkable dirty wall, revealing a concealed brick door.

Philip followed them inside and witnessed a grim scene: numerous children, some naked and others in tattered clothes, lay imprisoned. They all slept soundly, oblivious to the brick door's creaking and the men's hushed conversations.

Philip frowned as he saw the dark and oppressive aura emanating from the children's heads—a clear sign to a mentalist like him that the children were trapped in nightmarish dreams.

Instinctively, he extended his astral domain to soothe their tormented minds.

Once he had offered them some solace, Philip turned his attention to the center of the room, where intricate red paint drawings adorned the floor.

However, as he attempted to approach for a closer look, his astral body suddenly could not proceed forward. Philip realized that he had strayed too far from his physical self, a distance exceeding his capability to astral travel - 2,000 meters.

Furthermore, when the brick door was completely shut, Philip was unceremoniously expelled from his astral state, finding himself standing outside the wall, the same place where his astral blue beam had been on the floor.

With a sense of surprise, Philip attempted to traverse the wall, only to meet with futile resistance. He recollected the limitations imposed on dreamwalkers during astral travel—unless a room possessed visible openings, such as holes or gaps, or could be perceived by the naked eye, entry remained impossible.

With a resigned sigh, Philip bowed his head outside the wall and promptly returned to his corporeal form. Now back in his physical body, he descended into the sewage, determined to press on despite the unpleasant surroundings. He dashed to the wall and concealed himself nearby.

Using his exceptional sense of hearing from upgrading his physique to the limit, Philip leaned and concentrated on the sounds emanating from the other side of the wall, determined to glean any information that might aid his mission.