## Chapter 19: Enhanced Stacking
"Damn," Fujino cursed under his breath, hurriedly raising the wooden sword in his hand to block in front of him.
Bang!
The wooden sword collided directly with the stool. With just a brief impact, the wooden stool dented significantly.
With the sound, Fujino quickly stepped back several paces to dissipate the force.
Staring at his somewhat numb arm, Fujino couldn't help but frown and then crushed a Sensory Enhancement Card in his hand.
[100% Sensory Enhancement activated for the host; countdown 0-0-59]
[100% Strength Enhancement activated for the host; countdown 0-0-59]
"Die!"
At this moment, Hideo Kawashima roared, swinging the stool in his hand towards Fujino's face once again.
With the dual enhancement of the system, Fujino didn't clash directly with Kawashima's stool this time.
Instead, he dodged the blow with a swift movement.
Turning swiftly, he came behind Hideo Kawashima, raised the wooden sword in his hand high, and smashed it down on the back of Kawashima's head with all his strength.
Bang!
A hollow sound echoed through the room.
This time, Hideo Kawashima didn't scream. Instead, his body stiffened silently and he passed out.
Staring at the lifeless Kawashima on the floor, Fujino stepped forward and gave him another hit.
Then he took out the rope he had prepared and tied Kawashima up in a tortoise shell bind.
Having done all this, Fujino finally turned off the camera function on his phone and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Phew… This guy's fighting power is ridiculous."
Looking at the bound and unconscious Kawashima, Fujino wiped the sweat from his temple and wondered, "Even with detective enhancement, I almost got beaten. Is this guy really over fifty?"
After all, with 100% enhancement from detective mode, his strength was at least D+ level, if not overpowering ordinary people, certainly enough to suppress them.
But he almost couldn't beat this old man... Is he really over fifty?
How does he seem like a furniture store warrior?
But recalling a certain high school girl who could punch through power poles, Fujino's doubts faded away.
Is it reasonable for a fifty-year-old to have C-level fighting power?
Yes, it's very reasonable in this detective universe.
Fighting power in the detective universe has always been a mystery. If ordinary people's fighting power were classified, it would generally be below C.
Slightly stronger criminals might reach C to C+ levels.
Detectives like Miwako Sato typically hover around C+ level, occasionally reaching B.
Ran Mouri, the human dragon beast, has a normal fighting power of C+ to B, and occasionally spikes to A+.
The difference between D+ and C is roughly double, C to B is about triple, and the gap between B and A is unknown.
As for the top S level, that's beyond human scope, easily crushing steel pipes with bare hands.
Of course, these levels are Fujino's rough estimates.
Specific levels actually vary depending on different situations and contexts.
[Detective enhancement time has ended, cooling down: 0-29-59]
The system prompt interrupted Fujino's thoughts.
Hearing the sound, Fujino looked at the system interface and saw the detective enhancement skill cooling down.
"It seems the detective enhancement isn't unlimited; it has a cooldown period."
Watching the countdown, Fujino murmured, took a deep breath, and calmed himself.
Late at night, in front of a residential house.
After dealing with Hideo Kawashima, Fujino followed the path to Kazuo Hirata's house.
He wasn't worried about Kawashima waking up suddenly.
After all, even if he did wake up, tied in a tortoise shell, he couldn't untie the ropes.
As for shouting for help... Fujino had stuffed his mouth with a sock that smelled like it hadn't been washed for three months and wrapped it with tape.
Even if his tongue had superhuman strength and could make a sound, the smell of the sock would likely knock him out again.
"Are they already asleep?"
Looking at the dark two-story house, Fujino wondered, then opened his phone's camera and climbed over the yard wall.
Looking at the open window on the second floor, he took a deep breath and activated the detective enhancement, then crushed a Strength Enhancement Card.
[100% Detective Enhancement activated; countdown 0-1-59]
[100% Strength Enhancement activated; countdown 0-0-59]
With the system sounds, Fujino grabbed the protrusions on the wall, easily climbed up, and slipped into the room.
This was a new enhancement method he had just figured out, stacking enhancements.
After activating the enhancement, using enhancement cards would stack the effects of detective and card enhancements together.
During the enhancement period, his fighting power would exponentially increase, reaching at least C level.
The only drawback might be the need for many enhancement cards.
But fortunately, when he drew the swordsman profession yesterday, he also drew several enhancement cards. These, combined with detective enhancement, were enough for him to rampage on Tsukikage Island.
"Snoring!"
Just after entering the house, Fujino heard a strange sound.
He tensed up, took out his wooden sword, and cautiously moved towards the sound.
The strange noise came from the bedroom. Fujino opened the bedroom door to see Kazuo Hirata twisted in his futon on the tatami, snoring loudly.
"Sleeping soundly, huh."
Seeing Hirata's ungraceful sleeping posture, Fujino joked.
Then, silently drawing his wooden sword, he decided to help him sleep better.
Moving silently, he raised the sword and struck.
Snap!
With a crisp sound.
After a twitch, the still-sleeping Kazuo Hirata fell silent.
Not daring to be careless, Fujino struck again, then bent down to pry open Hirata's eyelids.
Seeing his eyes rolled back, confirming he was truly unconscious, Fujino put away the wooden sword.
Then he took out another rope and tied Hirata in a tortoise shell bind as well.
He also took off Hirata's smelly socks, stuffed them in his mouth, and wrapped them with tape.
After all this, Fujino began searching the room.
With doubled sensory enhancement, he quickly found an anomaly in the floor of the storage room.
Though covered in dust, that spot was clean with several fresh footprints.
Prying open the floor, he found it filled with white powder.
It seemed this was the low-priced powder Kawashima mentioned, recently shipped from abroad by Hirata.
Looking at the pile of white powder, Fujino couldn't help but sigh, "Truly criminal…"
(Chapter End)