Until there was backup, the three of them decided to observe as ordered. They chose to stay in a small café across the street from Joe Carlos's canteen, where they could discreetly watch from the window.
From their positions, Joe Carlos was wiping tables, taking orders, laughing with his workers, and serving the few customers that trickled in every two hours. He even stepped outside once to feed the stray cats with leftovers.
As the hours dragged, it was nearing nighttime and the crowd in the street dwindled.
After hours of observing, Joe Carlos, indeed, on the surface, looked harmless. It was hard to believe from an outsider's perspective that he was connected to the missing cat case. Even if David and Lucy told him they don't believe that Joe Carlos is an awakened, Jack would understand.
"Observe," David sipped his lukewarm coffee, suppressing a yawn. "What do they even mean by that, older brother Jack? We've been staring at this guy for three hours!"
Jack studied David from the corner of his eye. He learned more about David during this time.
In the end, he was just a kid.
He at first thought he was faking some of his personality, because he was an awakener, but despite that, he seemed to be as ordinary as any boy he had met.
He was young, too trusting, too eager to believe the best in people. He even started calling him older brother and Lucy as older sister.
'Does this guy really trust my words?' Jack couldn't help but ponder.
Lucy, on the other hand, was even quieter than usual. When she did speak, it was almost always to Jack. He'd gotten used to that.
'Is it because we are in a group?' he thought, 'Still, it's good that she's here. She's the strongest among us. But where the hell are the seniors? We need them here. Joe Carlos is a murderer and a Level 25 at that.'
Across the street, Joe Carlos's staff flipped the sign on the door to 'CLOSED'.
"Wait," David spoke. "They're closing?"
Sure enough, Joe Carlos's workers were wiping down tables, stacking chairs, and shutting windows and the workers started to leave one by one.
All of the other shops hadn't closed yet. He was the first to do so. Also, that made it unusual since most stores do not close this early.
"Is he going somewhere?" they thought, watching closer now.
However, unlike his workers, after Joe Carlos locked the door, the man didn't leave and stayed inside.
The three exchanged looks.
When the waitress came by with their next order, Jack casually asked as if uttering a passing thought, "Excuse me, does that canteen usually close this early?"
The male waiter peeked out the window. "Oh, that? Yeah, every Friday he does. Must be that day again."
"That day?" Jack asked.
"I have no idea. He just always closes early on Fridays." He shrugged and smiled friendlily as he left to serve some female customers.
Compared to the canteen, the café was a lot popular than he'd expected drawing a lot of customers mostly couples and group of friends, even at night.
Jack frowned.
An hour passed. And now, the outside had turned dark, yet the canteen didn't even open its lights.
"We can't see anything here. Let's get closer." Jack muttered, loud enough, for the two to hear.
Jack's Plan A was to simply notify their superiors. He doesn't want to be in danger after all. He signed the contract knowing he might get danger but he would still like to secure his safety.
However, even after more than hours, they were no signs of their superiors coming or even contacting them. They haven't been answering their calls as well.
Meanwhile, he was only with David, who might be his senior at work, but Jack was seven years older than him. Lucy was also was just eighteen years old in reality. And they were targeting a Level 25 awakened murderer.
Jack thought of leaving.
But then he had come up of a plan.
'We just need evidence, and we will leave immediately.'
Soon, they crossed the street and moved into the shadows surrounding the canteen. From outside, they tried to peek at the windows and hear through walls, but it was silent.
Ten minutes passed. Then fifteen.
Yet they sensed no movement inside. Jack made sure to keep himself safe from danger.
'I feel a little guilty not doing anything, but Lucy is Level 20 and David is Level 18. I am just Level 2.'
Jack chose to stay beside the building where it was very unlikely for anyone to corner him and there was even a direction he could easily flee too.
Looking at each other, they then gestured for them to circle the building and to move in.
Breaking in was surprisingly easy. David and Lucy moved like gymnasts, scaling the wall and slipping through the small kitchen window. Once inside, they quietly unlocked the door, letting Jack in who couldn't hide his surprise at how quickly they'd done it.
'The fuck? It is scaring me how good these guys are.' Jack said looking around cautiously if anyone seen them.
'Is he inside?'
Jack gestured and denied to follow them inside.
But after looking around, David and Lucy successfully went inside, but they saw no movement. The chairs were stacked, the counter spotless. But there was no Joe Carlos.
"He disappeared older brother," David said, as he fearlessly went out of the back door as if he owned the place.
Still looking from the window outside, Jack felt the urge to come in.
'Should I come in? I may find something with my appraisal skill.'
Jack replied to David. "Did he perhaps leave from another door?"
"There is no other door besides this back door and the front door, older brother."
"Does that mean he is still inside?"
David shook his head.
"I have Verthani blood flowing in me. We have very good sense and I don't smell him. In fact, I can almost only smell detergent inside. He must have cleaned this place up and exited through the windows." David explained.
"Oh," Jack looked at David, and felt how reliable he was for the first time.
"I will check the surroundings, older brother. Older sister is inside." David said.
Feeling relieved, Jack watched David leave.
'Ok. Let's check it.' Jack then thought and went inside. While walking, he tried to scan every corner with his appraisal skill.
Meanwhile, David swept the narrow alleys and peeked through narrow spaces between buildings. However, he saw no hints of the owner, just dripping pipes and the hum of a far-off streetlight.
However, after he returned to the canteen…David's eyes turned serious.
He frowned and checked all the corners of the building, but he didn't see his two companions. Leaving the canteen, he jogged further down, looking behind dumpsters and through the spaces between buildings.
"Older brother, older sister," he called, slightly raising his voice. However, only the sounds of the night market answered him.
Meanwhile, a faint sound came from the canteen: it was a tile shifting and stone scraping. Inside, beneath that same tile, Jack was falling. With a crash, he landed hard as air was knocked from his lungs.
"Ugh!" The impact shot pain up his leg.
When he groaned and sat up, his eyes adjusted.
[-1 HP]
After his sight returned, what he saw made his breath catch.
Rows of cages lined the walls — dozens of them. Inside were dead animals like cats, dogs, birds, or things that used to be animals. They died alone, some with their eyes open.
"What the hell is this place…?"
He stumbled toward a metal table. Scalpels, syringes, bloodied gloves. Jars of cloudy liquid. And on a screen nearby—lines of data and strange symbols flickered like heartbeats.
On the far side of the room, there was a board with strange symbols and characters and formulas, displaying lines of data and graphs.
There was no doubt now. It was a lab. A hidden one.
Jack's expression turned serious.
'Joe Carlos… he really was hiding something. But I have gotten myself in some dangerous place. I need to escape from this place!'
Then he heard the sound of chains rattling.
Without making any noise, Jack immediately hid behind the table as he cautiously turned toward the noise.
Then, a notification.
Something moved in the farthest cage, slow and heavy. He took a cautious step closer, the light from above flickering.
'A girl? Is it Lucy? Did she follow me here after I fell?' he whispered to himself, seeing a black-haired girl walking around.
But in the next second, before he could react to make her notice his presence, a louder sound was heard from behind him, and his system panels flickered red.
[Danger detected.]
[Dodge.]
Jack had remembered the last time he saw these notifications and reacted immediately with his increased stats.
He moved on instinct, diving aside as a huge butcher knife whistled past his head and buried itself in the wall.
He rolled, as his heart pounded and looked up.
In front of him, Joe Carlos stood there with a bloody apron, and chains in his hands, with eyes gleaming in the dark, and smile so cold, so wide and creepy.
'I am doomed.'