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“I found out for myself that Minho’s drawings were surprisingly accurate.”

Well, it’s not like he drew well; he just managed to hit the key points right on the mark.

Weird buildings, entrances, guards, and barbed wire. There were other things like CCTV and laser sensors, but it must have been tough to catch all that while running.

Is this what they call the Evil Society?

To think they’re installing security measures so obsessively even in a building designed to lure in heroes!

They must be either ridiculously scared or just super cautious. At this rate, it’s nearly impossible to sneak in.

Unless you have abilities like Elize’s to hop dimensions or tear space for instant teleportation.

Looking at this, I can’t outright say that Minho’s idea was wrong. At least pretending to be a guest is way more feasible than trying to sneak in undetected.

It’s like comparing the odds of winning the lottery twice to just winning it once. Not a big difference, but hey, a higher chance isn’t wrong, right?

I tossed some random jokes to myself, giggling as I continued my reconnaissance.

If you’re wondering how I managed to bypass such tight security, well, I didn’t.

I sent out small slimes disguised as little bug-eyed creatures, planting bits of slime among the bugs to create distractions.

In times past, I would have freaked out at the thought, but fighting the Mimic who tried to eat me made this kind of trick doable.

Of course, I can’t do it like that guy. There are distance limits and handling multiple creatures at once can be tricky. Still, I could pull this off.

They probably didn’t consider this one.

Sure, there are abilities users who can control bugs, but they must have been too complacent, thinking the bug controller was on their side.

As it turns out, that guy was the head honcho of this underground market. I can’t quite remember his name, but he was definitely that kind of abilities user.

The Evil Society was at least half correct in their assumptions.

The bugs I planted were jumping into a suicide mission at the command of the one inside.

But the fake bugs weren’t doing that. They only looked like bugs; inside, they were half-assed creations controlled by me.

Pretty soon, they’d revert back to their slime form. And that was part of the plan.

I aimed to suck some intel from the critters inside. Before the fake bugs turned back into slime, I planned to attach them to anyone inside and hijack their brains.

It sounds like indiscriminate murder, but hey, they’re bad guys, right? If a genuinely good person happened to get stuck in there—

Well, tough luck for them. Who asked them to be at the underground market today of all days?

As I gathered the intel my fake bugs and limbs were sending back, I was mapping out the interior in my head.

Let’s see, there’s a locker room for guests’ belongings, a bar and lounge, and… a brothel. Yikes.

The inside of the building was way messier and had a lot more unpleasantness than the outside. It must have been intentionally designed like that.

This way, the guy in charge can thrive with useful bugs while being prepared to squash anything that appears.

From a utilitarian perspective, it was a sound decision, but focusing on the ‘market’ aspect, it felt like a choice made by the lowest of the low.

No matter how dirty a place sells junk, it should still have a clean interior if they want customers to feel like buying anything.

The places I frequented at least cared about minimal hygiene.

After a bunch of thoughts and scouting through vents and sewers, I finally managed to find the auction house.

It was situated right in the middle of the building.

With things like this, escaping won’t be easy. The layout is convoluted, and trying to break out by force would take a lot of time.

Messing up could lead to the building collapsing and causing serious damage around.

Well, Lapiz and Seolhwa should manage something. If worse comes to worst, I’ll borrow Minho’s powers and artifacts.

Having noted down a few possible escape routes in my head, the fake bugs started to die off.

I wonder if the real bugs sensed something was off as they began to patrol. It felt like it was time to make my exit.

I gathered the fake bugs and created 2–3 wasp-sized fake bugs, sending one each to the guards, guests, and staff to sting them at the nape of their necks.

Each one turned to look around, baffled by the commotion, but after being stung, their shocked cries became their last utterance as the slime infiltrated their brains.

Now, what useful information can I snag? Oh, here’s a detailed list of guest info!

This might actually be helpful.

Guests are just scumbags looking for relics from the gate, and the staff were nobody special either; just street rats.

I made the guard excuse themselves to the bathroom, redirecting them to an area with useful information, while pushing the guests and staff to create enough of a ruckus for the controlled guard to gather intel.

Being in the underground market, it was notable how even the slightest chaos could leave someone nursing a bullet hole.

I crafted a perfect brain replica out of slime for the bug to munch on, so that evidence was annihilated.

Using the distraction, I could scrape some info from the guard.

I couldn’t absorb everything in my head. But at least I got a decent idea of sizes and weights similar to the kids.

That should be enough; I left a note in the guard’s head and blasted my own temple with the pistol to erase the last piece of evidence.

With this, I should have gathered quite a bit of intel. Now it feels like it’s about time to pack up and leave.

At the very least, it’ll be a lot more beneficial than that shabby plan of Minho’s.

– – – –

“One, two… wrong answers.”

The midterms weren’t too hard. Both Lapiz and Lucia said it wasn’t that difficult, which gave me more confidence.

Sometimes I forget, but these guys had at least the brains to get into Heros Academy.

No matter how much they prioritize abilities at Heros Academy, you have to manage some basic studying to even get in.

Even those in Class E were still trendsetters back in middle school, so it was expected.

“Ugh… I’m a bit anxious…”

“But you’ve actually been active, so they’ll take that into account when grading. Plus, this isn’t that low of a score, right?”

I reassured Yeonhwa, reminding her of all the things we’d done together. There’s no way they’d let go of those easily.

“Isn’t that a possibility?”

She took my words meant to encourage her seriously, making it awkward as I didn’t know how to respond.

“…That might be true, but wouldn’t they want to keep us a bit longer? They’d boast about our future potential.”

“I suppose that’s true?”

Yeonhwa seemed to realize her needlessly anxious comment, shaking off the unease and easily accepting my words.

“Plus, since I taught you, there’s no way you’ll fail, right? Stand tall, be confident!”

I patted Yeonhwa’s shoulder to encourage her, but she looked down with a somewhat dark expression.

“…Yeah, stand tall!”

For a moment, I felt like I said something wrong, but Yeonhwa quickly sent me off with a smile, asking if I was leaving now.

“Yeah. I’ve got an appointment for today, so I won’t ask you to come with me. Honestly, it would be tough to fit in at this point.”

“I see. I don’t plan to join you anyway. I have my own plans today. In that case, I’ll pray you make it out safely.”

“Thanks for the support.”

Just in case Yeonhwa tried to tag along, I threw out a bit of a harsh remark, but she didn’t seem inclined to do so.

I’m not sure what her plans were, but glancing at Jinhyeon, it looked like she was going for a date with him or something.

Good luck. Charm that dense boy; it can’t be easy.

Sending my silent encouragement to Yeonhwa, I headed toward where the kids were gathered around Minho.

“How are the scores?”

“Come on, you taught me, there’s no way it could be bad.”

“Heh. Feel free to call me ‘sensei’ later on.”

“That’s fine, right? After retiring as a hero?”

Minho was even throwing in some lame jokes, looking relaxed.

“You seem awfully calm.”

“Of course! Anyone would feel calm looking at your plan.”

“Honestly, I was a bit impressed too. I kinda envied that slime of yours a little.”

Ageha teased me, saying she was envious of my slime.

“Wanna have it?”

“Thanks for the offer, but I’ll politely decline.”

“What a great opportunity to expand your allies. Just kidding, just kidding. So, should we go over the plan one last time?”

I pulled out my notes to explain the plan to everyone again. I’ll wear the slime mask I created to disguise myself as a guest and sneak in to gather information.

Secure some physical evidence, and at a suitable moment, call Justitia and the heroes to raid the underground market.

“Any questions?”

With no further questions, we decided to set off as soon as the class ended.

This time, nothing should go wrong, right?

 

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