Chereads / HP X LOTM : Please Call Me Mr. Error. / Chapter 37 - Creeping Madness.

Chapter 37 - Creeping Madness.

Loki pacing around his room began to formulate a plan that he would follow while participating in the competition to maximise benefits.

'This is a golden opportunity for me to digest my potion to a large extent if I do the right things.'

'Since otherwise, to finish digesting my potion I will need to steal from a large number of people and that will put me on the cops' radar and make things risky for me if I get caught.'

'I already have an arson charge and a 'hit and run' charge, so I don't want to increase my wanted level just yet.'

'And stealing from them, as much as I don't like it, will also leave me at odds with my conscience.'

'So the only option left is this, stealing from criminal scum. And I can do it without worry since they won't go to the police.'

'But I need to make sure for the rest of the week that no one follows me home or they'd be suspicious about me living in 12 Grimmauld Place. A place where they send people who break the rules to die.'

'To know who has the most money, however, I need to keep an eye on all of them. Maybe a high place?'

Leaving the house at once, Loki moved to the black market and began to search for locations in high positions that would help him spy on other people.

'I need a place that can look down on other people, but also a place that will not be sought out by other people so that I can spy in peace.'

'What if I chose a location that is visible to everyone? Won't the others not choose such a place since it won't give them any cover? That should also keep them from attempting anything on me since everyone will know I don't have anything on me?'

'..and even if anyone is foolish enough to attack me in spite of all that, they'll become the targets of everyone else since it'll be an open place everyone can see.'

Loki thought about the pros and cons of finding such a place for himself and decided he would go with it.

'But is there such a location here?'

Loki set out on foot to look at all the areas that might help him out, but, 'God damn I'm small. I'm sure I can directly walk under traffic barricades given how short I am. Every building looks tall to me.'

Pausing a little to consider his problem, Loki began to search for a place he could easily climb to gain a vantage point to look at the Black Market.

'Huh. That place should help me scout.' Loki thought looking at a small two-storey house that was empty.

Slipping along to the window of the house, Loki began to climb up with the help of his enhanced agility and sense of balance he obtained 

after drinking the potion.

Standing on the roof, Loki looked around the entire area for a better vantage point but there seemed to be no other houses that towered the one he was currently standing on.

'Is this really it?' Loki wondered as he stood on top of the roof.

'*Sigh* At least it gives me a good look around the black market.'

Loki looked around the black market and spotted many thieves picking spots around corners or bends where they could ambush their prey.

They all looked at Loki when he looked at them and just ignored him since he was too small to be any real threat to them.

'Wait, so each time I steal from a thief, will I have to get down from the roof and climb it again? Damn…I didn't think about that.'

Getting down from the roof, Loki wondered, 'Hmm…now to hide my identity, I could use the same mask I've been wearing all this time, but I feel like I should wear something different.'

Loki left the Black market area and began to search for masks in various stores.

'Nah, not a lion or a dog. I want something scarier.'

'Too bad it's not Halloween.'

'Oh!? That one should do.' Loki thought as he looked at a plague doctor's mask that he remembered Amon used to wear in the original series.

'Good. Now I have a mask that will keep my identity hidden all I have to do is to begin stealing from everyone.'

As Loki began to leave the store with the mask, he spotted something in the distance.

'Ho! Why didn't I think of getting this? Binoculars! They are bound to be helpful!'

Loki purchased the binoculars and the plague doctor mask and left the store to go back home.

'Alright. This should be enough to help me keep an eye out on everyone from tomorrow.'

'Anything else I should be worried about though?'

With nothing else striking his mind for now, Loki collapsed on the bed beside Elane and fell asleep to get as much rest as he could for the next week which he felt was going to be troublesome.

Waking up the next morning, Loki took a deep breath and readied for the upcoming fight.

'I hope everything goes as planned.'

Walking out onto the streets, Loki found himself wearing a plague doctor mask with binoculars hanging around his neck wearing a dark black coat and pants that made him look like a mini witch doctor to the passersby.

'Everyone seems to be on edge.' Loki noticed as he walked in the dark streets of the black market. 'Ha, I can just kill them off when they try to interfere with my- huh? Kill? No why would I just kill anyone?'

'I guess the tense atmosphere is getting to me.'

Everyone seemed to be keeping an eye out on the competition to see if there could be anyone who had money on them, something they could steal.

Arriving at his preplanned location, Loki climbed to the roof of the two-storey house once again but what he saw from there left him a little shocked.

'Bollocks! Why does it feel like an entire village is here to steal?'

Every other corner around the street that led to the shack in the black market had a group of thieves waiting for unsuspecting strangers to arrive to steal from them.

'How are there so many people here today!?'

'Will I even get a chance to steal if there are so many people here today?'

Taking cover in the shadows on the roof, Loki pulled up his binoculars and began to scout out for people who were coming around the streets so that he could steal from them.

And then he *sighed*.

'I'm certain my target would've already lost anything of value on him before I even dropped down from the roof.'

Just when Loki found himself in a bind, he spotted a man freely walking down one of the streets.

'Why is he walking so carelessly? Does he not know about the competition?'

And as expected when the man reached a dark corner, a group of thieves ambushed the man, but before any of them could fully even step into the street, *BANG* *BANG* *BANG* the man pulled out a gun and shot three times.

The three thieves collapsed instantly, dead.

The rest of the thieves in the street immediately hid deeper into the shadows to stay out of the man's path.

'Wha-'

'Guns..'

'Why didn't I think people would be using guns?'

'How many of those that are waiting for an ambush have a gun?'

'Hahaha~ Those three people just died, obviously, they got what they deserved, criminal scum, probably had other filthy ideas in their head, maybe they'd have shanked the man if he wouldn't have shot them- and why did they not think the man would have a gun on him in the first place? Foolish bast-.'

'huh? What's happening? Why am I thinking like this?'

'Is it a way to cope with the fact that I just saw three people's heads blown off?'

Loki's eyes fixed on the pool of blood that accumulated under the bodies of the three thieves, his vision swam as he looked at them and his sense of morality twisted.

'Should I drink that blo-'

'I should kill more peop-'

Loki clutched onto his head and collapsed on the roof, trying to force out thoughts that he felt were being thrown into his mind as his own.

He could feel his face smiling yet mentally he was scared.

'What's happening?'

'I need to leave.'