Three days later.
Han stood before the dazzling gambling hall that lit up the night.
He was not wearing the Special Unit uniform. Dressed in dull clothes, Han seemed out of place in a space overflowing with pleasure.
‘It's time to move.’
Han recognized that the right moment had arrived and started walking.
One of the employees approached him, having mistaken Han for an easy mark ripe for fleecing.
The grinning employee was just about to offer to show him around when someone suddenly grabbed him by the collar from behind.
“Idiot. He's not a customer.”
A security guard chased the employee away.
Having been contacted by the Special Unit in advance, the guard knew Han's face.
After all, Han himself had been the one who contacted them.
“Third floor. As you requested, we've kept the number of customers on that floor to a minimum.”
When Han came closer, the guard murmured quietly enough that only he could hear.
“Thank you for your cooperation.”
“We should be the ones thanking you. But... did the other members of your team not come with you?”
Han nodded.
“I am going up alone for now.”
“Alone?”
“More importantly, from this point onward, entry to the third floor is prohibited. That includes other customers as well as employees. We cannot risk unnecessary casualties.”
Without answering the guard's remaining questions, Han went inside.
The bustling gambling hall was filled with various devices designed to captivate people. Anyone who failed to keep their head straight looked liable to lose every coin they owned.
‘Just as they said, they don't seem to be on the first or second floor.’
Unmoved by the temptations around him, Han looked over the customers scattered across each floor as he climbed the stairs.
There were no suspicious people wearing Skin Suits, nor any of the faces he had seen in Fabian's photographs.
‘It'd be convenient if they're all gathered together and waiting quietly for me.’
Han recalled the mission along with the faces of their current targets.
Now that Brock Renner and the other organization members had failed to determine their ‘boss's’ whereabouts, there was no longer any reason to continue watching them.
Accordingly, Han had actively incorporated his team members' opinions while devising the arrest plan.
However, there was one point that required caution.
‘Brock Renner is skilled at escaping.’
In the past, Brock Renner had twice shaken off Special Unit operatives who had chased him right up to his heels.
He had ultimately been captured and imprisoned in Alkant, but that did not erase his previous record.
For that reason, despite Brock Renner being only Second Tier, Han still needed to remain cautious.
He had therefore decided to arrest the other organization members first.
And now he was here.
“…….”
Han waited for a response from the communicator attached to his collar.
The communicator remained completely silent.
‘Brock Renner is still at home.’
If any movement had been detected, Lara would have contacted him.
Deciding that everything was proceeding according to plan, Han lightly tapped the communicator.
Tap, tap—.
A reply soon came from Fabian, confirming that he understood.
Nothing was wrong.
Han only needed to carry out his role as team leader.
‘Fortunately, they're all gathered in one place. That saves me the trouble of hunting them down.’
Upon reaching the third floor, Han easily spotted the targets.
With them clustered together in small groups, they were not difficult to find.
“…….”
Han also quickly took stock of everyone else on the floor.
The two tables farther inside were occupied by ordinary customers.
The two tables close to the targets appeared to be occupied entirely by members of the organization.
If Han had merely infiltrated this place to gather information, he would have approached the ordinary customers.
He would have taken a seat at a table as far away as possible to minimize the targets' suspicion while keeping his ears wide open.
However.
Han had not come here for information.
So he walked straight toward the targets' table.
“Go somewhere else.”
Once Han came within a certain distance, one of the men seated at a nearby table blocked his path.
As though this were their private territory, they refused to let outsiders approach freely.
When Han continued walking anyway, the man irritably grabbed him by the shoulder.
“Didn't you hear me tell you to go somewhere else? Get lost.”
“…….”
Han stopped and engraved every detail of the man's movements into his mind.
Not merely the movement of his muscles, but things far more minute.
‘For someone trying to intimidate me, there's not even the slightest reaction from his magical power.’
‘Even a low-tier mage's mana tends to react easily when he's agitated, but there's nothing.’
‘That either means his tier is high enough for him to control it perfectly, or the opposite.’
‘He's not a mage.’
Just as Fabian's photographs had suggested, there were no mages here aside from the known organization members.
The men occupying the other two tables were merely ordinary thugs recently recruited into the organization.
“I said get lost. Are you deaf or—”
“Damn it. I told you to keep it down.”
The man had been about to swing a fist at Han, but he stopped at the voice coming from the table farther inside.
“Can't you see the bosses are trying to have some fun? Is keeping your mouth shut really that difficult?”
“S-Sorry, boss!”
Startled, the man hurriedly bowed toward the inner table.
Mage and non-mage.
Though it was a small organization, an absolute hierarchy of obedience existed between them.
Han's gaze shifted toward the mages.
‘Three people who perfectly match Fabian's photographs. Those are definitely them.’
Aside from Sink Ber, whose name Han had deliberately mentioned to provoke a reaction from Brock Renner, these were people whose faces were unknown throughout the Republic.
That was why they could walk around openly without hiding their faces.
Of course, Han knew exactly what they looked like now, but they had no way of knowing that.
“You there, young man. Want to play a game with us?”
One of the mages, who had been pouring himself a drink, asked.
He looked Han up and down before tilting his head.
“But no matter how I look at you, you don't seem like the gambling type.”
“…….”
The mage stared at Han suspiciously.
From the beginning, he had not believed Han had approached because he wanted to propose a game.
If Han merely wanted to gamble, he would not have continued approaching after being threatened.
The fact that he had come closer anyway meant he either had something to say.
Or another purpose entirely.
“Well, whatever the case. You'd be better off finding another table. We're waiting for someone.”
The mage responded mildly.
Having spent all this time avoiding the eyes of the Republic, causing needless trouble would only create problems for them.
Han, however, had no intention of backing away.
“What a coincidence. I came here to meet someone too.”
“What?”
The mage exchanged looks with Han for a moment.
Instinctively sensing danger, he gave an order.
“Boys. Grab that bastard.”
—WHAM!
One of the thugs near Han swung his fist.
...No, he had definitely swung his fist.
Yet the one who ended up slammed down was not Han, but the man himself.
Han subdued him with clean, efficient movements.
Keeping his eyes on those who had suddenly become especially wary of him, Han spoke.
“How about a game with me too?”
Han intended to arrest them by force.
“You bastard!”
Three men from the front table charged him.
They were not mages either, so they immediately pulled out weapons.
“Ghk!”
“Aagh!”
“Urgh!”
They were subdued in an instant.
It took less than two seconds.
“KYAAAAAA!”
The ordinary civilians uninvolved in the incident began screaming.
Because the number of customers on the third floor had been restricted in advance, the commotion was not particularly large.
Only then did one of the targets fully grasp the situation and hurriedly rise from his seat, moving his mana.
However, the mana rippling through the air failed to take form.
Han gave him no time to do so.
“Urgh!”
The mage's mana scattered.
Struck in the solar plexus, the mage's eyes lost focus as he slowly collapsed.
“T-This bastard's Special Unit!”
Another mage shouted.
Those words carried several implications.
‘Two mages left.’
‘Four ordinary thugs.’
Han rapidly calculated their positions, stances, and the flow of mana around them.
Without even using his Mobility Gear.
With nothing but his feet and fists as weapons.
Han subdued his opponents with the most efficient movements available to him.
And the fact that no innocent victims were harmed in the process was proof of just how vast the gap in skill was between Han and these men.
THUD! THUD!
Heavy impacts rang out one after another.
Before long, only the two mages remained standing.
“Die!”
One of the mages swung a fist wrapped in compressed mana along with the vicious shout.
Unfortunately for him, he had chosen the wrong opponent.
His fist was caught mercilessly.
The mage's eyes widened.
There had been enough force in that punch to knock down a tree.
Yet Han had caught it as easily as if he were playing with a child!
The man did not know that Han Augustus's left arm contained a large quantity of Magic-Suppressing Silver.
“W-Wha...!”
Han tightly gripped the mage's fist and pulled him forward, then drove his own fist into the man's solar plexus.
The precise strike dropped the mage.
Curled up like a shrimp, his body trembled as though electricity were coursing through it.
Only one mage remained.
However.
“How about we stop there?”
A man pressed the muzzle of a gun against Han's temple.
It was the mage who had been drinking while enjoying the games.
His loaded revolver could fire with the slightest pull of the trigger.
The man had brought Han's storm-like movements to a halt.
His sharp eyes glared fiercely.
“I doubt you're doing all this just because we wouldn't play a game with you. How did the Special Unit find us here?”
“…….”
“I don't remember us letting anything slip... Ah. There was someone. There was.”
Heh heh.
The man laughed.
He had accurately guessed how the Special Unit had discovered them.
“That pretty-boy-looking bastard was your partner, wasn't he?”
“…….”
“Seriously. This is why people who only look good on the outside are the worst. A man ought to be the same inside and out. Like us.”
“…….”
“Don't even think about moving. Unless you want a hole in your head.”
The man reacted sensitively to even Han's smallest movement.
Having witnessed Han's fighting ability with his own eyes, he was especially cautious.
“Ah, of course. Even if you don't move, I can still shoo— Huh?”
What the hell?
The man could not hide his bewilderment.
And understandably so.
He had not even blinked, yet their positions had completely reversed.
“Why is my gun in your hand……?”
The man had never taken his eyes off Han.
He had not even closed them for an instant.
Yet he had still missed Han's movement.
By the time he realized what had happened, his revolver had been taken from him.
And now its muzzle was pressed against his skull.
Han pushed the stolen gun firmly against the man's head and spoke.
“Don't even think about moving. Unless you want a hole in your head.”
THUDTHUDTHUD—.
The moment Han threatened him, the stairs thundered loudly.
Police officers came charging up from the lower floor.
Fabian was leading them.
All of them already had their guns drawn and were prepared to fire.
The organization members who were beginning to recover found themselves completely surrounded.
“……Hah.”
The mage realized there was no longer any chance of victory.
His hand still numb from having the gun snatched away, he slowly raised both hands in surrender.
Han had told him not to move, but he decided to overlook that much.
“Arrest them. Put Magic-Suppressing Silver handcuffs on the mages.”
Han ordered Fabian and the police officers.
The officers restrained the men and quickly secured the mages with Magic-Suppressing Silver handcuffs.
Just as the scene was being brought under control—
—Team Leader. Brock Renner just started moving.
A transmission came from Lara.
Han looked at Fabian and nodded.
They had captured the other organization members.
It was time to move on to the next step.