The night gently enveloped the city of Grimoir. The sky had turned dark, covering the stars. Once again, the overcast weather hit this highland city. The cold air penetrates the skin, making the hairs stand on end. Fog seemed to start covering the area on Rowosari Street, where there was a deserted apartment area with few residents and close to the port area. On the left side, there was a bar or a place for adults to drink.
"Uaghuppp ahh."
After a while, someone came out of the place carrying a bottle of drink. He was still enjoying the last sip of red wine he ordered. The bottle was labelled with the brand AMER, a brand that seemed lazy to write the business name because AMER referred to the red wine they sold (Anggur Merah). It was like a company selling oranges but using the name ORANGE as the brand name.
"Ah... haa? Why is the road so foggy?"
While leaving the area, he walked leisurely along the streets with stumbling and staggering steps. The drunken state made him dizzy and unfocused.
"Tomorrow... I have to work. Ughp, work again. Why?"
'Hi.. hi hi…'
This man's steps immediately stopped as he heard a strange echoing sound. He looked around, but there was nothing to see except the deserted street covered in a thin layer of fog, just like before.
DAGH~
Before he could continue searching, he was startled by the sound of something hitting the trash bin across the street. It was located in a dark alley corner, which was rusty and ugly, only accompanied by a flickering streetlamp.
He quickly finished his drink until the last drop.
"Arrive home... take a bath, relax, sleep~ yes, ughhpp~ hah hehehe."
He immediately intended to open the old trash bin. He tried to lift it, but he failed. He tried again, and he failed again. It felt very heavy to lift, either because something was stuck or because the hinges were rusty.
"Fu*k! So heavy!"
While still trying to open it, he realized that there was a strange object that had come out of the trash bin. Curious, he squatted and approached it. There was long, wet hair?
"What is this?!"
Strangely, the hair was quite neat, even though it looked tangled. It seemed to still be hanging on something inside. And not long after seeing it, the man smelled a foul odor.
As he was still trying to process what he was seeing, the trash bin slowly opened. As it rose, it appeared very light, even though it had been so heavy before. The sound of rusty hinges was quite deafening and echoed around the alley. From inside the trash bin, a woman's head appeared, looking up at the man.
Like being slow-motion jumpscared, he was shocked and frightened, falling backward. It was indeed a human head that suddenly emerged from the trash bin. It grinned, staring at him with a wide smile that looked so frightening.
"A-a GHOST?! haaAAaaaa~"
The man tried to stand up and leave the alleyway, but he was slightly surprised to see someone smoking casually at the other end. It was a woman with braids wearing a black vest and a distro hat. She was carrying an assault rifle and some other firearms, and from her build, she seemed to be a police officer. He immediately ran towards her, raising his hands in the hopes of avoiding trouble.
"P-please...help me," he pleaded.
The policewoman took a few steps back upon seeing him, and as soon as he stepped out of the alleyway, he was greeted by two muscular men who tackled him to the ground.
"What? What the hell is going on?!" he exclaimed.
They quickly roughed him up and restrained him. They were strange people dressed unlike the Grimoir police force. Some of them wore suspicious-looking gloves. Before the drunk man could even process what was happening, a drone approached him, emitting a blinding light as it scanned his body from top to bottom.
"Full body scan on victim."
"Merging rate 0%; victim shows no signs of infection at present, no UF particles detected on the body."
They immediately checked his condition, although it was not clear if it was a health check or something else. They exchanged information based on the results of the drone's scanning that appeared on their glasses. From a distance, a younger woman appeared among them, looking calmer than the others as she observed the hologram in her hand.
"BAC level 0.06 and estimated condition: intoxicated,"
The braided woman did not seem to care about the information being reported by those around her. She was only focused on looking towards the dumpster in front of them. She seemed to be the leader of the group, and she was older than the other three.
"That's not something I want to hear," she said, crushing her cigarette under her foot.
"Huff... Geiz level 2.1 with a human head form, only one in number. UF is only 0.2%. Hollow-realm portal negative, position undetected. Shooting distance is 8 meters, lightweight rifle recommended."
"Understood!"
The woman immediately set her rifle to safe mode and switched to a pistol with a sound suppressor.
BANG!!!
The sound of the bullet hitting the iron dumpster wall echoed loudly, even though the sound suppressor was in place, and the area was quite deserted. The hot metal sped towards the floating head figure but had no effect on it. The ghost turned to look at the person who fired the shot.
From every police officer's listening device comes an eerie groan,
'You stupid humans! How could something like that hurt me?'
"Our job is just to collect UF as much as we can, no matter how small it is. I don't care, even if it means taking care of a human head!"
Upon hearing the command, one of the police officers who had been apprehending the drunken man immediately stood up and prepared the tool he brought. It looked like two spray paint cans, but it was actually an electronic device with an unknown function.
"The extractor is ready."
The sniper also pulled out a small, equally strange object, a red-glowing chip that seemed to be able to be plugged into something.
"For centuries, humans have evolved only to create something as small as this. It's so sad," said the woman as she attached the chip to a slot in the pistol she was using and prepared to shoot.
"The conditions are the same as before, permission to shoot granted".
Another shot was aimed at the target. This time, it was not just an ordinary metal bullet that was fired, however there were sparks of incandescent light enveloping the 9x19mm object.
If previously the bullet only penetrated the creature, this time it hit it. The head even fell and caused nearby objects to be thrown, creating a loud noise. Ordinary people who saw it would only see the objects being thrown due to the shot.
The drunken man saw this happen with his own eyes. He was not stupid even though he was still drunk. A firearm had hit the ghost that had previously terrorized him. It felt unbelievable and impossible that a supernatural creature could be hurt by a physical weapon. He became even more amazed at the people in uniform who he thought were police officers.
"Target hit!"
The person carrying the spray can-shaped tool immediately turned on the device and ran towards the target. But their intention was thwarted because the head suddenly flew and looked at them all with an angry gaze. A hole was visible in its forehead, but instead of blood being spilled from the gunshot wound, its body dissolved and almost disappeared like glowing dust particles blown away by the wind.
Seeing this creature rise, the four of them immediately checked the headset it was wearing. They heard a horrifying groan from the creature that said,
'Impossible! It's not possible... w... who are you really!? How did you hurt me?'
"Sorry, I can't answer your question according to protocol."
'Stupid humans... I will teach you a lesson!!'
The creature immediately flew towards them very quickly. They could hear its painful groans in the headset, but just before it reached its target... the ghost collapsed powerless because it had run out of energy. The wound from the gunshot on its body still hung in the air, and others could not see it without wearing special glasses like these police officers.
After the target fell, the glowing particles floating in the air were immediately sucked into the spray can-shaped device. One was shaped like a normal electronic device, and the other had an indicator showing the number 0.2 on the side.
"Target successfully eliminated" said the person holding the device.
"Great job!"
Feeling done with their business, some of them did some casual stretching. The drunk man who was apprehended earlier was allowed to move around freely, but he was being closely watched by the team. Just like before, he was bewildered observing the events, especially with the presence of these uniformed people.
"You guys are not really police, are you?"
* * * *