4:07 AM, Eastern Time.

In an old apartment building south of South Avenue in the Free City.

"Mr. Jackson, your child is, *hic*, is in this room, right?"

"Are you really sure? That's a demon..." the chubby middle-aged man called Mr. Jackson said, eyeing the girl in front of him with suspicion.

Standing beside him was a tall girl, looking about eighteen or nineteen years old, wearing a dark green short jacket, a crop top, denim shorts, and a pair of black high-top Martin boots. This outfit reminded one of Mathilda from *Léon: The Professional*.

However, Mathilda was a girl next door; she wouldn't wear torn fishnet stockings under denim shorts like Miss Vivian Schiaparelli, nor would she hang a pile of messy trinkets around her neck, let alone get herself drunk.

This made her look less like a demon hunter or a girl next door, and more like a stripper.

That's right, she might have just gotten off work at the 【Angel Rose】 and come straight here. Vivian might not even be her real name; she probably chose this name from Celtic mythology just because she had standard Celtic red hair... Mr. Jackson thought.

"*Hic*..." Vivian belched without any regard for her image. To suppress the food that came up with the burp, she grabbed a bottle wrapped in kraft paper, brought it to her lips, and took a long swig. Once her throat and stomach had "quieted down," she lit a cigarette.

With the cigarette dangling from her lips, she squinted her hazy, drunken eyes and looked at the man beside her. "We have to try, don't we, Mr. Jackson? As far as I know, before you found me, you had already hired many demon hunters, priests, and even Indian shamans, and none of them were able to expel the demon from your wife..."

"Since you've tried everything and ended up finding me, you should trust this drunkard."

Hearing this, Mr. Jackson hesitated for a few seconds, then nodded. Lowering his voice to sound intimidating, he said, "Fine, have a try! If you can't do it, I won't pay you a single cent!"

"Of course!" Vivian shrugged. "I'm not like those priests from the Holy Order. If I don't finish the job, I wouldn't have the nerve to ask the employer for money... Here, hold this for me, I'm starting work!"

As she spoke, she shoved the bottle into Mr. Jackson's arms, turned around, and staggered toward the bedroom door on the other side of the living room. As she walked, she fumbled through the pile of pendants on her chest, muttering incoherently.

"*Hic*... Which one should I use this time? Buddha... Cross... *Hic*, what is this? Damn it! Why is there a toe in here?"

Mr. Jackson: "..." Can this person really do it?

Watching Vivian try to find exorcism tools among the messy, low-quality pendants on her chest, the little bit of trust he had just built in her wavered again. He even suspected that Vivian might throw up on his wife while exorcising her.

After selecting an iron cross from the pendants on her chest, Vivian quickly clutched it in her palm.

She didn't want her employer to see that the figure nailed to the cross wasn't the legendary Holy Father, but an alien with round, bulging eyes, who, judging by various characteristics, seemed to be from the M78 Nebula.

Staggering toward the bedroom door, her gaze swept over all the furniture in the room.

The apartment itself was already somewhat dilapidated, and with all the windows covered by curtains, the stingy Mr. Jackson had only turned on a very dim night light. The yellowish light "cut" the room into squares of light and shadow, giving it a twisted and oppressive feeling.

In the living room, all the furniture was covered in a layer of grayish-black shadows, and the shadows cast on the yellowing white walls looked like a group of silent spectators, as if they might move on their own at any moment.

As she got closer to the bedroom door, the already weak light seemed to be suddenly swallowed by something, becoming even darker. The wooden door in front of her, covered in fine cracks, talismans, and various exorcism tools, exuded an ominous aura.

Through the door, one could clearly hear the heavy breathing from behind it, as well as the sharp sound of claws constantly scratching against the door panel, making one wonder if a terrible beast was locked up inside.

Mr. Jackson followed Vivian on tiptoe. When he was still a meter or two away from the bedroom door, he dared not move forward anymore. Standing by the sofa, he used it to shield his figure, intentionally or unintentionally, and kept wiping the sweat from his forehead.

He knew very well how terrifying his poor, demon-possessed wife was in the middle of the night. The last priest who tried to exorcise his wife had three of his ribs broken and two of his fingers snapped off.

Even so, that only managed to keep his wife confined to the bedroom; it failed to expel the demon.

Since then, no one was willing to help him anymore. If it weren't for that, he wouldn't have gone through so much trouble to recruit Vivian from the internet.

In a way, this kind of thing was like having a strange disease that hospitals couldn't cure; after running out of options for medical treatment, one turns their last hope to potions made by Indian shamans using toads, insects, and strange plants.

Compared to Mr. Jackson's anxiety, Vivian appeared unusually calm, though it was hard to tell if it was because she was drunk and her nerves were numbed.

She arrived in front of the bedroom door, unhurriedly finished the cigarette in her hand, then clutched the cross from the M78 Nebula in one hand, placed the other hand gently on the wooden door, closed her eyes, and began to chant.

"Hmm... Is that so? I sense it. I've sensed that guy's true form. It really is a terrifying demon!"

After saying this, she turned the doorknob and pushed the door open.

"Ah—!"

The moment the door opened, a sharp, piercing sound came, as if countless women were screaming at the same time.

Swarms of black moths poured out of the room like a dark cloud, and dense crowds of cockroaches scurried everywhere, crawling all over the floor.

No one touched the bedroom light switch, yet the lights began to flicker at a high frequency, alternating between bright and dim.

A woman in a white Sleeping Dress with messy long hair lay on the bed. If it weren't for her excessively pale skin and some corpse-like patterns on her cheeks, her appearance would actually be quite beautiful.

Her hands and feet were tied up with finger-thick hemp ropes. She struggled violently, continuously muttering dirty and ugly words in an incoherent manner.

Seeing Vivian standing in front of the bedroom door for a long time without moving, Mr. Jackson called out with a trembling voice, "Mi, Miss Vivian? Are, are you okay? If you really can't do it, let's just forget it?"

He already thought Vivian was unreliable, and now seeing her look like she had been scared silly, he suddenly worried that Vivian might be killed by his wife.

Vivian stood still, eyes tightly closed, one hand kneading her throbbing brow, which was glowing with a faint crimson light. It ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) wasn't until she heard Mr. Jackson's call that she came back to her senses, turned around, and grinned at him. "Don't worry, a demon of this level is a piece of cake for me."

After speaking, her gaze passed over Mr. Jackson and looked toward the window.

Outside that window, less than three kilometers away, was the sea...

Someone had touched the things she had hidden on the sea, she felt it. So she had to quickly finish the task at hand and go see which damn thief was causing trouble.

Withdrawing her gaze, she said to Mr. Jackson, "Please give me two minutes..."

After saying this, she stepped into the bedroom and closed the door behind her.

Immediately after, her loud shouting, mixed with the sounds of smashing, came from behind the door.

"Shut up, you bitch! Now is exorcism time, keep it quiet for me!"

"Ugh, ugh, ugh... Don't do anything weird!"

"You son of a bitch, don't force me to throw up on you."

Mr. Jackson: "..."

He was now suddenly worried about his wife's safety. He even suspected that Vivian would pull out a gun the next moment and shoot his wife.

"Horace, demon who speaks of the beginning of time... I am here, in the name of the Holy Spirit, the Son, and the Father, to expel you. Get back to hell!"

Accompanied by the final shout, all the chaotic noises fell into silence. Immediately after, amidst the "creak" of the door hinges turning, Vivian staggered out of the pitch-black bedroom, came before Mr. Jackson, took back her bottle, and rubbed her fingers at him.

"Pay up! As agreed, two hundred bucks exactly."

Mr. Jackson stared blankly at Vivian, then craned his neck to look into the pitch-black bedroom. Confirming that the woman on the bed was sleeping soundly, he rummaged around the room for a while before reluctantly pulling out a few crumpled bills and handing them to Vivian.

"It's, it's fifteen bucks short. I'll get it to you as soon as possible."

Taking the money, Vivian rolled her eyes at him with an impatient face, walked straight to the refrigerator, took out a six-pack of beer, waved her hand, and headed toward the door.

"Don't bother with the rest, just consider it settled with this beer."

"Bang!" The sound of the door closing rang out.

Watching Vivian leave, Mr. Jackson rushed into the bedroom, embraced the middle-aged woman who was slightly fatter than himself, and burst into tears.

———— A moment later, south of South Avenue in the Free City.

The streets in the dead of night were empty and deserted, with only faint voices coming from the tents set up by homeless people under the overpasses on both sides of the street.

Then, footsteps sounded. A hot-bodied girl in a dark green jacket walked along the street from afar. Suddenly, rustling sounds came from the darkness as several pairs of malicious eyes quickly locked onto her figure, but they hesitated after seeing her strange behavior.

She was talking to a cat.

Talking to a strange cat that was a size larger than a normal pet cat and had leopard spots!

As the nights grew longer and the number of urban legends surged, an unwritten rule gradually formed among the homeless in the Free City—do not look for trouble with those strange-acting guys.

Therefore, the homeless people who had originally intended to "hunt" quickly dismissed their malicious thoughts and returned to the shadows.

"Horace, next time you possess someone, can you not change their appearance without permission?" Vivian said to the big cat on her shoulder, annoyed. "When you came out of that lady's body just now, seeing her original appearance, I almost thought there was another demon-type urban legend in her body..."

Honestly, seeing that "demon-type" beauty suddenly gain nearly a hundred pounds, with various eczema and patches appearing on her smooth skin, she was really scared again, and even a bit confused as to why Mr. Jackson was so anxious to exorcise his wife.

While his wife was possessed by a demon, it was like having a level-ten beauty filter on; wouldn't it be better to enjoy it first?

"You have the nerve to blame me!" the big cat retorted. "Why did you use the Holy Order's exorcism process just now? What if those guys sensed my presence?"

"Relax!" Vivian waved the cross on her chest at the big cat. "Using this thing, even if I called upon the Holy Spirit, the Son, and the Father, the only ones who would be able to sense it would be Father of Ultra, Ultraman Taro, and Ultraman Taiga. It would be strange if those guys could sense it."

"Uh..." The big cat glanced at the cross in Vivian's hand and showed a disgusted cat face. "Where on earth did you find this ghost of a thing?"

"This? I made it myself. Looks pretty good, right? Hehe!" Vivian grinned. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"..." The big cat was silent for two seconds, then looked ahead and changed the subject. "Alright, where are we going now? Scouting for the next target?"

"To the beach!" Vivian said. "Remember the tiger whale I told you about?"

"The broken ship where you hid your authority?" The big cat tilted its head. "Isn't that ship under the control of the Black Hand Mafia now? Did something go wrong?"

"Someone dismantled the ship..." Vivian pouted and sighed. "Sigh! It's really not reassuring! I just want to be an ordinary human, why is it so difficult?"

"You? An ordinary human?" The big cat rolled its eyes at Vivian. "I've never seen an ordinary human who would cooperate with a demon and go around swindling people."

With the person and the cat bickering all the way, the beach was already in sight before they knew it.

"Anyway, that's how it is..." Vivian ignored the big cat's questioning, climbed over the fence on her own, jumped off the several-meter-high seawall, landed steadily on the beach, and looked out toward the slightly rough sea, her gaze falling on a white dot rapidly approaching from two or three nautical miles away.

"Look, the tiger whale is here."

"Where?" the big cat said, showing a cat-thinking face. "Why don't I see it?"

"Right there!" Vivian pointed. "See that piece of white ship plank?"

"I see it, uh, if you're sure that's a ship..." The big cat's whiskers twitched.

You can't just call a pile of steel and wood mashed together and floating on the sea a ship, right?

"And, there seems to be a person hanging on it?"

Vivian: "???"

What the hell? They destroyed the ship where she hid her authority, and they dare to show up? Isn't this guy a bit too arrogant?

Did the petty thief turn into a brazen robber?

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