Hardy’s expression turned doubtful.

“I don’t know, he even looks interested….”

Hardy’s expression turned serious.

“It’s best not to provoke any of our observation subjects. Trust me, treating them like enemies is a very bad idea, and putting them as enemies is the last thing you want to do….”

Hardy appeared to perfectly understand what he was talking about, which surprised Raymond slightly.

Hardy gave details about what had just happened. There was also no surveillance camera recording the incident because Erdyn used some sort of electric disturbance device. Raymond still appeared to have a hard time believing it.

“Too bad the surveillance camera footage doesn’t exist, so I can’t see you getting beaten up.”

Hardy grinned.

“Sorry to disappoint you.”

Raymond smiled, but soon his expression turned serious.

“Is it okay to just tell him like that?”

Hardy’s expression turned slightly doubtful.

“Of course, sooner or later, we’ll meet him anyway, so let’s just say this incident is a bonus to speed up our work.”

Raymond crossed his arms with an astonished expression.

Elsewhere, Erdyn was sitting alone on the edge of the top of one of the buildings. He took out his smartphone, which he had tried to use earlier to download files from the computer in Hardy and his team’s quarters. Erdyn opened the files he could get, only to find that all of these files were corrupted due to the computer’s automatic security defense mechanisms. For some reason, Erdyn’s expression showed that he had expected it. Erdyn took out an emblem he had taken from Hardy earlier from inside the pocket behind his overcoat. It was an emblem with an unknown symbol on it, and words were carved on its surface. Erdyn’s expression turned curious.

“This word, what does it mean?”

Shortly after, Erdyn’s smartphone rang, and he picked it up. The voice indicated that the person who called him was a woman.

“What did you find there?”

Erdyn’s expression was deadpan.

“Unfortunately, I also don’t know the answer.”

The woman on the phone replied.

“Hahaha, not as usual? Is something bothering you?”

The woman on the phone chuckled, making Erdyn’s expression turn astonished.

“There is something that bothers me about the true purpose of what they do, which they also do not know.”

The woman on the phone was silent momentarily.

“Do you know? This reminds me of one of my favorite fairy tales from when I was little. Guess which one?”

Erdyn’s expression turned confused.

“How can I know? You have told me too many fairy tales.”

The woman replied.

“Let me tell you again, do you want to hear it?”

Erdyn relaxed his sit, bent his left leg, and used his left knee to support the elbow of his left hand.

“Okay, after all, my business is finished... it seems.”

The woman on the phone replied.

“Okay then!”

She replied in a happy and excited tone, making Erdyn’s expression turn astonished.

 

“Once upon a time, there was a group of people from a hidden village. Somehow, they knew that “some kind of disaster” was coming. They began to travel together to find an answer and found a legend about “the valley of monsters,” the place where the monsters exist. They continue on a journey to prove the truth of the legend. It turned out the legend was true; they recklessly entered the place intending to capture some monsters and make them tools to help them.

How surprised they were when they discovered this place was a beautiful forest valley of beautiful mountains, far from their thoughts. They were also amazed at how surprisingly peaceful this place was; the monsters coexist with each other. Unfortunately, this place was very dangerous for them; the monsters could attack them at any time and put them in danger. At first, they were scared and almost gave up wading through this beautiful but very dangerous place, but they finally managed to survive. Even so, after much consideration, they decided to discourage their intention. The reason was:

In the world of monsters, there was an unwritten law that monsters normally don’t interfere with other monsters. The smaller the difference in power between them, the less likely they would clash with each other. If anyone tried to interfere with that, the monsters might end up fighting each other and bring about the destruction of the world. End of story.…”

 

Erdyn was listening with a slightly astonished expression. The woman continued speaking.

“I always think about the ending of this fairy tale; how about the other way around? What if the monsters actually can cooperate and manage to bring peace? We’ll never know the result.”

Erdyn’s expression turned even more astonished.

“Then? Who’s the monster?”

Elsewhere, Erdyn’s interlocutor was a woman with long hair, wearing a white dress and barefoot. She was sitting on the edge of the top of one of the buildings and looking at the beautiful night view of the city before her. Her legs moved rhythmically on purpose, like she was playing. Her face was not fully visible, but she then smiled.

Back to where Hardy and Raymond were, they and their comrades worked hand in hand to clean up the mess in their surveillance room. Some of them work together to move things, while others tidy up the place. All the main computer monitors displayed the paused video recordings of what was last recorded in a form resembling a photograph. The images on these monitors were unclear and blurry because they suddenly stopped, showing the silhouettes of dozens of subjects being observed. Hardy walked with a curious expression to a male technician who was trying to fix these computers.

“Has the cause been found?”

This technician, who had been repairing the computer, changed his attention and turned to Hardy.

“The cause is the computer’s security system; it seems that Erdyn tried to hack this computer to retrieve the data, so the computer’s security mechanism was activated and caused a freeze. I’m still trying to fix them.”

Hardy nodded and crossed his arms, he glanced at the monitors, and watched them closely.

On one of these groups of computer screens, the picture was very blurry and hazy, showing a silhouette of a man with a pale white body; another screen near this screen shows a blurred image of this person’s face who looks like he has a mouth with rows of sharp skull teeth, from the mouth to his right and left cheek.

On the other set of monitors, there was a blurred image of a person. From the silhouette, this person was a female. She was carrying shiloutes of some kind of a double-edged sword in her right hand and some kind of a curved double-edged sword in her left hand.

On the other set of monitors, there was a blurry image of a person who looked like he was wearing some kind of heavy armor all over his body. Unfortunately, the other groups of monitor screens were too hazy and blurry to see what was being recorded.

There was one monitor with the clearest image on another set of monitors because of the least amount of blur. Recorded by the drone camera, the image on this screen shows the atmosphere at night. A 14-year-old boy named Kenshubo Takeru, a 16-year-old boy named Suga Hisoka, and a 16-year-old girl named Yukari Kanagawa; they look shabby because they were together in a fight against someone before them with an alert stance, ready to attack with their katana swords, along with Asanuma, Nellson, and Shinra.

Asanuma was a monster in the form of a gigantic wolf called a wolf Yokai. A gigantic wolf with long fur and a long furry tail, gray and white in color, whose fur waved and formed like blazes. The wolf's body was covered with sturdy carved black armor pieces, which were the natural skin of this wolf. These armor skin pieces covered many parts of his body: the front lower part of the fore and hind legs, the upper part of the fore and hind legs, the shoulders of the forelegs and hind legs, and a small part of the chest. There was an additional armor on the shoulders of the forelegs that rose two meters high, like large horns. The foreleg paws of this wolf were shaped like the palms of a human hand with long and thick fur and large and sharp claws covered in armor; the hindleg paws of this wolf were like the wolf's paws, with long and thick fur and huge and sharp claws covered in armor. Asanuma was four meters tall (six meters, including additional armor on the shoulders of the forelegs) and stood on all fours. His teeth were sharp, with large fangs. His expression was glower, and his gaze was cold.

Not far from Asanuma, there was another monster named Nellson, in the form of a gigantic Eurasian eagle owl, and was called Owl Yokai with a height of six meters, three pairs of gigantic wings that were twice his body's height, and armor skin that propagated on his body.