Parasyte System

[So, can you see where he is?] Jay typed into his smart watch.

He was hiding in an alley a few blocks away from the base Colt was currently at, stretching his body as he waited for a response from Jenny, who was watching Metal Body's base from the sky with the help of the drone.

[Not yet, the windows are too small, I'll have to get closer] She replied.

As she had said, although the building was not a real prison and was only an imitation, it still had basic precautions such as very small windows with metal bars to ventilate the rooms while preventing prisoners from escaping.

[Okay, when you find Noah let me know].

After writing that, Jay covered his arm again with the sleeve of the sweatshirt he was wearing and began to think about how exactly he was going to get Noah out of there.

While the hardest part of the whole thing was still to come, he was a little less worried now that he had found Metal Body's prison.

In order to discover Noah's location, Jay had even gone to the trouble of creating a detailed fake plan to fool Colt's fortunately naive mind.

He had made sure not only that the plan was incredibly attractive to Colt, but he had also purposely demonstrated his strength so that Colt would think confronting him was both dangerous and counterproductive.

Finally, thanks to the timely members of Wolf's Fang, they gave Jay several bargain chips which added to Colt's insecurities plus the intimidation Jay demonstrated, resulted in the current situation.

As for the reason he had told him, Jay didn't put much effort into it, telling him the same story he had told Noah in the beginning, only adding certain details such as that he realized that the real villain of the South Zone was Wolf's Fang and that he now wanted to make it up to Metal Body by helping out at this time where they would have a battle against them.

'I don't have much time...but just going in like this would only be suicide...' He thought, in his head forming various strategies to be able to defeat the people inside the building.

In fact, the plan he had told Colt also contained information about what they would do next after he finished delivering the Wolf's Fang members, involving Colt leaving the base, which would made it easier for Jay to achieve his goal.

However, Jay didn't think for a second that Colt would follow the plan and that he would give him away instead, so he had to hurry as much as he could, after all the only chance he would have of defeating them all would be to attack first.

While he could take care of a weakened Colt and the other young man with relative ease, what worried him most was the bearded man who suddenly came out of the building.

He wasn't entirely sure how strong he was, but judging by the slight sense of alarm Jay felt when he saw him, he was sure that he wouldn't be weak at all.

And that wasn't all, there was also the possibility that Metal Body had several prisons and this was one where Noah wasn't, or that this place wasn't a prison at all and Colt had tricked him.

'...Haa, at this point I can only hope that he's here...'

Unfortunately, these types of risks were unavoidable.

*Clack*

At that moment, before he could think any further, the door to the base opened, revealing Colt, the young man and the bearded man.

'Ah, shit, I took too long.' He thought, opening and closing his hands to check his strength, 'Alright, I'll have to take care of those two first, then I'll use "Overload" on the bearded man, if there's anyone else inside...I'll have to take care of him before the effect wears off...'

After thinking that, a bitter smile formed on his face, everything he had thought of was an easy matter in his head...but he knew very well that a single misstep was going to end in disastrous results.

At once, Jay set about waiting for them to approach the alley where he had told Colt he would wait for him.

'...Hm?'

However, unexpectedly both the young man and the bearded man walked back into the building, leaving Colt alone, who started walking towards the trap alley.

Jay was surprised, he didn't expect Colt to do this at all, after all that was basically giving up all the advantage he had and surrendering himself into the enemy's hands.

Wasn't he worried that Jay could just betray him right here...?

"Huh? Where is he...?" Colt said as he saw that there was no one in the alley.

'...Well, that makes things easier...'

The next moment, Jay began to slowly approach Colt, preparing a long bandage to immobilize him in the same way he did with the Wolf's Fang members.

*Pin*

Suddenly, his wrist vibrated slightly, indicating that a message had arrived on his smartwatch, so Jay stopped his march and moved a little further into the alley before reading the message.

[Jay, Noah's not here!]

The message, though brief, had managed to cause a small wave of surprise to form inside Jay.

[Can you see the 4 we immobilized earlier?]

[Yes, they have all been put in different cells, I could also see several other people in other cells, but none of them were Noah]

[Check one more time, please.]

[Okay.]

'So this really was a prison after all...'

With the answer Jenny had given him, Jay could rule out the fact that Colt had lied to him, after all, it would be impossible for Colt to have set all this up in such a short time just for the sake of deceiving him.

'Argh, it's no good being paranoid...' He thought, scratching his head and letting out a sigh, 'Anyway, that he would have come back on his own can only mean one thing...he still thinks the plan is still on, I...I can use this.'

Although he was keeping his cool, he couldn't help but feel uneasy due to the fact that Jenny couldn't see Noah.

His obvious lack of information about the South Zone and Metal Body was beginning to emerge, not making it any easier for him.

'...Then, I will seize this moment to clear all doubts...' He thought, forcibly suppressing the feeling of uneasiness inside him.

The next moment, he began walking towards Colt as he opened a small hole between the bandages on his hands, large enough to see the center of his palm.

***

"Just where did he go?" said Colt with a confused expression on his face.

Suddenly, before he could think why the hooded man wasn't here, he felt a small thump on his neck, accompanied by the voice of someone.

"Hey!"

"!"

Colt quickly turned in the direction the blow had come from and when he did, he saw the now somewhat familiar hooded man he had been looking for.

"Haha, sorry, sorry, I was just trying to lighten the mood, since you look pretty tense~" The hooded man said, using the same nonchalant tone as always. "So, did you already get rewarded for the four you delivered?"

"Please don't do that, now is not the best time for it..." Colt replied, letting out a small sigh of relief, "And I will when tonight's showdown is over, by the way, we'd better start moving if we want to catch any lone members."

Thereupon, Colt hurriedly started walking towards the exit of the alley, not wanting to waste too much time as other Metal Body members might be stealing several contribution points from him right now.

"Hey, hey, take it easy, gotta get some rest first."

However, the hooded man grabbed his arm, stopping him in his tracks, and before Colt could say anything, he continued.

"I know you're eager to go, but our physical condition, especially yours, isn't that good, if we just go like this without further ado, we'll just be going to get beaten."

Hearing what he said, Colt paused momentarily before sitting down, after all, what the hooded man had said was true, even though he had been putting up a facade that he was fine in front of Finn and the young man, he was actually considerably tired and injured.

Jay then also proceeded to sit down, somewhat away from Colt, though his goal was not to rest, but to engage him in conversation.

"You know, I honestly didn't think you were able to defeat 3 pugilists of your own rank in such a short time, it was pretty exciting to watch~"

"Oh, um, thanks..." Colt replied scratching his head, not quite knowing how to act in the face of such an unexpected compliment.

Just like that, Jay began to converse with Colt, giving him a compliment every now and then while finding out more about him.

Normally it would be a somewhat complicated task as the other party would not be so friendly from the start, however, in the face of Jay's exceptional conversation making skills, a person with few social skills like Colt couldn't help but be swept up in his pace.

Plus, Colt was unexpectedly enjoying this talk a bit.

Bringing his gaze to Jay, Colt could see the same attire as always, black sportswear, and where there should be skin, only bandages could be seen, wrapping both his face and hands, only leaving one small part free, his eyes.

This attire would undoubtedly cause a normal person to feel fearful or at least be on guard, even he himself had felt that the first time he saw him, but for some reason, Colt now found this mysterious figure much friendlier than the vast majority of his Metal Body's companions.

In the midst of conversation, Jay would occasionally take the opportunity to ask a question about Metal Body, camouflaging it as a question about what his work routine was like or something similar.

Colt found Jay's sudden interest a bit odd, and in fact, a part of him was telling him that he shouldn't be divulging things about Metal Body so freely, specially to a stranger.

However, he now no longer saw Jay as a mere stranger, but as a person he had some trust in, so even though he felt a little awkward, he didn't mind very much sharing some basic information with him.

In that way, after a few minutes of talking, Jay managed to discover key information about Noah's abduction and this prison, which coupled with Jenny's second confirmation allowed him to find out what had happened.

'...F*ck.'

And he didn't like it at all.

Noah had been kidnapped by Metal Body, who knew of his true identity, that part was easy enough to guess.

However, when Colt entered the prison, he chatted a bit with Finn, the person in charge of guarding this prison, and he revealed that his previous sour mood was because a new and special prisoner didn't arrive today.

Plus, only a short time ago he heard that the people in charge of transporting the new prisoner had also disappeared, so of course his mood wouldn't be the best.

While this just managed to upset Finn, for Jay, this had changed everything.