I Reject Quests

Hearing that, Rewen had no expression of panic on his face. Instead, a crafty smile appeared. Chuckling, he touched the body lying unconscious in front of him. 'As expected, they do care about her. But I'm not sure if it's to the extent that they can take the opportunity to let me go. For now, this seems to be the best option for me.'

The boy's eyes flinched when he saw him touching Lane and instantly shouted. "Shoot him right now!"

The other members of the two squads weren't stupid. Soon after he gave them the command to shoot, they figured out the ploy of the target. 

He wants to take their mate as a meat shield!

"Oops, too late." Hiding behind the body he was holding, he slowly stood up. Looking at the boy, he smiled widely. "Thanks for alerting me."

The boy's face was neutral, not bothered by it. "What are you going to do?"

Rewen's eyes went through the members of two squads. "I want to know your names."

"Huh? Our names? What good would our name do?" Marla didn't understand the intentions of the target.

Others kept quiet. All of them were thinking about how to catch their target off-guard. Eventually, they arrived at the conclusion. 

Nothing can be done unless Lane is released. 

It's not that they couldn't shoot because Lane was their mate but it would be a waste anyway. Even if they shoot, the bullets won't touch the body behind her. At this point, the only thing they could do is shed all pretensions and rush towards Rewen. The only thing that held them off is the command.

"I'm Kennard." The boy said.

"David."

"Marla."

"Jennifer."

"Gavin." The old man sternly said.

"Violet." The beautiful woman in traditional clothing said coldly.

Lastly, the middle-aged man said: "Brooke."

Rewen nodded. "What about her?"

"Lane. Is that enough? Just let her go and we'll let you go. Equivalent trade offer, wouldn't you say?" Kennard asked casually. 'Depending on his response, I'll jump the gun.' He had no problems in killing Lane to get the target. Even if she was a part of his squad, he had very little interaction with her. Not to mention, sacrificing allies is an essential part of his daily lives.

Rewen let out a breath of turbid air and stared straight at the group without saying anything. 

A while later, he smiled. "Thanks."

The group was once again confused by the sudden gratitude. 

But in the next second, their eyes widened.

The figure in front of them disappeared extremely swiftly. The next moment, the window in the hallway broke apart.

He had escaped!

"Is he crazy!? This is the seventh floor!" David lost his cool. He was this close to catching the target. "Gavin!" He shouted.

No words were needed. Gavin looked through the window. Not a single trace of Rewen could be soon. When his gaze turned down, his eyes squinted. 'Unfortunate…' Then, he too jumped from the window.

The others looked at each other and followed.

"..."

Silence reigned among them when they saw their mate Lane's covered in blood.

"She isn't dead." Kennard examined his squadmate. "But unusable."

"Unusable?" Brooke didn't have a pleasant expression on his face.

"You have the galls to call her unusable!? Weren't you the one who made bad decisions? If it wasn't for you telling us to go slow, this wouldn't have happened!" Being from the same squad, Jennifer was quite close to Lane. 

"Oh, yeah. I take full responsibility."

"It's not your place to take responsibility. As the leader of the mission, I let you take charge of the situation thinking it would be productive. All you have done is let me down. From now on, do what I tell you to do." David said in a cold authoritative voice. As the assigned leader, he shouldn't have let others take charge of the situation but because he was an open-minded person, he let him do so.

"Alright. What should I do?" Kennard leisurely sat cross-legged on the ground.

Jennifer wasn't pleased with just this. "You…"

David raised his hand. "Arguments can wait. For now, the target is the main focus." 

Jennifer could only nod.

"Now then, where did the target go?" David looked at the surrounding buildings.

"Shouldn't he be in the nearest building?"

"Not necessarily. Escaping into the nearest building is the most obvious choice."

"Second nearest building?"

"Yes, but the buildings aren't linearly placed. Look, that is the nearest building if we compare the distance from here. It's in the north and very easy to escape there. The second nearest building is a bit further from here and could be seen from the seventh floor. It's highly unlikely that he would escape there."

"Then…"

While the group were discussing, Kennard yawned. 'What a bunch of idiots. Why should we go after him? It was clearly mentioned that the target needs to defeat us, not the other way around. If we just sit here, the target is bound to appear because he has to defeat us within today.' 

***

Meanwhile, Rewen was worried about that exact thing - the group may not chase after him! 

After some thoughts, he decided to wait here. The probability that the group may chase after him is more than not.

Sighing, he sat down leaning on the walls of the hallway. He thought back to the recent incident. 'That Kennard guy isn't simple!'

Asking for their names was only an obvious way to get some time to cast [Giant Leap]. Very few people use [Custom] and therefore have the idea that casting a skill doesn't require much time. Previously, they saw him use [Giant Leap] but the [Giant Leap] he used recently to escape was completely different from the normal.

Everything in [Custom] revolves around <Purpose>.

[Giant Leap] is normally meant to take a huge jump back in order to take a few steps backwards. What it essentially does is strengthens the legs. How it strengthens the legs, Rewen had yet to know but according to him, it obviously has something to do with mana.

If the <Purpose> is to dodge an attack and the user believed that the <Purpose> could be true, then the skill acts according to it. Similarly, Rewen used the skill, not with the <Purpose> to dodge but to flee.

This couldn't be used if one learns the skill normally. 

[Custom] has its disadvantages but when used properly, outlasts the disadvantages.

But all of this wasn't in his mind.

He was thinking of one person - Kennard.

'If I'm not mistaken… no, I'm not mistaken. When I asked for the names, from the look in his eyes, I can safely say that he had figured out his ploy. He didn't know my exact intentions but he did know that I was bidding for time. The question is - why did he not alert anyone? Even though I can't be sure, there's something fishy about him.'

His mind then drifted towards Lane. 'Whatever. If she's dead, good. If she isn't, better. I have no time to think about it.' Initially, he wanted to chop off her limbs but didn't get to do so because he was found out. Helpless, he could only throw her from the seventh floor to not let him fight her again.

[Ding! 'Requested Mission: Find X' updated!]

A blue screen appeared in front of his eyes and an emotionless voice rang inside his head.

"So it finally arrived? Huh." Rewen was quite puzzled regarding the 'Requested Mission'. Usually, it should have been updated as soon as he defeated the Blood Squad. But it didn't. 'Is it because it took this long for the 'Requested Mission' to get updated? Or is it deliberate?'

---

Requested Mission: Find X

Clues Unlocked: Mischief in the Slums – Chaos at Green - Red Container

---

"What the fuck is the red container? Is this some kind of riddle?" He thought of many possibilities and arrived at the conclusion. 'From the previous two clues, it doesn't seem like the 'Requested Mission' likes to give riddles. Especially considering that 'Chaos at Green' was much more riddle-like. I don't know why Area 51 was the first thing that came to my mind when I thought of 'green' but it should be because the system knows my thinking process very well…'

"If I follow my usual thinking process, then 'red container', according to me, is simply a red container. I imagine a somewhat large red container with steam coming out for whatever reason. It can't be this accurate though…"

A while later, Rewen took out a small bottle of blue crystal liquid from his pocket and poured it into his pierced palm. It stung for a minute, then felt cool.

He had a weird expression. 'To think I was so absorbed in thoughts that I even forgot that my hand was horribly injured. Anyways…'

He stood up and picked up the spear near him.

It was his own spear that he had left while fleeing.

A dark smile formed on his face. "Let them search. In the time being, let me recuperate my wound in peace."