Only I Am A Reader-Chapter 539: Hunting Preparations

{Cassian will not terrorize our city! The Heroes of Enigma City confidently announce their stance as the manhunt for the SSS-Class Villain continues.}

{Aurora's Gate Clearing activities resume. Will the wounded Hero be able to keep up on her own?}

'It's starting to get boring.'

A week had already passed since the incident, but the media was still buzzing about it every day. In all honesty, Leo no longer wanted to listen to their bullshit, but unfortunately, it was necessary for him to do so.

'Information does not exactly grow on trees.'

Aside from setting up a proper training routine with a proper diet, Leo was still holed up in his safe house working on the next part of his plan. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Although what he planned to do was already decided, how he would do it was still undecided. After all, novels were usually written to maximize both the writer's and the readers' convenience.

Only the exciting events were recounted. The hideouts of Villains or scenes recording them leaving for battle rarely happened, and even where they did, accurate whereabouts were almost never mentioned.

'That's why I need this web…'

The only lead that Leo had was that he knew his targets well enough.

Their villainous habits, the way they acted, the general area where they roamed… on their own, this kind of information was useless, but once linked to an extending web of knowledge, they would naturally grow in value.

'As defective as it is.'

It didn't really matter that the media's messages were mostly full of lies, they still reported proper facts before twisting them. As long as Leo picked up the little things here and there a map of potential locations could be easily created.

'Even unnoticeable cheats are still cheats.'

Of course, this wasn't something that everyone could do. To begin with, such a ridiculous task could only be realized thanks to how special Leo originally was.

Even before his otherworldly adventures started, he already possessed nerfed versions of practical cheats like Sherlock Holmes' deduction skills.

Simply put, Leo just needed to hear and read everything that could be possibly relevant and his mind would automatically piece the important parts together to solve the puzzle!

'There are some leads, but this will take a while.'

Naturally, this was still a time-consuming task. Only when the bits and pieces multiplied and formed a certain pattern could a specific location be deduced, and Leo was naturally prepared to play the long game.

His target wasn't only Villains but also specific Gates, Events, and Hidden Pieces that might be of help. Leo wasn't going to waste precious time.

Training, collecting information, grasping the knowledge that was omitted in the novel… In a way, it could be said that Leo had gone back into seclusion after leaving and shocking the world once.

'At this rate, I can probably qualify as a protagonist depending on the point of view.'

This novel's protagonist was the personification of 'In the darkness, there is light', but not all protagonists were of 'good' alignment.

Considering the amount of attention that he grasped, Leo believed that he could pull off being an anti-hero protagonist of sorts… As long as his actual intent was revealed to the reader.

Although he had reached this status before in the previous two novels, that always happened at the end or near the end. In most cases, he played around in the shadows.

However, in the City of Villains, being in the limelight was one of the necessities required of Leo to make a difference.

'The forums are sure having a lot of activity as well.'

The obscure corners of the internet that were mostly filled with sociable recluses were now brightly lit.

Ever since Cassian had made another explosive appearance, those who knew little about the time-limited boogeyman were scouring the web to keep up with the new trend.

In reality, even more sites and discussion boards were created to ride on these waves. Being this popular had a kind of irresistible excitement to it, but Leo's heart was full of mixed feelings.

'The so-called new generation are too dumb.'

On one side, there were those new or re-emerging fans that believed Cassian to be the true source of evil, and that he did every despicable act that the higher-ups pinned to him.

These kinds of supporters seemed to be edgy kids who sought chaos after maintaining peace for too long. Unlike those who witnessed the horrors of the Gates' first hit, they had no idea what true chaos meant.

To dance over the blood of the innocent was truly repulsive for Leo. Thankfully, the true fans who stuck with him from before denied all of that garbage. In fact…

'Even if it's a fake cover, she is very commendable.'

Among the raging storm of users, there was always a certain ID that popped up everywhere, albeit with minor alterations. Most of the time, they refuted other people's points and posted a link to the Cassian Archive Project.

Whether it was Shadow_Crow or ShadowCrow99, it was obvious who was behind this, but Leo was still surprised by the degree of dedication.

Thanks to these truth seekers, Leo was able to keep his mood neutral for now. In addition, much of the little information that he needed could also be found within the meaningless discussions.

The higher-ups seemed to have attempted to wipe out most of these discussion media so they could form their own image. However, unlike most cases where they silenced everything with precision, not everything was under their control this time.

'I should be able to make a move soon…'

`~~~`~~~`~~~`

Meanwhile…

Completely covered from head to toe, a person walked into a shady alley, looking around with apprehension.

Usually, spotting something like this would alert others, but almost everyone in the area looked just as suspicious.

'This should be the right place, but…'

Coming in dressed like that meant that the person knew exactly what they were looking for. This was one of the physical outlets of Enigma City's black market!

'Should I be really doing this?'

After hesitating for a few seconds, the person pushed a half-closed door to the side and marched in, exuding a strange sense of decisiveness.

"Excuse- I would li- I want to purchase some information."

After stuttering a bit to hide the politeness that was undesired in a place like this, the unknown person made their request as a strand of blonde hair escaped the confines of their head cover...