Daily Quest (2)

Zaen was busy gazing at the stars, dancing around the moon as its friends. Their pattern never seemed to change and yet the stars were ever-changing. The moon was shining brighter than ever, almost as if it wanted the darkness of night to disappear forever.

Zaen sat on the edge of his bed, bathed in moonlight, lost in his thoughts about the daily quests. The quest had unnecessarily complicated his life. Till now he thought he would occasionally have to deal with monsters which was completely fine and wouldn't affect his daily schedule much. But completing the daily quest was a completely different matter.

"The special force are looking for me. Well, not me but the one who saved the missing people." He sighed heavily, "They'll be on the lookout for anything unusual. Hell, they might even start monitoring the family of those who was missing if they have even a single brain between themselves. Ahhh, my shrimp sized brain can't keep up with all this thinking!"

He continued, "I do have the mask of secrecy to hide my presence from the officers and hopefully their drones as well. The problem is if I keep hunting ghouls throughout the day, I won't be able to stream. And I'm somewhat famous. People will definitely notice if I suddenly stop streaming and it won't take long for them to start joining the dots. I'll be outed before I can do anything!"

He stared at the full moon as his head hit the soft pillow, "But if I don't complete the task. Innocent people will die and I don't even know who will be dying. As much as I don't care about the others, it could be anyone. Even Aeron... *sigh*. In that case, I don't have a choice do I?"

He pulled out the smartphone and pressed the map icon. It was a weird map and only covered the city of Lizan. Unlike his personal phone, Zaen couldn't find anything apart from places inside the city using the map given to him even if he tried searching for the famous locations outside his city, nothing happened.

The next thing about the map that Zaen noticed was the odd luminescent areas that were marked on it. These were the areas where he had to find and kill the ghouls. Thankfully, all five locations were close to his home.

"Wait, why am I being thankful that there are ghouls around my home, hiding in plain sight? I should be worried instead! What's wrong with you, Zaen?"

After smacking his head, he tapped on one of such areas that were nearest to him and a photo of a familiar man popped up along with a bunch of information about that man.

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Target: Nishimiya Senjawa

Age: 59

Gender: Male

Time spent under ghoul's influence: 3 months

Threat Level: Minimal

Eliminate the person mentioned above to receive 100 Exp.

__

"What the hell is this!?" Zaen jumped from the bed as if he had seen a ghost, "If this is some kind of sick prank then stop it right now!"

Zaen knew this man quite well. He lived right around the next block. Zaen knew him because they went to the same gym also his daughter was his... first girlfri- classmate. The artifact wanted Zaen to kill Nishimiya. The only problem was... Mr Nishimiya had died of cardiac arrest 3 months ago. Zaen and Aeron even went to his funeral.

[Allow us to explain. Ghouls feed on human flesh. It doesn't matter if it's fresh or decayed. When they eat someone alive and well, that person dies. That's the end. However, if the ghouls feed on the dead and don't finish eating them, the dead rise from their graves and henceforth, are controlled by the ghoul who consumed their flesh. The 5 targets you've to eliminate are all dead people who are now under the influence of a particular ghoul and hence, dangerous to the safety of the general populous. Killing them before they do something is the only mercy you can give to their soul.]

Zaen carefully read the text again and again, but it always left a bad taste in his mouth. He finally voiced his concerns to the artifact. (Author's note: Please note that both the artifact and the smartphone are the same.)

"But if the dead have risen, shouldn't the people have already noticed walking dead among themselves?"

[There's a reason why these dead people are known as "Camouflaged Ghouls". Ordinary people cannot see them.]

"Ok... that makes sense- wait a minute! What do you mean by ordinary people? Are there more champions like me out there?"

[You're the last one among them. All the previous champions are either dead or missing.]

"What do you mean by that!?"

[You've been told more than you deserve to know. Improve your strength first before asking anything else.]

Zaen knew he couldn't argue with a machine. So he started making a plan to kill the ghouls... after all, he didn't have a choice in the matter. One thing was clear if he had to complete the quest, he had to complete it under the watchful eye of the moon. Only then he'll be able to manage his social life during the day. Also, the special force would be more vigilant during the night and might notice something off so he has to be careful while handling these targets.

"I guess it's time to go into Dark Knight mode..." Zaen mumbled and used the repair toolkits to repair and restore some durability of Hooligan's Hoodie and Jersey and equipping them along with the rest of his gears.

But before he left the house, he went to check on Aeron for one last time. And left only after making sure he was asleep because he knew his little brother better than he knew himself.

If Aeron even got a hint of what Zaen was doing, he'll make sure to help Zaen in any way he could. And while Zaen didn't think it would be a bad idea to turn Aeron into the Butler to his Dark Knight, as Aeron was gifted with the knowledge of science, Zaen wasn't going to put his brother into any kind of danger. Not yet.

He then walked out of his house into the starry night. Ready to put poor souls out of their misery.