"Okay, I think we can narrow it down." Mateo announced as he opened a map of the city on his phone. "I saw him near the hospital after the treasure hunt challenge, so maybe someone there knows something."
"So if we were to rank the five districts including the centre from most to least likely place he'd hang out, what are we thinking?" Leon asked. He did agree to help the trio out, but it seemed more out of needing allies this time around. He didn't think to ask if they had any connection to the missing player, and that was information he wasn't getting. He may be an ally, but he's a temporary one. And Tedros was right, he wasn't a bad target if things went south.
"Well, I haven't heard news about a man hanging around Strovam." Ines said calmly. Surely if Ramon was in Strovam, she or her parents would have heard of it. "Ritzrub could have them?"
"Could be either a rich guy living it up there, or a poor guy who gets by pickpocketing the rich drunkards." Tedros added in agreement. "Also, Fluado would probably lock down if some guy was skulking around."
"So we'll say the centre, Ritzrub, Privis, Strovam, Fluado." Mateo added.
"Dunno about the centre, think I'd hear of something."
"Could this guy not hang out in an old abandoned place?" Ines asked.
"I guess it's a possibility." Leon muttered. "You think asking my roommate if he's around will cause a penalty?"
"Eh, you can't break the rules but you can bend them." Tedros replied. "Just text him something about a suspicious guy and don't mention the challenge."
Tedros figured it could work, if his time of intentionally getting into situations that required him to become the counter. But if Leon was penalized, even better. He watched as Leon took his phone out to text Jay.
'hey heard about some guy hanging around the centre, be wary if you head out.'
'wat like some drug guy?'
'no idea.'
'this about the game?'
'no'
Leon looked around for a few seconds, and no sign of angry gods were around, just a second buzz on his phone.
It was from Valerie, asking about this guy.
'Any idea where this guy could be?'
'IDK, might check Strovam later' Leon typed.
'Sounds good'
Okay, so Leon had an extra avenue for finding this person, and could get Elijah out of his hair for a little while. And with the clearest idea of what was happening, the four went to the centre.
Ines took some time to breath it all in. It wasn't recommended for basically anyone to enter this part of the city past school times, and her parents drilled into her from a young age that it was borderline suicide for someone of her position to enter. But it honestly just looked kinda…depressing. Just a bunch of small bordered up tall grey buildings, with some vines leering over dirty walls, not exactly the evil drug den she was warned about. Granted, there was obvious evidence drug use happened with a few broken needles, but they seemed easy to avoid.
"Okay Leon, where would a guy actually live?" Tedros asked.
"I guess one of the bordered up buildings?" Leon replied. This wasn't his idea. And if someone was skulking around the place, he'd know. Granted, Janet would have probably heard if Privis had some guy.
"I don't think that narrows it down much." Mateo whispered as he looked around. Leon agreed fully, so why were they insisting on hanging around here?
"We just gotta look for wood that seemed messed with recently." Tedros added, already looking a little annoyed. Ines tried stifling a laugh at the phrasing of 'messed with wood.'
So they went through the place. It was mostly empty buildings, and the depression from just being there was building up from everyone except Leon.
"Can't believe people actually live here." Ines whispered.
"Eh, the places people actually live in are less…shitty." Leon mumbled back. Ines tried playing off the fact he heard the statement.
"Hold it." Tedros said. "I see something."
He pointed to a building, and sure enough, one wooden board looked slightly messed with. The four approached it and peered inside the building. Didn't seem to be any sign of footprints or anything to indicate life was inside through the small viewpoint.
"Okay, I think this is a job for ol Glyle." Glyle announced from the pocket of Ines cardigan. Ines held him to the small crack between the boards, and he climbed inside. It was a fairly normal building, probably used to be an office of some kind, telling from the tiled floors, many of which were worn down or out of place. Mildly annoying for an average sized human, but a major tripping hazard for a stuffed toy brought to life. Regardless, he couldn't see any signs of this Ramon guy, so he tried calling out.
"Hello? Mystery person? You in here?" Glyle made sure not to name the guy in case Leon heard, but it was still strange.
"So, quick question." Leon asked. "Ines, can you bring your creatures back?"
Ines eyes widened slightly when she heard that.
"Is that where you come in?" She said with an uneasy smile. Leon didn't reply, he just sighed and tried reaching into the building. Tapping the wall to tell Glyle to get over so he can lift him up.
"What's going on here?"
The other three turned around, and two policemen were behind them. Older men, slightly overweight. Had some kind of obnoxious air around them. Wouldn't be shocking if they were just guys sent to patrol this place so the rest of the force didn't have to deal with them. The three stood in silence for a few seconds, waiting for someone else to come up with an excuse.
"We're…investigating haunted buildings." Ines said slowly.
"Haunted buildings?" The first officer asked. He folded his arms, most likely an indication he didn't believe it.
"Yeah." Tedros added. "This was my idea. You see, I have a channel talking about Space Piece, it's pretty big. But the comic might be ending soon, so I gotta branch out to stay relevant. And paranormal investigation is a long standing passion of mine."
Glyle tried to help out in the only way he could come up with. He couldn't just wail like an actual ghost, so he decided to just try and exhale really hard to imitate a haunted sounding wind, before waddling back to get Leon grab him and get him out of the building, with Leon trying to discreetly put him in his pocket.
"Paranormal investigation?" The second officer asked, in a more patronizing tone. "You not supposed to have special cameras for that?"
"Well, we are just starting out." Mateo assured. "We're assuming our phones will be enough."
"Hmm." The first officer groaned. "Well, it looks to me like you want to create strange vapours instead of investigating them. So you wouldn't mind us investigating you, would you?"
"What, you saying we're doing drugs?" Tedros asked, slightly bewildered.
"Well, this is where people go for their highs." The second officer asked.
Well, this sucked. Getting felt up by cops was bad on it's own, but when it costs time in a death game? One of the officers went up to Tedros, inspecting his pockets. Naturally, his phone was the only thing there. He took it out and began to sniff it, his large nose taking an exceptionally big whiff of the scent of three year old phone.
"Hmm, nothing so far." He said.
"So we can go now?" Tedros asked.
"Hold on, there's still 3 more of you." The other officer announced, going towards Ines. Mateo looked at Leon with terror, and Leon nodded at him. He quickly got a hook on the officer's leg and pulled it, tripping him up.
"Woah now, what's going on?" The first officer yelled. Leon quickly stuffed his hands in his pocket, but was still able to create a hook through it. The hook latched around the other officers waist, and with a flick of Leon's wrist, he was slammed into the wall.
"Uh, I think the ghost's angry!" Tedros yelled, snatching his phone from the police officer and beginning to run. Leon went after him, and Mateo joined after picking up Ines.
"You damn junkies!" One of them yelled. Mateo looked behind him and saw one man rising up and attempting to give chase, but he slowed down after a while, letting them run into Ritzrub and disappear among the crowds.
"Screw it, we'll search here." Tedros said as he looked around.