Chapter 117. That Time I Became A Stalker
After giving the training method and some warning to Lacius, Cedric immediately spent 1.000 GP to buy a visa to visit Earth number 5.001-9.999.
[You've bought a 7 day visa to Earth number 6.956 for 1.000 GP. You may tear the paper to begin the sealing and teleportation procedure.]
"Please bless my luck and let me find someone with good potential," Cedric muttered before tearing the visa in his hand.
With a flash of light, Cedric disappeared from the Divine Space.
By the time he reopened his eyes, there was already a familiar modern alleyway in front of him.
As usual, there are a few stacks of paper money, a handphone, and necessary identification documents in his hand.
Cedric saw the paper money and realized that all of them were USD.
"This should mean I am somewhere in the United States."
Cedric turned on his phone and checked the map.
After waiting for the map to load, he found he was actually in Los Angeles, California.
He checked the surrounding place that might be filled with people before closing his phone while walking out of the alleyway.
Once he left the alleyway, Cedric was immediately greeted by the sight of several massive buildings and pedestrians walking around.
Sighing, he felt a bit melancholy, "After several hundred years, I can finally feel this kind of liveliness once more."
For an hour, Cedric mostly wandered around while buying snacks and drinks.
Cedric only stopped once he arrived at a pretty fancy building.
From the entrance, it looks like the clubs he often saw in movies. But the door is mostly deserted.
Cedric opened his map and saw that the place was indeed a club. A nightclub, to be exact.
'Night club should be pretty crowded, right? Guess I'll try to visit it later at night.'
Moving his sight from the nightclub, Cedric checked his phone's map for another place that might be crowded.
Because he still had time, Cedric hailed a cab to a nearby plaza. During the ride, he kept using Divine Observation to check other people’s life levels.
From the map, Cedric could see several other public spots near the plaza. There's a restaurant, a hotel, and a shopping district. All of them are places where many people gather.
With the help of the money he received upon entering the world, Cedric checked every place he mentioned and found two people who were at Level 4.
He found one of them in the shopping district while another one was sitting with a cup of coffee at the plaza.
But both of their potential is only at Mid Level 4 and Lower Level 4, respectively. That potential isn't enough to defeat the demon king.
By the time Cedric has checked the surrounding place, it's already night.
As planned, he intended to check the nightclub he saw in the morning.
When he arrived, Cedric saw that the club had opened.
From afar, he saw two big-bodied bouncers standing near the entrance.
After watching others enter, Cedric followed what they did and easily got in after showing the ID prepared by the System and paying a small fee.
The interior of the nightclub is just like he expected. There's music, some people dancing to the music beats, and lasers. A lot of lasers.
After watching for a few seconds, Cedric started his work.
He checked every nook and cranny of the nightclub for anyone with high potential, but it was all for naught. There isn't even anyone with a potential level higher than 4.
“Damn it, what a waste of time.” He waited for an extra hour while drinking, but not a single guest with potential above Level 4 showed up among the visitors.
Failing to find a suitable target in a day made Cedric extremely anxious.
Although the demon king’s birth has increased to a hundred years, which is five times longer than the original twenty years when his world was still at Level 1. That is only equal to about ten days when converted to Earth No. 6.956 time.
There's also a need for the hero to level up.
Even though they can level up by killing demons, it'll still take a long time to make them reach the limit of their potential.
Gritting his teeth, Cedric decided to leave the club and visit several crowded places that were still open even at night.
He visited several bars, clubs, and restaurants, but even by midnight, he still hadn’t seen anyone with good enough potential.
Sighing, Cedric chose to enter a hotel to take a bath and have a short rest.
When the sun hasn't risen yet, he once again embarks on a journey to find a hero. But just like the first day, there’s also no result on the second day. He has passed by as many crowded places as he can, but there’s still no one with potential above Upper Level 4.
At this point, Cedric’s minimum standard has fallen from recruiting someone at least at Mid Level 5 to Peak Level 4.
On the third day, Cedric scoured a new area.
After passing through restaurants, residential areas, and even secretly barging into a few office buildings, Cedric found himself being brought to the police station.
“...”
[...]
Even the System sends a few ellipses to show its speechlessness.
Inside the police station, two officers sat in front of him. "Sir, do you know that barging into an office counts as trespassing on private property?"
Cedric fell silent from how speechless he's been.
Previously, he purchased a can of invisible spray and used it to turn invisible. But because he's been too preoccupied looking for a suitable target, Cedric forgot about the spray's time limit.
When he reappeared inside a private office, the employees realized he wasn’t one of them and called security, who then contacted the police. That was how he ended up in this awkward situation.
When he didn’t respond right away, both officers changed their approach and asked basic questions such as where he came from. Fortunately, Cedric had memorized every detail written in his papers, so he could answer without any issues.
They also asked him to show his ID, which Cedric handed over without hesitation.
They checked his ID thoroughly as time silently passed by. Amidst the silence, Cedric finally broke free from the two officers’ rhythm and remembered to check the potential of everyone around him.
[Life Level: Lower level 0
Potential: Mid Level 5]
‘After failing for so long, I finally found a suitable target! I thought I was done for!’
Perhaps Cedric accidentally let a greedy look slip toward the officer, because the man visibly became uncomfortable.
Once the police let him leave after warning him to stop barging into private properties like offices, Cedric immediately entered an alleyway near the police station and bought a ‘Drawing Crayon For Interdimensional Teleportation Circle’.
[Level 1 Consumable Divine Item, Drawing Crayon For Interdimensional Teleportation Circle.
Cost: 10 GP
Description: Material used to draw an Interdimensional Teleportation Formation. Can teleport 1 person into the coordinate written in it. The formation drawn on the floor can last up to 7 days, unless it got recalled by the caster or has been used. Can be used 0-3 times depending on the summoning circle’s level of difficulty.]
Except for the crayon, Cedric also purchased another can of invisible spray.
Inside the alley, he silently waited until late at night for the police shift change while drawing a teleportation circle connected to the Crystal Cube World.
Once the officer he was targeting left the building, Cedric would make his move. He sprayed himself with the invisible spray, then pulled the officer into the teleportation circle.
Soon, the teleportation circle is ready, and the officer is already within sight.
He sprayed himself with the invisible spray and followed the police officer through the deserted road.
The police, who’ve received training, seem to feel someone is following him. But even if he turned his head until his neck broke, he definitely won’t see Cedric, who’s following him while being invisible.
The distance between the police officer and the alleyway slowly became closer. But before he acted, the strand of humanity Cedric almost forgot resurfaced.
‘As someone who has experienced suddenly waking up in an unknown environment, with every connection he has made all his life being ripped at once. Making others experience something similar made me a bit uncomfortable.’
‘Well, Yuma and the other first heroes' cases are different. I was extremely panicked then.’ Cedric made an excuse for himself.
At last, Cedric slightly sighed. The police seemed to feel the air from his sigh as a few goosebumps rose from his neck.
Cedric moved closer to the police and whispered, “Greeting, mortal from earth. I am a god from another world.”
The police officer paused on his step. He suddenly turned around with narrowed eyes as he analyzed his surroundings.
That's when Cedric spoke another word, “Stop looking around, you won’t find me.”
Suddenly, the police officer raised his gun to Cedric's approximate location. “Don’t move, or I’ll shoot!”
How did he know my location? Is it from my voice? Cedric panicked, but thankfully, the police officer didn’t seem to realize he was talking to someone invisible.
After pointing the gun toward Cedric’s approximate position, the officer shifted its direction slightly.
Cedric felt a wave of nerves after nearly being shot. Even though he still had the automatic barrier he’d purchased when he first became a god, the barrier would definitely reveal his location if it deflected a bullet.
In the end, he decided to stop talking and silently follow the man for now. This time, he also remembered to erase the summoning circle he had drawn.
After the officer pointed his gun at the empty air for a few minutes, he soon placed it back in its holster and walked away.
Cedric silently followed the officer, slipping through several alleys and keeping pace with the man’s occasional jog.
The officer frequently turned his head to glance behind him or scan the rooftops. His movements were subtle, yet Cedric couldn’t shake the feeling that the man had somehow noticed he was being tailed.
Or perhaps he's simply cautious enough not to immediately go toward wherever he wanted to go after experiencing a bizarre phenomenon like an unknown sound introducing itself as a god from another world.
Cedric followed the man for more than half an hour before the man entered a house.
He calculated the amount of time left for the invisible spray. When he found there was still time, he stealthily peeked inside the house.
From a window, he could watch a warming scene of a family of four's daily life.
Cedric watched for a moment before sighing, 'Maybe I'll look for another target. '
Of course, he won't just leave the police officer alone.
Cedric browsed the system shop and soon saw the item he needed.
[Level 3 Consumable Divine Item, Hunting Mark
Cost: 10 GP
Details: Place a hunting mark on a target and allow the user to constantly sense the target's location. The distance is limited to a 5 kilometers radius from the user. Can't be used on target's above Level 3.]
He finally has a chance to use this item.
A few hundred years ago. Before he successfully found Elisa, Cedric had wanted to use this item to mark a suitable hero. But at that time, the item he chose was only at Level 1 and could only sense the target within a one-kilometer radius.
Right now, he bought the Level 3 version for 10 GP. It lets him sense the target within five kilometers instead of just one kilometer like the Level 1 version.
'If I failed to find another suitable target, I'll just send all four of them together. Spending 400 years' worth of GP to send four people will definitely put a dent in my finances, but it's better than having a depressed hero.'
[That's actually a good choice.]
'Huh?' Cedric suddenly got confused when the System suddenly appeared to show its presence.
[In the System's record, a case where an unwilling hero got summoned and wrecked greater havoc than the demon king itself often happened. Some worlds are even destroyed because of this.]
'So, did I just coincidentally evade a landmine?'