"Not alone?" Declan mused, snapping his head backward.
That was when he saw them.
On the rooftop of the neighboring building, two men were sitting on a bench.
A couple of empty alcohol bottles lay scattered around their feet, along with several burnt cigarette butts.
One of them was lazily slumped over the bench, apparently half-asleep, while the other was looking directly toward the spot where Declan had landed.
Their eyes met.
"Hey, kid! What the hell do you think you’re doing up there?" the man shouted as he rose from his seat.
His voice startled the other man awake, causing him to jerk upright in alarm before relaxing when he realized it was only Declan.
"What? A kid can’t even do some parkour anymore!?" Declan shot back, watching both men’s eyebrows twitch.
"What fucking parkour you be doing at eight in the night? Go suck your mom’s breast already!" the seated man snapped, waving him off.
"What the!?" Declan exclaimed, looking genuinely offended by the insult.
"Well, I will."
"Good."
"After you both come suck my dick!" he screamed back.
That blew it.
The man who had just woken up immediately dashed toward him, leaping across the gap between the buildings, while the other grabbed one of the bottles, smashed it against the bench, and followed after him.
"Seems like your white ass needs some whooping. Come here, kid. Let me holla at you real quick."
The man wore an evil grin as he cracked his knuckles, then he rushed forward.
In an instant, he was before Declan, swinging a fist straight toward his face.
Idiots.’
Declan calmly raised a palm, grabbing the incoming fist and suddenly pulled.
"Huh!?"
The man’s eyes widened as an overwhelming force dragged his body forward, completely throwing off his balance.
Before he could recover,
BANG!
Declan’s elbow shot upward and smashed directly into his jaw.
Blood sprayed from his mouth as several teeth went flying through the air.
The man collapsed onto both knees before finally falling flat on his stomach.
"Mama Mia!?" the other man exclaimed in shock, staring at his companion lying motionless on the ground.
Whatever drunkenness had remained in him disappeared instantly.
Red veins bulged around his eyes as anger took over his expression.
"Oh, oh. Now you’re really in for it, kid."
SLASH!
The jagged edge of the broken bottle swept toward Declan’s neck.
He stepped backward just in time, avoiding the slash, only for the man to immediately thrust the bottle toward his stomach.
Declan shifted to the side.
His knee slammed into the man’s extended arm, knocking the bottle from his hand and sending it spinning through the air.
At the same time, Declan’s right hand clenched into a fist.
BAM!
His punch slammed directly into the man’s throat, the impact sending him stumbling backward.
He nearly tumbled over the edge of the building before barely managing to regain his balance.
"Acccck!"
The man clutched his throat, his face twisting in pain.
It felt as though someone had fired a bullet directly into his neck.
He looked forward, but the young man was no longer there.
"Tsk, the pussy ran! How dare him? He should have waited and see..."
"Over here."
The voice came from directly behind him, and the man’s blood ran cold.
He slowly turned his shaking head, only to find an iron rod swinging right from above.
BOINK!
The metal rod connected squarely with his skull.
His entire upper body dropped forward, his chest hitting the ground while his butt remained awkwardly planted up in the air.
He was out cold.
CLANG!
Declan tossed the iron rod aside before adjusting his cap.
He tapped the earbud in his ear.
"Neutralized."
"That was fast," Boss Morg’s voice came from the other end. "And ’suck my dick’? Really? You speak broken?"
Declan’s expression twitched.
"I am from Sixhell City."
"Oh."
There was a brief pause.
"Right. Those two men should be watch guards placed by the organization. I think they should have binoculars with them."
Declan stepped toward the unconscious man and began searching through his pockets.
All he found were a few Nollars and some lighters.
He left him alone and moved over to the other man.
After several seconds of rummaging through his pockets, his hand finally found what he was looking for.
It was an old-looking pair of binoculars.
Quite outdated for the current era, but still functional.
"I have it."
"Good. Find a green-colored building with a blue symbol at the top. Do you see it?"
Declan gripped the binoculars and raised them to his eyes.
After adjusting the lenses a few times, the distant city suddenly came into clearer focus.
He scanned the surrounding buildings carefully.
It took roughly twenty seconds before he finally spotted it:
A green building among several ordinary-looking structures, distinguished only by a peculiar blue symbol near its top.
"I see it."
"Read the coordinates."
Declan adjusted the binoculars slightly and focused on the building.
"Eight degrees, twelve minutes, thirty-one point two seconds north. Four degrees, six minutes, twenty-seven point six seconds east."
"Hmm."
There was a brief silence.
"That matches what I was given. You got it right."
Declan’s brows furrowed.
"You sure? It doesn’t look any different from the other buildings around it."
His eyes remained fixed on the building.
"An Arcane Serum is being developed in something that looks this ordinary?"
"There’s no rule saying something important has to be built in a grandiose place."
"It’s called a secret organization for a reason."
Boss Morg’s voice remained calm.
"For now, just stay where you are and watch for anything unusual."
"If you sense anything, let me know."
The connection went silent, and Declan tapped his earbud, ending the communication.
He lowered the binoculars and turned around to look at the two men he had knocked unconscious.
The last thing he wanted was for one of them to wake up, sneak up behind him, and knock him out in return.
That would be some lame-ass karma, so he stepped away from the edge and began searching them more thoroughly.
Soon, he found their communication devices and took both.
Things could get troublesome if either of them woke up and secretly sent a message back to their base.
With that settled, Declan dragged the two unconscious men toward the far edge of the rooftop and positioned them so that half of their bodies hung over the side.
If they woke up, the sudden realization of where they were would hopefully startle them enough to make some noise.
And if they were stupid enough to move too much, they’ll just fall.
Either way, it would be loud enough for Declan to notice.
He pocketed the communication devices, and ’seized’ the few Nollars he found on them, before returning to the edge of the building.
Raising the binoculars once more, he resumed surveying the distant building.
Time quietly passed and nothing.
The streets remained busy, the mysterious building remained quiet, and there was no sign of anything unusual.
’This is going surprisingly easier than I thought. Bet it’ll continue like this till the end.’
VROOOOM!
The second he said that a violent whistle suddenly tore through the air behind Declan.
His head snapped to the side, and
BOOOOOM!
The wall where he had been standing only a moment earlier exploded into fragments.
An energy ball ripped straight through the rooftop, continued forward, and slammed into the building in front of him.
KABOOOOOOM!
The impact erupted across the structure with so much force; the two highest storeys of the building were instantly pulverized to dust!
’The hell!?’