Parasyte System

'Although they have been quite calm lately...' Colt thought as he recalled Wolf's Fang's activity over the past few months.

However, realizing that there would surely be a better time to think about it, he accelerated the pace.

After a few minutes, Colt arrived at the location where he thought he heard the scream.

It was a neighborhood quite similar to the South Zone entrance in terms of buildings, but it had some fairly noticeable differences.

While the stores at the entrance were still operating today, the stores in this neighborhood had obvious signs of not having been opened in a really long time.

Although it wasn't just the stores, but the whole neighborhood in general had this look of abandonment, which added to the fact that there was only one street light illuminating the neighborhood, made everything look much scarier than usual.

However, this didn't surprise Colt in the least, as such views were quite normal in Metal Body-controlled districts.

It was because most people preferred to live in certain residential areas closer to a Metal Body base for more protection, which left several places in the South Zone empty of people.

As there wasn't much light here, Colt concentrated some Qi in his eyes so he could see better in the dark.

'It still hurts a little, but there's no other way.' He thought as he looked around, the shadows that enveloped the neighborhood seemed to have diminished a bit thanks to Colt's improved vision.

It was a little painful because of what happened the other night, but considering that a person could be in danger, Colt didn't hesitate to do so, even at the risk of delaying his vision recovery.

'Where could they be...?'

At first glance, there was nothing and no one in the neighborhood, but that didn't mean it was empty. After all, there were a few alleys that would serve as a perfect hiding place here.

He then began walking slowly to the first alley on his right, with his guard up and ready in case something came out of the darkness and tried to ambush him.

Initially he had thought about shouting out if anyone was here or something, but after some thought he dismissed that idea because after the initial shout that got his attention, Colt heard nothing else.

And even at this point when he was at the scene of the crime so to say, only silence reigned.

Taking that into account, Colt came to two conclusions about what could have happened:

1. The victim has been neutralized by the attacker.

2. It was just a very bad joke by a resident.

If it was the latter, then there wasn't much of a problem, after all, even though he was in the South Zone, people who did that kind of thing were not missing, but if it was the former...then he had to hurry.

Now just a few steps from the dark alley, Colt peeked out cautiously so he could see inside.

Sadly, all he could see was a few garbage bags and a few mice around, nothing that was out of place or indicated that anyone had been here recently.

'This alley is clear...'

Now with one less place to look, Colt headed for the next alley, still with his guard up.

After a couple of minutes, to his surprise, even when he finished checking all the alleys, he couldn't find anyone, just the occasional trash bags and metal trash can.

'Maybe I'm in the wrong place...?'' He thought somewhat uncertainly, 'No...it has to be close, I definitely heard it around here.'

Although the possibility that it was somewhere else was also high, Colt's intuition told him that it was definitely in this specific neighborhood, his intuition had rarely failed him, so he didn't want to leave this place.

'But...if I'm wrong, then I'm wasting valuable time...'

Colt didn't know the condition of the person who had screamed for help, but if he assumed that the attacker had actually incapacitated that person, he certainly didn't do so peacefully, which meant that every second wasted meant aggravating the victim's injuries.

'Haa, I'll have to go to another...'

*Clang*

"!"

At that moment, just as Colt was about to go into another neighborhood, a metallic sound could be clearly heard coming from one of the alleys he had checked.

Colt quickly rushed to the alley, there was nothing in the driveway, so he went deep into the alley, and there he could finally see what had made that noise.

It was a metal trash can that he had seen before, it had fallen to the ground, scattering its contents on the ground, however, that didn't matter, what was most striking was that there was also a young man who also seemed to have been inside the trash can!

"H...help...please..." said the young man in a weak but clear voice as he tried to move towards Colt.

"Don't overexert yourself." Colt replied, now in front of the young man, helping him out of the trash can and leaning him against one of the walls in the alley, in a place that was relatively cleaner.

'So he was inside the trash can...that's why I didn't found him when I first looked here...'

Now that he looked at him closely, the young man seemed to have bruises on his face, there was even what appeared to be some blood on his lower lip, indicating that he had been beaten recently.

"Do you have any serious injuries?" Colt asked the young man as he looked for traces of blood on his clothes, although from his condition it was obvious the young man was not well, a beating was one thing and a stabbing was quite another.

"N-no...just...just a few blows to the head." The young man replied as he grimaced in pain and grabbed his head.

"Okay, I'll take you to the nearest hospital anyway, but first tell me what happened."

The young man's condition was not very good, but since it wasn't that bad, Colt wanted to know exactly what had happened before taking him to a hospital.

"I-it all happened very fast...g-give me a moment please."

"Don't worry."

Seeing that the young man really seemed to be having some difficulty calming down, he didn't push him and waited patiently.

After a few seconds, the young man calmed down and began to tell him what had happened.

"...I-I remember I was on my way home from work, when...suddenly a hooded man appeared in front of me, blocking my way, I...asked him what he wanted and...at that moment h-he attacked me with a metal bat..."

'So it was him...' Colt thought as anger arose within him.

"I guess it was him who put you in the trash can too?"

"Y-yes, that's right, although...oh no, he took my wallet and my smart watch too!" the young man said with a sad expression after checking his pockets.

It was one thing to attack a Metal Body guard who could defend himself, but it was quite another to attack a normal South Zone resident.

'...All of this just for some money...?'

Since the hooded man was capable of defeating both Taylor and himself, it was quite clear that he had some skills, even if he had accomplished it with questionable methods, that did not change the fact that he had defeated them.

Although he had suffered quite a bit because of the hooded man, Colt did not feel any resentment or resemblance towards him, after all, it was not the first time he had lost a fight, plus, he belonged to Metal Body, a criminal organization, so you could say the hooded man was fighting crime.

With that into account, Colt thought that maybe the hooded man was a wannabe hero or something.

But of course, what was more important to him was that he had beaten up Taylor, something he had wanted to do for a long time, so Colt's opinion of the hooded man had improved slightly since that night.

However, right now turns out that the hooded was using his strength to attack a poor resident of the South Zone and had even robbed him?

'...It seems that he's no hero after all...' Thought Colt, feeling disappointed.

However, this was no time to be disappointed, there was something more important to do.

"I'm sorry about what happened to you, but tell me, did you see where he went?"

"Y-Yeah, now that you mention it, I did see him, he went to the right, and it wasn't long ago, I-I think if you hurry, you can still catch up to him!" Said the young man with a hurried expression as he slowly stood up and revealed vital information to Colt.

"You should have said it before!" Colt replied, realizing that he might still be able to catch him, "I'll be right back, wait here, okay?"

He then quickly headed towards the exit of the alley, but just before he could do so, the young man put a hand on his shoulder, with his little finger making contact with Colt's neck.

"What is it, do you need something else?" Colt asked in a hurry.

"I-I just wanted to say... t-thank you, sir..." Said the young man, hurriedly removing his hand from Colt's shoulder.

"Oh..."

That was unexpected, for Colt, because of his intimidating appearance, he usually never received a thank you from a South Zone resident, even if he had helped them before, so these thanks, though unexpected, were welcome.

"You're welcome." Colt replied with a smile before leaving the dark alley, feeling a little more motivated to find the hooded guy, he even felt as is the feeling of weakness in his body had disappeared.

After Colt left, the young man was left alone in the middle of the dark alley, apparently shaking with fear for what had happened...or not.

Suddenly, a big smile appeared on the young man's face, completely different from the frightened and nervous expression of before.

"Finally... I can finally improve my stats!" Jay shouted mentally as he trembled with excitement seeing the ever-timely notification window of the system.

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You have acquired "Parasyte: Limit Breaker (Body) (D)"

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