241 The Perfect Targets for an Experimen

The man's face showed hesitation and a hint of worry. It seemed that he was opposed to the idea of killing people despite them wanting his life. Derrick was, after all, only a drug smuggler.

Graham chuckled and smiled in amusement.

"Hahaha... of course not, Derrick. I don't kill random humans," he said, and then looked over his shoulder before muttering softly, "Although Contractbounds are a different matter entirely, right Val?"

Derrick now looked confused.

"Then, what do you mean? I don't get it, really," the man said honestly.

Biting into another slice of the toast, Graham ignored the man's question. He chewed slowly, enjoying the burst of flavor in his mouth.

After swallowing his food, he finally replied, "I have my own way. Trust me. After today, they will no longer threaten you."

Derrick Damreau could only nod and continued eating his breakfast. It appeared that he had no other choice but to trust the detective in front of him, although if things went south, he wouldn't hesitate to run away and save his own skin.

Graham knew what the man was thinking. After all, they had just met, and there was no way the smuggler could know what Graham was capable of, so he shouldn't trust the detective that easily. However, it didn't matter to him as long as the job got done and he got his payment.

"What are you guys talking about?" asked Luuk, who had just finished making another toast for himself. He then sat at the dinner table next to Derrick.

"It's a mission. Mr. Derrick Damreau here has asked for our assistance. In fact, I will need your help with something soon," replied Graham, "Don't worry, you'll get a share of the commission."

Luuk nodded in approval, "Sure, what do I need to do?"

The detective then took out a piece of folded paper from his pants pocket and handed it to the young medical student. While eating his breakfast with one hand, he unfolded the piece of paper and read the content, which had Graham's messy handwriting on it.

Luuk was reading the paper carefully as it turned out to contain detailed instructions on what he had to do. He nodded slowly and then looked at Graham and said, "Is that it? This is easy enough."

"Yes. And here's my belt," Graham replied, taking off his belt that had complicated patterns on it and gave it to Luuk.

"Alright. I'll go once I finish my breakfast," Luuk said, wearing the belt around his waist after he received it.

Derrick was looking at the two without understanding anything. The exchange of belt was also something he didn't know the meaning of.

"Alright, I'm done. I'll get going now," Luuk said, leaving the empty plate on the dining table.

Graham looked at Derrick mischievously and then smiled, "Can you please do the dishes?"

The man, having been given 'free' breakfast, had no choice but to comply, especially since the detective was looking at him with somewhat threatening eyes. He got up and picked up all the dirty plates and utensils before walking towards the sink. With a twist, warm water came out of the tap and he began washing the dishes.

"So, what are we going to do now?" he asked while rubbing the plate with a soapy sponge.

"We're going to deal with the ones following you directly as we're waiting for my assistant to finish his job. There should be an ambush prepared for you already near here," explained Graham.

Derrick stopped what he was doing and looked at the detective in confusion and worry, "How did you know about all this? And are we really going to be alright?"

With a meaningful smile, Graham replied vaguely, "I'm a detective, remember?"

After that, Graham got up and went to his bedroom quickly to grab his weapons: the cane and the dagger, the latter being concealed under his shirt. There was now also a bracelet around his right wrist that had a mouth on it, seemingly ready to devour anything it touched.

"Done washing? Let's go," he said.

Derrick looked at the detective and couldn't help but feel confused. The man in front of him was just wearing a plain white shirt and a pair of loose pants. The cane in his hand looked sturdy, but besides that, he didn't look like he was going out to fight. He looked more like he was going out for a stroll.

"Yes. Are you perhaps a martial arts practitioner?" the smuggler asked hesitantly.

"No. But you can rest assured. I went to the war, so you know I can fight, if that's what you're worried about," Graham replied.

It seemed that his answer had hit the spot. The worried and doubtful look on Derrick's face was all gone, replaced by calmness.

"Then I'll be in your care," he said.

The two grown men then left the house after putting on their shoes. Locking the door behind him, Graham led Derrick out of the villas compound through the shortcut. They didn't have to go to the main lobby to leave the place because there was actually a smaller gate near his villa leading straight to the street.

Using the key that he had also been given for the small gate, Graham unlocked it and pushed open the metal gate.

The street around the villa area was a rather quiet one. There were mostly tourists there dressed up in casual thin clothes walking around, probably looking for the closest convenience stores or restaurants.

Around five hundred meters to the west, the street would become busier because that was where the restaurants and bars were. However, Graham's destination that day was the east side where Derrick had come from.

"Alright. Let's go this way. They should already be waiting for you to leave my villa and return home," said Graham.

The two men started walking eastward leisurely, enjoying the warm sun in the relatively cold morning. The sidewalk they were walking on had patches of trimmed grass on it, and the crisp sound of the grass under their soles was satisfying.

The farther they walked east, the more barren the street became. Derrick's heart was pounding harder and harder with each second, despite Graham being on his side.

Around the corner, they made a turn to the left, heading towards a smaller street that looked suspicious. There were empty alcohol bottles littering the street, along with other kinds of trash. At night, people must be getting drunk there.

Suddenly, two men came out of a wooden door on the right as they were walking. They were tall men-- even taller than Graham-- with tattoos all-around their exposed shoulders and sleeves. There was an expression of arrogance and mockery on their pierced faces.

One of the men had a bald head while the other had brown, short hair that was typical of a soldier. However, Graham knew that the man wasn't a soldier since tattoos were not allowed for them.

"Yo, Damreau, we didn't expect you to show up here on your own. Are you sick of living?" said the brown-haired man whose voice was hoarse and menacing. There was a condescending tone in his voice.

The two men looked at Graham from head to toe, sizing him up, and then started laughing.

"Wahahaha!! We thought you were going out there to get someone's help, and here you are with an old man with a cane! Are you insane!" the hoarse-voiced man said mockingly.

Besides laughing, the man with the bald head hadn't said anything. His eyes, however, were looking down on both Derrick and Graham like they were insects.

"Just the two of us will be enough to take care of you misfits. You have offended the wrong person, Damreau, and the boss wants you to pay for it," the brown-haired man punched his fists together in a threatening way. There was an arrogant smile on his face.

Besides the two men in front of him, Graham knew through his divination that there were more people waiting in hiding.

"Val, they're all just normal humans. We'd better not kill them because the bodies would be a problem if we did," he looked over his shoulder casually and muttered.

Seeing the strange behavior of the man in front of him, the brown-haired tall guy scoffed.

"Are you so scared that you start talking to your imaginary friend? Want to talk to mommy as well?"

Derrick's face had gone pale a while ago. It seemed that he really had no ability to fight. The smuggler looked at Graham beggingly, at which the latter only smiled meaningfully.

Rising his cane, Graham pointed the other end at the tall man with the brown hair. A kind of invisible energy then shot at the man, while at the same time, something was taken from Graham.

"What are you doing pointing that rusty cane at me?! Do you know how stupid you looked doing that? Whahaha!" the man started laughing jeeringly again, followed by the baldie.

There was a subtle smile on the corner of Graham's lips as the information was transferred to his brain.

'That man is now highly obsessed with licking empty bottles!'

'You are now completely uninterested in the sunlight!'

After that, Graham instinctively moved to the shaded area of the street, hiding from the sun. He really had zero interest in being in the light because of the effect of the cane.

Meanwhile, the brown-haired man had strangely left the two of them and went to the nearest pile of empty bottles. He crouched down and picked one up before licking it like a maniac.

"What the hell are you doing?!" said the baldie in shock. He was looking at his partner like he was a madman.

Besides the bald man, Graham and Derrick were also shocked, not because of the brown-haired guy's action, but more because of the baldie's voice. It was unnaturally high-pitched! He sounded like a teenage girl speaking!

Trying to hold back his laughter, Derrick put his hand over his mouth. However, Graham didn't care about holding back and just laughed as hard as he could.

"Hahahaha!! No wonder you're very quiet. Are you on puberty or something?" he almost teared up because of the man's voice that completely didn't match his build.

Enraged, he looked at Graham with a red face that was a mix of embarrassment and fury.

"Raaarghh!!" growling like a little girl, he threw a punch right at Graham's face.

Bash!

Easily, Graham parried the punch using his cane.

"Argh!"

The hardness of the cane seemed to also have injured the baldie, who was now blowing his fist that had turned very red.

Derrick was amazed at how Graham was able to quickly defend himself like that. He then looked at the brown-haired man who was busy licking empty bottles like there was no tomorrow and couldn't help but think if it was also the detective's doing.

"Everyone, come out here!!" the baldie shouted from the top of his lung with his high-pitched girly voice.

Suddenly, doors were opened and several people came out of their hiding. There were a total of maybe fifteen people, and although they were not as big as the first two, they had a menacing look on their faces. Their gestures were threatening and their smiles were confident and full of mockery.

"You two can't handle these pipsqueaks? Heh!" said one of them superciliously.

"Shut up and beat them up!" the baldie shouted.

"Heh! We'll do it! The two of you, get ready to regret the day you crawled out of your mothers' axe wounds!"

Graham couldn't help but feel amused by the man's insult, but Derrick was busy feeling scared to feel anything else. There were more than a dozen men after their lives, after all.

"What the fuck is Benson doing licking bottles like that? Yo, dogshit, are you out of your mind?!" shouted one of the men, looking at the brown-haired guy who was crouching in one spot.

"Ignore him. It won't be long before he starts inserting his tiny dick into the bottle. We'll deal with these two wank stains first, heheh!!"

They were advancing slowly and intimidatingly towards Graham and Derrick, the former was busy making sure the sunlight didn't touch him. Derrick had gone to Graham's side, looking at the detective worriedly. Although he had seen the man block the baldie's attack easily, fighting several people at once was a different business entirely.

"W-what's the plan? S-should we run?" asked Derrick scaredly.

Graham smiled.

"The plan? Beat them up of course."