Ren and John eventually caught up with Kai, who still had Potter pinned down on the ground. Potter was struggling under him.
"You can get up now. I can take care of this," Ren said.
Kai got up without a problem, but before Potter could even try to escape, he got tied down by a shade. Potter tried to break free, but that obviously didn't work.
Then he looked at the trio.
"Okay, I don't think anybody wants to bother taking him to the police station or the SIED office since it's far away, so I'm just gonna call the cops to come here," Ren said.
Both of them agreed, but before Ren could dial the number, Potter spoke up.
"Please don't do this… please guys. No, don't report me to the cops. I barely did anything."
"Yeah right, like we'll believe you," John said, then proceeded to ignore him and everything he was about to say.
"No, seriously! I only got two people a temporary hideout, that's it. Please just let me go!"
"Sorry, but we have to get you to the police either way," Ren said.
But even though he said that, he kept in mind the fact that Potter said he gave a temporary hideout to two people. And when Ren looked at Kai, he could tell Kai had registered the same thing.
Later, after the cops arrived, Ren called Kelsey while Potter was being taken away in the police car.
"So he already gave out a temporary hideout?" Kelsey said.
"Yes. He said it was for two people, but nothing else," Ren replied.
Kelsey hummed, thinking about it. "Well, I guess when he arrives at the police station, we'll do some questioning and find out where the temporary hideout is… and you three can go check it out."
"Wait, seriously?" Ren's surprised reaction made Kai and John pay attention. Both of them looked curious about what he was talking about with Kelsey, so Ren put his phone on speaker so they could listen.
"Well, if what he's saying is true and the hideout is temporary, then that's a problem," Kelsey continued. "We have no idea how long the people using it will stay there, so the quicker the better."
Ren scratched his head a little. "But wait, isn't that not allowed? We only just finished our mission. Can we just take another one immediately after? Also we have no idea who's behind this temporary hideout."
"Don't worry," Kelsey replied. "I can assign another mission to you personally if I think it's suitable."
"And about you guys not knowing who's behind it… well, you shouldn't worry about that. You guys will only go investigate."
You will check out what's happening and report it back. And in case it's something the three of you can't handle… don't handle it yourselves."
With that, the call ended.
Sometime later, the location of the temporary hideout was sent to Ren, so the trio headed there immediately.
And they saw the hideout For the first time, it was a building under construction. Apparently, the building's construction had temporarily stopped because of equipment problems, so it was the perfect temporary hideout. And because of its incomplete nature, there were a lot of holes, spots, and pathways to sneak through and observe what was happening without being seen.
They snuck inside and climbed up to the second floor. From there, they peeked down toward the middle of the first floor. It was a bit far, but they could still clearly see what was happening.
There were four people there.
Three of them stood out immediately because, although they looked human, they had metal-like skin and mechanical body parts. Three of the four were cyborgs.
But the first guy looked normal. He was just standing next to a magic circle, with a couple of boxes in the middle of it.
Kai was shocked. Even as someone from a hero family, he had never actually seen a cyborg in person. And he didn't understand why cyborgs were here, standing next to a magic circle.
Cyborgs were considered one of the paths of becoming stronger in this world. It was one of the most uncommon methods, since a lot of people didn't want to become less human, or sacrifice parts of their body for power. Not to mention that having a robotic body made you vulnerable to things like machine disruptors—like an EMP—or hacking.
That's also why things like a neural chip that lets you control machines with your mind aren't popular, and aren't implemented in daily life like in the previously fictional VRMMOs. In theory, those technologies are incredible. But in reality, machines that literally interact with your mind aren't safe, especially if someone is trying to hack them. Because it isn't a one-way thing—if your thoughts can interact with a machine, a machine can interact with your thoughts.
So putting any sort of machine into your head just isn't popular at all.
Even on Star Island, cyborgs are rare.
And for magic, it's also a path of strength in the world. It's the fifth and last one. And it's something you have to learn, but it's not easy to actually learn it considering the people who know magic are either restricting knowledge to a specific group or a specific family. And you have to know the knowledge of it.
Ren doesn't know much about magic, and the same goes for Kai even though he's from such a pristine family. But what they know about magic… it's not the same as what they show on media. It's not something where you say a magic word then you can shoot a fireball, or you can create a magic circle in the air then shoot a lightning bolt. No, it's quite different than that, but that's all they actually know about magic. That it isn't the same as what people imagine.
"Hey Kai, are you seeing this?" Ren said from the side.
"Yes. Cyborgs and the magic circle… the situation is quite complicated. We might—"
"No, I'm not talking about that," Ren said, making Kai confused.
"Then what are you talking about?" Kai asked.
Then Ren pointed at the small boxes inside the magic circle.
Those were the same boxes.
When he was talking, Kai looked at the boxes and his eyes widened.
"Those are the same boxes that held the new life pills…"
This had become more serious than ever. New life pills are exclusive to the island, and trying to steal these pills is one of the highest crimes you can do here.
So Ren immediately called for back up.
"We need to go now and take them down," John said from the side, making Kai freeze and look at him.
"What the hell are you talking about, John? Those are cyborgs. They are tough—tougher than all the opponents that we faced so far," Kai said in disbelief of John.
But John looked at him relaxed.
"Well, no. Their strength entirely depends on what type of technology they have, so we don't exactly know how tough they are. And the normal-looking guy… he was definitely the one behind the magic circle and has been next to it for a while now. That probably means he's preparing to activate the circle, which I assume is a teleportation circle that will send the boxes outside of the island. So are you gonna wait for back up to arrive, or are you gonna do something?" John said.
Kai couldn't truly respond, because even though he knew how dangerous this could be, he also knew that John has a point. They don't know when things are gonna start moving, and if those pills leave the island, that will be on them if they did nothing.
And the thought of those pills going to the wrong hands made him angry.
So he impulsively agreed with John.
Seeing Kai nod along, John pulled his bow and arrow, charged it, and shot at one of the cyborgs.